[Bf-committers] Re: motion capture blender

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi Matthias,

If you are interested to help on making mocap recording with Blender  
possible, you are of course more than welcome. I'm pretty sure most -  
if not all - of the API support you need is already possible with  
Python now. We then can offer such a bundle for download, with a nice  
instruction page on blender3d.org of course.

The advantage of choosing Python is also you might find easy help for  
developing it, there are quite a lot of experienced scripters out  
there. :)

-Ton-

On 24 Dec, 2004, at 0:29, Matthias for Blender wrote:

>
> Point taken. I herewith put my previously published code regarding  
> Motion Capture under GPL license. Enjoy ;-) . The times where  
> Quaternions were magic that need to be hidden from the competitor are  
> long over :-P .
>
> The fundamental difference between using MoCap device support and  
> importing MoCap data files is the possibility of realtime  
> visualization of the MoCap session, possibly even live recording.
>
> Although I did not read myself into the details of Blender, I assumed  
> that Blender allows this kind of live rendering and recording, either  
> through the animation editor, or through its gme engine. Am I right?
>
> Importing MoCap files is nice, but you still need a $6000 software  
> (kaydara products, for example (now Alias)) on top of your $10000  
> hardware to record the initial motion.
>
> Matthias
>
>
> On Dec 23, 2004, at 11:07 AM, Jean-Michel Smith wrote:
>
>> Regarding licensing:
>>
>> On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 16:22:20 -0500, Matthias for Blender
>> <blender3d at matthiasm.com> wrote:
>>> Anyway, I hope the code helps somewhat. I'll be happy to officially
>>> LGPL it, with the limitation to Blender and directly derived work
>>> though (which would not harm any other part of Blender, the GPL or
>>> LGPL).
>>
>> The GPL explicitly forbids ADDING restrictions, so by adding a clause
>> "GPLed only for blender and direct derivatives" you actually VIOLATE
>> the GPL (see fsf.org for details on this).
>>
>> I gather you don't want your code falling into a competitor's hands.
>> If you're concerned about a competitor using or releasing competing
>> free software, the GPL offers you some protection in that it insures
>> that said work must be freely available under its terms (which means
>> you can borrow from your competitor's contributions as well), but it
>> doesn't prevent your competitor from using the code at all.  If you're
>> concerned about a competitor (or someone else) taking your code and
>> using it in a proprietary program, the GPL offers excellent protection
>> here, while the LGPL offers quite a bit less protection (it is more
>> akin to a FreeBSD style license in many respects, which is why Richard
>> Stallman, author of both licenses, discourages its use except in
>> specific instances).
>>
>> I don't know how this integrates with Blender's licensing.  You could
>> dual license under the Blender license (this gives blender.org leeway
>> to use the code in BLENDER-only value added packages I think) and the
>> GPL.   You won't be able to restrict it to blender and blender-only
>> derivatives, but you will restrict it to Free Software projects only
>> ... which goes a long way toward what I *think* you're trying to do,
>> without violating the license your trying to use ;-).
>>
>> Of course, by GPLing it you can still sell your code under different
>> licensing terms, as you do retain full copyright on it.  The only
>> thing you can't do is "un-GPL" it later.
>>
>> Hope this helps to clarify things somewhat ... I'd get in touch with
>> the folks at fsf.org if you really want to dig into the details.
>>
>> BTW - I agree adding support for such a tool can only be a good thing
>> for the blender community, so I'm obviuosly hopoing you'll GPL the
>> code (though of course I do not have said software in my basement
>> either, so I won't be one to benefit from it directly).
>>
>> good luck with whatever you choose to do!
>>
>> Jean
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>
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------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton at blender.org  
http://www.blender.org