emPolygoniser 3

emPolygonizer3 3.00 - Walk Through the New Features from Eric Mootz on Vimeo.

emPolygonizer 3: A few of the main new features:

# multithreaded meshing.
# multithreaded octree.
# liquid filaments.
# motion plotting.
# support of Lagoa topology.
# advanced mesh smoothing.
# support of RealFlow .bin file format.
# enhanced workflow for large setups.
# handles millions of input points and creates polygon meshes with millions of polygons without problems.
# support of multiple custom properties per input object.
# capability of meshing a single point cloud with several emPolygonizer3 operators.
# direct memory-to-memory meshing of the internal emFluid4 3D grids.

Samsung Galaxy S II (S2) Review

It came out in the UK on Monday (2nd May 2011).

I was going to wait for all the remaining dual core phones to arrive in June/July but after seeing some benchmarks I decided to make the bold (rash) assumption that it would be the fastest Android phone on the market this year. (Plus 200,000 korean's can't be wrong!)

Hardware
Looks gorgeous, however, like most phones it's going to get scratched and worn without protection. Something the designers of smartphones have yet to resolve. I don't think it would fair too well from a drop onto a hard surface either.

SDcard slot is under the battery which isn't the best place to have it. And playing demanding games (like PES2011) on it will noticeably heat the back and screen. Like to a level that makes you worry about playing much longer.)

Performance
It's a belter of a phone. I did sunspider java test and got a final score of 3417.1 ( +/- 1.5%). This is significant because when you compare it to all the initial benchmarks released by Anandtech for most of the new dual core phones it comes out on top. Anandtech's results still show the original scores for the 1ghz version of the Exynos and you can see how much of a difference the CPU's 0.2 ghz extra (and upgrade to Android 2.3.3) has made: a 25% increase in performance. Although the heat issue makes me wonder if they haven't just over-clocked the original chip.

Quadrant came in at 3174 today. Anandtech also benchmarked a Qualcomm 1.5ghz development phone (MDP) and it came in at 2851. So I tentatively suggest that the Exynos 1.2ghz may be faster than the Qualcomm dual 1.5ghz which doesn't bode to well for the HTC Sensation, which is approaching its release date in the UK.(May 16th). Also you can compare further results here.

Rightware BrowserMark came in at 53938, just passing the Atrix in Browser performance. Ipad2 scored 69,032 here.

UI
Touchwiz 4 is an excellent UI. It is fast, responsive and very customisable. Only thing I found so far needing work is the widget selector. It's better on stock android where the list is categorised. If you don't like it for whatever reason, LauncherPro will work perfectly well in its place.

A decent, fully featured power control widget is missing so getting something like Extended Controls can really help with extending the battery life as this isn't amazing. But what do you expect? The screen is 4.3 inches.

Software
I never had a Galaxy S, so much of the software that puts a big wide grin on my face may not be breaking news.

What I disliked about the HTC Hero was the lack of office suite. Polaris Office comes with the S2. It's fast, very well featured and saves MS Word compatible files, reads PDFs. I've yet to delve in very deeply, but it looks like my game design docs could be fully created on my mobile.

iPlayer runs very well too (over Wifi at least), a tiny bit jumpy but otherwise excellent. Also, as far as I could tell, you don't get access to everything available on the desktop version.

The S2 to has several built in apps that are pretty much impossible to live without on any android phone:
Task Manager (task killer), My Files (explorer-type app), Swype (alternative keyboard), various voice based applications, Video and Photo editors, decent music player that'll happily play away lag-free while you play a game or surf the web.

Games
A downside that some people will find off-putting is that many 3d games available now either don't run at all or have major problems graphically which render them unplayable. Several threads on forums have popped up listing which games work and which don't.

I can confirm PES 2011 does work; very well. But I'm not sure of the quality of game itself just yet (although the pad and one-touch passing is the least frustrating, but why they couldn't have copied the directional passing from the Wii version of PES is beyond me it would have worked well with the touchscreen). And a word of advice (at the time of writing this), don't waste your time downloading the 650mb behemoth that is Dungeon Defenders, you won't be able to play it because the menus are missing.

Run's my own game (developing with ShiVa3d) pretty well too.

Apps
AutoCAD WS, Autodesk Sketchbook and the Caustic music sequencer demo (best music making app on the market right now?) all run very smoothly.

Connectivity
Wifi access to internet is lightning fast. Apps less than 10mb will download and install in seconds and the more you download the more pages appear in the Apps tray ready to be filled up into the sizeable RAM. I've yet to try the plethora of other wireless connection options and will update this as and when I do.

Summary of Cons
- The home button should double as a slider for moving text cursor back and forth
- Apps screen can't be resorted into alphabetical order
- microSD card location
- not easy to hold without a cover (very little grip)
- many games do not work at time of writing this
- battery life is poor but is slowly being improved by regular system updates
- need to install Samsung Kies (for drivers) to install compiled apps directly to phone with ShiVa 3D Authoring Tool.

Summary
Only scratched the surface but so far.. me like ..a lot.

Reverb Air previews AR plugin for ShiVa 3d

reverbAR from Reverb'air on Vimeo.

The tool includes the following features:-
- Ability to track multiple markers.
- Analysis of markers with precision, which can not be confused.
- The black outline of the marker may be relatively thin.
- Multi-platform (PC, iPhone, and soon for Mac).

Coming Soon. (Hopefully, the ShiVa plugin store will be open shortly!)

More info, plus a demo can be found here.

Excortex presents Momentum 2.0

Momentum 2.0 Release Trailer from helge mathee on Vimeo.

Momentum goes commercial with version 2. Find more info about Exocortex and this product here.


Momentum 2.0 Example Scenes Overview from Exocortex on Vimeo.

At first it seems like just another physics plugin for Softimage, until you look at the feature comparison table:-

"Exocortex Momentum 2.0 is the most versatile multi-physics solver available for Softimage as demonstrated by the table below. But we know that this is often not enough, thus we have designed Momentum to integrate well with both Syflex as well as Lagoa."

Physics Solver Feature Comparison Table

	Momentum	PhysX	Lagoa	Syflex
Rigid Bodies	♦	♦
Soft Bodies	♦		♦	♦
Cloth	♦		♦	♦
Ropes	♦
Soft - Rigid Interaction	♦
RBD Constraints	♦	♦
Softbody Constraints	♦			♦
Plasticity	♦			♦
Deforming RBDs	♦
Build-In plotting	♦
Collision Filtering	♦	♦
RBD Clustering	♦

And all for $149 (individual license). I think that's very good value, especially when you consider that it even supports Softimage 2010 (which is something the original opensource Momentum from studioNest did not). If you're considering upgrading to 2012 mainly for the simulation features you just gained another option!

Well done and thanks to Helge Mathee and Exocortex!

Softimage 2012

What's New in Softimage 2012

New features in Softimage 2012 include:

• ICE Modeling: Create procedural geometry in the Interactive Creative Environment (ICE) based on a set of rules, conditions, and parameters. 
• Enhanced Everyday Workflows: Enjoy greater overall productivity and ease of use, with across-the-board enhancements. The Texture Editor, Explorer, Schematic View, Scene Layer Manager, Render Tree, Bone Primitive, Reference Models, and Weight Editor have all received attention. 
• Syflex on ICE: Use the power of ICE to achieve greater control and flexibility over Syflex cloth simulations. 
• UV Unfolding: Save time and effort with new UV relaxing and pinning options. 
• Lagoa Multiphysics: More easily achieve plastic, liquid, soft-body, cloth, and foam-like effects. 
• Stereoscopic Support: Take advantage of the trend for 3D films with an in-viewport stereoscopic viewer offering a range of display modes and stereopscopic camera rig. 
• Single-Step Suites Interoperability: More easily take advantage of the focused toolsets in the Autodesk® Entertainment Creation Suites Premium 2012, with new single-step interoperability between Softimage and Autodesk® Maya®, Autodesk® 3ds Max®, and Autodesk®Mudbox™ software. 
• ICE FX Builder: Create and modify sophisticated effects more quickly and easily, with the help of the new ICE FX Builder. 
• ICE Subframe Sampling: Calculate collisions more accurately in ICE simulations, with new support for subframe sampling on a per-object or per-point cloud basis. 
• Vector Displacement Map Support: You can use mental ray® rendering technology to render complex high-resolution details created in Mudbox 2012 software or certain other applications on low-resolution geometry. 
• New ICE Compounds, Preset FX, Shaders, and Model Library: More easily create a wide range of effects and rendered looks in ICE with the help of new compounds, shaders, and pre-defined ICE FX that can be used “as-is”, or customized as required. 
• Maya nCache Support: More easily transport geometry and ICE simulations between Softimage and Maya 2012 software. 
• Consistent F-Curve Editor: More easily switch between multiple products in the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suites Premium thanks to an updated F-Curve Editor that provides a toolset that offers more consistent functionality and terminology for editing animation curves. 
• Polygonizer: Build liquid and blobby effects with the new Polygonizer toolset. 
• SDK Enhancements and Events: Facilities can now more easily customize and extend their tools and pipelines, with the exposure of more core Softimage services and events: Undo Bracketing, onCommand Events, and onRenderPass Events. 
• Softimage Composite: Softimage® Composite toolset offers keying, tracking, color correction, raster and vector paint, rotoscoping, warping, advanced filters, a full 3D compositing environment, and tools that help support stereoscopic productions. 
• MatchMover Professional Camera Tracking: Extract 3D camera and motion data from video and film sequences in order to insert CG elements into a live-action scene. 
• FBX 2012: Through support for the Autodesk® FBX® 2012 asset exchange technology, artists can transfer stereo camera rigs, vector displacement maps, multiple UVs, and subframe samples for icecache and PC2 in and out of Softimage, making it easier to safely pass production assets between products. 

A set of new view videos can viewed now over at the Softimage blog.

Grow Rig System - Autorigger for Softimage

Chris Covelli recently posted at the si-community forums about his new Softimage autorigger, which is in beta.


Not only is it an auto-rig for rigging components but it also provides and then manipulates a base mesh for the character. It's an extremely promising plugin.


An introductory video can be found here.


Check out the continuing discussion here.

UK mobile carriers reveal nextgen Android phone lineups

O2 will be offering 4 new phones in April: the HTC Desire S, Sony Experia Arc and the Sony Experia Play, which is notable for it's Playstation-centric store/interface plus a slding gamepad featuring analog and digital joysticks. Could be quite popular. There is also a tablet on its way.



T-Mobile have announced the imminent arrival of the LG Optimus Black to their network. A nice looking and very slim Android phone but single core only.



Vodafone has the largest selection of coming soon Android phones at time of writing this article:-

Samsung Galaxy S II - sequel to the highest selling Android phone to date - the Samsung Galaxy S.



HTC Desire S - arguably the most popular model from HTC gets a refresh. HTC has the most disappointing 2011 smartphone lineup of all the big players, due to their contract with Qualcomm. Qualcomm is taking it's time bringing its own dual core mobile CPU to market, so no HTC phones announced at Mobile World Congress feature a dual CPU. However, Qualcomm's MSM8660 has two Scorpion cores clocked at 1.2GHz and the Adreno 220 GPU so they could end up having the last laugh.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 - the honeycomb tablet from Samsung.
The Sony Experia Play , Arc and Neo -which the full complement of new Sony Android phones.
Samsung Nexus S (available now from Carphone Warehouse. )

Three is, at time of writing, the only carrier offering the LG Optimus 3d, which recieved some stunning benchmark results over at Anandtech. Set to arrive in June.

The OMAP4 / SGX 540 seems to be the dual CPU/GPU combination to beat right now.





Three is also offering Experia Arc and Play, along with HTC Desire S in April. The Samsung Galaxy SII in May.

UPDATED: 4th March 2010 - Nothing of note has appeared on Orange's website as yet, so I can't report anything in regards to what they will have on offer later in the year. Suffice to say that as of yet, the Motorola Atrix 4G has not been announced for any UK network yet.

ShiVa3D-made "Convergence" on TI OMAP 4

Stonetrip's Shiva3D engine can create stereoscopic 3D games optimised for Texas Instruments OMAP 4 platform for mobile devices. This demo, first shown at Mobile World Congress, 14-17 February 2011, shows Convergence.

If you've any doubt about Omap4's performance check out the benchmarks recently posted by Anandtech.

pmG's Messiah:Studio - Dare To Share ™ $10 Challenge

Yep. If you've not heard about it by now, where have you been?

pmG are offering Messiah:Studio for $10 and $40 respectively.

Yes, that is $40 instead of $1195.

When the progress bar gets to the end, its over. Make sure you don't miss out!

Go here to find out more.

EDIT: The Challenge was met!

Congratulations !

We Dared. You Shared. You won.

February 14th 2011

114 Countries. 35,000 hits. 103,000 combined views. Multiple records broken.

In 7 days you have left your mark on the history of the internet, and made a lot of people happy

Congrats to everyone who entered!

Pooby's ICE Tutorials

Paul Smith has recently uploaded several very informative ICE tutorials, further expanding peoples understanding of just how flexible and near-all encompassing ICE is for solving general 3d problems. Here's a couple of notable ones:

11: Making a displacement viewing tool from Paul smith on Vimeo.

5: Simulation continued - the Jiggly bit from Paul smith on Vimeo.

Incase you've never heard of Pooby, this is one of his more well-known works:

Greg 2 from Paul smith on Vimeo.

PS: BTW, we're still waiting for that muscle system tutorial, Paul! ;)

Back Muscle test from Paul smith on Vimeo.

Lagoa / Arnold demonstration

Mark Schoennagel of Autodesk shows off a sneak peek of a beta version of Arnold, rendering insanely fast inside of Softimage. 3,200,000 spheres rendered with an ambient occlusion shader in mere seconds. 


I don't know which is more impressive, the near instant arnold rendering or the 3 million spheres simulated with Lagoa.


A discussion at Xsibase can be found here.

ShiVa3d: Optimising 3d on Android

Just discovered "Delta Time".

In Shiva I'm applying 'Delta time' to anything and everything that moves in the game. You can do this by:-

1. Getting last frame time with something like this:-

local nTime = application.getLastFrameTime ( )

http://www.stonetrip.com/developer/doc/api/application-getLastFrameTime

2. Then whenever you apply movement or a physics force to something apply this calculation to the value:-  value*nTime*60 (the 60 being 60hz refresh rate).

Then, even if your device is only managing 10FPS you'll still have exactly the same play speed as if it was playing back at 60fps. It will also mean that playback is at the same speed on your device and in the editor, reducing the number of times you need to compile, copy over to and run on the target device. (My phone (its old) can't be used with the Shiva tools .apk)

3. Minimise the number and/or complexity of colliders - use Shiva box shapes with 100% transparent materials and collider attributes applied to them whereever possible. DO NOT just apply them to complex meshes or entire level models as it will quickly kill FPS.

My poor old HTC Hero can only muster a measily 10FPS but the game is still playable.

Which means I can hold off from buying a new phone for now. :-)