Ronan: I was talking about the old Fracture Tools addon. I wasn't aware of the Cell Fracture addon and have since looked at it. IT definitely seems much better, and while I think some of the Rayfire aspects could have good potential for improving object breakup, it may not be a good project idea since as you say, so much of it is already implemented.
Ton: Thanks for all the info. I'll look into volume rendering before I jump into IRC. Thanks, Scott On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 6:07 AM, Ton Roosendaal <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Scott, > > The final decisions by Google for accepted projects will get published on > 27th of May. Until then we can't say anything about it unfortunately. > > In general coding work is always welcome though, especially in the area of > fluid simulation. There are not many experts for it though, you might > consider to join our irc channel at irc.freenode.net #blendercoders, and > seek contact with Daniel Genrich there. > > Our todo wiki and open topics for Blender is quite messy in places, I know. > > But, apart from simulation code itself, there's a very interesting related > area in Blender that's entirely orphaned - Volume rendering for Blender's > internal render. It has a distinct section in our wiki todo with links to > open issues (bug reports). You could check on that? > > Regards, > > -Ton- > > -------------------------------------------------------- > Ton Roosendaal - [email protected] - www.blender.org > Chairman Blender Foundation - Producer Blender Institute > Entrepotdok 57A - 1018AD Amsterdam - The Netherlands > > > > On 20 May, 2013, at 7:15, Scott Aufderheide wrote: > > > Hello everyone, > > > > For this upcoming fall semester, I will be doing undergraduate research > for > > a professor who does some work in graphics and visual effects. Even > though > > this is for the fall, I was hoping to get a jump start on it during the > > summer, but I have yet to choose a topic to delve into. I want to do > > something with Blender as I have been using it for a couple years and > > really enjoy it, plus I feel that I may be able to do something > worthwhile > > as I'll have at least seven months to dedicate to it. > > > > I am very comfortable with C and C++, I am pretty familiar with python, > and > > I have some CUDA experience as well. For a project last fall, I looked at > > implementing different noise functions (Wavelet vs Curl) for Blender's > > smoke simulator to compare their effect on render times, and investigated > > how they could be used to better simulate fire. For this past semester, I > > just finished writing an addon for Blender that simulates swarm > > intelligence using a flocking algorithm (I got the idea for the project > > before I learned about boids particles). The addon takes user input to > > define some swarm properties, and then parallelizes the computation of > the > > motion paths for each swarm object on the GPU using CUDA, and then > animates > > the objects. > > > > I tried looking at the projects and todo pages, but I was somewhat > confused > > on what I found there. It seemed like many of things mentioned were for > > previous releases, particularly since the phrases "...for 2.5/2.6..." > were > > found throughout, and I was wondering if anyone might be able to direct > me > > to more recent proposal and project areas. > > > > I suppose the timing is a little awkward as the GSoC proposals are still > > being reviewed, but a number of those projects seemed like they would be > > very interesting. I was first looking at the modifier section under the > > GSOC ideas since it said, > > > > "Modifiers are probably one of the best introductions to coding new > > modeling tools. Modifiers > > have a well-defined API (DerivedMesh comes in, new DerivedMesh goes > > out), so the student > > need learn only a small part of Blender's internals before becoming > > productive.", > > > > and learning Blender's internals is probably what intimidates me the > most. > > I was thinking of trying to implement something similar to > > this<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_2qKQpxCRw> as > > a potential modifier project. I know that Blender currently has the > > Fracture addon, but I feel like this is a very limited tool, where > > something similar to Rayfire's Crack would be much more dynamic for > > allowing users to break up objects. Two potential problems with this > though > > would be, first: that I have no idea about the legal > > ramifications/restrictions on trying to copy (to a degree) what someone > > else has done, albeit for a different program and we aren't trying to > sell > > it. And second: I noticed that in messing around with the fracture addon > > that it slows down or even stops Blender when you try to break an object > > too many times at once. I wasn't sure if this was from the addon trying > to > > compute too many things or Blender from trying to process the addon's > > output to the viewport (I was only considering this second option as I > > noticed Blender slowed down some when I tried creating too many swarm > > objects simultaneously in my own addon). For this, I suppose I would have > > to wait and see how the modifier performed and take it from there. > > > > The other GSOC idea that seemed interesting to me was the thin fluids > > feature for the fluid simulation. My only concern with this is that due > to > > my inexperience, I am not sure that I could fully complete it in the time > > I'd have for the semester (again, Blender internal/integration fears). In > > working with the smoke simulator before, I was quite a bit lost in > > everything and kept my small changes to only two files for fear of > breaking > > everything when trying to recompile. I like the challenge of this > project, > > but I think I would need someone with some more experience who would be > > willing to help guide me and be willing to put up with (probably) some > > pestering and (potentially) noob questions. > > > > All that being said, I know that someone else was interested in the thin > > fluids feature as their own GSOC project. I think Ton said that the final > > slot allocation due date was the 22nd, so I suppose I would have to wait > > until then to see if thin fluids has been taken. > > > > Additionally, I am looking into getting my feet wet with shaders or > > textures or rendering. For the first two, I wasn't really sure where to > > start looking for anything so I thought I might ask if anyone is doing > work > > or wants work to be done in those areas, and if so, if they might want to > > discuss things further. And for rendering, I know a lot is being done > with > > Cycles right now, but I again was hoping that I might be able to talk > with > > someone on project ideas just because there is so much there. > > > > My apologies on the length of this email, but I thought I should explain > > myself a bit. My main hope in reaching out here is that no matter what I > > might work on, I am hoping that I am able to find someone willing to > > discuss problems and implementations in a mentor role for a while, > despite > > the fact that I am not part of GSOC. > > > > Thanks for your time and all the work you guys do. > > > > Scott Aufderheide > > University of Notre Dame > > Computer Science 2014 > > _______________________________________________ > > Bf-committers mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers > > _______________________________________________ > Bf-committers mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers > _______________________________________________ Bf-committers mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
