Testing the Waters

[Rhaythe]

Greetings

I've been ghosting the forums for a while... trying to glean what I can before I post and sound too much like a newb. I would like to throw these items out and see what kind of success people have had around here with this setup:

1) Environment
I've been AIMING to start development on a SuSE 9.1 Professional OS with KDevelop. This has been relatively painless for Ogre itself, though Monster's OgreOde has had some problems that I'll go into later.

2) Blender
I've been using Blender for years, so I rejoiced when I saw there was a linux exporter. However, it doesn't seem to work well. Anything more than a box for me has been having some serious problems. As soon as I use the extrude functionality, the exporter fails, or the mesh that's exported/converted doesn't display anywhere NEAR correctly.

3) OgreOde
As mentioned, this doesn't seem to like my OS much at all. It gives me errors when trying to apply some of the patches (complaining about the ragdoll stuff if memory serves), and then naturally errors out when running the make.

4) Newton
Linux release...? Kewl! Haven't tried it yet though.

I'm not necessarily looking for solutions yet (as part of development is figuring things out yourself), but instead I'm just looking to see if anyone has used a similiar setup before on these boards.

Oh, and as the new guy, hi!

[haffax]

Platform seems to be ok. I don't use Ogre on Linux, but know other do it with SuSE and KDevelop too.

As for your Blender problem. Post error messages you get from the exporter (best in another thread) and show before/after pictures of your models. And make sure you use the latest exporter script. Extrusion should work just fine.

[Kencho]

Many people has used successfully Blender with Ogre with excelent results. Have you read the readme? Maybe it's something you're doing bad...

[lhunath]

I'm relatively new here as well, but as for your topics:

Environment -
I'm running Gentoo Linux, and have been using the -still in heavy development- Eclipse CDT. It serves, but the main reason I'm using it is because Eclipse IDE is God for Java development, and because of my experience with it, I'm sticking there. The CDT should reach the same level of accessebility in a few months (half a year, more like).

OgreOde -
I've tried this one out myself, and had little issues getting the original ODE files patched (lucky me there was a nice ebuild in the Gentoo Portage which made things easier for me). After that, it was just a matter of going into the src/ directory of OgreODE and running:

Code: Select all

g++ ../src/*.cpp `pkg-config OGRE --cflags` `pkg-config OGRE --libs` -I /usr/include/ode/ -lode -I../include/ --shared -o /usr/lib/libOgreOde.so

It should be relatively painless, I'd be happy to assist -where I can- with any issues you encounter.

Newton -
Haven't tried this one yet, since I got the hint from these forums that OgreODE is the better option. I have, though, tried OPAL, which is a sort of 'abstraction layer' between Ogre and ODE, sort of like OgreODE, but it succeeds in making complex things very straightforward. I gave up on it -at least for now?- because it lacks Ogre terrain collision support (which Monster seemed to have fixed up in OgreODE, I don't know about Newton, though).

Hi back, and good luck on the development!

[Phantom]

As long as the object has a material the exporter should work fine. Or has always worked for me...

[reimpell]

2) Blender
I've been using Blender for years, so I rejoiced when I saw there was a linux exporter. However, it doesn't seem to work well. Anything more than a box for me has been having some serious problems. As soon as I use the extrude functionality, the exporter fails, or the mesh that's exported/converted doesn't display anywhere NEAR correctly.

I almost doubt we are talking about the same software. Anyway, feel free to send the failing .blend file to my email address mentioned in the script header and I'll have a look.

[Jovani]

Newton -
Haven't tried this one yet, since I got the hint from these forums that OgreODE is the better option. I have, though, tried OPAL, which is a sort of 'abstraction layer' between Ogre and ODE, sort of like OgreODE, but it succeeds in making complex things very straightforward. I gave up on it -at least for now?- because it lacks Ogre terrain collision support (which Monster seemed to have fixed up in OgreODE, I don't know about Newton, though).

Would you care to elaborate more about your statement saying some specifics about why OgreODE is the better option as oppose to any of the others.
I am not trying to Hijack the thread, just curios as if you are basing your assessment on real facts or just on the forum advertising policy of other technologies.

[jacmoe]

I am not trying to Hijack the thread, just curios as if you are basing your assessment on real facts or just on the forum advertising policy of other technologies.

You are hijacking this thread.

Are there any such thing as real facts?

What are other technologies?
Other that what?

I didn´t know that these forums had an advertising policy.

And now I am hijacking this thread myself.

[Jovani]

No I am no hijacking the thread the question asked specifically about OgreODE and Newton.
lhunath is a newcomer like I am, he made a categorical statement and I was curios to see if he has any facts to support it.

I think real facts are things like: what engine is faster, what engine has more collision primitives, what engine is more stable, what engine has better friction model, what engine support more joints type, are the engines multiple platform, and soon on. You know things of that nature. Instead his reasoning was that he had not used one but he got the hint from the forum that the other is the better choice.

[japito]

Maybe ode is faster.
Maybe newton is more accurate.

But at least I prefer newton becauses is easier xDD.

[jacmoe]

I think real facts are things like: what engine is faster, what engine has more collision primitives, what engine is more stable, what engine has better friction model, what engine support more joints type, are the engines multiple platform, and soon on.

Actually, we have discussed this topic a zillion times already.
Some quick searching around will reveal a couple interesting threads.

[Rhaythe]

Gemme my thread back, you... you thread-stealing zombies!!

I moved into a new house, so once I get internet back there I'll try sending off some busted blender meshes to you, reimpell.

As for the "other technologies" war I kicked off, perhaps I should elaborate by saying "Better for my circumstances" as opposed to an actual dispute between technology X and technology Y. From reviewing some of the documentation and tutorials available, and from conversing with some of my staff, I've found Ode to be the better option for my situation, thus far. May of course change, but we'll see.

@Ihunath:
i may slap Gentoo on a spare box (now that I got it back) and see where that leads. I've preferred SuSE to all the distributions I've used thus far, but I haven't tried Gentoo yet.

@Kencho:
Yes, and I hope so, as broken technology would not be productive