3D GUI

[Ric]

Evening all,

It has been a long time since i have posted an update to my ongoing 3D design package, there have been many things that have got in the way, with possibly the most extreme my hard drive collapsing!!!!!!! This has since been recovered (thank the lord) and things are currently back to normal with a new laptop, which is very nice.

The package is called "Faces Selection I" for the purposes of this post. It has got to the point where most things work, woo hoo. I am currently working on the lighting side of things using face normals and node vectors to truly blend objects with interpolation. There are a few anomalies such as faces can not be selected with a double click (unless in texture mode) which means some of the node functions dont work yet, but this is number one on my list to sort.

Have a play and see what you think.

A couple of obvious things missing are the "Export Project" which will convert the object in to D3D format and "undo" and redo" which will be the last things to be implemented as i need to know what memory is available when the code is finished (I know its never finished "

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AqibHqCkE1VQ7CQmMgmDowF2OgMp

Happy viewing

Ric

[DDRM]

Hi Ric,

It looks like one would need to download quite a number of support files: would it be possible to make a zip file or something with a minimal package that could be downloaded as a single hit? Apologies if it's there and I've missed it....

Best wishes,

D

[Ric]

Thanks for the reply D,
Just discovered a glitch when moving multiple nodes!! Think the route of evil is because i changed the temporary store for nodes to an already used location in !(faces+x). Ho Hum. Ill sort it and post the update.
With regard to a zip file, i will have to look into it as i have never done it before, but i do think it is a good idea as the whole thing has gotten quite big. I did try to compile to send but including the images required it is too big. Does anyone know the maximum size?

Regards Ric

[Ric]

Think this is a compressed folder

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqibHqCkE1VQ7ygWManL2WzIv0XP

Unzip and program file is now called Graphics GUI 18.3.3

Let me know if it works ( i have not yet sorted the multinode problem

Regards Ric

[DDRM]

Hi Ric,

Thanks, that downloads fine. I ran the main Graphics GUI 18.3.3, and it looks very impressive! I loaded the ball test - grp object, and could wiggle it around, move it in the visual field. By double-clicking I got all the points up, and could reshape the object by moving nodes, etc. That all feels quite intuitive and easy to use.

I managed to create a new "scene" using the "add quick object" button, though I wasn't very good at losing the focus on an object once I'd made it: I ended up duplicating a sphere while trying to manipulate a cylinder I'd made later!

A couple of comments:

I think the undo function will be very useful once implemented: once or twice I grabbed a random node by mistake, and pulled it way out of place while trying to rotate my view...

While typing this message, once or twice I saw the view shift in the graphics window (v zooms in and c zooms out?): is it picking up keystrokes even when it doesn't have focus?

Would it be worth making the model data a file type other than ".BBC", so people can easily identify which are models/objects and which are bits of program? If you don't want to try and find a "proprietary" triplet, just go for .DAT or something, for now?

Please can we have at least a very basic tutorial on "how to start out"? I appreciate the context-sensitive bubble help - certainly a great start.

I managed to crash/lock it fairly regularly, sometimes while not using it (more captured keystrokes?), but I can live with that in a test version!

Best wishes,

David

[Ric]

Evening all

I have made the changes that D recommended and added a few more tricks.
To use the help menu just click on the ? icon.

Do not use the edit object icon!!

Unzip the files and choose the Graphics GUI 20.0.0

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqibHqCkE1VQ8Q-0M139C1TcmSAw

Regards Ric

PS. I am working on a wire diagram function as this will enable a more intuitive node stretch operation.
If you manage to crash the program without pressing spacebar or enter could you please let me know how.

[Ric]

I have now added a wire frame function. This should help with the stretch function. The icon is a blue square with four nodes.

Regards Ric

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqibHqCkE1VQ8RFcqhRW5bqyK42I

[Ric]

I realized that the formation of the lines in the frame view was sketchy at best, quite often either missing bits out or sometimes entire lines and producing some lines over faces that should be hidden. This version has removed all these faults and should work as expected. It still does not work with the complex object window, this is a particularly perplexing problem.

Let me know what you think
Graphics GUI 20.1.8 is the program when you have extracted the files.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqibHqCkE1VQ8RLxKMRhCJdiohJI

Regards Ric

[DDRM]

Hi Ric,

Got it up and running: looks very impressive and professional, with all its tooltips etc! I've had only a quick go so far...

...BUT... Trying to load an object seemed to look (only) for BBC files in the "Graphics GUI 18.3.3" folder, which is an older version. Is that a flaw in your default path, or is it just the last place I managed to load one from, in a previous incarnation? Edit: probably the latter, because it's changed (see below).

I can of course navigate to the new folder, but it comes up with "no items match your source", despite the fact that I know there are BBC files in there! I can force it by typing *.* in the search box. I guess we DO need to choose a BBC file - I chose "stairway-obj.BBC" and "ball test-obj.BBC", but both crashed the program. Before you ask, yes, I'd unpacked the archive. Is there a particular type you can/can't load?

I can create "quick objects, and move them round. I discovered the help, which made it much easier to understand how to manipulate the objects. I don't find it totally intutive (I'd like a way to move an object in the third dimension - shift drag?), but I'm sure it becomes easier with repeated use.

Looking good!

D