Ageia PhysX integration into Coin3D

In the labratory course "Virtual and Augmented Reality" we developed a virtual Incredible Machine construction kit. You are able to define some objects and use them to design your own Incredible Machine. Ageia PhysX enabled us to make use of cool physical effects.



The application is based on the studierstube which uses the coin3d (open source implementation of the open inventor api) rendering engine.

Since we did not need every feature of PhysX and time was running out, the implementation is not complete. Although here is a small package with some sourcefiles and a description included.

Project Members:

• Anita Stritzelberger: Modelling & VR setup
• Felix Marchtrenker: Modelling & VR setup
  
• Michael Schwaerzler: Programming & VR setup
• Martin Knecht: PhysX integration & VR setup

Beamtrees

Beamtree is a small project done for the information visualization labratory course. Based on the paper "Beamtrees: Compact Visualization of Large Hierarchies" from Frank van Ham and J. van Wijk. Beamtrees are an enhancement of the well known Treemaps.

Our program is capable of displaying parts of a filesystem as a Beamtree.

The application is build on top of the Jungle Rumble 3D engine which lead to a very short development time.
We used the ray-cylinder intersection algorithm presented at www.geometrictools.com.

Project Members:

• Michael Schwaerzler: Programming
• Martin Knecht: Programming
  

Game: Jungle Rumble

The game Jungle Rumble is a clone of the Wuermer game. It was developed for the Gametools Project, which goal is to serve the european game industry with a leading edge 3D graphics library. Jungle Rumble should therefore demonstrate some effects in a real game environment.

Although it seems to be quite equal to Wuermer it's a total rewrite. We designed a 3D engine and build Jungle Rumble on top of it. For graphics output we used Direct3D. For physical support we integrated the Ageia PhysX engine.

You can control the nutshell by W, A, S, D and shoot by pressing the left mouse button. Choose your favourite weapon by pressing 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5!

The game shows two effects developed by GTP:

• An approximate raytrace effect which allows us to render objects with reflection and refraction in realtime

Conventional Environment map

GTP Raytrace Effects

• Depth imposters: They are used to omit artefacts when a particle intersects with other geometry.

Conventional Decal imposters

GTP Depth imposters

Technical Information:

• Written in C++
• Direct3D for graphics output
• FMOD for some sound
• PhysX from Ageia is used for everything that belongs to motion
  
• Customizeable particlesystem similar to that from Cinema4D
• Deformable Terrain
• Materialsystem
• Resourcemanagementsystem

Project Members:

• Martin Knecht: Design & Programming
• Michael Schwaerzler: Design & Programming
• Jakob Karaszek: Design & Art
• Markus Giegl: Gametools supervisor

zwischen Welten

In the labratory course "Multimedia I Productions" we had to make a film about the topic [an]other love story. Our contribution had the name "zwischen Welten". Hope you like it!



Project members:

• Pia Wender: Actress
• Andreas Bonner: Actor
• Elvis: The dog
• Anja Konlechner: Music
  
• Martina Berlinger: Script, Director and Cut
• Lea Zalto: Script, Director and Cut
• Wolfgang Knecht: Script, Director and Cut
• Martin Knecht: Script, Director and Cut

Game: Wuermer

The game Wuermer was programmed in about 4 month for the Computergraphics 2 laboratory course at the Technical University of Vienna. It's a small game where you are a worm, riding in a nutshell, trying to shoot your oponent.
It made along with the game The Wacky Professor the first place.



You can control the nutshell by W, A, S, D and shoot by pressing the left mouse button. Choose your favourite weapon by pressing 1, 2 or 3!

Technical Information:

• Written in C++
• OpenGL for graphics output
• GLUT Library
  
• FMOD for some sound
  
• ColDet for collision detection
• Customizeable particlesystem similar to that from Cinema4D
• Deformable Terrain
• Materialsystem
• Resourcemanagementsystem

Project Members:

• Martin Knecht: Programming & Modeldesign
  
• Michael Schwaerzler: Programming & Leveldesign
  
• Wolfgang Knecht: Modeldesign