URGENT QUESTION.

Discuss about anything related to the Irrlicht Engine, or read announcements about any significant features or usage changes.
Post Reply
jsk32
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:22 pm

URGENT QUESTION.

Post by jsk32 »

To whom it may concern:

I am currently looking for an application that will allow me to create a user interface in conjunction with Maya Real Time Animation driven by motion capture data, Particle Effects, and real time rendering. Would this be the best application to use? My GUI requirements are:

1. Must be able to drive Maya characters using motion capture data.
2. Create real time particle effects in Maya.
3. Access and manipulate Maya parameters, attributes and expressions in real time.
3. Record, playback and possibly undo.
4. Display all models, particles and animation in real time.

If Irrlicht is the best application for this task, please let me know. If not, any suggestions as to the best app to use would be greatly appreciated.
sudi
Posts: 1686
Joined: Fri Aug 26, 2005 8:38 pm

Post by sudi »

...this is a graphics engine....not an actual app....
why do people never read the faq?
We're programmers. Programmers are, in their hearts, architects, and the first thing they want to do when they get to a site is to bulldoze the place flat and build something grand. We're not excited by renovation:tinkering,improving,planting flower beds.
jsk32
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:22 pm

Post by jsk32 »

Um... I did read the FAQ.

"The Irrlicht Engine is a high performance open source and cross platform 3D engine for creating realtime 3D applications.

I understand it is a graphics engine but it will in fact be developing real time apps.

So... let me rephrase. Will this graphics engine be able to:

1. Must be able to drive Maya characters using motion capture data.
2. Create real time particle effects in Maya.
3. Access and manipulate Maya parameters, attributes and expressions in real time.
3. Record, playback and possibly undo.
4. Display all models, particles and animation in real time.

???
sudi
Posts: 1686
Joined: Fri Aug 26, 2005 8:38 pm

Post by sudi »

All depends on your coding skills.....
We're programmers. Programmers are, in their hearts, architects, and the first thing they want to do when they get to a site is to bulldoze the place flat and build something grand. We're not excited by renovation:tinkering,improving,planting flower beds.
hybrid
Admin
Posts: 14143
Joined: Wed Apr 19, 2006 9:20 pm
Location: Oldenburg(Oldb), Germany
Contact:

Post by hybrid »

I think you want to do some scripting with Maya instead of creating an app which uses and interacts with Maya. Otherwise I did not understand your request.
pinballwizard
Posts: 67
Joined: Wed Aug 02, 2006 1:47 am

Post by pinballwizard »

jsk32 wrote:Um... I did read the FAQ.

"The Irrlicht Engine is a high performance open source and cross platform 3D engine for creating realtime 3D applications.

I understand it is a graphics engine but it will in fact be developing real time apps.
When the FAQ says Irrlicht is an engine "for creating realtime 3D applications", that means that Irrlicht is an engine "for C++ programmers to use in programming 3D applications in C++".

Are you a C++ programmer? Or do you have someone on your team who is a programmer?

There are some add-on packages that don't require C++ programming (IrrLua, Venom, other scripting interfaces to Irrlicht), but they still require programming.
So... let me rephrase. Will this graphics engine be able to:

1. Must be able to drive Maya characters using motion capture data.
2. Create real time particle effects in Maya.
3. Access and manipulate Maya parameters, attributes and expressions in real time.
3. Record, playback and possibly undo.
4. Display all models, particles and animation in real time.

???
Probably a full-time programmer with Maya experience would need 6-9 months to implement (and debug) what you ask. The kicker is "record, playback, and possibly undo". Implementing recording and playback in game engines is a complex but fascinating topic. See http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/mess ... id=6062704 for some information.
bitplane
Admin
Posts: 3204
Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2005 3:45 am
Location: England
Contact:

Post by bitplane »

another thing worth mentioning, if you're planning on using irrlicht to create a recorder/editor for motion capture, you've got to consider getting the data back into the application where want to use it.
when making models for realtime graphics, the idea is to convert your model data into a suitable format at the last step, and there are many different workflows to choose from for this. animating your skeleton with motion capture data is part of the modeling/animating steps which are done in your modeling app. if you wanted to preview and edit the motion capture data in irrlicht, you'd need to find a suitable workflow to get your unanimated but skinned mesh into irrlicht (in x, b3d or your own custom format), make a bvh importer for irrlicht to apply the motion capture data, then make some kind of exporter which feeds the edited data back into maya again, as well as writing your editor application!
that was the long answer, the short answer is what hybrid said - it would make much more sense to write the application in melscript, or in c++ using maya's sdk
Submit bugs/patches to the tracker!
Need help right now? Visit the chat room
Post Reply