Solved!

After a frustrating few weeks i put my project out to the OGRE forums to generate a bit of support and interest from the community. In about three days i got about seven or eight replys. One said i should try irr Klang, a sound engine i had considered early in the project (to use with the IrrLicht 3D engine).





irrKlang

Five miniuts after downloading and six lines of code later and it works. No errors and no odd behavior. Succcess!

#include
#include
using namespace irrklang;

#pragma comment(lib, "irrKlang.lib")

ISoundEngine* engine = createIrrKlangDevice();
ISound* music = engine->play3D("../../media/sound.mp3", vec3df(0,0,0), true, false, true);

Next is Fraps captures and working on better 3D sound, thankyou to all the people who gave feed back, and especialy to the person who suggested IrrKlang.

The license is free for non-commercial use so this also fits my project outcome.

My Biggest Problem..

SOUND!

Ive been tring my best to find a sound library i can use to get live sound in my application. I have to obstacles in completing this task. I just learned programming, and specificaly c++, this year and what seems like a simple exerscise, copying the examples for the sound librarys, never turns out so. Their are always linking, unknown symbol or compliling errors.

I have been working with and testing all the options i can find. These two are the best options and are, in my own opinion, my best chance to get any sound working winthin the next two weeks...

OGRE Ogg

And this: Open Frameworks
a close relative to Processing

After innitial problems with the prereleased version of O.F., i found that if i included all the code structure from the example project into my own, that the errors were changing and decreasing. My only problem was that there were alot of them and i ran out of time and had to head to work. Will go back as soon as possable to try again (its a painfully slow process of trial and error).

any suggestions from the ogre community would be appreciated?..

New Screens

Only three weeks to go! Here are a few screen shoots from the latest version.






After the initial tests i also began to add more bones and weights for a more fluid, dynamic animations. Here is the new bones in the whiskers.


Things to think about and push toward now:
A feeling of movement through the void.
Interactive elements, more animation and key listeners.
Re-evaluate the lighting setup & env. fog.
Particles, setting up and using OGREs particle plugin for maximum control.
A greater sense of space, (my holistic strategy) including 3D sound...

Upgrading the sky box

My concept is Travels through the void so i began to think about what a void would be. The needs to be a sense of orientation, but also of infinity. Seeing as this is taking place in a 'dream scape', i also tried to incorporate cloud textures.

The Blender scene with cube for an environment map (each tile being 1024x1024).


And the exported Env. map:

Moving along

Heres a few pics from my latest work.
The engine is now working quite stably but i have no knoledge of how to use Scene Managers so im starting to quickly reach my performance limits...



Starting to add bone for the animation


Into OGRE and some real time screenshots



Iv got the blender sketeton animations exported into OGREs .skeleton format, seen here with the flaping fins of the turtle

Concept - Travels through the Void

As i developed my metaphor for a dreamscape/meditation environment i was lead to the idea of floating islands. I would imagine a persons consciousness to be something like an island, remote yet surrounded by others and all connected by the same ocean.

At this point i would be looking to make a Myst type of experience, slow and thought full. But this does not complete as it would appear as 'just another island'

Their had to be a larger experience, a journey of enlightenment. Enter A'tuin, a tribute to terry Pratchett's amazing disk world. I liked the idea of a giant turtle. Instead of an island, the landscape can be the back of the turtle.

My Current Concept
Journey through the void on the back of a giant god-turtle island. This will resemble a giant ship which you (the enlightened spirit) will steer through the void of thoughts to its 'destination'. The turtle will feed and grow on stars for energy, a core part of game play.

This will be a mix of an Adventure Puzzle game. I hope to add a Gardening Sim paradigm and also action elements as well.

OUTCOMES

1 - A working 'interactive 3D’ framework (OGRE)
With a modulative design structure allowing for easy expansion and iteration
2 - A graphics pipeline for 2D and 3D art work
Including Models, Texture effects, particles, billboards, sky boxes, post comping effects(and hopefully basic animation.?)
3 - Interactive features
Including basic user input calls (with keyboard), and Easter eggs
4 - A prototyped concept of ‘game play’
In a demonstration or scenario
5 - A serious understanding and appreciation of what it takes to design and implement interactive and game technologies in 3D
6 - To demonstrate Open Source and free software technology, in all its grandure
The advantages it offers to begging and independant developers