Modeling program

[Guessed]

I've been working on a modeling program, and here is what I have so far. You can see me rotating the view and selecting stuff here: http://blip.tv/file/566828

There are 4 viewports which you can assign to a function of your choice. In that screenshot, the upper left is perspective modeling, the upper right lets you select objects, the lower right shows the animatable trakcs of those objects, and the lower right will one day let you mess with the sequences. On the far right are the properties of whatever you have selected. (It would have checkboxes for billboarded and so on if it were just bones selected, instead of also a geoset.) On the bottom will be the animation bar.

 

[ragingspeedhorn]

What is your goal with this new program per say? A proper and free replacement for stuff such as Ms3D or an extension of what is allready there with other free programs?

 

[skrab]

It sounds good i hope it works good

 

[General Frank]

Omg, the mighty Guessed is making a leet and (perhaps) free modelling tool with advanced setting and stuff.
Man, I'm really curios how the final result will be.

 

[Elenai]

I drool for the possiblities....will it be able to easily rig and animate too?

 

[BlinkBoy]

you should make modelling simpler, why not use Objects like max does? So instead of selecting vertexes and faces directly from every single geoset, you could just select a geoset and go to sub-group that allows you to select and edit vertexes, faces and edges.

Btw are you going to add a curve editor for Bezier & Hermite controllers? It would be nice to have one.

 

[Guessed]

I'm not sure exactly where I'm going to go with this, but I do want it to be able to animate. That is hard, though, so I am starting with getting some mesh editing stuff in. I also have that panel on the side where it is just a few hours away from being able to edit the properties of all sorts of objects (like configuring particle emitters or whatever), so maybe I'll do that next instead. I'll just keep adding stuff until I run out of interest.

Blinkboy: I think having geosets as separate objects would make editing of geosets that are separated in order to use separate materials very tricky. So I'm going to try to have it so they edit all at once, but they can hide whichever they want to leave alone. I am planning on allowing the user to drag the tangents around.

Stuff I got done today: There is a grid, there is a move gizmo, you can switch the viewports between functions, you can switch the view between perspective/left/right/top/bottom/front/back.

 

[BlinkBoy]

wait a sec, weren't u the same guy who made this tool: http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=91260 ?

If then, why did you started all over instead of finishing that one?

 

[Guessed]

Yes, I sort of built myself into a corner with that one though. So to get a workable result I scrapped that. Some of the code from it is being useful, though.

 

[BlinkBoy]

Yes, I sort of built myself into a corner with that one though. So to get a workable result I scrapped that. Some of the code from it is being useful, though.

oh, ok. Btw in which language are you writting it? (I hope it does not be JAVA)

 

[Guessed]

JAVA

murky2: You don't really yet, but will eventually.

 

[Mechanical Man]

It wasn't JOGL? Or that is warshape? I don't see anything wrong with java though.

 

[BlinkBoy]

Damm I hate JAVA tools because the stupid Runtime Enviroment always annoys me with upgrades, so I unistall it. I hope you generate it in .exe atleast (.jars are evil). Anyways I won't care at the end, and I'll end up using the tool.

 

[Guessed]

I am using JOGL, which is a thing for Java. And you're right, there is nothing wrong with Java. I'm planning it make it JNLP, not EXE or JAR. Those do tend to actually execute right.

Anyway, I made some more progress today, but not much because I spent most of the time wrestling with the movement gizmo to get it to work right. I needed to get to to stay a constant on-screen size even as you zoom the camera away from it, and for the mouse to stay with it.

 

[BlinkBoy]

Oh well, is fine anyways. So which mesh editing tools are you adding? I imagine that the main tools used on ur old program and perhaps cut or some others

 

[Guessed]

Not many for now. Just move/rotate/scale/delete, probably. I want to get some animating stuff working before I get too far on any one things.

 

[Dionesiist]

Make a rigging tool puhleeez! =3

 

[ragingspeedhorn]

Will this be beginners friendly or more for the hardcore audience?

 

[DesKaladA]

Well goday guessed
remember me?
glad to see you completly forgot about the intreface code i sent you

 

[Guessed]

Dionesiist: That is probably a good idea. If you have any clever ideas for how rigging should work, feel free to share.

ragingspeedhorn: I want to go for as beginner-friendly as possible, but at this point it's pretty much function dicating form, so I don't think I would be doing anything differently if I weren't going for that.

Deskalada: Hi again. I didn't forget about it, it just ended up being easier to make it as I went.


Here is the latest progress: the rotate gizmo. It doesn't do anything yet except sit there.

 

[General Frank]

If this thing would have a modelling like 3dsm, a easy-to-use programm like oinkerwinkle's and the final tune-ups like Magos that would be so cool.

 

[BlinkBoy]

Well there will never be something easier than 3dsmax, but this tool indeed has A LOT of potential in that area as well as in others.

 

[DesKaladA]

ya i hope there's a jpython interface

 

[Guessed]

Here is another update: rotation actually working. http://blip.tv/file/571999

 

[DesKaladA]

well nice, also did you get the mdx wirte to work ?
still wondering
also is there going to be a way to filter goesets

 

[wugiboy]

nice stuff guessed..

also I think the filtering/separating geosets is a good idea, I hope you'll try it on

and (hopefully)creating faces(like in milkshape)

 

[SuPa-]

the only issue I have with it is the asthetics Maybe make the background a dark gray like in most modeling programs? White on black just isn't appealing to the eyes. Besides that, it's looking nice. The rotation seems very nice.

 

[General Frank]

the only issue I have with it is the asthetics Maybe make the background a dark gray like in most modeling programs? White on black just isn't appealing to the eyes. Besides that, it's looking nice. The rotation seems very nice.

I think it's going to be customizable like in MagosME, but yeah, it should be gray on on default.
I've got an idea for the modelling part: Instead of importing the model's whole mesh (like Magos does it in the 'Model Editor' feature (v1.05)) it should import and make very geoset's mesh editable, so you can browse thou the geosets and edit them.

 

[SuPa-]

That's what 3ds max does I think. When you import it it comes up with a little check box for the different meshes

 

[BlinkBoy]

well 3dsmax uses objects and subgroups for modifiers. but I don't think it be easy for him to make things like 3dsmax.

 

[General Frank]

That's what 3ds max does I think. When you import it it comes up with a little check box for the different meshes

Well, I though of something like the easy vertex modifier.

 

[Guessed]

Here's what I did for geoset hiding: You have to bring up the selection panel, click on a geoset, and then check/uncheck "visible for mesh editing". It is kind of a lot of clicks if you're just doing one, but I want to keep the way to set-property-of-object pretty uniform, rather than having a right click menu somewhere or something.

I think that having editing for just a single geoset at a time is kind of crippling, since sometimes geosets are shoved up against each other and if you move vertices on one, it will no longer be properly connected to the other. That way is nice and simple, though.

And for colors: I agree that the white-on-black was kind of ugly now that I see it in greys. I'll probably add a settings thing at some point, but that is not a priority.

 

[General Frank]

Here's what I did for geoset hiding: You have to bring up the selection panel, click on a geoset, and then check/uncheck "visible for mesh editing". It is kind of a lot of clicks if you're just doing one, but I want to keep the way to set-property-of-object pretty uniform, rather than having a right click menu somewhere or something.

I think that having editing for just a single geoset at a time is kind of crippling, since sometimes geosets are shoved up against each other and if you move vertices on one, it will no longer be properly connected to the other. That way is nice and simple, though.

And for colors: I agree that the white-on-black was kind of ugly now that I see it in greys. I'll probably add a settings thing at some point, but that is not a priority.

So, when you select just one Geoset a visible, vertices of other geosets won't be moved ? Because that would be great !

 

[BlinkBoy]

I think you should be able to set objects this way. Hided(the object is not seen), frozen(the object is seen, but unselectable) and normal mode(editable and seeable). You should also allow to set the mesh in 3 modes: normal, wireframe and transparent. This would make modelling easier and less messy.

 

[Deleted member 126647]

Yes, it should definitely have a setting to see the actual mesh with texture included, working with only wireframes can be difficult.

 

[Elenai]

A geoset editor like Oinkerwinkle would be perfect. That way mdl masters like General Frank and I can get right into the program and feel comfortable, and have a fore knowledge already there.

 

[Rao Dao Zao]

I demand that the default background colour of the 3D viewport is that lovely blue of Milkshape, so that I feel more at home. <3

 

[Dionesiist]

It seems very complicated to use to me right now, sorry to tell...

 

[BlinkBoy]

I demand that the default background colour of the 3D viewport is that lovely blue of Milkshape, so that I feel more at home. <3

I'm sure that you'll be able to modify it.

 

[wugiboy]

I demand that the default background colour of the 3D viewport is that lovely blue of Milkshape, so that I feel more at home. <3

qft

milkshape 4 lyf

 

[Guessed]

I made a settings file now, so you can change the background and grid color. Also I made it so you can switch between wireframe, solid, and textured. The rotate gizmo fails when you look at it from a large angle, so I need to go redo some of that today.

What exactly looks complicated about it, Dionesiist?

 

[SuPa-]

HUZZAH UNDO/REDO BUTTON (just noticed that)! lol, looks nice

 

[DesKaladA]

personly ide like to see how far anamation has come along
and if you fixed that one bug in your mdx reader

 

[General Frank]

Oh, yeah I got a question about this:
Are you program going to edit MDX files or MDL files ? Because I had an experience editing an MDX will result in it's screw up. Or will your programm tranfer you models internally first to mdl and after editing giving them out as MDX again ?

 

[DesKaladA]

GF i didn't see the mdxwrite class but it seems it shall be dirced edits

 

[BlinkBoy]

Oh, yeah I got a question about this:
Are you program going to edit MDX files or MDL files ? Because I had an experience editing an MDX will result in it's screw up. Or will your programm tranfer you models internally first to mdl and after editing giving them out as MDX again ?

WarForger(he's old modelling program) read both file extention, I'm sure this one will be able too.

 

[Elenai]

Will this feature some other Oinkerwinkle features...like geomerge and transfer and ect?

 

[Guessed]

Right now it only deals in MDXs. I have part of the code for the MDL side of it done, but MDX is way faster to program and one seems good enough for now.

Frank, problems because of it being in MDX instead of MDL would be because the program reads or writes MDXs badly, not because of something wrong with MDXs themselves.

I got the rotate gizmo working properly and scale is up next. Then I think I might release a version for people to see how they like how those operations work.

If I do include geomerge and animation transfer, it won't be for a while.

 

[wugiboy]

this feels so much better..

really looking forward to this

 

[Guessed]

Glad you like it. Was it the blue? I'd make that the default, but then it would seem sort of unoriginal.

Another update: scaling is in. Speaking of unoriginal, the scaling gizmo is copied from 3ds max's. http://blip.tv/file/575536/