0.3 Goals Met - Release

Finally, after all the researching, the math reviews, the discussions, the coding, the testing, the back-tracking, it's ready - 0.3 Release.

Before talking about the final stretch to get the release done, lets see what's actually been done:

Modified the Model.js to include the following 2 functions
o getVertices(): returns the vertices of the object
o getBoundingBox(aabb): Returns an array of the min/max XYZ values for the bounding box after it's been scaled

Made Picking.js
o Disabled right-click menu on canvas
o Creates the mouse vector from the camera to the far clipping plane
    - 2 main variables: Mouse Origin and Mouse Direction Vector
o Ray-Bounding Box Intersection Test
    - Takes the min/max XYZ values of the bounding box, mouse origin and direction vector
    - Returns true if intersect
    - Need to transform the mouse origin and direction vector into the object's space before performing test
o Sorts the intersecting objects from closet to furthest from the camera
o Returns an array of object index in the scene

So, to continue from the previous blog, the correct mouse vector has finally been constructed and we've got ourselves a mouse origin and a mouse direction vector. The next part, which is the most important part was to construct a ray-box intersection test. I've found myself 3 different ray-box intersection algorithm and tried to implement them all, but they don't seem to work properly - only works in specific cases.

On Tuesday, went in to work with Andor. We've looked at the codes and did some more research. In the process, I've played around with the transformations and tried the tests again. Finally, it works. So what's been done now, is that I used one of the AABB tests, and to make it work properly, this is what needs to be done:
1) Get bounding box that's axis-aligned (not transformed)
2) Find the inverse of the object's transformation matrix
3) Apply the inverse transformation matrix to the mouse vector (brings the mouse vector into the object's space)
4) Pass in the values into the test

So now I simply run this test through all the objects in the scene and I've got myself a basic picking function. Afterward, I simply sorted the objects from closest to furthest. And to do that, I did some math and calculated the objects distance from the camera position and compared them.

At the end of the picking function, I had it returned an array of index of the objects in the scene.

During today's Skype meeting, I've updated everyone about the progress of the picking and told them where it's at. As it is, with the bounding box test working fine (even when objects are rotates, scaled, or moved the camera around), they are willing to add this into their next release. However, I will try to make this picking function better by implementing the ray-triangle intersection test and hopefully get this finish before their release, if not, they can add it to their next release.

As of now, my 0.3 Release is done, but I will continue to work on it to make it better. And when I get it done, I will post a more updated version of the picking function on the wiki page and have it be included in the next C3DL release.