What's active and worthwhile in the Python 3D world?

[Kenneth McDonald]

One of my current "fun" goals is to start playing with 3D
related things, purely because I find it of interest. Since
I also use and love Python in more serious endeavours, it
would seem to make sense to try to find 3D related things
that involve Python.

In fact, there seem to be quite a few--so many that I'm
not really sure what is active and growing, and what is
dying off. So I was wondering if there are Pythonistas
out there with similar interests, and if so, what you
might recommend looking at?

I realize this is broad in scope, but I really am just
looking to play right now. If I were to state a long-term
interest, it might be in a modeller that had a more
command-oriented (as opposed to GUI) approach to
modelling, but there are many things I could be
interested in.

Thanks,
Ken

 

[Mike C. Fletcher]

The Disney/CMU project Panda3D would likely be fun and is quite active
(it's very new). Blender is active and more along the modeller lines.
Pivy is keeping up with the joneses quite nicely AFAIK. All three are
very high-level AFAIK, and thus likely suitable for a beginner. For a
far more limited framework, VPython is a very-beginner-friendly starting
point and is fairly active.

HTH,
Mike

Kenneth McDonald wrote:
....

In fact, there seem to be quite a few--so many that I'm
not really sure what is active and growing, and what is
dying off. So I was wondering if there are Pythonistas
out there with similar interests, and if so, what you
might recommend looking at?

....

________________________________________________
Mike C. Fletcher
Designer, VR Plumber, Coder
http://members.rogers.com/mcfletch/
blog: http://zope.vex.net/~mcfletch/plumbing/

 

[Erik Max Francis]

One of my current "fun" goals is to start playing with 3D
related things, purely because I find it of interest. Since
I also use and love Python in more serious endeavours, it
would seem to make sense to try to find 3D related things
that involve Python.

In fact, there seem to be quite a few--so many that I'm
not really sure what is active and growing, and what is
dying off. So I was wondering if there are Pythonistas
out there with similar interests, and if so, what you
might recommend looking at?

Sounds like you might want to start playing around with a fairly
straightforward Python engine. If you're interested in starting out
with something dirt simple, there's ZOE:

http://www.alcyone.com/software/zoe/

ZOE is so simple that it almost doesn't deserve special mention was a
Python OpenGL engine per se, but that can be helpful if what you just
want to do is explore.

If you're looking for something a little more fleshed out, then VPython
is probably up your alley.

 

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And Kenneth McDonald said...

In fact, there seem to be quite a few--so many that I'm not really sure
what is active and growing, and what is dying off. So I was wondering if
there are Pythonistas out there with similar interests, and if so, what
you might recommend looking at?

I realize this is broad in scope, but I really am just looking to play
right now. If I were to state a long-term interest, it might be in a
modeller that had a more command-oriented (as opposed to GUI) approach to
modelling, but there are many things I could be interested in.

As you said, a broad scope.
Blender (www.blender.org/www.blender3d.com) is a Python scriptable
3D Modeller/Renderer.