mobile phone gfx tool

GreenHell

Hi,
Can anyone recommend a tool for developing graphics 2d/3d for a mobile phone?

RopeDrink

Well it would seem that the most commonly used (If not only used) method for Mobile Phone Anim would be Java itself.
Phones also use .jpeg / .jpg format for picture downloads and the like, but how either is incorporated into phones is something I would like to find out for myself.

Im sure there's a way of such material being uploaded to phones via a USB port or something similar.

Do you intend to create 'screensavers' or 'backgrounds' or the animation ala Sweety The Chick / The Crazy Frog style animated ringtones?

GreenHell

Umm no, I sliding more towards the game side of things. I'm really interested in what kind of modelling software is out there.

RopeDrink

Ah yes, something I was MOST interested.

After I made MehPong a specific boardster mentioned that it was possible to have my game reprogrammed into Java, which is generally what all games for phones are created using.

Have you any experience with Java at all, Greenhell?

I just loaded up Rainbow Six on my V-55 and, like all other games I have on it, it mentions 'Powered by GPRS JAVA' so Im pretty sure that it's possible to create and compile PC made Java projects onto mobile phones, although I have never actually used Java myself. Im not too sure about the rest, but maybe a brief look into Java / Phones will reveal some information for you.

I'll also give it a look, but seeing as I've been given the Graphics and Art - Animation forum at the same time I'm currently trying to get them up and running before I do any full on research for either

Hope that was of some help, Green.

GreenHell

Converting from J2SE to J2ME is a messy affair, J2ME is a trimmed down version of the language anything made in SE with the purpose of porting to ME probably won't work.

Given the restrictions on mobiles anything anyone has to say on micro pixel editing would be great.

RopeDrink

Done a brief search on Google for Micro Pixel Editing and "Phone Game Creation".

It basically lists up a pile of avaliable books in regards to the topic, but I cant seem to find a site that recommends a particular program. One site mentioned JSR 184 Java 3-D which, I assume, would be for 3D Java rendering.

I'll keep searching for more info.

EDIT: Link to site that mentioned it - They're a 15 year old game development company that have made quite a few phone games.

http://www.kuju.com/games_wireless_release.htm

GreenHell

If ya find something cool, I've been looking for a tool for this for a while now, if anyone else is interested in this area its well worth checking out

http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,8764,5400,00.html

RopeDrink

Nice, and on that note I came across a tutorial on how to render 3D created models into sprites using Meshwork for anyone who would find it interesting, or has 3D modelling skills they could incorporate into projects.

Fair enough, the new 3D Java theory mentioned in that link squats on this one, but at least if you still wanted 3D looking sprites for a non 3D mobile game, or were merely incapable of going about this new Java program, you could somehow incorporate this idea as a substitute. That is, of course, if said 3D models couldn't be compacted into the Java program, as opposed to being prgrammed in Java from scratch.

http://codenautics.com/meshwork/sprites.html

Anyway, no idea wether it'll be of any benefit, but there it is just in case.

Green, if you do manage to get the info and programs you need, will this be a lone enterprise or will you be seeking out a team, out of curiosity?

GreenHell

Its a lone project atm. I'll post anything of interest refering to mobile graphics as I get them.

RopeDrink

Good stuff, and the best of luck.

Sorry I couldn't be of much help but I'm a little stretched at the moment - Utterly fried with no sleep in the last two days, so coffee is the only thing holding me together at the moment.

If you do need any help at all, fire up a post here.
Hopefully by then I can get a bit of research done regarding Phone Graphics.

GreenHell

thanks.

Tobias Greeshman

Have you looked into BREW and OpenGL ES. Which is basically OpenGL for mobile phones.

List of BREW enabled phones
http://brew.qualcomm.com/brew/en/developer/resources/ad/devices_man.html

Article/Tutorial on using BREW/OpenGL ES
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article2135.asp

Dont know if this helps as the handsets for it seem to be primarily american ones, especially the nokia ones. (eg. 3200 - European Model, 3205 - American Model).

And as for developing on Java for Mobiles, its a right pain, limited API's and not nice to debug, a few friends of mine developed an app on a PDA a few years back. Had to be put on the PDA before it could be tested. Maybe Java's gone better since then I dont know...