Currently, there isn't very much to Mare` Tracer. Hopefully, with future versions, Mare` Tracer will become more usable. I will put up the source code shortly.
What is Mare` Tracer?
Mare` Tracer is a GPL 3D Modeller and Renderer. There are many such applications
available as Open Source (or some similar license), and I believe it's safe to say that all are much better than this one.
Unfortunately most of these appliactions are designed for Linux, and are not available for Win32. Although the Open Source movement is not very
present for the Windows 95/NT platform, I don't believe it should be totally ignored. Hence, Mare Tracer will be
designed primarily for Windows 95/NT,
but will still be able to be run on Unix platforms via a Win32 emulator such as Wine.
I do intend to eventually port this to Linux, perhaps using CORBA as an object model.
Also, it should be noted that this application's primary purpose is education (mostly my own), not usability. This means that I shall strive to write clean and clear code so that others may learn from it. Steps will be taken to optimize code where doing so would not be at the expense of clarity. It is my hope that people studying a variety of topics will be able to learn both what to do and, more importantly, what NOT to do from reading this code. Some of the topics include:
What is the current version?
The current version of Mare` Tracer is 0.0.2. For more
information about this version look at the Readme file.
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For any comments, suggestions, or dating invitations (female only
please), send to: ophiuchus
What does Mare` Tracer look like?
Here are some screen shots:
Where can I get Mare` Tracer?
You can get it here:
What does COM have to do with anything?
Mare` Tracer is built from COM components. This allows the main functionality to be greatly extended
with little effort and without having to recompile with every additional feature.
For more information on the interfaces used by Mare` Tracer try the following links:
These interfaces are not finished by any means.
What does that name mean anyway?
Mare, pronounced mahray, is the latin word for sea and is commonly used to refer to
the basalt plains on the moon and Mars. Note that this has nothing to do with the Moonlight Creator,
in spite of the similarity of names.
What Extensions are complete?
None of the extensions are truly complete, but these are in working condition:
Primitives:
Infinite Plane
Sphere
Renderers:
Raytracer - Realistic (This renders all right, but is far from finished)
Wireframe - Realtime (This one still needs a bit of work as well)
Shaders:
Plastic - Model
Checker - Pattern
Fog - Atmosphere
Where do I learn how to do all this?
This is perhaps the most important question for the aspiring graphics programmer.
It certainly is the most important qusetion for me, and I'm an aspiring graphics programmer.
Here is a bibliography with some books I would highly recommend.
Look in my Links section for some good sources of information on the
good ol' WWW.
