Geometry Nodes: support minimum twist normal mode

The minimum twist mode is important because it allows creating
normals without sudden changes in direction. The disadvantage
of minimum twist normals is that the normals depend on all control
points. So changing one control point can change the normals
everywhere. The computed normals do not match the existing
code exactly, although they do match quite well on non-cyclic and
on some cyclic curves. I also noticed that the existing implementation
has some fairly simple failure cases that I haven't found in the new
implementation so far.

Differential Revision: https://developer.blender.org/D11621

1 files changed, 84 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/source/blender/blenkernel/intern/spline_base.cc b/source/blender/blenkernel/intern/spline_base.cc
index f58d15c06fe..e8294086c35 100644
--- a/source/blender/blenkernel/intern/spline_base.cc
+++ b/source/blender/blenkernel/intern/spline_base.cc
@@ -227,6 +227,74 @@ static void calculate_normals_z_up(Span<float3> tangents, MutableSpan<float3> r_
 }
 
 /**
+ * Rotate the last normal in the same way the tangent has been rotated.
+ */
+static float3 calculate_next_normal(const float3 &last_normal,
+                                    const float3 &last_tangent,
+                                    const float3 &current_tangent)
+{
+  if (last_tangent.is_zero() || current_tangent.is_zero()) {
+    return last_normal;
+  }
+  const float angle = angle_normalized_v3v3(last_tangent, current_tangent);
+  if (angle != 0.0) {
+    const float3 axis = float3::cross(last_tangent, current_tangent).normalized();
+    return rotate_direction_around_axis(last_normal, axis, angle);
+  }
+  else {
+    return last_normal;
+  }
+}
+
+static void calculate_normals_minimum(Span<float3> tangents,
+                                      const bool cyclic,
+                                      MutableSpan<float3> r_normals)
+{
+  BLI_assert(r_normals.size() == tangents.size());
+
+  if (r_normals.is_empty()) {
+    return;
+  }
+
+  const float epsilon = 1e-4f;
+
+  /* Set initial normal. */
+  const float3 &first_tangent = tangents[0];
+  if (fabs(first_tangent.x) + fabs(first_tangent.y) < epsilon) {
+    r_normals[0] = {1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f};
+  }
+  else {
+    r_normals[0] = float3(first_tangent.y, -first_tangent.x, 0.0f).normalized();
+  }
+
+  /* Forward normal with minimum twist along the entire spline. */
+  for (const int i : IndexRange(1, r_normals.size() - 1)) {
+    r_normals[i] = calculate_next_normal(r_normals[i - 1], tangents[i - 1], tangents[i]);
+  }
+
+  if (!cyclic) {
+    return;
+  }
+
+  /* Compute how much the first normal deviates from the normal that has been forwarded along the
+   * entire cyclic spline. */
+  const float3 uncorrected_last_normal = calculate_next_normal(
+      r_normals.last(), tangents.last(), tangents[0]);
+  float correction_angle = angle_signed_on_axis_v3v3_v3(
+      r_normals[0], uncorrected_last_normal, tangents[0]);
+  if (correction_angle > M_PI) {
+    correction_angle = correction_angle - 2 * M_PI;
+  }
+
+  /* Gradually apply correction by rotating all normals slightly. */
+  const float angle_step = correction_angle / r_normals.size();
+  for (const int i : r_normals.index_range()) {
+    const float angle = angle_step * i;
+    r_normals[i] = rotate_direction_around_axis(r_normals[i], tangents[i], angle);
+  }
+}
+
+/**
  * Return non-owning access to the direction vectors perpendicular to the tangents at every
  * evaluated point. The method used to generate the normal vectors depends on Spline.normal_mode.
  */
@@ -244,11 +312,25 @@ Span<float3> Spline::evaluated_normals() const
   const int eval_size = this->evaluated_points_size();
   evaluated_normals_cache_.resize(eval_size);
 
-  Span<float3> tangents = evaluated_tangents();
+  Span<float3> tangents = this->evaluated_tangents();
   MutableSpan<float3> normals = evaluated_normals_cache_;
 
   /* Only Z up normals are supported at the moment. */
-  calculate_normals_z_up(tangents, normals);
+  switch (this->normal_mode) {
+    case ZUp: {
+      calculate_normals_z_up(tangents, normals);
+      break;
+    }
+    case Minimum: {
+      calculate_normals_minimum(tangents, is_cyclic_, normals);
+      break;
+    }
+    case Tangent: {
+      /* Tangent mode is not yet supported. */
+      calculate_normals_z_up(tangents, normals);
+      break;
+    }
+  }
 
   /* Rotate the generated normals with the interpolated tilt data. */
   GVArray_Typed<float> tilts = this->interpolate_to_evaluated_points(this->tilts());