-Does Cinder have support for mobile devices, smartphones, or Android? Is it ever going to?
Instead of being forced to try and build from source, can someone please post the Android
libraries for immediate download and usage, please?
-Can I download precompiled 64 bit .dll files for Windows 7 and forward?
-Can I export various 3D objects that I have created in Blender 3D and load and display them
using Cinder? What file exxtention formats for 3D objects or models does the file loading
that comes with Cinder automatically support?
Hi,
for starters: Cinder targets developers with some experience building and compiling applications themselves and therefor there is a rather steep learning curve when you want to get into using it. To be honest, there is a distinct lack of documentation, but these forums serve to help you out with any question you may have, beginner level or advanced. It’s important to know that there is no commercial organisation behind Cinder and all of its development and the forums posts are done by volunteers of the open source community.
With that being said: Cinder runs happily on both iOS and Android. For iOS, it’s just a matter of using XCode to compile your application for the OpenGL ES 3.0 enabled iPad or iPhone. For Android, it is a bit more involved and since I haven’t tried it myself, I’ll let more knowledgeable people answer that question.
Cinder has always been compiled as a static library, which at the moment is the easiest way to use it. Fairly recently, the Debug_Shared and Release_Shared targets have been added, allowing you to compile and use Cinder as a DLL as well. I used Cinder that way in my last project and while it wasn’t hard to get it up and running, I’d recommend going for the static library approach until you have more experience working with Cinder. Precompiled binaries for that are in the packaged release builds.
Regarding 3D objects: Cinder only supports a subset of the Wavefront OBJ file format. This basically means you can only load a static mesh and support for materials is very limited. You’ll have to write your own shaders. There’s also no concept of lights, bones, animation etc. so you’ll have to add that yourself as well. Cinder is not an engine, but a framework. It comes packed with classes and functionality that allow you to build your own engine and it does a pretty good job at that, which is why so many creative coders use it for their professional work.
If you want to support other 3D file formats, however, you can e.g. use the Assimp library with Cinder. See this video for an example of Cinder working together with Assimp to load and play an FBX file.
If you have additional questions, ask away!
Paul
Regarding 3D objects: Cinder only supports a subset of the Wavefront OBJ file format.
This basically means you can only load a static mesh and support for materials is very limited.
Is .OBJ the only Blender 3D file format that Cinder supports, certainly among the Blender set of file format or exporting plugins? Does Cinder, on its own, know other Blender object export formats, without any more libraries?
You’ll have to write your own shaders.
However, can I avoid using shaders altogether, and approach and address matters easily without them, more after the nature of the Java 3D way of things?
OBJ is the only format supported by Cinder. Other formats will require additional libraries, like the aforementioned Assimp.
Cinder can provide a very basic shader with the following call:
auto shader = gl::getStockShader( gl::ShaderDef().lambert() );
Cinder is like a box of LEGO: you can build whatever it is you dream about, but it only provides the basic building blocks.
I recommend trying some of the samples to learn more. Or follow this tutorial.