Re: [OT] Best 3D format for Cocoa apps
Re: [OT] Best 3D format for Cocoa apps
- Subject: Re: [OT] Best 3D format for Cocoa apps
- From: Brian Hill <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 15:13:24 -0500
On Monday, July 2, 2001, at 01:49 PM, Ken Tabb wrote:
Hi,
I'm developing a Cocoa app for viewing 3D (computer generated) models of
anatomical bits and pieces, some of which are animated (eg. beating
hearts). I was previously intending to use QuickTimeVR Objects as a
means
of displaying the objects (i.e. outputting the object as a QTVR Object
movie from Cinema 4D), but it's looking like the sheer file sizes
generated (even tinkering with the various QuickTime codecs) may make
this an impractical solution. It will run over a switched 100BaseT
network, but even so, 30 people all downloading a 30Mb QTVR Object movie
= 900Mb, and that's just for a static spinnable eyeball!
So I'm looking at, rather than the pre-rendered QTVR format, some form
of
3D file format, with rendering on the fly (all the clients are Summer
2000 450MHz iMacs w/192Mb RAM). However I have next to no experience of
3D rendering programming (with a slight exception of brief OpenGL
programming on Solaris (under X Windows)).
What would be the preferred 3D method for Cocoa developers? I'm guessing
OpenGL (not that that's a file format), or possibly VRML?
The criteria are:
[1] Image quality (in terms of colours / resolution)
[2] File sizes
[3] Needs to support animation (eg. the heart beating)
[4] Technology directly supported by both Cinema4D and Cocoa APIs gets
double points!
Sorry for the OT post, but I'm guessing there are OpenGL / Cocoa gurus
in
here who know what the best method / file format would be.
Thanks in advance for any feeders,
the boy Ken
You might really want to take a look at the Quesa project for this
(www.quesa.org). It's an open-source re-implementation of the QuickDraw
3D API which uses OpenGL for rendering on OSX (and Win32, Linux,
etc...). I wrote most of the Cocoa Quesa3DView object myself, so I know
it works...8-)
The nice thing about using Quesa is that it already deals with some
common file formats (like 3DMF). Plus, the people working on the project
are typically very helpful to those trying to use the API in their own
software.
I'm not sure of the best way to deal with 'animation' per se, but Quesa
can certainly handle dynamic models.
Brian
email@hidden
http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_hill
___________________________________________________________
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