webgl viewer/game engine for low poly turntables? - webgl

I am looking for the best tool to achieve something like this (this is Blender's game engine, no real reflections, etc.) in an webgl viewer.
http://youtu.be/9-n12ZH5O6k
The idea is to prepare several basic scenes like this and then for the user to upload his design and have it previewed on a car (or other far more basic objects).
While p3d is nice, I don't think it does the job. There's no API for these cases yet. What are some options to pull this off? The requirement would be to have a library that doesn't have a too large footprint, since the feature/product is planned for the Asian market, so internet speed has to be considered.

you should look into three.js/babylon.js maybe? But you surely won't achieve that app just by a fingersnap, so read the tutorials as well, but these libs will surely ease your task by much.

Related

Programming a drone to flight indoor using opencv

I am newbie with drones. I would like to develop a program to manage a drone using opencv to fly indoor over a line.
I am searching a lot of languages but most all of them are GPS based. I saw there is an alternative which calls SLAM to detect the position using the sensors.
Well I have a line in the floor and a camera on my drone. I like mission planner but I am not quite sure if it is the best choice. I will be using Parrot AR, but I would like to use any drone.
So I would like to use mission planner but I am not sure if it is the best choice.
What would be the best SDK you would recommend me to use in order to manage the drone not using the GPS points but relative locations or SLAM?
Well, you have the Parrot API ,and a couple of wrappers in different languages. Node-AreDrone for nodeJs, PyArdrone for python, and there is a wrapper coded in C# which I have used AR.Drone. It has a good user interface which you can see the both cameras, record and replay the videos, control the drone by clicking on buttons, you can see the metrics and configuration of the drone and you have also a way to send commands in a queue. Because I love c# and the features I've mentioned you have already in a user interface, I prefer this. Most of them are quite the same as they use the Parrot API inside by sending udp messages. I couldn't try others, so, there are a lot, and anybody could tell me which one is the best. For mission planner I couldn't find a good solution for indoors. So, for anyone who is lost and do not know here to start as I was. I recommend to select the language you want and search for the corresponding wrapper. If you like c# as me, so AR.Drone is a good choice.
Also if you want to do something with OpenCV. Copterface is a good example. You could implement it in any language with OpenCV.

2D games on iOS

This is something I've pondered/struggled with and would love to hear some opinions on. I have a good deal of familiarity with the iOS sdk but not so much with the opengl related aspects and not really any with the various SDKs, especially game SDKs build to work on iOS.
If I want to create 2D games for iPhone/iPad, is it easy/better/practical to use some simple collection of iOS SDK objects such as the UIImageViews etc to build a plethora of sprites interacting on the screen, or much better to go with an SDK for that? I'm assuming that going with gl is overboard for 2d requirements, but please voice any dissent if I'm wrong there.
I'm mainly interested in what the quickest route to getting things done is, combined with the smallest requirements to ramp up on technologies. Obviously if it is well worth it to use an SDK simply because it is cross platform for other OSs, that is reasonable to mention.
The advantage of using a framework on top of OpenGL can greatly increase productivity, maintainability and reduce programming errors.
Personally I work with cocos2d-for-iphone. It's written in Objective-C and is based on top of OpenGL. It was created with the aims to create 2D games and thus unlike UIKit or QuartzCore, it's designed for that. It provides a lot of convenience API to manage scenes or sprites, to create animations, etc. Or even libraries for the sounds for example.
There is a very good article which describes some open-source game engines available on iphone here. It could help you in your search.

iOS / C: Algorithm to detect phonemes

I am searching for an algorithm to determine whether realtime audio input matches one of 144 given (and comfortably distinct) phoneme-pairs.
Preferably the lowest level that does the job.
I'm developing radical / experimental musical training software for iPhone / iPad.
My musical system comprises 12 consonant phonemes and 12 vowel phonemes, demonstrated here. That makes 144 possible phoneme pairs. The student has to sing the correct phoneme pair 'laa duu bee' etc in response to visual stimulus.
I have done a lot of research into this, it looks like my best bet may be to use one of the iOS Sphinx wrappers ( iPhone App › Add voice recognition? is the best source of information I have found ). However, I can't see how I would adapt such a package, can anyone with experience using one of these technologies give a basic rundown of the steps that would be required?
Would training be necessary by the user? I would have thought not, as it is such an elementary task, compared with full language models of thousands of words and far greater and more subtle phoneme base. However, it would be acceptable (not ideal) to have the user train 12 phoneme pairs: { consonant1+vowel1, consonant2+vowel2, ..., consonant12+vowel12 }. The full 144 would be too burdensome.
Is there a simpler approach? I feel like using a fully featured continuous speech recogniser is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It would be far more elegant to use the minimum technology that would solve the problem.
So really I'm hunting for any open source software that recognises phonemes.
PS I need a solution which runs pretty much real-time. so even as they are singing the note, firstly it blinks on to illustrate that it picked up the phoneme pair that was sung, and then it glows to illustrate whether they are singing the correct note pitch
If you are looking for a phone-level open source recogniser, then I would recommend HTK. Very good documentation is available with this tool in the form of the HTK Book. It also contains an entire chapter dedicated to building a phone level real-time speech recogniser. From your problem statement above, it seems to me like you might be able to re-work that example into your own solution. Possible pitfalls:
Since you want to do a phone level recogniser, the data needed to train the phone models would be very high. Also, your training database should be balanced in terms of distribution of the phones.
Building a speaker-independent system would require data from more than one speaker. And lots of that too.
Since this is open-source, you should also check into the licensing info for any additional details about shipping the code. A good alternative would be to use the on-phone recorder and then have the recorded waveform sent over a data channel to a server for the recognition, pretty much something like what google does.
I have a little bit of experience with this type of signal processing, and I would say that this is probably not the type of finite question that can be answered definitively.
One thing worth noting is that although you may restrict the phonemes you are interested in, the possibility space remains the same (i.e. infinite-ish). User training might help the algorithms along a bit, but useful training takes quite a bit of time and it seems you are averse to too much of that.
Using Sphinx is probably a great start on this problem. I haven't gotten very far in the library myself, but my guess is that you'll be working with its source code yourself to get exactly what you want. (Hooray for open source!)
...using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
I wouldn't label your problem a nut, I'd say it's more like a beast. It may be a different beast than natural language speech recognition, but it is still a beast.
All the best with your problem solving.
Not sure if this would help: check out OpenEars' LanguageModelGenerator. OpenEars uses Sphinx and other libraries.
http://www.hfink.eu/matchbox
This page links to both YouTube video demo and github source.
I'm guessing it would still be a lot of work to mould it into the shape I'm after, but is also definitely does do a lot of the work.

Done Some 2D Game Design, Now Want To Move To 3D

I have used PyGame for a while now, and quite enjoyed doing so, but only 2D experience is not going to cut it when I apply for video game jobs, and besides, I have a number of ideas I want to try out in 3D. What 3D library should I go into first? I was considering Irrlicht, which will also force me to work on my C++ again, but I was also looking towards XNA, as it would be cool to write 360 games. Any suggestions?
You can try Unity3D http://unity3d.com/. In the fall they released their engine for free that is cross platform (Mac, Win and possible Linux) and it can also be targeted for iPhone and web browser and is starting to build an open community and looks promising.
I've done some XNA stuff and the Unity tools look pretty good in comparison making it easier to get content into your games.
In my opinion, going with Irrlicht or OGRE is a good idea. It will help you get back in touch with C++ and experiment with 3D without making it too easy. It is a good idea to learn XNA as well and build a few 3D game prototypes there.
Summary: Do both, eventually. Learn OpenGL/DirectX later.
All the best.
XNA Game Studio is a fantastic framework and let's users jump into creating games quite quickly if you are comfortable with the .NET Framework.
However, if you decide that you want to move to the 3D world, you have 1 more dimension to take into consideration and it makes things exponentially harder. Simple collision detection, isn't so simple anymore. However, with the vast amount of information available for XNA Game Studio, you should find yourself getting to grips with the 3rd dimension quite quickly.
If you haven't done the whole Nehe type tutorials, it's probably best to play with the API, so that you get comfortable with it.
Create a Triangle
Spin the Triangle
Color the Triangle
Load some assets (models and textures) and render them
Try your hand at Alpha Blending
Take into consideration that XNA Game Studio does not have a fixed function pipeline and you will have to use Shaders (HLSL).
I have personally used Irrlicht, Ogre3d, Unity & Xna. Because you want to do this to help for when you apply for jobs in the game industry in my opinion I would suggest Irrlicht as you will want to work on your c++ skills. I also suggest Irrlicht as it is a 3D engine not a specific game engine which will allow you to work on your physics and maths skills as well which are highly sought after in the games industry.
I would suggest avoiding Unity if you are looking for experience to take to industry as it is a package that handles a lot for you and as such could limit your learning.
Ogre3D is a viable option as it is similar to Irlicht, maybe look into the tools available to help you make a choice between those two.
Xna is another interesting choice, it will give you a lot of chances to learn as Irrlicht could and there are a huge amount of resources to help you learn but at the same time you lose the c++ experience that comes with irrlicht.

Can the UDK be used for non-game projects?

This is a pretty basic question. I am wondering if the Unreal Development Kit can be used for something other than games, specifically a light show simulator and editor. The site says:
Unreal Engine 3 has been used by game developers, researchers, television studios, machinima directors, artists and students. If you have an idea that needs to be brought to life in a game engine, UDK is for you.
But I have the feeling that it is more game oriented. For my hobby project, I would like to be able to create light show simulations with rotating/moving lasers/lights of changing color, synchronized to sound/music. I would also like to develop an GUI editor for this, preferably in C#, but if it's not possible to access the rendering functionality of the engine from C#, then C++/Qt should suffice. The editor would be used to design the simulation, which would then be rendered/played out in real time.
I guess my base, general question is: can the Unreal Development Kit be used for something like this, not necessarily game related? Or should I go with my original option of Ogre3D, which just focuses on rendering and 3D graphics as far as I know.
EDIT: Just saw this page which again mentions:
Can I create any kind of game with UDK?
Absolutely. UDK is the perfect solution for any kind of virtual world you wish to create, from racing games to simulations.
So my question is now simply: Would I be able to access the renderer or other functionality of my resulting code to integrate it into an editor for my simulator? I guess a simpler, more relatable analogy would be, if I wrote a game, would I be able to write my own level/character/etc. editor for it? And how would I do so? Yes, I know that the UDK comes with editors already, but I mean if I want to make my own.
Thanks! I appreciate any answers :)
The UDK only permits you to play with script (Unreal Script) and not with native code (c++). So more complicated projects or integrations are very difficult without the full c++ source code. But if you will re-use the editor (UnrealED) for your project and make you simulation based upon unreal you can do it.
I'm pretty well oriented in what Unreal Engine can do, and answer to your question is yes and no ;)
Yes, you can create your own actors that will be rotating/moving and emitting light. But won't be able to create your own custom editor around UE's rendered. Frankly I don't see why you would need one - Unreal Editor has all the tools needed to design and execute light show simulation (and much more) - all you need to do is to get familiar with those tools.
One thing you could do in external editor (except, of course, for textures, sounds, models, etc) is create some custom setup in saved to text files, and later read in those files in unreal script - it allows it.
"I guess a simpler, more relatable analogy would be, if I wrote a game, would I be able to write my own level/character/etc. editor for it?"
Yes, you can make your own characters and maps. You shouldn't have any need to make your own editor though, the given editor should be enough.
Although you might not have access to the C++ source code, there is a lot that can be done using Unrealscript. Check out all the entries to the Make Something Unreal contest, they were all done using tools available in the UDK.

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