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Author Topic: Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3  (Read 43373 times)

Medeksza

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« on: March 20, 2010, 11:39:23 am »
The Zabaware 3D character animation engine has been released under the GPL3 open source license at http://charengine.sourceforge.net/

I will make an announcement about it at the Chatbot 3.0 conference and hopefully get more developers and artists interested in contributing to the project.
Robert Medeksza

djkilla

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2010, 12:08:53 pm »
Is there any idea when an integrated engine is going to be launched with Ultra Hal? I was trying to get an idea if all of the Haptek work I am doing is going to be in vain anytime soon as I dont want to waste time if this new engine is soon to be implemented. tx!
 

djkilla

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2010, 10:06:46 am »
Convention came and went and we have no info?
 

freddy888

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« Reply #3 on: April 09, 2010, 10:41:54 am »
Any chance the WIKI over there will have something in it soon ?  I need something to get started on and there is no guidance yet.  Thanks :)

freddy888

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2010, 08:38:47 am »
bump

Medeksza

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2010, 09:35:29 am »
An overview of all the presentations at the conference along with pictures have been posted at:

http://alicebot.blogspot.com/2010/04/chatbots-30-presentations.html

Videos of the actual presentations will be posted soon (With a demo of the Zabaware character engine). A simplified version of my presentation (without video demos) is posted at http://www.zabaware.com/chatbotpres/chatbot3.0_files/v3_document.htm

The character engine is in a working state, still its just a lack of characters thats preventing its release with Ultra Hal. I found an inexpensive solution that I am looking into right now at www.turbosquid.com  I can buy characters for about $700 or so and just pay an artist to do some minor modifications to work in our engine. The only stipulation required by them is I will have to use a non-user editable format to use these characters according to their license, which goes against the open nature I am trying to make the character engine.

I was thinking of using this character to start http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/448779 Let me know what you guys think, is there a different character on that site you may prefer. Characters need to be rigged with visemes and animations built-in to make it usable for me.
Robert Medeksza

lightspeed

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« Reply #6 on: April 11, 2010, 09:55:39 am »
Medeksza i e mailed you at zabaware e mail address about something . you do still get e mail at that address don't you?[:)]
 

freddy888

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« Reply #7 on: April 11, 2010, 10:22:37 am »
quote:
The only stipulation required by them is I will have to use a non-user editable format to use these characters according to their license, which goes against the open nature I am trying to make the character engine.


It's a nice model but if I can't modify it then I am not interested myself.  I am sure people would want to skin it and do all of the kinds of things that we could do with Haptek.  I do think it is great you want this to be open source.

If you could provide some guidance on what we actually need to do to make characters and how we need them to be arranged then maybe you would get some interest.  It's nice that the engine is working but without any instructions it's just another program that I know nothing about to me.  More information is needed imho - it's just a case of where do we start...or are you only wanting this to be developed by people already in the know ?  That's fine if that is the case I guess, maybe we could join in later in the game then ?

Cheers [8D]

P.S. I will hunt around for some other characters in the meantime.  [:)]
« Last Edit: April 11, 2010, 10:39:26 am by freddy888 »

djkilla

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« Reply #8 on: April 11, 2010, 10:42:25 am »
WOW, that is pretty impressive! Have you seen her in action in any way? If there were a way to purchase some basic control features I would run with that one!
D
 

lightspeed

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« Reply #9 on: April 11, 2010, 11:38:24 am »
i totally agree with freddy888 , we would need something that is simpler and with instructions otherwise it isn't of much use , case and point the the people putty is fairly easy to use and grasp on doing creative things . not many could afford the 400 dollars for fixed bodies .
 

GT40

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« Reply #10 on: April 11, 2010, 11:43:34 am »

If the next Hal is that Amy, I will have a lot of (unpublishable) things to teach her. [:p]

Time to waste with skits, bots & other useless things? Why not visit
http://gt40.chez-alice.fr/Haptek/MyBots.htm ? Oops, sorry, a museum!

lightspeed

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« Reply #11 on: April 11, 2010, 12:33:59 pm »
i forgot to answer your question robert which was : I was thinking of using this character to start .


yes i like that character the looks are better to me than the others i have seen .
another nice choice would be amber at this link . to me she has the "most"  beautiful face and actually even more realistic because the lips don't look as cartoonish like the others.
http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm?id=313948
others can compare the two and see what they think . [:)]
 

Medeksza

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« Reply #12 on: April 11, 2010, 03:40:02 pm »
quote:
Originally posted by lightspeed

i forgot to answer your question robert which was : I was thinking of using this character to start .


yes i like that character the looks are better to me than the others i have seen .
another nice choice would be amber at this link . to me she has the "most"  beautiful face and actually even more realistic because the lips don't look as cartoonish like the others.
http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm?id=313948
others can compare the two and see what they think . [:)]




Unfortunately this character is not rigged or animated so it wouldn't work without a lot of extra work.

I will contact the authors to see if allowing my customers to at least change the textures on the character could be allowed according to their license, if so I will definitively make that customization available. And to clarify the $700 price tag is the price I would pay to get to include the character in my product royalty free, not the price Zabaware customers would pay.

Documentation will be made at some point. As of now I am not sure of all the steps an artist needs to go through to make the character work in the Zabaware engine. I will have to pay an artist I've already worked with to write documentation and a simple tutorial.
Robert Medeksza

freddy888

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« Reply #13 on: April 11, 2010, 05:00:25 pm »
I feel I must eat my words Rob. I went to have another look at that model you linked to above and it has some inbuilt variations. So I am thinking maybe we could tap into that or at least you could.  I change my mind - if that's the way you want to go to start with then I feel that is a great looking option.

Thanks for asking the authors about allowing us to change the textures.  If you can arrange that then I think you are on to a winner.

Also thanks for clarifying the position on the documentation, I wasn't sure how much of it you did yourself so had no idea you couldn't personally provide the docs.  I hope that it isn't too costly to get those written, but they could reward you well if enough people get interested.
« Last Edit: April 11, 2010, 05:14:02 pm by freddy888 »

djkilla

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Zabaware 3D Character Engine released under GPL3
« Reply #14 on: April 11, 2010, 08:01:07 pm »
If it helps to commit to a "character add on" in order to determine
whether to pull the trigger on the model then put me down.
I'd say if 15 of us can commit to a $25-35$ tag initially, it would take the sting out of the customizing costs.
D
« Last Edit: April 11, 2010, 11:37:39 pm by djkilla »