Turn out the darn lights..
Daily 09/03/03
JoeUser Forums
Spent the morning helping Cari with merge problems. Visual diffing is the only way to go. Now, if only there were a way to get WinCVS and BeyondCompare to flag conflicts properly.
I've got the initial point sprite phasor blast in. Now I've got to tweak the parameters, like size and scale and speed. Doesn't looke exactly like Alex's, but we can work with it.
Here's the actual render code for the point sprite. It's kinda hacky. I hate when I have a plan and then have to wail on it because my mind doesn't see the obvious clean solution. If anybody wants to improve on this, please do.
struct POINTVERTEX
{
D3DXVECTOR3 v;
D3DCOLOR color;
static const DWORD FVF;
};
const DWORD POINTVERTEX::FVF = D3DFVF_XYZ | D3DFVF_DIFFUSE;
// Helper function to stuff a FLOAT into a DWORD argument
inline DWORD FtoDW( FLOAT f ) { return *((DWORD*)&f); }
// Globals
static LPDIRECT3DTEXTURE9 g_pPhotonTexture = NULL;
static const ULONG MAX_STEPS = 1000;
//**************************************************************************************
void CPhotonBlast::SetStart(D3DXVECTOR3 vStartIn)
{
vStart = vStartIn;
}
//**************************************************************************************
void CPhotonBlast::SetEnd(D3DXVECTOR3 vEndIn)
{
// We don't need to do all this. There's gotta be a
// cleaner and easier way.
vDirection = vEndIn - vStart;
fDistToTravel = D3DXVec3Length(&vDirection);
fDistTravelled = 0.0f;
D3DXVec3Normalize(&vDirection, &vDirection);
bIsReady = TRUE;
bIsDone = FALSE;
}
//**************************************************************************************
HRESULT CPhotonBlast::Init(LPDIRECT3DDEVICE9 pDevice)
{
HRESULT hr = S_OK;
// Clear the flags
bIsReady = FALSE;
bIsDone = FALSE;
// Load the texture (if necessary)
if(!g_pPhotonTexture)
{
hr = D3DXCreateTextureFromFile(pDevice, "gfx/phasor_blast.tga", &g_pPhotonTexture);
}
else
{
g_pPhotonTexture->AddRef();
}
return hr;
}
//**************************************************************************************
HRESULT CPhotonBlast::Render(LPDIRECT3DDEVICE9 pDevice)
{
// HACK:
// In the video, the phasor compresses as it hits the object
// I couldn't get that easily.
// We actually run the animation longer than necessary. Just to
// make sure the last point ends up at the destination.
// If a point is past the end point, then we just set it to the end
// point. At the end of the animation, we're drawing a whole bunch
// of unnecessary sprites at the end point.
// TODO:
// Figure out what the heck the point scalings do and how to
// modify them to get our desired results. I could use post
// transformed points to adjust the scales manually for each
// point so that we get the "start small, end big" effect.
// Also, the point scales are in eye coordinates. The further
// I zoom, the larger they get. Gotta adjust the scales for that.
HRESULT hr;
if(!bIsReady)
return E_FAIL;
D3DXMATRIX matIdent;
D3DXMatrixIdentity(&matIdent);
pDevice->SetTransform(D3DTS_WORLD, &matIdent);
// Set the render states for using point sprites
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_ZENABLE, FALSE );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_ZWRITEENABLE, FALSE );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_ALPHABLENDENABLE, TRUE );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_SRCBLEND, D3DBLEND_ONE );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_DESTBLEND, D3DBLEND_ONE );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_POINTSPRITEENABLE, TRUE );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_POINTSCALEENABLE, TRUE );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_POINTSIZE, FtoDW(20.0f) );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_POINTSIZE_MIN, FtoDW(1.00f) );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_POINTSCALE_A, FtoDW(1.00f) );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_POINTSCALE_B, FtoDW(1.00f) );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_POINTSCALE_C, FtoDW(1.00f) );
// Set up the vertex buffer to be rendered
pDevice->SetFVF( POINTVERTEX::FVF );
pDevice->SetTexture(0, g_pPhotonTexture);
// Load the vertices into an array
POINTVERTEX pts[MAX_STEPS];
ULONG ulCurrIdx = 0;
D3DXCOLOR colWhite(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f);
// Current position is always at idx 0.
pts[0].v = vStart + vDirection * fDistTravelled;
pts[0].color = colWhite;
// HACK:
if(fDistTravelled > fDistToTravel)
pts[0].v = vEnd;
// Create the trail of points leading from the start.
for(int i = 1; i < ulNumSteps; i++)
{
pts[i].v = pts[i-1].v + vDirection * -0.2f;
pts[i].color = colWhite;
// HACK:
D3DXVECTOR3 v = pts[i].v - vStart;
if(D3DXVec3Length(&v) > fDistToTravel)
pts[i].v = vEnd;
}
// HACK:
if(pts[ulNumSteps-1].v == vEnd)
bIsDone = TRUE;
// Draw the points
hr = pDevice->DrawPrimitiveUP(D3DPT_POINTLIST,
ulNumSteps,
(PVOID)pts,
sizeof(POINTVERTEX));
// Reset render states
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_ZENABLE, TRUE );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_POINTSPRITEENABLE, FALSE );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_POINTSCALEENABLE, FALSE );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_ZWRITEENABLE, TRUE );
pDevice->SetRenderState( D3DRS_ALPHABLENDENABLE, FALSE );
return hr;
}
//**************************************************************************************
HRESULT CPhotonBlast::Update(FLOAT fElapsedSecIn)
{
if(!bIsReady)
return E_FAIL;
fDistTravelled += fVelocity * fElapsedSecIn;
return S_OK;
}
Got into a huge discussion with the project folks about how to improve the graphic quality of the ships. So now, Cari and I are revamping all the scene lighting. It was a real mess before. Alex is going to give us high poly ships that can do diffuse lighting properly. It's going to be sweet (I hope).
After a few minutes working with Cari, we completely revamped the lighting. It really wasn't that hard. Now all we have to do is tweak our material and lighting parameters. Now for self shadowing objects (right!).
In between all that stuff, I managed to get with Scott to
discuss some polmachine stuff. We're going to get that looking cool too 
Check out https://www.stardock.com/products/polmachine.
Anyways, got one thing done on my list and added some more. Go figure! That's life.