[Mesa-dev] how to fix progs/demo/geartrain.c?

[Christian Authmann]

Hi,

it all started with a harmless looking bug report for r300g on phoronix:

> http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8582/bugx.png
> http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24950&page=13

as I noticed, that bug was present on nvidia too:
> http://www.authmann.de/tmp/geartrain_nvidia.png

so I dug into geartrain.c to figure out whether it's the drivers' or the
testcase's fault.

Long story short, this is how it *should* look after fixing geartrain:
http://www.authmann.de/tmp/geartrain_nvidia2.png
http://www.authmann.de/tmp/geartrain_nvidia3.png

Issues I've identified:

1) loading the .dat file is a mess, uses uninitialized variables, no
error checking etc. Probably makes this testcase useless for
valgrind-tests against mesa / drivers.

2) the normal vectors are calculated in a way that's valid for the next
QUAD submitted inside each GL_QUAD_STRIP, which would be perfect for
glShadeModel(GL_FLAT). But since glShadeModel() is never called, the
default GL_SMOOTH is used. As a result, shading is slightly off and the
gears' teeth aren't sharp. It's actually visible on all the gears if you
look close enough.

3) the two beveled gears in the back are terribly broken:
3a) the author didn't quite decide which values to use where, leading to
inconsistent radii on different parts of the gear. This results in
broken geometry. (Easy to notice if you move the camera).

3b) on the outer teeth-polygons of the beveled gears, the faces are
flipped: the BACK faces are on the outside of the gear. The normals
still point outwards of the gear, which cannot give good results.
Especially not without calling glLightModel(GL_LIGHT_MODEL_TWO_SIDE, 1).

3c) it's using GL_QUAD_STRIPs, but some of the quads aren't planar on
the beveled gears. IIRC there's no "correct" way to render and shade
nonplanar QUADs (but I'm not fluent with the opengl standard), making
this testcase possibly less useful.


Now IMHO this should be changed to look "right", to prevent false
bug-reports or driver-developers implementing workarounds to render it
correctly.

But on the other hand, it's a test-case, and it must continue to test
whatever it's supposed to test.

I don't mind doing the fixing, but I'd like some feedback as to where
this program should go.

Issue 1) can be fixed quickly by getting rid of the external .dat file,
using static initializers for the structs (struct gear g = {1, 2, 3}).
It could be fixed with more effort by rewriting the loading routines. Or
it could be ignored if valgrind tests aren't done anyway.

Issue 2) is adding a simple call to glShadeModel(GL_FLAT), unless of
course it's supposed to test smooth shading. In that case, calculation
of the normal vectors can be adjusted to look better. Which solution is
preferred?

Issue 3) can be trivially fixed by removing the broken beveled gears ;)
Another fix would be to render it with sane methods, as I did for the
screenshot above. The third option would be to continue doing weird
stuff, but changing it in a way that makes the result look correct.
The third one might be the most useful for a test-case.

Issue 3a) is just "wrong" vertex positions, but doesn't use weird GL
options at all. A proper fix would be in order (and is done).
Issue 3b) can continue to test proper shading of backfaces, it'd just
have to call glLightModel(GL_LIGHT_MODEL_TWO_SIDE, 1) and turn the
normals around. Right?
Issue 3c) will again depend on the standard. It looks OK anyway, unless
a quad is watched at a straight angle. Just keep them non-planar to see
if the driver can cope?


Please let me know where you'd like your testcase and I'll make sure it
gets there. :)


One last thing, I didn't find geartrain.c on
cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/, so I picked it from the 7.7 release
package. Where did the tests go?


greetings,
Christian Authmann