visualpython-users

[Visualpython-users] Recomputing Faces geometry

[Jamie R. <jam...@gm...>]

I have a VPython faces based object. I would like the user to be able to change
fundamental parameters that affect its shape (like setting numSides on
a Polygon),
but I can't seem to get VPython to re-render the new shape. I've tried
to "Del" the
existing face list, then create a new one, but the old object is still
shown. Any suggestions?

Thank - Jamie Riotto

Re: [Visualpython-users] Arbitrary frame transformation routine

[Jim T. <jt...@mi...>]

I don't have an easy code solution that I can share right now but I can 
give you some pointers.  Firstly quaternions can be used to do this type 
of thing so you might want to read up on that.  A quaternion can be 
constructed to represent the orientation of each frame and then you can 
do operations using them to perform rotations between frames.  This is 
how I normally handle a problem like yours.

Also visual has a rotate function which you could use.  You can 
transform the position of a point using a series of rotations (after 
first subtracting the difference of the frame origins).  The example you 
site shows how to get x,y, and z axes from the axis and up vectors that 
visual uses.  Then for each axis you perform a rotation (in series).  
The axis about which you rotate is computed using the cross product 
(cross(f1.x, f2.x)) and the angle is computed using the dot product 
(acos(dot(f1.x, f2.x)).  Rotate your point vector then repeat for y and 
z.  You must trap for the condition where the magnitude of the cross 
product is near zero, in which case you skip that rotation step since 
they are already aligned.

There is probably a shortcut along the lines of what the example does 
but I have not worked it out.  Also if you were working with something 
asymmetric rather than a sphere you would have to do transformations on 
axis and up for the object as well.

Hope this helps at least a little bit.  I have code that will do this 
but it is in no condition for me to publish at this time and I cannot 
extract a snippet that will help you, I'd have to release a whole lot of 
code.  I guess I need to work on getting my library for visual python 
out the door...

JT

PS There are a couple of quaternion functions in the odelib portion of 
my VisualPyODE library that I have released.  Unfortunately it is 
probably not enough to be a big help but if you are interested download 
the code at http://www.missioncognition.net.  For that library ODE is 
the owner of the coordinates/orientations and I just slave the visual 
objects off of them.  Still you might find some of code informative.

Tony Risinger wrote:
> I have been trying to no avail to write a routine to transform the coordinates of vector from the global frame to a local one; or even better would be a routine that transforms from one arbitrary frame to another (then global frame is just pos(0,0,0) and axis(1,0,0)).  the example in the documentation translates from local-to-global, but i cant seem to reverse it.  seems that my vector skills are weak...
>
> in this log file visualizer i am working on, i have a sphere traveling thru the global frame, but at a specified point, or at init, i want to inject it into a rotating local frame.  i want the switch to the localized frame to appear seamless, thus i need to get the local coordinates relative to the global ones the sphere currently has.
>
> is functionality of this type already present somewhere in the module but im missing it?  once i apply a frame to an object it immediately moves the coordinates it currently has but relative to the local frame, so it appears to jump thru space.  this is great and expected, i just need to get the switchover down now.
>
> does anyone have something whipped up already that you could kindly share?  otherwise direction of any kind would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tony Risinger
> Application Development Specialist
> Tel: 507-535-7563 | Fax: 507-292-5747 | Toll Free: 866-241-0639
>
> To...@Br...
>
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[Visualpython-users] Arbitrary frame transformation routine

[Tony R. <To...@br...>]

I have been trying to no avail to write a routine to transform the coordinates of vector from the global frame to a local one; or even better would be a routine that transforms from one arbitrary frame to another (then global frame is just pos(0,0,0) and axis(1,0,0)).  the example in the documentation translates from local-to-global, but i cant seem to reverse it.  seems that my vector skills are weak...

in this log file visualizer i am working on, i have a sphere traveling thru the global frame, but at a specified point, or at init, i want to inject it into a rotating local frame.  i want the switch to the localized frame to appear seamless, thus i need to get the local coordinates relative to the global ones the sphere currently has.

is functionality of this type already present somewhere in the module but im missing it?  once i apply a frame to an object it immediately moves the coordinates it currently has but relative to the local frame, so it appears to jump thru space.  this is great and expected, i just need to get the switchover down now.

does anyone have something whipped up already that you could kindly share?  otherwise direction of any kind would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tony Risinger
Application Development Specialist
Tel: 507-535-7563 | Fax: 507-292-5747 | Toll Free: 866-241-0639

To...@Br...

http://www.brokerbin.com/

CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION: This electronic mail message and any attached files contain information intended for the exclusive use of the specific individual(s) or entity(s) to whom it is addressed and may contain information that is propriety, privileged or confidential or otherwise exempt from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately, by reply electronic mail or by telephone, of any unintended recipients so we may correct our records. Also, delete the original electronic mail and any attachments without making any copies of the electronic mail message or attachments.

Re: [Visualpython-users] Visual Python & py2exe compile error.

[Derek L. <dl...@ma...>]

I tried installing bbfreeze (had a little trouble with setuptools,
ended up re-installing all of my python stuff). But I get the same
error, i'm not sure how to force it to include the turbulence3.tga
file, but I tried to manually add the file to library.zip\visual and I
still get the same error. I've been looking around on the web and no
one else seems to have this problem. Anyone have any advise?

Re: [Visualpython-users] Error using py2exe with Vpython

[Kadir H. <kha...@ya...>]

I think it has to do with the texture path definition in the materials.py module of the Visual Python.

Long time ago, I had tested py2exe and had the same problem. Then tested other exe builders. Same again. They look for a visual subdirectory under current distribution directory.

The last one I had tested was pyinstaller-1.3. Again with the same problem. I am using pyinstaller at the moment, but I believe same "solutions" apply for all. I have not tested with py2exe again.

In the materials.py file change the texturePath definition for the targa texture files to a static one. At the moment it is the dynamic path address resolution, which creates the problem. For simplicity I use "C:\" as the texture path. But now, the Visual will be looking for three targa files at C:\. So, you have to copy earth.tga, turbulence3.tga, and the wood.tga files to C:\ before you start creating the exe.

UP SIDE: Your old Visual Python application works normally as they used to (which normally you would expect of course).
DOWN SIDE: If you are going to distribute the exe file or the full new directory to other machines without the Visual, you need to copy these three files manually to C:\ at the target machines ALSO.

I could not find any better solution.

Kadir Haldenbilen


________________________________
From: Derek Lura <dl...@ma...>
To: vis...@li...
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 11:14:53 AM
Subject: [Visualpython-users] Error using py2exe with Vpython

I get the following error when I try to run a visual program compiled
with py2exe

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "controls2.py", line 7, in <module>
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "visual\__init__.pyo", line 66, in <module>
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "visual\ui.pyo", line 3, in <module>
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "visual\materials.pyo", line 151, in <module>
  File "visual\materials.pyo", line 129, in loadTGA
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: "C:\\Documents and
Settings\\D-man\\Desktop\\Research\\'09\\Forign
Study\\Python\\CopyforComp\\Done\\dist\\controls2.exe\\visual/turbulence3.tga"

Has anyone encountered this before? Anyone have a possible solution?

Thanks,
- Derek

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[Visualpython-users] Error using py2exe with Vpython

[Derek L. <dl...@ma...>]

I get the following error when I try to run a visual program compiled
with py2exe

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "controls2.py", line 7, in <module>
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "visual\__init__.pyo", line 66, in <module>
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "visual\ui.pyo", line 3, in <module>
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "visual\materials.pyo", line 151, in <module>
  File "visual\materials.pyo", line 129, in loadTGA
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: "C:\\Documents and
Settings\\D-man\\Desktop\\Research\\'09\\Forign
Study\\Python\\CopyforComp\\Done\\dist\\controls2.exe\\visual/turbulence3.tga"

Has anyone encountered this before? Anyone have a possible solution?

Thanks,
 - Derek

Re: [Visualpython-users] Not Enough Python in VPython?

[Chris C. <scc...@gm...>]

Rather than a full port, why not just provide a hook where the user
can give visual an opengl context to draw on? In otherwords, have a
public 'display object' where the user can set the opengl context
either through a method call, or attribute access. Then the user could
just, for example, create a wx opengl context and pass that object to
visual to draw on. (this is how one uses pyglet from wx btw).

This is not all too different from how traits allows the user to
select either the wx or qt backend.

Cheers,

Chriscrap, i keep forgetting to hit reply to all... sorry:


On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 10:55 AM, Michele Mattioni<mat...@gm...> wrote:
> I think there is the need to be able to use visual as a widget for any toolkit.
>
> In my specific case I'm using a GTK GUI, but as Jim as written, I'm
> able to detect an input an process the return value only if I leave
> the main thread of the gtk gui and enter a while loop, until I return
> the value back and get back into the main gtk loop.
>
> This of course cause a lot of busy waiting, consuming the CPU and
> offering a bad user experience.
>
> If I understood correctly this was done before somehow...
>
> Is that true?
>
> On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 9:02 PM, Jim Thomas<jt...@mi...> wrote:
>> Thank you Bruce for such prompt answers.  It sounds like I need to keep
>> digging through the code and understand how it works better.  David's
>> link at an old attempt gives me some hope that it might work.
>>
>> JT
>>
>> Bruce Sherwood wrote:
>>> I asked David Scherer for an expert response to this question. Here's
>>> what he said:
>>>
>>> "The question is whether some or all of the platform-specific window
>>> handling code could be written in Python.  The answer to this question
>>> is, I think, yes - as you may recall, I did some experimentation with
>>> that myself (in the context of a Mac port, and of eventually supporting
>>> visual widgets for windowing libraries).  The performance effect is not
>>> necessarily significant for the simple reason that things like display
>>> and mouse handling only do O(1) work per frame, while the heavy lifting
>>> is already in platform-independent C++.  On the other hand, the
>>> "productivity" benefit is not so clear either because the low level
>>> platform-specific APIs for windowing are usually not exposed or
>>> documented very well in Python, or are exposed only through optional
>>> libraries that are heavy dependencies, or are wrapped in higher level
>>> libraries that make some decisions inappropriate for Visual.  I think
>>> that, on balance, keeping the platform-specific code in C++ was the
>>> right decision for the "big three" platforms, but this decision could
>>> certainly be revisited in the future (especially for Linux, where
>>> dependency hell is socially acceptable).  More to the point, however,
>>> Python display implementations could be an excellent way of supporting
>>> edge cases like this one (displaying as part of a window managed by
>>> another library).
>>>
>>> The Python display implementation I wrote is in the CVS history at
>>> /vpython-core2/site-packages/visual/pyglet.py, with "show dead files":
>>>
>>>  http://visualpython.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/visualpython/vpython-core2/site-packages/visual/?hideattic=0
>>>
>>>
>>> It makes a display window based on the pyglet library.  It probably
>>> won't work unmodified because of various changes made to visual since I
>>> stopped working on it, and I doubt it was ever full featured (e.g. no
>>> keyboard support), but it would be a good starting point for anyone
>>> experimenting in this area.  I would think someone could develop a
>>> wxwindows "visual widget" relatively easily, though there are surely
>>> traps for the unwary."
>>>
>>> Bruce Sherwood
>>>
>>> P.S. If I remember correctly, this particular approach using pyglet was
>>> abandoned in part because it didn't just immediately work on all platforms.
>>>
>>> Jim Thomas wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing that VPython would integrate better
>>>> with our more full featured programs.  The best technique I've come up
>>>> with so far is to put the visual code in a separate thread and use
>>>> queues to talk between my python based (GUI) program and the visual code
>>>> and it's standalone window.
>>>>
>>>> I've been perusing the source code to see if there is a way to get
>>>> visual to use a window I manage.  It seems it might be possible by
>>>> rewriting display.cpp to use a passed GTK window handle/id to create the
>>>> display and eliminating gui_main.  However I use wxPython which while
>>>> based on GTK on linux, it uses native libraries on other platforms.  So
>>>> that is not a great solution for me.
>>>>
>>>> However there is a common denominator available with almost any decent
>>>> GUI library -- OpenGL.  What I was thinking was this -- how critical is
>>>> it that the 'GUI' portion of visual be implemented in C++?  From what I
>>>> can tell, 0% of Visual Python is actually implemented in Python.  Why
>>>> couldn't all the GTK portion of the library be implemented in pyGTK?
>>>> Wouldn't that actually make development easier?  In my experience Python
>>>> is up to 10x better from a development perspective.  I didn't see
>>>> anything particularly performance critical in the GTK code side of
>>>> things, did I miss something?  Implementing the library as a python GUI
>>>> + C++ OpenGL would make it possible to have alternate GUI front end
>>>> options such as wxPython, or an expert mode with no default windows
>>>> suitable for integrating with an existing GUI program.
>>>>
>>>> Has this been considered before and tossed out as non-feasible?  Did I
>>>> overlook something critical in the source code?  I have not spent lots
>>>> of time yet but I am up for trying to do a proof of concept if it is not
>>>> a known dead-end.  The other thing I was considering is trying to do a
>>>> re-implementation in 100% python and then profiling to determine what
>>>> portions if any should be moved into C++.  It seems to me that most of
>>>> my calls to visual are during the model definition phase where
>>>> performance is not really an issue.  Outside of re-positioning /
>>>> re-orienting, relatively few functions are called every display loop.
>>>> Are the locations of the bottlenecks already known?  Is this idea silly?
>>>>
>>>> I really like Visual Python from the point of view of ease of use of the
>>>> library.  However there are serious limitations (perhaps unnecessarily
>>>> so) once you move beyond demo programs and I fear that at some point I
>>>> may be forced to 'graduate' to OpenGL.  I would love to see Visual as an
>>>> easy way to start doing 3D (as it is now) and as your knowledge grows,
>>>> remove the training wheels and have  a great way to do advanced things
>>>> as well.
>>>>
>>>> JT
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge
>>>> This is your chance to win up to $100,000 in prizes! For a limited time,
>>>> vendors submitting new applications to BlackBerry App World(TM) will have
>>>> the opportunity to enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge. See full prize
>>>> details at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/Challenge
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Visualpython-users mailing list
>>>> Vis...@li...
>>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge
>>> This is your chance to win up to $100,000 in prizes! For a limited time,
>>> vendors submitting new applications to BlackBerry App World(TM) will have
>>> the opportunity to enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge. See full prize
>>> details at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/Challenge
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Visualpython-users mailing list
>>> Vis...@li...
>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>>
>
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>

Re: [Visualpython-users] Visual Python & py2exe compile error.

[Chris C. <scc...@gm...>]

Derek,

with some python modules, py2exe doesnt bring along enough of the
backend and you'll run into missing file issues quite often. (this is
especially true of the ETS tool suite). I prefer a program called
bbfreeze: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/bbfreeze/0.95.4

your application will be larger, because it brings along EVERYTHING
that is imported whether it is used or not. (this can be configured in
the setup scripts however). But because of this, you dont get missing
file issues.

Try it, (i've never used it on vpython) and let me know if you need any help.

BTW, you spelled "foreign" wrong in your directory path ;)

Chris

On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 4:02 AM, Derek Lura<dl...@ma...> wrote:
> When I compile my code to a executable using py2exe  the vtest.exe is
> created successfully but I get the following error when I run the
> compiled file:
>
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>  File "vtest.py", line 1, in <module>
>  File "visual\__init__.pyc", line 66, in <module>
>  File "visual\ui.pyc", line 3, in <module>
>  File "visual\materials.pyc", line 151, in <module>
>  File "visual\materials.pyc", line 129, in loadTGA
> IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: "C:\\Documents and
> Settings\\D-man\\Desktop\\Research\\'09\\Forign
> Study\\Python\\CopyforComp\\dist\\vtest.exe\\visual/turbulence3.tga"
>
> I get the same error with several different vpython scripts, as an example:
>
> """ Start vtest.py """
> from visual import *
>
> box(pos=(0,0,0), size=(1,1,1))
> """ End vtest.py """
>
> """ Start mysetup.py """
> from distutils.core import setup
> import py2exe
>
> setup(
> console = ["stars.py"],
> )
> """ End mysetup.py """
>
> (from the command line)
>>python mysetup.py py2exe
>
> Has anyone encountered this before? Any idea on what I'm doing wrong?
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
> Visualpython-users mailing list
> Vis...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>

Re: [Visualpython-users] Not Enough Python in VPython?

[Michele M. <mat...@gm...>]

I think there is the need to be able to use visual as a widget for any toolkit.

In my specific case I'm using a GTK GUI, but as Jim as written, I'm
able to detect an input an process the return value only if I leave
the main thread of the gtk gui and enter a while loop, until I return
the value back and get back into the main gtk loop.

This of course cause a lot of busy waiting, consuming the CPU and
offering a bad user experience.

If I understood correctly this was done before somehow...

Is that true?

On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 9:02 PM, Jim Thomas<jt...@mi...> wrote:
> Thank you Bruce for such prompt answers.  It sounds like I need to keep
> digging through the code and understand how it works better.  David's
> link at an old attempt gives me some hope that it might work.
>
> JT
>
> Bruce Sherwood wrote:
>> I asked David Scherer for an expert response to this question. Here's
>> what he said:
>>
>> "The question is whether some or all of the platform-specific window
>> handling code could be written in Python.  The answer to this question
>> is, I think, yes - as you may recall, I did some experimentation with
>> that myself (in the context of a Mac port, and of eventually supporting
>> visual widgets for windowing libraries).  The performance effect is not
>> necessarily significant for the simple reason that things like display
>> and mouse handling only do O(1) work per frame, while the heavy lifting
>> is already in platform-independent C++.  On the other hand, the
>> "productivity" benefit is not so clear either because the low level
>> platform-specific APIs for windowing are usually not exposed or
>> documented very well in Python, or are exposed only through optional
>> libraries that are heavy dependencies, or are wrapped in higher level
>> libraries that make some decisions inappropriate for Visual.  I think
>> that, on balance, keeping the platform-specific code in C++ was the
>> right decision for the "big three" platforms, but this decision could
>> certainly be revisited in the future (especially for Linux, where
>> dependency hell is socially acceptable).  More to the point, however,
>> Python display implementations could be an excellent way of supporting
>> edge cases like this one (displaying as part of a window managed by
>> another library).
>>
>> The Python display implementation I wrote is in the CVS history at
>> /vpython-core2/site-packages/visual/pyglet.py, with "show dead files":
>>
>>  http://visualpython.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/visualpython/vpython-core2/site-packages/visual/?hideattic=0
>>
>>
>> It makes a display window based on the pyglet library.  It probably
>> won't work unmodified because of various changes made to visual since I
>> stopped working on it, and I doubt it was ever full featured (e.g. no
>> keyboard support), but it would be a good starting point for anyone
>> experimenting in this area.  I would think someone could develop a
>> wxwindows "visual widget" relatively easily, though there are surely
>> traps for the unwary."
>>
>> Bruce Sherwood
>>
>> P.S. If I remember correctly, this particular approach using pyglet was
>> abandoned in part because it didn't just immediately work on all platforms.
>>
>> Jim Thomas wrote:
>>
>>> I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing that VPython would integrate better
>>> with our more full featured programs.  The best technique I've come up
>>> with so far is to put the visual code in a separate thread and use
>>> queues to talk between my python based (GUI) program and the visual code
>>> and it's standalone window.
>>>
>>> I've been perusing the source code to see if there is a way to get
>>> visual to use a window I manage.  It seems it might be possible by
>>> rewriting display.cpp to use a passed GTK window handle/id to create the
>>> display and eliminating gui_main.  However I use wxPython which while
>>> based on GTK on linux, it uses native libraries on other platforms.  So
>>> that is not a great solution for me.
>>>
>>> However there is a common denominator available with almost any decent
>>> GUI library -- OpenGL.  What I was thinking was this -- how critical is
>>> it that the 'GUI' portion of visual be implemented in C++?  From what I
>>> can tell, 0% of Visual Python is actually implemented in Python.  Why
>>> couldn't all the GTK portion of the library be implemented in pyGTK?
>>> Wouldn't that actually make development easier?  In my experience Python
>>> is up to 10x better from a development perspective.  I didn't see
>>> anything particularly performance critical in the GTK code side of
>>> things, did I miss something?  Implementing the library as a python GUI
>>> + C++ OpenGL would make it possible to have alternate GUI front end
>>> options such as wxPython, or an expert mode with no default windows
>>> suitable for integrating with an existing GUI program.
>>>
>>> Has this been considered before and tossed out as non-feasible?  Did I
>>> overlook something critical in the source code?  I have not spent lots
>>> of time yet but I am up for trying to do a proof of concept if it is not
>>> a known dead-end.  The other thing I was considering is trying to do a
>>> re-implementation in 100% python and then profiling to determine what
>>> portions if any should be moved into C++.  It seems to me that most of
>>> my calls to visual are during the model definition phase where
>>> performance is not really an issue.  Outside of re-positioning /
>>> re-orienting, relatively few functions are called every display loop.
>>> Are the locations of the bottlenecks already known?  Is this idea silly?
>>>
>>> I really like Visual Python from the point of view of ease of use of the
>>> library.  However there are serious limitations (perhaps unnecessarily
>>> so) once you move beyond demo programs and I fear that at some point I
>>> may be forced to 'graduate' to OpenGL.  I would love to see Visual as an
>>> easy way to start doing 3D (as it is now) and as your knowledge grows,
>>> remove the training wheels and have  a great way to do advanced things
>>> as well.
>>>
>>> JT
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge
>>> This is your chance to win up to $100,000 in prizes! For a limited time,
>>> vendors submitting new applications to BlackBerry App World(TM) will have
>>> the opportunity to enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge. See full prize
>>> details at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/Challenge
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Visualpython-users mailing list
>>> Vis...@li...
>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>>>
>>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge
>> This is your chance to win up to $100,000 in prizes! For a limited time,
>> vendors submitting new applications to BlackBerry App World(TM) will have
>> the opportunity to enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge. See full prize
>> details at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/Challenge
>> _______________________________________________
>> Visualpython-users mailing list
>> Vis...@li...
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
> Visualpython-users mailing list
> Vis...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>

[Visualpython-users] Visual Python & py2exe compile error.

[Derek L. <dl...@ma...>]

When I compile my code to a executable using py2exe  the vtest.exe is
created successfully but I get the following error when I run the
compiled file:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "vtest.py", line 1, in <module>
  File "visual\__init__.pyc", line 66, in <module>
  File "visual\ui.pyc", line 3, in <module>
  File "visual\materials.pyc", line 151, in <module>
  File "visual\materials.pyc", line 129, in loadTGA
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: "C:\\Documents and
Settings\\D-man\\Desktop\\Research\\'09\\Forign
Study\\Python\\CopyforComp\\dist\\vtest.exe\\visual/turbulence3.tga"

I get the same error with several different vpython scripts, as an example:

""" Start vtest.py """
from visual import *

box(pos=(0,0,0), size=(1,1,1))
""" End vtest.py """

""" Start mysetup.py """
from distutils.core import setup
import py2exe

setup(
console = ["stars.py"],
)
""" End mysetup.py """

(from the command line)
>python mysetup.py py2exe

Has anyone encountered this before? Any idea on what I'm doing wrong?

Re: [Visualpython-users] Not Enough Python in VPython?

[Jim T. <jt...@mi...>]

Thank you Bruce for such prompt answers.  It sounds like I need to keep 
digging through the code and understand how it works better.  David's 
link at an old attempt gives me some hope that it might work.

JT

Bruce Sherwood wrote:
> I asked David Scherer for an expert response to this question. Here's 
> what he said:
>
> "The question is whether some or all of the platform-specific window 
> handling code could be written in Python.  The answer to this question 
> is, I think, yes - as you may recall, I did some experimentation with 
> that myself (in the context of a Mac port, and of eventually supporting 
> visual widgets for windowing libraries).  The performance effect is not 
> necessarily significant for the simple reason that things like display 
> and mouse handling only do O(1) work per frame, while the heavy lifting 
> is already in platform-independent C++.  On the other hand, the 
> "productivity" benefit is not so clear either because the low level 
> platform-specific APIs for windowing are usually not exposed or 
> documented very well in Python, or are exposed only through optional 
> libraries that are heavy dependencies, or are wrapped in higher level 
> libraries that make some decisions inappropriate for Visual.  I think 
> that, on balance, keeping the platform-specific code in C++ was the 
> right decision for the "big three" platforms, but this decision could 
> certainly be revisited in the future (especially for Linux, where 
> dependency hell is socially acceptable).  More to the point, however, 
> Python display implementations could be an excellent way of supporting 
> edge cases like this one (displaying as part of a window managed by 
> another library).
>
> The Python display implementation I wrote is in the CVS history at 
> /vpython-core2/site-packages/visual/pyglet.py, with "show dead files":
>
>  http://visualpython.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/visualpython/vpython-core2/site-packages/visual/?hideattic=0 
>
>
> It makes a display window based on the pyglet library.  It probably 
> won't work unmodified because of various changes made to visual since I 
> stopped working on it, and I doubt it was ever full featured (e.g. no 
> keyboard support), but it would be a good starting point for anyone 
> experimenting in this area.  I would think someone could develop a 
> wxwindows "visual widget" relatively easily, though there are surely 
> traps for the unwary."
>
> Bruce Sherwood
>
> P.S. If I remember correctly, this particular approach using pyglet was 
> abandoned in part because it didn't just immediately work on all platforms.
>
> Jim Thomas wrote:
>   
>> I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing that VPython would integrate better 
>> with our more full featured programs.  The best technique I've come up 
>> with so far is to put the visual code in a separate thread and use 
>> queues to talk between my python based (GUI) program and the visual code 
>> and it's standalone window.
>>
>> I've been perusing the source code to see if there is a way to get 
>> visual to use a window I manage.  It seems it might be possible by 
>> rewriting display.cpp to use a passed GTK window handle/id to create the 
>> display and eliminating gui_main.  However I use wxPython which while 
>> based on GTK on linux, it uses native libraries on other platforms.  So 
>> that is not a great solution for me.
>>
>> However there is a common denominator available with almost any decent 
>> GUI library -- OpenGL.  What I was thinking was this -- how critical is 
>> it that the 'GUI' portion of visual be implemented in C++?  From what I 
>> can tell, 0% of Visual Python is actually implemented in Python.  Why 
>> couldn't all the GTK portion of the library be implemented in pyGTK?  
>> Wouldn't that actually make development easier?  In my experience Python 
>> is up to 10x better from a development perspective.  I didn't see 
>> anything particularly performance critical in the GTK code side of 
>> things, did I miss something?  Implementing the library as a python GUI 
>> + C++ OpenGL would make it possible to have alternate GUI front end 
>> options such as wxPython, or an expert mode with no default windows 
>> suitable for integrating with an existing GUI program.
>>
>> Has this been considered before and tossed out as non-feasible?  Did I 
>> overlook something critical in the source code?  I have not spent lots 
>> of time yet but I am up for trying to do a proof of concept if it is not 
>> a known dead-end.  The other thing I was considering is trying to do a 
>> re-implementation in 100% python and then profiling to determine what 
>> portions if any should be moved into C++.  It seems to me that most of 
>> my calls to visual are during the model definition phase where 
>> performance is not really an issue.  Outside of re-positioning / 
>> re-orienting, relatively few functions are called every display loop.  
>> Are the locations of the bottlenecks already known?  Is this idea silly? 
>>
>> I really like Visual Python from the point of view of ease of use of the 
>> library.  However there are serious limitations (perhaps unnecessarily 
>> so) once you move beyond demo programs and I fear that at some point I 
>> may be forced to 'graduate' to OpenGL.  I would love to see Visual as an 
>> easy way to start doing 3D (as it is now) and as your knowledge grows, 
>> remove the training wheels and have  a great way to do advanced things 
>> as well.
>>
>> JT
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge  
>> This is your chance to win up to $100,000 in prizes! For a limited time, 
>> vendors submitting new applications to BlackBerry App World(TM) will have
>> the opportunity to enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge. See full prize  
>> details at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/Challenge
>> _______________________________________________
>> Visualpython-users mailing list
>> Vis...@li...
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>>   
>>     
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge  
> This is your chance to win up to $100,000 in prizes! For a limited time, 
> vendors submitting new applications to BlackBerry App World(TM) will have
> the opportunity to enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge. See full prize  
> details at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/Challenge
> _______________________________________________
> Visualpython-users mailing list
> Vis...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>   

Re: [Visualpython-users] Not Enough Python in VPython?

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

I asked David Scherer for an expert response to this question. Here's 
what he said:

"The question is whether some or all of the platform-specific window 
handling code could be written in Python.  The answer to this question 
is, I think, yes - as you may recall, I did some experimentation with 
that myself (in the context of a Mac port, and of eventually supporting 
visual widgets for windowing libraries).  The performance effect is not 
necessarily significant for the simple reason that things like display 
and mouse handling only do O(1) work per frame, while the heavy lifting 
is already in platform-independent C++.  On the other hand, the 
"productivity" benefit is not so clear either because the low level 
platform-specific APIs for windowing are usually not exposed or 
documented very well in Python, or are exposed only through optional 
libraries that are heavy dependencies, or are wrapped in higher level 
libraries that make some decisions inappropriate for Visual.  I think 
that, on balance, keeping the platform-specific code in C++ was the 
right decision for the "big three" platforms, but this decision could 
certainly be revisited in the future (especially for Linux, where 
dependency hell is socially acceptable).  More to the point, however, 
Python display implementations could be an excellent way of supporting 
edge cases like this one (displaying as part of a window managed by 
another library).

The Python display implementation I wrote is in the CVS history at 
/vpython-core2/site-packages/visual/pyglet.py, with "show dead files":

 http://visualpython.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/visualpython/vpython-core2/site-packages/visual/?hideattic=0 


It makes a display window based on the pyglet library.  It probably 
won't work unmodified because of various changes made to visual since I 
stopped working on it, and I doubt it was ever full featured (e.g. no 
keyboard support), but it would be a good starting point for anyone 
experimenting in this area.  I would think someone could develop a 
wxwindows "visual widget" relatively easily, though there are surely 
traps for the unwary."

Bruce Sherwood

P.S. If I remember correctly, this particular approach using pyglet was 
abandoned in part because it didn't just immediately work on all platforms.

Jim Thomas wrote:
> I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing that VPython would integrate better 
> with our more full featured programs.  The best technique I've come up 
> with so far is to put the visual code in a separate thread and use 
> queues to talk between my python based (GUI) program and the visual code 
> and it's standalone window.
>
> I've been perusing the source code to see if there is a way to get 
> visual to use a window I manage.  It seems it might be possible by 
> rewriting display.cpp to use a passed GTK window handle/id to create the 
> display and eliminating gui_main.  However I use wxPython which while 
> based on GTK on linux, it uses native libraries on other platforms.  So 
> that is not a great solution for me.
>
> However there is a common denominator available with almost any decent 
> GUI library -- OpenGL.  What I was thinking was this -- how critical is 
> it that the 'GUI' portion of visual be implemented in C++?  From what I 
> can tell, 0% of Visual Python is actually implemented in Python.  Why 
> couldn't all the GTK portion of the library be implemented in pyGTK?  
> Wouldn't that actually make development easier?  In my experience Python 
> is up to 10x better from a development perspective.  I didn't see 
> anything particularly performance critical in the GTK code side of 
> things, did I miss something?  Implementing the library as a python GUI 
> + C++ OpenGL would make it possible to have alternate GUI front end 
> options such as wxPython, or an expert mode with no default windows 
> suitable for integrating with an existing GUI program.
>
> Has this been considered before and tossed out as non-feasible?  Did I 
> overlook something critical in the source code?  I have not spent lots 
> of time yet but I am up for trying to do a proof of concept if it is not 
> a known dead-end.  The other thing I was considering is trying to do a 
> re-implementation in 100% python and then profiling to determine what 
> portions if any should be moved into C++.  It seems to me that most of 
> my calls to visual are during the model definition phase where 
> performance is not really an issue.  Outside of re-positioning / 
> re-orienting, relatively few functions are called every display loop.  
> Are the locations of the bottlenecks already known?  Is this idea silly? 
>
> I really like Visual Python from the point of view of ease of use of the 
> library.  However there are serious limitations (perhaps unnecessarily 
> so) once you move beyond demo programs and I fear that at some point I 
> may be forced to 'graduate' to OpenGL.  I would love to see Visual as an 
> easy way to start doing 3D (as it is now) and as your knowledge grows, 
> remove the training wheels and have  a great way to do advanced things 
> as well.
>
> JT
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge  
> This is your chance to win up to $100,000 in prizes! For a limited time, 
> vendors submitting new applications to BlackBerry App World(TM) will have
> the opportunity to enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge. See full prize  
> details at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/Challenge
> _______________________________________________
> Visualpython-users mailing list
> Vis...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>   

Re: [Visualpython-users] Not Enough Python in VPython?

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

I'm pretty swamped at the moment with finishing a textbook and can't 
give as good a response as I'd like, but I'll say very quickly that even 
being very careful to be as efficient as possible in C++ it's quite easy 
to get poor performance with VPython if you have lots of objects. What 
VPython does is quite difficult and time-critical.

And a quick comment on pyGTK: Many cross-platform schemes were 
attempted, and none was found adequate for building Visual on Windows, 
Mac, and Linux. That doesn't mean that it's not possible, only that the 
developers did try and didn't succeed. Maybe someone else will step 
forward and make a big improvement.

Bruce Sherwood

Jim Thomas wrote:
> I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing that VPython would integrate better 
> with our more full featured programs.  The best technique I've come up 
> with so far is to put the visual code in a separate thread and use 
> queues to talk between my python based (GUI) program and the visual code 
> and it's standalone window.
>
> I've been perusing the source code to see if there is a way to get 
> visual to use a window I manage.  It seems it might be possible by 
> rewriting display.cpp to use a passed GTK window handle/id to create the 
> display and eliminating gui_main.  However I use wxPython which while 
> based on GTK on linux, it uses native libraries on other platforms.  So 
> that is not a great solution for me.
>
> However there is a common denominator available with almost any decent 
> GUI library -- OpenGL.  What I was thinking was this -- how critical is 
> it that the 'GUI' portion of visual be implemented in C++?  From what I 
> can tell, 0% of Visual Python is actually implemented in Python.  Why 
> couldn't all the GTK portion of the library be implemented in pyGTK?  
> Wouldn't that actually make development easier?  In my experience Python 
> is up to 10x better from a development perspective.  I didn't see 
> anything particularly performance critical in the GTK code side of 
> things, did I miss something?  Implementing the library as a python GUI 
> + C++ OpenGL would make it possible to have alternate GUI front end 
> options such as wxPython, or an expert mode with no default windows 
> suitable for integrating with an existing GUI program.
>
> Has this been considered before and tossed out as non-feasible?  Did I 
> overlook something critical in the source code?  I have not spent lots 
> of time yet but I am up for trying to do a proof of concept if it is not 
> a known dead-end.  The other thing I was considering is trying to do a 
> re-implementation in 100% python and then profiling to determine what 
> portions if any should be moved into C++.  It seems to me that most of 
> my calls to visual are during the model definition phase where 
> performance is not really an issue.  Outside of re-positioning / 
> re-orienting, relatively few functions are called every display loop.  
> Are the locations of the bottlenecks already known?  Is this idea silly? 
>
> I really like Visual Python from the point of view of ease of use of the 
> library.  However there are serious limitations (perhaps unnecessarily 
> so) once you move beyond demo programs and I fear that at some point I 
> may be forced to 'graduate' to OpenGL.  I would love to see Visual as an 
> easy way to start doing 3D (as it is now) and as your knowledge grows, 
> remove the training wheels and have  a great way to do advanced things 
> as well.
>
> JT
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge  
> This is your chance to win up to $100,000 in prizes! For a limited time, 
> vendors submitting new applications to BlackBerry App World(TM) will have
> the opportunity to enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge. See full prize  
> details at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/Challenge
> _______________________________________________
> Visualpython-users mailing list
> Vis...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>   

Re: [Visualpython-users] Not Enough Python in VPython?

[Stef M. <s.m...@ru...>]

hi Jim,
if the main goal is to embed the VPython window in your own GUI,
why not just dock the VPython window in your own GUI ?
cheers,
Stef

Jim Thomas wrote:
> I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing that VPython would integrate better 
> with our more full featured programs.  The best technique I've come up 
> with so far is to put the visual code in a separate thread and use 
> queues to talk between my python based (GUI) program and the visual code 
> and it's standalone window.
>
> I've been perusing the source code to see if there is a way to get 
> visual to use a window I manage.  It seems it might be possible by 
> rewriting display.cpp to use a passed GTK window handle/id to create the 
> display and eliminating gui_main.  However I use wxPython which while 
> based on GTK on linux, it uses native libraries on other platforms.  So 
> that is not a great solution for me.
>
> However there is a common denominator available with almost any decent 
> GUI library -- OpenGL.  What I was thinking was this -- how critical is 
> it that the 'GUI' portion of visual be implemented in C++?  From what I 
> can tell, 0% of Visual Python is actually implemented in Python.  Why 
> couldn't all the GTK portion of the library be implemented in pyGTK?  
> Wouldn't that actually make development easier?  In my experience Python 
> is up to 10x better from a development perspective.  I didn't see 
> anything particularly performance critical in the GTK code side of 
> things, did I miss something?  Implementing the library as a python GUI 
> + C++ OpenGL would make it possible to have alternate GUI front end 
> options such as wxPython, or an expert mode with no default windows 
> suitable for integrating with an existing GUI program.
>
> Has this been considered before and tossed out as non-feasible?  Did I 
> overlook something critical in the source code?  I have not spent lots 
> of time yet but I am up for trying to do a proof of concept if it is not 
> a known dead-end.  The other thing I was considering is trying to do a 
> re-implementation in 100% python and then profiling to determine what 
> portions if any should be moved into C++.  It seems to me that most of 
> my calls to visual are during the model definition phase where 
> performance is not really an issue.  Outside of re-positioning / 
> re-orienting, relatively few functions are called every display loop.  
> Are the locations of the bottlenecks already known?  Is this idea silly? 
>
> I really like Visual Python from the point of view of ease of use of the 
> library.  However there are serious limitations (perhaps unnecessarily 
> so) once you move beyond demo programs and I fear that at some point I 
> may be forced to 'graduate' to OpenGL.  I would love to see Visual as an 
> easy way to start doing 3D (as it is now) and as your knowledge grows, 
> remove the training wheels and have  a great way to do advanced things 
> as well.
>
> JT
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge  
> This is your chance to win up to $100,000 in prizes! For a limited time, 
> vendors submitting new applications to BlackBerry App World(TM) will have
> the opportunity to enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge. See full prize  
> details at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/Challenge
> _______________________________________________
> Visualpython-users mailing list
> Vis...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>
>
>   

[Visualpython-users] Not Enough Python in VPython?

[Jim T. <jt...@mi...>]

I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing that VPython would integrate better 
with our more full featured programs.  The best technique I've come up 
with so far is to put the visual code in a separate thread and use 
queues to talk between my python based (GUI) program and the visual code 
and it's standalone window.

I've been perusing the source code to see if there is a way to get 
visual to use a window I manage.  It seems it might be possible by 
rewriting display.cpp to use a passed GTK window handle/id to create the 
display and eliminating gui_main.  However I use wxPython which while 
based on GTK on linux, it uses native libraries on other platforms.  So 
that is not a great solution for me.

However there is a common denominator available with almost any decent 
GUI library -- OpenGL.  What I was thinking was this -- how critical is 
it that the 'GUI' portion of visual be implemented in C++?  From what I 
can tell, 0% of Visual Python is actually implemented in Python.  Why 
couldn't all the GTK portion of the library be implemented in pyGTK?  
Wouldn't that actually make development easier?  In my experience Python 
is up to 10x better from a development perspective.  I didn't see 
anything particularly performance critical in the GTK code side of 
things, did I miss something?  Implementing the library as a python GUI 
+ C++ OpenGL would make it possible to have alternate GUI front end 
options such as wxPython, or an expert mode with no default windows 
suitable for integrating with an existing GUI program.

Has this been considered before and tossed out as non-feasible?  Did I 
overlook something critical in the source code?  I have not spent lots 
of time yet but I am up for trying to do a proof of concept if it is not 
a known dead-end.  The other thing I was considering is trying to do a 
re-implementation in 100% python and then profiling to determine what 
portions if any should be moved into C++.  It seems to me that most of 
my calls to visual are during the model definition phase where 
performance is not really an issue.  Outside of re-positioning / 
re-orienting, relatively few functions are called every display loop.  
Are the locations of the bottlenecks already known?  Is this idea silly? 

I really like Visual Python from the point of view of ease of use of the 
library.  However there are serious limitations (perhaps unnecessarily 
so) once you move beyond demo programs and I fear that at some point I 
may be forced to 'graduate' to OpenGL.  I would love to see Visual as an 
easy way to start doing 3D (as it is now) and as your knowledge grows, 
remove the training wheels and have  a great way to do advanced things 
as well.

JT

Re: [Visualpython-users] Ubuntu packages

[Guy K. K. <g....@ma...>]

On Mon, 20 Jul 2009 05:54:46 Tony Risinger wrote:
> I usually begin testing around alpha 3 release, so in the next week or so I
> will test the visual 5 package in karmic.

That is BTW the one that I have backported to Jaunty. You can just apt-get 
source it after adding the karmic sources to the sources.list. Pull in with 
apt-get build-dep the build dependencies, and build the package with dpkg-
buildpackage.

Maybe that solves the issue already. I could imagine that the VPython package 
depends on something, that in turn pulls in something else. And you may have 
some dependencies satisfied, but not subsequent deps ... I am not running a 
vanilla Jaunty here, so there may have been some slightly off libraries or 
versions my Jaunty package was compiled against.

As you said, this way I'm running and debugging the upcoming Ubuntu releases 
packages already. So far they seemed very well done by the maintainer.

Guy

-- 
Guy K. Kloss
Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences
Te Kura Pūtaiao o Mōhiohio me Pāngarau
Massey University, Albany (North Shore City, Auckland)
473 State Highway 17, Gate 1, Mailroom, Quad B Building
voice: +64 9 414-0800 ext. 9585   fax: +64 9 441-8181
G....@ma... http://www.massey.ac.nz/~gkloss

Re: [Visualpython-users] Ubuntu packages

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
  <meta content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
  <title></title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
All of this sounds pretty unfamiliar. I would suggest a different
approach: Get the source package from the Linux download page at
vpython.org and build from source. It's important to study the comments
on the vpython.org download page and in the file INSTALL.txt. The only
problems I've seen with this source build on Linux is that there is
some confusion (on my part at least, and judging from web comments I'm
not entirely alone) related to a significant change from site-packages
to dist-packages.<br>
<br>
Bruce Sherwood<br>
<br>
Tony Risinger wrote:
<blockquote
 cite="mid:639...@br..."
 type="cite">
  <meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
  <span></span><font size="-0">
  <div><font face="Arial" size="2">I am working on a generic log
visualization app, to replace the useful and popular gltail written in
ruby.  I have started writing the python version and am using vpython
as the rendering engine.  We use gltail at work to monitor thousands of
requests a minute (apache/postfix/mysql/custom parsers), but it's dead
slow and not very versatile.
  <div><br>
  </div>
  <div>First off great work, vpython is super intuitive and is making
this project, actually my first real jump into python after extensive
reading of internet an books, very light work.</div>
  <div><br>
  </div>
  <div>Rather than using vpython 3 that's bundled in the ubuntu
repository (jaunty) I'm trying to use this:</div>
  <div><br>
  </div>
  <div> <span class="Apple-style-span"
 style="font-size: 19px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(94, 94, 94); font-family: arial; line-height: 21px;">Guy
K. Kloss wrote:</span></div>
  <span class="Apple-style-span"
 style="color: rgb(94, 94, 94); font-family: arial; font-size: 19px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 21px;">&gt;
OK, creating a proper Debian package for Jaunty/Python 2.6 was a bit of
a <br>
&gt; challgenge. Gladly Jonas Smedegaard has recently created packages
for the <br>
&gt; upcoming Karmic Koala (9.10) release. So it was just a matter of a
backport <br>
&gt; making it *much* easier.<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; Additionally I have patched the 5.11 version to not wildcard
import visual, <br>
&gt; numpy and math all over the place. So the name space is not
polluted and <br>
&gt; VPython should play much more nicely with other Python stuff on
the system.<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; Both packages are available for download here:<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; <a moz-do-not-send="true"
 href="https://gutefee.massey.ac.nz/moin/Python/3D">https://gutefee.massey.ac.nz/moin/Python/3D</a></span>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span"
 style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(94, 94, 94); font-family: arial; font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;"><br>
  </span></div>
  <span class="Apple-style-span" style="">I'm using the standard
version, not the namespace altered one.  Even after trying on a
completely fresh and up to date jaunty install, I keep getting
segfaults on a script that does nothing but import the visual module.
 I have another script that I was playing with that only creates a ring
and starts rotating it, before with the visual 5.11 package it
segfaults and I get this msg:</span>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><br>
  </span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="">get fences failed: -1</span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="">param: 6, val: 0</span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><br>
  </span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="">(&lt;unknown&gt;:5101)
GdkGLExt-WARNING **: Cannot open \x885a _L.so</span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span
 class="Apple-style-span" style="">(&lt;unknown&gt;:5101)
GdkGLExt-WARNING **: Cannot open \x885a _L.so</span></span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><br>
  </span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="">glibmm-ERROR **:</span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="">unhandled exception
(type std::exception) on signal handler:</span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="">what: Unable to get
extension function: glTexImage3D even though the extension is
advertised.</span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><br>
  </span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="">aborting...</span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><br>
  </span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><br>
  </span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="">I noticed that the \xxxx
_L.so part would sometimes be different, but the _L.so was always the
same.</span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><br>
  </span></div>
  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="">I can paste the scripts
and strace/etc if needed, but it's on my comp and my Internet is
down... I just typed that whole error on my iPhone :-)</span></div>
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  <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="">Thanks,</span></div>
  </font></div>
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Re: [Visualpython-users] Do not appear the intersection?

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

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<head>
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VPython does not offer any capability for constructing objects through
subtraction of solids. That's a difficult problem to handle in real
time.<br>
<br>
Bruce Sherwood<br>
<br>
xingran xue wrote:
<blockquote
 cite="mid:c97...@ma..."
 type="cite"><span class="il"></span>Hi guys,<br>
  <br>
Say I have 4 spheres, and I want to make the intersection part
disappear. Is there any easy way to only show the slice instead of the
overlapping parts.<br>
Here is the code:<br>
  <br>
from visual import *<br>
  <br>
sphere(pos=(0,2,0),opacity = 0.2,color= color.white, radius =2) <br>
for t in arange(-pi,pi,2*pi/3):<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; sphere(pos = (1.2*cos(t),0,1.2*sin(t)), opacity = 0.2,color=
color.white, radius = 2)<br>
  <br>
  <br>
Any input will be appreciated.<br>
  <br>
Best<br>
Ran<br>
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[Visualpython-users] self contained VPython apps on Mac?

[Joe H. <hea...@gm...>]

Has anyone tried using py2app to create self contained VPython apps on  
the Mac?

Joe Heafner (follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/heafnerj)
email: heafnerj(at)gmail(dot)com URL: www(dot)SticksAndShadows(dot)com

[Visualpython-users] Do not appear the intersection?

[xingran x. <xxi...@gm...>]

Hi guys,

Say I have 4 spheres, and I want to make the intersection part disappear. Is
there any easy way to only show the slice instead of the overlapping parts.
Here is the code:

from visual import *

sphere(pos=(0,2,0),opacity = 0.2,color= color.white, radius =2)
for t in arange(-pi,pi,2*pi/3):
    sphere(pos = (1.2*cos(t),0,1.2*sin(t)), opacity = 0.2,color=
color.white, radius = 2)


Any input will be appreciated.

Best
Ran

Re: [Visualpython-users] Visual Distribution on Window

[Athanasios A. <ath...@go...>]

Mr Zorgi

You could also try to prepare a portable Python installation on an
external storage device and then take this with you to any machine you
can attach this storage device on. (A USB disk for example)

A portable version of Python can be obtained from:
http://www.portablepython.com/site/faq/

As verified by Dr Sherwood previously, VPython should have no problems
to operate if you simply copy it across from another machine to your
portable Python's site-packages directory.

Furthermore you can add other relevant development tools to this disk
to allow you to modify your programs from any machine.

I hope this helps.

All the best
Athanasios Anastasiou

Re: [Visualpython-users] Visual Distribution on Window

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

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I would have thought that if you don't have administrator privileges on
your own computer you also wouldn't be permitted to copy anything into
the site-packages directory....?<br>
<br>
There doesn't happen to exist a zip-file version. If somehow you can
copy to site-packages, perhaps you could ask a friend to install
VPython and then get the files from the friend.<br>
<br>
Bruce Sherwood<br>
<br>
Dr Zorgi wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:714...@we..."
 type="cite">
  <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
    <tbody>
      <tr>
        <td
 style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit;"
 valign="top">Hello,<br>
It is possible to have a Vpython distribution on Windows, that do not
need to have Administrator privilege? Indeed, it is impossible to
install the current Windows distribution into my cumputed.<br>
The dream would be a "VPython.Zip"&nbsp; that just needs to be "unzip" into
the "sitepackage" directory.<br>
Thank you<br>
Mr.Zorgi<br>
        <br>
        </td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
  </table>
  <br>
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[Visualpython-users] Visual Distribution on Window

[Dr Z. <zo...@ya...>]

Hello,
It is possible to have a Vpython distribution on Windows, that do not need to have Administrator privilege? Indeed, it is impossible to install the current Windows distribution into my cumputed.
The dream would be a "VPython.Zip"  that just needs to be "unzip" into the "sitepackage" directory.
Thank you
Mr.Zorgi




      

[Visualpython-users] Regarding OpenGL Materials (and the AC3D loader)

[Athanasios A. <ath...@go...>]

Dear Bruce and all

Thank you very much for taking the time to clarify this point about
the materials.

Of course, i would not expect something like "wood" to be represented
by the classic material parameters as it is done through shaders. This
is because these material parameters describe the properties of a
surface in general and are taken into account by the lighting model.

However, these are still useful since they can be used to define a
multitude of materials such as those described in the following lists:
http://devernay.free.fr/cours/opengl/materials.html
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~kuck/materials_ogl.htm
http://www.opengl.org/resources/code/samples/sig99/advanced99/notes/node153.html

I discovered VPython only recently so i do not know what was the
situation in previous versions. But these implementation decisions are
anyway up to you.

Thanks again.

By the way, i noticed that there is probably no way for someone only
viewing the list through email to download the AC3D model loader i
posted two days ago. The code is available from the Web View or by
following this link:
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/attachment.php?list_name=visualpython-users&message_id=fda0cbc60907070821l18da813i71035c2aa67a7013%40mail.gmail.com&counter=2

I hope this helps.

All the best
Athanasios Anastasiou

[Visualpython-users] OpenGL materials

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
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<head>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
A user asked me, "From what I noticed, the available materials are
defined through shaders. What I had in mind was defining materials
through an OpenGL call such as glMaterial (<a
 href="http://www.opengl.org/sdk/docs/man/xhtml/glMaterial.xml"
 target="_blank" style="color: rgb(42, 93, 176);">http://www.opengl.org/sdk/<wbr>docs/man/xhtml/glMaterial.xml</a>).
This could of course be packaged as a shader but it would replicate
functionality that is already available from the lower level of OpenGL."<br>
<br>
I asked David Scherer about this, and he replied that this was the
approach attempted in Visual 4 - adding OpenGL features that look like
what you want on paper, but that while OpenGL can _represent_ all kinds
of material properties, it can only render a few reasonably accurately
(because it does everything at vertex level, among other limitations).&nbsp;
For everything else, you need shaders. This is why Visual 5 uses
shaders for materials.<br>
<br>
Bruce Sherwood<br>
<br>
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