I am a graphics/web designer with basic JS/php coding knowledge and I am interested in learning to make interactive walls.
I would like to know from anyone experienced at this.
What tools, languages do you use?
Unity, Flash, Cinder....etc. which makes it easier?
Thanks
If you just want basic interaction, po-motion.com is a really easy place to start. It tracks motion for simple effects like leaves being brushed away or revealing one image under another. It works using blog detection and can be set up with a mac or pc using a USB camera and any display you can connect your computer to. It also supports some versions of the Kinect on Windows.
This would be quite hard to make with "basic knowledge of JS/php". However how I think you would handle this would be to make the application as you would normally, but have it be controlled by touch input. And then your wall would be a touch/pressure controlled. Im not an engineer, just a programmer, so I dont know how you would make the actual wall, but I do know unity has some good syntax for touch input which I have used. This is very broad question, but I would recommend looking into unity's pre-built touch classes and input interpretation.
as you have alluded to in your tags, one solution is to create a gesture-controlled solution with Kinect.
The best starting point for this would be to download the SDK and get the hardware:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/
The SDK comes with demos and existing working C# code in Kinect Explorer that creates the 'interactive wall' experience (see Controls Basics, documentation here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn188701.aspx).
You can practically run the demo and replace the images to get your experience started. Just make sure you have the right specs on your machine (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/purchase/sensor_setup.aspx ), and you have a good screen.
In terms of programming language, there's no better opportunity to learn C# than from these demos :p
Related
I would like to make an AR iPhone app in unity that places an object in the real world which you can then interact with it on your iPhone. like you have a bar at the bottom of your screen and you can drag the objects into the ar world and interact with them with the ability of hand tracking. This will work kind of like the meta 2 interface https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7ZDaiDwnxY which you can grab things and drag them. it uses hand tracking to do this.
I have done some research on this but, I need some help doing this because I don't know where to start and how to accomplish what I am trying to do.
I don't have any code.
You can email me at jaredmiller219#gmail.com for any comments and questions. also, you can email me to help me with this. thanks so much for your support!
To get started in mobile AR in Unity, I would recommend starting with Unity's resources:
https://unity.com/solutions/mobile-ar
Here's a tutorial resource for learning ARKit:
https://unity3d.com/learn/learn-arkit
As for hand tracking, obviously the Meta 2 has specialized hardware to execute its features... you shouldn't necessarily be expecting to achieve the same feature set with only a phone driving your experience. Leap Motion is the most common hand tracker I've seen integrated into VR and AR setups and it works well, but if you really need hand tracking with just a phone, you could check out ManoMotion which seeks to bring hand tracking and gesture recognition to ARKit, although I haven't personally worked with it.
I just started C++ lessons not so long ago because I am interested in game development. Obviously I am nowhere near creating my own game yet but I was reading some guides on game development and it was talking about Unity and how it makes game development a lot easier than having to code 100% of the game.
However, I also watched some tutorials on youtube regarding SFML which can also be used for game developing, what are the differences? and can you use both at the same time?
I have already started learning about SFML but Unity seems so much simpler to use.
Thanks in advance.
In theory yes, but it's not practical, so the real answer is no.
SFML provides access to basic APIs (OpenGL, OpenAL, OS APIs, FreeType 2, etc) which can be used to build complex applications on top, for example like an engine more in the direction of Unity (e.g. xygine, Nero Game Engine).
But since Unity already provides access to all the things SFML would provide, there's really no reason in trying to integrate SFML into Unity. Similar to how it wouldn't make sense to integrate the Unreal Engine into Unity.
If you really want to do it, you'd approach it similar to how #Programmer described it in the comments.
I'm looking for an intro into designing and making a custom and dynamic UI on mobile specific platforms. As I understand Nokia(Qt), Android, and iOS all use OpenGL ES (2.0?). I haven't looked into Windows phone 7 yet so not sure what that uses. So I think OpenGL would be a pretty good place to start. While OpenGL is mostly about 3D, I'm also open to 2d ways of creating dynamic UI.
I've never really been big on designing interfaces or coming up with cool concepts but now I have an idea for a mobile app that really needs a good looking user-interface. It's sort of a half app, half game type of thing. It really targets people in the gaming community who I think are used to a bit more polish and advanced UI. I could still probably get away with a simple UI(simple not being a bad thing) but I think I at least should learn some design techniques for future reference.
Of course I realise that excessive eye candy which hurts usability, like bloated graphics that slow down the mobile, are of no use at all. I'm trying to make a sleek UI that while looking good allows the user to interact well with the app effectively.
Any suggestions, resources, experience you can share would be most helpful.
EDIT: While I'm looking for ways to use 3D graphics, I'm more concerned with how to come up with a sleek UI in a mobile. I come from a mostly web developer background, with some experience in Photoshop(CSS is the furthest I've gone in designing). I have never really had to design a dynamic interface that reacted to touch and moved all around the screen with some laws of physics attached. There are lots of such effects, such as the carousal effect, which gives the user an enhanced experience. I have no idea how to incorporate these effects into a mobile device. For example, one of the things I need this app to do is take a glassy circular object(a button) that moves around, then turn it into a sort of convex glass lens so it's sort of zooming in on the image underneath to make it look like its actually a magnifying glass. I looked around and this effect is created by a "grid warp" or a "mesh warp". Suffice it to say I have no idea how to do it.
This will help you not only with Windows Phone 7. WP7 uses DirectX 9, but not directly, you must pick XNA or Silverlight(no other options). Also these blog posts I find quite usefull.
For game, game related app I would stick to one design, and as you said start with OpenGL.
I have been searching since yesterday and thought I'd add some links for anyone interested.
Although I'm dividing them up by the platform the articles refer to, with some elbow grease the ideas should be cross-platform compatible.
Qt
Carousal animation in Qt
Shadow effect Qt
Qt Kinetic Scrolling describes kinetic scrolling algorithm in Qt(self descriptive really)
Qt OpenGL Nehe tutorials converted to the Qt environment
Iphone
OpenGL from the ground up - expansive list
Flow Cover tutorial.
Android
Android 3d Tutorial
Another Android OpenGL tutorial
Yet another Android OpenGl ES tutorial, seems people have gone open-source mad.
Custom UI on Android
One finger zoom tutorial at Sony Ericsson Developer World
3D list at Sony Ericsson Developer World
OpenGl/ES
OpenGl tutorials at NeHe, there are tons, I read through the first one (on light) and it was really informative.
TheRedBook intro to OpenGl
Books
Books list at Design4Mobile, these do not cover the technical side rather covers the things to keep in mind when designing mobiles, I think the O'Rielly one should be pretty good.
Inspiration
10 beautifully designed Iphone Apps - for a touch of inspiration
All rounder
Mobile TutsPlus sort of a gathering of tutorials for android and iPhone
That's I found in the last four or five hours, as I find more I'll add it on. I've also made this a community Wiki so others can correct any mistakes I've made here, or to add anything they feel relevant.
How hard would it be to port a flash game to the iPhone. Obviously Flash CS5 is no longer an options, I still would like to know if there's anything that can be reused? or do I have to write everything from scratch (Is Obj-C that different than ActionScript?) Is there any other shortcuts?
Also, if anyone has done this before please share your experience.
Flash is a very different platform, not only is the language change going to be an issue you're going to be going from Flash's renderer to presumably your own using OpenGL:ES.
Although another method may be to port your app to JavaScript. Both ActionScript and JavaScript are EMCAScript dialects, so very similar in that area, the APIs will be completely different though.
http://paulirish.com/work/gordon/demos/ interesting and slightly related, this is a implementation of Flash in JavaScript.
Note the new Apple T.O.S may affect you, but as far as I'm aware it's still a beta and I'm not Apple or a lawyer so I won't try and decipher it for you.
I am doing the same thing. I am using Cocos2d for iPhone. This is a pretty good 2d game engine. Actually, two apps created with it are in the current top 25. You are going to have to get down and dirty in Objective-C though. Objective-C is different from ActionScript but if you are use to object oriented programming you should be able to make the switch. Programming a Flash game is different than typical game programming done in Objective-C/C/C++. So, if you are familiar with how to do things in the Objective-C/C/C++ game programming world (render loop, capturing inputs, etc), you'll really be ok. If not, you'll have to get use to not having the Flash timeline, dealing with frames, etc. Good luck! You can do it!
read the statements from apple, no its not possible.
For my game Hudriks I used flash to build levels and some animations. For this an animation engine has been developed that supports motion tween, and then wrote JSFL scripts that goes through Flash objects and export to a format that can be parsed in my game.
For writing the JSFL - look for document called Extending Flash.
The rest was developed from scratch using Objective C with OpenGL. Do not see option of 'one-click' compilation or converting from Flash to iPhone (not considering CS5), but with developing extensions for Flash you could reuse some work.
It is hard, but it is possible. I am working on a automatic code converter now.
I have been developing iPhone Applications for a couple of months. I would like to know your views about the Quartz vs OpenGL ES 1.x or 2.0 learning curve. You can tell your perspective. My Questions are
*I am a wannabe game developer, So is it a good idea to first develop in quartz , then move
on to OpenGL ES or does it not make an difference
*Can you please tell your experiences when you were having the similar question
Thanks :)
Quartz 2D is not applicable for game development IMHO. It is a software rendering API. It won't give you realtime rendering speed. It's good for drawing charts or vector text with shadows, or for blending several images together. Just not for games. Unless you want to make a game where few images are moving against a monochrome background and even in that case I doubt it will be really smooth on older devices. I've seen some games obviously coded with Quartz. A pitiful sight.
Sooner or later you'll end up using Open GL ES or a game framework build on top of it. I recommend you to check cocos2D, SIO2 engine, or examples from SDK.
With careful programming it is possible to make an Open GL ES game with parallax scrolling and relatively small amount of objects work at 60 FPS even on 2nd gen devices. Tiny Wings is an example of such game. And maintaining stable 30 FPS is not a problem at all.
I skipped Quartz and went right to OpenGL ES. I started with a 2D sprite based game. Thought it was pretty easy.
The key is having a good example to look at. I used the Lunar Lander clone (Crash Lander), but I don't think that's easy to find anymore. Maybe someone who has done it recently knows of a better, newer example that uses current best practices.
I'm in the same boat as you describe, although I have no programming background. (Although I don't know what your background is either) Currently, I am in the process of learning to code as I learn the various API's that are available. I'm an objective-c guy going backwards to the c-based Quartz API, and it's a little bit of a challenge. Luckily, Programming in Objective-C 2.0 by S. Kochan has a great chapter on underlying C features to keep you afloat.
I have taken a couple of stabs # OpenGLES, and I have to say, that from a conceptual standpoint, I'm not ready for it. The Quartz2d API is a bit easier to learn conceptually because it's very easy to get up & running with a few commands. Right now, I'm at the point where I can define shapes and point to point images with out too much trouble.
OpenGLES is going to be something in my future, but it takes such an enormous amount of code to configure the drawing view, set up buffers, etc. If you are familiar with everything the code is doing, then it's a bit easier. However, from a learning perspective, Quartz is an easier way to get going, quickly.
Resources I'm using: The aforementioned book, and an anemic amount of blogs containing tutorials, which are limited # best. At this point, make an appointment with the apple docs and get cozy, because it's about the best (free) stuff that's out there (& exhaustive) With that said, I'd love for someone to prove me wrong on this site by posting a great resource for learning, but that's about it. Good Luck.
I have been looking for the fundamental differences so I can decide between OpenGL (ES) or Quartz or a hybrid. The good news is that the hybrid is an option. Clearly Quartz is easier to master for O-O programming and the answer from Apple appears to be that OpenGL, "...is ideal for immersive types of applications..."
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#DOCUMENTATION/General/Conceptual/Devpedia-CocoaApp/DrawingModel.html
I don't want to limit the category to games as I believe any game UX can be applied to a business App, a productivity App, entertainment viewing, etc. By the same token, I fully expect the technology (both h/w and s/w) to advance to make either a choice.