Limitations
Our parser loads almost all BVH files, including one file with over 16000 frames. However, on a select few files it hangs. We believe it hangs while parsing the top topology portion of the file. With some further debugging we can fix this.
Basic Requirements
Our program can…
1. Read BVH files
2. Play the motions at the correct frame rate
3. Scrub through motions at arbitrary speed
4. Pause playback
5. Write motions back out (uses Euler angles only at this point)
6. Crop motions
7. Concatenate motions with optional blended overlap (see blending below)
8. View the motion via arc ball camera (i.e., user can interactively look around the 3D world).
9. Display traces at end effectors; we can turn these traces on and off and specify their length.
10. Show a ground plane.
Bonus Features
1. We use quaternions for rotations and blending
2. We implemented a simple scripting language that includes four operations: load, write, crop, and concat. We will add more operations for Project 3. The scripts can be modified and loaded at run-time.
3. We have a console that displays informative messages.
4. We use spheres and cylinders to draw the joints and limbs, and the sizes can be changed at run-time using sliders.
5. We spent time improving the visual appeal of the interface and 3D environment, including drop shadows and a color scheme Martha Stewart would be proud of.
Outside Resources
1. Used quaternion data structures from programmerheaven.com
2. We used FLTK and OpenGL.
3. OpenGL Programming Guide (book).
4. Real-time Rendering (book).
How to Use
Our GUI is self-explanatory. We include a separate button to load our scripts. The scripting language includes four operations:
load <filename> <out var>
write <in var> <filename>
crop <in var> <start frame> <end frame> <out var>
concat <in var1> <in var2> <overlap> <out var>
where <* var> is limited to the letters A through Z.
Screenshots
Other Group Assessment
We weren't very rigorous in our assessment of other people's projects, unfortunately. Our comments are therefore not as extensive as we would like.
Eric, Blayne -- We believe they have everything working except for quaternions, so that would probably need to be implemented before starting Project 3. The camera operation is also a little cumbersome.
Betsy, Yang, Mik -- They implemented lots of impressive features, and their GUI is very advanced, which suggests that they have lots to work with for Project 3, but Mik has indicated that the code is messy. Their parser was able to open the BVH file from doom, and that is very nice.
Dan, John, Adrian -- We didn't get a clear sense of what worked and what didn't.
Jeff, Will, Ryan -- We didn't get to see their project much, but they had problems with some motions, so that would need to be fixed before Project 3. Quaternions still need to be implemented.
Cory, Alex, Tom -- They successfully incorporated quaternions into their project.
