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3D Rendering of Gaming Graphics

Posted by Zonk on from the i-want-a-tiny-dwarf-paladin-toy dept.

Raph Koster's ever-entertaining blog had a post yesterday about using OGLE to print 3D graphics, and other entertaining but questionable uses of technology. From the post: "OGLE: The OpenGLExtractor is a tool that lets you grab 3d data out of an OpenGL application and output it as models again. What does that mean? It means that someone with a 3d printer can get 3d statuettes of their Second Life character. They can send it off to be manufactured, if they like. It means that you can snag any 3d model you like out of someone else's game data, and insert it into your own 3d scene. So much for stealing textures... ;)"

7 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Seems like a nice tool by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I did not know 3D printers were around yet on consumer level: I really like the idea of some MMORPG-er being able to print his/her favorite char.

    People will use this to learn from the models they output, but it also makes stealing/copying of objects/characters much easier.

    1. Re:Seems like a nice tool by Tyler+Eaves · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Oh, they're quite "consumer" level. It's just that the "consumer" are industrial designers. The price is quite reasonable for what they do.

      --
      TODO: Something witty here...
    2. Re:Seems like a nice tool by Tlosk · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Depends I suppose on your precise defintion. Up until about 10 years ago or so would you consider photo development equipment to be consumer level? More expensive than most people would pay to buy one themselves, but almost everyone had no problem dropping their film off at a developers and paying a few bucks for the "use" of the equipment.

      Same here, lots of fabrication shops out there that you can send your data and they send you the object (most are not exclusive to this, just one of their many tools).

      And 10-15 years from now it wouldn't surprise me to be able to pick one of these up for a hundred bucks, just as you can now with digital photography and photo printers.

    3. Re:Seems like a nice tool by RealErmine · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How about Blizzard itself contracts a fabrication firm with 3D printer service and charges $20 (heck, $50-$75) to send you a stereolithograph of your personal character. You could paint it yourself or maybe have it hand painted for an extra charge. Of course, they already own the models, but I imagine it's easier to personalize them by simply grabbing the fully equipped character model straight out of the engine.

      Sounds like $$$ to me.

      --
      Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
  2. So... by argStyopa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who's going to start doing this for money?

    Looking at the sample shots of the WoW character, it's apparent that some of the gear is not translated? I wonder why? Also, I wonder how well it would translate non smooth-skinned characters (=Taurens).

    --
    -Styopa
  3. OGLE vs. Ogle by xitshsif · · Score: 2, Insightful

    OGLE: Acronym, all caps Ogle: Name, proper caps No ambiguity there. Definitely different pieces of software we're talking about.

  4. Recording games with this? by Max+Threshold · · Score: 3, Insightful
    How much does hooking these OpenGL calls cost in terms of game performance, and how big is the resulting data? If this could capture textures (which it currently can't), it seems like it would be a much better way to record video from games than the ubiquitous FRAPS, which eats up about 1GB per minute with its fast but inefficient codec.

    If you wanted to get really fancy, you could even run your capture through a raytracer or something that would render it in much greater detail than your machine is capable of in real time.