Java 3d: Unable to get Shape3D to be affected by lights

Question

I am attempting to get a custom Shape3D to be affected by a DirectedLight in java 3D, but nothing I do seems to work.

The Shape has a geometry that is an IndexedQuadArray, with the NORMAL flag set and applied, ensuring the normal vectors are applied to the correct vertices - using indexed vectors

I have given the Appearance a Material (both with specified colors and shininess, and without)
I have also put the light on the same BranchGroup as the Shape, but it still does not work.

In fact, when I add in the normals to the shape, the object appears to disappear - without them, it's flat shaded, so that all faces are the same shade.

I can only think that I am forgetting to include something ridiculously simple, or have done something wrong.

To test the lights were actually, I put in a Sphere beside the Shape, and the sphere was affected and lit correctly, but the shape still wasn't. Both were on the same BranchGroup

[Small oddity too - if I translate the sphere, it vanishes if I move it greater than 31 in any direction... [my view is set about 700 back as I'm dealing with objects of sizes up to 600 in width]

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Edit: found this in the official tutorials that is probably related

A visual object properly specified for shading (i.e., one with a Material object) in a live scene graph but outside the influencing bounds of all light source objects renders black.

Answer 1

The light's setInfluencingBounds() was not set correctly, so that the shapes in the scene were not being included in the bounds.

This was corrected by setting a BoundingBox to encompass the entire area, and assigning that into the influencing bounds