Category Archives: Engine Development

I’ve been adding support for some new high dynamic range (HDR) pixel formats to the engine.  I added a 32-bit per-pixel integer format (A32B32G32R32) that can be used with OpenEXR images.  The image processing library in the engine can be used to … Continue reading →

I updated all of the external codec (compression/decompression) libraries that are used by the Orion Engine.  This includes: zlib, LibTIFF, libpng and OpenEXR.  I’m glad I updated them.  As it turns out, the old code that I was using had quite a few known … Continue reading →

I’ve been working out some bugs that were related to the loading and saving of effect files.  I have to admit, when I was working on the effect system I didn’t do a lot of testing with file saving and loading.  However, I think … Continue reading →

The exporter can now export skinning information created using the Physique modifier in 3ds Max.  A hierarchy of bones and/or a biped can be used to animate the mesh.  Both rigid vertex and blended rigid vertex types are supported.  The data is … Continue reading →

I’m just about finished adding “DirectX Shader” material support to my 3ds Max exporter plug-in.  All of the effect parameters that you specify in the rollout will get exported with the subsets of a mesh.  I had to add new … Continue reading →

I’m still updating the 3ds Max mesh file exporter that I use with the engine.  I already had a feature to export per-vertex diffuse colors, but now I also have a feature to export per-vertex shading and/or illumination colors.  Many … Continue reading →

I updated the Orion Engine 3ds Max exporter plug-in to work with 3ds Max 2010 (R12).  There were some changes with how assets are enumerated, i.e. texture files, effect files, etc.  The latest changes were implemented as a conditional compilation, … Continue reading →

I need the procedurally generated mesh primitives in the engine to support shader effects.  For example, in the Orion Genesis material editor the basic primitives are used to preview the currently selected effect.  Well, in order to support effects that use texture maps, the primitives need to … Continue reading →

I always hate this time of the year, it seems to leave me in a depressed mood.  It’s when I have to give some of my money to the government.  Since I’m self-employed, I don’t get any money back — I didn’t … Continue reading →

What I thought were bugs in the effect system ended up just being incomplete code in the .fx file importer that I use with Orion Genesis.  I think the importer can now handle nearly any syntax and/or any expression encountered, the … Continue reading →