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openglgraphics3dglm-math

Opengl Billboard matrix


I am writing a viewer for a proprietary mesh & animation format in OpenGL.

During rendering a transformation matrix is created for each bone (node) and is applied to the vertices that bone is attached to.

It is possible for a bone to be marked as "Billboarded" which as most everyone knows, means it should always face the camera.

So the idea is to generate a matrix for that bone which when used to transform the vertices it's attached to, causes the vertices to be billboarded.

On my test model it should look like this:

enter image description here

However currently it looks like this:

enter image description here

Note, that despite its incorrect orientation, it is billboarded. As in no matter which direction the camera looks, those vertices are always facing that direction at that orientation.

My code for generating the matrix for bones marked as billboarded is:

    mat4        view;
    glGetFloatv(GL_MODELVIEW_MATRIX, (float*)&view);

    vec4 camPos = vec4(-view[3].x, -view[3].y, -view[3].z,1);
    vec3 camUp  = vec3(view[0].y, view[1].y, view[2].y);

    // zero the translation in the matrix, so we can use the matrix to transform
    // camera postion to world coordinates using the view matrix
    view[3].x = view[3].y = view[3].z = 0;

    // the view matrix is how to get to the gluLookAt pos from what we gave as
    // input for the camera position, so to go the other way we need to reverse
    // the rotation.  Transposing the matrix will do this.
    {
        float * matrix = (float*)&view;
        float   temp[16];
        // copy this into temp
        memcpy(temp, matrix, sizeof(float) * 16);
        matrix[1] = temp[4];    matrix[4] = temp[1];
        matrix[2] = temp[8];    matrix[8] = temp[2];
        matrix[6] = temp[9];    matrix[9] = temp[6];
    }

    // get the correct position of the camera in world space
    camPos  = view * camPos;

    //vec3 pos = pivot;

    vec3 look = glm::normalize(vec3(camPos.x-pos.x,camPos.y-pos.y,camPos.z-pos.z));
    vec3 right = glm::cross(camUp,look);
    vec3 up = glm::cross(look,right);


    mat4 bmatrix;
    bmatrix[0].x = right.x;
    bmatrix[0].y = right.y;
    bmatrix[0].z = right.z;
    bmatrix[0].w = 0;

    bmatrix[1].x = up.x;
    bmatrix[1].y = up.y;
    bmatrix[1].z = up.z;
    bmatrix[1].w = 0;

    bmatrix[2].x = look.x;
    bmatrix[2].y = look.y;
    bmatrix[2].z = look.z;
    bmatrix[2].w = 0;

    bmatrix[3].x = pos.x;
    bmatrix[3].y = pos.y;
    bmatrix[3].z = pos.z;
    bmatrix[3].w = 1;

I am using GLM to do the math involved.

Though this part of the code is based off of the tutorial here, other parts of the code are based off of an open source program similar to the one I'm building. However that program was written for DirectX and I haven't had much luck directly converting. The (working) directX code for billboarding looks like this:

    D3DXMatrixRotationY(&CameraRotationMatrixY, -Camera.GetPitch());
    D3DXMatrixRotationZ(&CameraRotationMatrixZ, Camera.GetYaw());
    D3DXMatrixMultiply(&CameraRotationMatrix, &CameraRotationMatrixY, &CameraRotationMatrixZ);
    D3DXQuaternionRotationMatrix(&CameraRotation, &CameraRotationMatrix);
    D3DXMatrixTransformation(&CameraRotationMatrix, NULL, NULL, NULL, &ModelBaseData->PivotPoint, &CameraRotation, NULL);

    D3DXMatrixDecompose(&Scaling, &Rotation, &Translation, &BaseMatrix);
    D3DXMatrixTransformation(&RotationMatrix, NULL, NULL, NULL, &ModelBaseData->PivotPoint, &Rotation, NULL);

    D3DXMatrixMultiply(&TempMatrix, &CameraRotationMatrix, &RotationMatrix);
    D3DXMatrixMultiply(&BaseMatrix, &TempMatrix, &BaseMatrix);

Note the results are stored in baseMatrix in the directX version.

EDIT2: Here's the code I came up with when I tried to modify my code according to datenwolf's suggestions. I'm pretty sure I made some mistakes still. This attempt creates heavily distorted results with one end of the object directly in the camera.

    mat4        view;
    glGetFloatv(GL_MODELVIEW_MATRIX, (float*)&view);

    vec3 pos = vec3(calculatedMatrix[3].x,calculatedMatrix[3].y,calculatedMatrix[3].z);

    mat4 inverted = glm::inverse(view);

    vec4 plook = inverted * vec4(0,0,0,1);
    vec3 look = vec3(plook.x,plook.y,plook.z);
    vec3 right = orthogonalize(vec3(view[0].x,view[1].x,view[2].x),look);
    vec3 up = orthogonalize(vec3(view[0].y,view[1].y,view[2].y),look);

    mat4 bmatrix;
    bmatrix[0].x = right.x;
    bmatrix[0].y = right.y;
    bmatrix[0].z = right.z;
    bmatrix[0].w = 0;

    bmatrix[1].x = up.x;
    bmatrix[1].y = up.y;
    bmatrix[1].z = up.z;
    bmatrix[1].w = 0;

    bmatrix[2].x = look.x;
    bmatrix[2].y = look.y;
    bmatrix[2].z = look.z;
    bmatrix[2].w = 0;

    bmatrix[3].x = pos.x;
    bmatrix[3].y = pos.y;
    bmatrix[3].z = pos.z;
    bmatrix[3].w = 1;

    calculatedMatrix = bmatrix;

vec3 orthogonalize(vec3 toOrtho, vec3 orthoAgainst) {
    float bottom = (orthoAgainst.x*orthoAgainst.x)+(orthoAgainst.y*orthoAgainst.y)+(orthoAgainst.z*orthoAgainst.z);
    float top = (toOrtho.x*orthoAgainst.x)+(toOrtho.y*orthoAgainst.y)+(toOrtho.z*orthoAgainst.z);
    return toOrtho - top/bottom*orthoAgainst;
}

Solution

  • Figured it out myself. It turns out the model format I'm using uses different axes for billboarding. Most billboarding implementations (including the one I used) use the X,Y coordinates to position the billboarded object. The format I was reading uses Y and Z.

    The thing to look for is that there was a billboarding effect, but facing the wrong direction. To fix this I played with the different camera vectors until I arrived at the correct matrix calculation:

        bmatrix[1].x = right.x;
        bmatrix[1].y = right.y;
        bmatrix[1].z = right.z;
        bmatrix[1].w = 0;
    
        bmatrix[2].x = up.x;
        bmatrix[2].y = up.y;
        bmatrix[2].z = up.z;
        bmatrix[2].w = 0;
    
        bmatrix[0].x = look.x;
        bmatrix[0].y = look.y;
        bmatrix[0].z = look.z;
        bmatrix[0].w = 0;
    
        bmatrix[3].x = pos.x;
        bmatrix[3].y = pos.y;
        bmatrix[3].z = pos.z;
        bmatrix[3].w = 1;
    

    My attempts to follow datenwolf's advice did not succeed and at this time he hasn't offered any additional explanation so I'm unsure why. Thanks anyways!