[Verse-dev] Material fragments

[Eskil Steenberg]

Hi

I started a separate thread for this discussion.

>
> I have more questions about fragments. I have to implement a viewer 
> that interpretes the fragment tree and tries to display the closest 
> approximation of the given material (and this on a very limited 
> environment - the PocketPC/klimt ca do ONE texture and ONE color at 
> most).
>
Yes, on a platform like that you cant do much more then try to make a 
simple look-up if you can find a texture or color that is essential for 
the look of the object.

> The spec says for the geometry fragment "There is no node reference in 
> this fragment; this is because the layers being referenced are always 
> (implicitly) taken to be in the current object's geometry node"
> But an object code can have links to more than one geometry node...
>
Well obviously, the data should be taken from the geometry you render.

> Next one: for the output fragment "string type; What type of surface 
> property is described by this output fragment. Very often, this will 
> be set to "color" which is the standard name for fragments that 
> generate surface color."
> Very often? what else for a type can the user choose here?

Say you would like to use the material node for things like 
displacement, temperature or acoustic propertys.

> Why are layer references in fragments realized with strings and not 
> with  layer IDs?
>
One material node may be used by more then one geometry node. Because 
layer ids are chosen by the server the client can not make sure for 
instance uv data would use the same ids in two different nodes. Also it 
explains where the content of the layers and makes easy to connect 
material and geometry nodes that where authored separately.

As a rule, internally in the verse data, all references to layers are 
done by name rather then ids for this reason.

Cheers

E