Is Anyone Planning To Port Blendder To The Pandora


There are lots of positives to having blender on the pandora.

Even if it only displayed and rotated 3d objects, it would have saved me a lot of hassle recently. In the pub with a client I didn't have my laptop to whip out and show him the model we were talking about but if it was in my pocket on a pandora, it would have saved me a huge amount of time...

Still if no-one Ports it, I suppose it's an excuse to buy an N900!

Rick
 
Wow I must say that Pandora on N900 is excellent news!

The possibility of Pandora running Blender was actually a top 3 reason for me preordering Pandora(seriously).

I figure it'll have the horsepower to do the low poly modeling stuff I use Blender for since Pandora has all around better specs than the system I learned Blender on.

Best news so far this year for me. :)

Edit: Because I don't know how to proof read before posting.
 
I'd love to have Blender on the Pandora, because I am a big fan of using the Pandora itself to make games for the Pandora (no cross-compiling/external development environment to maintain), and having Blender on Pandora would mean I could model 3D objects and save them directly to the local development tree .. so this would be quite a positive endeavour, in my opinion.

Just can't wait to have a Pandora in my hands so I can get involved in all these ports and so on ..
 
Originally I planned to port blender, but its probably a lot of work for nothing. Lets stay realistic: even tho the blender homepage claims that it is "fast" - its actually not. It might be fast at what it does, but its not fast if its used the way it is by most people.
Blender has hundreds of features. Did you know it had a video editor? Did you know you can generate images using complex nodes? Animation using IK, multiple vertex weigths, a raytraced, hundereds of halo combinations, multiple shaders, a complete game engine, constraints and physics, ...
Its just by far too much.
Most people only use it for modelling and animating small scenes, add a node or two in the composer but then render using a raytraced, even tho it could be rendered faster than realtime using OpenGL with approximation and probably 99% of the raytracer image quality.
Let alone the fact that most exportable default formats in blender are not defined too well and they are in a text format. Personally I like my formats to be binary for easier loading, you are allowed to use bought models if the format is not open. Phyton kinda fixes this and its really powerful, but blender is not really realtime unless you stay really low-poly and in the 3D view, so Python is only good for really few things in my opinion as it can only simplify editing, but its restricted to editing and can't do much while your scene is rendered

I'm working on a blender clone so I can work on my projects. I'm not too sure which formats I make exportable, but it will support shape descriptions (for my 96k games), a object defintion list (for map projects, similar to GTAs IPL if you know that), probably wavefront for testing, a custom binary mesh and animation format. Thinks I care most about are: objects along curves, custom properties per {vertex, face, edge, ..}. Animations using skeletons are planned too even though thats not decided yet.
I plan to use the tool for ANYTHING in my games (except for animation maybe as I already have some sort of custom mo-cap system), including modeling, mapping, mission files (using custom properties per objects / empty, move of objects a long engine by adding a SCRIPT property). The tool is supposed to display anything, including the preview, using OpenGL ES2.0 with an ubershader for materials, shadowmaps for shadows, possibly SSAO which can be baked on the scene, reflectionmaps using fixed points and possibly custom shaders for full time quads as post-processing effect and shader editor.
If anyone wants to help with my tool they should contact me, but it doesn't have priority right now as blender works fine at the moment.
 
for the ones who are continuosly talking about rendering:

the rendering couldn't be done on the pandora as it can't be done in the n900,

blender was meant as a low poly modeller not like maya or 3ds max, so the pandora won't have any problem to run it,
second thing: the n900 runs the same arm processor of the pandora, so if anyone find the source code he must only make minor modifications to run on angstrom and compile it.
 
wiimario: Blender is complex, I doubt that the N900 supports all of its features, I'm surprised if it supported half of it.

Blender without the renderer - which probably is a cpu raytracer, probably easy to port - is pretty useless because you don't have any preview (Shift+P) neither, nor you have the full render (F12). You would be bound to the normal Textured/Shaded preview, or if supported BGE.
But thats even more complex to port probably as it is currently changing quite often and its using GLSL already while still having a fixed function pipeline option (which just doesn't exist in OGLES2)

And no, it was not made for low-poly modelling.
Explain the scuplt mode, subsurf modifiers, multi-res etc to me if it was. And do low-poly models really need a raytracer to be rendered? If you just want an approximation of your scene (which is what low-poly does) you don't need physically correct rendering neither.
Other points which show that blender is NOT made for low-poly modelling: curves, complex 3D font meshes, fluids, metaballs, boolean operations (which require a high polycount to look good), ..

It was started as a low-poly modelling tool in first place maybe (I don't know), but it has grown way larger. Blender is a tool for starting from scratch, then ending with a rendered movie, including audio, video effects, .. without having to use any other tool.

Oh, and I would have considered 3DS Max as a tool designed for low-poly and realtime models by the way, without having it used for a number of years.
 
even just a simple GOOD and INTUITIVE/EASY mesh editor would be useful to me - somethign that supports .OBJ files and is good for creating simple 3D sketches and refining them on the move, or perhaps viewing and editing existing 3D models simnply, without messing up point order etc.
 
Monk said:
even just a simple GOOD and INTUITIVE/EASY mesh editor would be useful to me - somethign that supports .OBJ files and is good for creating simple 3D sketches and refining them on the move, or perhaps viewing and editing existing 3D models simnply, without messing up point order etc.


yes yes, that's exactly what's needed - massively useful when you have that unexpected elevator pitch to do!!

:)

Rick


edit - just noticed there's an app called itracer on the iphone/pod that had a limited modelling/functionallity - hmmm...

edit2 - not so limited it seems....
 
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spinghed said:
Monk said:
even just a simple GOOD and INTUITIVE/EASY mesh editor would be useful to me - somethign that supports .OBJ files and is good for creating simple 3D sketches and refining them on the move, or perhaps viewing and editing existing 3D models simnply, without messing up point order etc.


yes yes, that's exactly what's needed - massively useful when you have that unexpected elevator pitch to do!!

:)

Rick


edit - just noticed there's an app called itracer on the iphone/pod that had a limited modelling/functionallity - hmmm...

edit2 - not so limited it seems....

Who enjoys modelling with a finger?
 
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ashdjones said:
spinghed said:
Monk said:
even just a simple GOOD and INTUITIVE/EASY mesh editor would be useful to me - somethign that supports .OBJ files and is good for creating simple 3D sketches and refining them on the move, or perhaps viewing and editing existing 3D models simnply, without messing up point order etc.


yes yes, that's exactly what's needed - massively useful when you have that unexpected elevator pitch to do!!

:)

Rick


edit - just noticed there's an app called itracer on the iphone/pod that had a limited modelling/functionallity - hmmm...

edit2 - not so limited it seems....

Who enjoys modelling with a finger?


Who enjoyes modelling without fingers?


More seriously, I wouldn't use a finger for modleling. I'd use a stylus for any kind of graphic effort, I'd have thought. It OUGHT, if the resolution of touchscreen is up to it, to be a fairly nice interface limited only by the small screen size.
 
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Monk said:
ashdjones said:
spinghed said:
Monk said:
even just a simple GOOD and INTUITIVE/EASY mesh editor would be useful to me - somethign that supports .OBJ files and is good for creating simple 3D sketches and refining them on the move, or perhaps viewing and editing existing 3D models simnply, without messing up point order etc.


yes yes, that's exactly what's needed - massively useful when you have that unexpected elevator pitch to do!!

:)

Rick


edit - just noticed there's an app called itracer on the iphone/pod that had a limited modelling/functionallity - hmmm...

edit2 - not so limited it seems....

Who enjoys modelling with a finger?


Who enjoyes modelling without fingers?


More seriously, I wouldn't use a finger for modleling. I'd use a stylus for any kind of graphic effort, I'd have thought. It OUGHT, if the resolution of touchscreen is up to it, to be a fairly nice interface limited only by the small screen size.

I didn't realise the iPhone came with a stylus or that the screen was very precise? I'm not deriding the idea or anything - I have an Ipod Touch myself, I just can't imagine it being at all fun. I tried out a few drawing programs on it some time ago and it felt totally unsuited.
 
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ashdjones said:
Who enjoys modelling with a finger?

To follow up on my previous reply, here's some real draft model assets for a simple retro game (and we have a lot of interest in retro around here, as far as I'm aware). Can you see why these ought to have been model-able on a Pandora almost anywhere I could stand or sit still? They shouldn't need a cray 3 to model (or even render, at the quality they are seen here).

25iw1n7.gif


152j5p0.gif
20iv3g9.gif


nvo1aw.gif


1jt8jc.gif


al19xt.gif


293yeds.gif


2598u3r.gif


Even this one (which is just a series of concentric squares, as seen from above) shouldn't relaly take the size of screen or power of computer I was using to model it:

2uzt3qh.jpg


Naturally, I believe we could do more than these - but even being able to do these as the inspiration struck me, rather than waiting until I am at my desktop, would have been nice (I'd have got more designed by now for a start!).
 
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ashdjones said:
Monk said:
ashdjones said:
Who enjoys modelling with a finger?


Who enjoyes modelling without fingers?


More seriously, I wouldn't use a finger for modleling. I'd use a stylus for any kind of graphic effort, I'd have thought. It OUGHT, if the resolution of touchscreen is up to it, to be a fairly nice interface limited only by the small screen size.

I didn't realise the iPhone came with a stylus or that the screen was very precise? I'm not deriding the idea or anything - I have an Ipod Touch myself, I just can't imagine it being at all fun. I tried out a few drawing programs on it some time ago and it felt totally unsuited.

My apologies - I was talking about the Pandora, which is what I'd like to do stuff like this on. I don't have an iPhone, which is somewhat different IMHO.
 
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Modelling on the Pandora is an awesome idea, definately. I actually ran the Pocket PC version of Blender many years ago - it was certainly cool, but the resolution of the screen was fairly low.

blender.png
 
Monk: Isn't it enough to type in these manually in your text editor?
It would probably produce a much better vertexbuffer and you wouldn't run into problems with textures like you do right now (pixelated edges).
Its even easier if you generate them on the fly at the startup of your game as you can change the look easily by changing a few parameters.
You wouldn't have to worry about a realtime renderer / modeller than because you have the game engine to look at the model for you.

(Also note that all of your models are actually mirrored, so you only have to generate one part of them)
 
There are smarter folks than I around, but I don't think that Blender on the Pandora is going to happen (and be usable).

I think Wings 3d might be possible, but I know nothing of its OpenGL requirements. I used to use it before Blender became absolutely incredible at modeling, and it it much more mouse (read touchscreen) oriented.

Anyway, there's my 2 cents.

edit: Iirc, there's a project in the works to create a Blender game player from the Irrlicht engine (it would play .blend files in Irrlight). I don't have links, though, as I was told about it by a friend.
 
JayFoxRox said:
Monk: Isn't it enough to type in these manually in your text editor?

No. Heathen.

JayFoxRox said:
It would probably produce a much better vertexbuffer and you wouldn't run into problems with textures like you do right now (pixelated edges).

No it wouldn't, and I don't run into any such problems with textures. Oh - you mean those templates made to be a few pixels tall and wide? Those would always look pixelated at that resolution.

JayFoxRox said:
(Also note that all of your models are actually mirrored, so you only have to generate one part of them)

Yes, all of THOSE models are actually mirrored.

Having a graphical modeller gives you wings. I can barely believe you typed that, or that I fell for it and responded :(
 
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Monk said:
JayFoxRox said:
It would probably produce a much better vertexbuffer and you wouldn't run into problems with textures like you do right now (pixelated edges).

Mo it wouldn't, and I don't run into any such problems with textures. Oh - you mean those templates made to be a few pixels tall and wide? those would always look pixelated at that resolution.
Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but why do you bother with textures at all? Using wire frame rendering and per-vertex colors is both many magnitudes faster and produces much cleaner and fully anti-aliased lines (because you must admit that the texturing above - even if it is as good as it can get using pixmap textures - looks kinda weird because of the texture bilinear aliasing)

Also, I as a technically-minded guy would prefer creating these meshes using a text editor. Much easier to get the trigonometry right then (without the right tools it's hard to eyeball stuff like that), and if you use integer coordinates everywhere, you can make mesh files smaller and use extremely simple transformation matrices that might improve performance, even.
 
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Do not get that there are just more models to be made than simple, geometric ones?

Blender on the Pandora: WHY NOT?! There are no good *answers* to that question, just *opinions*.
 
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