To debug lighting, it is handy to visualize per-vertex normals. Traditionally, one would create a vertex buffer with a bunch of lines representing normals and render this after rendering the mesh itself. This works but it is not nearly as simple, or as cool, as using a geometry shader.
You can write a trivial geometry shader to visualize normals. The shader takes a triangle as input and outputs 3 lines that represent the normal for each vertex. In the first pass, render the mesh as you normally would. In the second, pass enable the geometry shader and render the mesh again. That's it. No extra vertex buffer, just an extra pass.
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As Deron predicted way back in January, our product has been renamed. What you have come to know as Point Break is now called Insight3D. Usually developers resist name changes but we're all pretty happy with it. We hope the name change doesn't cause too much confusion for you. In memory of our original name, I've modified the Surface Mesh primitive example in our HowTo to use our original logo for the texture:
We don't have a new logo yet but you should have high expectations.
In other news, we are thrilled about the amount of interest Insight3D received at this year's User's Conference. Thanks to everyone for their feedback and ideas. If you have more to say or want to request an alpha version, email Insight3D@agi.com. Our team has quite the track record of making changes based on customer feedback. In fact, Bart immediately started coding things based on customer requests from the User's Conference, after he returned in the "party van."
The slides for our Insight to Insight3D presentation from the UC are available under Primers on our User's Conference page. They assure me that the log-in is quick and painless. For other Insight3D resources, check out our online help or this past summer's special edition Inview. The Inview contains two articles on Insight3D (called Point Break back then). We were excited to meet many people at the UC that read the Inview and wanted to learn more.
