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Noob question re multiple vertex buffers

Started by Captain Logic Oct 6, 2005 at 7:43 PM 1 replies 1.1k views

Original Post

Oct 6, 2005 at 7:43 PM

Just starting with D3D and trying to get my head around the "correct" way to do things. Say I have a vertex buffer with 3 vertices representing a triangle, and I want to render 5 copies of this triangle on the screen in different locations (translations). Can I do a DrawPrimitive 5 times with 5 different world transformations with the same vertex buffer? Or do I need 5 different vertex buffers, one for each triangle, even though the vertex coords will be identical?

Mushu

Oct 6, 2005 at 7:45 PM

You can (technically) do it either way, however since matrix transforms are much faster than switching between vertex streams, you should use just one buffer and render it multiple times with different transforms.

Using only one buffer also uses less memory. Which is good :D

Captain Logic

Oct 6, 2005 at 8:53 PM

Whenever I try the first method (single vertex buffer) I only get one triangle on the screen if I do 5 transforms, the render is at the location of the final transform. I don't get 5 images on the screen.

This is what i'm doing (pseudo-code) in my render method:

Clearscreen()
BeginScene()
SetFVF(...)
SetStream(...) // use the vertexbuffer

// Draw tri 1
D3DMatrixTranslation(...) // translate 2 units to the right
SetTransform() // world transform
DrawPrimitive(triangle ,0, 1)

// Draw tri 2
D3DMatrixTranslation(...) // translate 4 units to the right
SetTransform()
DrawPrimitive(triangle ,0, 1)

// repeat above 3 lines for 3 more tris, each translation 2 units further on

Present(...)
EndScene()

Only the final transform is rendered. How do I get all 5 triangles to render at the 5 different translations?

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