Dynamic Canvas
What is this all about?
Dynamic Canvas is an output driver for Image_3d, which is a 3d renderer written entirely in PHP. That it is for short. But the long description is much more "cool" or may I say "geek" ;). Dynamic Canvas is a simple projection based 3d renderer written in pure javascript. It is making use of the new canvas area, which can be found in current versions of firefox or opera. Because it is actually capable of rendering the 3d models you feed him you can move them in space, rotate them around and even convert them to svgs or pngs on the fly just inside your browser. You should definetly take a look at this thing because it is just geeky.
Can I take a look at these cool thing?
Just see for yourself what Dynamic Canvas can do for you. Just click here to take a look at the real thing. Unfortunately this will only work perfectly in firefox at the moment. I have seen this partially working in opera, too. Therefore you might just want to give it a try.
A screenshot of Dynamic Canvas in actionHow can I use this for my own stuff?
It is quite easy to use Dynamic Canvas for your own renderings. You just need to download the latest version of Image_3d. Maybe you should give the most current version from cvs a try, because it is packed with a lot of new and astonishing features. If you have Image_3d at your hands you can render anything just by selecting "DynamicCanvas" as output driver.
Where can I obtain this?
Because this output driver just works in cooperation with Image_3d you need obtain this package. Thanks to Kore Nordmann, whose is the main developer behind Image_3d and a good friend of mine, Dynamic Canvas is now part of the official Image_3d package. This package can be obtained by downloading it from its project page, checking out its cvs repository, which is always containing the bleeding edge version or by using the pear installer. If you want the newest version with all the bells an whistles you should definetly check out the cvs repository. If you just want to go quite and easy use the pear installer by issuing a command like this:
$ pear install Image_3dFor just testing the output driver after download you can use the Dynamic Canvas example in the docs directory.