It may be useful to study 2D memory-based graphics libraries that work on
(or could be adapted to) OpenGL-native RGBA memory arrays. Some candidates
include:
U3D, an Intel-sponsored vaporware
format, may contest with X3D for future dominance of this market.
While these originated as "Web 3D formats", they are capable of
modeling our static data. I have been to NPS and met Don Brutzman,
he was very cordial. Unfortunately, I don't like X3D very well, it
seems too low-level. Perhaps we need a higher-level 3D format. Don
suggested mapping our higher level format onto X3D.
The VRML 97 grammar is not exactly context free. There is
supposed to be a public domain parser available, but if so it is not easy
to find.
3D Objects
Our severe allergy to expensive commercial tools might lead us to want
to use Blender or another open-source modeling tool. We have not found
a tool I've been especially pleased with yet. I do have a file format I
particularly like, the Simple3D format advocated by Ian Parberry.
"Level Editors"
We are interested in a drawing tool that will reduce the difficulty of
constructing our virtual environments. The kinds of features that would
make it useful include:
- open source
- easy to use for specifying objects and their vertices
- easy to use for associating textures and materials with objects
- saves files in a format that documented and/or simple enough for us to read in
Here are some tools that are out there, please add to this list.
Which ones of these best meet our requirements? Are there tools
particularly well-suited for creating 3D virtual spaces, instead
of generic 3D modeling?
tool | open source? | objects/vertices | textures | actually works?
|
---|
INT3D | no | ?? | ?? | ??
|
mjbWorld | ?? | ?? | ?? | ??
|
moonlight creator | GPL | ?? | ?? | ??
|
art of illusion | GPL | ?? | ?? | ??
|
blender | GPL | ?? | ?? | ??
|
ppmodeler | ?? | ?? | ?? | ??
|
cosmoworlds | ?? | ?? | ?? | said to be good for VRML
|
spazz3d | ?? | ?? | ?? | said to be good for VRML
|
vizx3d | ?? | ?? | ?? | X3D
|
outline3d | ?? | ?? | ?? | X3D
|
white dune | GPL | ?? | ?? | said to be good for VRML
|
wings3d | BSD | ?? | ?? | ??
|
milkshape | NO ($25) | ?? | ?? | ??
|
inkscape | yes | ?? | ?? | ??
|
Wynn Winkler is studying the issue of level editors and contributed
substantial notes during Meetings 3 and 6.
The Ruminator
Unless Wynn actually finds an editor we can use with our graphics engine,
we will end up writing our own. The department is very rectangular,
almost all the elements look alike and repeat over and over,
and the 2D coordinates are a lion's share of the job.
For the third dimension, a good first pass would be to specify
a generic wall section, complete with height and textures/materials,
and apply it to every room and cooridoor in the building:
Dr. J then went on to write a little Unicon program that would
allow a person to collect the 2D data by drawing rubberband boxes
around the CS department floor plan:
This tool has evolved a bit since then, see Dr. J's demo page.
"Avatar Editors"
I can easily imagine us using one or more tools in this category.
This could range from something as cartoonish as
a child's face builder tool, from which we still must extract polygons,
to a tool for digitizing from an actual scanned photograph of a person,
to something more sophisticated and 3D such as
the
ez Avatar Builder (which doesn't seem to work very well and seems
to have a misleading name). A ton of potentially useful links can be
found at
Digital Space's page of links.