Shaper 1.03

I recently released version 1.03 of the 3D modelling, texturing and animation package I have been developing entitled Shaper. It is available here.

More information on Shaper can be found here.

I am always very interested to hear any feedback anyone has.

Here is what has changed since the last version.

New Features
- Torque detail levels are supported
- user is given option to import to a new scene or the existing scene

Bugs
- fixed occasional numerical inaccuracy when exporting DirectX files
- fixed Torque files exported from Tool Panel not having file extension applied
- fixed Torque animation import not working
- various other fixes

Feature Changes
- hidden groups are indicated on the groups list
- lighter weight widgets are used instead of table widgets
- engine pack API is vastly improved
- various other optimizations

The big change is the addition of Torque LOD support.


When I started doing this change it quickly became clear that I was going to have to bite the bullet and rewrite the Shaper Engine Pack API. There was no concept of a "property" which is effectively what Torque LOD is to Shaper. This meant that adding Torque LOD would be extremely fiddly. Setting and updating the LOD value would have to be done manually by the engine pack. Saving and loading the LOD value would also have to be done manually.

Fast forward one month.

Now the Shaper Engine Pack API knows all about properties. Adding Torque LOD involves simply telling Shaper about the additional LOD property on all meshes. Shaper does all the fiddly stuff.

This change meant a lot of existing code could be culled which was very nice.

I have been contemplating adding a "View in Game" tool to the Torque Engine Pack. This tool would export the existing model to Torque and then automatically start Torque to show the scene in game. This would make it very easy to see how changes within Shaper are reflected on the game - "1 Click Export". I would be interested to hear if people think this would be useful.

Thanks