This allows modifiers to have cache pointers that are preserved over undo steps.
I intend to use this for the baked data cache for the geometry nodes modifier.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/117307
Along with the 4.1 libraries upgrade, we are bumping the clang-format
version from 8-12 to 17. This affects quite a few files.
If not already the case, you may consider pointing your IDE to the
clang-format binary bundled with the Blender precompiled libraries.
Each value is now out of the global namespace, so they can be shorter
and easier to read. Most of this commit just adds the necessary casting
and namespace specification. `enum class` can be forward declared since
it has a specified size. We will make use of that in the next commit.
Use the standard "elements_num" naming, and use the "corner" name rather
than the old "loop" name: `verts_num`, `edges_num`, and `corners_num`.
This matches the existing `faces_num` field which was already renamed.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/116350
This gives better asserts in debug builds through use of Span, more
safety when name convention attributes happen to have different types
or domains, and simpler code in some cases. But the main reasoning is to
avoid relying on the specifics of CustomData more to allow us to replace
it in the future.
Design task: #93551
This PR replaces the auto smooth option with a geometry nodes modifier
that sets the sharp edge attribute. This solves a fair number of long-
standing problems related to auto smooth, simplifies the process of
normal computation, and allows Blender to automatically choose between
face, vertex, and face corner normals based on the sharp edge and face
attributes.
Versioning adds a geometry node group to objects with meshes that had
auto-smooth enabled. The modifier can be applied, which also improves
performance.
Auto smooth is now unnecessary to get a combination of sharp and smooth
edges. In general workflows are changed a bit. Separate procedural and
destructive workflows are available. Custom normals can be used
immediately without turning on the removed auto smooth option.
**Procedural**
The node group asset "Smooth by Angle" is the main way to set sharp
normals based on the edge angle. It can be accessed directly in the add
modifier menu. Of course the modifier can be reordered, muted, or
applied like any other, or changed internally like any geometry nodes
modifier.
**Destructive**
Often the sharp edges don't need to be dynamic. This can give better
performance since edge angles don't need to be recalculated. In edit
mode the two operators "Select Sharp Edges" and "Mark Sharp" can be
used. In other modes, the "Shade Smooth by Angle" controls the edge
sharpness directly.
### Breaking API Changes
- `use_auto_smooth` is removed. Face corner normals are now used
automatically if there are mixed smooth vs. not smooth tags. Meshes
now always use custom normals if they exist.
- In Cycles, the lack of the separate auto smooth state makes normals look
triangulated when all faces are shaded smooth.
- `auto_smooth_angle` is removed. Replaced by a modifier (or operator)
controlling the sharp edge attribute. This means the mesh itself
(without an object) doesn't know anything about automatically smoothing
by angle anymore.
- `create_normals_split`, `calc_normals_split`, and `free_normals_split`
are removed, and are replaced by the simpler `Mesh.corner_normals`
collection property. Since it gives access to the normals cache, it
is automatically updated when relevant data changes.
Addons are updated here: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender-addons/pulls/104609
### Tests
- `geo_node_curves_test_deform_curves_on_surface` has slightly different
results because face corner normals are used instead of interpolated
vertex normals.
- `bf_wavefront_obj_tests` has different export results for one file
which mixed sharp and smooth faces without turning on auto smooth.
- `cycles_mesh_cpu` has one object which is completely flat shaded.
Previously every edge was split before rendering, now it looks triangulated.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/108014
`iota` is name that has no meaning, it's not an acronym or initialism.
It's usually very cryptic when I come across it. Replacing it with a
specialized function makes the code more readible.
Add three cached topology maps to `Mesh`, to avoid computations when
mesh data isn't changed. Choosing the right maps to cache is a bit
arbitrary, but generally we have to start somewhere. The limiting
factor is memory usage (all the new caches combined have a
comparable footprint to a UV map).
For now, the caches added are:
- Vertex to face corner
- Vertex to face
- Face corner to face
These caches are used in quite a few places already;
- Face corner normal calculation
- UV value merging
- Setting sharp edges from face angles
- Data transfer modifier
- Voxel remesh attribute remapping
- Sculpt mode painting
- Sculpt mode normal calculation
- Vertex paint mode
- Split edges geometry node
- Mesh topology geometry nodes
Caching topology maps means they don't have to be rebuilt every time
they're used. Meshes copied but without topology changes can share
the cache, further reducing re-computations. For example, FPS with a
large mesh using the "Corners of Vertex" node went from 1.8 to 2.3.
Entering sculpt mode is slightly faster too.
There is some obvious work for future commits:
- Use caches in attribute domain interpolation
- More multithreading of second phase of map building
- Update/build caches eagerly in some geometry nodes
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/107816
Listing the "Blender Foundation" as copyright holder implied the Blender
Foundation holds copyright to files which may include work from many
developers.
While keeping copyright on headers makes sense for isolated libraries,
Blender's own code may be refactored or moved between files in a way
that makes the per file copyright holders less meaningful.
Copyright references to the "Blender Foundation" have been replaced with
"Blender Authors", with the exception of `./extern/` since these this
contains libraries which are more isolated, any changed to license
headers there can be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Some directories in `./intern/` have also been excluded:
- `./intern/cycles/` it's own `AUTHORS` file is planned.
- `./intern/opensubdiv/`.
An "AUTHORS" file has been added, using the chromium projects authors
file as a template.
Design task: #110784
Ref !110783.
Previously the panel type name of a modifier (e.g. "MOD_PT_Smooth") was
created by copying from the ModifierTypeInfos name.
This meant that modifiers with the same default name would use
the same identifier for the panels.
Since different object types (e.g. OB_GREASE_PENCIL and OB_MESH)
might want to use the same default modifier name, this PR introduces
an idname field in the ModifierTypeInfo struct. This is then used to
generate the panel type name.
For compatibility reasons, the idname is the same as the name for now.
Note: Because the name was used previously, this means that some
modifiers have spaces in their panel type name.
E.g. "MOD_PT_Volume to Mesh".
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/110468
Currently, while calculating face corner normals, Blender retrieves
custom normal data with write access. When the the custom normals in a
single smooth corner fan don't match, they are reset to the average
value.
This behavior is very old, but it comes from when Blender didn't have a
strong idea of const correctness. Indeed, modifying custom normal data
while calculating normals isn't threadsafe, which is important because
normals are calculated for viewport drawing, for example. And in the
future, properly caching face corner normals (see #93551) will require
the ability to calculate normals on a properly const mesh.
The fix is to still use the average of custom normals in a fan, but
not write that back to the custom data array. In my testing the results
are the same. Setting custom normals still fills the same value for all
corners in a fan.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/110478
Implements the rest of #101689, after 5e9ea9243b.
- `vdata` -> `vert_data`
- `edata` -> `edge_data`
- `pdata` -> `face_data`
- `ldata` -> `loop_data`
A deeper rename of `loop` to `corner` will be proposed as a next
step, and renaming `totvert` and `totedge` can be done separately.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/110432
Implements part of #101689.
The "poly" name was chosen to distinguish the `MLoop` + `MPoly`
combination from the `MFace` struct it replaced. Those two structures
persisted together for a long time, but nowadays `MPoly` is gone, and
`MFace` is only used in some legacy code like the particle system.
To avoid unnecessarily using a different term, increase consistency
with the UI and with BMesh, and generally make code a bit easier to
read, this commit replaces the `poly` term with `poly`. Most variables
that use the term are renamed too. `Mesh.totface` and `Mesh.fdata` now
have a `_legacy` suffix to reduce confusion. In a next step, `pdata`
can be renamed to `face_data` as well.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/109819
A lot of files were missing copyright field in the header and
the Blender Foundation contributed to them in a sense of bug
fixing and general maintenance.
This change makes it explicit that those files are at least
partially copyrighted by the Blender Foundation.
Note that this does not make it so the Blender Foundation is
the only holder of the copyright in those files, and developers
who do not have a signed contract with the foundation still
hold the copyright as well.
Another aspect of this change is using SPDX format for the
header. We already used it for the license specification,
and now we state it for the copyright as well, following the
FAQ:
https://reuse.software/faq/
Combine the newer less efficient C++ implementations and the older
less convenient C functions. The maps now contain one large array of
indices, split into groups by a separate array of offset indices.
Though performance of creating the maps is relatively unchanged, the
new implementation uses 4 bytes less per source element than the C
maps, and 20 bytes less than the newer C++ functions (which also
had more overhead with larger N-gons). The usage syntax is simpler
than the C functions as well.
The reduced memory usage is helpful for when these maps are cached
in the near future. It will also allow sharing the offsets between
maps for different domains like vertex to corner and vertex to face.
A simple `GroupedSpan` class is introduced to make accessing the
topology maps much simpler. It combines offset indices and a separate
span, splitting it into chunks in an efficient way.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/107861
Avoid storing redundant and unnecessary data in temporary arrays during
face corner normal calculation with custom normals. Previously we used
96 bytes per normal space (`MLoopNorSpace` (64), `MLoopNorSpace *` (8),
`LinkData` (24)), now we use 36 (`CornerNormalSpace` (32), `int` (4)).
This is achieved with a few changes:
- Avoid sharing the data storage with the BMesh implementation
- Use indices to refer to normal fan spaces rather than pointers
- Only calculate indices of all corners in each fan when necessary
- Don't duplicate automatic normal in space storage
- Avoid storing redundant flags in space struct
Reducing memory usage gives a significant performance improvement in
my test files, which is consistent with findings from previous commits
(see 9fcfba4aae). In my test, the time used to calculate
normals for a character model with 196 thousand faces reduced from
20.2 ms to 14.0 ms, a 44% improvement.
Edit mode isn't affected by this change.
A note about the `reverse_index_array` function added here: this is the
same as the mesh mapping functions (for example for mapping from
vertices to face corners). I'm planning on working this area and hoping
to generalize/reuse the implementation in the near future.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/107592
Implements #95966, as the final step of #95965.
This commit changes the storage of mesh edge vertex indices from the
`MEdge` type to the generic `int2` attribute type. This follows the
general design for geometry and the attribute system, where the data
storage type and the usage semantics are separated.
The main benefit of the change is reduced memory usage-- the
requirements of storing mesh edges is reduced by 1/3. For example,
this saves 8MB on a 1 million vertex grid. This also gives performance
benefits to any memory-bound mesh processing algorithm that uses edges.
Another benefit is that all of the edge's vertex indices are
contiguous. In a few cases, it's helpful to process all of them as
`Span<int>` rather than `Span<int2>`. Similarly, the type is more
likely to match a generic format used by a library, or code that
shouldn't know about specific Blender `Mesh` types.
Various Notes:
- The `.edge_verts` name is used to reflect a mapping between domains,
similar to `.corner_verts`, etc. The period means that it the data
shouldn't change arbitrarily by the user or procedural operations.
- `edge[0]` is now used instead of `edge.v1`
- Signed integers are used instead of unsigned to reduce the mixing
of signed-ness, which can be error prone.
- All of the previously used core mesh data types (`MVert`, `MEdge`,
`MLoop`, `MPoly` are now deprecated. Only generic types are used).
- The `vec2i` DNA type is used in the few C files where necessary.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/106638
Implements #95967.
Currently the `MPoly` struct is 12 bytes, and stores the index of a
face's first corner and the number of corners/verts/edges. Polygons
and corners are always created in order by Blender, meaning each
face's corners will be after the previous face's corners. We can take
advantage of this fact and eliminate the redundancy in mesh face
storage by only storing a single integer corner offset for each face.
The size of the face is then encoded by the offset of the next face.
The size of a single integer is 4 bytes, so this reduces memory
usage by 3 times.
The same method is used for `CurvesGeometry`, so Blender already has
an abstraction to simplify using these offsets called `OffsetIndices`.
This class is used to easily retrieve a range of corner indices for
each face. This also gives the opportunity for sharing some logic with
curves.
Another benefit of the change is that the offsets and sizes stored in
`MPoly` can no longer disagree with each other. Storing faces in the
order of their corners can simplify some code too.
Face/polygon variables now use the `IndexRange` type, which comes with
quite a few utilities that can simplify code.
Some:
- The offset integer array has to be one longer than the face count to
avoid a branch for every face, which means the data is no longer part
of the mesh's `CustomData`.
- We lose the ability to "reference" an original mesh's offset array
until more reusable CoW from #104478 is committed. That will be added
in a separate commit.
- Since they aren't part of `CustomData`, poly offsets often have to be
copied manually.
- To simplify using `OffsetIndices` in many places, some functions and
structs in headers were moved to only compile in C++.
- All meshes created by Blender use the same order for faces and face
corners, but just in case, meshes with mismatched order are fixed by
versioning code.
- `MeshPolygon.totloop` is no longer editable in RNA. This API break is
necessary here unfortunately. It should be worth it in 3.6, since
that's the best way to allow loading meshes from 4.0, which is
important for an LTS version.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/105938
Implements #102359.
Split the `MLoop` struct into two separate integer arrays called
`corner_verts` and `corner_edges`, referring to the vertex each corner
is attached to and the next edge around the face at each corner. These
arrays can be sliced to give access to the edges or vertices in a face.
Then they are often referred to as "poly_verts" or "poly_edges".
The main benefits are halving the necessary memory bandwidth when only
one array is used and simplifications from using regular integer indices
instead of a special-purpose struct.
The commit also starts a renaming from "loop" to "corner" in mesh code.
Like the other mesh struct of array refactors, forward compatibility is
kept by writing files with the older format. This will be done until 4.0
to ease the transition process.
Looking at a small portion of the patch should give a good impression
for the rest of the changes. I tried to make the changes as small as
possible so it's easy to tell the correctness from the diff. Though I
found Blender developers have been very inventive over the last decade
when finding different ways to loop over the corners in a face.
For performance, nearly every piece of code that deals with `Mesh` is
slightly impacted. Any algorithm that is memory bottle-necked should
see an improvement. For example, here is a comparison of interpolating
a vertex float attribute to face corners (Ryzen 3700x):
**Before** (Average: 3.7 ms, Min: 3.4 ms)
```
threading::parallel_for(loops.index_range(), 4096, [&](IndexRange range) {
for (const int64_t i : range) {
dst[i] = src[loops[i].v];
}
});
```
**After** (Average: 2.9 ms, Min: 2.6 ms)
```
array_utils::gather(src, corner_verts, dst);
```
That's an improvement of 28% to the average timings, and it's also a
simplification, since an index-based routine can be used instead.
For more examples using the new arrays, see the design task.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/104424
This simplifies the usage of the API and is preparation for #104478.
The `CustomData_add_layer` and `CustomData_add_layer_named` now have corresponding
`*_with_data` functions that should be used when creating the layer from existing data.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/105708
Refactoring mesh code, it has become clear that local cleanups and
simplifications are limited by the need to keep a C public API for
mesh functions. This change makes code more obvious and makes further
refactoring much easier.
- Add a new `BKE_mesh.hh` header for a C++ only mesh API
- Introduce a new `blender::bke::mesh` namespace, documented here:
https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Source/Objects/Mesh#Namespaces
- Move some functions to the new namespace, cleaning up their arguments
- Move code to `Array` and `float3` where necessary to use the new API
- Define existing inline mesh data access functions to the new header
- Keep some C API functions where necessary because of RNA
- Move all C++ files to use the new header, which includes the old one
In the future it may make sense to split up `BKE_mesh.hh` more, but for
now keeping the same name as the existing header keeps things simple.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/105416
Currently the shade smooth status for mesh faces is stored as part of
`MPoly::flag`. As described in #95967, this moves that information
to a separate boolean attribute. It also flips its status, so the
attribute is now called `sharp_face`, which mirrors the existing
`sharp_edge` attribute. The attribute doesn't need to be allocated
when all faces are smooth. Forward compatibility is kept until
4.0 like the other mesh refactors.
This will reduce memory bandwidth requirements for some operations,
since the array of booleans uses 12 times less memory than `MPoly`.
It also allows faces to be stored more efficiently in the future, since
the flag is now unused. It's also possible to use generic functions to
process the values. For example, finding whether there is a sharp face
is just `sharp_faces.contains(true)`.
The `shade_smooth` attribute is no longer accessible with geometry nodes.
Since there were dedicated accessor nodes for that data, that shouldn't
be a problem. That's difficult to version automatically since the named
attribute nodes could be used in arbitrary combinations.
**Implementation notes:**
- The attribute and array variables in the code use the `sharp_faces`
term, to be consistent with the user-facing "sharp faces" wording,
and to avoid requiring many renames when #101689 is implemented.
- Cycles now accesses smooth face status with the generic attribute,
to avoid overhead.
- Changing the zero-value from "smooth" to "flat" takes some care to
make sure defaults are the same.
- Versioning for the edge mode extrude node is particularly complex.
New nodes are added by versioning to propagate the attribute in its
old inverted state.
- A lot of access is still done through the `CustomData` API rather
than the attribute API because of a few functions. That can be
cleaned up easily in the future.
- In the future we would benefit from a way to store attributes as a
single value for when all faces are sharp.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/104422
With the goal of clearly differentiating between arrays and single
elements, improving consistency across Blender, and using wording
that's easier to read and say, change variable names for Mesh edges
and polygons/faces.
Common renames are the following, with some extra prefixes, etc.
- `mpoly` -> `polys`
- `mpoly`/`mp`/`p` -> `poly`
- `medge` -> `edges`
- `med`/`ed`/`e` -> `edge`
`MLoop` variables aren't affected because they will be replaced
when they're split up into to arrays in #104424.
