|
11-29-01
REALbasic 3D Photo Gallery - Part 1 by
Erick Tejkowsi
This week, we begin Part 1 of a two part tutorial to create a 3D Photo Gallery with REALbasic. The end result
will allow you to "walk" through an imaginary room and view a collection of photographs hanging on the imaginary walls.
Background
We are not going to concern ourselves with code this week. Instead, we will go through the steps to prepare the graphics and 3D components for next week.
Photos First
Since the main idea behind this tutorial is to create a photo gallery, it would make sense that we will need a set of photos. For
the online example, we will be using photos of the beloved ResEx crew, but feel free to use which photographs you wish.
To make your life easier, resize the photos to identical sizes. For example, our ResEx photographs have been resized to a dimension of 100x100 pixels.
Just to add a little pizazz, I also created a "frame" for each picture. When we add these photos to the project, they will instantly gain
3D properties. Just to give you an idea of how the images will be displayed, the final 3D product will something like this:
3D Models
In addition to photographs, we can also display 3D models in our scene. There are countless free models on the web. For our example, we want to use
models in the 3DMF format. Some places where you can find great 3D tools and models:
The only 3D model that we will require is a floor tile. It is simple to create one of these models with Mesh (listed above). Simply create
a cube with the following dimensions (x=50; y=5; z=50). This tutorial is not meant as a primer to 3D app use, so if this demand is over your head,
you'll be able to download a floor tile next week with the demo project. If you are a 3D whiz, feel free to put together some props for the photo gallery.
We'll look at how to add them to the gallery project next week.
Conclusion
Well, that's it for this week. Gather your photo gallery components and come prepared for 3D magic next week. 3D programming has never been easier than
with REALbasic. You'll be able to perform amazing feats with barely any code, so don't miss it. See you next week!
11-27-01
REALbasic News
by Erick Tejkowsi
Spruce up your Dock.
Stimpsoft has posted a followup to their popular Dock Jack-o-Lantern: Wreath in the Dock.
And, of course, its Made with REALbasic.
Sort like there's no tomorrow.
Charles Yeomans has updated his SortLibrary to version 1.4. SortLibrary
lets you sort data in a myriad of fashions using classic sorting routines.
NavDialog Plugin.
Alfred Van Hoek has announced the "Final Candidacy" of his popular NavDialog plugin for REALbasic. The plugin
gives you the opportunity to use navigation services in your own projects.
What's your Preferences?
CFPrefs is a REALbasic wrapper class for the Core Foundation
Preferences Services available under OS X (and back to OS 8.6 with
CarbonLib 1.1). Preference Services gives you a standardized method of
getting/setting your application's preferences data. Core Foundation
manages all file access for you, so you no longer need to create and
manage your own prefs file. All you have to do is store and read the
data in your app.
Office Automation.
MacWorld Magazine is running an article in its December 2001 issue about Mac OS X Office 2001. A portion of the
article is devoted to REALbasic's Office Automation features, written by yours truly.
Bundling?
Confused about bundling and how to use it with your RB apps? Then, don't miss this great tutorial
from Quantum Meruit.
|
Boot Panels
