Sculpt

[kberg]

Figured I might as well start a WIP for this project... I'm really hoping to have essential features done in time for people to use it for the uDG '04 competition.

Times a little short at the moment; I've got final projects due over the next week, and final exams starting just a couple days after those, so the next update may take a while. I managed to put some time into it over the last week despite all this :D.

Got splines (bezier, catmull-rom) integrated and working for keyframe interpolation, and managed to get preliminary .obj output working as well. The .obj writer strips any bone or keyframe data from the model of course, but is good enough for basic geometry. This leaves me with better selection tools, some more of the basic modeling tools, and finishing off texture support before I figure I have something useful enough to release for testing.

New images. (http://www.sfu.ca/~kberg/Modeler/)

[sam]

Looks good.

I can't stand meshwork... or blender or cheetah thing. The only thing I ever like is software that costs a lot of money. :)

Are you going to have a default model format that someone could load into and preserve bone and keyframe data?

[Duane]

Can I beta-test??!!!

[madmacgames]

I would also be interested in beta testing when & if you are looking for people to test it.

[Leisure Suit Lurie]

I would like to beta test also.

dreams of a Carbonized PatchDance

[kberg]

Thanks for the offers to help out :) When the time comes, I will post a link, probably in this thread, to a developmental version for all to download and try out.

It looks like I'm on target for a pre-uDG 04 preview release which is great. Modeling tools will be absolutely minimal though, and the only option for exporting will most likely be .obj, which will not be of much use to people yet.

I don't really want to invent yet another 3D file format to handle scene data. I'm hoping that one or another of the file formats out there will be sufficient to handle everything I want to throw at it. 3DS looks to be such a format, but I'm not familiar enough with it (or my final feature set) at the moment to say for sure. In any case, there WILL be a 'native' format that will preserve all aspects of a scene in the final release (of course); if nothing currently out there proves to be suitable, then I will extend an existing format.

[diordna]

Quick feature request: Could you write a POV-Ray exporter for it so I could render whatever I want to make in it? I don't have any 3D modelers that will let me make anything decent (I can't afford the big stuff).

[kberg]

Quick feature request: Could you write a POV-Ray exporter for it so I could render whatever I want to make in it? I don't have any 3D modelers that will let me make anything decent (I can't afford the big stuff).

Yeah, not a problem. I could write a simple (smooth) triangle based pov exporter pretty quickly. Povray files tend to be HUGE though, and actual primitive support (affine transformed spheres, cylinders, etc) would require a bit of extra work. Textures are another problem with povray, there is currently no way that I know of to export UV or UVW coordinates, instead one has to supply a mapping type and a set of transforms.

[Johan]

This really looks like a nice app.

I have one small feature request that would be nice to have before uDevGames. What I need is a one-click function that exports all the key-frames as separate obj files, numbering them name001.obj, name002.obj etc. This shouldn't be to hard to implement as you already have the obj exporter functionality and would allow me to easily build MD2 files from the sequence.


.johan

[kberg]

No problem, that won't be hard at all to implement... Let me know what sort of controls you would need over the export sequence though (timestep between files, etc..)

I finished off a good chunk of the pov exporter earlier tonight as well, exports all the mesh data including normals, and good chunk of the material data (missing some pigment info and textures obviously) to an include file. I can simulate hierarchy through nested unions, however animated transforms with povray look a little scary :blink:. Animations may end up acting like what Johan asked for, dump out a bunch of pov files to batch render.

[diordna]

Hmm...I don't really need the animation part, but if you want to, go for it :)

Primitives aren't THAT hard, are they? The basic primitives are very simple...

You say you had splines done. Will they be exported as actual splines or as meshes?

[Nephilim]

Well, as long as you're looking for wish-list exporters, I could *really* use a .w3d (Shockwave3D) exporter. Currently, the only reliable program that exports Shockwave 3D models is 3D Studio Max, which is of course not available for Mac.

There is a product for Mac called Shapeshifter 3D which exports, but the modeller is clunky, and isn't well-suited for things that require precision (such as stitchable 3D tiles). Lightwave3D for Mac has an exporter, but the results are spotty at best. So a good 3D modeller for making low-to-medium poly models would be great!

There's a .w3d SDK available at:

http://www.macromedia.com/software/shockwaveplayer/licensing/w3d_sdk/

[SleeK]

Currently, the only reliable program that exports Shockwave 3D models is 3D Studio Max, which is of course not available for Mac.
[/QUOTE]

Would like to mention that my 3d software, Electric Image Universe (or Electric Image Animation System www.eitechnologygroup.com) Has a Shockwave 3d exporter that works wonders, I opened up 3d files in Macromedia Director and got straight to work-no graphical glitches or anything. Unfortunately, I don't know Javascript or Director coding...

-SleeK

[Duane]

Would like to mention that my 3d software, Electric Image Universe (or Electric Image Animation System www.eitechnologygroup.com) Has a Shockwave 3d exporter that works wonders, I opened up 3d files in Macromedia Director and got straight to work-no graphical glitches or anything. Unfortunately, I don't know Javascript or Director coding...

-SleeK

yea, but it's way expensive.

what are you going to release it as? :???:

[kberg]

Povray primitives are not hard, no; but it would require me to change my development plans a little... I've got data structures set aside for objects to remember their history (stacks as they are called in most 3D progs), but they are currently unused. Right now when you add a new primitive, the mesh for that primitive is created and then it forgets what it is. I would have to finish off my modifier stack before adding such a feature as primitive export to pov.

Splines are currently only used for interpolating between keyframes (animation). I've been debating whether or not to include bezier patches as a modeling tool, but it will almost certainly not make the first release ;).

I will also look into w3d as an export format, but won't promise if or when that will happen.

[Nephilim]

Would like to mention that my 3d software, Electric Image Universe (or Electric Image Animation System www.eitechnologygroup.com) Has a Shockwave 3d exporter that works wonders, I opened up 3d files in Macromedia Director and got straight to work-no graphical glitches or anything. Unfortunately, I don't know Javascript or Director coding...

Really? I actually have access to ElectricImage Universe at my job.

How do you do low-poly modeling in EI? The animation side of things is fantastic, but I remember trying to learn the modeler for EI and having troubles. I was used to polygon modeling a'la LightWave, whereas the EI modeler is more of a solids modeler based on splines and rails and stuff. I believe I also had some crashing problems.

Does it export bones and everything? Got any links with more in-depth info on the EI .w3d exporter?

[Nephilim]

I will also look into w3d as an export format, but won't promise if or when that will happen.

Thanks for looking into it. Hope it's not too onerous.

[SleeK]

Hi Nephilim, don't want to get too off-topic about KBerg's product here. How bout I start a thread in the Art area-
-SleeK

[sam]

So, Five days until the contest. Got a link for us? :D

[kberg]

lol!, well I have finals till the 10th, so give me a couple days after that and I should have something ready to post. It'll probably take me a couple weeks past that to come up with something truly useful for game model development.

[MarkJ]

Whatever happened with this project? What I'd really like to see is a way to convert .3ds files or somesuch into .md2, and I can't find any exporter for the mac.

[OneSadCookie]

Blender should be able to manage that conversion OK...

[Duane]

%$#!@^$#@! I hoped this meant sculpt was in beta stage ! :cry:

[MarkJ]

Thanks, OSC. It looks like I'll be able to use Blender (possibly). The user interface has been amazingly counter-intuitive though. I wish there were just a good md2 exporter for Maya on the OS X side.