Advice for a simple runtime please

Submitted by Red 5 on
Forum
Programmers

I'd very much appreciate any advice from programmers to help me out with the following...

I had an enquiry from a person involved in Formula One sponsorship. This person would like to use a simple application to show potential sponsors how their cars will look painted in different combinations of liveries etc.

Does anyone know of an easy to use off-the-shelf runtime that would be suited for this purpose, basically all that's required is that the 3D model can be loaded and then rotated and zoomed.

Thanks,

Chris

Submitted by Stephen on Wed, 21/07/04 - 9:16 PM Permalink

What file format is the model saved in?

I'd love to help but unfortunately any simple run-time I could create at the moment would only be able to read my own custom xml format. Haven't gotten to looking at supporting 3rd party formats yet.

Also another downer is that my engine can only render triangle strips with a single opengl material, no texture's as of yet.

That's probably a bit limiting for you.

Thanks,
Stephen

Submitted by Red 5 on Wed, 21/07/04 - 11:01 PM Permalink

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the input, I would prefer something that could use .xsi format if possible.

Something like ATI's normal map viewer is the type of thing I'm after, it'd probably do the job if it supported environment mapping.

Edit: I just found this http://www.quick3d.com/index.html and tried it out, looks like the type of app I was looking for.

Submitted by souri on Thu, 22/07/04 - 1:21 AM Permalink

Are they using lightwave objects/scenes by any chance?

Submitted by Red 5 on Thu, 22/07/04 - 3:08 AM Permalink

quote:Originally posted by Souri

Are they using lightwave objects/scenes by any chance?

I think the site said that Lightwave file support was currently in the works.

I downloaded the 4x4 model to try and I wasn't too impressed with the framerate after bumping up the texture resolution, (I ran it on a high spec machine) especially since the model was only 12k tri's.

Submitted by souri on Thu, 22/07/04 - 3:22 AM Permalink

oops, I meant are you/your client using lightwave. And I just missed the bit where you said .xsi [:)]

Hemiware had adjusted their serenity engine into a viewer for a client. It loads a lightwave scene (animations and all) and renders it in realtime. So if your scene was a camera fly through or whatever, that's what the engine would render. I had a look and it's pretty cool, and it would seem perfect for you, apart from the fact that I don't think SoftImage files are supported.

Submitted by Grover on Thu, 05/08/04 - 10:06 AM Permalink

Well, as a matter of fact my current system does already do alot of what you need. Could also easily add UI to select between the different decals and such. All of it runs in script, so there is no need to recompile or build the exe to add features. I dont support XSI at the moment, but I think I can provide it (I have an old XSI exporter I worked on a few years ago) if you really need it - would only be a day or two to add. I would however, obviously charge for use of the engine.

If you are looking for a free option - try out Nebula 2 or Nebula. Its totally free, and there are viewer scritps already available for it. It shouldnt take more than an hour to get a car doing what you want in it.

Hope this helps.

Posted by Red 5 on
Forum
Programmers

I'd very much appreciate any advice from programmers to help me out with the following...

I had an enquiry from a person involved in Formula One sponsorship. This person would like to use a simple application to show potential sponsors how their cars will look painted in different combinations of liveries etc.

Does anyone know of an easy to use off-the-shelf runtime that would be suited for this purpose, basically all that's required is that the 3D model can be loaded and then rotated and zoomed.

Thanks,

Chris

Submitted by Stephen on Wed, 21/07/04 - 9:16 PM Permalink

What file format is the model saved in?

I'd love to help but unfortunately any simple run-time I could create at the moment would only be able to read my own custom xml format. Haven't gotten to looking at supporting 3rd party formats yet.

Also another downer is that my engine can only render triangle strips with a single opengl material, no texture's as of yet.

That's probably a bit limiting for you.

Thanks,
Stephen

Submitted by Red 5 on Wed, 21/07/04 - 11:01 PM Permalink

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the input, I would prefer something that could use .xsi format if possible.

Something like ATI's normal map viewer is the type of thing I'm after, it'd probably do the job if it supported environment mapping.

Edit: I just found this http://www.quick3d.com/index.html and tried it out, looks like the type of app I was looking for.

Submitted by souri on Thu, 22/07/04 - 1:21 AM Permalink

Are they using lightwave objects/scenes by any chance?

Submitted by Red 5 on Thu, 22/07/04 - 3:08 AM Permalink

quote:Originally posted by Souri

Are they using lightwave objects/scenes by any chance?

I think the site said that Lightwave file support was currently in the works.

I downloaded the 4x4 model to try and I wasn't too impressed with the framerate after bumping up the texture resolution, (I ran it on a high spec machine) especially since the model was only 12k tri's.

Submitted by souri on Thu, 22/07/04 - 3:22 AM Permalink

oops, I meant are you/your client using lightwave. And I just missed the bit where you said .xsi [:)]

Hemiware had adjusted their serenity engine into a viewer for a client. It loads a lightwave scene (animations and all) and renders it in realtime. So if your scene was a camera fly through or whatever, that's what the engine would render. I had a look and it's pretty cool, and it would seem perfect for you, apart from the fact that I don't think SoftImage files are supported.

Submitted by Grover on Thu, 05/08/04 - 10:06 AM Permalink

Well, as a matter of fact my current system does already do alot of what you need. Could also easily add UI to select between the different decals and such. All of it runs in script, so there is no need to recompile or build the exe to add features. I dont support XSI at the moment, but I think I can provide it (I have an old XSI exporter I worked on a few years ago) if you really need it - would only be a day or two to add. I would however, obviously charge for use of the engine.

If you are looking for a free option - try out Nebula 2 or Nebula. Its totally free, and there are viewer scritps already available for it. It shouldnt take more than an hour to get a car doing what you want in it.

Hope this helps.