[comp.sys.sgi] Rendering flat objects

tjh@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Foxbat) (04/21/89)

Is there a mode to tell the geometry engine to do diffusely (and specular)
shade a polygon even though its normal vector is pointing away from the
light source. (Thus only getting ambient shading)

Thanx...
Tim
tjh@bu-pub.bu.edu

thant@horus.SGI.COM (Thant Tessman) (04/21/89)

In article <29925@bu-cs.BU.EDU>, tjh@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Foxbat) writes:
> Is there a mode to tell the geometry engine to do diffusely (and specular)
> shade a polygon even though its normal vector is pointing away from the
> light source. (Thus only getting ambient shading)
> 
> Thanx...
> Tim
> tjh@bu-pub.bu.edu

What you can do is create two versions of the object you want to draw.  One
with normals one way and the other with normals the other way.

Define the polygons of each object so the vertices of each polygon are in
counter-clockwise order when the normal is pointing at you (right-hand rule).
That means that one object's vertices will be in opposite order of the other.

Do backface(TRUE) and draw both objects.

thant@sgi.com