Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 01:27:15 -0800 From: Alex Chouls Subject: [IML] IFW: Longtime Lurker Hello all, I've been lurking on this list for quite some time and have found it an = invaluable Imagine resource. Recently I've been feeling guilty about = mooching off the list - tips, tutorials, objexts, textures... so I = thought I'd try and contribute something. While working on procedurally generating stage files (flocking, traffic = patterns, crowds...) I thought - "wouldn't it be cool to generate random = variations of a seed object to plug into the procedurally generated = group behaviour." No problem! Problem 1 - My programming skills are very rusty - ( the last program I = wrote was in 6502 assembly for a British computer called the Acorn BBC, = circa 1980?) So I bought Essential Visual C++ 4 (Sams Publishing) and set out to = learn C++ windows programming. No problem! Problem 2 - C++ windows programming. To cut a long story short I managed to hack together a few programs and = textures that seem to work okay on my machine. "DNA replicator" is my = first attempt at generating random variations of a seed object using = programmable parameters. You need a minimum 800 x 600 screen resolution. = I=92ve tried to make it compatible with pre v1.3.4 file formats but = haven=92t tested this thoroughly. I wrote the program in windows NT and = it seems to work fine in win95, but I haven=92t tested it in win3.1 - I = don=92t know if it will work. You can download the program from the = temporary web page - http://pages.prodigy.net/ivorengine/index.html I've included a readme in the zip file. I have no idea what distribution = files (Visual C++ 4.2) I need to include - I ran the programs on some = other PCs and they seemed to have the necessary DLLs (MFC40.dll and = msvcrt40.dll) - let me know if I need to post these - hopefully we can = muddle through this.=20 The "Popcorn" program is a small utility that allows you to replace the = points of an iob file with random objects from a specified folder. This = allows you to quickly view the DNA Replicator output files in the detail = editor. Ultimately though, I wrote the "replicator" to output objects = for use in procedurally generated stage files - the screenshots on the = web page show a test batch of "flying cars" made for a SF short I'm = working on. (My background is in film and animation - sets, props, = miniatures...) Anyway, it feels good to finally post something on the list. Imagine is = an incredible tool - I've worked with everything from charcoal to = motion-control cameras, but no tool consistently amazes me as Imagine = does.=20 Please download the programs and try them out - let me know if they = work, feedback would be much appreciated. I've never tried to = "distribute" anything like this before so there might be some teething = problems. We'll see. Later, ----------------------------------