Quick Question about Collision Detection

General Discussion
1

Ok, here is the question. In another 3D engine I used, there was a function that allowed you to get a normalized vector after calling a ray tracing function. This vector would be normalized and perpendicular to the face of the polygon that the ray collided with. Is there any sort of function in Panda3D?

Here was how it worked in that engine:

To get a polygon to work with.

collision = GetRayIntersection(parameters)//returns distance to triangle it collided with
//also OMGWTF C STYLE SYNTAX!? DIEEEEEEEEEEE! =p

Then return the normal of the triangle the ray collided with.

vector = GetRayTracingNormal(collision)//outputs the vector

/*work with the vector*/
ReleaseVector(vector)//release the vector to save memory

This was immensely useful to me for a number of reasons, but I have no idea how it actually worked. What would I be looking at to get something similar in Panda3D?

Yes, I have read the documentation to no avail.

EDIT: In retrospect, this post probably should have gone in the “Scripting Issues” forum, shouldn’t it?

2

Someone slap me please and disregard my short attention span.

It would appear that after further investigation into the documentation, I have found a function that should suit my needs better than the old engine I used. That function being:

entry.getSurfaceNormal(nodePath)

If I have anymore questions, I will post them, but for now this looks like it will do.