Improved SpotLightHelper

[WestLangley]

SpotLightHelper geometry has been simplified. It is now just a cone. (I took the liberty of removing the sphere at the tip of the cone as it was not needed -- the light cone is sufficient.)

SpotLightHelper now works with spotlights that have parents.

As in the previous version, SpotLightHelper.update() must be called inside the render loop.

As in the previous version, an instance of SpotLightHelper must be a child of the scene. (This is because SpotLightHelper.update() relies on Object3D.lookAt(), which does not have hierarchical support.)

[mrdoob]

Great!
However, the lightSphere was there to be able to be grabbed in the editor. Maybe it can be a small cone instead?

[gaitat]

In part, it should be fixing Issue #3392

[WestLangley]

However, the lightSphere was there to be able to be grabbed in the editor. Maybe it can be a small cone instead?

Do you want to un-merge this, or keep it, and change the editor to render some thingy that can be grabbed?

[mrdoob]

I'll add something.

[WestLangley]

@arodic Thanks for the complement. Feel free to make any changes you see fit -- or make a request, and I'll be glad to have a look. It is true, we have made several attempts at refactoring the helpers recently. We need to see what works best, and then make them consistent.

Thinking outside of the box here... A grabby thingy is only needed by the editor. I wonder if a draggable sprite could be added to the scene by the editor? A user can then drag the sprite. That way the helpers can remain simple.

[arodic]

I thought you would only need helpers in editor-like environments. The helpers provide visible geometry for the objects that dont have their own geometry. Since geometry is also used for picking it would be nice to to have the picking geometry in the helpers as well (it doesn't have to be visible). For example it could be .picker attribute of the helper object.

Sure we can add picking geometry in the editor itself but I imagine any application that uses helpers will also need picking so it makes sense to bundle it all in the helper.

[WestLangley]

I imagine any application that uses helpers will also need picking

No way. Helpers are very useful for viewing parameter settings in lights and shadow maps, and for debugging geometries, normals, tangents, camera settings, for example -- none of which have anything to do with picking.

I am not opposed to adding a .picker attribute to the helpers, I just don't particularly like it. Helpers were not created for that purpose.

On the other hand, this is not a battle I want to fight, so whatever you want is fine with me. :-)

[mrdoob]

I agree with @WestLangley. I think the editor should add the pickers itself.

[arodic]

Helpers were not created for that purpose.

I wasn't aware of that. They were used for picking in the editor when I first learned about them. Technically speaking, they can still be used for picking. All except this one.

On the other hand, this is not a battle I want to fight, so whatever you want is fine with me. :-)

Im sorry if my comment came out agressive. I most certainly dont want to fight or change something because I like it my way.

[WestLangley]

@arodic I did not take your comments as aggressive at all, and I apologize if my reply seemed as though I did.

BTW, thanks for all your recent contributions. They are awesome, IMHO.