TNGViewer: OpenGL 3D Viewer and More…
TNGViewer is a small OpenGL 3D object viewer. It supports FBX, 3DS, OBJ, DXF, DAE, LWO and LWS formats (more explanations by TNGViewer devteam HERE). TNGViewer is free and is available for Windows and MacOS.
TNGViewer requires QuickTime player (not cool, I’ve just reinstalled my PC and thus I didn’t have QT player and I didn’t want to install it! -). To visualize 3D objects only, TNGViewer should be able to run without QT player…
The rendering is basic (very flat lighting…) but TNGViewer seems to works correctly.
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If you dont like quicktime, just install the uicktime alternative player. You can view quicktime movies with Windows media player.
Not sure whether it works with this program.
http://download.cnet.com/QuickTime-Alternative/3000-2139_4-10633500.html
Hello,
Just a few clarifications about our TNGViewer product…
1. The application is not just a simple 3D model/scene viewer: it is the display environment for TNG 3D realtime interactive presentations. Several demos of such presentations are available at http://tng3d.com/demos.html
2. Said demos are also available directly in TNGViewer. In fact, the first time you install the application some entries will be added to the “Open Recent” submenu: these are of the form “content/something”, and they refer to the Web site demos shown above.
3. TNGViewer uses QuickTime in order to load textures associated to 3D models/scenes. QuickTime is also used to export screenshots and movies of live presentations and of simple 3D models/scenes.
4. When you load a simple 3D model/scene that does not contain any light object, you get a single directional light, aligned to the default viewing direction. When you load a model/scene that contains one or more lights, these object will be used instead.
Having said this, we might add different/further default light objects, for users who only need to view extremely simple 3D models/scenes.
Thank you,
Dario Accornero
R&D Manager
Immaginaria Ltd.
Dario > Thanks for these details. Geeks3D’s readers will appreciate them
And yes, when used as a 3D viewer only, nice lighting would be cool.
@ Tom: I’m afraid the alternative QuickTime player you mentioned wouldn’t work with TNGViewer. Our application, in fact, does *not* use the QuickTime Player application at all — only the QuickTime libraries (DLLs on Windows, frameworks on Mac OS X).
Apple used to offer for download a QuickTime-libraries-only package; unfortunately, this no longer seems to be available (except for developers, obviously). Therefore, you’ll have to install either QuickTime Player or iTunes, the only two freely-available packages that contain the required libraries. Both packages are of course free.
@ JeGX: Thank you very much for posting my clarification message.
We are indeed working on adding new default lights to simple 3D models/scenes; this feature shall be available in the next revision. However, in order to make sure we don’t aggravate users with older cards (only capable of supporting a limited number of lights), we will only add a couple of point lights.
Thanks again,
Dario Accornero
R&D Manager
Immaginaria Ltd.
Even a single light with diffuse and specular components should be ok.
And don’t hesitate to post any information you consider relevant about TNGViewer. Geeks3D is the right place for that!
I slightly updated the title
Hello JeGX,
Thank you very much for changing the title.
We would like your feedback about the extra light(s) to be added. Currently, a simple 3D model/scene without lights is assigned a single directional light parallel to the default viewing direction (-Z in OpenGL terms). This light is setup thusly:
ambient = 0.2, 0.2, 0.2
diffuse = 0.8, 0.8, 0.8
specular = 1, 1, 1
If you think of the (ideal) box enclosing the model, an idea might be to add a point light at the centre of the top box face, and perhaps another one at the centre of the back face — just to make sure most parts of the model are correctly illuminated.
The issue, then, would be to choose the appropriate ambient, diffuse and specular components, such that the model/scene does not get over-exposed too much…
What do tou think?
Thank you,
Dario
Your light seems ok. The difference between ambient and diffuse color adds contrast and it’s good. But ambient color is also related to your background color. I just did two tests with GeeXLab: gray bkg and black bkg.
gray bkg
A: 0.05 0.05 0.05
D: 0.8 0.8 0.8
S: 1.0 1.0 1.0
blacky bkg
A: 0.0 0.0 0.0
D: 0.8 0.8 0.8
S: 1.0 1.0 1.0
You can also use the three lights technique to light the model (key, fill and rim if my memory is good…)
The user could also tune the lighting once and settings are saved for each session…
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@ JeGX: We have posted a test build of TNGViewer with improved default lighting for simple 3D models/scenes (not containing any light objects).
You can download the test build from:
Windows XP/Vista -> http://tng3d.com/software/test/TNGViewerInstaller.exe
Mac OS X Tiger/Leopard -> http://tng3d.com/software/test/TNGViewerInstaller.dmg
This (temporary) release adds a “Lights” submenu to the “View” menu, with four default lights: key, fill, back and ambient. You can turn the lights on and off at any time from said submenu.
Future releases might add a certain level of configurability to these default lights; however, currently this is not scheduled for any specific release yet.
We’d really like to remove the test build as quickly as possible, polish it and release it officially. Please let us know whether it works for you.
Thank you,
Dario
With all lights:
With fill, back and ambient lights (I like this rendering):
With key light only:
Conclusion: change key light’s diffuse and SPECULAR channels and it will be okay!
@ JeGX: Actually, we think the issue is the shininess value of your test model.
We’ve just tried to open several (dozen) models, in different file formats, and not a single one is showing problems.
Could you please provide us with your test OBJ model (the one used in the screenshots above), together with its material file? Also, which software have you used to create said model?
You can use our main email address to forward us your model.
Thank you very much,
Dario
Hello JeGX,
We have updated the test build (still available at the URLs shown in my previous post), such that unusually low values for the shininess component are now clamped.
You might wish to try this build with your OBJ model: lighting should be improved…
Thanks,
Dario
Now it’s okay with the latest version you send me:
In previous screenshots, the model had a specular power (or shininess) of 0.0 and in the current screenshot, I changed the specular power to 20.0.
@ JeGX: I’m glad to know it works fine for you now.
Please note that with the latest test build it is *not* necessary to manually modify abnormally small shininess values: the Autodesk and LightWave importers automatically clamp to 1 (one) any such shininess.
We should be able to post an official release later today: you’ll be the first to know.
Thanks and ciao,
Dario
I believe I made the cube model with 3D Studio MAX and save the OBJ file with MAX default OBJ exporter. I don’t know why the shininess was set to 0.0.
In ogni caso, buon lavoro amici miei
A presto su Geeks3D.com!
@ JeGX: Merci à toi pour ton soutien.
We have removed the test build from our site and published an official release (revision 1.0.0.435); as promised earlier, this is being announced on Geeks3D.com first. We won’t contact any other sites until later today.
The latest release is available from http://tng3d.com/download.html
It is also possible to use the ‘Check for Updates…’ option in the TNGViewer Help menu; however, please note that, if you do that from the test build, no update will be reported (the version number is shared).
This is an excerpt from the changelog:
Simple models/scenes that do not contain any lights are now assigned a default lighting model based on key/fill/back/ambient lights. Said lights can be turned on or off individually from the new ‘Lights’ submenu in the View menu. Furthermore, non-interactive models/scenes should now be centered automatically upon loading.
Models/scenes that do not contain skybox objects can now be assigned a background color via the system color picker; this option is available in the View menu, and it stores the chosen color persistently.
TNGViewer windows now offer, in icon navigation mode, the same keyboard-modifier-plus-mouse-dragging shortcuts available in user mode: Alt+LeftDrag rotates, Alt+Shift+LeftDrag pans, Alt+Ctrl+LeftDrag zooms.
Fixed bug where the Autodesk FBX (and possibly LightWave) importer was potentially generating out-of-bound values for shininess components; said values are now always clamped.
Thanks again for your input and support,
Ciao,
Dario
PS: Ce serais sympa de voir TNGViewer dans Modeling *et* Utilities aussi…
Yep Dario, I think I’m going to reorganize a little bit software categories…
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