Editing projects

[JustinO]

Hi Art,

Are there ways of editing a project besides through the GUI?

I guess the project files are bare naked structure s stored in their native formats.

Will there be a way to edit the project/object parameter s through your "project database" window?

I've used some programs where the primary means of defining a world were through man readable text files. For certain types of people, these were heaven, and of course for other types of people, these were hell. The programs also stored their worlds in text files, which required a lot of parsing back and forth from text to data structure s. A couple of the programs were ray tracing programs, "Bob" and later "Povray". They were able to handle hierarchi cal relations hips, Bob in particula r had a very nice "construct ive solid geometry" engine that was hierarchi cal. They also used hierarchi cal coordinat e transform s, wherein each object, or group of objects, had a coordinat e matrix. These programs were the product of grad students with excess pizza, soda, and time.

Is there a way of designing a gear, and instead of attaching it to a project, add it to a pallet? Can you copy a gear, or a train of gears from one project to another?

I don't want to add to your list, but if you are working toward enhanced or alternati ve project editing, I'm curious what we may see...

Thanks,
--Justin

[ArtF]

Justin:

  If what Im working on works out, it will require a complete rewrite of the GM project engine to allow for much more dynamic motion
and linkage. So Im really not sure as yet what the future holds. GM was meant originall y as a small gear applicati on, but it has grown
very complex internall y, and does a lot more than I originall y planned for.  I have the same thughts as to how the project topology will evolve, but as yet Im not really sure. GM has shown me a lot about how such an engine could work, so I guess we'll find out together
as it builds. The generaliz ed toothing module will force a complete reevaluat ion of how things are done, in the end I suspect so we'll discuss this a lor more as we get there..

Art

[JustinO]

Art,

You should look at "Photoreal ism and Ray Tracing in C" Christoph er D. Watkins, S. Coy, 1992.

It is a very skillful discussio n on the algorithm s and data structure s of their ray tracing engine "Bob".

It might give you ideas.

--Justin

[ArtF]

Justin:

 Thx, Ill look into once I get past some of my deamons ..

Art