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Fans of MAXON’s Cinema4D will have a new tool at their disposal thanks to an official partnership between MAXON and the developers of a python scripting library, Py4D.
“Python is easy to learn and provides similar access to CINEMA 4D functionality as the C++ SDK,” commented Harald Schneider, CTO and co-founder of MAXON. “We want the CINEMA 4D community to know that we are supporting the development of Py4D so they can confidently invest resources in Python and Py4D to enhance their own production pipelines.”
Choosing Python over C++ is a no-brainer for most developers (I know I use Python every chance I get, resorting only to C for raw speed). Hopefully the official partnership will improve the support even further, possibly making it ship with Cinema4D in a future release. See the full release after the break.
Read more…
Graphics cinema4d, maxon, programming, py4d, python, script
FXGuide got a great look at Autodesk’s new Smoke on the Mac and is publishing a 3-part expose on the whole affair, the first part already available. It’s got great detail including hardware requirements (both stated and actual), and several advanced configuration details. He gets into details like Autodesk states the NVidia QuadrofX card as a requirement, while the reality is a bit different:
That being said, the software does actually run on other graphics cards including — yes, it’s true — current MacBook Pro 17″ systems. I’ve installed Smoke on Mac on systems with GeForce cards as well as the MacBook Pro 17″ and it does run — certainly well enough if you want to install the free trial on a Mac system. To be clear, this isn’t listed in the requirements or recommendations, so If you’re gonna put together a system without these, buyer beware. Especially if you’re investing $15,000. But I’m sure over time we’ll hear from the web universe what works and what doesn’t.
One critical point is that the display needs to support at least at 1920×1200 so that the entire UI can be displayed. The other point is that if you are buying a system that you need to have running at the highest level — go with the recommended hardware. Autodesk tests the software on systems that meet the suggestions, so if you’re running on a different configuration there is no guarantee it will run.
Also he gets into using the Kona3 card and pricing. Short story: it ain’t cheap.
If you wanted to build a system from scratch, here are some ballpark numbers which would provide the foundation of a solid Smoke on Mac system:
Read the full story on his site, and hit Autodesk to download the 30-day trial now!
via fxguide quick takes » Smoke on Mac Part 1: Overview.
Graphics autodesk, mac, review, smoke, software
The Guardian takes a look deep into 3D gaming and talks to Tim Sweeney to figure out what makes 3D gaming engines tick, and what needs to happen next to keep them current.
Sweeney reckons it’s a bit of both: “Game development is at the cutting edge in many disciplines. The physics in modern games includes rigid body dynamics and fluid simulation algorithms that are often more advanced than the approaches described in research papers. Over the past 15 years, games have caught up with 40 years’ of graphics research and are now leading the charge in some domains, such as practical lighting and shadowing techniques.
“In other areas, we’re still stuck in the Stone Age due to ingrained technologies. The C++ programming language, used in all modern games, was hastily conceived in the 1980s as an extension to the 1970s C programming language. Many of the problems that plague computers today – security vulnerabilities, viruses, and so on, can be traced to problems in this language.”
via The hidden story of the 3D engine – by the people who write them | Technology | guardian.co.uk.
Science engine, interview, tim sweeny, video game
The recession is having a wide impact on several markets, and with a consumer base more used to shopping online that ever and always looking to save money, real estate companies are looking to sell homes with a minimum of interference and cost investment on both parts. The solution: Virtual Model Homes that can be viewed in the comfort of a consumer’s own home. Focus360 is one company providing this service, but it’s typically not cheap:
These highly-detailed 3D videos create the spatial experience of walking through a model home and visualizing every detail, before the home is even built. Though the price to create these tours is far less than their physical counterpart, high quality tours can easily cost $10,000 or more. “If you’re going to replace the tactile experience of walking through a real model home with a virtual home, it had better be astoundingly realistic or you might have the reverse effect and turn off your prospective homebuyer,” said Steve Ormonde, Co-founder of Focus 360, and the inventor of this technology.
The press release is about their new “Value Line” that cuts the cost significantly, but preserves the quality that customers need. But is the money worth it?
Absolutely!” stated Adam Hieb, Director, Sales and Marketing for Shea Homes. “The days are gone when we could afford to put up multi-million dollar model complexes. Every new Shea home community is different but in general, our use of high quality virtual model tours will greatly reduce the number of model homes needed. Instead of four models for instance, we might be able to get away with one, with the remaining models represented in 3D virtual reality. In some lower profile communities, virtual tours may eliminate models completely – a sales office might suffice. And while we’ve used Focus 360 for many years for our bigger budget, high profile projects, we’re excited that we can now afford them for all our projects.”
via Homebuilders Are Increasing the Use of “Virtual Model Homes” to Drive Sales and Cut Costs During the Recession.
Graphics architecture, focus360
An infographic on OnlineEducation.net shows the damage that bottled water does to the environment and how we needlessly spend money, oil, and (ironically) water on these non-degradable bottles. Some interesting statistics:
- Bottled Water is 10,000 times the cost of Tap Water
- Bottled Water does not conform to state health limits for tap water
- It takes 3x the amount of water to produce the bottled as it does to fill it
The Facts About Bottled Water.
Graphics activism, infographic
CGtuts+ has compiled a list of 65 great Autodesk 3dsMax tutorials covering everything from simple modeling to detailed use of tools like VRay and RealFlow.
65 Mold-Breaking 3ds Max Tutorials – Cgtuts+.
Graphics 3dsmax, autodesk, list, tutorial
Quantum Computing has long been the fodder of science fiction, with the reality of it being far too bizarre and complicated to be the concern of mere mortals, but it seems the braniacs at Google and D-Wave have worked together to create a working prototype of an image detection algorithm that blows all existing algorithms out of the water.
In the search, Google first took 20,000 photographs — half with cars in them and without. In each picture they drew boxes around the cars (if there were any), identifying the “car” graphic element. Next Google took a second set of 20,000 photos — half with cars and half without. They then put the second set to the trained quantum search, which identified the cars faster than any traditional algorithm in Google's data farms.
So it does require a “training” cycle, but that’s a small price to pay if I can simply upload a few images of myself and then search the entire internet for more pictures of me. Plus with “big” search terms, crownsourcing would complete the training almost immediately.
via DailyTech – Google, D-Wave Team up to Unveil World’s First Quantum Image Search.
Science algorithm, google, imageprocessing, quantum
New York, NY test of MapQuest 360 View. While some images lack clarity, the orange proximity bubbles are useful.
From the MapQuest blog:
360° View provides fantastic panoramic views (360° horizontally and 160° vertically) of any given image within the 360 View coverage area (initially 30 cities and 15 suburbs across the United States with more to come) … Best of all, MapQuest 360 View “just works” without requiring any non-standard 3rd party player downloads.
All Points Blog notes that the source of the imagery is Immersive Media, makers of the Dodeca2360 we’ve discussed before. Microsoft’s new Bing Maps is pretty impressive with its accuracy and bird’s eye view all over the US, but as James Fee points out, 360° View does not require special installs like Silverlight to work:
Take that Bing Maps and your 3rd party player download. MapQuest works without any Silverlight player to get in your way… except of course it uses a 3rd party player called Flash. I suppose this plays into Adobe’s assertion that their 3rd party player download is included by default in many browsers by default.
With Google Maps tripping down the quality scale, while adding 3D cities functionality and increasing the quality of its StreetView, this seems like the logical next step for MapQuest.
Graphics city, geospatial, immersive media, mapquest, maps
That’s right, the previously ballyhoo’d demo was such a dismal failure that the screen was turned off less than 7 minutes after activated.
The vaunted real-time 3D scoreboard display experiment at last night’s Cowboys / Chargers game was turned off to loud cheers after just six minutes and fifty seconds of being active. The problem, as usual, was glasses: most of the 80,000 people in attendance didn’t bother to put on the headgear required to see the 3D effect, and instead saw a blurry anaglyph image — which they then booed
Engadget does mention that HDlogix, the company behind the technology, does have glasses-free 3D but says it doesn’t work on screens that large. Actually, the real problem is that its’ highly dependant on viewing angle and doesn’t work for large numbers of people (You have to be directly in front of the screen).
Still, it’s an interesting statement on “What people want” when they won’t even put on the glasses. One has to wonder why they thought “Look up and put on glasses to see the game in 3D” was better than “Just look down like you always do and see the game in 3D, for real”.
via Cowboys Stadium 3D scoreboard experiment doesn’t go so well, turned off in less than seven minutes — Engadget.
Hardware 3d, hdlogix, sports
Here’s today’s roundup:
VizWorld.com 
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