tureCoords[1] = D3DXVECTOR2(1.0f,
1.0f);
pTextureCoords[2] = D3DXVECTOR2(0.0f,
0.0f);
pTextureCoords[3] = D3DXVECTOR2(1.0f,
0.0f);
*ppTextureCoords = pTextureCoords;
}
return S_OK;
}
Short and sweet. Just the way I like it. Now to expand this class so that we
can create thick polylines and thick curves/splines. That'll come later. I think
the hardest part of doing the polylines would be getting the miter or bend at
the joints properly. Then again, that's not that hard.
I was also going to look into the PolyTrans exporter. That'll have to wait
till tomorrow. I want to get some sleep tonight 
Woohoo! Phaser done! I modified the phaser class to use a textured quad
instead of point sprites. Much easier to manage and it looks better too. I was
even able to get the alex expand/collapse in there. Isn't it funny how much
power the art director has?
Along with the Phaser, I added a generic "ThickLine" class. This is actually
what the phaser uses. We can also use this class for any number of things.
Maybe showing movement paths, large arrows or markers on the screen, the
possibilities are almost endless. Notice that I added the blue light too I
might be going overboard with the lights, but any little tweaks will help. It
looks especially good when it's animated. Speaking of animation, we can also
animate the texture so we can do that funny zappy/jiggly weapon that brad
wanted. Cool! Hey, I just thought of combining this with a billboarded sprite to
get a long torpedo. Oooh, better yet, alpha blend the endpoints and connect the
lines to get the vapor trails, just like in Homeworld!!! Boy, this is
going to be exciting!!
If you're interested, here's the guts of the code.
HRESULT CThickLineGenerator::Generate(D3DXVECTOR3
vStart,
D3DXVECTOR3 vEnd,
float fStartWidth,
float fEndWidth,
LPD3DXVECTOR3* ppPoints,
LPD3DXVECTOR2* ppTextureCoords,
DWORD* pdwNumPoints)
{
// Generate points for a triangle strip.
if(pdwNumPoints)
*pdwNumPoints = 4; // There are
always 4 points.
// Get the vector from start to end
D3DXVECTOR3 vDir = vEnd - vStart;
D3DXVec3Normalize(&vDir, &vDir);
// Use the z-axis as the other vector. For GC, these
// lines will end up on the plane
D3DXVECTOR3 vUp(0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f);
// Get the cross product
D3DXVECTOR3 vStartRight;
D3DXVec3Cross(&vStartRight, &vDir, &vUp);
D3DXVec3Normalize(&vStartRight, &vStartRight);
D3DXVECTOR3 vEndRight = vStartRight;
// Scale the right vector by half the width
vStartRight *= fStartWidth * 0.5f;
vEndRight *= fEndWidth * 0.5f;
// Calculate the points.
// vEnd
// 2 ---+--- 3
// | | ^
// | | |
// | | |
// 0 ---+--- 1 vDir
// vStart vRight-->
if(ppPoints)
{
LPD3DXVECTOR3 pPoints = new
D3DXVECTOR3[4];
pPoints[0] = vStart - vStartRight;
pPoints[1] = vStart + vStartRight;
pPoints[2] = vEnd - vEndRight;
pPoints[3] = vEnd + vEndRight;
*ppPoints = pPoints;
}
else
return E_INVALIDARG;
// Calculate the tex coords based on the above map
if(ppTextureCoords)
{
LPD3DXVECTOR2 pTextureCoords = new
D3DXVECTOR2[4];
pTextureCoords[0] = D3DXVECTOR2(0.0f,
1.0f);
pTex
