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vineri, 16 septembrie 2011

X3DOM - part 001.

What is X3DOM?
The official website gives us the answer.
X3DOM (pronounced X-Freedom) is an experimental open source framework and runtime to support the ongoing discussion in the Web3D and W3C communities how an integration of HTML5 and declarative 3D content could look like. It tries to fulfill the current HTML5 specification for declarative 3D content and allows including X3D elements as part of any HTML5 DOM tree.
We try to use it.
The official site tell us about the browsers and X3DOM.
Internet Explorer 9 = does/will not support WebGL. So you have to install the InstantReality-plugin or Flash 11.
Google Chrome ver 9.x = supports WebGL natively.
Firefox >= 4.x = supports WebGL natively.
Safari (Mac only: Safari 5.1 on OS X 10.6 and 10.7) = include support for WebGL (Windows version does not), but you need enable it through the “Developer”-menu. To activate the “Developer”-menu go to Preferences->Advanced and check the “Show Developer menu in menu bar” button.
Let's check it!
First, check here if your browser supports X3DOM.
If your browser not supports X3DOM , you will see this :
Also , the running example will show you this:
Now, Let's try a simple example. Create a html file and paste the code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<body>
 <title>TEST X3DOM</title>
 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.x3dom.org/x3dom/release/x3dom.css" /></link>
 <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.x3dom.org/x3dom/release/x3dom.js"></script>
</body>
<h1>Show box under x3dom !</h1>
<x3d width="500px" height="500px">
 <scene>
  <shape>
   <appearance>
    <material diffuseColor='blue'></material>
   </appearance>
   <box></box>
  </shape>
 </scene>
</x3d>
</html>
Also if you want then we can install this (instantreality Framework 2.0).
I managed to run version 6.0.2 Firefox example by changing the settings WebGL.
I wrote in the address bar about:config and I looked and changed the setting:
webgl.force-enabled to true.
Open the file with the Firefox web browser.We can see one blue box...
... and Chrome Web Browser (ver. 13.0.782.220 m)with this result:
Under IE , I got errors ... Although I have installed the InstantReality-plugin or Flash 11.
You can see more examples here.

vineri, 19 august 2011

OES_texture_float WebGL extension under WebGL

In the video below you see a demo using OES_texture_float WebGL extension.

If the video card is the generation then you need to use Chrome and test online here.
This demo uses the following features:
  • Raytraced reflections and refractions
  • Analytic ambient occlusion
  • Heightfield water simulation *
  • Soft shadows
  • Caustics **
It seems that technology WebGL has a brighter future , the proof is many demos on internet.

joi, 11 august 2011

Shadertoy: Test your shader online.

If you want to learn and test 3D shader technology, then you can try Shader Toy v0.3 .
This web site allows you to write shaders and view the result .
It also comes with some useful examples .
More can be found on website .

miercuri, 10 august 2011

Programming Demoscene

The basics of demo coding by Martti Nurmikari. You can see bellow:

duminică, 7 august 2011

New 3D Book - 3D Engine Design for Virtual Globes

The authors of this nice book : Patrick Cozzi and Kevin Ring have done a very good job , because was necessary such a book.
The book is named 3D Engine Design for Virtual Globes and you can get from
The engine design presented in this book is based on OpenGL 3.3 with core.
The book has 520-page programming book.
You cab get from here the price is just £37.99 ...

vineri, 5 august 2011

NVIDIA R280.19 Beta

OpenGL it was designed to be readily extensible to accomodate new hardware innovations.
Now you have new extensions:

  1. GL_EXT_import_sync_object
  2. WGL_EXT_swap_control_tear
Let us hope that we will have such news of OpenGL.
Unfortunately I have not yet found any reference about them.

duminică, 24 iulie 2011

Sketchpad - online ...

If you want to draw and do not have specialized software installed. You can test your skills online here.
This web page allows you to draw with different tools and to save your work.
Although it seems simplistic this site offers multiple patterns and gradients, as well as useful tools for you.

sâmbătă, 18 iunie 2011

The SDK for Kinect is released .

For those who use an Xbox 360 Kinect, we have a good happy.
It is released the beta of the Windows SDK for Kinect.
The API is for C + +, C # and Visual Basic.
Maybe seven months after the Kinect Because WAS officially hacked.
Read more here.

miercuri, 15 iunie 2011

OpenSceneGraph - features

On 8 June 2011 , a new release of OpenSceneGraph (OSG) it is announce .
Today I read on internet about these enhancements:
Uniform variable performance enhancements.
Support for OpenGL multisample textures using the GL_ARB_texture_multisample extension.
OcclusionQueryNode support for multiple parent Camera nodes (including render to texture operations).
A new command line option for the osgconv application. "--use-world-frame" causes osgconv transformations to operate in the world, rather that the bounding volume, coordinate space.
New notification macros to avoid inefficiencies in STL stream implementations.
A new export option for the .OSG file format plugin. "OutputRelativeTextures" exports texture images to a subfolder of the exported model file.
Several updates and fixes to the .3DS file format plugin.
...

You can see some screenshots , here .
It seems that the development team is moving quickly, considering the evolution of this software.

luni, 23 mai 2011

Latest version of Blender 3D on Puppy Linux.

For users who use 3D software Blender good news. Beta version 2.5 is now present on Lucid Puppy version 5.2.5.
This distro released in April 2011, brings new improvements.
Here is a screenshot of it:
I've tested it with old Nvidia video card.
I had to install the driver for FX 5200 named "NVIDIA-173.14.25.lupu500k2.6.33.2".
I made ​​this easy with the software "Puppy Package Manager.
Everything went perfectly.

miercuri, 9 martie 2011

SlimDX and SharpDX frameworks.

These two applications come to support developers who use DirectX.
First SlimDX is a free open source framework that enables developers to easily build DirectX applications using .NET technologies.
SlimDX supports a wide range of APIs, operating systems, and configurations. All versions of Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003, Server 2008, and 7 are supported, for both 32 and 64 bit. There is a minimum requirement of .NET 2.0
See more here.
The second, SharpDX is intended to be used as an alternative managed DirectX framework. The API is generated automatically from DirectX SDK headers, with AnyCpu target, meaning that you can run your application on x86 and x64 platform, without recompiling your project or installing assemblies into the GAC.
Full support for the DirectX API.
Managed platform independent .NET API.
See more here.
What I don't like about the two programs and their official websites...
The tutorials are weak and few.
Documentation is not complete.
sharpdx comes with two zip archives that would be enough to develop an application.
SlimDX installation has two executables:
. NET Runtime 2.0 End User and Developer SDK
The result is the same as sharpdx, a lot of source code with some compiled binaries.
I tried to run the samples for DirectX 9 but failed.
I use DirectX 9c on a Asus Eee PC 1000H with 1GB RAM.
Although I was expecting more, these applications have disappointed me.

duminică, 20 februarie 2011

Newton Game Dynamics - open source from feb. 2011

Newton Game Dynamics is an integrated solution for real time simulation of physics environments.
The API provides scene management, collision detection, dynamic behavior and yet it is small, fast, stable and easy to use.
This API was created by Julio Jerez and Alain Suero.
Starting 02/15/2011 this API is open source and hoosted in google code.
See more here.

miercuri, 16 februarie 2011

Allegro 5 library for game development.

Allegro 4 and Allegro 5 are cross-platform, open source, game programming libraries, primarily for C and C++ developers.
The Allegro library provides low level routines like input, graphics, midi, sound effects, and timing.
It is cross platform : Windows, OS X, Linux, DOS, and others.
The official website is here.
You can find some tutorials, and various articles for beginners.
Other information can be found here.