DeleD Community Edition

[Starnick]

Per to what I mentioned in this thread, I tested the DLLExport VS Template method and created a simple port of the C/C++ example on the Wiki:

C# Plugin Example

And of course, a screenshot (the sample just grabs the primitives in the scene and displays them in a messagebox popup):

[Jeroen]

Wow, that's very nice! I'm eager to see if C# programmers will pick this up and create some plugins for DeleD. Good job!
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[granada]

Thank you Starnick,its times like this i wish i was a programer .

[AWM Mars]

I have to admit, I have been using 3DMax more and more. Not because it is a better programme, because it is not, it is more complicated, steep learning curve and so much to remember, it gets in the way of my creativity. I use it because it can export cleanly and predictably to the Scene Manager I use.

I have a work-flow that means I create meshes in DeleD, export them to 3DMax, then apply the materials (which is convoluted at best), lights etc, then export into the formats I need, mainly OpenCollada, which is a plug-in for 3DMax surprisingly, not native.
The model/scene will then include ambient occlusion, diffuse, normal/bump mapping, caustics etc and of course, shaders.

What I see here developing is, a potential of a whole lot of work-flow coming back to DeleD, which will make me very happy. Please keep up the good work Starnick
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[Starnick]

Yeah, I remember 3DS Max being like that, which is what attracted to me to DeleD in the first place. But the lack of shader support I think is going to increasingly put DeleD at a disadvantage, since shaders really are part of the whole content creation process. Not only being able to view your models using the shaders you author is a plus, but being able to bundle it all up into a package that you can import all at once into your application.

I've thought about having some sort of viewing plugin where you could apply your shaders to your models and export the material. But this is more in context of my own engine, since being able to export a material script (it's something like an OGRE script) from DeleD would be rather convenient for me. Or other functionality like organizing the model parts/scene into a hierarchy, so I don't have a flat list of models.

I already have some of these utilities on my work queue as stand alone tools, but discovering this VS export template is going to be a boon since I can directly use any of that code and integrate it with DeleD

[Starnick]

Oh and another thing - I really do understand why getting/sending data is the way it is, since it lends itself to the XML format changing or new features being added.

But I can see it being rather cumbersome to work with, especially starting a plugin from scratch. I'm thinking of creating a C# library to facilitate getting data in the form of objects that you can work with. Actually, I think I would end up re-using a good chunk of my DXS Importer code, since when I'm processing a dxs file, I load it up into an intermediate representation which then I can manipulate, add data to, and import it into my engine's runtime representation.

[AWM Mars]

This is why I kept on suggesting taking DeleD into a tangent development, in creating a scene manager to 'export' into using native DXS format, whereby you could apply shaders etc, once you have created the models and even UV mapped them. This wouldn't require a rewrite of DeleD but create the next phase for use of the models/scenes created.
The hardest part of using 3DMax is the way it doesn't maintain order of meshes and certainly not materials applied. They get messed up in the transition, applying them all over again, is a real pain as 3DMax's material handling is cr@p in comparison.

The current Scene Manager I'm using (VastPark) imports Collada, but the DeleD plug-in doesn't work well with the light-maps etc, and the import fails. Apparently, the 'OpenCollada' format works best (scratches head why there should be more than one version) but that's not available for DeleD. That is the only real reason I use 3DMax, well apart from Ambient Occlusions and Shaders

It seems to me, your solution makes for easier development of plug-ins, and hopefully will allow more developers to contribute.
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