I was reading about the Maya API to C++ and didn't quite understand the idea.
Upon implementing the API, Can I create an environment, or a GUI in 3D world in Visual Studio?
This question is related to my previous one about the Maya API.
Question
If someone could give me a good place to begin, it would be great.
Thanks,
Oded.
You can't create 3D environment outside the Maya,
as well as you can do anything inside Maya with the API.
I recommend that you start with Maya python API instead of c++ it's way easier, and takes less development time.
you may read the "Complete Maya Programming" book, its example written in c++, but if you know some python you can write them in python.
Maya API allows you to extend Maya, and you can choose to use either c++ or python (the python just wraps same API, more or less). Now the extension framework is meant for you to implement your own nodes, importers/exporters and motion capture devices, mostly. The GUI layer is reserved to scripting components and QT neither which are exactly Maya APIS domain, tough it gives you hooks to do with with the script environment or QT.
As for the exact question can you create a GUI yes you can get a handle to the QT framework, but as i previously said its not the realm of the API per see. And as for the environment yes you could do that its just not the sort of thing you'd do as your first project. You do almost anything you like, inside or even a connection outside of Maya however from a practical standpoint you'd still have to quite intimately know Maya before starting to do so. The API doesn't exactly allow you to do anything you like it has certain no bounds limitations and its not a good idea to fight Mayas run time environment.
If on the other hand you want to control things within Maya externally then make a node or a motion capture server, that's what they are meant for.
Personally i find the complete Maya programming book a bit misleading on all levels but yes you could use it as basis. Just not terribly fruitful for any of the tasks you ask for.
Related
I'm developing my first Windows desktop application and I'm trying to figure out what the best approach would be to create the program's GUI.
I know, I know... I feel stupid for asking considering the amount of data on the subject on SO. However most answers seem outdated and I'm not sure if they fit my specific project. Also tutorials for Windows 8 'metro apps' are clogging my Google search results, which is NOT what I'm looking for.
I use Visual Studio. I've followed tutorials. I have basic knowledge of C and Java and extensive experience with PHP. I'm excited to learn C++, so I'm not looking for GUIs to create a GUI (like WinForms). I also don't care about managed code and portability for now, especially since I'm trying to avoid dependencies (i.e. users having to install .NET). As long as it runs smoothly on Vista and up, I'm happy.
The application
The software will teach basic physics to kids. I'd like to create a main area and a sidebar. The main area will feature a physics animation, say a bouncing ball, along with some Q&A. Users can zoom in to the animation to measure some stuff and answer the question. Users can track their progress in the sidebar. That's pretty much it.
What I've found so far
I'm getting a bit frustrated with MSDN. Most of their examples are given in four different languages (C#, C++, etc). I can't seem to get more than a bit of Hello World code from them.
I found a GDI API on MSDN and it seems like a good start for me. However I've read quite a few answers on SO saying creating layouts in pure C++ is really hard, that we're better of using frameworks like ATL and WTL. Since I'm also going to create (somewhat interactive) animations, I've wondered whether I should use gaming-targeted APIs like Direct2D.
Since all of this is new to me, and there are a lot of options, I don't know where to start for my particular application. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
Using the raw Win32 API (no additional downloads or third-party helpers):
Here's a good primer (introduces dialog boxes, text boxes, buttons, etc): theForger's Win32 API Tutorial
And here's where you go from there (numeric up-downs, list boxes, combo boxes, tooltips, and more): Common Controls on MSDN. Most of these require you to #include <commctrl.h>.
I also found this to be a good resource that covered what the other two didn't: Win32 Developer - Window Assets
But the Win32 API doesn't seem like it does exactly what you want. A physics app for kids should have a more visual GUI than the API can provide. Good luck, though!
If you're ok with adding additional Frameworks, I'd suggest looking at Qt.
It allows to create the GUI from code only, has a good structure, and has an Interface for 2D drawing, if required.
If you are concerned about dependencies, you only have to include the Qt DLLs to your executables; no installation is required for the user.
To get started, see my (old) tutorial "Lessons in Windows API Programming".
But you really need a good book, such as edition 5 or earlier of Charles Petzold's classic "Programming Windows".
The problem with latest edition is that it's for C# and .NET, with Charles grabbing the tail of the "new way" at just the wrong time…
Disclaimer: I haven't checked the details of edition numbers.
Using the Windows API is the simplest, but producing advanced GUIs can take a very long time. Microsoft Foundation Class is a way to make the Windows API more user friendly and OOP. Does anyone have any experience with MFC?
Why not use some 2D C++ game engine, like HGE: http://hge.relishgames.com/overview.html.
I want to create a DeskBand to display some information on my Windows task bar, but I am struggling with implementing the functionality I need in C++. It's been about 10-15 years since I touched C++. I've been working entirely in .NET for the past 7 years.
Before you say it - I know that DeskBands are deprecated. But the suggested replacement UI element - thumbnail toolbars - don't meet my needs. I need a UI element that is constantly visible to the user no matter which application they switch to, and also that provides enough room to display a line of text - I could get by with room for 30 characters or so.
I've been able to get the DeskBand from the Windows SDK sample to compile and run, but now I need to implement some real functionality - specifically...
Locating the AppData\Local folder (SHGetKnownFolderPath(FOLDERID_LocalAppData...)
Watching an XML file for modifications. I need to parse and repaint whenever the file changes.
Parsing the XML file (I found pugixml)
Displaying some data from the XML file in my DeskBand
Setting a timer to repaint the DeskBand once per minute
... and I am realizing how little I know about C++, and how much I've come to depend on .NET's Base Class Library. This task would be super easy for me if I was writing it in C#. But I've learned elsewhere that you shouldn't write shell extensions in .NET.
What are my options? Is there an easier language to accomplish this in - maybe Python? Or do I have to just bite the bullet and do this in C++? If so, any advice for a .NET developer trying to implement a WinAPI shell extension in C++?
Thank you in advance.
Shell Extensions are COM objects, and C++ is generally the best language to use when developing COM objects because COM was designed primarily for C++, but it is not the only language possible. COM has a standardized architecture, so you can use any language outside of .NET that supports COM object development (Delphi, VB, etc) to develop Shell Extensions (similar to how the Win32 API is primarily designed for C, but any C-compatible language can access it).
I have to develop a basic inventory system, and my client wants to see all the objects in the inventory in 3D and their positions in the warehouse. The thing is that I have to develop this as soon as possible, delivery time is my priority here. So I came to the conclusion that I would need a powerful 3D graphics engine and an UI toolkit that can be easily integrated with it. I've plenty of experience with C++, Qt, OpenGL, VTK, C# and WinForms. In my experience, VTK is not so good with textures and it would involve more work to add the eye candy my client wants (like animations, visual effects, etc). I've tried Axiom with WinForms. I went through hell making a sample load and run (framework incompatibilities, rendering engines not found, codec native dependencies missing, etc).
I have been evaluating different options:
Qt + Ogre (C++)
WinForms + Axiom (.NET)
Qt + Irrlicht (C++)
Which do you think would be the best option? Could you recommend me some other possibility?
Thanks in advance!
I spent a heap of time developing with Mogre (a C# wrapper around Ogre) and WinForms. In my opinion it's a good combination because you can develop the GUI much faster in C# WinForms than any of the C++ options.
If you don't mind using a C# wrapper around the C++ Ogre library I recommend using Mogre rather than Axiom. It is very stable, has some good maintainers and keeps up with the latest version of Ogre pretty well. Any code on the Ogre forums can easily be ported to C# because most of the API is identical.
Axiom is a pure .NET port of Ogre, although it lags a few versions behind and may have some missing features. I haven't spent a lot of time with it but I believe it's main strength is that it's all managed code, if that's important to you.
There's an open source project called Glue Editor that I started a while ago. It's no longer maintained but it has a lot of code you can use to get Mogre working with WinForms. You should be able to download the repository and compile it out of the box. You're welcome to take the code and use it however you like.
https://bitbucket.org/glue/glueeditor/src
If you decide to go down the Qt + Ogre path there's a project called Ogitor you might want to check out.
https://bitbucket.org/jacmoe/ogitor/src
You might also want to check out XNA and MonoGame. XNA is Microsofts framework for making games in C#. It is fairly bare bones but it has a much lower learning curve than Ogre, Mogre or Axiom. MonoGame is an open source implementation of the XNA framework that works on non-Microsoft platforms (e.g. Android, iOS, Linux).
http://monogame.codeplex.com/
I recommend Qt + Ogre (C++), although I have to confess this is the only combination from your list I have much experience with. The good thing about Ogre is the amount of documentation and the active community. So many questions are answered and documented. The graphics itself can probably be created in all library combinations. However, I like the easy intergration of object interaction in Ogre. The standard is based on bounding boxes, however there is code available for triangle intersection as well. Wish you luck!
I wrote a program in C++/OpenGL (using Dev-C++ compiler) for my calculus 2 class. The teacher liked the program and he requested me to somehow put it online so that instead of downloading the .exe I can just run it on the web browser. Kinda like java applets run on the browser.
The question is:
How if possible, can I display a C++/OpenGL program in a web browser?
I am thinking of moving to JOGL which is a java interpretation of OpenGL but I rather stay in C++ since I am more familiar with it.
Also is there any other better and easier 3D web base API that I can consider?
There is a lot activity recently with WebGL. It is a binding for Javascript to native OpenGL ES 2.0 implementations, designed as an extension of the canvas HTML5 element.
It is supported by the nightly builds of Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera.
Have a look at these tutorials, based on the well known NeHe OpenGL tutorials.
Several projects based on WebGL are emerging, most notably Scenegraphs APIs.
From Indie teams: SceneJS, GLGE, SpiderGL.
From Google: the team behind O3D plugin is trying to implement a pure WebGL backend (source) for the project, so that no plugin will be necessary.
From W3C/Web3D: There is an ongoing discussion to include X3D as part of any HTML5 DOM tree, much like SVG in HTML4. The X3DOM project was born last year to support this idea. Now it is using WebGL as its render backend, and is version 1.0 since March 2010.
I'm almost sure that WebGL is the way to go in the near future. Mozilla/Google/Apple/Opera are promoting it, and if the technology works and there is sufficient customer/developer demand, maybe Microsoft will implement it on IE (let's hope that there will be no "WebDX"!).
AFAIK, there's only 3 options:
Java. it includes the whole OpenGL stack.
Google's Native Client (NaCL), essentially it's a plugin that let's you run executable x86 code. Just compile it and call it from HTML. Highly experimental, and nobody will have it already installed. Not sure if it gives you access to OpenGL libraries.
Canvas:3D. Another very experimental project. This is an accelerated 3D API accessible from JavaScript. AFAICT, it's only on experimental builds of Firefox.
I'd go for Java, if at all.
OTOH, if it's mostly vectorial works (without lots of textures and illumination/shadows), you might make it work on SVG simply by projecting your vectors from 3D to 2D. In that case, you can achieve cross-browser compatibility using SVGWeb, it's a simple JavaScript library that allows you to transparently use either the browser's native SVG support or a Flash-based SVG renderer.
Do you really have the time to rewrite it? I thought students were meant to be too busy for non-essential assignment work.
But if you really want to do it, perhaps a preview of it running as a flash movie is the easiest way. Then it's just a matter of doing that and you could provide a download link to the real application if people are interested.
Outside of Java, in-browser OpenGL is really in its infancy. Google's launched a really cool API and plugin for it though. It's called O3D:
http://code.google.com/apis/o3d/
Article about the overall initiative:
http://www.macworld.com/article/142079/2009/08/webgl.html
It's not OpenGL, but the Web3D Consortium's X3D specification may be of interest.
Another solution is to use Emscripten (a source-to-source compiler).
Emscripten supports C/C++ and OpenGL and will translate the source into html/JavaScript.
To use Emscripten you will need to use SDL as a platform abstraction layer (for getting an OpenGL context as well as loading images).
Emscripten is currently being used in Unreal Engine and will also be used in the Unity 5 engine.
Read more about the project here:
https://github.com/kripken/emscripten
Two approaches:
Switch to Java. However, your application will suffer from a loss of performance as a trade off for portability. But since Java is everywhere, this approach ensures that your code can be executed in most browsers.
Use ActiveX, which allows you to run native binary code for Microsoft Windows. This is not recommended in production because activeX is well known as a potential security hole, but since your lecturer is the one viewing it, security doesn't seem to be a big deal. This is applicable for Microsoft platform (Windows+IE) only.
I need a 2d political map of the world on which I will draw icons, text, and lines that move around. Users will interact with the map, placing and moving the icons, and they will zoom in and out of the map.
The Google Maps interface isn't very far from what I need, but this is NOT web related; it's a Windows MFC application and I want to talk to a C++ API for a map that lives in the application, not a web interface. Ideally I don't want a separate server, either, and any server MUST run locally (not on the Internet). What canned map package or graphics library should I use to do this? I have no graphics programming experience.
This is strictly 2D, so I don't think something like Google Earth or WorldWind would be appropriate. Good vector graphics support would be cool, and easy drawing of bitmaps is important.
All the canned options seem web oriented. SDL is about all I know of for flexible canvas programming, but it seems like making my own map would be a lot of work for what is probably a common problem. Is there anything higher level? Maybe there's a way to interact with an adobe Flash object? I'm fairly clueless.
Perhaps:
http://www.codeplex.com/SharpMap
ESRI MapObjects
http://www.esri.com/software/mapobjects/index.html
ESRI MapObjects LT
http://www.esri.com/software/mapobjectslt/index.html
See
http://www.esri.com/software/mapobjectslt/about/mo_vs_lt.html
for a comparison of the two MapObjects feature sets.
ESRI may have a replacement to the MapObjects libraries
You could extend your search by using the term GIS (Geographic Information System). I'm sure its gonna be easier. There's a lot of stuff out there on that subject.
Here's a page I found: http://www.ucancode.net/Gis-Source-Code.htm
or: http://opensourcegis.org/
You might want to try the Mapnik C++/Python GIS Toolkit.
You can take a look at the Marble Widget, which is part of KDE's Marble project. There are Windows binaries for this, too, but they might be dependent on Qt.
Yes, Marble has also the advantage that it provides kind of a ready made solution in a single control (called "widget" in Qt's technical terms).
The dependency on Qt (which is the only dependency btw.) might also be seen as an advantage: Qt's upcoming version is licensed under the LGPL, so even if you plan to use this in a proprietary application then there shouldn't be any real worries. And of course Qt and Marble are cross-plattform and provide an API that is very intuitive and easy to understand. Unlike common GIS solutions the Marble API and the usage of the widget is rather focused on people who don't know much about GIS. So its usage is quite easy to understand even if you feel scared by technical terms used in GIS.
Marble offers several interfaces to programming:
You can either create your own Marble plugins and paint inside those or you can subclass the MarbleWidget control. For a simple HelloWorld application see:
http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Marble/MarbleCPlusPlus