f00Dave's viewtess.zip

[d.m.falk]

As I've said in the Off-Topic board, I'm back, and settled in on my "new" Mac, after transitioning from Windows ME. And one of the things I miss is what I think is the nicest-looking hypercube visualisations, one made as a simple OpenGL/GLUT demo, "ViewTess".

Therein lies my post here!

A few years back, f00Dave had several OpenGL programs he hosted on his site- At present, he no longer hosts them, and because of that, and the lack of information supplied in the zipfile for ViewTess, I couldn't verify what the status of the program, and its source code, were, and therefore until tonight, I wasn't sure I could share it publicly.

Until I emailed f00Dave via gmail to ask about it, and whether it's OK to port & modify it. He said I can, as he considers it in the public domain, although he admits he neglected to specificly express that in the archive. (It was on the now-long-since-gone page on his site.)

So with his permission, I have posted it here, on Keiji's InvHost site.

What's in it? The source code (made for Borland C++ Compilerr), the Windows executable (needs the GLUT DLL for Windows), and a keys.txt file that explains SOME of the keys. There are no menus, just the Windows titlebar.

It is, simply, a simple, but nice-looking tesseract viewer, with both wireframes and solid prism-like faces. It's the latter that makes it beautiful to look at! You can rotate the 'cube in all four dimensions, in either direction, and in relation to each other....without being too complicated for the non-mathematical (such as myself)-- It's pretty 4D eye candy.

OK, then, WHY am I sharing it? One, so that those who haven't seen it (on Windows, or on x86 Linus with Wine), and so others can see why I have liked this program for the last few years; and for another, I need help in porting to OSX (I'm not a programmer, so I'm dumbfounded at trying to convert a Borland-based C++ project to something that can compile on OSX) and expanding this program to include a few more dimensions and shapes, and add true menus, true fullscreen (like a similar program, Jenn 3D), something that could make it even a good "screensaver".

So, as much as I'd like to share this program, I'm asking for help in getting this compiled for (my) Mac. And I do have permission to do so, including hosting both versions. (I can forward his email on request- Just email me at "quozl1" at "earthlink" dot "net" for proof of his permission.)

I love tesseracts and other n-dimensional shapes as truly amazing, and surrealistic eye candy....

Now, if the 5D Rubik's Cube could get ported to OSX...or at least Java...

....Or a nice non-wireframe hyperdie.....

Enough for my rambling, for now.

d.m.f.

[Keiji]

I might try and port that to Linux tomorrow, since it's C++. Once I've done that, I'll give you some comments.

[d.m.falk]

Ah, great! Compiling should work from a Linux-based source in the Mac's terminal shell- I have Fink and GLUT already installed, since I had to compile Jenn, as I couldn't figure out how to get the precompiled Mac version to work. My luck with such things hasn't been good, but thanks to installing GLUT and libpng (through Fink), I was successful in compiling and running Jenn, and happily runs from the desktop as a terminal command.

(Now, if I could just compile a couple audio simulators, as I'm missing both audio.h and soundcard.h, but that's a discussion for Off-Topic, not here, being unrelated to hyperdimensional space....)

Clueless in C++, but thank goodness for makefiles...

d.m.f.

[Keiji]

Ah, great! Compiling should work from a Linux-based source in the Mac's terminal shell

Nah. When I said I would port it to Linux, I meant I would port it to run under the core which I'm using to test various parts of Fusion. Not that I'd be making it a standalone. I would if I could, but oh well.

[d.m.falk]

Ah...

d.m.f.

[pat]

Here is the source updated for use with both Windows and MacOSX. And, a compiled version for MacOSX.

There are some tweaks to it that will let it compile under MacOSX. At a MacOSX terminal prompt, type "make". (Assuming you have the developer tools installed.)

I didn't make much effort to let the Makefile also work on Linux. But, that shouldn't be hard. I'll tweak that later today.

[pat]

Okay, now I've got a Makefile and set of sources that seem to compile and work fine on Linux and MacOSX. Also included is a pre-compiled executable for MacOSX.

[d.m.falk]

Works great! Thank you!

Now the next thing to do is add some features that weren't in the original.... (Like...take it up to at least a 5-D hypercube as a menu option? At least this had a menu, where the original didn't!)

Man, this iMac may have the same processor speed, but this seems to run 3x faster...

So, now.. What shall we do with it, hmmm...

d.m.f.

[Keiji]

Okay, now I've got a Makefile and set of sources that seem to compile and work fine on Linux and MacOSX. Also included is a pre-compiled executable for MacOSX.

The link in your previous post doesn't work on Linux.

[d.m.falk]

If it's coming up 404ed, I've plopped the current version on Invhost, here. It's happily running at half-speed with transparency (alpha) set to about -50% (about 10 steps of the "[" key) without bothering anything.

I really did miss this after migrating from a 700MHz Dell WinME laptop (I have to use LCD screens, due to the condition of my eyes) to a 700MHz G4 iMac (needed especially for the boom the screen is on! ), currently running 10.4.8 with only 256 megs of RAM, and VLC Player, a memory hog, is running in the background, along with Ircle, Firefox and several clocks so...

d.m.f.

[Keiji]

If it's coming up 404ed

No, it won't compile, lol.

[pat]

Because you don't have GLUT, maybe? I had to install GLUT separately. (And, actually, I found the current GLUT download not to be so friendly about installing itself... so I had to actually copy the GLUT files into what I would assume is the right place based on experience from past versions of GLUT.)

My version of Linux is ancient so I probably can't just compile you a version and have it work on whatever version you're running. If you're desparate for a Linux version that works for you, make me an account on your machine and I'll get it compiled there.

Actually, looking around the web for info on how to use GLUT, it may be that glut.h is in /usr/X11R6/include or /usr/include or /usr/include/X11 instead of in /usr/X11R6/include/GL. That would be weird, but not impossible. Also, some variants of Linux may not keep this stuff in /usr/X11R6/include at all.

Here's a link about installing GLUT. I hope it installs "glut.h" into /usr/X11R6/include/GL/ or /usr/include/GL/.

[d.m.falk]

Huh, I used Fink to install GLUT when I compiled Jenn a few days ago, and that uses Debian packages....

d.m.f.

[pat]

Yes, d.m. I was talking to Keiji.

MacOSX comes with GLUT installed as a framework /System/Library/Frameworks/GLUT.framework/. For compiling on the Mac, I'm using that framework instead of the Fink one that would be in /sw/. I'm not exactly sure why Fink and DarwinPorts both seem to want install their own GLUT when there is already a good one on the Mac. *shrug* Maybe older versions of MacOSX didn't have GLUT or something.

[d.m.falk]

Yes, d.m. I was talking to Keiji.

I know that. I was referring to you, since you had to do it manually.

MacOSX comes with GLUT installed as a framework /System/Library/Frameworks/GLUT.framework/. For compiling on the Mac, I'm using that framework instead of the Fink one that would be in /sw/. I'm not exactly sure why Fink and DarwinPorts both seem to want install their own GLUT when there is already a good one on the Mac. *shrug* Maybe older versions of MacOSX didn't have GLUT or something.

I'm using 10.4.8, with X11 and Xcode Tools installed. All just installed over two weeks ago- The old iMac didn't come with 10.4.

I assumed that it had GLUT as well, or for that matter, a full compliment of common libraries, so when I tried to compile Jenn the first time, it failed miserably. So I downloaded Fink, and ran apt-get to get GLUT and libpng. Once I did that, and made another attempt, it compiled. It might be part of Xcode Tools, but it wasn't part of GCC from the Terminal. That's where having Fink helped.

Although I have about 30 years' experience with computers (including one of the very first school computers, a TRS-80 at my junior high school back in '79), I never got into them for programming- The most I've been able to work my brain around is Flash actionscript and almost created a BBS just using DOS Batch scripting about 15 years ago, but that's about it. Generally, I prefer to solve problems on ,y own without having to ask, if I can help it, especially considering the smart-aleck responses I'm used to getting from those who might know better about the subject in question, but not when it comes to dealing with those, like me, who may not have a clue how to resolve a problem.

While I thank you for making ViewTess Mac-compilable and compiling an executable for me, please understand I've not had a need for compiling anything until I moved from PC to Mac, after 16 years of being on PCs, or how to resolve a compile problem. I would've compiled it myself if I knew what to do, and I did try..

d.m.f.

[pat]

Ah... I had to install it manually on my Linux box because my Linux box is so out of date that the pre-compiled packages wouldn't do for me. Actually, I may have been able to dig up my original install disks and find an ancient version of GLUT that would have worked just fine. *shrug*

My point was... MacOSX 10.4 comes with GLUT installed (in /System/Library/Frameworks/GLUT.framework). Rather than use the GLUT already installed, the Fink folks decided to install their own (in /sw). Similarly, the DarwinPorts folks install their own (in /opt/local). I suppose they just decided that they didn't want to run into version conflicts or what-have-you. Also, the way that Fink and DarwinPorts install it is more like the way that code not specifically tailored for MacOSX expects it. The whole "frameworks" thing is unique to MacOSX (and NeXT). It'd be nice if someday GNU's configure would learn about "frameworks". *shrug*