Rik Beyen

C++ Programmer

Tools

Real-time Collaboration


As part of my graduation I researched and implemented a server architecture that supports the integration of a collaborative environment within 3D modeling and level editing tools.

 

A survey was held in order to understand what features would be desirable and what creative software should be supported in the game industry. Afterwards I created an architecture that would support these features and a software package that allowed for collaborative functionality between edeting programs, such as ZBrush and Unity. [Link to Docs]

Virtual Prototyping Architecture


A case study regarding virtual prototyping and integration of such software into existing production pipelines without separating physical and virtual iteration cycles. The case study was published and presented at the Smart Lighting 2016 conference in Milan in collaboration with NHTV, Philips, and MoodBuilders.

 

Additionally, a proof of concept was made for user testing in Unreal 4. In this proof of concept the user could intercept server output, reconstruct a scene, and send requests to update the scene. The study found that the proposed architecture significantly reduced the time spent on iteration cycles. [Link to paper]

Automatic Rigging


A tool written in MEL script that imports MakeHuman models into Maya. When importing the model it detects the joints generated in MakeHuman and applies skinning, IK, and FK handles to them. When the importing is finished the model is rigged and ready for animation.

GUI Script Language


A tool for creating GUI quickly with minimal efforts using property trees and regular expressions. The lexical analyzer and grammar parser are made with the use of GCC and Flex. The initial idea was to use it for GUI, but it is also suitable to generate different kinds of scenes or even small games.

 

The GUI  script has 2 settings: one that just interpets the script and one that  sorts the GUI automatically with the given parameters. Additionally, a node system can be used to generate the script.