Wrapping up

I believe I have this GUI thing down. I've finished all of the dialogue window types for the most part.

As of right now I'm still trying to get this 3-ring rotation gadget to work properly. This is a rather empty post, but I assure you a lot has been accomplished. I'll release screenshots in my next post, and then hopefully I can have it augmented into the Model Manipulator (Oh. So that's what this blog is about. It's been a while since I've touched the subject.)

EDIT: Ah. Found the error in the rotators. They're a little closer to being completed but also, in other stuff:

How would you like to contribute to this project? Do you have any spare .OBJ models laying around? Or do you feel like just making some for the fun of it? Well, if so. It would be very appreciated if you would allow me to package them with the Model Manipulator. I, personally, won't use them, but when the time comes when I release it, it will allow new users to get used to it without going through the mess of setting up their own models.

If you have any models you'd like to share: PM me at the GMC, Post here with a comment, or Email me. Thank you.

Messages and Rotations and Loops, Oh MY

I've been cranking out some more GUI features, not only is there a menu bar, but I've been working on a message box system ( still early work-in-progress, I'm meaning to add buttons to the bottom of the message ), and yet ANOTHER way to work with rotations, because I don't think anyone would like the number-crunching method that was used in the beginning.

So yeah. That's the message box, and it's covering up the rotation rings. Rotation rings are pretty close to done, but the algorithm used to calculate the way you should drag your mouse across the ring only works half the time. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to fix it, but it isn't all too distracting, so it's not that high of a priority.

I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention something else, but I'm far too tired to be concerned.

Jon out.

Crazy over GUI

(Hehe. A reference to banov.)
Anyway. I decided to take a crack at at least starting to get some of this stuff down for now. As of the moment, I have made a system that draws buttons( Really customizable and cool buttons ) and a menu bar.

I'm going to be nice today, because it's been a really good day today. Here's the script to make your very own Jon Buttons
(EDIT: Sorry about that, but that script required another script of mine I forgot to include. But now you should be able to use it.)

They could look like this.

But anyway, here is how it's looking so far:

GMC Jam #3

Side tracked (again), this time with the GMC Jam. So those three days were poured into making my entry. I'm not going to link to it, but it's not too hard to find.

I also have another small camp, but it shouldn't take too much of my time away.

Quaternions

If you've ever asked for help on the GMC for 3d rotations, you've probably heard that word. But in my experience, noone has ever really explained them to me, so I never took what they have said at face value. Which is too bad for me, because after doing a little research on my own time, I've found that they are Awesome. I'm not going to write a tutorial in my dev blog, but I'll gladly explain elsewhere (comments section, maybe?) if needed.

I will however provide these three awesome links that helped me out a lot.
http://www.flipcode.com/documents/matrfaq.html
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/3d/quaternions.html
http://www.gpwiki.org/index.php/OpenGL:Tutorials:Using_Quaternions_to_represent_rotation

Anyway, what have I done with quaternions? I have used them to create rotations that can manipulated on the screen with your mouse. The functions are almost completed, but sometimes the original mouse position is forgotten and returning the mouse to it doesn't result with the starting rotation.

With Quaternions I should also be able to merge the turn rotation into the main rotation at compile time, so that's another optimization I should note.

After this, I'll try to incorporate clicking separate parts on the screen to select them, and maybe then I'll be able to redo the GUI (I'm looking forward to it).

I'm Back

Wow. I can't believe it's been 3 paychecks since my last post. I'm sorry for the inactivity, but I'm back from Robotics Camp. I had fun, but this isn't what this blog is for. This for SERIOUS BUSINESS.

And I'm all for serious business right now.

So my plans right now are to implement the ideas and fixes I thought about before my leave, but also... To completely overhaul the GUI for the animator and skeleton creator. I'm hoping to have menu bars, scrollwheel support, and more interactivity with the field. As in: I'm hoping that I can implement clicking on the parts to choose them or rotating/moving them by dragging the mouse on the screen.

Once again, sorry for the long wait.

In other news, whoever marked all of the posts as "That's Dumb": I'll have you know that I take that very seriously* and to tell you the truth, it really ruined my day**.

*I don't.
**It didn't.

Progress is Slow. Period.

I'm probably not going to have much time to work on this project over the next week or so, I have a summer camp to go to and then there's work.

Hmmm...

Not good at all.