main task for irrlicht dev (niko)

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bappy
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main task for irrlicht dev (niko)

Post by bappy »

well i would like to develop a thread about the main task that Must be made before all thing in irrlicht.
that s just my opinion ,Niko it s not a critic about your work or something else :)

in my opinion , the main task is to support at 100% a format.

Actually, irrlicht support 3ds,x,md2,ms3d,bsp format.

recap:
md2: cool for animation but not for static mesh like map
but very old, don t support skelet animation , weight bones etc

ms3d: don t know, never used but seems to work better than other format in irrlicht.

bsp: cool for map, but to old. must use gtk-radiant, so not cool and very poor graphicaly.and not 100% supported

3ds:well support ,good for static mesh but... no multiple uv per vertex.
don t know if animation is working.

and final is x: i think it s the only format that we must focus.
it support all what we need for static mesh (map) and animation mesh
bones, weight.
actually the importer is very buggy, it don t reconyse bin etc...

I think that if the x format is 100% supported, shoot of the month will began shoot of the day 8)
because actually when my graphist is doing something , i m pretty sure i won t be able to integrate it in irr.

and another thing to develop: material thing.
we can t easely have a face that have two channel texture because the export format don t support 2 uv by vertex and the engine too. we can specify a second map channel and set the material to hardware but the coord uv of the second map (example lightmap) are generated or use the first channel uv :cry: no cool.

if an engine support bump map, pixel shader effect, radiosity in realtime etc it s cool ! but if this engine can not load a mesh , the other thing don t serve, and the engine too...

if we must study each mesh by each mesh to know how to code something for having the same graphic model that we have in max or other modeler, that s not cool..

niko don t take that for a critic , it s just what i think and what in my opinion the user of irrlicht are waiting :)
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Post by niko »

100% ACK about the file format. I try to focus on .x file format, lots of tools tend to support this one lately. You are right, it is currently a little bit buggy, because it is the first release in which .x files can be used. I am currently bug hunting, and fixed lots of them.

About the materials: Right too. I am currently thinking about how to change the material system. And I think it is possible to use .x files with more complex materials, like hlsl-shaders for example. This would be a nice feature to support in the future.
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Post by Guest »

thx
i think the futur of irrlicht is in your hand :D
bappy
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Post by bappy »

that was me :D
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vermeer
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Post by vermeer »

fully agree with niko and bappy here :)
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Re: main task for irrlicht dev (niko)

Post by Serg Nechaeff »

bappy wrote:we can t easely have a face that have two channel texture because the export format don t support 2 uv by vertex and the engine too. we can specify a second map channel and set the material to hardware but the coord uv of the second map (example lightmap) are generated or use the first channel uv :cry: no cool.
it suxx!! now i know the issue i've been fighting with during the last two weeks was so lame stupid :)
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Mercior
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Post by Mercior »

Generally true.. If .x support was perfect I wouldnt mind not having ms3d & md2, even 3ds!

Since starting my game in irrlicht I've forced myself to learn radiant and its not half bad! I've also had no problems loading my maps in irrlicht and both the rendering and collision detection for the bsp's is lightning fast :) I think you did a very good job on the bsp loaders niko
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i concur..

Post by buhatkj »

every modelling program i use can export to .x, if that worked 100%, it would be all i'd need.
i have my bones for characters, id have my nice textures, and for maps id have nice materials, and nice static models.
some people might say that this is a case of "let's do ONE thing and do it REALLY well"
it's great that irrlicht supports so many formats, but if we can convert all of those formats to one common one easily, then format support isnt such a big deal really...
what makes irrlicht great is the API, and the abstraction of the rendering. not whether it supports this format and that format. lets just pick ONE that does almost everything we need, and the best one for that, is undeniably .X
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Post by vermeer »

I think he is already focused at it... ;)

(must say I am, checking this forums daily for any tiny news about it... ;) )

I am happy to see other people think this way about this format... :)

I have been... -wow- years waiting for a free engine support it...

Most free/cheap engines now are jumping in the bone&weights wagon (comercial ones of today have them, almost all).... but few support yet directx. While is an execellent way to port lot of matters of the artist work in the animation. Imho is a matter of time, though...

DarkBasic Pro does it. Also TV3d or something like that...none is fully free.... TV3d forces you to put a logo, and can't make comercial.

buhatkj, yep, what I have tested is you rarely are gonna be unable to export x format.... Max 5 does it well with panda, in my tests with the trial. An dthe cheap tools also. Even milkshape supports x. Without weights, though....But for objects, it will do too. :)
bappy
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Post by bappy »

happy to be the messenger of irrlicht user!!! :D
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Post by fdgf »

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Post by Guest »

i have to fully agree with you, ONE format, that would be so damn cool!!
i also agree that i and i guess most others would like to see some shaders running in irrlicht, and the current ones are a pain ... hlsl or cg support would be awful!!

to niko: here in the forums are files so that irrlicht supports CG shaders, so you would just have to mess with them a bit .. just a thought :) not that you would have to, but it would be great for irrlicht 0.8! :D
Guest

Post by Guest »

I would like to ask only one thing: any chance that Irrlicht will synchronize with IrrlichtNX++ where new matterial system is caming soon?
Alex001
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x format, max export, tutorials for

Post by Alex001 »

thank you for that thread :!:

I agree that .X has more advantages than all other formats.

BUT:
I wanted to import some hierarchical meshes in X from max using pandasoft ... I also posted a thread in "advanced", but still no reply ...

to be honest I have no clue what's going wrong, but my animated, hierarchical mesh is messed up :cry:
maybe I did not use Irrlicht correct, maybe the exporter is buggy - the problem is how to detect the error ...

if anybody of the posters here could help me a little on that problem I promisse to write a tutorial based on that experience 8)

I am quite sure that a lot of serious Irrlicht users have the same problem.

thx for any comments / critics on
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Post by vermeer »

naming it that way, "hierarchical mesh" I tend to think you are speaking bout a dx7 type of hierarchy, that is, linked parts/pieces. Instead of dx8 single mesh with weights and bones. As far as I know is dx8 better hierrarchy what is supported.

Other than that I don't know if you can make links between parts in someway in irrlicht, i am not programmer.

Panda deals with bones and weights, mainly.Perhaps it has some sort of setting though to export (not to import, Panda is an exporter only.there's an importer from other guy somewhere in the net, very recently appeared) old dx7 hierarchical mesh, made of separate parts.

BTW, you can export that kind of mesh animation with 15$ Character Fx, It both support that kind and the more modern bones and weights, I think.

Milkshape also does that. I dunno if the Blender dx7 exporter does it also.

The dx8 panda exporter works with irrlicht (after a "save" in MS mview utility)
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