Yep…

It’s true, bro…

I really need to sleep… and beer!
Sleep and beer!!!
heheeh

Hello Marjan,

Thanks for your compliments.

Let’s go:

1. To make a transparent NGLView you must change the global color format. nglGlobalColorFormat(NGLColorFormatRGBA);
and change the default color to a transparent color:
nglGlobalColor(nglColorMake(0,0,0,0));
Everything else is done automatically. But an advice: Apple advises us to make the OpenGL layer always the background, as foreground it’s very expensive.

2. Yes. You must use at least 3 calls:
[nyMesh setIndices:myIndicesPointer count:indicesCount];

[nyMesh setStructures:myStructuresPointer count:structuresCount stride:structureStride]; (stride must be in elements, not in bytes, for example a stride 3 will jump 3 elements in the array of structure)

[myMesh.meshElements addFromElements:myElements];
(the elements instruct NGLMesh about your mesh structure, something like: where’s position coordinates starts? has texcoords and where it starts? has normals? etc…)

When your mesh is ready, call [myMesh compileMesh];
This method will generate Normals (if it doesn’t exist yet) and tangent space, if applicable.

3. Actually, just one kind of light is supported by the shaders for now, the point light (omni), although the NGLLight class is already prepared to the next updates.

4. Well, it’s true. In a future version of NinevehGL, we’re preparing an easy way to deal with morphs, but for now, it’s a very hard task and I suggest you don’t make it. Instead you can create a custom Vertex Shader and use your very own matrix to make changes on the vertices. Much more efficient, BTW.

And thanks again.

Hey buddy,

First off, thanks for your last comment. I found a little bug with that: The NGLView can’t be transparent right now, even with the instruction above. But I already fix this bug and I will commit it on the next update in few days, with more news.

Now about your questions:

0. The official web site is growing up. Probably it’s time to create a forum/group for discussions.

1. The NinevehGL purposes is to be OpenGL version independent. So the OpenGL ES 2.1 is coming and a new variable (NGLEngineVersionES21) will appear. All that you need to take advantage of that new OpenGL version is change this variable, with no refactoring of your code. So when we have an OpenGL ES 3.0, a NGLEngineVersionES3 will comes up… and so on.

Besides I plan to port NinevehGL to other languages, like JavaScript to work with WebGL. So there will have a variable like NGLEngineVersionW1.

2. Good point. I thought in this some time ago. The problem is that Maya, Max and Modo export COLLADA with the same group’s name and mesh’s name. But another programs like Blender, Cheetah, Google SketchUp and LightWave change the names.
Besides when you export to OBJ from ZBrush, it export no groups.

So is very hard to define a pattern for that.

The best solution is:
Export each object from the same group to an individual file. Like the floor to a file, the wall to another one, the houses to another file, and so on…

At this way you can easily define a material to each NGLMesh in your code, by using myMesh.material property. This approach is better to control the animations as well.

However, NinevehGL is prepared to work with thousands materials from a single 3D file. When u export from 3D softwares, it will probably export the materials together.

I’ve already preparing the GLSL series, I think even in this month I post the first one.

Wow, buddy,

What happend? Why are u pissed off?

I don’t know if I understand your problem exactly. I’ll try to answer what I got:

1. NinevehGL works with UIImage only. You can converts CGImageRef to an UIImage. But again you brought me a good point! NinevehGL should offer an easy way to make textures directly from a CGImage. I’ll work on that.

2. Are u trying to implement custom light with your own shader? Well, this is an advanced topic and involves a bunch of knowledge about the shader’s world.

On the NinevehGL side, what u need is to create a custom Vertex and/or Fragment Shader setting the shader property on your NGLMesh instance using the NGLShaders. NGLShaders can load your shader code from a file or even directly in your code.

Then use the NGLMesh property “meshElements” to define the attributes and/or uniforms to your custom shader.

Finally call the “compileMesh” method on your NGLMesh instance.

These two videos can help u to know how this process works:
http://vimeo.com/24974083
http://vimeo.com/24979808

OK, now I understand.

Well, buddy, I’ll start the new series about Shaders, with focus on GLSL ES.

Shaders for MacOS always need some modification to become a GLSL ES. But the inverse path is not truth, any GLSL ES can be used in GLSL without modifications.

NinevehGL uses GLSL ES and you can make any custom shader, if you want.

I hope u like my new series.