Thoughts and ramblings

Wow…it’s really been a while since I’ve updated. Time just slipped away it seems. I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately which probably explains it. Finally got the DVD set released for Siggraph of this year, so I’ve been reading a lot of the papers, and there are many interesting ones. The only thing is that reading one paper usually results in the reading of 10 other papers that it references, so it can become quite time consuming. Most interesting for me are the papers on fluid dynamics, image processing, and rigid dynamics. Once the engine I’m working on is finished I should have a nice framework for doing tests and implementing some of the algorithms.

Have been working steadily on the engine, but got distracted yesterday to make a plug-in for Houdini. Got it finished up today. It’s perhaps the simplest plug-in I’ve made it a long time, but it was fun and a nice break from the other stuff. One of the problems with Houdini is their layout algorithm is a bit…primitive. So, the plug-in adds a new command to Houdini that uses GraphViz to layout the nodes. It does a MUCH better job than the built-in algorithms. This can be really helpful if you have a complex network and Houdini refuses to give you a good layout.

Well, I’ve been persuaded by some friends to make a demo or two with the render engine so that I can have something to show, so I’m switching gears a little bit to work on that. Shouldn’t take too long, and it’ll be good to have something concrete to demo the engine with.

That’s all for now. Hope you all have a great weekend!