Stay tuned!

Also watch for a preview of mp_ice_station_zebra out soon.
This map will be made for both COD4 and COD:WaW.

-Frittz

This example creates a new control which derives from FrameworkElement and is very similar to the implementation of the Viewport3D control. The new control overrides the measure and layout methods of FrameworkElement and positions the child controls (supplied as a collection of UIElements) according to the orientation of an imaginary 2D ellipse in 3D space.

It is assumed that the reader has some knowledge of custom controls, LINQ and 3D in WPF. The code provided is by no means an ideal implementation of the theory, it should be thought of more as a quick demonstration of the concept. And remember, in WPF there is almost always more than one way of doing the same thing, mine is just my take on the problem :0)

The Idea

In the last example, we worked out how to lay out controls as if they were positioned at equal intervals around the edge of an imaginary ellipse. We now want to take that ellipse from a 2D space in to 3D, giving a sense of depth in the control.

Taking the existing layout logic in to the third dimension is fairly trivial if we remember that the positions we calculate for child controls in the 2D version could be thought of as being 3D points, all at the same distance away from the screen, i.e. z = 0. So by treating the points that are generated as 3D points, each with a value of zero for z (their depth), we can then rotate them to match the orientation of the layout ellipse (defined by an x, y and z axis rotation).

In short, we calculate the position of each child element as before, then rotate that point in 3D to match the rotation of a virtual layout ellipse. The layout ellipse will be configured as before, although this time we need to allow a way to configure its orientation. This is as simple as adding three new properties to allow an angle of rotation to be specified for each axis.

When it comes to the control, we need to look to 3D controls in WPF. We could create our own control which lays out its content, then projects it in to 3D and renders the control scaled such that they appear to be 3D, but that's no fun and way too much effort! It would somehow be great if we could take advantage of the relatively new Viewport2DVisual3D control, effictively a 3D wrapper for a UIElement. It would also be great if the control exposed just a collection of UIElements, which internally it could wrap in a Viewport2DVisual3D control. 

Now we know what our items are doing, we need to think of a suitable container. If we look at the Viewport3D control, we can see that it wraps a Viewport3DVisual, exposing a collection of UIElement objects which it implicitly converts to Visual3D objects and adds to the inner Viewport3DVisual, as well as one or two other things. This is very similar to what we want to do, with the difference that we want to also define the layout mechanism too.

The Theory

I guess the first thing to tackle here is how to take the generated 2D position for each child control and turn that in to a 3D point, which we can use to create a TranslateTransform3D. For each point we generate on the ellipse, create a Point3D object using the x and y values of the 2D point and supply a z value of 0d (or whatever you want for the ellipse's distance from the image plane).

Next, rotate the point around each axis using the rotations used to describe the layout ellipse's orientation.  If you're familiar with 3D graphics you may well be aware of Gimbal lock, something we want to avoid when we're rotating the child control positions. To combat this, the rotation method will use quaternions. If you've not come across quaternions before, I recommend a quick look on Google as there are far better explanations out there than I can give. Also look at this site which gives the theory behind the math used to rotate a point.

[sourcecode language='csharp']
private readonly static Vector3D UnitXAxis3D = new Vector3D(1d, 0d, 0d);
private readonly static Vector3D UnitYAxis3D = new Vector3D(0d, 1d, 0d);
private readonly static Vector3D UnitZAxis3D = new Vector3D(0d, 0d, 1d);

private static Point3D RotatePoint3D(Point3D point, double xRotation, double yRotation, double zRotation)
{
Quaternion xQ = new Quaternion(UnitXAxis3D, xRotation);
Quaternion yQ = new Quaternion(UnitYAxis3D, yRotation);
Quaternion zQ = new Quaternion(UnitZAxis3D, zRotation);

Quaternion xyzQ = xQ * yQ * zQ;
Quaternion xyzQc = xyzQ;
xyzQc.Conjugate();

Quaternion pQ = new Quaternion(point.X, point.Y, point.Z, 0d);
Quaternion q = xyzQ * pQ * xyzQc;
Point3D rotatedPoint = new Point3D(q.X, q.Y, q.Z);

return rotatedPoint;
}
[/sourcecode]

With the Point3D in hand, a TranslateTransform3D object can be created and applied to the child Viewport2DVisual3D control. This leads to the next question of how we are going to handle the wrapping of UIElements. With the addition of the Viewport2DVisual3D control, it is now possible to easily use a UIElement in a 3D scene, maintaining all the usual input handling, so no more messing around with visual brushes and models! You don't get off too lightly though as you still need to provide the Viewport2DVisual3D with some information. This includes a Geometry3D object detailing a mesh that defines the surface which the inner Visual is to be rendered on; the material which should be used when rendering the Visual on the mesh and finally the Visual object itself.

To keep things simple, we can define a basic mesh containing a unit square. This mesh is going to be used as the geometry for each control surface, so we need a way of sizing it according to the dimensions of the control being rendered. This is again a trivial problem and is solved by creating a ScaleTransform3D object which scales the Viewport2DVisual3D control so that it is scaled by the dimensions of the inner Visual object, ignoring z. Nice!

The scale transform is created for each Viewport2DVisual3D control each time the MeasureOverride method is called. There is no particular reason to place this code here, other than it keeps the sizing logic separate from the layout logic, keeping things a bit better organised. The next code snippet is included to highlight the use of the OfType<T>() LINQ extension method, used on the Children property of the control's inner Viewport3DVisual. This method returns an IEnumerable<T> object containing all the items in the collection with a type specified by T. Because we know that our Children collection contains a light somewhere within it, we want to skip over that when scaling the child objects.

[sourcecode language='csharp']
protected override Size MeasureOverride(Size availableSize)
{
//Iterate all the children of the inner viewport.
foreach (Viewport2DVisual3D visualChild 
in viewport3DVisual.Children.OfType())
{
//Get the inner UIElement
UIElement element = visualChild.Visual as UIElement;
//Create a scale transform so that the control appears the right size
ScaleTransform3D scaleTransform
= new ScaleTransform3D(element.DesiredSize.Width, element.DesiredSize.Height, 0d);

//Add the scale transform in to the Viewport2DVisual3D's transform group.
AssertTransform3D(scaleTransform, visualChild);
}

return availableSize;
}
[/sourcecode]

The container that will hold all of these Viewport2DVisual3D controls will need to be a Viewport3DVisual. Again because we are dealing with 3D we need to define a few extra things for the Viewport3DVisual. The first is a Camera object which defines how controls displayed in the Viewport3DVisual appear to the viewer. The second is a Light object which defines an AmbientLight object used to provide a uniform white light in the 3D scene (otherwise everything would be dark and you'd see nothing more than a black screen).

To make the controls appear to be positioned within 3-dimensional space, we will use a PerspectiveCamera, meaning objects which are placed deeper in to the control (further from the screen) will appear smaller than those which are closer to the screen. All we need to do to configure the camera is tell it where it is and the direction it is looking. Because we are keeping things simple here, we'll position our camera somewhere along the positive z-axis, and have it looking down the z-axis (towards the origin). This means our camera will be looking straight on at the objects placed within the control, with the layout ellipse's origin at the origin of the scene.

The Solution

Here I present a simple demonstration of the above in the attached solution. The solution contains a simple Window which hosts the custom 3D ellipse layout control. The ellipse layout control is included in the ElliptiseLayout3DPanel class and adds several dependency properties and a few methods to the FrameworkElement class.

The main window also contains a few controls which allow you to interact with the layout control, allowing you to specify the size, location and pose of the layout control as well as add or remove items to the control. There are also two buttons will moves the controls around the ellipse, one at a time. This is a bit of a jig and is as simple as removing an item from the top of the collection held in the control's Children property and adding it to the end of the collection. The reverse is true for moving back through the items. The light sometimes gets caught up in this, so you may not see anything happen for a click or two when switching direction.

With the default orientation of the ellipse when the demo app first runs, changes made to the z-rotation slider will have the effect of spinning the controls around, in the fashion of a carousel. This could be used to animate the rotation items in the control.

To the right is a class diagram, showing the structure of the layout control. You can see it’s pretty simple and doesn’t need to add much to its FrameworkElement ancestor. 

Below is a screen-shot of the demo application in action. The values of the sliders are directly bound to the panel’s dependency properties, meaning the only code-behind is for the four button event handlers.

The code is available for download as a Visual Studio 2008 (SP1) solution, built against .Net 3.5 SP1.

Going Forwards

The light source and other properties of the control are not configurable. You may want to expose the lights as a separate collection, or at least allow the colour to be altered.

The control will need some more work to enable it to be used in an ItemsPanelTemplate, so it won't work out of the box.

You may want to add proper methods for controlling the order of items in the control, possibly animating this.

All and any comments / bugs / suggestions are welcomed!

So endlich wurde es von Apple selbst bestaetigt. Es wird am 14. Oktober ein Event mit dem Hauptthema "Notebooks" geben. Ich hoffe das ich an diesem Tag rechtzeitig aus Wien (von der Maxon Roadshow) zurueckkomme, um mit euch auf die neuen Macbook(s / ) ( / Pros) zu fiebern.

pipeline so far is:

blender (box modelling)
modo (sub-d modelling / texturing / rendering / animation)
illustrator (typography work)
swish / flash (text animation)
nuke (compositing)
premiere (final edit / sound)

Download .fbx

Pour la première catégorie, il existe l'incontournable Blender de qualité professionnel. Pour le modelage de paysage, il y a la version 5 de Bryce qui, elle, est gratuite (pour activer le logiciel, il faut s'enregistrer sur cette page). Pour avoir l'équivalent de Poser pour la modélisation de personnages ou de bestioles, il existe Daz studio ou Make Human. Pour les décors, il existe True Space qui, je le souligne, a été rendu gratuit grâce à Microsoft suite au rachat par celui ci, de la société éditrice ; Caligari. A noter qu'il existe aussi pour l'animation 3D, le logiciel Anim8or.

Pour la 2D, enfin, dans un précédent billet, je vous parlais de Projet Dogwaffle pour la création de dessin animé, mais il existe également Creatoon.

Pour finir un court métrage d'animation 3D réalisé avec Blender, « big buck bunny »

Gestern Abend wollte ich eigentlich mit Falko eine Runde kochen - aber er meldete sich nicht, und meldete sich nicht. Na egal - also plante ich mit Nik (+ Kumpel) und Basti zur Nacht der Wissenschaften zu gehen und dann in eine Kneipe was trinken.
Ich bekam dann von Falko 20.20 Uhr die Sms, dass das Fußballtraining so lang war und er gerade erst Heim gekommen ist - natürlich ließen wir ihn nicht zu Hause sitzen und sackten ihn ein, als wir uns auf dem Weg zum Campus machen.
Dort angekommen, wollten wir uns den 3D-Film ansehen, nur dort standen so viele Leute, dass es einfach zu voll war ... und zum Schluss hatten wir auch keine Lust mehr dorthin zu gehen. Wir haben uns also allen möglichen anderen Mist angeguckt, war auch ganz lustig.
Danach wollten Nik (+ Kumpel) ;) wieder nach Hause um Baseball zu gucken - die Jugend, schlimm :D Also sind Falko, Basti und ich alleine in die Innenstadt gegangen.
Wir wollten ursprünglich ins "Kässl" (Castle), dort war's aber so voll, dass wir erstmal ins "Maykels" sind - total laute Livemusik und teure Getränke, sind dort also gegen 0 Uhr wieder raus und dann doch ins Kässl. Dort noch eine Runde Getränke bestellt und dann ging es mit bester Laune nach Hause - Basti und ich lieferten erst Falko zu Hause ab und gingen dann zusammen ins Wohnheim.
Ich schrieb Micha eine Gute-Nacht-Sms während ich noch mit Falko chattete und hätte die Sms natürlich auch noch fast an Falko geschickt, der natürlich sofort den Inhalt wissen wollte, sich sehr darüber freute und in den Schlaf gekrault werden wollte. Typisch Kerl ;) Ich fragte aus Spaß einfach. was er denn dafür zu bieten hätte und er pries erstmal eine Flasche Wein an. Da ich es bekanntlich nicht so mit Wein hatte, lehnte ich ab und fragte, ob er mir nicht etwas kochen wolle - eine Tütensuppe oder so. Aber er sagte, dass er etwas tolles zaubern wollte - sowas wie Toast mit Salz. Als ich dann nach Lätta fragte, fiel ihm ein, dass er tatsächlich noch welche da hatte. Jedenfalls bin ich dann doch nochmal rüber und habe die Wiener aus dem Kühlschrank mitgenommen.
Als ich dann die 16 Häuser wieder zurückgelaufen bin (war da ja kurz vorher schonmal), war auch Falkos Mitbewohner Fabian zu Hause. Der freute sich natürlich höllisch über das Essen und lud mich ein, jeden Tag vorbeizukommen. Kerle. Naja, wir landeten im Wohnzimmer und zum Schluss auch noch zu dritt in Falkos Zimmer, bis ich einfach irgendwann losgegangen bin um wieder Heim zugehen, da Fabian mich nicht so wirklich gehen lassen wollte. Hier fällt mir ein, etwas für die Zitatekategorie, Falko, 4.15 Uhr: "Tiefe Wasser sind dreckig ... habe ich das wirklich gesagt?"

Jedenfalls, sobald ich die Wohnung wieder verließ, dachte ich mir, dass sich Falko sicher für seinen Mitbewohner entschuldigen wird und natürlich, kaum lag ich im Bett, kam die SMS.
Ich konnte dann natürlich nicht mehr einschlafen bei dem lauten Klingeln meines Handys, saß ich ja förmlich im Bett. Irgendwann schlief ich dann gegen 5.15 Uhr doch ein und wurde natürlich 7 Uhr geweckt - SMS von Micha, der überhaupt nicht durchgeblickt habe, was ich denn die Nacht veranstaltet habe. Ja, und nach der 3. SMS bin ich dann auch wieder eingeschlafen und 9.30 uhr aufgewacht.
Dadurch, dass ich an sich nüchtern war, gehts mir auch ganz gut heute, sonst hättet ihr mich aus dem Bett kratzen dürfen :D

Este libro de 627 paginas es para las personas que manejan animacion en 3D, o par las personas que tiene una buena computadora que soporta este programa llamado maya que quieren empezar a crear en 3D.

Descargar

Kaget denger NavNet? Eit ini bukan Navigasi.Net loh ya...
Misi dari NavNet 3D adalah: menyediakan teknologi terkini bagi para pelaut (yang suka mancing juga termasuk :) ) disertai dengan kemudahan pengoperasian yang belum ada sebelumnya.

-. Advance system design utilizing ground-breaking TimeZero technology.
TimeZero? Mahluk apa tuh?
New rendering engine without delay.. jadi kita bisa panning, zooming in/out tanpa delay.. coba nonton videonya ini, baru jelas deh...

-. Native 3D chart architecture
Sudah build-in engine untuk 3D rendering [TimeZero] bisa memperlihatkan kontur dsb.

-. Preloaded raster, vector & bathymetric chart libraries
Semacam base map untuk berbagai keperluan..

-. High resolution satellite photo chart overlay
Bisa di overlay dengan satellite photo images mirip google earth dengan sistim hybrid.

-. All new digital radar & fish finder sensors

-. Highly refined and ergonomic user interface
Screen mulai dari 8.4", 12" dst...  cocok buat carPC?

-. A Host of "building block" peripherals
Banyak pilihan add-on...  melengkapi basic fiturnya, termasuk rongga USB untuk keyboard & mouse.  :)

Enjoy aja...

Salam SUKSES LUAR BIASA,
Julianta
www.BduaB.com/eShop

The first two words are key as they sum up the elements that the areas of research I will be looking at are anchored by. In other words you can always relate the subject areas, I am interested in, back to one of these words if not both.

We usually think of shapes as pre-defined areas of outlined space that have specific names. We'll grow up knowing that these named shapes have properties that allow the shapes to be classed within certain gropus of shapes too. So a square is made of of 4 right angles at each corner and 4 sides. A triangle with three sides and of various angles and combinations of these.

But can a shape alway be defined? And should it be defined? And how about those shapes which have properties or characteristics that are overlooked? And which characteristics should we look more closely at because they've been overlooked in the past?

The second key word is space. My use of the word implies many senses of space including the mathematical and the scientific (these I believe overlap in some sense), as well as the physical, perceptual and conceptual. I cannot restrict my meaning at this point. I have no reason to restrict until I have conducted more research and found a reason to do so.

What about white space? Is it real? Does it mean something to everyone? What is it's role? Is it intentional? Should it be identified in more places?

An area of study that connects to this idea of space around shapes (and here I wonder - is this space not then a shape too?) is that of Geometry. These shapes are formed from vertices (easier to think of as dots in an invisible grid of any size). These vertices may then be connected with a line from one to another. these lines will be joint in such a way to form a shape. Various shapes are then placed together to form a larger formation. They could arguably be described as a system of shapes. This system could be called a pattern. these patterns can then become quite complex and due to their placement, repetition and possibly the ability to tesselate them - they can be endless and seem to go on for infinity.

One of my biggest aims in my project is to look into the history of Geometry - how it was developed and how it has been used over the centuries (more specifically in art work).

Then there is the branching off of Geometry in nature. I think this is a highly important and interesting subject to delve into. Not only because it entails many mysteries and brings into question the secrets of the Universe. But also because there is a tie with religion and sprirituality which is something that I can relate to on a personal level. Believing in God means that when I see the beauty of nature and proofs of perfection in nature (such as the way the body works and the structures and symmetry in plants and flowers to name a couple) I link it to Divine Creation. This is another aspect I would like to look into further. Especially as belief in this isn't restricted to just one religion.

Geometry allows for the representation of space in 2d, 3d and even 4d and beyond:

http://www.science.ca/scientists/scientistprofile.php?pID=5&pg=1

These main topics then branch off into other areas but are still anchored by the main theme of shapes, space and I guess now geometry too. By always having my main question along the lines of ' the place of geometry in the world around us' I will have something to refer back to. Is that what I am looking at? Am I any closer to finding the answer? Am I looking into something that is relevant or have a veered off too far down a small cobbled street?

Outcomes for project: My background has been predominantly in expressing some form of communication and his has been mostly interactive. I would like to continue this by producing work that compels the user/viewer to become involved with it. I believe that the most interactively creative works are those that captivate the viewer and involve them within a process. This can be in many forms such as when using sensors to trigger some kind of behaviour or change in the work (lighting, sounds etc). This could be on an abstract level too where triggering thoughts and movements in people and influencing these is enough of a form of interaction. Only that this can be more difficult to measure.

However, my interpretation of an interactive work would be using multimedia as a possible option. My work has always been either viewable of a computer screen (short video clips), graphics, websites. Or viewable on some form of small physical and traditional media such as paper or canvas. I would really like to create some sort of installation to take my experience and work to the next level or beyond for this project. This installation would be my blank slate. Possibly like a box or container that allows a person to fully submerge themselves within it - literally or mentally. The key is for it to be thought provoking. I would want the person to question their surroundings, the purpose of the installation and investigate it too. Possibly manipulate their thoughts by pre-determining the factors the could influence their senses and perceptions related to the space around them.

And that is the end of my notes from my journey to Uni. Yes I am one of those people who can write loads of notes whilst travelling on the tube/bus/camel :)

We had a sort of informal feedback session after one of the Critical Framework lecture where we were required to write in one sentence what our project was about. I knew it would be a bit crazy to even attempt this so I decided to use the key words to form almost a sentence. I came up with 'Shapes and space - the place of these and geometry in the world around us' using my notes from the journey in. It could be the closest I've got to a working title yet so I just let that be discussed in the group.

After some discussion with Andy (course leader) and some feedback and questions from fellow students it would seem that perhaps I should narrow my field of research down a tad bit so that I can concentrate on finding the niche in which my project would excel. Something no one else is questioning, expressing or even addressing. Or maybe they will have but I'll be doing it from a different angle? a unique p.o.v?

Only time will tell.

Crateras

Mais dois Alpha Brushes simulando crateras... veja na imagem acima um exemplo do que se pode fazer com eles. Procure utilizar estes dois pincéis com o botão Airbrush ligado, teste Add e Sub e também diferentes valores em Strength.

Clique com o botão direito do mouse sobre qualquer um dos dois pincéis abaixo e escolha Salvar Imagem Como...

Bons Estudos!!!

En esta imagen verán el trabajo original y su imagen en 3D.

Pueden ver estas imágenes por separado en la siguiente página: http://lanuez.blogspot.com/2006/10/quino-en-3d.html

Você já imaginou visitar um site totalmente 3D? E o que dizer de possuir o seu próprio site neste formato?

É exatamente o que faz o aplicativo Gogofrog.

Defina a planta baixa de suas salas (páginas), acrescente portas (links), insira seu conteúdo, e publique.

O aplicativo permite a inserção de imagens locais ou online, textos e links para feeds de blogs, além de oferecer uma ferramenta para criação de fóruns de discussão.

A navegação pode ser feita pelo teclado no estilo walkthru ou pelo mouse no point click.

Um aplicativo no mínimo interessante, deve ser muito eficaz na criação de uma galeria de trabalhos gráficos online, já para conteúdo textual deixa um pouco a desejar.

Leia também vida 2.0 na revista PIX.

Um abraço e até a próxima.