Features to come in PolyMo Live! custom renderer

The idea for this system comes from the popular Polygon Movie Maker (MikuMikuDance) animation program developed by higuchuu4.

However, the code is written entirely from scratch (as higuchuu4 did not release the source code to the public) in C#, based on the Universal Editor platform I have been working intensely on.

Features will include (sorted in order of priority):

• Animated textures (such as GIF and MNG) provided by changing the texture applied to the surface each frame.
• Chain multiple MMEffect renderer effect presets for a single model
• Save MMEffect presets selected for the models along with the animation file you are saving (will require an extension to the Polygon Movie Maker PMM document format, or a new PolyMo Live PML document format)
• Play animations and their associated songs from a Playlist file supported by the Universal Editor platform. Currently these include XSPF, WPL, ZPL, and M3U. Sound facilities will initially be provided by VLC.
• Remote control the interface over TCP/IP (to place the rendering software on the computer dedicated to the projector and keep the controlling computer separate)
• Synchronize stage lighting using a DMX interface - this is an extremely low-priority and out-of-my-expertise project, but something I'd like to see anyway (any DMX-using .NET developers out there?)

Estimated date of first release for this project? Don't push me. I just got out of school for the semester, I'm going to be hard at work hacking for the next few weeks. Sadly, I have to fix most of the deficiencies in the Universal Editor platform before even attempting to write a program based off of it!

Perhaps one day I will write a history of how the Universal Editor came to be. If it's not interesting to any of my (few) blog-followers out there, at least it will provide an entertaining story to distract me from coding if I ever have a hackers' block.

[Universal Editor] Screenshot of model material editor

So I figured I'd update you on what's been going on with universal-editor... No, I don't plan on keeping the ugly and incomplete Ribbon interface, and currently the model editor only supports loading PMD and PMX files. PMD and PMX saving "works", kind of, but there are extreme issues with bone attachment and material colors. Once those bugs are fixed, I'd really like to figure out the Ghoul2 GLM format (used in some Quake 2 engine-based games) and id software's MD2 and MD3 formats (which are both free software, and also used in Quake 2 engine-based games).

This would theoretically enable anyone with GLM character models from their favorite Quake2 engine-based games to save those models as PMD files and import them into an editor that supports this format (such as Polygon Movie Maker...), albeit without the physics support, since I do not believe that file format supports physics (if I'm correct).

whew, that was a long and arduous process

Just finished publishing my findings on the Polygon Movie Maker Model file format (support for which is currently being added to universal-editor based on the great work of the GPLv2-licensed dunan and other projects)

"PMD file format" article at MikuMikuDance on Wikia

I'm not taking the time to re-list it here, because most people don't care. However, I thought it best to make this specification known, at least to the people who might actually find it useful.

As far as I know, no one has actually bothered to officially publish these findings yet. All the references I could find are GPLv2-licensed source code, so they are freely modifiable and redistributable.

Since Higuchi Yu-san does not seem to want to release the source code of his program, the least we can do is use the (official-as-can-be) specification to build a new, more powerful, Polygon Movie Maker, hopefully with cross-platform and multi-language support, and most of all, hopefully as free as can be, under the GNU General Public License.

universal editor

So I just realized I haven't made a blog post in quite a while (four months actually) and since I haven't been very inspired musically, lately...

I'll make a post about programming instead!

I've been working on a project called universal-editor, which will be 100% free software (GNU GPLv3) and aims to open, edit, and save pretty much any file in the universe.

It does this by separating file formats and data "representations". For example, a Microsoft Word 2003 file, an Adobe PDF file, and an OpenDocument Text file all store the same data : formatted text. So one need only write a formatted text editor, define the three different file formats... and voilà! Instant conversion between data formats!

So there's a lot of perks. Currently, not much is complete (and if it is, it hasn't been thoroughly tested). Right now I'm working on loading vocal synthesis sequences (VOCALOID VSQ files, UTAU UST files, and VirSyn CANTOR 2 VCP files).

Since MIDI files are also synthesized audio files, they use the same editor. So importing pre-made MIDI files, adding lyrics, and re-saving them as vocal synthesis files is a snap!

(Note that this editor CANNOT and probably will never aim to synthesize these vocal tracks. You will have to purchase VOCALOID2 or download UTAU in order to actually synthesize the vocals.)

Here's a screenshot:

【あるせしむ ｆｔ. 初値ミク】 DANCING QUEEN

Finally, an upload! Took me long enough. It was supposed to release on Wednesday... Actually, the entire album was supposed to release on Wednesday. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties (DSL was down in our entire area) and general laziness on my part, I was unable to make the deadline. And since my other songs (including some originals and a collaboration with the wonderful Makata Ono) aren't even finished yet, I will be releasing the songs one by one.

So my first "single", I suppose you'd call it. Alcexhim featuring Hatsune Miku on vocals, performing Dancing Queen based on the A*Teens version, originally performed by ABBA.

Enjoy~! Remember, comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Link to audio file: FLAC
The audio file requires the following components:

• A media player that can play FLAC files (VLC recommended)

Link to source package: 7-Zip
The source package requires the following components:

• 7-Zip - for opening the package (free)
• LMMS - for MMPZ file (free)
• VOCALOID - for VSQ files (proprietary)

timezone differences suck.

I just realized that due to timezone differences, I only have less than a day to finish my album if I want to release it by the Wednesday deadline.

Fortunately, the first track is finished. I'm going to work on "mad world" next, since that's also semi-finished. Then I'll work on "OLD PLACES".

I'll probably finish "mad world" in time for the deadline, but the rest of the songs I really wanted to release will probably have to wait. I'm still trying to figure out the melody for "OLD PLACES".

Until then, let the music flow through you!~~

upcoming song releases (if I can make it in time...)

so, yeah... I have at least five songs in my mind that I KNOW I want to release as an EP or whatever it's called.

unfortunately none of them are finished, and most of them are covers. personally I think using cover songs (especially for a producer's first MAJOR release) is cheating...

but anyway. hopefully, if I can finish everything by Wednesday, the set list will include the following (in order of current completeness):

Album artist: ALCE//PROJECT
Album title: First Sound from the West

Title	Details
Dancing Queen	Cover. English. Reference by A*Teens. Original performance by ABBA.
mad world	Cover. English. Reference by Gary Jules. Original performance by Tears for Fears.
Melody's Story	Original. English. Arrangement, lyrics, and programming by Alcexhim.
OLD PLACES (feat. Makata Ono)	Original. Japanese. Arrangement and programming by Alcexhim. English lyrics by Makata Ono. Japanese lyrics by Alcexhim.

The album download will be released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. It will be a 7-Zip archive containing the source files (including Audacity project files, LMMS project files, VSQ vocal data, and lyrics in plain text) and of course the final compiled audio file in FLAC format.

Currently I have not been actually writing down any of the music, preferring to simply record it and program it on-the-fly. When I get around to writing the music down, I will also include the Denemo sources. Denemo is a free and open-source alternative to proprietary applications like Finale NotePad, which allow you to compose sheet music on your computer.

Right now, ALCE//PROJECT is Alcexhim, several keyboards, two guitars, and a Zendrum. If you want to get involved with the Project, please send me an e-mail at alcexhim@gmail.com and let me know what kind of talent you can bring to the Project (i.e., vocals, instruments, lyrics, melodies). If you contribute, the name you choose to represent yourself by will be listed in the title of the track.

first post!

well a friend of mine introduced me to blogspot, so here I am. between this and Twitter I think it will become a great way for me to write about more public-facing stuff, such as my musical and computer interests.

speaking of music, watch for an update here next Wednesday!!!

that is all for now :)