Mirror Effect

Hi there, I am trying to create a mirror, the problem is the mirror lies on a z value of -2 and I can’t change it for various reasons. So I can’t use glscale, I need to use a translation and a rotation, but I cannot figure out how to do this. I can create a mirror but the distance becomes inverted. E.g close items to the mirror are at the back in the reflected image.

Here is an image to illustrate the problem.

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=537943

I don’t quit follow you with your current post…
Refine your problem/question please.

What’s the input (you have to have a mirror at z=-2 and …)?

What’s the output (what you want to get)?

Hey, ok i will try.

Basically I want to create a mirror in the middle plane. The mirror image is restricted to the plane through a stencil buffer, and the plane behind the mirror doesn’t actually exist I just put it in the diagram as an example to show what I want displayed in the mirror.

So I need to, through a rotation and a translation, move the scene into the mirror, e.g I could rotate it 180 in the y axis, then translate it on the x axis, but then things on the LHS of the plane would be on the RHS Of the mirror which is wrong.

I also forgot to mention that the origin is in the middle of the scene plane

have you tried this
http://nehe.gamedev.net/data/lessons/lesson.asp?lesson=26

Either way, you should be able to use glscale and still get a great result, just make sure your translations are in the right order and orientation.

thanks for that. Yeh i think could actually go transform +2 then scale by -1.0 then transform -2. But I’m not allowed I have to do a rotation somewhere I think.

No, you dont want to rotate anything.
None of the X or Y coordinates change when you do a reflection, any rotation will make the reflection the wrong way around or upside down.

You need to add 2 to every Z coordinate first so that the mirror is at Z=0 and every real object has a positive Z coordinate.
Then you simply change the sign of the Z coordinate to reflect everything to the other side of the mirror.
Znew = 0 - Zold
So combining the offset and the reflection gives us:
Znew = 0 - ( Zold + 2 ) = 0 - Zold - 2

The transform +2, scale -1.0 you mentioned should do exactly this.
The second transform by -2 shifts everything back to the original world coordinates before you do the camera/view transform.
Effectivly this does:
Znew = 0 - Zold - 2 - 2
Which simplifies to:
Znew = 0 - Zold - 4
So a scale by -1.0 then a transform by -4 does the exact same thing.

glScalef(1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f);
glTranslatef(0.0f, 0.0f, -4.0f);

What do you mean by “I’m not allowed” ?

Yeh I realise now that I can do that, but it is for an assignment, thats what I meaaaan :stuck_out_tongue: Kind of annoying theres so many ways that this can be done, but the lecturer wants us to rotate it on somehow. I’m baffled.

Using negative scaling lead to the inversion of the normal. :stuck_out_tongue:
The good news is that you can do same procedure with a ‘pi’ rotation around the Y axis. :slight_smile:
So you have to translate your object to the origin, rotate it and then translate it in the mirrored (Zmirror + (Zold - Zmirror) * 2)

The glScale -1.0 “is” the reflection, so you have to have that.
To do the reflection we only need the mirror at Z=0, it doesn’t matter which way it is facing, so the translations can be replaced with a 180 degree rotation around a point halfway between the mirror and the origin, ie. at (0,0,-1).
But any rotation has to be reversed or everything ends up the wrong way around.
So if you do the Rotation (which puts mirror at z=0 but reverses all axis directions), then Scale -1.0, then rotate again (mirror goes back to the original position and axes are back to normal) you should get what you want.

wow thanks for the input guys. I have to head away for a few days, but when i’m back Ill try it and let you know. Cheers!