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Project Proposal
Serialize scripts for a scene, like materials, shaders, particles systems, etc into a single binary file. Along with this,
an editor that lets you edit and save scripts directly into a binary file... ready for use with Ogre3D.
If possible, I could work with the person serializing the scene and probably serialize the scripts directly into the scene binary file.
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Schedule
23 May to 29 May - Start figuring out what all components can use a binary file format (eg:
30 May to 05 May - Document each component, detailing each property needed by every component.
06 Jun to 12 Jun - Document a binary format for each component, down to the last detail. Also create a format that allows for storing
multiple such binary components inside one single file.
13 Jun to 19 Jun - Start work on classes that serialize in and out each component.
20 Jun to 26 Jun - Continue work on the classes. Optimize, test and debug them, and make them flawless.
27 Jun to 03 Jul - Work on a single class that serializes in and out multiple components from a single class.
04 Jul to 10 Jul - Testing and debugging of all classes created till now.
11 Jul to 17 Jul - With the classes completed, start working on a graphical, realtime script editor.
18 Jul to 25 Jul - Continue work on the editor.
25 Jul to 01 Aug - Finish the editor. Optimizing, testing and debugging. Documenting it.
I plan to finish the project before August because my next semester starts around the first week of August. I will be available for coding during August too, but I want to finish the project before the semester starts
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Future Extensions
The code for the script editor could be assimilated into a graph/scene editor. That way, the developer can seamlessly work on multiple scripts, and the editor would take care of converting it into OGRE readable binaries.
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Why You're The Person For This Project
I'm the right person for this project because I've worked with binary files extensively (MDL, MD2, MD3; BMP, TGA; BSP; WAV). I've also worked a bit with Java's bytecodes, and I feel something similar to that can be used here.
Apart from that, I've worked on multiple personal projects in diverse fields. Here's a list of a few major ones:
1) A 3D chess game in C/C++ from scratch (Sep '08)
* Uses OpenGL and OpenAL
* Heavely uses the concept of reusable objects (like, a renderer object to use OpenGL, a Camera object, a CameraAnimator object that lets you move a given camera over certain paths, etc). You can have a look at a few screenshots of the game at my website: http://liquidmetal.in/work/chess-game.php
2) 3 robotics projects (over the last year)
* Based on Image Processing using OpenCV
* Used C++ for implementing the image processing
* Efficient code: Pictures taken from a webcam and are processed (to get information like the positions of balls, etc). This is done approximately 30 times per second, with memory usage never exceeding 10mb.
* You can get some more info about these bots on my website:
- http://liquidmetal.in/work/ipbot.php
- I couldn't put up a web page for the second bot my team and I made
- http://liquidmetal.in/work/goal-image-p ... soccer.php
3) My website
* No prewritten software was used (like wordpress or blogger)
* Uses ajax techniques for the shoutbox and comments, making it a lot easier for the visitor to leave a comment/shout
* Uses PHP, MySQL and Javascript
* You can get more information about it here: http://liquidmetal.in/work/this-site.php
4) A basic Quake3 rendering engine (Summer '06)
* Made in VB6 (yes, VisualBasic 6)
* Loads a BSP level (Q3BSP), all texture maps (even from ZIP files, supported formats: BMP, TGA and JPG), lightmaps and models (MD2 with animation). And then it lets you move around the level, performing basic collision detection.
* The renderer performs frustum culling, and also uses the visibility information stored in the BSP file to reduces the polygons to be rendered.
* The project wasn't quite speedy... partially because of the programming language used.
* I tried making the engine as object oriented as possible, but VB6 didn't really allow me to do what I wanted. Since then, I've completely abandoned VB6, and work on C/C++ and Java for developing applications.
As for communication, I am very good at English, both written and spoken.
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Why OGRE?
I've always wanted to develop a 3D rendering engine, something similar to the Doom3 engine. But after some tries I realized this wasn't really a one man job. And this GSoC lets me be a part of the development team of a very popular open source 3D engine
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Contributor Agreement
Please be aware that all OGRE contributors are required to sign the OGRE Contributor License Agreement - this will be a condition of acceptance of your project should your application be accepted.
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Anything Else
* I've worked a lot with OpenGL. Mostly learned over the internet (from the likes of http://nehe.gamedev.net ).
* In commercial game engines, I've done quite a bit of research on the Quake3 engine (learning a lot from http://gametutorials.com, when their tutorials were free) and also its source code.
* In free game engines, I've tried understanding the code of OGRE, CrystalSpace and Irrlicht... taking bits and piece from each and trying to implement that in some of my projects.
* Apart from these, I've also worked extensively with 3D GameStudio and a bit with DarkBasic.
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Feel free to ask any question or let me know any suggestions
