Three.js: Setting lights: true on THREE.PointsMaterial breaks

[HailiaxInfinity]

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Description of the problem

var starsMaterialx = new THREE.PointsMaterial( { color: 0xFFFFFF, size: 5, lights: true } );
returns
Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set property 'value' of undefined
    at t (three.min.js:136)
while
var starsMaterialx = new THREE.PointsMaterial( { color: 0xFFFFFF, size: 5 } );
and
var starsMaterialx = new THREE.PointsMaterial( { color: 0xFFFFFF, size: 5, lights: false } );
works fine.

Three.js version

• [ ] Dev
• [x] r82
• [ ] ...

Browser

• [x] All of them
• [ ] Chrome
• [ ] Firefox
• [ ] Internet Explorer

OS

• [x] All of them
• [ ] Windows
• [ ] Linux
• [ ] Android
• [ ] IOS

Hardware Requirements (graphics card, VR Device, ...)

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)
AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096 MB

[WestLangley]

Setting lights: true on MeshBasicMaterial, MeshDepthMaterial, and likely other materials, also throws errors.

I wonder if Material should really have a lights property...

[HailiaxInfinity]

I don't think MeshBasicMaterial or MeshDepthMaterial were intended to react to lights. Mesh{Phong,Lambert}Material does that already. However, a points system that could react to lights could make some really pretty scenes. It was also stated that lights is a legitimate property of PointsMaterial in the docs.

[WestLangley]

I don't think MeshBasicMaterial or MeshDepthMaterial were intended to react to lights.

Right. But they have a lights property that a user should not alter.

@mrdoob usually has a clever design solution to situations such as this. : ) Maybe it should be Material._lights.

[JunweiLiang]

I too encountered this problem when setting lights:true for PointsMaterial. The property can be set to true, but then it breaks. It may be related to the light property (there is no ambientLightColor for PointsMaterial?):
three.min.js:139 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set property 'value' of undefined:
k.ambientLightColor.value=aa.ambient

Any update on this?

[looeee]

I think using Object.AssignProperty is a better solution than fake private variables like _lights - that way the property can be made actually unchangeable, and a warning can be shown if desired when someone tries to change it.

Are there any materials for which this property can be changed?

[JunweiLiang]

I think the point here isn't setting the property. I can set the "lights" of PointsMaterial to true, but then the code breaks when renderer.render(scene,camera):

                   if ( material.lights ) {

            // wire up the material to this renderer's lighting state
                             uniforms.ambientLightColor.value = _lights.ambient; // this line breaks
            ...
        }

Full traceback:
three.js:21195 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set property 'value' of undefined
initMaterial @ three.js:21195
setProgram @ three.js:21291
WebGLRenderer.renderBufferDirect @ three.js:20270
renderObjects @ three.js:21061
WebGLRenderer.render @ three.js:20798

[WestLangley]

Are there any materials for which this property can be changed?

There are no materials for which we need to support changing it.

In the case of ShaderMaterial, I think the same goes for these:

this.fog = false; // set to use scene fog
this.lights = false; // set to use scene lights
this.clipping = false; // set to use user-defined clipping planes

this.skinning = false; // set to use skinning attribute streams
this.morphTargets = false; // set to use morph targets
this.morphNormals = false; // set to use morph normals

this.extensions = {
    derivatives: false, // set to use derivatives
    fragDepth: false, // set to use fragment depth values
    drawBuffers: false, // set to use draw buffers
    shaderTextureLOD: false // set to use shader texture LOD
};

[mrdoob]

this.fog = false; // set to use scene fog
this.lights = false; // set to use scene lights
this.clipping = false; // set to use user-defined clipping planes

Well... In the case of fog, I can see the case of having a background sphere unaffected by fog. I guess scene.background solves that though.

So yeah... I think I'm in favour of removing these.

[JunweiLiang]

I think a point system should be able to react to lights.

[WestLangley]

I don't. Points do not have vertex normals.

[stmaccarelli]

particle lighting may be computed just by distance from light source (according to intensity, decay, distance parameters of the light sources), it makes sense.

[mrdoob]

particle lighting may be computed just by distance from light source (according to intensity, decay, distance parameters of the light sources), it makes sense.

Yeah, that could be nice.

[takahirox]

WIP tho...

PointsMaterial lights support.

https://twitter.com/superhoge/status/946723196148916225
https://rawgit.com/takahirox/three.js/PointsMaterialLights/examples/webgl_points_dynamic_light.html

[mrdoob]

Interesting! We should think how to name it...
PointsMaterial would become PointsBasicMaterial and we would need Points???Material?

[Mugen87]

Solved via #17570

[takahirox]

Sorry I haven't followed up the .lights property discussion but with #17570 PointsMaterial + light works like https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/issues/10491#issuecomment-329491923 now? Or just no error tho no light effect to points?

[Mugen87]

The .lights property caused some confusion in the user base since sometimes it was not considered as read-only. So we removed it from all materials except ShaderMaterial where it is still important.

[takahirox]

Thanks. From the code there, PointsMaterial doesn't seem to work with light yet (does it?). I'll open PointsMaterial + light feature request issue because this issue has been closed.

[Mugen87]

Yeah, I think that's better for clarity reasons 👍