Ogre Tools (Material/Particle Editor)?

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Chris Jones
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Ogre Tools (Material/Particle Editor)?

Post by Chris Jones »

I'd like to get some feedback from you about creating a high quality set of tools for Ogre. The tools would probably consist a Mesh/Animation Viewer, Material and Particle editors.
  • Would you be willing to pay a small amount for a decent tool? If so, how much? £10? £15? more? This would allow more time to be spent on it including adding new features and keeping it up to date.
  • How important is having the tool work on platforms other than Windows? I know it cuts down the amount of users that can use it if it's only windows but it also cuts down the workload.
  • Are there any particular features that would make any tools worth buying over the existing applications?
  • Any other feedback? Any other tools to add to my list?
Thanks!
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Re: Ogre Tools (Material/Particle Editor)?

Post by haltendehand »

I would pay about 20-40€ for the complete suite (depending on how good it is).

Personally, I'd really like it to be multiplatform, but it isn't a problem if it just runs on Windows either (even if it would be nice if the tools would at least run with Wine).

I'd really love a Dreamweaver-like interface - that is, a split view with the code on one and the rendered view on the other side (maybe even with options to just display the code or the real-time view).

Maybe a compositor editor would be nice for some people, too - even if I myself don't need it. Also, it shouldn't be that difficult to do, since compositors are very similar to materials.
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Re: Ogre Tools (Material/Particle Editor)?

Post by spookyboo »

I think that one of the most important things is continuity. Most of the tools become abandoned so it discourages people to use it (Ogitor is one of the very few exceptions). People will easily pay $20 (or even more) if the quality is good and if they have the feeling that development does not suddenly stop.
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Re: Ogre Tools (Material/Particle Editor)?

Post by Jabberwocky »

I have no problem paying for tools. Although I' am currently very happy with OgreMeshy for a MeshViewer, and ParticleUniverse for a particle editor. Although perhaps some people would find a particle editor for Ogre's ParticleFX plugin useful.
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Re: Ogre Tools (Material/Particle Editor)?

Post by jacmoe »

Material editor would be great. :)

Keep in mind that you could actually make a plugin for Ogitor, and thus save some time.
We don't have a policy against commercial Ogitor plugins. :wink:
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Chris Jones
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Re: Ogre Tools (Material/Particle Editor)?

Post by Chris Jones »

Thanks for the feedback guys!
I'd really love a Dreamweaver-like interface - that is, a split view with the code on one and the rendered view on the other side (maybe even with options to just display the code or the real-time view).
Yep i agree, the tools should show you exactly what the materials/particles look like and be able to edit the files by hand in the editor or using UI controls. As a further goal i'd like to make it as easy as possible for both programmers and artists.
Although perhaps some people would find a particle editor for Ogre's ParticleFX plugin useful.
Yep, so i'd like to focus on having a single consistent tool that can be used to view and edit the core types of content that Ogre handles. Hopefully it can be useful for existing users as well as new users as it could aid learning as well.
Keep in mind that you could actually make a plugin for Ogitor, and thus save some time.
We don't have a policy against commercial Ogitor plugins.
Well the next stage will be designing this and i will think about how it is going to get implemented. I think it's more likely to be using wpf/.net. Does anyone know much about Moonlight? If the initial application was in WPF, is it possible to port it to Moonlight so it can be used on Linux?
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Re: Ogre Tools (Material/Particle Editor)?

Post by haltendehand »

WPF integration still is a big problem in Linux - so please, please make it in Windows Forms (that is, if you really want to do it with a .NET-language).
(Ok, WPF would still be better than an Ogitor plugin - at least for me, I don't know about the others)
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Re: Ogre Tools (Material/Particle Editor)?

Post by stealth977 »

spookyboo wrote:I think that one of the most important things is continuity. Most of the tools become abandoned so it discourages people to use it (Ogitor is one of the very few exceptions).
Thanx for mentioning, We are planning to be here for a long time :)

That Said, about the subject, here are my 2 cents:

1 - Cross-platformness is quite easy, use Qt, as far as i know you can use it for commercial products as long as you dynamically link to it and that you dont modify its source...

2 - The question is not if the people will pay for it or not, the question is "What do people expect from apps that they pay for?"

3 - For example, coding a capable material editor for OGRE would not take more than 1-2 weeks considering you will code it to sell, but people will also EXPECT a fully detailed help file, multiple example materials (actually they will expect to find what they need in it as a pre-made example :P ), full context sensitive editing and even a way to auto-material generation based on options, to pay for it.

4 - You will discover that, for example generating the help file will take multiple times more than actually coding the app...

But at the end, you can have a marketable base and just continue adding to it and selling the upgrades :P
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