Hi there,

i am thinking about how to improve the GUI of mprEdit. Currently I have the idea of a car/driver selector, which shows an image of the car with the according skin applied. However i do not want to integrate full 3D rendering in my app
So my question is: Has anybody done something like this before? Or any idea how to do it "the easy way"? I want to achieve a look like this:

(image from lfs.net)
But rendered "on-the-fly" with the skin that the current driver is using. I am not sure it is possible at all, but maybe someone has a great idea?

Easiest way to do it is to grab a 3D engine, like Irrlicht, convert the models to a usable format, and skin them on-the-fly as you say.

Irrlicht is a brilliant little engine, that exhibits great extensibility - but it should work straight out of the box for you

Quote from JamesF1 :

Easiest way to do it is to grab a 3D engine, like Irrlicht, convert the models to a usable format, and skin them on-the-fly as you say.

Irrlicht is a brilliant little engine, that exhibits great extensibility - but it should work straight out of the box for you

What languages does that work with? C++ and C++.Net? Im looking at the link and it seems pretty easy.

It'll work with C++ and .NET natively, it'll also work with Java, Ruby and many others using a simple wrapper.

Edit: Additionally, irrKlang (by the same guy(s)) is a good sound engine... and the whole thing integrates well with Newton.

I know that Becky tried this for the CTRA, however the server lacked a 3D-GFX card and so it couldn't work (although the code was written).

If you use the appropriate engine, you don't need a graphics card.

Infact theres nothing to say that you need any graphics card to render an image direct to disk.

Quote from JamesF1 :

It'll work with C++ and .NET natively, it'll also work with Java, Ruby and many others using a simple wrapper.

Edit: Additionally, irrKlang (by the same guy(s)) is a good sound engine... and the whole thing integrates well with Newton.

(Whilst not advised?) Would that work with C#?

Edit: Would appear not.

Quote from mcgas001 :

(Whilst not advised?) Would that work with C#?

Edit: Would appear not.

It all works with .NET framework, though not via the .NET API that Irrlicht originally had, but via another wrapper, I believe. Go search on the Irrlicht forums, it's in there somewhere.

Hmm... If i need to go the "real" 3D way: I am using QT for the GUI which has already built-in openGL support. Is there some sample code available anywhere how to load a car model and attach a skin using only openGL without any additional libraries?

I don't know, as I've not used QT before, sorry