Contents of this CD.

This CD contains a number of directories, supplying all that is needed for reviewing the sPolyReduce tool.

Documentation

Contains the user manual in HTML format, as well as a copy of the report in MS office format, located in the report directory. All images used in the report are also located there, just in case they dont show up on different word processors.

Images

Contains both still images in the stills directory as animation in the animation directory. However, due to maya for linux not letting the export of any other form then IFF's for playblast, the animation is a series of stills. Because not all computers will be able to view IFF's, I have included sample jpg images of the animations in the stills directory.

The still images are partly snapshots of my animation, and also include some of the images seen with the report. Additionally I have included some images of a higher resolution reduction, a character from last year's group project. All scene files which these screenshots have been taken from are located in the Sample files directory.

Program

This directory contains two versions of the program. Version 1 is the recommended one to use. The plugin was compiled on linux 2.4.9.31smp kernel, though I have never experienced problems using the .so file on a university machine. (very similar kernel). However, if there are problems, the source code can be recompiled of course. See the user manual for more details on the two supplied versions.

Source

Contains all the source code for both version 1 and version 2 of the program. There is very little difference in code in the two versions, so for marking either could be used. There are minor diffrences in the way the contour and area around a vertex is calculated. Apart from these two minor things, they are identical. However, due to these routines are called very frequently, there is a noticable speed difference in the two versions.

I have supplied the makefile which I have used for the project. It should be noted that the makefile probably does not link properly when used as is. I have supplied the modified mayald file, which should be used as the linker. The mayald file is placed in both the version1, as the version2 directory.

Sample files

All files in this directory are for use with maya 6. Apart from the heads file and the 26Kmodel file, the plugin should be loaded before you load the file. All images on this CD where created using these maya files.