[Question] Is it possible to set the face.normal?

Pixero

Is it possible in SU to set the face.normal to a custom value?
Something like face.normal = customvector.
Useage would be to make certain faces have the same lighting as others even though they are not facing in the same direction. (Like when making grass planes or trees.)
Well, is it possible?

thomthom

nope. Only thing you can do is reverse it.

Pixero

And I just came up with this great idea for a plugin...
Well, well. SketchUp IS beginning to look more and more old...

And I guess there is no workaround? Like changing shadowinfo per face or setting a new normal through the vertices?

Chris Fullmer

I know there are people on this forum who could probably help you hack into SU and implement your own shaders

Though that is against the installation agreement terms...

Chris

Pixero

Even though shaders would be very nice to have in SU this isnt about that at all.
If we could set the normal of a face to a custom value (like for example 0,0,1) we could make better looking grass and trees since faces pointing in different directions wouldnt get different shades where they intersect.
So if there is a way please tell.

As a sidenote:

@unknownuser said:

I know there are people on this forum who could probably help you hack into SU and implement your own shaders
Though that is against the installation agreement terms...
Chris

What about Adams LightUp? As far as I understand he is using his own OpenGL solution.
Wouldnt that be breaking the agreement?
If not why don't someone smart make a OpenGL implementation plugin for SU that gives us control to do more advanced stuff?

Chris Fullmer

I believe that Adam is exporting geometry to his own renderer, then rendering his own textures for every surface, then applying all those rendered images back into the model, baking the entire model.

That is my understanding anyhow.

Chris

qpik

During my research for improving raytesting plugin for SU
(http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=21077&st=0&sk=t&sd=a)
I've found out that Ruby supports OpenGL.

I mixed an example and library from Ruby installation.
You can run this example in SU (unzip 4 files to Plugins folder).

Example of Ruby-OpenGL with library.

thomthom

and you managed to use that within SU?

qpik

So far I managed to run the example above. Give me some time

Jim

I don't really know, but OpenGL must have hooks, or act as a server because of the existence of software such as 3D Printscreenwhich is able to capture the 3d Sketchup model and export it to some 3dxml format.

So if the OpenGL data can be "hooked" into, then does the possibility exist to use more OpenGL features not native to SU?

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(forums.sketchucation.com)

thomthom

Isn't that what Adam B does with LightUp? Hook into the SU's OpenGL? All though, from C and not from Ruby.

qpik

These are the libraries included in Ruby Windows installer:
http://ruby-opengl.rubyforge.org/.

Chris Fullmer

But I'd still like to understand if you are getting this to interact with SketchUP somehow? Can you change what and how SU renders with this?

Chris

thomthom

Is this Windows and OSX compatible?

qpik

Yes you can!
I've just found the first thing that changed the view of the model.
I typed in the Ruby console glDisable(GL_DEPTH_TEST).
To see result try turning the model around.
Bear in mind that I'm just starting to learn OpenGL .

ps. You need to run SU with the files from the zip above in Plugins, except the example.

Pixero

SU keep asking for glut32.dll. It's not in the zip you provided?

qpik

@pixero said:

SU keep asking for glut32.dll. It's not in the zip you provided?

It didn't ask me. Maybe because I have it in my Ruby installation.

qpik

I suppose so, try it on Mac.

Below is not however, only Windows. This seems to freeze SketchUp OpenGL.

FindWindow = Win32API.new("user32.dll", "FindWindow", ['P','P'], 'N')
GetDC = Win32API.new("user32.dll", "GetDC", ['N'], 'N')
GetCurrentContext = Win32API.new("opengl32.dll", "wglGetCurrentContext", ['V'], 'N')
CreateContext = Win32API.new("opengl32.dll", "wglCreateContext", ['N'], 'N')
MakeCurrent = Win32API.new("opengl32.dll", "wglMakeCurrent", ['N','N'], 'V')
DeleteContext = Win32API.new("opengl32.dll", "wglDeleteContext", ['N'], 'V')


hwnd = FindWindow.call(0, "Untitled - SketchUp")
hdc = GetDC.call(hwnd)
hglrc = GetCurrentContext.call()
DeleteContext.call(hglrc)

I wonder if this is good direction?

Pixero

So where can I get a Ruby install that has it?

qpik

One-click windows installer has it. Here: http://rubyinstaller.org/