RayIntersect without an actual mesh

#1

The way I’ve used IntersectRay is like this: intersectRay targetMesh (ray inputPos inputNormal)

But I’m wondering if it’s possible to do IntersectRay without an actual target-mesh? Instead of passing in the actual mesh you would just pass in the faceCenter and faceNormal of the target, is this possible?

#2

How the Max to know the bounds of your face only by knowing the face center and face normal?

The ray may hit the face near any of its edges.

#3

I would retrieve them and pass them in myself within the script.

The reason why I’m asking is that when I’m doing multiple RayIntersects on a mesh, I have to split out the surfaces for each intersection I want to check. It’s not a big problem, but if it’s possible to just pass in this information it would be a bit faster/more efficient.

#4

Do you mean that you have to create scene nodes to use IntersectRay on that part of the mesh?

#5

Yes

#6

You can make or access native mesh and use its IntersectRay method. (for 2018+ versions you can use MCG’s wrappers to do the job )


tea = Teapot()
rotate tea (EulerAngles 15 23 44)
(
	inverse_tm = inverse tea.objecttransform
	tri = snapshotAsMesh tea


	temp_target_mesh = createInstance Editable_mesh
	
	meshop.attach temp_target_mesh tri

	g = (dotNetClass "Autodesk.Max.GlobalInterface").Instance
	IMesh = g.animatable.getanimbyhandle (dotNetObject "System.UIntPtr" (getHandleByAnim temp_target_mesh ))

	fn MakeRayNative pos dir tm =
	(
		-- convert ray from world to local space
		_pos = pos * tm
		_dir = dir * tm
		
		(g.rayvalue.Create (g.point3.create _pos.x _pos.y _pos.z) (g.point3.create _dir.x _dir.y _dir.z)).toRay
	)

	intersection_normal = g.point3.create()
	intersection_distance = 0.0
	
	for i=1 to 10 do
	(
		ray_pos = [ random -10 10, random -10 10, 100 ]
		ray_dir = -z_axis
		_ray = MakeRayNative ray_pos ray_dir inverse_tm


        	-- .<System.Boolean> IntersectRay  <System.Int32>t <Autodesk.Max.IRay>r <System.Single&>at <Autodesk.Max.IPoint3>norm
		has_hit = IMesh.IntersectRay (currenttime as integer) _ray &intersection_distance intersection_normal

		if has_hit do
		(
			point pos:(ray_pos + ray_dir * intersection_distance) centermarker:on cross:off wirecolor:red
		)
	)
	
	free temp_target_mesh
	free tri
)