does Panda have a mechanism for dealing with cube maps? Or should I start working out a way to do it with six seperate textures?
According to David, cube maps have been added to the CVS repository, but they have not been incorporated into the 1.0.X series. (Nor will they be, we’ll be releasing the 1.1.X series soon though).
Here are his instructions for panda 1.1.x:
"To load a static cube map from six pre-rendered images, create a Texture and call Texture.setupCubeMap(), then call Texture.readPages(), or repeatedly call Texture.read(). The TexturePool can’t be used, since it assumes only ordinary 2-d textures. I’ve thought about ways to extend TexturePool appropriately, but it gets messy to support the full range of flexibility afforded by cube maps and 3-d textures. I’m also not sure how important it is to support loading static cube maps conveniently, since the real reason that cube maps exist is to allow dynamic render-to-texture.
To render out a dynamic cube map at runtime, use base.win.makeCubeMap(), which creates an offscreen buffer and an associated cube map texture; and also creates a rig of six cameras. You can then put that rig anywhere you like."
He also sent me some example programs. But since they wont work until we release 1.1.x, let’s wait on this.
Actually, based on your questions, it sounds like you’re looking for a good project to work on.
Try cartoon-shading and inking. That should keep you busy until I get back to pittsburgh. It should be possible to do it with panda 1.0.x. Or do a transparency demo.
(Everyone — kmensah works for the ETC)