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I came across the following comment while working on my T.Ed. (Terrain editor) file loader while reading a DBPro sample posted on the T.Ed website:



and the code snip I'm talking about:


I THINK I know what normalizing a mesh is - its averaging two points - say on the y axis - so they end up somewhere in the middle - or someother means to "smooth" the mesh out.

But I think "Normals" are not the same thing. I've heard this term quite a bit in the forums and in the help - "Set Normals" "Normalize Vector" etc. and I usualy skim over it hoping like most else - eventually it clicks and I start to understand. this isn't the case this time.

Can anyone make this terminology a little clearer to me? I could Google - and I will - but I'd like (if possible) to hear it from you guys who I know, trust, and who are using the same product I am so that its an apples to apples explaination versus what I would likely find on the internet.

Thank You SO MUCH - in advance!

In the simplest term a normal is the direction the polly is facing.

example: If your polly is facing you, you will see the texture on it, if it's facing away you will not see it a texture not pally at all. In fact you will see thru it. You may put double faces on your polly so it effectively flips the normal and has textures on both side..

In other cases normals are a way to calculate the direction light will reflect. Like "Normal Mapping". I think this is what he is refering to. BSP files have encoded normal data and you can't really do much with it as far as manipulating that data. Unless you have a bsp editor.

I the case above and if normal info is included in the BSP file, you would need to extract that info and use a normal FX shader to displace it. In other works "foGedAbutIt".. Better off making your own normal file.

At least that is how I understand it.

Thank You UniTech - that definately helps!

I always wondered how to make those double "Normal" poly's... like for trees. Seems silly to have two plains just as an attempt to make it double sided. I noticed in times past - (trees) - When I made a plain (was visible from both directions so the main object seemed to default to double sided, then added a limb mesh (To get that simply "X" tree where its just two plains - one is spun 90 deg on the y axis) .. the limb was NOT double sided.

Now I'm wondering how to apply what you told me in this scenario - and the quandry I seemed to have stumbled on with this question pertaining to light normals - and that reflection stuff you mentioned. Hmm.. lots to think about -

Thank You very much. (If others have even more knowledge they wish to share - I'm all ... um Eyes! )