blender use in simulation apps.

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

Hi All,

I have got a great job - working with virtual reality, creating simulators, etc…(also thanked to Blender). And because of Blender is such a good tool :yes: I was wondering if I can introduce Blender to new company not only as a modeling tool. So the questions are:

  • has anybody ever used Blender in simulator/simulation project?
  • I’m not Blenders game engine expert but is it possible to somehowe use it? (if we consider real time interaction, speed, etc.).
    thanks…
2

answers to your questions:

  1. yes. As far as I know blender has been used in many simulation projects, like various robot simulations and control, physic simulations, fish simulations,…one example is here: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=139557

2)yes. The bullet physics library is developed by a paid coder and has a very high standard/speed. Although - it is a game physics engine, so if you are going for some very exact results/simulations, you’d have to plug in it your own code, there are 3 ways to do it: python, plugin, hack the source.

good luck!
By the way, in which company do you work? Your name sounds quite czech…:slight_smile:

3

I have found that the blender dynamics system fails on more complex objects.

I am presently stuck on a project because Blender can not simulate the simple act of the parts of my helicopter falling to the ground. Record to IPO has a major bug in version 2.48.

Just my personal experience with the system.

4

Atom, has that bug been reported ?

5

thanks for answers. One more ‘really low’ question:

If we would have two games/simulators one written in openGL and one in Blender Game Engine (completely the same), what would be the differences? I’m thinking mostly about performance, possibility to easy modify the code/application, etc…

6

Interesting.

Ive used Blender for simulations before, it really depends on what u want to do, but its very flexible and user friendly, so u could pretty much do anything.

Can i ask what kinds of simulations your looking at doing??

7

well, the company is making flight simulators. They work with openGL so I was just thinking that what difference it will be between openGL and Blender Game Engine.

8

Ok well i dont know much at all about OpenGL so i cant comment on how they compare.

But if you know how to code or have coders who are decent then the BGE could definetly do the job.

9

There are several people using Blender for VR/sim projects. Check this for an example: http://www.metavr.com/products/vrsg/vrsg-characteranimation.html

10

thanks…I have checked the web page and it looks that they use blender only for modeling. For the animation/simulation/game I think they use DirectX