Posted by
Ken Hawkins-2 on
Feb 25, 2008; 9:14pm
URL: https://forum.world.st/Blender-for-Croquet-Other-or-better-options-tp128903p128921.html
As a prospective user of Croquet in an instructional context, I would
appreciate having content creation tools with an intuitive GUI control
system. I am not a coder, and the prospect of having to learn squeak
just to create content that is not highly technical in nature, is an
obstacle.
If Croquet could provide content creation management in a fashion
similar to website CMS's (a la moodle, Joomla, SimpleCMS, etc), where a
complete infrastructure can be built without having to resort to
hand-editing code, the user base would take a huge jump. I have seen the
videos on youtube, and that has lead me to investigate Croquet for
teaching distance ed. courses. I am also test-driving 2ndLife, but find
the graphic processing required would immediately exclude many potential
students in remote communities due to bandwidth requirements, as well as
needing up-to-date PCs.
I know this question may have been asked before, but please bear with
me. Has anyone considered some of the map creation tools from 3D game
vendors? The are already huge online communities building incredible
worlds using Unreal and quake editors, and I even watched for short
while a co-operative map building in a game called Sauerbraten
http://www.sauerbraten.org-no affiliation
>From the home page:
"Much like the original Cube, the aim of this game is not necessarily to
produce the most features & eyecandy possible, but rather to allow
map/geometry editing to be done dynamically in-game, to create fun
gameplay and an elegant engine"
I should point out that it is more than just maps, all the boxes,
chairs, tables, and other widgets are created with these built-in tools.
Many of the widgets can be animated, and made interactive.
Thanks and regards
Ken
On Tue, 2008-02-26 at 06:41 +1000, Eric Eisaman wrote:
> >What would be ideal is a in-world content creator. Then you'd also be
> >able to take advantage of the natural benefits of Croquet.
>
> I wholeheartedly agree with this assertion. There is no sense in
> developers/users slinking off to an isolated application corner on
> their own boxes to create content when a sufficiently capable
> alternative can be developed within Croquet itself. Isn't
> collaboration at the core of Croquet's mission? Wouldn't it be great
> for a consortium of 3D designers and clients to convene communicate
> and design in all within Croquet?
>
> Regards,
> Eric Eisaman
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 6:22 AM, Jeffrey McGrew
> <
[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> On Feb 24, 2008, at 8:19 AM, Aaron E. Walsh wrote:
>
> > With this in mind I'd welcome your thoughts on Blender as a
> content
> > authoring tool for Croquet. If you've used it, or currently
> do use
> > it, could you reply with some notes on how well (or not!)
> Blender
> > works for you when creating Croquet content (3D objects,
> avatars,
> > scenes/worlds, etc)?
>
>
> We use Blender in our CNC production company. While it has
> some
> strengths, and is impressively gaining new features all the
> time, it's
> really not meant for 'lay people'. Anyone with little prior 3D
> knowledge will find it very hard to use and learn.
>
> And honestly, many things Blender focuses on are useless for
> Croquet.
> For example, there is a lot of focus lately in the development
> of
> Blender on making impressive simulation tools. Like fluids,
> smoke, and
> even advanced cloth simulation is in the beta currently. Or in
> the
> multi-res subdivision modeling and sculpting. These tools
> aren't for
> low-poly avatar and scene modeling honestly, and will probably
> just
> confuse folks trying to use Blender, yet are becoming a pretty
> core
> element within it.
>
> What would be ideal is a in-world content creator. Then you'd
> also be
> able to take advantage of the natural benefits of Croquet. For
> example, having more than one person working on the same thing
> at the
> same time in Blender is complex-to-impossible depending on
> what you're
> trying to do. An in-world content creator would be a very
> impressive
> draw for Croquet in general IMHO.
>
> Jeffrey McGrew
> www.becausewecan.org
>