   Normal buffer troubles again... Strange... Any advice?
  Hello, everyone.I am trying to render out a simple GL_FLAT cube using a vertex buffer as shown here: The vertices I'm using are in the following array, which is fine (and it renders fine):GLfloat vertices[24] =  {0.5,  0.5,  0.5,    -0.5,  0.5,  0.5,    -0.5, -0.5,  0.5,0.5, -0.5,  0.5, 0.5, -0.5, -0.5,0.5,  0.5, -0.5,    -0.5,  0.5, -0.5,    -0.5, -0.5, -0.5};The index array, which is also fine, is as follows:GLubyte indices[24] =  {0,1,2,3,   // 24 indices0,3,4,5,0,5,6,1,1,6,7,2,7,4,3,2,4,7,6,5};The normals array is being calculated automatically (for each face here, not each vertex, since the model is faceted, not smooth). It also seems to be fine:normals0x0012fcbcfloat [18][0]0.00000000float[1]0.00000000float[2]1.0000000float[3]1.0000000float[4]0.00000000float[5]0.00000000float[6]0.00000000float[7]1.0000000float[8]0.00000000float[9]-1.0000000float[10]0.00000000float[11]0.00000000float[12]0.00000000float[13]-1.0000000float[14]0.00000000float[15]0.00000000float[16]0.00000000float[17]-1.0000000floatAnd here is the code I have for the actual rendering://...glTranslatef(0.0f, 0.0f, -3.0f);glRotatef(45.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f);// bind vertex and index buffersg_VBE.glBindBufferARB(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, vertBuffer);g_VBE.glBindBufferARB(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, indBuffer);glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);// activate vertex coords array    glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 0, 0);// last param is offset, not ptr    // bind the normals buffer    g_VBE.glBindBufferARB(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, normBuffer);    glEnableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);    glNormalPointer(GL_FLOAT, 0, 0);glDrawElements(GL_QUADS, 24, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, 0);  glDisableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY); // deactivate normals arrayglDisableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);  // deactivate vertex array//...I have a light set up at 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f and it seems to be working fine. It is right behind the camera, and since the cube is right in front, it should be dead on.However, here is what I'm seeing (this is the cube turned to 45 degree angle):As you can see, the two sides aren't lit equally bright, which means either the normals or something about the way I'm using them is messed up. If I try to do a 360-degree turnaround, the faces are not lit the same, and the lighting changes from face to face in a weird way. Any suggestions?   
  Is the light directional or point? (or spot?)If the cube is not 45° rotated, then that's how it's supposed to look.I'm not into OpenGL (D3D guy here), but check the normals are being transformed (rotated as well), and that the light position isn't being transformed.Quote:If I try to do a 360-degree turnaround, (...) and the lighting changes from face to face in a weird way.That could be either the flat shading artifact, or specular lighting turned onCheerioDark Sylinc   ;  It seems that you position your light in the wrong space(camera vs world space). A position of (0,0,1) would be behind your camera only if your light position is given in camera space.  If your position is given in world space it will be most likely transformed by your MV matrix (translate->rotation) too, which will result in your light being in front of your cube and would only light one side of it. Quicktest: Put your light at (1,0,1) or (-1,0,1), this should shade the visible faces equally if I'm right with my assumption.--Ashaman;  I wish that were true [bawling], but I've already tested for it...When I set the light to -1,0,1 or 1,0,1 the picture doesn't change (the sides are lit uneven, pretty much the same). The light positioning isn't included in the glPush/glPopMatrix block with the cube rendering, so the cube is translated & rotated separate from the rest of the scene.Quote:Is the light directional or point? (or spot?)By default in OpenGL it is of point/omni type.Also, when the cube is rotating a full 360, I'm getting this one side lit brightly, and the side opposite to it also becomes lit brightly when it becomes illuminated, but the two other sides stay dim... Which is weird[attention]Here, see for yourself: ExecutableAs a testament, here is the cube at some point in the rotation looked at from the top/front view with the gluLookAt function:As you can see, not only are the side faces sporadically lit, but the top face is also lit, which shouldn't be happening.I also changed my code now a bit (I thought I had some problems with the offset of the buffers in memory or, perhaps, was specifying the buffer to be overwritten or something like that):/* offset is defined as (char *)pointer - (char *)NULL in OpenGL, so we do the reverse to convert offset to pointer.*/#define BUFFER_OFFSET(i) ((i) + (char *)NULL) ...//sets up the objects for renderingvoid SetupScene(){//...//generate normalsGenerateNormalArray(vertices, 24, indices, normals, GL_QUADS);geometry = calloc(42,sizeof(GLfloat));memcpy(geometry, vertices, 24*(sizeof(GLfloat)));memcpy(&(geometry[24]), normals, 18 * sizeof(GLfloat));g_VBE.glGenBuffersARB(2, &geomBuffer);g_VBE.glBindBufferARB(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, geomBuffer);g_VBE.glBufferDataARB(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, (42*sizeof(GLfloat)), geometry, GL_STREAM_DRAW_ARB);free(geometry);g_VBE.glGenBuffersARB(1, &indBuffer);g_VBE.glBindBufferARB(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, indBuffer);g_VBE.glBufferDataARB(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, sizeof(indices), indices, GL_STREAM_DRAW_ARB);}/*Renders one frame*/void Render(){    glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);gluLookAt(0.0, 1.5, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, -3.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0);glPushMatrix();glTranslatef(0.0f, 0.0f, -3.0f);glRotatef(angle, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f);// bind vertex and index buffersg_VBE.glBindBufferARB(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, geomBuffer);g_VBE.glBindBufferARB(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, indBuffer);glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 0, BUFFER_OFFSET(0));// last param is offset, not ptrglNormalPointer(GL_FLOAT, 0, BUFFER_OFFSET(24*sizeof(GLfloat))); // bind the normals bufferglEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);// activate vertex coords arrayglEnableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);// activate nomral coords array// draw 6 quads using offset of index arrayglDrawElements(GL_QUADS, 24, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, 0);glDisableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);  // deactivate vertex arrayglDisableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);  // deactivate normal arrayglPopMatrix();angle += 0.2;if (angle >= 360.0f)    {  angle = 0.0f;}    glLoadIdentity();    glFlush();    /* Bring back buffer to foreground    */    SwapBuffers(g_hdc);} [Edited by - Megamorph on June 10, 2009 9:33:36 AM];  try removing theglTranslatef(0.0f, 0.0f, -3.0f);glRotatef(45.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f);i.e position the cube at 0,0,0 in identity space   ;Quote:try removing theglTranslatef(0.0f, 0.0f, -3.0f);glRotatef(45.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f);i.e position the cube at 0,0,0 in identity spaceI did now... Lighting is just as messed up as it was... And how was that supposed to help me, exactly? I think we've established that the light wasn't rotating with the cube, or at least that it wasn't the real problem.I don't mean to be mean to people who are trying to help me, I think I just watched too much House M.D., so my sarcasm center is a bit overexcited. My frustration center is also overstimulated...And is anyone going to be willing to look at the code rather than the pictures? I mean, I know it's such a pretty cube, but [disturbed]...I read out from the VBO to debug (using the glMapBufferARB function) and I got the same result that I put in, meaning that the data that is loaded appears correct, unless I'm missing something.   ;Quote:And how was that supposed to help me, exactly?always simplify the problem as much as possibleu have 18normals, yet 24verts   ;Quote:always simplify the problem as much as possibleI agree, that's why I started out with a cube. But changing coordinates of the whole object doesn't really help with the lighting / rendering issues...Quote:u have 18normals, yet 24vertsLOL, I was waiting for someone to bring that up... How ironic.I have 8 verts (24 coords), which compose a cube with 6 faces. 6 quads need 6 normals, each normal is represented by 3 floats, 6 * 3 yeilds 18, hence the normals array contains 18 floats.Correct me if I'm wrong here, but since we're going for a flat rendering, those should be face normals - not vertex normals. In this decision I was going off some earlier gamedev.net post about some other normals issue and the sugguestion therein, as well as tutorials, such as this one, which use old-style GLbegin/GLend blocks to render a cube with normals (scroll down).Although that does arouse suspicion... How would I then render a smooth-shaded mesh (how does OpenGL know whether to expect vertex normals or face normals?)Perhaps I'm wrong and all I need is to calculate 8 vertex normals instead. In this case, would a vertex normal then = (normals of all adjacent faces)/(number of all adjacent faces)?   ;  Since you want hard edges, each face of the cube is made of 4 unique verts, and no two faces share any verts. Remember that a vert is a unique combination of position+normal (and any other attributes you add in the future like uv, color, etc).You only have one index buffer, and that indexes into an array of positions and normals with the same index. 6 indices per face * 6 faces = 36 indices.  4 verts per face * 6 faces = 24 verts.That means your index array should be sized at 36 (assuming triangle list), and your position and normal array should have 24 entries (24 float3's = 72 floats). Yes, your positions and normals will be duplicated, but each of your verts will be unique.An array of positions and an array of normals of different sizes doesn't make sense if you only have one index buffer.Smooth edges share more verts, so you wouldn't need 24 unique verts to describe a cube, you could do it with 8.   ;  Well if you're doing Face normals, then surely you only need 6 normals, one for each face.Also, as OpenGL is a state machine, normals can be per-Vertex or per-Face. Using Immediate mode as an example.This will be Per-Face NormalsglNorma3f(0.0, 0.0, 1.0);glBegin(GL_QUADS);glVertex3f(0.0, 0.0, 0.0);glVertex3f(0.0, 1.0, 0.0);glVertex3f(1.0, 1.0, 0.0);glVertex3f(1.0, 0.0, 0.0);glEnd();This will be Per-Vertex NormalsglBegin(GL_QUADS);glNorma3f(0.0, 0.0, 1.0);glVertex3f(0.0, 0.0, 0.0);glNorma3f(0.0, 1.0, 1.0);glVertex3f(0.0, 1.0, 0.0);glNorma3f(1.0, 0.0, 1.0);glVertex3f(1.0, 1.0, 0.0);glNorma3f(1.0, 1.0, 0.0);glVertex3f(1.0, 0.0, 0.0);glEnd();The numbers are arbitrary, it's the function calls that are important in this example.   