[Visualpython-users] Planned work for Fall '01

[Ari H. <ahe...@an...>]

hi everyone,

i'm a cmu student and i've been involved with vpython in minor ways for some
time now. i've been meaning to implement first textures, then proper
hierarchical models, in vpython for about a year now. i haven't really done
much in that direction, but now that dscherer has written the Faces
primitive, and i actually have the time (coursewise) to devote to it, i'm
hoping to get this done this coming semester.

i haven't thought seriously about the kind of interfaces that would be nice
for texturing the existing primitives, and i want to get peoples' input. i
always assumed that there isn't a good consistent interface, and that some
primitives (faces, box) will want to take a list of texture coordinates,
while things like sphere have only one reasonable texturing scheme
(especially because sphere may change detail levels).

after textures i'd like to do hierarchical models, which can be made up of
faces objects in frames quite nicely. the only question is what model format
to use for importing. i'm open to suggestions here. i've written 3DS
exporters in the past; it's doable but not something i want to spend time
on. is there a good standard format the 3ds can talk to (doesn't need to be
complicated, just needs to support hierarchy and textures)? is vrml it
(ugh!)?

i'm mainly posting this because i suspect a lot of people would like this,
and i'd like to coordinate efforts so we don't end up duplicating work.
while i expect to get this stuff done fairly quickly when i actually start
on it, i won't be starting for about another month (once i get back to
pittsburgh).


ari