I'm looking at a basic diffuse light shader here http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/GLSL_Programming/Unity/Diffuse_Reflection.
Diffuse light needs the normal vector in eye-space, so that it can dot it with the light position (also in eye-space), and figure out the diffuse contribution. (eye-space not world-space is used, because that simplifies calculating specular contributions).
The code calculates the normal vector in the following way:
mat4 modelMatrixInverse = _World2Object; // unity_Scale.w
// is unnecessary because we normalize vectors
vec3 normalDirection = normalize(
vec3(vec4(gl_Normal, 0.0) * modelMatrixInverse));
A linear algebra calculation shows that given a matrix M, Transpose(Inverse(M)) transforms normals. The Wikipedia on normals page contains a derivation of the required formula: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_%28geometry%29#Transforming_normals (I've actually rewritten that section myself, as it was not lucid).
So does this mean that the 'vector * matrix' overload in GLSL is implemented as:
Transpose(vector) * Matrix
just holding a row-vector instead of a column-vector in the output, i.e.:
Transpose( Transpose(vector) * matrix )
or more simply:
Transpose(matrix) * vector
?
I've also found what appears to be alternative: gl_NormalMatrix
But in lines 9-11 here http://pixelsorcery.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/fisheye-vertex-shader/ ) I see the following code:
normal = vec4(gl_NormalMatrix * gl_Normal, 0.0);
vec4 vVertex = gl_ModelViewMatrix * gl_Vertex;
light_dir = gl_LightSource[0].position - vVertex;
Would I be right to assume that gl_NormalMatrix gives a normal in eye-space, and gl_LightSource[0].position gives the light location also in eye-space?
http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/showthread.php/172231-gl_NormalMatrix-Replacement suggests gl_NormalMatrix is deprecated.
Does that mean the first implementation is the preferred approach?
EDIT: http://www.opengl-tutorial.org/beginners-tutorials/tutorial-8-basic-shading/#The_Diffuse_part