Re: [Open-mind-users] Using OpenMind

[<aco...@mi...>]

Hi Ben,

Ben Chambers wrote:

>I am considering using OpenMind for developing a
>client/server type application.  I need a good
>framework for accessing OpenGL, as well as doing GUI
>components (menus / buttons / windows etc).  My
>questions are,
>
On that point, OpenMind can be good for you since it already provides a 
basic 2D scenegraph for handling an unlimited count of 2D elements on an 
unlimited count of layers. BUT, the 2D picking model (color picking) 
experiences problems with hardware not supporting pBuffers and may not 
work on some systems untill we replace it with a ray-casting 2D picking 
model.

>How is the documentation?  Last time I looked, I
>couldn't get the documentation to 'compile' (why isn't
>it in a simple format, such as text or html?)
>
I expect to get rid of the fop documentation generation which is useless 
and very painfull to use.
So far, the only written documentation about OpenMind can be downloaded 
here :
http://www.mind2machine.com/dl/OpenMind-architecture-overview.doc
Actually, the samples provided with OpenMind are quite well documented 
and are assumed as sufficient for learning OpenMind while there are many 
many other things to do.

>How far beyond the official release is the CVS
>version?  
>
Still far (monthes). We need to implement :
- a working camera manager
- collision detection
- at least a TCB animation controler
before we can pretend to have a production quality product.

>Are the two close enough that I need not
>worry, or does any serious developer need to use the
>most current version to be productive?
>
I recommend using the latest published version :
OpenMind SDK OpenMind-JOGL(unstable) released (Wed, 05 Nov 2003 23:00:00 
GMT)
http://www.mind2machine.com/gb/openmind/downloads.php

>  I believe (I
>could be mistaken) that the latest batch release does
>not even use JoGL, for instance, but GL4Java.  Is this
>issue significant?
>
As stated above, there is a release using JoGL but we have marked it as 
unstable (though it is no likely to crash much).

>Any other tips on starting out with OpenMind?
>
Currently using OpenMind requires a good knowledge of linear algebra 
(matrices, vectors).
It is quite easy to use for the rest. I advise you look at the code of 
the samples + the doc linked above.
It should give you a fairly good overview of OpenMind usage.
Then you can use and abuse of the mailing list :)

>Thank you for reading and responding,
>
>...Chambers
>  
>
Regards,

Alban Cousinié

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