Image

General

This page lists some GSoC project ideas that the Ogre team considers especially relevant and that the team deemed manageable within the limited time frame of GSoC.

If you are interested in one of the ideas or have further questions, please feel free to create a thread in the GSoC Ogre forum section (please take the application template into account). The same applies if you have additional ideas that you either want to propose to potential GSoC students or might even consider tackling yourself.

Note: Please do not add entries to this list without having proposed and discussed them in the GSoC Ogre forum section!

Additional inspiration:
There is also a legacy project ideas page from past years as well as a dedicated list from 2015 that contain some other potential projects. However, the ones listed on this page are considered much more relevant and are therefore have a much higher chance to be accepted by the team.

Additionally, there is a dedicated forum thread discussing more potential ideas from the community.

Ideas

Level of Detail (LOD)

A previous GSoC project did all the LOD'ing stuff. The algorithm is great, but it only supports v1 objects. Ogre::v2 objects no longer allow "manual lod" the usual way, however it supports using custom models as LOD and exchanging with automatic LODs seamlessly, which is superior. We need tools for artists to make the LOD generation (both manual and auto) work quick, easy, and friendly.
For example, suppose you have Sinbad.mesh, SinbadLOD1.mesh and SinbadLOD2.mesh. We need a tool that allows its user to create a single mesh SinbadFinal.mesh which internally contains:

  • LOD 0: Sinbad.mesh
  • LOD 1: Auto LOD from Sinbad.mesh
  • LOD 2: Read from SinbadLOD1.mesh
  • LOD 3: Auto LOD from SinbadLOD1.mesh
  • LOD 4: Auto LOD from Sinbad.mesh
  • LOD 5: Read from SinbadLOD2.mesh


This is now possible with v2 objects (Items), but not possible with v1 objects (Ogre::Entity).

Ideally there should be a library interface, and a command line tool for batch processing and a simple GUI to set the settings interactively (load external meshes, generate automatic LODs from which LOD, etc).

Knowledge Prerequisite: C++, Ogre, MeshLodGenerator Component, Toolkit knowledge (Qt / wxWidgets / C# / Python / etc.)
Difficulty: Medium. There's a big demand for this!

Distance Field Fonts

Signed distance field rendering is a technique used in Team Fortress 2. It allows you to render bitmap fonts without jagged edges even at high magnifications. Furthermore the student should create an fast method to render many fonts (batching).

URL: http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2007/SIGGRAPH2007_AlphaTestedMagnification.pdf
Knowledge Prerequisite: C++, Ogre, Shaders (DX/OGL)
Difficulty: Easy / Medium

2D drawing interfaces

Right now we have Ogre::Rectangle2D (which is not suitable for rendering large amounts of sprites) and Ogre::Overlay (which has a lot of design issues with Ogre 2.1 and is quite hard to use / over-engineered).
2D rendering should support sprite animation (at best can import direct from texture packer tool), ninepatches, lines, paths.
Everything should be done with performance in mind.

Knowledge Prerequisite: C++, Ogre, Shaders (DX/OGL)
Difficulty: Medium / Hard

Port the GLSLES 3.0 renderer

Atm the GLSLES renderer is not working with OGRE 2.1. The student needs to review the current functionality
which is used inside OGL3+ and decide how we can replicate or emulate it with GLSL3.0.

Knowledge Prerequisite: C++, Ogre, GLSL, GLSLES, OGL
Difficulty: Hard

Port pose animations to Ogre::v2 (aka. facial animations)

Items (v2 objects) don't support pose animations. One still has to use Entity (v1 object) which operates in legacy mode.
The task is to write a more lightweight system that can store position and normal offsets for each animation and each affected vertex into plain old array.
The system should also be capable of importing the pose animations from v1 Entity into Item.
Implementation could support:

  • SW: Accumulate pose offsets all from all animations in CPU (using multi-threading!) and upload them every frame to a texture buffer. The Hlms' vertex shader will lookup the texture buffer for the final offset to apply.
  • HW: Use use a single compute shader run to accumulate all the pose offsets into a single list, which will be later used by the vertex shader in the same way as the SW one.


Knowledge Prerequisite: C++, a bit of Ogre Hlms understading, Pose animations, GLSL and HLSL, Compute Shaders
Difficulty: Medium / Hard

Port DualQuaternion Skinning to v2

Dual Quaternion Skinning support was added by a previous GSoC project.
Items (v2 objects) don't support DualQuaternion animations. One still has to use Entity (v1 object) which operates in legacy mode.
Hlms implementations should automatically modify the vertex shader so that it uses the proper math to support DualQuaternion blending. The math code should be in its own Hlms piece files for clarity and modularity.
Due to performance concerns inside the Hlms implementation (evaluating whether the mesh uses skeletal animation with regular blending or dual quaternion blending for every skeletally animated object); this feature should be toggleable from CMake, so that it doesn't penalize those who don't want this feature.

This idea may be too simple for a 3-month schedule as it doesn't require that long considering a previous GSoC did all the heavy lifting. Students should look into other easy ideas in the list to complement.

Knowledge Prerequisite: C++, Ogre Hlms, GLSL and HLSL, DualQuaternion and 4x4 matrices
Difficulty: Easy

OpenGEX Importer

We want to officially support OGEX as the main format for importing meshes into Ogre, as it is really looking good and gaining traction throughout the industry. After a more thorough evaluation we believe this is a perfect 3-month project for students.

Links:
Reference implementation: http://opengex.org/OpenGex-Import.zip
3rd party parser: https://github.com/kimkulling/openddl-parser/

Knowledge Prerequisite: C++, Debugging skills for breaking down / reverse engineering the reference implementation, JSON background would be great(*), nice to have: familiarity with the OpenGEX and OpenDDL specs and their code samples
Difficulty: Easy

(*) OGEX is not JSON, but it is very similar.






<HR>
Creative Commons Copyright -- Some rights reserved.


THE WORK (AS DEFINED BELOW) IS PROVIDED UNDER THE TERMS OF THIS CREATIVE COMMONS PUBLIC LICENSE ("CCPL" OR "LICENSE"). THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW. ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER THIS LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED.

BY EXERCISING ANY RIGHTS TO THE WORK PROVIDED HERE, YOU ACCEPT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. THE LICENSOR GRANTS YOU THE RIGHTS CONTAINED HERE IN CONSIDERATION OF YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF SUCH TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

1. Definitions

  • "Collective Work" means a work, such as a periodical issue, anthology or encyclopedia, in which the Work in its entirety in unmodified form, along with a number of other contributions, constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole. A work that constitutes a Collective Work will not be considered a Derivative Work (as defined below) for the purposes of this License.
  • "Derivative Work" means a work based upon the Work or upon the Work and other pre-existing works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which the Work may be recast, transformed, or adapted, except that a work that constitutes a Collective Work will not be considered a Derivative Work for the purpose of this License. For the avoidance of doubt, where the Work is a musical composition or sound recording, the synchronization of the Work in timed-relation with a moving image ("synching") will be considered a Derivative Work for the purpose of this License.
  • "Licensor" means the individual or entity that offers the Work under the terms of this License.
  • "Original Author" means the individual or entity who created the Work.
  • "Work" means the copyrightable work of authorship offered under the terms of this License.
  • "You" means an individual or entity exercising rights under this License who has not previously violated the terms of this License with respect to the Work, or who has received express permission from the Licensor to exercise rights under this License despite a previous violation.
  • "License Elements" means the following high-level license attributes as selected by Licensor and indicated in the title of this License: Attribution, ShareAlike.

2. Fair Use Rights

Nothing in this license is intended to reduce, limit, or restrict any rights arising from fair use, first sale or other limitations on the exclusive rights of the copyright owner under copyright law or other applicable laws.

3. License Grant

Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual (for the duration of the applicable copyright) license to exercise the rights in the Work as stated below:

  • to reproduce the Work, to incorporate the Work into one or more Collective Works, and to reproduce the Work as incorporated in the Collective Works;
  • to create and reproduce Derivative Works;
  • to distribute copies or phonorecords of, display publicly, perform publicly, and perform publicly by means of a digital audio transmission the Work including as incorporated in Collective Works;
  • to distribute copies or phonorecords of, display publicly, perform publicly, and perform publicly by means of a digital audio transmission Derivative Works.
  • For the avoidance of doubt, where the work is a musical composition:
    • Performance Royalties Under Blanket Licenses. Licensor waives the exclusive right to collect, whether individually or via a performance rights society (e.g. ASCAP, BMI, SESAC), royalties for the public performance or public digital performance (e.g. webcast) of the Work.
    • Mechanical Rights and Statutory Royalties. Licensor waives the exclusive right to collect, whether individually or via a music rights society or designated agent (e.g. Harry Fox Agency), royalties for any phonorecord You create from the Work ("cover version") and distribute, subject to the compulsory license created by 17 USC Section 115 of the US Copyright Act (or the equivalent in other jurisdictions).
    • Webcasting Rights and Statutory Royalties. For the avoidance of doubt, where the Work is a sound recording, Licensor waives the exclusive right to collect, whether individually or via a performance-rights society (e.g. SoundExchange), royalties for the public digital performance (e.g. webcast) of the Work, subject to the compulsory license created by 17 USC Section 114 of the US Copyright Act (or the equivalent in other jurisdictions).


The above rights may be exercised in all media and formats whether now known or hereafter devised. The above rights include the right to make such modifications as are technically necessary to exercise the rights in other media and formats. All rights not expressly granted by Licensor are hereby reserved.

4. Restrictions

The license granted in Section 3 above is expressly made subject to and limited by the following restrictions:

  • You may distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work only under the terms of this License, and You must include a copy of, or the Uniform Resource Identifier for, this License with every copy or phonorecord of the Work You distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform. You may not offer or impose any terms on the Work that alter or restrict the terms of this License or the recipients' exercise of the rights granted hereunder. You may not sublicense the Work. You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties. You may not distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work with any technological measures that control access or use of the Work in a manner inconsistent with the terms of this License Agreement. The above applies to the Work as incorporated in a Collective Work, but this does not require the Collective Work apart from the Work itself to be made subject to the terms of this License. If You create a Collective Work, upon notice from any Licensor You must, to the extent practicable, remove from the Collective Work any credit as required by clause 4(c), as requested. If You create a Derivative Work, upon notice from any Licensor You must, to the extent practicable, remove from the Derivative Work any credit as required by clause 4(c), as requested.
  • You may distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform a Derivative Work only under the terms of this License, a later version of this License with the same License Elements as this License, or a Creative Commons iCommons license that contains the same License Elements as this License (e.g. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Japan). You must include a copy of, or the Uniform Resource Identifier for, this License or other license specified in the previous sentence with every copy or phonorecord of each Derivative Work You distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform. You may not offer or impose any terms on the Derivative Works that alter or restrict the terms of this License or the recipients' exercise of the rights granted hereunder, and You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties. You may not distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Derivative Work with any technological measures that control access or use of the Work in a manner inconsistent with the terms of this License Agreement. The above applies to the Derivative Work as incorporated in a Collective Work, but this does not require the Collective Work apart from the Derivative Work itself to be made subject to the terms of this License.
  • If you distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work or any Derivative Works or Collective Works, You must keep intact all copyright notices for the Work and provide, reasonable to the medium or means You are utilizing: (i) the name of the Original Author (or pseudonym, if applicable) if supplied, and/or (ii) if the Original Author and/or Licensor designate another party or parties (e.g. a sponsor institute, publishing entity, journal) for attribution in Licensor's copyright notice, terms of service or by other reasonable means, the name of such party or parties; the title of the Work if supplied; to the extent reasonably practicable, the Uniform Resource Identifier, if any, that Licensor specifies to be associated with the Work, unless such URI does not refer to the copyright notice or licensing information for the Work; and in the case of a Derivative Work, a credit identifying the use of the Work in the Derivative Work (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author," or "Screenplay based on original Work by Original Author"). Such credit may be implemented in any reasonable manner; provided, however, that in the case of a Derivative Work or Collective Work, at a minimum such credit will appear where any other comparable authorship credit appears and in a manner at least as prominent as such other comparable authorship credit.

5. Representations, Warranties and Disclaimer

UNLESS OTHERWISE AGREED TO BY THE PARTIES IN WRITING, LICENSOR OFFERS THE WORK AS-IS AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE MATERIALS, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTIBILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT, OR THE ABSENCE OF LATENT OR OTHER DEFECTS, ACCURACY, OR THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE OF ERRORS, WHETHER OR NOT DISCOVERABLE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SUCH EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

6. Limitation on Liability.

EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL LICENSOR BE LIABLE TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THIS LICENSE OR THE USE OF THE WORK, EVEN IF LICENSOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

7. Termination

  • This License and the rights granted hereunder will terminate automatically upon any breach by You of the terms of this License. Individuals or entities who have received Derivative Works or Collective Works from You under this License, however, will not have their licenses terminated provided such individuals or entities remain in full compliance with those licenses. Sections 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8 will survive any termination of this License.
  • Subject to the above terms and conditions, the license granted here is perpetual (for the duration of the applicable copyright in the Work). Notwithstanding the above, Licensor reserves the right to release the Work under different license terms or to stop distributing the Work at any time; provided, however that any such election will not serve to withdraw this License (or any other license that has been, or is required to be, granted under the terms of this License), and this License will continue in full force and effect unless terminated as stated above.

8. Miscellaneous

  • Each time You distribute or publicly digitally perform the Work or a Collective Work, the Licensor offers to the recipient a license to the Work on the same terms and conditions as the license granted to You under this License.
  • Each time You distribute or publicly digitally perform a Derivative Work, Licensor offers to the recipient a license to the original Work on the same terms and conditions as the license granted to You under this License.
  • If any provision of this License is invalid or unenforceable under applicable law, it shall not affect the validity or enforceability of the remainder of the terms of this License, and without further action by the parties to this agreement, such provision shall be reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make such provision valid and enforceable.
  • No term or provision of this License shall be deemed waived and no breach consented to unless such waiver or consent shall be in writing and signed by the party to be charged with such waiver or consent.
  • This License constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the Work licensed here. There are no understandings, agreements or representations with respect to the Work not specified here. Licensor shall not be bound by any additional provisions that may appear in any communication from You. This License may not be modified without the mutual written agreement of the Licensor and You.