~4Dgifts/toolbox/src/exampleCode/inventor/inventorTemplates README
this is the README file for walk.c++ and player.c++
WALK (walk.c++)
this program is just a walk viewer with one added feature. When you go out
of viewing mode (either by the menu, or by pressing the button on the
viewer), you press the 'd' key, it prints the camera location and rotation
to stdout. you can collect these in a file for use with the player. This
program also some added things to see from a example standpoint, such as
loading in an inventor file to a viewer, and loading in an env file to a
viewer.
the usage for the walk program is as follows:
walk [-e envfile] inventorfile
PLAYER (player.c++)
the player program takes an inventor file of geometry information and
animation file consisting of the following format:
keyframe cameraX cameraY cameraZ rotationAxisX rotationAxisY rotationAxisZ rotation
on each line. It works with the output from player, but you have to add a
keyframe in front of each line that player spits out. There are a couple
example animation files. One for use with /usr/share/data/models/rook.iv
and one for use with /usr/share/data/models/scenes/chesschairs.iv
to run the rook example animation type:
player -n 50 models/rook.iv rook.animation
to run the chessboard example animation type:
player -n 50 -l models/chessboard.iv chessboard.animation
usage for the player is such:
player [-p] [-v] [-q num] [-l] [-s num] [-e num] [-x width] [-y height] [-n clicks] inventorfilename animationfilename
-p prints out an environment file at the end of animation
[ this is useful if you are stringing together sets of animations,
you can use the env file with walk so that you can arrange a
seamless animation ]
-v turns on verbose mode
[ this just gives a report of what is happening each frame, and tells
you what frame you are on ]
-q saves the animation starting at frame num
[ this is very useful. It saves each screen of the animation as a
file of the form animationXXX.rgb, you can then take these files
and import them into makemovie, or you can use it with -s and -e
to get still frames of your animation ]
-l moves the camera linearly between control points
[ without the -l flag the camera will use splines to determine
it's location ]
-s starts the animation at frame num
[ if you want to start an animation somewhere in the middle, you can
use this to decide what the starting frame should be ]
-e ends the animation at frame num
[ if you want to end the animation before the last keyframe, use this
option ]
-x sets the width of the render areas
[ both on screen and off screen ]
-y sets the height of the render areas
[ both on screen and off screen ]
-n is used for setting a pause between frames
[ if you are not saving into files, your animation might render
completely before you even open the window without this option! ]
the player shows one way to animate using inventor. It was not written to
be robust, or especially pretty. There are a lot of things that could be
done to improve it, and would make it easier to use. things like: a better
UI, resizing of the window, letting the user choose the location of the
animation files, and a lot more... It does show how to use Inventor with
GL, and how to control your own camera in the scene, and a few other handy
things.
Questions, comments and bug reports can be directed to:
Kevin Goldsmith
kmg@colossal.com
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