SurfaceTool

Inherits: Reference < Object

Helper tool to create geometry.

Description

The SurfaceTool is used to construct a Mesh by specifying vertex attributes individually. It can be used to construct a Mesh from a script. All properties except indices need to be added before calling add_vertex. For example, to add vertex colors and UVs:

var st = SurfaceTool.new()
st.begin(Mesh.PRIMITIVE_TRIANGLES)
st.add_color(Color(1, 0, 0))
st.add_uv(Vector2(0, 0))
st.add_vertex(Vector3(0, 0, 0))

The above SurfaceTool now contains one vertex of a triangle which has a UV coordinate and a specified Color. If another vertex were added without calling add_uv or add_color, then the last values would be used.

Vertex attributes must be passed before calling add_vertex. Failure to do so will result in an error when committing the vertex information to a mesh.

Additionally, the attributes used before the first vertex is added determine the format of the mesh. For example, if you only add UVs to the first vertex, you cannot add color to any of the subsequent vertices.

See also ArrayMesh, ImmediateGeometry and MeshDataTool for procedural geometry generation.

Note: Godot uses clockwise winding order for front faces of triangle primitive modes.

Tutorials

• 3D Voxel Demo

Methods

Method Descriptions

• void add_bones ( PoolIntArray bones )

Specifies an array of bones to use for the next vertex. bones must contain 4 integers.

• void add_color ( Color color )

Specifies a Color to use for the next vertex. If every vertex needs to have this information set and you fail to submit it for the first vertex, this information may not be used at all.

Note: The material must have SpatialMaterial.vertex_color_use_as_albedo enabled for the vertex color to be visible.

• void add_index ( int index )

Adds an index to index array if you are using indexed vertices. Does not need to be called before adding vertices.

• void add_normal ( Vector3 normal )

Specifies a normal to use for the next vertex. If every vertex needs to have this information set and you fail to submit it for the first vertex, this information may not be used at all.

• void add_smooth_group ( bool smooth )

Specifies whether the current vertex (if using only vertex arrays) or current index (if also using index arrays) should use smooth normals for normal calculation.

• void add_tangent ( Plane tangent )

Specifies a tangent to use for the next vertex. If every vertex needs to have this information set and you fail to submit it for the first vertex, this information may not be used at all.

• void add_triangle_fan ( PoolVector3Array vertices, PoolVector2Array uvs=PoolVector2Array( ), PoolColorArray colors=PoolColorArray( ), PoolVector2Array uv2s=PoolVector2Array( ), PoolVector3Array normals=PoolVector3Array( ), Array tangents=[ ] )

Inserts a triangle fan made of array data into Mesh being constructed.

Requires the primitive type be set to Mesh.PRIMITIVE_TRIANGLES.

• void add_uv ( Vector2 uv )

Specifies a set of UV coordinates to use for the next vertex. If every vertex needs to have this information set and you fail to submit it for the first vertex, this information may not be used at all.

• void add_uv2 ( Vector2 uv2 )

Specifies an optional second set of UV coordinates to use for the next vertex. If every vertex needs to have this information set and you fail to submit it for the first vertex, this information may not be used at all.

• void add_vertex ( Vector3 vertex )

Specifies the position of current vertex. Should be called after specifying other vertex properties (e.g. Color, UV).

• void add_weights ( PoolRealArray weights )

Specifies weight values to use for the next vertex. weights must contain 4 values. If every vertex needs to have this information set and you fail to submit it for the first vertex, this information may not be used at all.

• void append_from ( Mesh existing, int surface, Transform transform )

Append vertices from a given Mesh surface onto the current vertex array with specified Transform.

Note: Using append_from on a Thread is much slower as the GPU must communicate data back to the CPU, while also causing the main thread to stall (as OpenGL is not thread-safe). Consider requesting a copy of the mesh, converting it to an ArrayMesh and adding vertices manually instead.

• void begin ( PrimitiveType primitive )

Called before adding any vertices. Takes the primitive type as an argument (e.g. Mesh.PRIMITIVE_TRIANGLES).

• void clear ( )

Clear all information passed into the surface tool so far.

• ArrayMesh commit ( ArrayMesh existing=null, int flags=2194432 )

Returns a constructed ArrayMesh from current information passed in. If an existing ArrayMesh is passed in as an argument, will add an extra surface to the existing ArrayMesh.

Default flag is Mesh.ARRAY_COMPRESS_DEFAULT if compression is enabled. If compression is disabled the default flag is Mesh.ARRAY_FLAG_USE_OCTAHEDRAL_COMPRESSION. See ARRAY_COMPRESS_* constants in ArrayFormat for other flags.

• Array commit_to_arrays ( )

Commits the data to the same format used by ArrayMesh.add_surface_from_arrays. This way you can further process the mesh data using the ArrayMesh API.

• void create_from ( Mesh existing, int surface )

Creates a vertex array from an existing Mesh.

• void create_from_blend_shape ( Mesh existing, int surface, String blend_shape )

Creates a vertex array from the specified blend shape of an existing Mesh. This can be used to extract a specific pose from a blend shape.

• void deindex ( )

Removes the index array by expanding the vertex array.

• void generate_normals ( bool flip=false )

Generates normals from vertices so you do not have to do it manually. If flip is true, the resulting normals will be inverted. generate_normals should be called after generating geometry and before committing the mesh using commit or commit_to_arrays. For correct display of normal-mapped surfaces, you will also have to generate tangents using generate_tangents.

Note: generate_normals only works if the primitive type to be set to Mesh.PRIMITIVE_TRIANGLES.

• void generate_tangents ( )

Generates a tangent vector for each vertex. Requires that each vertex have UVs and normals set already (see generate_normals).

• void index ( )

Shrinks the vertex array by creating an index array. This can improve performance by avoiding vertex reuse.

• void set_material ( Material material )

Sets Material to be used by the Mesh you are constructing.