AltSci3D Manga Director
Introduction
AltSci3D Manga Director (alias asmd alias as3dmd) is a tool for a 3D digital artist. You can download the source/binary/data right here on Javantea.com. If you don't know what it is, you should probably check out the info page. You can also get info on the latest build. If you're like me, you probably just want to skip to the screenshots. If you're a veteran of JF viewing, you have seen AS3DMD in about 90% of the 50 MB of pictures on JF. Nearly every 3D picture is taken from AS3DMD, so check it out if you want to see what AS3DMD is capable of in its current form.That Sourceforge logo isn't just for looks. I became a member and registered as3dmd at sourceforge.net. Sweet! They gave me CVS, FTP, SSH, and HTTP services. I spent the last three hours getting CVS working. It's up and ready. I have the three release versions ready for upload. As soon as I finish this paragraph, I'm going to upload the website. Now you know that AltSci3D Manga Director is going to be huge. ^_^
Home Info Download Change Log Screenshots
The idea behind AltSci3D Manga Director is to create a 3D development environment for manga/comics at the object level (as opposed to the triangle level, like MilkShape3D or the pixel level like The Gimp). Given models from MilkShape3D, a person will be able to create a 3D comic as an entire virtual world in real-time. While it requires a decent video card for developers, the end result is something like JF, a PNG/JPEG image that looks and feels like a comic should. It is currently built for Linux, but it is almost ported to Win32, and I will have a binary download in the near future (check back in two weeks, 03/01/2003).
While I am focusing mainly on software, a person who focuses on art and models would be able to create a massive manga in very little time with no standard artistic drawing. Since AS3DMD is open source, free software, and unique it is the perfect choice for the new artform of low-poly 3D manga.
AltSci3D v4
AltSci3D v4 is a 3D engine by AltSci Concepts (aka. Javantea) that uses Linux/C++/SDL/OpenGL. It is almost ported to Win32, and will have a binary in the near future. It has been recently open-sourced along with AltSci3D Manga Director. One would imagine that a 3D engine would be a static or dynamic library, but currently in high development, it is simply a seperate set of files to be placed in your app directory. If one wishes to create AS3D from ASMD, s/he can simply take AS3DMD and delete a few manga-related functions. If you want to use it before it hits prime time (right now), download the recently released code. For support, just e-mail me at jvoss@myuw.net.
To use the AS3D engine, you can simply change the data file and modify the as3dapp.cpp file to run your program. All the hard stuff that takes months of development are done for you in the form of classes. You simply call them and the code runs. You control what keys run each functions and what button on the interface runs each function.
My plan is to create a few programs using the AS3D engine and refine it. Since it's seperate from the application, the changes can propagate down to all the other applications running on the AS3D Engine. So then each time I update code for AS3DMD, I'll probably update the engine to make it better for all the other apps that run on it.
AltSci3D Terrain Works
AltSci3D Terrain Works is the second program written using the AltSci3D Engine. I wrote it in 3 hours using existing program. It takes a heightmap and turns it into a mesh and renders it. You control the precision with the data file. As with most AS3D programs, you have full control over the camera to check the mesh. In the near future, I plan to add a triangle reduction algorhythm and dynamic mesh precision. See the screenshots as a Making of JF Page.
AltSci3D Particle Works
Particle Works is the next program that I plan to write in AltSci3D Engine. It was originally written in DirectX8.1 and is currently available for Windows Download along with a full essay at it's website.