Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

Dusty · 2004-11-15 23:29:11

I just released milestone 3 of Ensmer. There's a lot available including a really stylized version of a room object, the ability to select and manipulate (move, rotate) objects, and the ability to remove objects. Not the ability to add them yet though, so removing them makes you run out in a hurry!

Check the new docs here for a full description of what's available:
https://ensmer.dev.java.net/documentation.html

Downloads here:
https://ensmer.dev.java.net/download.html

I was planning on adding more (specifically the ability to add objects), but I realized this was going to be a big job, so I decided to fix some minor points that were bugging me (like adding the simple simple physics) and make the release now. It will probably be a while before adding objects is possible (maybe release 5, or a late release 4, depending).

Sorry the summary is short, I've been coding and documenting all day.

Dusty

cactus · 2004-11-16 00:12:50

screenshots?

Dusty · 2004-11-16 17:57:35

cactus wrote:

screenshots?

Er... I will post some with milestone 4. They'd be kind of embarrassing with milestone three because I messed up the lighting properties in the models I used. I thought it was doing flat shading instead of gourad like I asked it to, but it was partially just me... and using a directional light. I don't feel like making the lighting positions customizeable yet, but using a point light would look more natural... only once you get far away from the light nothnig would be lit.... I think this will need more experimenting, once I'm not working on something more important.

Dusty

Dusty · 2004-11-28 01:19:45

Ok folks, this is it! (oh, note: I'm pretty excited with this release, so erm... don't mind me if I get too 'happy'). I'll try not to use too many exclamation points.

I just released Ensmer Milestone 4. Its a pretty good preview of what is going to be available in the final release for my course project. I expect Milestone 5 to be the last release before I go into testing (if I can get testers... please??) and then release version 0.1.

Milestone 4 contains all the previous features plus the ability to add new Static objects and a whole lot more. This means that if you know how to model a 3D program and export VRML files, you can build and navigate a world of unimaginable complexity and beauty... with the minor problem that its somewhat slow, even on accelerated graphics cards. I think I forgot to compile some BranchGroups somewhere or something. But its still pretty cool and worth checking out, in my not so humble opinion. Actually, I'm ecstatic. Not humble at all.

Check it out here: http://ensmer.dev.java.net/

The documentation section is huge now, containing all the information on using Ensmer, including a very sketchy introduction to extending it with your own custom objects, if you're inclined to do some programming. In Java and Groovy.

Screenshots are available in the Documents and Files section. They don't really do it justice though, you really need to get a feel for the movements.

I didn't do a lot of bug checking; I never got it to fail spectacularly on me, but I'm sure some people will be able to. With enough eyes, all bugs are shallow and all that. (I didn't just come up with that, some famous dude said it, ok?)

Let me know what you think. Even if you don't download and try it, a perusal of the documentation would be a great help... if you have some free time.

Thanks!

Dusty

cactus · 2004-11-28 05:27:17

https://ensmer.dev.java.net/files/docum … m4-ss3.jpg

8)
I like the table!!

Dusty · 2004-11-28 19:00:47

cactus wrote:

I like the table!!

My very first attempt in Wings3D. If anybody wants to contribute realistic VRML models, I'm sure my prof wouldn't mind; its not part of the code, after all....

Dusty

dp · 2004-11-28 23:27:57

Dusty wrote:

cactus wrote:
I like the table!!
My very first attempt in Wings3D. If anybody wants to contribute realistic VRML models, I'm sure my prof wouldn't mind; its not part of the code, after all....
Dusty

http://hendrix.ei.dtu.dk/vrml/vrmlhome.html

http://virtuality3d.co.uk/p_models.html

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/4630 … dcafe.html

http://vrmlworks.crispen.org/

http://www.ocnus.com/models/models.html

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/nest/imager/contri … /vrml.html

http://www.topedge.com/panels/aircraft/ … phavr.html

http://www.stonecarver.com/vrml.html

http://home.iae.nl/users/wbergmns/jetvrml.htm

http://audilab.bmed.mcgill.ca/~wijhe/me_models.html

http://www.progonos.com/furuti/Origami/ … rtual.html

http://www.web3d.org/x3d/vrml/objects/oblib.htm

http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/Research/virus/vrml.html
(a capsid is the shell of a virus)

http://www.buddycom.com/vrml/

http://www.cyberware.com/wb-vrml/

http://www.iath.virginia.edu/london/model/vrml.html

... but the model i like most is the jumping cow in xscreensaver ;-)

Dusty · 2004-11-28 23:42:01

geez, I never thought of looking for free models on the web... but of course, asking dp to do it *would* provide the most useful links.

edit: only, none of the ones I've tried seem to play nice with the j3d-vrml loader... which surprises me because the ones exported from AoI and wings seem to work fine... I guess they're a lot simpler, eh?

edit 2: I think these are VRML 1.0 models mostly, and j3d-vrml is VRML97/VRML2.0. I guess it isn't backward compatible.

edit 3: the ones here seem to work: http://www.rdservice.de/lang/vrml/german

Dusty

Dusty · 2004-12-04 19:31:03

I've been working my butt off all week... well actually, the first half of the week wasn't bad, I just had to implement the last few features and they weren't too much trouble. Then I started fixing bugs. A lot of sweat went into that, but no blood or tears so far...

Anyway, I've just released Ensmer Milestone 5. This is the final milestone release before I go 0.1. I'm desperate for people to test and break it before I make the 0.1 release and submit the final project. It is feature complete for 0.1, and AFIK, bug free (meaning: I've fixed all the bugs I found and stopped testing it before I found more).

I've pretty well completed the documentation, available off the home page at http://ensmer.dev.java.net/. This gives you all the details on actually using Ensmer, as well as a few tips on customizing visual frontends and even creating your own data backends. If anybody has any questions about the docs, I'd be glad to hear them so I can revise them.

New screenshots are available here: https://ensmer.dev.java.net/servlets/Pr … derID=2382

Thanks,
Dusty

phrakture · 2004-12-04 19:44:21

Dusty wrote:

I've been working my butt off all week... well actually, the first half of the week wasn't bad, I just had to implement the last few features and they weren't too much trouble. Then I started fixing bugs. A lot of sweat went into that, but no blood or tears so far...
Anyway, I've just released Ensmer Milestone 5. This is the final milestone release before I go 0.1. I'm desperate for people to test and break it before I make the 0.1 release and submit the final project. It is feature complete for 0.1, and AFIK, bug free (meaning: I've fixed all the bugs I found and stopped testing it before I found more).
I've pretty well completed the documentation, available off the home page at http://ensmer.dev.java.net/. This gives you all the details on actually using Ensmer, as well as a few tips on customizing visual frontends and even creating your own data backends. If anybody has any questions about the docs, I'd be glad to hear them so I can revise them.
New screenshots are available here: https://ensmer.dev.java.net/servlets/Pr … derID=2382
Thanks,
Dusty

rock on man! I'll test it when i get my laptop back

Stanislav · 2004-12-04 20:08:44

what about an Arch package & maybe packages of the dependencies. i am not familiar with java , so that would make testing a lot easier.

cactus · 2004-12-04 21:10:36

tried looking at the screenshots (cuz i like pictures )
and I get a "redirection limit exceeded" error from my browser.
:?

Dusty · 2004-12-04 23:12:47

The only dependencies for Ensmer are java 5 (pacman -S j2re) and Java 3D. Here's a Java 3D package:

http://www.archlinux.org/~dusty/package … pkg.tar.gz
http://www.archlinux.org/~dusty/pkgbuil … 7.PKGBUILD

There are, technically, three other dependencies, but they're included with Ensmer because I wanted to know exactly what versions were being used.

Ensmer itself is much better run out of its own directory as described in the install instructions than using a PKGBUILD to install it system wide. My todo list for the 0.2 release (long ways off, that) includes an option to allow user settings directories, but for now it likes to run directly from its own directory, and I suggest this be in your home directory rather than /opt or /usr/share.

As for screen shots, I'm able to load them without any trouble... perhaps java.net was having indigestion when you looked? :?

Dusty

Stanislav · 2004-12-04 23:41:57

i installed java3d & ensmer-milestone-5.jar & when i try to start ensmer i get a message

Invalid or corrupt jarfile /home/~user/ensmer/Ensmer-milestone-5.jar

i try to start it with

java -jar ..../path-to-ensmer/Ensmer-milestone-5.jar

do i do something wrong?

Dusty · 2004-12-05 01:12:58

The jar file is just an archive containing the main program and some other files. You have to uncompress it first:

jar -xf Ensmer-milestone-5.jar

Than do java -jar on the Ensmer.jar in the extracted directory.

https://ensmer.dev.java.net/docInstall.html

Dusty

Dusty · 2004-12-06 17:30:13

Just a point of interest, Ensmer was graduated out of the javadesktop incubator into a full project today. I can't see where this actually *means* anything; there's no extra services available or anything, that I can see.

Dusty

Dusty · 2004-12-09 19:55:14

I'm depressed... no bug reports. :cry: I *could* assume this means its working perfectly, only I've found and fixed three bugs myself since milestone 5 and nobody's even mentioned those ones.

More seriously, I'm intending to release 0.1 in the middle of next week and submit the project and final report to my prof. If anybody *does* want to find a bug, pre 0.1 would be more helpful to me. I've still got a few scenarios to test, but its not easy to break your own code. You just subconciously shy away from testing stuff you intuitively feel might break. "That's not a bug: you weren't supposed to do that!" doesn't satisfy most users, except Microsoft customers. Only, they say "This program has performed an illegal operation" instead.

Cheers,

Dusty

rasat · 2004-12-10 01:30:28

Dusty wrote:

I'm depressed... no bug reports. :cry:

I tested the latest version. When seeing no new function except a new senario I decided to wait.
I would prefer to keep a simple scenario because the environment 3D makes the movement cranky

FMI, when going through different scenario tests what will be the final scenario?

Dusty · 2004-12-10 17:15:49

What do you mean by scenario? I didn't change the look of the default world much. What's added since milestone 4 is support for teleporting and containers.

I've now fixed a total of seven bugs since milestone 5. I'm running out of possible break thingies, so I think I'll be ok.

Dusty

rasat · 2004-12-10 18:32:25

Dusty wrote:

What do you mean by scenario?

Milestone1 started with one table, then a room and latest is a field with trees. What will be the final scenario (view)?

Dusty · 2004-12-10 19:33:18

Ah yes, my various attempts at taming Wings3D and Art Of Illusion. I think I'll stick with the trees, rock and grass representation for the default final release with version 0.1, as it takes me a long time to design even simple stuff like that.

If you also don't feel like designing 3D models, you can download some simple ones from this library: http://www.rdservice.de/lang/vrml/german Just save them into the static/ directory of Ensmer and you can add them into the default scene or create your own scene. I had a guitar pushing a lawnmower for a while. I was going to borrow some of these for the default scene in Ensmer, but I'm not sure what the license is so I didn't want to redistribute. These files don't have textures, so they aren't too GPU intensive.

Dusty

Dusty · 2004-12-14 20:41:16

Ensmer version 0.1 was released today. It contains a dozen or so bugfixes since milestone 5. I'm calling this release stable.

Dusty

Arch Linux

#1 2004-11-15 23:29:11

Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#2 2004-11-16 00:12:50

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#3 2004-11-16 17:57:35

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#4 2004-11-28 01:19:45

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#5 2004-11-28 05:27:17

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#6 2004-11-28 19:00:47

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#7 2004-11-28 23:27:57

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#8 2004-11-28 23:42:01

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#9 2004-12-04 19:31:03

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#10 2004-12-04 19:44:21

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#11 2004-12-04 20:08:44

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#12 2004-12-04 21:10:36

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#13 2004-12-04 23:12:47

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#14 2004-12-04 23:41:57

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#15 2004-12-05 01:12:58

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#16 2004-12-06 17:30:13

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#17 2004-12-09 19:55:14

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#18 2004-12-10 01:30:28

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#19 2004-12-10 17:15:49

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#20 2004-12-10 18:32:25

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#21 2004-12-10 19:33:18

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

#22 2004-12-14 20:41:16

Re: Ensmer milestone 5: feature complete! Testers wanted

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