QD3D 05 - Interactive Renderer Not Drawing Flat Surfaces
Technical Q&As
QD3D 05 - Interactive Renderer Not Drawing Flat Surfaces (1-June-95)
Q The Interactive renderer does not draw flat surfaces that are parallel to the
camera-view direction with the Orthographic camera, but the wire-frame renderer
does. We put in a "floor" of polygons, and when we look along the edge of the
floor with the Orthographic camera, it totally disappears. With the wire-frame
renderer, we see a line where the floor is, which is as expected.
A Filled primitives have no thickness, so when you look at them edge-on, they do
not appear. Lines, however, are a mathematical abstraction, so they always
appear to be 1 pixel thick (when you "zoom in" on a line, it's thickness does
not increase). While this may seem somewhat odd, it is the way that many
libraries work. To achieve the effect you want, make the "floor" a thin box,
and texture-shade the top surface. If the depth of the box is small, it appears
to be a slab-like structure, and it won't disappear.
Technical Q&As
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