Math

Performer provides classes and functions for mathematical operations involving floating point vectors, matrices, quaternions, and bounding volumes.

Vectors

Classes: pfVec2, pfVec3, pfVec4

Most of the standard math operators (=,+,-,*,/,+=,-=,*=,/=,==) are overloaded to work with vectors. The 'vec' member can be used to directly access the float array.

	pfVec3 vector;
	CAVEGetVector(CAVE_WAND_FRONT,vector.vec);
	vector *= 3.0f;
	z = vector[2];
Class methods are also provided for more advanced vector operations:

Matrices

Class: pfMatrix

Most of the standard math operators (=,+,-,*,/,+=,-=,*=,==) are overloaded to work with matrices. The 'mat' member can be used to directly access the float array.

Methods are also available for creating transformation matrices (translate, rotate, scale), for adding transformations to existing matrices, and for inverting matrices.

Quaternions

Class: pfQuat (subclass of pfVec4)

pfQuat includes methods for mathematical operations on quaternions, and for interpolating quaternions.

pfMatrix::makeQuat(q) builds a matrix for the rotation defined by the quaternion q.

Bounding volumes

Classes: pfSphere, pfCylinder, pfBox

pfNode::getBound(&sphere) returns the bounding sphere for a node (including its children).

The contains(v) method tests whether a point is inside a bounding volume.

Fast math

Macro versions of most of the vector and matrix operations are also available.

Performer's trigonometric functions provide faster, although less accurate, versions of the standard math library functions:


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Last modified 5 February 1996.

Dave Pape, pape@evl.uic.edu