I think it doesn't matter that there is a patent around some implementation detail of attribute transfer in XSI, or even who wrote it. I think what people see in a GATOR is a menu item in XSI that will transfer property maps, uv, skinning between objects reliably and without having to understand the details. Why that works is because of decisions in XSI'd design and architecture, because you have to have something that's property-based in the first place and all that cluster updating thing beneath to use it as a "live" operator. Somebody could totally write yet another attribute transfer tool, but I think what people love IMHO is how XSI's data is structured which allows such a tool to be implemented.
On 28 May 2015 at 08:50, Paul Doyle <technove...@gmail.com> wrote: > Most likely covered by this one: > "Transfer of attributes between geometric surfaces of arbitrary topologies > with distortion reduction and discontinuity preservation > > United States 7760201 > > Issued July 20, 2010 > > This describes how to transfer surface attributes (such as color, UVs, > skinning) between two 3D geometries of different topologies and potentially > different type (polygon mesh, NURBS, curve...). In particular, it describes > methods to preserve surface discontinuitues (such as UV island seams) and > reduce attribute distortion on the target surface." > > > On 28 May 2015 at 08:42, Paul Doyle <technove...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Jerome (now at Fabric - go team!) wrote GATOR. I'd ask him about doing it >> in Fabric but I think he'd stab me if I gave him any more work to do. I >> don't know if there are patents around the work and that's why other people >> haven't replicated it. >> >> On 28 May 2015 at 08:21, Marc-Andre Carbonneau >> <marc-andre.carbonn...@ubisoft.com> wrote: >>> >>> Good morning Lucer, >>> >>> Do you remember who designed and coded GATOR? >>> I'm just curious. >>> Thanks! >>> MAC >>> >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com >>> [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Luc-Eric >>> Rousseau >>> Sent: May-27-15 9:11 PM >>> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com >>> Subject: Re: GATOR - A feature in Softimage since 2008 >>> >>> GATOR was developed for/with one of our main game customers, Square I >>> think. >>> I'm not aware of a Gator "sdk", what is that? >>> There are attribute transfers in other apps, but it's generally separate >>> tools for textures vs rigging things, reflecting on their architecture vs >>> XSI >>> >>> On 27 May 2015 at 19:27, Matt Lind <speye...@hotmail.com> wrote: >>> > For the record, GATOR was introduced in late 2005 with XSI v5.0, not >>> > in 2008. >>> > >>> > GATOR was largely tailored for those switching applications and doing >>> > rigging in a film/video pipeline. For games development, GATOR has >>> > less use out-of-the-box as the very things that made it nice for >>> > exchanging data between XSI and Maya, for example, were the very same >>> > features that tripped up game artists trying to do simpler things >>> > quickly in heavy repetition. >>> > >>> > I wrote a command based version of the tool using the GATOR SDK as >>> > artists needed more micro-management of meshes and transfers. Artists >>> > used it to transfer UV's, normals, vertex colors, envelope weights, >>> > and many other features. I also extended, as well as exposed, many >>> > features from the SDK GATOR did not expose directly such as >>> > transferring attributes in local space, by raycasting, distance >>> > limits, transferring only selected subcomponents, correcting numerical >>> > flaws found in UV transfer, and so on. >>> > However, my use of the GATOR SDK was not limited to replicating the >>> > tool as a command. I also used it heavily for other tasks which >>> > weren't strictly related to attribute transfer tasks such as animation >>> > remapping, pose transfer, mesh fitting, and interactive editing of >>> > normals and symmetrical envelope weighting of asymmetrical characters. >>> > >>> > To hear other applications don't have a GATOR equivalent in this day >>> > and age is surprising considering it's so universally useful and isn't >>> > rocket science to develop. If you know anything about tree data >>> > structures and linear algebra, you can write your own (even if it's >>> > not as efficient as GATOR). What makes the GATOR SDK nice is the >>> > algorithm is very fast, accurate, and relatively easy to use. Reverse >>> > lookups of subcomponents is a pain as GATOR worked on triangles, not >>> > polygons, but that's minor compared to all the benefits it provides. >>> >> >
