| Submitted by , posted on 05 December 2002 |

Image Description, by Today we have a shot of Open Architect 3D. This particular shot has been shrunken from a much larger shot which can be viewed here. In it's purest form, OA3D is just an architecture (a sort of 3D operating system) for 3D tools. However, as you can see from the screenshot, it's more than just an architecture, because it can actually DO stuff. :)
What it can do, depends on the plugins that are written for it. I spent months at the design stage of this tool to ensure that a plugin can do just about anything it wants to. This includes the regular stuff we use today's high-end tools for (modelling, rendering, animation, character & facial animation, layout & level design, physics-based animation, etc.) but also includes the stuff that we'll want to do in the future; stuff that hasn't been invented yet.
This particular screen-shot shows off about 10 minutes of playing around in a level editor plugin I wrote for my clients (who also funded the development of this tool), nFusion Interactive. This level editing plugin is fully functional, quite powerful and took me less than 3 months to write. If you're in need of a level editor for your company, see the note below.
Plugin development goes so quickly because of OA3D's design. The plugin API doesn't get in your way or slow you down and it provides enough functionality to allow the plugins to focus on doing what they need to do -- getting the job done.
As an architecture, OA3D is reaching maturity. As a usable tool, OA3D is in its infancy; it needs plugins -- lots of them. In order to satisfy this need, OA3D will soon become an open project, where anybody can write 3rd party plugins, browse the source, or become a member of the core development team.
For more information about the design and what this thing can really do visit the website at: www.OpenArchitect3D.org.
Note:
I can be contracted to write plugins (including proprietary plugins) for companies in need of level design or similar tools. My contract fees are quite reasonable (less than it would cost you to dedicate one of your employees to the task.) Interested parties should contact me directly at midnight@FluidStudios.com. Be quick, though, because in these rare times when my schedule has an opening, it's never open for long.
Thanks for reading,
Paul Nettle (a.k.a. "MidNight")

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