polygoon,
Textures are images loaded into whats called a texture buffer and 'mapped' (projected) onto a 3D surface. Per Blitz3D its the only way to apply an image on to a 3D object. This is standard hardware and software approach due to memory issues. I recommend researching the internet for more info on Texture Mapping.
Why Single Surface? This is due to performance issues with using many surfaces. From what I know about Blitz3D, it uses one surface per primitive mesh or sprite. Using many Blitz3D Sprites can impact performance which is why you see many "Single Surface" Libs out there.
Surfaces are sections of mesh which are then used to attach triangles to. You must have at least one surface per mesh in order to create a visible mesh. I have never used a model with more than one surface, although blitz supports it, I dont think popular modeling tools do.
Creating quad-meshes on a Single Surface is like a creating a model with a 1000 triangles, breaking it up into 500 independent quads (two-triangles each) . The only way to access the quads, is to access the surface and manipulate the vertices and texturecoords directly and independently. This is why the math can get tricky. I'm sure there are formulas, I just have to find them.
From what I understand about textures you can only have one per surface. Thus I could not texture 250 quads with one texture and the other 250 with another if they are part of the same surface. So we have to improvise and create one large texture with several images in it. A composite texture.
Now the trick will be telling Blitz3D how to translate our 500 quads on screen, mapping the image from the composite texture, ensure pixel perfect resolution, maximum performance.
MAUI will render Quad-Meshes and Model-Meshes differently which is the only distinction beyond editing them. All of what I mentioned above pertains to the Quad-Meshes to mimic the typical 2D Windows-Style GUI.
Model-Meshes are animated and static models that you point and click on to do something in the game/application. No matter the shape of the models. They are interactive 3D scenes directed with lights, camera, and action control. A true 3D GUI. Both forms of GUIs will work hand in hand.
Textures are required with 3D meshes.
I accept that you may know why, and that to you it's obvious, but I can't for the life of me see why.
I accept that you may know why, and that to you it's obvious, but I can't for the life of me see why.
Textures are images loaded into whats called a texture buffer and 'mapped' (projected) onto a 3D surface. Per Blitz3D its the only way to apply an image on to a 3D object. This is standard hardware and software approach due to memory issues. I recommend researching the internet for more info on Texture Mapping.
MAUI will work two types of meshes a custom quad-mesh (sprite) and model-meshes.
Quad-meshes contain only two triangles used to emulate Blitz3D's native 3D Sprites. The difference is that they are created on a single surface. Why Single Surface? This is due to performance issues with using many surfaces. From what I know about Blitz3D, it uses one surface per primitive mesh or sprite. Using many Blitz3D Sprites can impact performance which is why you see many "Single Surface" Libs out there.
Surfaces are sections of mesh which are then used to attach triangles to. You must have at least one surface per mesh in order to create a visible mesh. I have never used a model with more than one surface, although blitz supports it, I dont think popular modeling tools do.
Creating quad-meshes on a Single Surface is like a creating a model with a 1000 triangles, breaking it up into 500 independent quads (two-triangles each) . The only way to access the quads, is to access the surface and manipulate the vertices and texturecoords directly and independently. This is why the math can get tricky. I'm sure there are formulas, I just have to find them.
From what I understand about textures you can only have one per surface. Thus I could not texture 250 quads with one texture and the other 250 with another if they are part of the same surface. So we have to improvise and create one large texture with several images in it. A composite texture.
Now the trick will be telling Blitz3D how to translate our 500 quads on screen, mapping the image from the composite texture, ensure pixel perfect resolution, maximum performance.
MAUI will render Quad-Meshes and Model-Meshes differently which is the only distinction beyond editing them. All of what I mentioned above pertains to the Quad-Meshes to mimic the typical 2D Windows-Style GUI.
Model-Meshes are animated and static models that you point and click on to do something in the game/application. No matter the shape of the models. They are interactive 3D scenes directed with lights, camera, and action control. A true 3D GUI. Both forms of GUIs will work hand in hand.