Canvas 3d JS Library

The 0.4 release of the canvas 3D JS library is now released. With this release, we can now do the following with the 1.0 context:

• proper model translations/rotations
• the ability to have multiple scenes on multiple canvases on the same page
• fixes to the camera manipulation functions

For our next release we will catch up the feature set for the 2.0 context.  We will also continue to look at increasing the performance of our code.  There are some definite issues regarding the over allocation of vectors that needs to be looked at. We also have 3 demos that are almost ready for release so keep an eye out for them. I would also like to take this time to thank Mr. Jeremy Giberson for helping us identify some of the memory issues with our library.  Jeremy has also suggested a method of doing picking and wrote a function that will take a coordinate on the canvas (2D space) and translate that to a ray that points into the scene.  This is something that we will definitely want in a future release. If anyone is interested in working on our project please feel free to contact us.  You can do so through our website or you can also find us most weekdays from 10am to 5pm east on IRC (network: moznet, channel: c3dl).  Please feel free to come and chat with us.

Earlier this week we released our third installment of our library.  There is still much work that needs to be done but its coming along nicely.  The main feature of 0.3 release is the ability to load a model.

• for both contexts,  the ability to load a model(I’ll write a separate blog about the formatting later)
• for mozgles11 context, the ability to use textures on these models
• simplify the process of choosing the most appropriate context

To check out an app that is using our 0.3 release, just come to our website (http://www.c3dl.org).  The front page features a textured, spinning teapot (well… actually its not really a spinning teapot but more on that later.)  Make sure you use a canvas3d enabled browser though!  The site is a lot better when you can see it as it should be seen :).  If you use an unsupported browser, all you’ll see is a screenshot. What we need to do still are the following:

• continue code cleanup and documentation.  As we make more use of the library we are discovering some definite bugs in it.  We will continue to clean up our code and provide better documentation (which I realize is still quite lacking)
• the ability to actually move and rotate each model.  The app on the front page may appear to be a rotating model.  However, it is in fact a stationary model, with a revolving camera.
• textures in the mozgles20 context

Some of the changes listed above are actually fixed already.  We are hoping to push another release within the next week or so.

I’m happy to announce a 0.2 release of our library. This release features bug fixes, changes to improved performance, along with code changes that allow it to work with canvas3d 0.2. If you want to develop applications with the canvas 3d JS Library, This is the version you will want. We will soon be adding tutorials on how to write simple applications with the library and how to use its feature. Our demos and other related files are not bundled with the library but they are available via the svn (svn://cdot.senecac.on.ca/canvas3d)

Its been a while since this site has been updated so there is much much to catch up on. With the end of the semester rush over, there will be much more activity on this site. So here is a short list of whats been going on and things to come: Firstly I would like to welcome Chris Bishop and Andor Salga to the team. Chris will be working on making many neat demos with the library while Andor will be working on both the library itself as well as various demos Our site is due for some major cleaning and reorganizing. The following are the things that we plan:

• update the look and feel
• add the ability to see all demos live when people view our site with appropriate browser and addon
• move all blogs to this site

I’ve probably missed a thing or two here and there but I figured this is a good list to start with Testing continues.  Andrew has been busy making up tests and benchmarks for our library.  These will be necessary as we add features and changes so that we have a base line for comparison. The Library itself is also going through a complete overhaul on the back end (which is why there really hasn’t been much of an update). The currently library uses the moz-glweb11 context but we are planning on moving everything to use the moz-glweb20 context instead. This is taking some time to do for us. In the mean time, expect to see some cool new demos soon!

Thank you to PHUG, a student run open source community for designing/developing our new site.