Find the Bounding Box of Submesh in iOS

Question

I am drawing a 3D model as below from a obj file. I need to find the Bounding box for each submesh of that obj file.

 let assetURL = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "train", withExtension: "obj")!
 let allocator = MTKMeshBufferAllocator(device: device)
 let asset = MDLAsset(url: assetURL, vertexDescriptor: vertexDescriptor, bufferAllocator: meshAllocator)
 let mdlMesh = asset.object(at: 0) as! MDLMesh

 mesh = try! MTKMesh(mesh: mdlMesh, device: device)

  for submesh in mesh.submeshes {
//I need to find the bounding box for each Submesh
        }

How can I achieve that in iOS.

Answer 1

Here's a function that takes an MTKMesh and produces an array of MDLAxisAlignedBoundingBoxes in model space:

enum BoundingBoxError : Error {
    case invalidIndexType(String)
}

func boundingBoxesForSubmeshes(of mtkMesh: MTKMesh, positionAttributeData: MDLVertexAttributeData) throws -> [MDLAxisAlignedBoundingBox]
{
    struct VertexPosition {
        var x, y, z: Float
    }

    var boundingBoxes = [MDLAxisAlignedBoundingBox]()

    var minX = Float.greatestFiniteMagnitude
    var minY = Float.greatestFiniteMagnitude
    var minZ = Float.greatestFiniteMagnitude
    var maxX = -Float.greatestFiniteMagnitude
    var maxY = -Float.greatestFiniteMagnitude
    var maxZ = -Float.greatestFiniteMagnitude

    let positionsPtr = positionAttributeData.dataStart

    for submesh in mtkMesh.submeshes {
        let indexBuffer = submesh.indexBuffer
        let mtlIndexBuffer = indexBuffer.buffer
        let submeshIndicesRaw = mtlIndexBuffer.contents().advanced(by: indexBuffer.offset)

        if submesh.indexType != .uint32 {
            throw BoundingBoxError.invalidIndexType("Expected 32-bit indices")
        }

        let submeshIndicesPtr = submeshIndicesRaw.bindMemory(to: UInt32.self,
                                                             capacity: submesh.indexCount)
        let submeshIndices = UnsafeMutableBufferPointer<UInt32>(start: submeshIndicesPtr,
                                                                count:submesh.indexCount)

        for index in submeshIndices {
            let positionPtr = positionsPtr.advanced(by: Int(index) * positionAttributeData.stride)
            let position = positionPtr.assumingMemoryBound(to: VertexPosition.self).pointee

            if position.x < minX { minX = position.x }
            if position.y < minY { minY = position.y }
            if position.z < minZ { minZ = position.z }
            if position.x > maxX { maxX = position.x }
            if position.y > maxY { maxY = position.y }
            if position.z > maxZ { maxZ = position.z }
        }

        let min = SIMD3<Float>(x: minX, y: minY, z: minZ)
        let max = SIMD3<Float>(x: maxX, y: maxY, z: maxZ)
        let box = MDLAxisAlignedBoundingBox(maxBounds: max, minBounds: min)

        boundingBoxes.append(box)
    }

    return boundingBoxes
}

Note that this function expects the submesh to have 32-bit indices, though it could be adapted to support 16-bit indices as well.

To drive it, you'll also need to supply an MDLVertexAttributeData object that points to the vertex data in the containing mesh. Here's how to do that:

let mesh = try! MTKMesh(mesh: mdlMesh, device: device)
let positionAttrData = mdlMesh.vertexAttributeData(forAttributeNamed: MDLVertexAttributePosition, as: .float3)!
let boundingBoxes = try? boundingBoxesForSubmeshes(of: mesh, positionAttributeData: positionAttrData)

I haven't tested this code thoroughly, but it seems to produce sane results on my limited set of test cases. Visualizing the boxes with a debug mesh should immediately show whether or not they're correct.