SceneKit on OS X with thousands of objects

Question

I\'m following this tutorial: http://blog.bignerdranch.com/754-scenekit-in-mountain-lion/

I\'m interested in using Scene Kit, but my scenes might potentially have th

Answer 1

The semantic strings are SCNGeometrySourceSemanticVertex|Normal|Texcoord ...

For multiple spheres the answer is yes, you have to transform the vertex/normals with the current node transform before flattening.

Below is a simplified example (i.e it only supports merging the childs of "input" if they all have the same geometry)

- (SCNNode *) flattenNodeHierarchy:(SCNNode *) input
{
    SCNNode *result = [SCNNode node];

    NSUInteger nodeCount = [[input childNodes] count];
    if(nodeCount > 0){
    SCNNode *node = [[input childNodes] objectAtIndex:0];

        NSArray *vertexArray = [node.geometry geometrySourcesForSemantic:SCNGeometrySourceSemanticVertex];
        SCNGeometrySource *vertex = [vertexArray objectAtIndex:0];

        SCNGeometryElement *element = [node.geometry geometryElementAtIndex:0]; //todo: support multiple elements
        NSUInteger primitiveCount = element.primitiveCount;
        NSUInteger newPrimitiveCount = primitiveCount * nodeCount;
        size_t elementBufferLength = newPrimitiveCount * 3 * sizeof(int); //nTriangle x 3 vertex * size of int
        int* elementBuffer = (int*)malloc(elementBufferLength);

        /* simple case: here we consider that all the objects to flatten are the same
         In the regular case we should iterate on every geometry and accumulate the number of vertex/triangles etc...*/

        NSUInteger vertexCount = [vertex vectorCount];
        NSUInteger newVertexCount = vertexCount * nodeCount;

        SCNVector3 *newVertex = malloc(sizeof(SCNVector3) * newVertexCount);        
        SCNVector3 *newNormal = malloc(sizeof(SCNVector3) * newVertexCount); //assume same number of normal/vertex

        //fill
        NSUInteger vertexFillIndex = 0;
        NSUInteger primitiveFillIndex = 0;
        for(NSUInteger index=0; index< nodeCount; index++){
            NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];

            node = [[input childNodes] objectAtIndex:index];

            NSArray *vertexArray = [node.geometry geometrySourcesForSemantic:SCNGeometrySourceSemanticVertex];
            NSArray *normalArray = [node.geometry geometrySourcesForSemantic:SCNGeometrySourceSemanticNormal];
            SCNGeometrySource *vertex = [vertexArray objectAtIndex:0];
            SCNGeometrySource *normals = [normalArray objectAtIndex:0];

            if([vertex bytesPerComponent] != sizeof(float)){
                NSLog(@"todo: support other byte per component");
                continue;
            }

            float *vertexBuffer = (float *)[[vertex data] bytes];
            float *normalBuffer = (float *)[[normals data] bytes];

            CATransform3D t = [node transform];
            GLKMatrix4 matrix = MyGLKMatrix4FromCATransform3D(t);

            //append source
            for(NSUInteger vIndex = 0; vIndex < vertexCount; vIndex++, vertexFillIndex++){
                GLKVector3 v = GLKVector3Make(vertexBuffer[vIndex * 3], vertexBuffer[vIndex * 3+1], vertexBuffer[vIndex * 3 + 2]);
                GLKVector3 n = GLKVector3Make(normalBuffer[vIndex * 3], normalBuffer[vIndex * 3+1], normalBuffer[vIndex * 3 + 2]);

                //transform
                v = GLKMatrix4MultiplyVector3WithTranslation(matrix, v);
                n = GLKMatrix4MultiplyVector3(matrix, n);

                newVertex[vertexFillIndex] = SCNVector3Make(v.x, v.y, v.z);
                newNormal[vertexFillIndex] = SCNVector3Make(n.x, n.y, n.z);
            }

            //append elements
            //here we assume that all elements are SCNGeometryPrimitiveTypeTriangles
            SCNGeometryElement *element = [node.geometry geometryElementAtIndex:0];
            const void *inputPrimitive = [element.data bytes];
            size_t bpi = element.bytesPerIndex;

            NSUInteger offset = index * vertexCount;

            for(NSUInteger pIndex = 0; pIndex < primitiveCount; pIndex++, primitiveFillIndex+=3){                
                elementBuffer[primitiveFillIndex] = offset + _getIndex(inputPrimitive, bpi, pIndex*3);
                elementBuffer[primitiveFillIndex+1] = offset + _getIndex(inputPrimitive, bpi, pIndex*3+1);
                elementBuffer[primitiveFillIndex+2] = offset + _getIndex(inputPrimitive, bpi, pIndex*3+2);
            }

            [pool drain];
        }

        NSArray *sources = @[[SCNGeometrySource geometrySourceWithVertices:newVertex count:newVertexCount],
                             [SCNGeometrySource geometrySourceWithNormals:newNormal count:newVertexCount]];

        NSData *newElementData = [NSMutableData dataWithBytesNoCopy:elementBuffer length:elementBufferLength freeWhenDone:YES];
        NSArray *elements = @[[SCNGeometryElement geometryElementWithData:newElementData
                                                            primitiveType:SCNGeometryPrimitiveTypeTriangles
                                                           primitiveCount:newPrimitiveCount bytesPerIndex:sizeof(int)]];

        result.geometry = [SCNGeometry geometryWithSources:sources elements:elements];

        //cleanup
        free(newVertex);
        free(newNormal);
    }

    return result;
}

//helpers:
GLKMatrix4 MyGLKMatrix4FromCATransform3D(CATransform3D transform) {
    GLKMatrix4 m = {{transform.m11, transform.m12, transform.m13, transform.m14,
        transform.m21, transform.m22, transform.m23, transform.m24,
        transform.m31, transform.m32, transform.m33, transform.m34,
        transform.m41, transform.m42, transform.m43, transform.m44}};
    return m;
}



GLKVector3 MySCNVector3ToGLKVector3(SCNVector3 vector) {
    GLKVector3 v = {{vector.x, vector.y, vector.z}};
    return v;
}