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This page contains older news pertaining to kludge3d.
I moved it to a separate page because it was cluttering up
the main page.
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I've uploaded a new release. Changes include:
- Quake2 file export
- Misc. bugfixes
- A critical interface behaviour has been changed. When creating a new model,
or loading an existing one, kludge3d will now automatically select the first
non-root node. This is critical because if either the root node or a NULL
node is selected, the user isn't permitted to add new vertices. I have a
feeling that several users simply gave up on kludge3d after starting it up
and, upon finding that they couldn't immediately add vertices to the model,
became frustrated. OTOH, this behaviour was documented in the user's
guide... so RTFM, people!
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Just to let you know what I've been working on:
- Kludge3d can now export to Quake2's .map format. It's not the most efficient
way to create Quake brushes, but it does work.
- In the last release, lib3ds wasn't entirely optional. Kludge3d wouldn't
compile cleanly without it. Sorry.
- Misc bugfixes.
I suppose I'll upload a new release soon.
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Quite a few people have written me about the
question I posted earlier (see below). Many of the
responses were very enlightening. After thinking about
it some more, I've decided to continue using the GTK
toolkit for kludge3d; I don't want to lose potential
users due to extra dependencies. However, it is
possible to use GTK with C++ programs; check out
truevision
for an example. I'm thinking that I'll probably
start working on a new "development" version of kludge3d
that uses C++ to handle the geometry stuff.
(There are tangible benefits for the user if kludge3d starts
making use of C++... things like an "undo" system are
much easier/cleaner in an OO language.)
In the meantime, I've fixed some bugs in the current version,
so I'll probably post a new release soon.
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I've been thinking about kludge3d recently... about what I intend
to do with it. I'll be getting a laptop soon, and I hope to be working
on kludge3d again shortly thereafter. However, I've decided that I'd rather
work in C++ than C. To rewrite the logic in C++ wouldn't take long (all of the
OpenGL stuff could remain the same, and the data structure manipulation stuff
would be a lot easier in an OO language) but rewriting the GUI
to use another toolkit would be quite a chore.
Hence, I call upon you the users of kludge3d (yes, all two of you) to
help me make this decision. Should I begin a rewrite? Or should I stick with
C and GTK+, and just add more functionality? If I do decide to rewrite, which
GUI toolkit should I use? Here are some of the toolkits that I've been
considering:
Inti - RedHat's
C++ wrapper for GTK+, et al. Zero documentation, possibly a dead project.
FLTK - I dunno... there's just something about this
toolkit that makes me a little uneasy (I think it's the fact that it's derived
from the "Forms" toolkit that bothers me the most).
It's not terribly popular, but it's small, cross-platform, and has very
good OpenGL support.
wxWindows - Impressive cross-platform
GUI toolkit. Uses GTK+ as a back-end, but is not limited to Unix systems. Has
native ports to MS Windows, Apple's MacOSX, even Motif (ugh). Has built-in
OpenGL widget.
KDE - Not likely... there are already
several modellers (of higher quality) available for KDE. Has built-in OpenGL
widget.
GTKmm - It's horrific... have you ever tried
it?
Of course, I'd be open to suggestions that aren't on this list, too.
Email me with ideas; I want to know what you think about all this.
Judging from the emails I've received in the past, most users aren't even using
the Linux version of kludge3d... so I guess that a toolkit with "cross platform"
in its list of features would be given extra consideration.
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Hey all,
I've arrived here in Oregon. Man, this place is strange.
Anyway, I'm updating the site to let you know that I'm still alive,
and that yes, I have received your emails. I will unfortunately be
unable to do any work on kludge3d for at least another two weeks. I
have no computer out here, nor the funds to purchase a proper laptop.
(BTW - if any of you are looking to sell your laptop, let me know.
I'm looking for something 2-3 years old, preferably with a DVD drive
and at least 128M of ram... You can get in touch with me through my
RIT email address; see the "email" link at left.)
In the mean time, enjoy the windows binaries that Mr. Pinson has
provided. You can find them at his site .
I've tested the binary on Windows 2000 with cygwin and mingw. I'm
running the Exceed X server. Everything seems to work, but I haven't
tested it well (I'm at work...).
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This release includes the polygon-extrude tool, the polygon-move tool
(it's about time...), improved rendering performance in wireframe mode,
and a bugfix in the AC3d-save routine.
Also, the method for adding new polys has changed somewhat. The operation
works mostly like it used to; however, unlike in previous releases, a polygon
isn't finished when you click on the third vertex. Instead, to complete a new
polygon, just click on some empty space. This allows you to create polygons
with more than 3 vertices.
Now for the news: I'm taking a job on the west coast, and I can't bring my
desktop computer with me. This means that I probably won't have access
to a linux box, and I won't be able to work on kludge3d while I'm there.
The job is for 6 months, so I'll be able to pick up development again
next august or september.
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So many changes!
-
kludge3d now supports multiple file formats. It's true!
It can read AC3d, Wavefront, and 3ds files, and can write
AC3d and Wavefront files.
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The flat-shaded mode looks much nicer now.
The surface normals are calculated (so the lighting doesn't
look screwy any more), the depth-testing is finally
working, and a wireframe overlay is drawn so you can see where each
poly begins and ends. Note that, because of these improvements,
the rendering is a little slower than before.
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new group operations: Merge Group With Children and Create New
Group From Selected Polygons
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added ability to hide/unhide selected polygons and vertices
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added support for polygons with 4 or more sides
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integrated patches from D. Pinson; apparently, kludge3d can be made
to compile on win32, using cyg/mingw/etc. Thanks David! Note that I
probably broke the win32 build with all the changes listed above. If anyone
wants to help clean up the win32 build, or wants to donate windows binaries,
then feel free to email me.
-
ironically, it seems that kludge3d still doesn't build on freebsd.
So much for automake. Why can't you nutty freebsd users just use linux instead? :)
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This is a more polished release than the last. The only changes include
the patches sent in by Mr. Pinson, as well as interface clean-ups, and
some fixes for compiler warnings.
Check out the new user's guide, too. Let me know if anything is missing.
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This is a really quick-n-dirty release. Many things
have changed since the last release; here's a short summary:
- removed the vertex and polygon tools and replaced them with
generalized object tools. Their behaviour is determined by
scope-selector radiobuttons.
- a background image can now be specified for each axis
- drag-n-drop stuff rewritten (IT WORKS NOW!)
- texture-application dialog rewritten. It is very nice, if you ask
me. Check out my mustang model if you don't believe me!
- lots of new tools
- lots of bug fixes
This is an unpolished release, in that many of the new tools don't have
icons, and the layout for the mode-selector is all wrong, from both an
ergonomic and aesthetic perspective. Also, Mr Pinson has sent me
some patches that I have neglected to incorporate... my apologies!
It will get fixed soon.
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I figured I'd better upload the changes that have
accumulated before I head off for break. Changes include
some bugfixes and RPM stuff from David Pinson. Also, the
toolbar icons have been made prettier. Check the screenshots
section to see what I'm talking about.
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Erm... three months between releases. What can I say? Keep in mind that
even though I haven't been making regular releases, I have been
working on kludge3d. As such, there have been too many changes to list
here. You can check out the changelog if you like, but the general idea
is this: kludge3d sucks less than it used to. It's actually approaching
a state of near-usefulness. As a sort of litmus-test for usability, I've
put together a simple level for the game "Tux: A Quest For Herring" using
only objects created in kludge3d. I'll probably release the level soon,
along with some sample utilities, so you can get a better idea of what
kludge3d is capable of.
Also, the source tarball now includes a makefile for freebsd. Thx Mike.
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I've uploaded another release. Improvements include:
- opengl stuff is better behaved now
- texture handling has been cleaned up all around
- texture-coord dialog is now functional
- various ui tweaks
I need help with the following issues:
- opengl drawing order is messed up. ME3d had this problem, too.
- gtk drag-n-drop is working now, but only the root of the tree is "drop-able"
- the picking (primitive-selection) code needs a rewrite...
does anyone out there know how to do this the "right way"? NeHe had a nice article on
the opengl selection buffer; maybe I'll take a look at that.
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I just uploaded a new release. New features include
the texture-coordinate dialog (doesn't do anything
at the moment) and vertex lasso-selection. The vertex
selection is a little non-intuitive. If you want
to simultaneously select multiple vertices, just hold down
one of the mouse buttons in the vertex-select mode and drag the cursor.
However, you won't be able to see any sort of dashed line
box (like you'd expect when doing something similar in the Gimp).
It seems to work fine, but you won't get any feedback while dragging
the selection rectangle around.
Other changes in this release include: many of the group operations are
enabled now; many of the memory leaks have been fixed (those
that still exist - and that I'm aware of - are tagged with a
"FIXME" comment); the "options" and opengl texture stuff are acting
stranger than ever.
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I got a little distracted, and did some HTML coding...
The new look was inspired by the clean, austere stylings
of the Slackware site (i.e. I stole some html). Do you like?
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I've been working on the next release - new features should
include vertex lassoing and texture-coordinate editing. I'll be
on vacation until next week, so expect the next update on
tuesday, or wednesday...
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Finally uploaded the webpage! Let's see how many people take an interest in our little project...
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Kludge3d now uses OpenGL for all 4 views, not just the preview
window. I don't think this will be a problem for those of us without
windowed 3d acceleration. I have a PPro 200, and simple models can be
rendered fairly smoothly in software mode. I think the Mesa software
renderer is actually faster than the old gdk-based orthographic
views. Removing the old renderer has the added benefit of reducing
the complexity of the code.
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Project was approved, but I couldn't upload anything. The sourceforge shell servers were down.
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