Amazing Boxplorer

[Rrrola]

Hi there!

I′ve got in gear and started a Sourceforge project for the Amazing Boxplorer. Get it on http://sourceforge.net/projects/boxplorer.

I′m looking for contributors. What′s needed right now:

• major refactorization (the code is horrible)
• Visual C++ compatibility
• OSX port
• 64-bit compatibility
• better (non-modal) controls, a HUD
• movie recording, parameter interpolation
• progressive rendering
• your own shaders (IFS, Mandelbulb)

The project will continue to use the C language and the SDL+OpenGL combo for cross-platform compatibility, but ports (e.g. to WebGL or handhelds) are welcome.

If you just want to contribute shaders or ideas, drop them here and I might take them into consideration.

Enjoy!

[marius]

Hi there!

I′ve got in gear and started a Sourceforge project for the Amazing Boxplorer. Get it on http://sourceforge.net/projects/boxplorer.

I′m looking for contributors. What′s needed right now:

• major refactorization (the code is horrible)
• Visual C++ compatibility
• OSX port
• 64-bit compatibility
• better (non-modal) controls, a HUD
• movie recording, parameter interpolation
• progressive rendering
• your own shaders (IFS, Mandelbulb)

The project will continue to use the C language and the SDL+OpenGL combo for cross-platform compatibility, but ports (e.g. to WebGL or handhelds) are welcome.

If you just want to contribute shaders or ideas, drop them here and I might take them into consideration.

Enjoy!

Cool! Have you considered code.google.com for hosting? Really like their code review tools, visual diff etc.

Which version did put out there? The latest you released?
My copy has been diverging pretty drastically over time. Got the VC++, the 3d modes I posted about before and been hacking on splining between keyframes..

[Rrrola]

Have you considered code.google.com for hosting?

I haven′t, but why not. http://code.google.com/p/boxplorer

Which version did put out there? The latest you released?

It′s the latest released version from July (1.02) to have a baseline to build on. I′ve been experimenting with hybrids and progressive rendering, but the basic code is in bad shape.

[marius]

Have you considered code.google.com for hosting?

I haven′t, but why not. http://code.google.com/p/boxplorer

Which version did put out there? The latest you released?

It′s the latest released version from July (1.02) to have a baseline to build on. I′ve been experimenting with hybrids and progressive rendering, but the basic code is in bad shape.

Well, but there's so little code it remains workable ;-)
How strongly do you feel about no C++? Some things (stl::vector etc) are _really_ handy..

Just starting playing with some cheap 'progressive' rendering:
disable double buffering, enable alpha, add a uniformi 'frameno' that monotonically increases.
in start of fragment.glsl:main()

 // 'random' sampling based some bits of dot.
  if ((int(dot(dp, dp) * 10000) & 3) != (frameno & 3)) {
   gl_FragColor = vec4(0,0,0,0);
   return;
  }

So when you move, you see old pixels but when you stop moving the frame fills in.

[marius]

Hi there!

I′ve got in gear and started a Sourceforge project for the Amazing Boxplorer. Get it on http://sourceforge.net/projects/boxplorer.

I′m looking for contributors. What′s needed right now:

• major refactorization (the code is horrible)
• Visual C++ compatibility
• OSX port
• 64-bit compatibility
• better (non-modal) controls, a HUD
• movie recording, parameter interpolation
• progressive rendering
• your own shaders (IFS, Mandelbulb)

The project will continue to use the C language and the SDL+OpenGL combo for cross-platform compatibility, but ports (e.g. to WebGL or handhelds) are welcome.

If you just want to contribute shaders or ideas, drop them here and I might take them into consideration.

Enjoy!

After lots of glmatrix, glfrustum and glsl cursing, I have a rough version that projects a splined flight path between keyframes live in the z-buffered frame!

See attached screenshot. Goal is to get some visual feedback on where the hell the CatmullRom spline veers off the intended path.

But writing the z-buffer from the shader works. glFrustum and such are very much in sync with the vertex shader, etc. Lots of possibilities open up.
And, automagic driver-based stereoscopy becomes easier with a properly written z-buffer.

[visual.bermarte]

a test (juliabulb)> http://www.fractalforums.com/images-showcase-%28rate-my-fractal%29/exploring-boxplorer/msg25249/#msg25249
Marius, your idea is great!

[visual.bermarte]

A simple Menger-box  

Code:

float de_box(vec3 z0) {
//menger box
//from Master-Knighty
//brutal test
int i;
float scale=3.0;
float r;
for (i=0;i<iters;i++){
vec3 zz0;
z0.x=abs(z0.x);z0.y=abs(z0.y);z0.z=abs(z0.z);
if( z0.x- z0.y<0.0){zz0.x=z0.y;z0.y=z0.x;z0.x=zz0.x;}
if( z0.x- z0.z<0.0){zz0.x=z0.z;z0.z=z0.x;z0.x=zz0.x;}
if( z0.y- z0.z<0.0){zz0.y=z0.z;z0.z=z0.y;z0.y=zz0.y;}
zz0.x=z0.x-1.0;zz0.y=z0.y-1.0;zz0.z=z0.z-1.0;
r=max(zz0.x,max(zz0.y,zz0.z));
z0.x=z0.x*scale-1.0*(scale-1.0);
z0.y=z0.y*scale-1.0*(scale-1.0);
z0.z=z0.z*scale;
if(z0.z>0.5*(scale-1.0)) z0.z-=(scale-1.0);
}
float menger= r*pow(scale,1.0-float(i));
return max(menger,-menger);
}

an example (.cfg file) would be something like

Code:

width 640//as you like
height 480//same
fullscreen 0
multisamples 1//16 32?
fov_x 91.3085
fov_y 75
speed 0.005
keyb_rot_speed 5
mouse_rot_speed 1
min_dist 0.0001
max_steps 128
iters 13
color_iters 9
ao_eps 0.0005
ao_strength 0.1
glow_strength 5.5//maybe it's better to change it?
dist_to_color 8
position -0.8817 0.616461 -0.860055
direction -0.751845 0.252751 -0.608975
upDirection -0.365989 0.608274 0.704314
par0 0.25 -1.77
par1 0 0
par2 0 0
par3 0 0
par4 0 0
par5 0 0
par6 0 0
par7 0 0
par8 0 0
par9 0 0

[knighty]

Another Menger I've mistakenly posted this shader (in fact, I've corrected some things meanwhile) in another thread yesterday  .
Suggestion for the HUD: Anttweakbar.

[Rrrola]

Just starting playing with some cheap 'progressive' rendering.

I'd rather make progressive rendering from lowres samples instead (with nice upsampling). The functionality would speed up full-res too (cone-like tunnels could be cut out in lowres pass and provide better starting points for hires rays). Z-buffer will be necessary for this.

Regrding C++: For Boxplorer it's IMHO better to have the main functionality data-driven (shaders and parameter files), so I'll keep it in C as the lowest common denominator. If it would be a bigger project, I'd skip C++ and go all the way to D 2.0.

I like Anttweakbar and will incorporate it.

I think the best way to do video recording is to save all frame configs (deltas) and smooth them with a filter to mask out the jumpy controls. On-screen path grabbing and deforming would be really cool too.

Nice sponge. :-)

[visual.bermarte]

  here is my mbulb's test.
to run it please use Marius's version  (do a backup of the original fragment/s before)
mod.controls:
2+left/right > change power
4+left/right > bailout
6+up/down,7+left/right,7+up/down > JuliaC
6+left/right > JuliaFactor
8+left/right > RadiolariaFactor
9+up/down > RadiolariaPower

[Rrrola]

visual: Please use atan(y,x) instead of atan2 and mix instead of lerp for compatibility. 

[visual.bermarte]

for mac (10.6) there's > http://www.interealtime.com/Boxplorer.dmg
It compiles fine under OS 10.5

[marius]

for mac (10.6) there's > http://www.interealtime.com/Boxplorer.dmg
It compiles fine under OS 10.5

Find attached a dump of Rrrola's boxplorer as I have been hacking up. Got infected with some C++ but trying to stay with the original spirit 
Rrrola, have a look to see whether it could contribute to your opensource trunk.

Also included the .cfg and keyframes I just rendered this short sequence with:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/DXEQrKbaYhQ&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/DXEQrKbaYhQ&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1</a>

In the marius-1.cfg.data/fragment.glsl you can see some LoD attempts, fog and some rotation that makes for interesting color patterns ;-)
Also added the bulb and menger shaders that were posted here earlier.

Try out the keyframe editing for kicks. It's pretty rough but does provide some control over what the splined path looks like.
There's an addendum README-20101218.txt that tries to describe the control changes.

Still a lot of loose ends but I'm not sure I have time over the holidays to tweak much (roadtrip..).
I figured some of you might be interested in playing with it in the meantime

-marius

[marius]

Tested / tweaked / updated some more, since I noticed building on MacOS or Linux was painful.

Find attached a version with basic commandline makefiles for Windows, MacOS and Linux.

See README-20101219.txt.
You need the SDL runtime (and SDL-dev for osx and linux). Get it at http://www.libsdl.org/download-1.2.php

Copy Makefile.<your-os> to Makefile and run make (nmake on windows).
I compile on Windows with the free Visual C++ 2010 Express (http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/)

For Windows, you can use the attached sdl-windev.zip. Unzip it in the boxplorer directory. Besides that, all you need is SDL.dll in your path somewhere.

Once you have successfully built ./boxplorer, run it with one of the .cfg files as argument.
For instance './boxplorer animation-1.cfg'.

I have Windows always open .cfg files with boxplorer.exe, makes for easy clicking around 

SPACE makes a keyframe at current view.
Hit the HOME key to start animation (speed depends on your computer..). TAB or END to stop animating.
Move around with WASD+mouse. Quit with 2x ESC.

To render flight sequence to disk, 'boxplorer bulb.cfg --render'. Writes bunch of .tga files to ./bulb.cfg.data/.

Best with up-to-date graphics card _and_ drivers  . I run it on a ATI 5850 these days.

-marius

[marius]

Another Menger I've mistakenly posted this shader (in fact, I've corrected some things meanwhile) in another thread yesterday  .
Suggestion for the HUD: Anttweakbar.

Added interlaced stereoscopic output for a Zalman display. Playing with that and this blended menger shader is endless fun, nice & speedy!
Getting 30 fps at 1920x1080, perfect for getting spiked out of the screen in realtime