[Visualpython-users] The VPython project

[Anders P. <an...@gm...>]

Hello

I'm a software developer living in Linköping, Sweden. Usually I don't do
programming in my spare time, but since a couple of weeks I'm working
intensely on a hobby project. I'm using VPython to create a program with
generic functionality to visualize, animate and edit data structures such as
graphs and trees. With 10K lines of code so far and still a long way to go,
it's a pretty ambitious project.
I hope to be able to return to you with some concrete results and
screenshots!

I'm a fan of VPython. Using primitive 3D objects is the right abstraction
level for my project and VPython makes this easy to use. Of course, all the
benefits of Python are there too. Defining my own __setattr__() allows me to
continue to extend the VPython abstraction of doing "obj.pos = (x,y,z)" etc.

I'm happy to see that the project is evolving, with the beta of a new major
version and a new wiki. Actually I'm surprised to see that VPython isn't
more heavily used than it seems to be. It seems to be mostly used in
education to visualize physics etc.
http://www.vrplumber.com/py3d.py has a long list of Python 3D projects.
Other Python frameworks seem to provide either advanced but low-level
features, or are less complete than VPython.
Certainly there is a general need for an easy-to-use 3d engine for all kinds
of projects... but the only major VPython project I found is PyGeo.

If I may trouble the list for some answers, to get a better view of VPython
and its community:

What are your interests in VPython? What drives you to contribute to the
project?

What do you think vpython's niche and goals are? Are there any design
decisions that limit the suitability of VPython for certain areas? (For
example game programming or large-scale visualization or animation)

Are there competing projects that draw resources away from VPython?


For me right now, the weakest point is the handling of text in 3d scenes.
Labels don't integrate into the scene but floats on top of it, covering all
3d objects. Maybe the Beta's (future?) ability to use textures can be
utilized with PIL to render texts into the scene rather than on top of it.

Interested to hear from you.
Regards,
Anders Petersson