Since someone said “hey, let’s throw in some 3D stuff” back in 2009, what was initially a simple set of OpenGL bindings for Qt has grown to become a fully fledged Qt module. The path from R&D to being a “real” part of the Qt world has been a long one, and so it’s with great happiness that we share our second Technology Preview of Qt Quick 3D.
This preview follows our earlier public showing back in May, and we have taken what we learned from preview and used it to make Qt Quick 3D more streamlined, more complete, and generally (in our opinion at least) better all around.
We would like to say a huge thank-you to the community for your constant and valuable feedback. It is this interaction with users which has driven the development of Qt Quick 3D, and will continue to do so into the future. In the last four months or so we have been fixing a lot of the bugs which you all reported to us, and have worked to stabilise and extend make the 3D framework across all of our key platforms. Right now we support:
- Symbian
- Meego 1.2 Harmattan
- Maemo
- The usual suspects among desktop operating systems
Along with the bug fixes we’ve had time to throw in a number of new features, including:
Network Loading
Where you could once only load assets from the local file system, you can now load them directly from the internet. Specifically you can specify a URL for a texture or 3D model, which will then be downloaded and created as a 3D object in your application automatically.
Data Model Support
While Qt3D could do some exciting things it seemed clear that the limitations of a static set of 3D objects was far from ideal. As such we decided to support dynamic object creation. It is now possible to create and destroy arbitrary 3D items on-the-fly. This capability allows for a whole new set of use-cases to be fulfilled more easily than ever before.
Qt Resource File Support
Resource files have long been an easy and convenient way of packaging up application resource files such as images for ease of distribution. This excellent legacy led us to support proper loading of 3D assets from .qrc files. Using resource files you can now package up 3D models, textures, QML files… in fact pretty much anything Qt Quick 3D supports, and load it from your app.
So, having whet your appetites for more 3D goodness, here are the precompiled libraries and examples for Qt Quick3D:
- Maemo
- Symbian – N8
- Win 7 – msvc compiler
- Linux (source package)
While you’re at it, don’t forget to check our the latest tutorial contributed by a community member.
We look forward to more feedback, and hope you enjoy the latest iteration of Qt Quick 3D.
Source Qt Labs Developer Blog
