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forum - Requests |
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 | | Topic: | A Demo Engine Based on the Ogre 3D Engine | | | Dear colleague demo programmer,
My idea in a nutshell is this; build a demo engine using the open-source super ultimate awesome cool 3D graphics engine Ogre. It presumably is the best feely available foundation for a demo engine that can create high-level, high-performance hardware accelerated graphics.
I’ll first tell a bit about my own goals and interests, then do some advertising for the Ogre 3D engine and finally present my request for your help. And this, of course, can benefit you as well.
I’m a math and computer science student. I have some background in visual arts, and I have realized that psychedelic demo graphics using heavily mathematical algorithms is the most natural way for me to express myself.
The classical Super Hero way to do a demo is to code everything by oneself. I, however, am a very busy math geek and want to concentrate on graphics, math and algorithms, and use as high-level tools as possible. I am personally interested only in what the graphics looks like, not if it runs on my grandfathers 386 or if it is compressed into 4k.
During the previous half a year I have spent lot of time trying to find a tool that would fit my needs. I have spent countless hours with google looking for different graphics tools. I have programmed R4, played with VisualJockey, tried Werkkzeug, whereas demopaja did not work on my computer. High-level tools are easy to use if you don’t know programming, but for anyone who knows C++ beyond basics, a good demo and graphics engine library and a compiler is better.
Being fully C++, OOP, UML and math literate, the most natural way for me to implement my graphics is programming. However, freely available demo engine libraries seem to be rare. Direct3D or OpenGL can easily be combined with, for example, bass to play music, but there is still lots of code to write before you have everything needed to create a serious demo prod. There is of course DemoGL that helps with scene management, music and synchronization, but it is outdated and not updated anymore.
After lots of searching, I had the privilege to find the ultimate Ogre 3D graphics engine. And what a diamond it is!
Firstly, it is free, open source, available for various operating systems and actively developed by a growing community. It offers a level of abstraction above graphics interfaces like DirectX and OpenGL, providing an array of graphics tools for meshes, lights, cameras, materials and scene management. It also supports user input, scripts for materials, overlays and particles and it can easily be integrated with CEGUI (for user interface) and OgreODE (for physics). Tools/insructions for importing/exporting meshes, compiling with different compilers and operating systems can be found in the Wiki. Lots of code snippets and tutorials are available, and you can always ask for help at the Ogre forums. The library is well documented and well designed. (Really! A computer scientist can see so much beauty...)
So that's what Ogre offers. For the graphics engine part, I believe Ogre is one of the best choices available for a demo engine. However, it is a general-purpose graphics engine, mostly used for games I presume, and thus does not contain some of the necessary features for a demo engine.
It remains to build a framework for demo projects, using proper program modules or libraries to play music and synchronize it with the graphics. Does someone have code that could be reused or used as a model for these systems?
I have no experience on building a demo engine, so I want to encourage you colleague demo programmers to participate. We could join our forces and share the work, benefit ourselves and help each other. In practice this could possibly be done as an Ogre add-on project.
I presume ogre can both save us from lots of unnecessary programming and offer a better graphics library that anyone could possibly code only for a demo engine. I am hopefully not the only one in need of a proper C++ demo engine. All help, comments and ideas are appreciated.
Links to Ogre Home
http://www.ogre3d.org/
and a more detailed feature list can be found here:
http://www.ogre3d.org/index.php?option=com_content&task= view&id=13&Itemid=62
P.S. To be honest, I am not familiar with other free 3D engines. Ogre, however, seems to be the most popular. Also, it is almost too good to be true. If you find something better, it must be too good to be true, and, as you know, then it probably isn’t. | | |
| | Do you see artists making brushes for other fellow painters? Do you see artists building instruments for other musicians? Do you see artists inventing words for their fellow writers? | | |
| Back in old days artist did make their brushes themselves. Nowadays I see artists buying mass-produced brushes. If brushes could be cloned without effort like demo engines (that can be copied), I would probably see artists giving each other brushes all the time!
Good brushes are easier to find than good demo engines. And I need a good demo engine. | | |
| | Artists still make their brushes themselves. Not all of them. But note that those who do are not mass producing them for other artists. My point is, if one wishes for a good brush using the latest technology, and that brush is not available yet, one asks the industry, not the artists. (Who may have made their own brush, or not) | | |
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