Goldberg Polyhedra

Goldberg Polyhedron

Within Babylon.js a Goldberg polyhedron (GBP) is formed as a dual of an icosahedron based geodesic polyhedron and its vertices mapped onto a sphere. The two parameters m and n used in forming the geodesic base also determine the arrangement of faces for the GBP.

On this page we explain how to create a GBP directly. More information about GBP Mathematics and an outline of coding a GBP are available in the documentation workshop.

A GBP can only be created using MeshBuilder

A GBP consists of 12 pentagonal faces and a number of hexagonal faces determined by m and n. The options for a GBP are fewer than those for CreateGeodesic or for CreatePolyhedron. However additional properties and methods, to those of a standard mesh, are available for a Goldberg mesh. These allow individual, or groups of pentagonal and hexagonal faces to be colored, textured or built upon giving a hexagon-grid planet shaped world.

The world consists of 12 poles, the pentagonal faces plus a number of hexagonal faces. Around each of the poles there is a group of hexagonal faces that are closer to one pole than the others. These are the unshared faces of the world. Depending on the value of the second parameter, n, there may be zero or more faces that are equidistant from two or even three poles. These are the shared faces.

The faces are stored in the following order

• the poles 0 to 11
• the unshared faces for pole 0, then for pole 1, pole 2 etc
• the shared faces come at the end

MeshBuilder

usage :

const geodesic = BABYLON.MeshBuilder.CreateGeodesic("geodesic", options, scene); //scene is optional and defaults to the current scene

Additional Properties and Methods

Properties

All the additional properties are read only.

The vectors faceCenters[face], and faceXaxis[face], faceYaxis[face] and faceZaxis[face] can be used as a frame of reference to place meshes on the given face.

Methods

Colors

Groups of faces can be colored using

goldbergMesh.setFaceColors(colorArray)  //resets face colors whether the mesh is updatable or not
//or
goldbergMesh.updataFaceColors(colorArray)  //resets face colors only when the mesh is updatable

where colorArray is an array of elements of the form [start face, end face, Color4]

For example

const colorArray = [
    [18, 18, new BABYLON.Color4(1, 0, 0, 1)], // color face 18 red
    [26, 37, new BABYLON.Color4(0, 1, 0, 1)] //color faces 26 to 37 inclusive green
]

PG: Color Faces

PG: Pick and Color

PG: Adjacent Faces

PG: Random Adjacent Faces

Textures

Groups of faces can have their texture changed by using

goldbergMesh.setFaceUVs(uvArray)  //resets face UVs whether the mesh is updatable or not
//or
goldbergMesh.updataFaceUVs(uvArray)  //resets face UVs only when the mesh is updatable

where uvArray is an array of elements of the form [start face, end face, center, radius, angle]

center is a Vector2 with 0 ≤ x, ≤ 1 and 0 ≤ y ≤ 1 giving the relative center of a pentagon/hexagon, within a image, of given radius and set at the given angle. The image used should be square to prevent distortion of the texture.

For example

const uvArray = [
    [18, 18, new BABYLON.Vector2(0.25, 0.75), 0.25, 0], // updates the uvs for face 18 to match the vertices of the green hexagon in Fig 3
    [26, 37, new BABYLON.Vector2(0.625, 0.37), 0.37, Math.PI / 2] //updates the uvs for faces 26 to 37 to match the vertices of the red hexagon in Fig 3
]

For the poles pentagons are used to match the uvs.

In the following playground different areas of the texture map from Fig 4 are applied to the 12 polar regions and to the shared faces

PG: Different Textures

PG: Angling Textures

Placing Meshes

A mesh can be placed on a face using

goldbergMesh.placeOnFaceAt(mesh, face, position); //position is a Vector3

The position is relative to the center of the face and the axes, faceXaxis, faceYaxis and faceZaxis

For example placing a box mesh on face 32

const height = 2;
const width = 0.1;
const depth = 0.08;
const box = BABYLON.MeshBuilder.CreateBox("box", {width: width, depth: depth, height: height});
const position = new BABYLON.Vector3(0.53, height / 2, 0.34);
goldberg.placeOnFaceAt(box, 32, position);

Meshes should be sized accoring to the size of the face. To keep a mesh within a face values for position.x and position.z should be between around ±radius of face * √3

PG: Placing Meshes

Importing An Exported Goldberg Mesh

As a Goldberg mesh is a very specialized mesh there is no provision within Babylon.js to serialize the additional properties and methods. When exported it is exported as a standard mesh with any additional data stored in its metadata. Any saved file containing a Goldberg mesh will import the Goldberg mesh as a standard mesh. To restore the additional properties and methods use BABYLON.Mesh.ExtendToGoldberg(mesh). This can only be applied to imports of a previously exported Goldberg mesh.

Example

A Goldberg mesh is exported to file.babylon.

BABYLON.SceneLoader.ImportMeshAsync("", "PATH TO FOLDER", "file.babylon").then((result) => {
        const baseMesh = result.meshes[0];  
        const goldbergMesh = BABYLON.Mesh.ExtendToGoldberg(baseMesh);
})

All standard mesh properties and methods can be used with baseMesh.

PG: Import as a Mesh

PG: Import as a Goldberg Mesh

Further reading

Geodesic and Goldberg Polyhedra Code Design

The Math used to build Geodesic and Goldberg Polyhedra

Geodesic and Goldberg Polyhedra Mathematics

The Math used to build Geodesic and Goldberg Polyhedra

Icospheres

Learn how to create icospheres in Babylon.js.