RE: 3ds loader question

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Michael Jones (mtj++at++babar)
Sat, 3 Feb 1996 21:27:04 -0800

Chris Hondl asks if the 3DStudio loader can handle normals. I rewrote
this loader (stylistically) from one created by Clay Graham of SGI.
Neither of us saw how to get normals from the 3ds file. It appears
that the normals are not actually stored, but rather, that shading
groups are kept and if one wanted to, an application would need to
find all the faces in a shading group incident at a vertex and then
compute an average normal there. It may be that some code in the
3dsftk will do this for you. Knowing as little as I do about it, I
was unable to add "native" normal support to the loader the day that
Clay and I produced the loader.

If you understand the 3dsftk (or if you've ever used 3dstudio, which
I have not) then you should be able to add this feature easily. The
loader source is included and at the present time, simply builds a
pfdGeom without normals. This means that the pfdBuilder computes
(unshared) face normals for you on input. If you know how to extract
the normals from a 3ds file, then simply fill in the array of normals
and say that the normals are PER_FACE, and you're done!

If you do this, please send us the code so we can enhance the
loader for the next release.

Thanks!
Michael Jones

Be seeing you, Phone:415.933.1455 Fax:415.965.2658 M/S:8U-590
Michael T. Jones Silicon Graphics, Advanced Systems Division
mtj++at++sgi.com 2011 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mtn. View, CA 94039-7311
                    "Du musst Amboss oder Hammer sein" -- Goethe

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