Developing a gui + plugin based framework for Cinder

in Developing Cinder • 9 years ago

Hi all,

I've been working on a tool + framework for creating computer animations and/or virtual environments with. Currently I am using a graphics rendering engine which is too much of a game engine, which is not what I need. Therefor I was considering switching to a different rendering engine that is more geared towards 'creative programming', and I've been eyeballing cinder for a while now. Before I switch over I have some questions that some of you may be able to answer:

I saw that Cinder compiles as a static library. Does Cinder support loading dynamic libraries (plugins) containing effect code during runtime?
Would there be anything in its architecture that prevents adding in these features? Has anyone tried doing this?
Is it possible to configure Cinder to compile without certain components (such as Quicktime) ?
Is it possible to have multiple Cinder (render) windows active at the same time ?

Here is a brief overview of what I have / plan to do: I have created a tool (Qt) and a framework (c++) that you can use to compose and configure animations or virtual environments with. There is a separate player (does not use Qt) that just loads and plays back a saved animation file.

The tool supports:

Timeline based compositing: allows you to put effects on different layers on a timeline
Node based compositing: allows you to construct effects from simpler building blocks
Parameter editing: edit parameters from effects / nodes
Parameter animation: construct curves to animate numerical / color parameters
Shader editor: supports syntax highlighting for cg/hlsl/glsl
Texture browser
Real time preview
Save/Load compositions in xml format
Both the framework and tool are 'more or less' platform independent, the following libraries are required: Qt, boost... and that's it (I think). Other libraries that are currently in use would get stripped out of the framework or replaced with Cinder's building blocks (e.g. xml, audio)

There are some other features that are more specific for the graphics engine that is currently used. From what I understand it is relatively easy to integrate Cinder with the features listed above. It is my intention to eventually release an SDK for developing effects (plugins) for the tool. I may release the tool as open source- have not decided on that yet.

However, before I start working on integrating Cinder, I'd like to figure out more about what I am getting in to.

Here are some screenshots showing the listed features:

And for the shader editor (note that the visual changes in how the gui looks are accomplished by changing some definitions in a css (cascading style sheet) file :

Many more screenshots here [blogspot.com]

Any thoughts?

-- Sacha

Replies(6)

eight_io

Re: Developing a gui + plugin based framework for Cinder

9 years ago

Good idea. I actually built a prototype of a somewhat similar thing, but using a language oriented approach - that is I am starting with a schema definition of a visual language (to be exact, a domain specific visual language), which then guides the generated executable engine and a generated visual editor. Cinder per se is a suitable framework for this task.

--8

omnime

Re: Developing a gui + plugin based framework for Cinder

9 years ago

I must admit I am very tempted to just 'go for it'. If Cinder does not support a feature, I can always implement it myself (I know my way around C++ and I've also worked on 3d / multimedia engines before). But it would be nice if someone from the Cinder team could give me a heads up on the questions I posted :-)

- Sacha

andrewfb

Re: Developing a gui + plugin based framework for Cinder

9 years ago

Hi -

I saw that Cinder compiles as a static library. Does Cinder support loading dynamic libraries (plugins) containing effect code during runtime?

Yes. While Cinder doesn't directly enable this, you can definitely do it. You'll have to get familiar with your platform's dynamic loading functionality though. Judging from your screenshots, that's probably going to be LoadLibrary() in your case.

Would there be anything in its architecture that prevents adding in these features? Has anyone tried doing this?

Nothing in Cinder would prevent this.

Is it possible to configure Cinder to compile without certain components (such as Quicktime)?

It is. In fact on Windows, any app that doesn't use QuickTime simply doesn't link against any of the libraries. We try pretty hard to keep Cinder modular in that way.

Is it possible to have multiple Cinder (render) windows active at the same time ?

Unfortunately not yet, though with a bit of hacking on the ci::app:: stuff it is doable. I have done it and I know at least a couple of other people have too. It's high on the to-do list, but probably won't be ready for your project.

Let us know if there's anything else, and keep us posted on your progress... sounds like it could be a pretty cool project.

-Andrew

omnime

Re: Developing a gui + plugin based framework for Cinder

9 years ago

Andrew,

Thanks for your response.

I am familiar with Windows development and how to load dynamic libraries during runtime, but recently I've made my tool and framework compatible with Mac OSX. My main development machine is a macbook pro. I use CMake to generate build environments, and there is very little platform specific code in my tool + framework, so it should be possible to compile it on other platforms as well (that is, if Cinder allows it).

It is. In fact on Windows, any app that doesn't use QuickTime simply doesn't link against any of the libraries. We try pretty hard to keep Cinder modular in that way.

I was not able to compile Cinder without downloading the Quicktime SDK for both Windows and Mac OSX and making sure that it was in the right folder for Cinder's build environment to find. From my own experience, and from what I read in other posts in this forum, Cinder may also benefit from using CMake to configure and generate build environments. Having done this for my own project recently, it would take about 3 fulltime days to do for an experienced programmer who does not know anything about CMake.

I only possibly would need this in my tool. I assume that I can have multiple opengl based Qt widgets, and just call Cinder's functions to draw content in each of them.

The standalone 'player' that loads and plays back previously saved (interactive) animations, for now, would only need one render window. Initially there is no need for me to hack ci::app:: stuff. However I may need the ability to connect to a head mounted display, and render content for the left and right eye separately. When the time comes, I can always extend Cinder myself (and submit it as a patch ofcourse :-)

I will try to get a 'hello, Cinder' version of my tool up and running (on Windows and Mac OSX) and convert one or two Cinder samples into Nodes / Effects. I will post back here with my results. Since (as of today) I am quite busy, I think it will take me two or three weeks to get something up and running.

-Sacha

eight_io

Re: Re: Developing a gui + plugin based framework for Cinder

9 years ago

Hey Sacha,

Could you post the makefiles you are generating in CMake? I am trying to build a self-contained shared (or static) library, including cinder and cinder block libraries, and somehow fail (see this post for details: http://forum.libcinder.org/#Topic/23286000000912015).

Thanks.

--8