[ros-users] Textures and gazebo materials

[Patrick McMichael]

Hello,

I apologize beforehand if this question has already been asked and 
answered -- I did not find it in my search(es).

I've been using ROS for a little while now and am trying to set up my 
own world -- things are going pretty well but I keep being thwarted by 
the material constructs in gazebo.

Is there a tutorial somewhere for how to setup your own materials, or 
how to get the built-in materials to use the textures they mention.  For 
example, in `rospack find 
gazebo`/gazebo/share/gazebo/Media/materials/scripts/Gazebo.materials 
there is a material called "Gazebo/RustySteel" defined like this:

material Gazebo/RustySteel
{
     technique
     {
         pass
         {

             texture_unit
             {
                 texture RustySteel.jpg
             }
         }
     }
}

I can't seem to find any description on what these things mean, really.  
The texture RustySteel.jpg resides in the `rospack find 
gazebo`/gazebo/share/gazebo/Media/materials/textures directory.  However 
when I try to load this into my own .model file like this:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!-- The trimesh -->
<model:physical name="mesh_skeleton_model">
<xyz>0.0 0.0 0.0</xyz>
<rpy>0 0 0</rpy>
<static>true</static>
<body:trimesh name="mesh_skeleton_model_body">
<xyz>0.0 0.0 0.0</xyz>
<rpy>90.0 0.0 90.0</rpy>
<turnGravityOff>true</turnGravityOff>
<massMatrix>false</massMatrix>
<dampingFactor>0.05</dampingFactor>
<geom:trimesh name="mesh_skeleton_model_geom">
<laserRetro>2000.0</laserRetro>
<kp>100000000.0</kp>
<kd>1.0</kd>
<scale>1.0 1.0 1.0</scale>
<mesh>/home/patrickm/dev/ros/ros_tutorials/my_robot/objects/mesh_full.stl</mesh>
<visual>
<scale>0.001 0.001 0.001</scale>
<material>Gazebo/RustySteel</material>
<mesh>/home/patrickm/dev/ros/ros_tutorials/my_robot/objects/mesh_full.stl</mesh>
</visual>
</geom:trimesh>
</body:trimesh>
</model:physical>

... it just gives me a flat, shadedless brown (where it gets the brown 
from I don't know)

This file is loaded into the world in my launch file like this:

<param name="mesh_skeleton" textfile="$(find 
my_robot)/objects/mesh_skeleton.model" />
<node name="xml2factor_mesh_skeleton" pkg="gazebo" type="spawn_model" 
args="-gazebo -param mesh_skeleton -x 6.917 -z 1.849 -model 
mesh_skeleton" respawn="false" output="screen" />

I tried adding the lines

<depend package="gazebo"/>

and

<export>
<gazebo gazebo_media_path="${prefix}" />
</export>

to my package's manifest.xml file, but they didn't help anything.  
Besides, the flat colors themselves work ok (although they too are 
always flat ambient and don't seem to pay any attention to the shading 
model or diffuse, specular or any other components).

Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks,

Patrick