“OpenMfx: An API for cross-software non-destructible mesh effects” by Michel
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Entry Number: 35
Title:
- OpenMfx: An API for cross-software non-destructible mesh effects
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Abstract:
Non-destructive operations are widely used in mesh-based 3D modeling to add procedural effects on top a coarse geometry while allowing it to remain editable. Common such operations include surface subdivision, beveling, repetition, boolean operations. Combined together as a stack or even as a direct acyclic graph, they are a very powerful tool to build parametric assets. Although this mechanism is present in many different 3D modeling suites (Maya, Houdini, Blender, Cinema4D, 3ds Max, etc.), it is not easy to share a parametric asset across them. Indeed, they do not all implement the exact same set of operations, and even when they do, there might be slight discrepancies in their behavior.We designed a plug-in API that enables one to have all supporting 3D modeling suites share the same implementation of a given non-destructive effect. It thus becomes possible to share scenes featuring non-destructive effect without having to destructively bake them.
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Acknowledgements:
We would like to thank Tomáš Karabela for the insightful discussions we had to shape this API and arbitrate between design choices.
