I was wondering?

[kryton9]

Guys, I was wondering, for the mission based version on Topdown3D, maybe we should work on a scene file format?

The scene file format would store everything, models (m15's), thinPose animation and rigging (I don't know if this is already part of m15 or something new you guys will come up with), lighting, camera movements, well everything that goes into making and viewing a scene either as one frame, or as an animation. Maybe even at some point or even now plan on non linear editing, which in the this case would be making a movie dynamically on the fly and not from a movie file.

I decided since you guys are busy and a tool we really need also that I think I can handle would be a full blown model viewer, this brought to mind about the future and being able to open scenes or animations?

So I would like some toughts about the scene format from you guys.

For now I will do support for m15, but to allow the user to add as many m15 models as they want.

Here is my list of features I will have:

Open as many m15 files as you want.

Full controls of scale, position, rotation of each model. If animation available, to play that animation at varying speeds, or loop certain cycles (maybe the animation format can have named sequences with where a cycle starts and stops as in directX xformat). Control if lighting effects the model or not.

Adjust and move all lights, this is change the type, and colors of the lights.

Allow more than one camera that the user can switch too and view from.

Hopefully to control the fade value of a model, like ghost mode in directX. To control the transparency of a model. This will be neat for canopies, windows or anything where that will be needed, maybe a cloaked ship for instance.

I will try to write everything in thinBasic, maybe use dll's for certain future features like support for other formats.

This viewer can be the basis of a scene making program in the future as it will have many of the components necessary for such a thing.

If all goes well i will like to make camera paths to create flybys etc. and maybe the non linear editing of neat scenes. This also leads to adding sounds and music.

So actually I guess I will be working on a model viewer on its way to becoming a scene manager and editor.

So please fill me on any thoughts you might have had about this sort of thing as I am sure it has crossed your minds too.

[Michael Hartlef]

Good idea Kent, as soon I thought more about my idea, I'll let you know. The M15 fileformat doesn't support any animation data right now.
I would create such a scene editor in thinBasic too! One wish please, try to use UI elements and not a full screen game like interface.

[kryton9]

Mike if you mean UI as in regular windows controls and as I used in the nebula galaxy star creator instead of what I planned on this which is controls based on tbgl. The reason is I want them to be translucent so you can still see behind them and interact with the objects.

You can make transparent windows with thinBasic, but together with openGL screen it doesn't work. It flickers when on top of the openGL screen. Since desktop real estate is sparse I wanted to go with the UI in tbgl and on top of the viewscreen.

What is there about this you don't like? Or did I understand it reversed, that is you wanted that and not Windows Controls?

[Michael Hartlef]

For apps I don't like interfaces that are hidden, where i have to remember keyboard shortcuts. I like to click buttons and icons. I also like to switch between applications without the need ALT+TAB (that is more a workaround than a feature). So i like regular window app features like toolbars, speedbuttons, menus, etc etc.

But go with what you think you can create.

[kryton9]

I will get a protype going and we can analyze good and bad points about it then. My goal right now is to make it so you the user can see their work in fullscreen and then call up control groups and help as they need, via the FKeys. Will see how it works and of course tweak it.

I also want to move on with my c++ learning so this could be a good project to prototype in thinBasic and then for me to develop in C++. I can this way continue my learning of it and yet do something for our project while learning. Or develop in both languages as I go. Either way it gives me something to help me focus on the programming part while I work on models and media.

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi kryton,

this sounds like a good plan, I am loking forward to what you'll come with.
Regarding as many models as you want on scene, this sounds good, I am just afraid you will be forced to start tbgl_m15InitModelBuffers with some quite high starting settings, maybe some kind of TBGL_RedimModelBuffers could be handy to develop?


Bye,
Petr

[kryton9]

I can always have the user select the models first, then count up the vertices and then dimension the buffers. So no problem. Thanks it gives me a way to start and that will be having the user select all the models first. In fact they can just dump all the m15 into a folder and it will read all if they want.

Thanks for pointing this out, Petr, it helped me decide on how to start!!

I will set it up by default to look in the app start for a folder named models, textures, sounds, music, animation, etc.
This way we can just organize our project and look at it easilly in the viewer. If a file is not found, you can search for it elsewhere.