[Gnu3dkit-dev] Gnome + 3D

[C.J. Collier]

Hey, All.  I'm new to the list.  I've been talking to Kris of Gnome, and
I'm wondering if you guys have been working on such a project as is
discussed inthe following IRC log.  If not, can you direct me to some
people who can help?

Thank you so much!

C.J. Collier

--

[05:18:08] <cj> I've been thinking of some fun infrastructure things.
[05:18:37] <cj> I've been spending the last couple of years musing on
open source 3d applications and how the majority of the ones that have
been being worked on suck in one major way or another
[05:19:09] <cj> I'd like to make the sucking stop.  I think the first
thing to do would be to define some open standards about how they should
communicate with eachother.
[05:20:05] <kris> 3d apps you mean?
[05:20:16] <kris> do the windows ones also communicate with eachother?
[05:20:46] <kris> I think the lack of a good and complete open source 3d
modeler is just because of the lack of time/good big team/etc
[05:27:53] <cj> kris: Hmm.. There seem to be PLENTY of people
interested.  They're all just interested in building one themselves
rather than collaborating, it seems ;)
[05:28:04] <kris> yeah, and that's the problem
[05:28:34] <kris> is the blender source base of any use?
[05:28:39] <cj> I think that if an API was developed that coders could
code their modelers for, a lot of the code they write for their own
modelers would be easy to use on different projects
[05:28:41] <kris> if you wrote a nice interface for it,
[05:28:48] <kris> maybe you could have a winner then
[05:28:49] <cj> kris: sure, but you've got to remove the crufty UI first
;)
[05:29:09] <cj> kris: that has crossed my nasty little mind quite a few
times ;)
[05:29:09] <kris> are the backend and the UI code separated in blender?
[05:29:18] <cj> Dunno.  I s'pose I should look ;)
[05:29:39] <kris> blender is pretty powerful from what I saw
[05:29:43] <kris> so with the good GNOME UI (:
[05:29:49] <kris> s/the/a/
[05:29:52] <kris> it would rock
[05:30:01] <cj> How's the Gnome database interface coming?  It would be
cool to have like a modeler, animation and a texturer application
running off of a single data source
[05:30:38] <kris> I don't think that it should be a sql-based data
source
[05:30:48] <cj> What would be a better alternative?
[05:31:11] <kris> not sure,
[05:31:24] <kris> might be a nice idea for a library?
[05:31:27] <cj> the gnome DB should support that data source, whatever
it is ;)
[05:31:37] <cj> kris: who would I talk to about fleshing out this idea?
[05:31:44] <kris> no idea :/
[05:31:45] <cj> I don't know much about library design ;)
[05:31:57] <cj> have any ideas where I would go to ask?
[05:32:38] <kris> not really, sorry
[05:32:52] <cj> Hmm.. the Gnome team needs a better knowledge base
interface ;)
[05:33:17] <cj> Owen's good at design, isn't he?
[05:33:26] <ssp> cj: I think the best thing to do is to find out the
status of other 3d projects, then talk to the promising ones to see if
they'd be interested in using your library
[05:33:53] <cj> ssp: yeah, that's definately on the list of things to do
after the library concepts are fleshed out ;)
[05:34:17] <cj> ssp: but maybe all of the promising 3d projects have
suggestions....
[05:35:10] <ssp> cj: it's probably a good idea to present a strawman
interface, but you want them to use your library, so you should be very
receptive to what they need from a library 
[05:35:22] <ssp> cj: yeah, definitely
[05:36:59] <cj> I've also been thinking about drag-n-drop between 3d
applications.  Is there already a library for this type of thing?
[05:38:09] <kris> for DnD you are going to need a standard IIRC