The recent activity regarding automatic calculation of surface normals in order to produce smooth rendering in other programs (similar to how LDView has behaved for a long time, but via a different, better algorithm) has made me investigate places where LDView's current smoothing is failing, and this has led to this post, a revisit to the subject of T-Junctions.

The point is that, while I never thought about it before, T-Junctions prevent smooth shading from working. If you don't know what T-Junctions are, please see this article. I just updated that article to point out that T-Junctions on curved surfaces prevent smoothing algorithms from working on those surfaces.

Since, as far as I know, this has never been mentioned before, I don't think parts authors in the past have had any particular impetus to go to the significant extra work needed to avoid T-Junctions on curved surfaces. However, given that they prevent just about any reasonable smoothing algorithm from functioning, I think they should be avoided more strongly.

If someone can come up with a simple smoothing algorithm that works with T-Junctions, I will gladly stand corrected, but any such algorithm would also require per-pixel lighting in order to work with T-Junctions, and I think even with per-pixel lighting, the algorithm would end up being downright nasty.

The only alternative I can think of is to detect the T-Junctions during file loading, and automatically split the geometry involved. That doesn't seem very easy either, though. Does anyone know of a good, fast algorithm to do this? If so, we could potentially recommend that in all LDraw renderers, and remove the recommendation against T-Junctions in parts entirely.

Hey guys,
the leader of the German LUG 1000steine.de posted an actual colour chart in the www.


/Max

Hello everyone I am new to this aspect of lego and for a very long time I've wanted to build something of my own MOC.
I have an architecture model I built in college that I would like to legolize.

The physical model I have is at a scale of 1/8"=1' and as I mentioned I would like to recreate it.
I have seen very larger and complex models which even the smallest details are modeled with bricks. I imagine that all custom lego project start with the creation of the smallest element and goes from there? or the most natural approach would also be to use the lego man as as element of scale?

I would appreciate some pointers from the pro builders.

We have currently 372 parts on hold on the PT. This value is now nearly for half a year constant.
I would like to see that number decreasing

Everybody is invited to help to minimize that number !

Edit:
I just tried to identify those file, but sadly the question "Which files are on hold" are not answered by any function I tried on the PT.

This topic will be for LOTR models. A lot of parts is missing, but I think they will be completed.

Attached Files

  30210 - Frodo with cooking corner.mpd (Size: 3.08 KB / Downloads: 3)

My first shot at the Lego Mindstorms shooterbot base

Attached Files

  shooterbot_base.mpd (Size: 3.74 KB / Downloads: 3)

Question to the part experts:

Do the edge line main points (nearly) always share a point with normal triangle and quad points. Or do they often ''float' between normal geometry points?

I would like to know this in relation to the current library, not the latest authoring specs.

...with some 250 new shapes...

I'm working on updating the forum them to better sync with the main site. Progress can be seen in the New Theme Forum I set up. There are quite a few rendering errors as this is still very much a work in progress. Some error are just styles I haven't dealt with yet, some are browser specific. I will try to make it render properly on Webkit and Gecko based browsers since that's what I have on my Mac. IE users will prolly be fine as long as you're running version 8+.

Also, does anyone use the jump menu? If not I think I'm going to get rid of it.

What are the official rules for scaling studs along the y axis? Am I correct that it is acceptable for underside studs, but not top studs? Personally I find no problem with the scaling of type 2 studs, but I've seen others place hold votes on files containing scaled type 2 studs.