[soc2008-general] Math Support and Graphic Types for PyGame

[René Dudfield]

Hi Deepank and all,

I joined this list after Deepank made the email so I didn't see it
mentioned until now.

I think the graphical types would be quite useful - for not only
pygame users but also for all opengl and graphics users.  These types
are partially implemented in a few different python places - so it'd
be good to have a standard implementation that could be reused amongst
the various python projects.


There's more information on the pygame ideas page:

I think these types could fill up your time... or maybe drop the last
two if you don't think it'll fit within the projects scope.  These
types are very commonly used in graphics and games.

# vector (2,3,4)
# matrix (2x2,3x3,4x4)
# quaternion
-----------------
# polygon
# line

Using numpy is always an option, but there's a few reasons to include
some types useful in graphics and games:

    * lots of algorithms for games and graphics are written in a way
that is hard to do with numpy.
    * there's always the problem of people having to have numpy
installed.  Which is why it is often avoided by people making games.
    * numpy is a large and developing code base.  These types should
have a small scope, and quickly become a stable code base.
    * game specific optimized routines. Some stuff is quite a bit
faster than what numpy can do.  Ie numeric and pygames PixelArray are
faster than numpy for graphics situations.  Widely known optimisations
for these specific sized vectors, and matrices are known.
    * Some people find numpy a bit difficult to get theirs heads
around, and find stuff like http://pygame.org/wiki/2DVectorClass
simpler.
    * There's a few existing libraries too:
http://cgkit.sourceforge.net/doc2/module-cgkit.cgtypes.html
    * GLSL compatible vector types would be good to look at for
compatibility with opengl. To support things like swizzles, v.xy += 1
where it only increments the x and y members.


Both C and python implementations would be good - so they will get
most use in different projects.  If you can include assembly versions
for some routines that would be good - there's much assembly you might
be able to reuse available on the net.  They could live as a separate
project, but would be best in python I think.  If they aren't allowed
in python, pygame would take them as part of it (but also usable as a
separate module for other projects).



cheers,
Rene (pygame, pyopengl).




On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 7:28 AM, Johannes Woolard
<johannes.woolard at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Deepank,
>
>  I am a mentor for Crunchy (http://code.google.com/p/crunchy) which is
>  under the aegis of the PSF (at least as far as the summer of code
>  goes).
>
>  I am interested in graphical representations of types (although not in
>  relation to pygame) and I would like to invite you to check out
>  Crunchy...
>
>  An SoC proposal based solely on graphical types would probably not be
>  sufficient - but do please take a look at our list of project ideas:
>  http://code.google.com/p/crunchy/wiki/SummerOfCodeIdeas and see if any
>  of them interest you - and get back to me.
>
>  Regards,
>
>  Johannes Woolard
>
>  On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 4:48 PM, Deepank Gupta <deepankgupta at gmail.com> wrote:
>  > Hello,
>  >
>  > I am a third year undergraduate student from NSIT, Delhi University doing my
>  > B.Tech in Information Technology. I want to participate with Python for this
>  > year's GSoC after having been an avid user of Python for about more than 2
>  > months now. I already have experience with Open Source Projects and am
>  > currently working on 2 projects in which I am using Python.
>  >
>  > I am interested in developing maths and Graphics types for Pygame. I have
>  > already done a course in Computer Graphics where we developed lots of
>  > primitives and Graphic Types in C. I will be able to apply the things learnt
>  > during the course on this project and also apply optimised algortihms for
>  > best performance, since, the code will eventually be used by countless users
>  > of Pygame. I am looking forward towards working with a mentor who can guide
>  > me with the proposal and also want to hear the views of the community as to
>  > what they would like implemented in this project.
>  >
>  > Thanks a lot
>  > Deepank
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>
>
>
>  --
>  Johannes Woolard,
>  Oriel College, Oxford,
>  0X1 4EW
>
>  mobile: +44 7847 679381
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