plugin

[snail]

Hey All,

If you may not know, I have been working on a plugin system for the game engine. Which being my first
plugin attempt, I hope that the code will be reusable in other projects, but thats yet to be seen.
The project is code named echo or echo-plugin. I had to think of a name quickly for the sourceforge page
and echo is what I have always called my projects and the name has stuck with me.

The main goal in this project is to implement the OGRE system into blender, This will include
the same logic as seen in Ketsji and the Bullet physics library. The sound system will use OpenAL, and
if there is time, I would like to use a cross platform network library

Some more things include a blend file loader. This would be a big improvement, as resources
can be set up to extract meshes textures, and others from multiple blend files. Currently
the blender scene can be saved to disk and loaded via python for the player. Although...
that method is not ideal. COLLADA can be one option for this


The first stage of this project is almost finished, this includes setting up the interface to create and
convert blender objects to OGRE objects. All the blender data can now be passed over the interface
to the plugin at runtime. The actual completion of this stage is still a way off. The next major coding in this
area is to convert all scene animation into OGRE animation.

The second stage is to get all current Ketsji features working, this includes the logic system and
a scripting system. The scripting system may be a little different. In the ketsji engine all objects
are potentially script objects. while this is great and works good. Some major problems can arise
when mixing global variables. I have in mind a python wrapper library, that will deal with references to the object's
methods and not be the object itself.


Finally the last stage will be to implement OGRE features. The goal here is to
provide a way for the user to have access to the advanced features of OGRE without having to compile the
code themselves. Some of the features will require going to scripts to set options.
For one, there is no option in blender for scene manager types ( Generic, Octree... )
When things of this nature occur, scripts may be the only goto.


Well I guess thats enough for now, everything is open for discussion.
Which is the main idea behind this post. That and a small progress report.

In the meantime here is a quick snapshot/build of the current progress so far. Its still in the first stage
so it has almost no functionality yet

(windows)
http://www.continuousphysics.com/ftp/pu ... -14-06.zip
Other platforms on the way

Thanks,
Charlie (snailrose)

[LetterRip]

Excellent work Charlie,

there is lots of excitement in the community and among the developers over this.

LetterRip

[Lee04]

For one, there is no option in blender for scene manager types ( Generic, Octree... )
When things of this nature occur, scripts may be the only goto.

I am giving a talk at the Blender conferance about advanced Ogre scene manager design and optimization.

see http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... 950#169950

The echo plug-in does support/use the Ogre scene graph, Ogre scene manager system and Ogre render queues right?

You statement abouve made me a bit nervous.

cheers

Lee04

[snail]

Yeah It uses the main Ogre scene managers.
That statement just means that there is no UI option for selecting them.

For example,a start up script will probably be used to allow which manager
the user wants to use on a scene by scene basis.
Then while the blender scene is being converted and passed to the plugin. It will call the optional
script to gather extra info and options. then finally create the scene and its manager...

This method might be used a lot later, right now most options are hard coded.
The actual runtime usage of OGRE is still bare, because most of the work so far has been to convert the blender objects


Thanks,
Charlie

[Lee04]

@Snail can you please email or message me on Ogres forum.
I want to discuss a demo I want to do to the Blender conferance talk.

cheers

Lee04

[snail]

Well I'm having problems with registering on the Ogre forums, can you send me and email at snailrose@bresnan.net
And we can discuss this further

[mpan3]

splendid. Even at its infant stage, the OGRE rasterizer ( i assume it's already using OGRE for rendering???) is already out-performing the BlenderGE.

SebublaOgre.blend

OGRE: 155fps
2.42a OPTIMIZED: 120fps
2.42a official: 90fps

[pildanovak]

it's crashing for me here on radeon 9600 with pentium M on an IBM laptop, and yes, win XP. it doesn't even write anything into console, just crash after hitting P. Are there any instructions how to use/install it ?

[_Po_]

Snailrose, you're punctilious ! A OgreBlender's build in August, that's it. There is no problem with your files (acer TravelMate 8204), i start experiments...

You search a cross platform network library, perhaps could you look at Enet (http://enet.cubik.org/Features.html), part of Cube fps and Sauerbraten.

For an other library, there is NelNet (http://www.nevrax.org/tikiwiki/tiki-ind ... age=NeLNet).
It's the net part of Nel toolkit(GPL license) for MMORPG.

Thank's for your work !

_Po_

[littlebob]

for some reason when i press the P button nothing happens
the game engine does not start
but it the text window it reloads python like when you push the esc key to end the game.

i'm i doing some thing wrong or is that all it's sappose to do?

[hcs]

when will it available for linux ?
what is the status of devel process ? (the source code on sf.net's svn is 3 weeks old)
any news ?

[snail]

Hey,
Sorry, I'm not so good at keeping the progress up to date.
I am currently rewriting the base structure of the code. With this rewrite, the advantage of a true plugin
system should be correct now. Provided you use the DNA library being written, you should not have to modify blenders source
in order to plug in a real time engine. The Linux version is currently being worked on, but I can only distribute x86_64 versions
when the time comes for a release.


Thanks,
Charlie

[pocho]

I view you work snail, I like much the effect of the shades.
nice examples blends.
i hope in the future use this in my games.
thanks a lot for your effort and work.
all comunity blender spanish thanks for your work.

pd:
it excuses my English. i am spanish guy from Argentinean, and use the multitranse soft for write this text.

[pildanovak]

hi, just wanted to ask if there are any updates, since the last version crashes on my computer:)

[snail]

Hey, still no updates just yet. As soon as I figure out blenders armature math to OGRE's Skeleton, things should really
pick up pace.

Thank you all for your patience