[Bf-committers] Fwd: [Bf-docboard] iPad/tablet

Alexandr Kuznetsov kuzsasha at gmail.com
Mon Aug 15 19:30:19 CEST 2011


Hi.

Small company called Autodesk released 123D sculpting app for iPad. After
trying out, I understood why they probably won’t have Maya/Max on iPad. 123D
is mostly unusable with current controls. Only thing a person can do is the
small changes to models.  The main problem is controller implementation.
Rotation gets in the way of sculpting. And zooming results in translation.
The app requires to use both hands which is not very convenient because then
iPad is flat on the table or on the laps. If we want to have Blender on
tablets, we should rethink gestures/control implementation so it would be
easy for a user to manipulate in 3D with two fingers on one hand plus maybe
a thumb on the other.

A month ago I looked into Android NDK. From what I can see, the major
problem is C++/Java communication.  The whole UI is in java, so every input
must be send from Java to C, which is not that hard. The harder part is to
callback from C to Java. Here we need someone who knows JNI well.

As for compiling part, Android NDK provides their own tool chain/compiler
which is derived from GCC, so it won’t be a bigger issue. On the other hand,
Android has limited support for C++ (but almost full for C). Plus pthread is
crippled so there won’t be any pthread_cancel() and some other functions.

OpenGL ES 2.0 is derived from OpenGL 2.0 so hopefully a couple wrapper
functions will solve absence of glBegin and some other functions.



Best Regards,

Alexander Kuznetsov


On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 6:16 AM, Ton Roosendaal <ton at blender.org> wrote:

> Hi Salvatore,
>
> Thanks for the update report, I forward this to the developer list
> instead.
>
> -Ton-
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org    www.blender.org
> Blender Institute   Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam   The Netherlands
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> > From: Salvatore Russo <russose at gmail.com>
> > Date: 12 August, 2011 22:36:27 GMT+02:00
> > To: Blender Documentation Project <bf-docboard at blender.org>
> > Subject: Re: [Bf-docboard] iPad/tablet
> > Reply-To: Blender Documentation Project <bf-docboard at blender.org>
> >
> > Hello,
> > I planned a long time ago to port my work on BlenderPocket for my
> > ipod and I gave up for many reasons:
> > 1) because of time constrains (Blenderpocket site is not really
> > maintain any more)
> > 2) because starting to work, I realized that the iOS world is really
> > closed (really!) and I had to do lot of tricks like jailbreak,
> > etc... and I imagined that very few people would do that for a
> > "proof of concept" like BlenderPocket
> > 3) the reason mentioned here with GPL
> > Few months ago, I bought an Archos 70IT, with Android. I will not be
> > able to invest the time to make Blender work on Android based on
> > BlenderPocket work. I am sure that it is not so complicated to do it
> > (I could help if someone is interesting in answering any question)
> > but my previous experience show that it is not "a couple of day of
> > work"... Android is mainly Java, there is a C/C++ compiler for
> > Android but I imagine that there will be some small difficulties,
> > all Blender library (especially Python) need to be compiled and
> > working... and my OpenGL wrapper for OpenGL ES would need some
> > rework... but again, if some people needs more detailed information,
> > feel free to ask or contact me on my website.
> > For the last information, I installed on my Archos 70IT linux
> > (debian ARM), "apt-get install blender" installed a crashing Blender
> > but I managed to compile it from my tablet and it works quite
> > well ;) Even if I have to admit that the capacitive touch screen is
> > not so easy to use as the stylus for the resistive screen. I am sure
> > that the 2.5 UI fully customizable thanks to Python can make easily
> > a "finder touch Interface".
> > If some people are interested by the "ARM Blender Package working",
> > you can find the package (and the compilation settings) here:
> > http://russose.free.fr/GEN8/
> > (I will update my Website is some other people are interested, who
> > knows...)
> > Sorry for this long post,
> >
> > Salvatore
> > http://russose.free.fr/BlenderPocket/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 2011/8/12 Juan Dario Rodas M. <jdrodas at yahoo.com>
> > Hi Willie, Hi everybody!
> >
> > For a better understanting of the situation between GPL and Apple
> > ToS for applications, let me recommend you these posts (yeah, I
> > Know, they're long and boring but worth the reading):
> >
> > Apple's ToS for Apps:
> > http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html#APPS
> >
> > A "Deepful" analysis of GPL vs Apple's ToS:
> >
> http://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/vlc-devel/2010-November/077486.html
> >
> > To make things short, Under ToS, Free App is only for personal
> > noncommercial use and you can only share it on five iTunes
> > authorized computers.
> >
> > Under GPLv2, once you have been granted license rights, you may not
> > impose further restrictions on the recipient's license rights.
> >
> > Since Apple ToS is restricting you to use a GPL software just to
> > personal noncomercial use, there's a conflict. Since you can only
> > share it to your five iTunes authorized devices, there's a conflict.
> >
> > One of the most noticed cases was the VLC Media Player:
> >
> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/no-gpl-apps-for-apples-app-store/8046
> >
> > Workarounds:
> >
> > 1. Since the blend files are outputs from the program, they're not
> > covered under GPL Terms. You might write a "GPL free" app ( what an
> > insanity!!!)  to manipulate the Blend file and license it according
> > Apple's ToS.
> >
> > 2. Like Tony said, Change your tablet for something else that truly
> > support GPL apps. Android is the first option, not to mention HP
> > WebOS or some old fashioned Windows/Linux Tablet.
> >
> > Hope this might help!
> >
> > Greetings from Colombia!
> >
> > Juan Dario Rodas (JuanD)
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Bf-docboard at blender.org
> > http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-docboard
> >
> >
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