Re: Streamlining the OpenGL visualisation work...

On Sun, 26 Oct 2003, Leopold Palomo Avellaneda wrote:

> A Divendres 24 Octubre 2003 13:00, Herman Bruyninckx va escriure:
> [...]
> 
> > My feeling is that the robotics community doesn't need performance in
> > the first place, but some "easy" 3D tool(kit) to do (portable!)
> > developments in. OpenInventor seems to be "old" technology, not easy
> > to extend with users needs. E.g., I would like to have an interface to
> > _build_ 3D models, and to connect them to real or simulated robots, in
> > order to have a nice visualisation environment.
> 
> Ok, I agree but I don't agree in the "old" tecnology of OI. You are right in 
> the question that is old (ApI came from deh 90s). howeber I think that it's a 
> very, very good API with a very current technology.
> 
> The interface is clear by now. Coin can work with OpenVrml files, with the OI 
> way. So, the you have only to connect your output (encoder, simulator ...) to 
> the engine (OI terminology) that move the model.
> 
This is exactly what I eman by "old": it's just one-way interaction.
That is, OI is good for simulating things that you calculate somehwere
else, but it's not easy to use OI itself to program in, to build robot
models, etc. The games projects are much better at that. And they use
modern widget sets (GTK, QT, Java,...) natively; much different from
Motif... I personally do not think this is too important, but OI
definitely lacks sex appeal towards most developers...

Herman
-- 
  K.U.Leuven, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics Research Group
<http://people.mech.kuleuven.ac.be/~bruyninc> Tel: +32 16 322480