Erwin Coumans wrote:
... snip ... Any comments,feedback welcome,
Erwin
With their internal Maya expertise, Feeling software was able to put a good user interface on top of NIMA that was consistent with how everything else works in Maya. Apparenly Maya's internal physics was a few years old and had not been upgraded. Hence it wasn't able to do what today's physics engines can do in terms of features, robustness and quantity. After Christian first made the plugin he seemed to get a lot of interest in NIMA. There was a number of Maya artists in the movie/tv industry that took advantage of it. Perhaps even moreso than game studios since some movie houses dont have too many game programmers sitting around ready to write custom plugins for the art guys. As for game studios there was interest and usage, but artists usually have a pipeline ready where they can quickly export a model and simulate it in the game engine. Some studios even have custom "character tools" where they assign physics properties to models only after exported from maya. Although, imho, being able to do things right inside the art-tool is always better for authoring. I would suggest contacting Feeling software and asking about the status of the project. Also ping the art community - or get an artist coworker to do that for you.
I'm not speaking on behalf of anyone or any company, but I feel that I should mention that by sponsoring NIMA, I believe Ageia was hoping to promote physx. Having NIMA open source would enable companies to extend and improve the interface. I am not suggesting one way or another that you proceed or dont proceed with the project. Personally, I like to see the advancement of open source physics tool related development. In fact, if the collada export path continues to improve then your efforts could benefit physx users.
If NIMA development has been halted, it could be partly due to the main developer becoming a new Dad recently.
just my 2c
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