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August 26, 2005
Generating Font Outlines
As most folks know fonts and text display is very much an outline/path driven routine and as such one might want to use a particular font and instead of showing it as text, they might simply want the vector outline for a particular string. Well, another one of Director's hidden gems is the ability to do just that using font cast members and their undocumented (and therefore untested!) generateOutlines() method.
If you have a font cast member present in your movie you generate a vertex list defining the outlines of a specified string using that font. This capability is provided via the undocumented generateOutlines cast member method. With this command you provide the desired string and the vertex list is returned, that list can then be applied as you wish, but an obvious candidate is to apply that vertex list to a vector shape cast member. Here's how you do it:
1. In a Director movie, insert a font from your system. This can be done using Insert > Media Element > Font... Please note that when doing this choose the font you want to use in order to create the vector outline of your string.
2. Once you have your font cast member, just call generateOutlines() as a method of that member and provide the string whose outline is to be generated and returned:
tVertexList = member("MyFont*").generateOutlines("Some String")
Note: you must provide a valid string with at least one non-space character or else a script error will occur.
The generateOutlines() method returns a vertex list that can be used for whatever purpose you desire, one simple method of using this list is to apply it as the vertex list for a vector shape cast member. For example:
member("MyVectorShape").vertexList = member("MyFont*").generateOutlines("Some String")
Have fun!
Disclaimer: I make no guarantees regarding validity or usefullness of the information contained in this post. This feature was left as undocumented, and therefore unsupported on purpose, it either wasn't fully developed and/or it wasn't fully tested. I suggest that you utilize this technique in experimental movies due to the potential risks involved. There is no guarantee that this undocumented feature will survive from release to release. Use this technique at your own risk!
Posted by thiggins at 02:51 PM
August 08, 2005
2005 MAX Awards
Just in case folks haven't heard as of yet the doors are open for folks to submit for the 2005 MAX Awards:
Last year the Director/Shockwave set had a great candidate in the finals for Media, Entertainment and Gaming Experiences with Cowboys & Engines. Who's going to step up to the plate this year? Hopefully a number of you folks will submit as I've seen some impressive content this year. So folks, get to and submit your content today as submissions are only being accepted through September 9, 2005.
Good luck!
The the 2005 MAX Awards are obviously a part of the larger MAX 2005 event in general, please have a look around our site for more information about what you can expect this year in Anaheim, California.
Posted by thiggins at 03:49 PM
August 05, 2005
The simple way to make a 3D driving game, you CanDo it...
Developing a 3D game is undeniably difficult, often most people are either unable to do the modeling work required as they're a programmer and not an artist, or conversely they're a 3D artist but aren't familiar with how to code the necessary elements in a run-time engine like the Shockwave Player. For years folks have been working on ease of use technologies and recently I've spent some time looking at one in particular that's been created by the folks at CanDo Interactive.
The tool I'm referring to is their 3D Training Toolkit that is targeted at those new to developing 3D content, primarily via educational institutions. This toolkit allows a novice 3D artist and/or novice developer a chance to quickly create a 3D driving game and include within that the use of the Havok physics engine (rigid body dynamics only) to provide a quality driving experience. The idea is that one can go from modeling a very basic scene, through exporting to the W3D file format and on to playing a working 3D driving game in a matter of minutes as opposed to hours or days. Have a look for yourself and enjoy:
If you'd like to see some example levels built using this tool then have a look at these:
Example levels built using the 3D Training Toolkit
Have a look and enjoy, I think Mal and his cohorts of done a great job of making 3D a bit more accessible to artists and developers alike.
Edit: sorry this wasn't posted originally but I'd also like to alert folks to the fact that CanDo Interactive is also hosting a development contest to try and promote usage of their training toolkit, have a look:
3D Training Toolkit Competition (ends November 2005)
No purchase required and prizes are offered, good luck to all those that enter!
Posted by thiggins at 12:16 PM
August 02, 2005
INM's Impressario Project Contest
I'm here to help spread the word about Integration New Media's second running of their Impressario Project Contest. Impressario is a Xtra that extends Director or the Shockwave player to allow support for the use of PDF files and as such this is a contest in which folks are asked to showcase their talents and use of this capability. Here is the official announcement text from INM:
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In case you haven't already heard, Integration New Media has launched
their second annual INM's Impressario Project Contest, created to recognize the best and most innovative Director projects. This year, the contest is sponsored by Adobe and Macromedia.
There are some great prizes to be won, including Macromedia and Adobe
licenses. Entry deadline is September 2nd, 2005.
Visit http://www.INM.com/contest/impressario2005/ for contest details
and to enter!
Good Luck!
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As with the inagural contest I'm one of a panel of judges that will together decide the contest winners. Have a look at their site for more information about their Xtra and the contest.
Good luck to all those that submit!
Posted by thiggins at 01:27 PM
QuickTime 7 for Windows
Now that Apple has posted a beta release of their QuickTime 7 player for Windows a lot of folks are installing the new player to see what it has to offer. Unfortunately in doing that those users are rendering themselves unable to view QuickTime movies as part of Director-authored content. The trouble here is that our current QuickTime Asset Xtra fails to properly detect this latest QuickTime player release and as such prevents the loading and use of QuickTime media assets. At this time we believe that we've identified the underlying cause of this issue as a bug in the QuickTime Player code itself but are working with Apple in order to confirm that fact and to see what type of fix will be required as we would obviously like folks to be able to view and enjoy QuickTime media within Macromedia Director, its projectors and the Shockwave Player.
Please keep an eye on the following Tech Note in the Director Support Center as it will be updated when more information is available:
QuickTime 7 Support in Macromedia Director and the Shockwave Player
Note: please be careful and read the disclaimer provided by Apple with respect to installing the preview release of their player, it can be found in the lower-right corner of the QuickTime 7 player for Windows download page.
Posted by thiggins at 10:05 AM