[openbeos] Re: Icon Design Contest submission

Hi,

> I believe he meant to create a 2D rendering from a 3D model, which could 
> be done.

Yeah, but then we'd have fat, non-scalable PNG icons again, if I understand 
you right.

If we talk about on-the-fly rendering, I would actually be curiuos if 
someone could come up with (simplified?) software 3D rendering, which 
produces a 32x32 icon with the complexity of, say, the Kabuto icons, in 
about 1.5 millisecs. Maybe it can be done. Because that's what I currently 
get from my 2D rendering (on a 1.5 Ghz Centrino). But even if it could be 
done, on second thought, I am using a lot of "flat" elements, like the 
emblems on folders, which seem like a waste to do in 3D. The reason is that 
anything else is even more blurry at 16x16. In the same sense that the 
current vector format is "limiting" if you want to keep the icons small, 
the 3D format would be limiting too, in that somewhat cartoony icons are 
probably difficult to do. So there is always some kind of trade-off 
involved. Still, if someone can point to a small 3D engine that is as fast 
as the 2D rendering, I'd be interested. :-)

Best regards,
-Stephan

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