Software Requirements Features
Attributes API Library
Animation and Ray-Tracing
Demos! Source Code

3D Modeling Software for the Average User!

Read/Write These 3D File Formats:

Inventor, RIB, VRML, QuickModel, POVRay, DXF

Requirements

ESP Modeler requires IRIX^TM 5.2 or higher for proper operation. A minimum of 32Mb RAM is recommended.

ESP Modeler provides all the tools for generating basic geometric shapes, surfaces of revolution, patches, and extruded surfaces. Controls are provided to alter the color and material properties of an object down to the vertex level. The color controls provide an intuitive color mixing palette as well as standard red, green, and blue intensity sliders. Transparency effects can be achieved by altering the alpha intensity.

Any number of edit windows may be open at once, each displaying a different view or area of interest as necessary. Objects in a model can be hidden to simplify selection and editing.

Different levels of detail (LODs) are automatically generated for each object in a model. LODs may be altered for each object to reduce the number of unnecessary components in simpler LODs.

Import and export facilities are provided for Inventor, DXF, QuickModel, Powertrace, Pixar© RenderMan, and VRML file formats, allowing for nearly transparent modeling for many different programs.

Attributes

ESP Modeler provides the following display attributes for each object in a model:

Level of detail
Color per object or per vertex
Lighting per object or per vertex
Material per object or per vertex
Texture per object or per vertex
Hidden surface removal options
Transparency per object or per vertex
Bounding volume for culling

Programmer's Interface

The ESP Modeler API provides an ANSI C/C++ interface for reading, writing, manipulating, and displaying models in ESP Modeler format. The Modeler format is a machine-independent polygon-based file format that supports multiple LODs. Model files are accessed using simple open, read, write, and close functions.

Animation and Ray-Tracing

Animation and ray-tracing are not supported directly at this time. You can, however, export models and scenes to a format supported by various ray-tracing programs. The SGI IndiZone^TM CD-ROMs contain a ray-tracing program called powertrace that can be used to produce high quality still images and animations like the one on the right.

Demos!

ESP Modeler includes several demonstration programs. One is a simple model viewing program that shows how to 'fly' through a scene using the ESP Modeler API.

Another is a Star Trek®-like game with ships, planets, and nebulae.

Source Code

Source code is provided for the ESP Modeler API and demonstration programs. This allows for cross-platform development of Modeler-based applications.