Game Menu Demo
Posted by BrianH | Filed under Blender Tutorial, Experimental
Taking a break from the multi-touch table, I’ve been getting back to working on my Blender Game Networking demo. I’ve posted a video on youtube a whileback showing the menu for the game, and seral people have asked for tutorials. So, I made up this quick video showing how it’s done. Since the demo will be released under a Creative Commons license anyways, I’ve posted the .blend file for you to check out too. Enjoy.
Game Menu Explained from BrianH on Vimeo.
And the .blend file:
Networking Menu (1.9 MiB, 341 hits)
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks.
Finding a Cheap LCD Guide
Posted by BrianH | Filed under Multitouch
During my expedition in hunting for parts for my multi-touch table, I’ve found it to be very frustrating in finding LCD panels for use in my project. However, there are several ways I’ll share in getting very cheap LCD panels.
1. Retail store display models. This method is based mostly on luck, but it works. I work in retail and I’ve seen it happen a lot. A customer comes into the store looking to buy a cheap monitor, more then likely already on sale or clearance. As Murphy’s law would have it, the store is out of stock. Being that it’s a pretty popular item, the online store is out of stock as well. This is the prime opportunity to ask for the display model. An urgent, timely need will help the persuasion, but don’t stop there. Most stores will even allow for a 5%-10% discount. Don’t be afraid to ask. It happens a lot more then you may think. Even the clearance price of the display itself could be rewarding, so keep your eye open at local retail stores.
2. eBay. This is a risky option. I’ve always been pretty hesitant about bidding on eBay since I’ve been scammed numerous times in the past, but it’s a viable option. If you’re decently experienced with eBay, you could probably save quite a bit of money here. However, there are huge risks to consider. More then likely you’ll be unable to find a new monitor at a cheap price (unless Lucky would be your middle name). The best thing to search for “used LCD” or “LCD repair”, or anything related. You’ll start to find broken monitors that you might be able to easily fix (see Fixing LCD’s below). The biggest risk is more then just a backlight being broken. This could not only increase the cost of repair, but even prove to be unfixable.
3. Yard Sales. Someone else’s junk could become your treasure. Friends, relatives, neighbors, and tons of people in your town hold yard/garage sales, some of which seem to be a year round event. Without a doubt, this becomes an awesome opportunity to catch a cheap purchase. The best part about them is the price is never set in stone. The seller will more then likely set a price above it’s market value to hopefully make some easy cash (wouldn’t you?). But you’ve done your homework so you know that used 19″ LCD isn’t worth $150. Point out it’s dings and scratches and you’ll have the seller working towards a settling price in no time.
4. Non-profit Organizations. Goodwill is a great place to find some awesome deals. I’ve been trolling through the auctions and there is one thing I found common, especially in a lot of the better quality products (i.e. 32″ LCD TV’s for $6.00 starting bids). A lot of the shipping is listed as “Pickup only”. So unless you’re fairly close to the listed offices, you may be doing a lot of driving to pick up your prized earnings. Goodwill also maintains walk-in retail stores. Have a visit and see what you can find.
5. Fix a Broken LCD. Monitors and TV’s find their way to junkyard’s all around the globe. 90% of the time, it’s a very simple and cheap fix. LCDs rely on a backlight for illumination. If a monitor is “dim” but the indicator LED’s work, more then likely it’s broken backlight. There are other parts of an LCD monitor that can be easily and cheaply fixed, with how-to guides and directions spread all over the internet (i.e. www.instructables.com).
If you have any other ideas, comments, and/or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.
Blender 3D with Arduino
Posted by BrianH | Filed under Blender News, Multitouch
In doing some research for the multi-touch table I’m building, I found some Blender 3D in action using an Arduino micro-controller. Since the Arduino can be programmed with python, it’s easy to interface the board with Blender, which opens up endless possibilities for creating hardware interaction with Blender 3D.
I’m currently using an Arduino with my multi-touch table to control the IR Sensor Matrix, but I started brainstorming for other ideas on how to implement the Arduino board into my project. Simply controlling an array of inferred sensors seemed like such a small task, I figured I should look into ways to utilize it more. Since the table is being designed to allow developers to create multi-touch functionality with Blender (which I’ll cover later), I searched the internet and found this:
Blender with the Arduino: http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1177789589/9
This is truly awesome and something I will look more into later in the project. Some possibilities of this include using a Nintendo Wii controller with the Blender Game Engine, even with accelerometer support. The controller has already had great success with interfacing with the Arduino.
I’ll be talking about multi-touch with Blender 3D very soon, so stay tuned.