What are some software packages available to provide 90% of the avatar functionality for my games? My favorite is xbox's Avatar system (but I want it in my PC games).
I need the ability to customize the looks of a person (body, clothes, etc...).
looks lile miieditor.com was shut by Nintendo ..
there's some info here on Mii editors .. some source code is available .. not much to get excited about tho ..
and then there is the open-source MakeHuman project .. which is totally the other side of the spectrum :)
The November XDK (Xbox Developer Kit) contains an avatar API, but it's use is restricted from what I understand. The game using it must carry an E rating. Getting access to the XDK isn't an easy OR a cheap direction.
Your other option is to develop on the XNA platform, but the avatar functionality isn't available yet. It's already been submitted as a suggestion, but at this time, there isn't any information on as to if or when it will be available.
XNA Avatar Suggestion
EDIT: Just re-read your post and realized that you're looking for an alternative. I'm not aware of any pre-built packages and will most likely require you to roll-your-own.
They're all custom systems so I doubt a single SDK for that very purpose exists. Sure if you want to make a game which uses XBox' avatars there's an SDK/API for that provided by Microsoft but as far as I know, none exist as a ready-to-use package.
Related
I have an idea to develop a website that would help people to model 3D worlds, use 3D models and so on.
For example, based on my reseach, I could use Unity Framework to create this type of application for PC/MAC.
I am wondering if there are similar frameworks available for pure WEB?
This is my first time looking into this and I do not have any expertize in this topic. Please advise if you have any opinions or expertise in it.
Unity indeed has support for 3d on web, but it requires from user that it has installed Unity player. Users might not like that.
However, with webGL, you would have absolute control over the look and capabilities of your product, users wouldn't have to install anything new, it would all be pure web and only IE users would be damaged, because IE still doesn't have full support for webGL.
To develop with webGL you can do it from scratch, or you could use some of the existing libraries/3D engines that would speed up your work and give results much faster.
Here's a list of webGL engines: http://ffwd.typepad.com/blog/2011/04/webgl-what-flavor-is-your-engine.html, it seems that most used are Three.js, Scene.js and there is also Goo Engine (http://www.gooengine.com/).
Hope this helps.
Check out 3DTin, it does seem to deliver a part of what you want to build, using WebGL:
http://www.3dtin.com/
As a developer I find I am gathering more and more information from blogs and other resources from the web. Whether it be tips on configuring Drupal on IIS7 or tips on using the Entity Framework I find I am looking for a way to capture and organize content from the web. I also would like to be able to edit and annotate content to be able to add my own notes and remove add banners or any other content not related to what I am capturing.
When I used Windows OneNote seemed to fit the bill but I have recently moved to Mac OS and I am looking for an equivalent software package. I could run OneNote in a VM but would prefer to have a Mac OS native app. Here are some of the things I am looking for ..
Native app rather than web based. Because a web based product could go out of business and my collection could be lost.
Ability to organize and handle a large amount of data.
Good web clipping ability. So much of my content comes from the web.
Thanks for any suggestions!
I figured I would answer my own question with information on what I found. There ws no shortage of good apps on the Mac for note taking, web clips, and information storage.
Native Mac OS apps
DEVONthink (http://www.devon-technologies.com/products/devonthink/)
This is the application I decided to go with. It is expensive ($150 for Pro Office) but I really liked how it used the file system as it's storage medium and not a single database file. The fact that it has an nice iPhone and iPad app (DEVONthink 2 Go) make it my number one choice. Tagging and folder hierarchy was something I liked and really nice search capabilities. Also, built in OCR.
YoJimbo - http://www.barebones.com/products/yojimbo/
Very nice application with nice interface and nice reviews. I just didn't like how all content was saved to a single database file. Nice iPad app also.
Eagle Filer - http://c-command.com/eaglefiler/
Very similar to DEVONthink (minus the OCR) but the price was very affordable and it used the file system to store files in native format. I would have chose Eagle Filer if it had a companion iOS app.
Together - http://reinventedsoftware.com/together/
I thought Together had a really nice interface. I thought it was very similar to Yojimbo but no companion app (which YoJimbo has)
Curio - http://www.zengobi.com/products/curio/
This was an awesome (but expensive) application. In the end I found it to be more suited to creating content rather than storing it. I might look into this as a solution to brainstorming and content creation and use something like DEVONthink to store the content. Very generous trial period.
VooDooPad - http://flyingmeat.com/voodoopad/
VooDooPad got a lot of nice reviews. However, I wasn't too fond of the interface.
Circus Ponies Notebook - http://www.circusponies.com/
I personally didn't like the interface of Circus Ponies Notebook however this is a subjective thing. I did not like how a clipping service had to be created in order to import content.
Web Based Tools
Though I prefer a solution that ran as a native Mac OS app, I came across some nice web based applications.
ZoHo Notebook - http://notebook.zoho.com
Mnemonic - http://www.memonic.com/home
SpringPad - http://springpadit.com/home
Evernote - http://www.evernote.com
UberNote - http://www.ubernote.com/webnote/pages/default.aspx
MediaWiki - http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki
Just got a car with the Microsoft sync system in it. Did a quick search online and was curious if anyone is aware of any SDK that may exist, sample open source add-on applications, etc.
Thanks in advance.
UPDATE:
Looks like Ford has finally released their SDK:
https://developer.ford.com/
Ford has a website SYNC Mobile Application Developer Network but the SYNC SDK does not look to be available yet (their site mentions possibly later this year). It appears they are stilling working on the API before releasing it. All they are offering now is a way to register to be notified of new info as it becomes available.
From their About page:
Ford is hard at work developing an API
to allow developers to integrate their
Smartphone applications with SYNC. The
Developer Program website will educate
developers about the Ford SYNC
platform and how to interact with it
via the API. There will be a full set
of documentation, example
applications, reference libraries, and
even a developer forum so you can
reach out to the community for quick
help.
With the available SYNC API's, mobile
application developers will be able to
do some of the following:
Create a voice UI for your application using the in-vehicle
speech recognition system.
Write information to the radio head display or in-vehicle touchscreen
Speak text using text-to-speech engine.
Use the in-vehicle menu system to provide commands or options for
your mobile application
Get button presses from the radio and steering wheel controls.
Receive vehicle data (speed, GPS location, fuel economy, etc.)
The official API and full website
launch is set to be targeted for later
this year.
It looks like the SDK is coming very soon. The story was just posted on Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/ford-to-give-sync-some-app-store-flavor-opening-api-to-devs-in/
Now just imagine what you could do with access to your automobile functionality!
I don't think there is any. Its a closed ecosystem.
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/09/ces-2009-sync-could-one-day-add-app-development-like-iphone/
From what I understand it is based on the CE 6.0 platform using windows automotive 4.1, but I could be wrong. We really need a forum to get this going. Hurry up Ford! Release the SDK!
Given the way Windows automotive is there is only two ways of putting a ROM on Sync. Using JTAG to put your own custom bootloader (forget it), or though the USB. Which you will need to know how to sign the file so sync will think it is an OEM ROM. So at this point even if you were able to come up with your own custom rom by using Microsoft eMbedded Visual C++ you would still have no way to get it on there.
BTW, the SDK they are talking about releasing will only be to develop apps for applink. (not modifying the OS). However, to upload the apps we might be able to find out how to sign the .bin file for sync to accept a ROM through the USB.
Then again this is just from my understanding... I am no great developer or anything.
Ford launched sdk in ces, check it out: http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/08/ford-launches-its-openxc-sdk-and-hardware-specs-to-let-developers-access-its-cars-sensors-and-metrics/
I need to create a photo gallery for a website running IIS 4.0 or IIS 5.0 (im not sure which). It needs to display a low resolution version of the gallery to anyone, and it must show both the low and high resolution images for "priviledged" users. So I need access priviledges, photo albums and once the site is complete, the person I am doing this for needs to be able to upload their own images to the gallery. It also needs to have a minimal interface as it needs to be integrated into an existing website.
So I need some advice on this with the direction I should approach it.
Does anyone know if their is a customisable gallery out there that can do something like this, such as Coppermine or Jgallery or something. The alternative is to use a web framework like Ruby on Rails, CodeIgniter or Sproutcore (each which require learning a new language). The framework would be more work, but the existing galleries may not be customisable enough. The important bit is the user privileges in an admin panel.
I am relatively new to "web programming", although not new to normal/games programming. I have a few years experience with C/C++ OpenGL and Java. I have also read up on MVC etc, and did hello world with sproutcore, so I kinda get the idea. Although learning a framework is a much heavier investment.
What are your thoughts?
If you don't want to re-invent the wheel you could use Gallery2 (requirements here). It runs on IIS -- you'd just need PHP and a database. It's very configurable (including user accounts), has lots of plugins, and its open source if that's not enough. Also, the development and support communities are large and active.
you could always go the route of Dotnetnuke and then use Ventrian's Simple Gallery module (http://www.ventrian.com/Products/Modules/SimpleGallery/Demo.aspx)
Using DNN offers a ton of functionality, including the security you need, and it would save you from doing any web development.
If you are a bit more adventurous, try Smaltalk based Aida/Web and specially Aida/Scribo CMS (currently still in beta), which include Gallery so called scriblet as well. Scribo scriblets are otherwise web components which you can include directly into a text. You therefore add a gallery directly into a surronding text. See for instance a presentation as a Gallery for example.
I would recommend my own but... If it weren't for the low/high resolution thing with permissions I think it would fit the rest of your needs. I'm going to leave a link just in case you want to take a look at it:
nzFotolog
It's also open-source (although the license is not the best) and you can change it at will if you want. The code itself is clean and self-explanatory. The downside is that I haven't developed it for some time now :(
Having faced a similar dilemma myself I have to say that I found Gallery2 and Coppermine both far too all-encompassing and difficult to customise to the degree I would have wished. I ended up rolling my own using straight, procedural PHP with various bits of jQuery for the GUI fancy bits. At the same time I was able to bake in some e-commerce and data gathering for my wedding photography clients, ending up with something which exactly matched my needs. Certainly, the gallery aspects of this project were, for a complete programming (although not HTML) neophyte, the least challenging - it's exactly the sort of thing PHP is made for.
I'm now taking my first faltering steps with CodeIgniter for my next project (photoblogging software) and I can already see that the framework would make a gallery project very quick, simple and secure.
Flickr.com and their API may be suitable from what you described.
http://www.flickr.com/services/api/
My zune just updated to 3.0 (didn't even realize they were releasing something new!) and the update came with two games, but the Zune marketplace does not have games.
Where do I go to get started, and what are the capabilities of the Zune in terms of games/apps?
Well, first, you must download the Microsoft XNA 3.0 CTP. Read the documentation, which will explain the capabilities. But, from memory:
No hardware accelerated 3d (obviously, you can create a software 3d engine and then render the result to a 2d sprite, but... Don't expect much in terms of performance ;))
No XACT, you must use a new sound API
Just an update but note that XNA 3.0 has been released. It requires some flavor of Visual Studio 2008.
I downloaded it and coded & deployed "hello world" to my Zune in no time at all. Very easy.
You should check out the blog of Rob Miles. He has a few chapters of his book on his site. Great place to start.
I was hoping someone here would have better resources, but as this seems to be a new area of development, here's one resource that appears to give all the steps for a newbie to get started (too many assume you already have Visual studio, etc).
I'm really interested in a better in-depth overview of the capabilities as well, though.
-Adam