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Problems with spotlight

Started by Codegod Apr 19, 2002 at 1:12 PM 3 replies 750+ views
Original Post
Codegod
Codegod
Howdy all, I can't figure out how to get my spotlight to work correctly. I have a small cube spinning around the y-axis at the origin. I'm trying to setup a yellow spotlight to light up the front of my cube, which has a white material. However, I just can't get it to light correctly. The cube still looks white and it lights up the same way if I were using a point light instead. Here's part of my code: 
    
// Set light data

  ZeroMemory(&Light, sizeof(Light));
  Light.Type = D3DLIGHT_SPOT;
  Light.Diffuse.r = 1.0f;
  Light.Diffuse.g = 1.0f;
  Light.Diffuse.b = 0.0f;  
  Light.Ambient.r = 1.0f;
  Light.Ambient.g = 1.0f;
  Light.Ambient.b = 0.0f;
  Light.Range = 1000.0f;
  Light.Falloff = 1.0;
  Light.Phi = 0.3488;
  Light.Theta = 0.1744;
  Light.Direction = D3DXVECTOR3(0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f);
  Light.Attenuation0 = 0.0f;
  Light.Attenuation1 = 0.0f;
  Light.Attenuation2 = 0.0f;
  Light.Position.x = 0.0f;
  Light.Position.y = 0.0f;
  Light.Position.z = -100.0f;


  // Set and enable the light

  g_pD3DDevice->SetLight(0, &Light);
  g_pD3DDevice->LightEnable(0, TRUE);  


  // Set material properties

  ZeroMemory(&Material, sizeof(Material));
  Material.Diffuse.r = 1.0f;
  Material.Diffuse.g = 1.0f;
  Material.Diffuse.b = 1.0f;  
  g_pD3DDevice->SetMaterial(&Material);
I tried to fiddle around with all the properties, but can't seem to get anywere. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks. Eric [edited by - codegod on April 19, 2002 2:19:51 PM]
zbarrier1
zbarrier1
yo whats up,

i recently had the same problem, and instead of using color values b/t 0.0 and 1.0, i used values b/t 0 - 255. although this goes against the sdk documentation, it worked. so you might want to try that, i really do not see any problems with your code by glancing at it. good luck.
intransigent-seal
intransigent-seal
First, you should be aware that because lighting is done per-vertex (unless you''re using pixel shaders), a cube with a spotlight on it won''t look very good unless it has several (ie more than 4) vertices per face.
Second, you''ve got full red and green ambient light on - which means that the red and green colour values will effectively be taken directly from your material.
Third, since you say you''re getting a white cube, even though your light is yellow (red + green, but no blue), it seems like lighting isn''t being performed at all - make sure you''re turning lighting on with
SetRenderState(D3DRS_LIGHTING, TRUE);

So the things to do are:
+ Check you''re render and texture state settings (you may also want to check the DirectX docs to find out the default values for some things).
+ Reduce the ambient lighting values (mainly to see if they''re interfering).
+ Work out (probably on paper) which parts of the cube should be illuminated given the settings you''re actually using (not just the settings you think you''re using, or the effect you want to produce).

Anyway, I''ll post when I''ve thought about it some more.

John B
The best thing about the internet is the way people with no experience or qualifications can pretend to be completely superior to other people who have no experience or qualifications.
Codegod
Codegod
Hmm... well I know my rendering states are correct, since it works just fine when I use a point light or directional light.

I''ve tried not using any ambient light, but that didn''t make any difference.

I think I''m beginning to remember back in the days when I was using OpenGL, that I had to split a four vertex poly into 8 polys in order for it to have enough vertices and normals for the spot light to look right.

I will give that a try and see what happens.

Thanks.

Eric
Codegod
Codegod
Alright, I split my 4 vertices polygon into 4 smaller polygons and set the light''s attentuation0 to 1.0f, and I can finally see the spotlight. It still looks a little wierd so I will try to split the polygons some more (into 16 polygons) and see if the light cone becomes smoother.

Eric

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