We have realised that the posts on this blog mostly consist of reporting results. The areas to cover for a project-diary, as stated by the institution are:

Varje grupp har tilldelats en Loggbok som skall användas för att skriva en projektdagbok. I loggboken skriver man minst en gång per vecka. Man beskriver i kronologisk ordning arbetsfaserna i projektarbetet, gemensamt alternativt enskilt arbete och bidrag till olika uppgifter som utförts, problem som uppkommit, förslag på olika lösningar och reflektioner kring dessa samt eventuell lösning. Andra uppgifter som kan tas med är möten, veckoplanering, delmål mm. Dagboken ska föras relativt kontinuerligt och aktiviteterna för en viss vecka skall vara skrivna innan veckan är slut. Handledaren och examinator har behörighet att läsa loggboken.

They key areas in which we have been lacking are discussing problems and solutions and more importantly meetings, planning and sub-goals. In this post we hope to remedy some of this and will in the future try to keep these things in mind when updating the diary.

Short summary and key points from previous meetings…

2016-01-21 First meeting with Marco. Meeting with group thereafter

  • Talked about the different options for sub-projects that we have, discussed with Marco the possible difficulties and approaches we can take with them.
  • Will let Marco know at the next meeting with him which sub-projects where choosen.
  • After Marco: Filled in Group contract.
  • After Marco: Decided we keep the project-diary on a blog.

2016-01-25 Group meeting

  • Decided which sub-projects to take on. Divided up groups.
  • Will let Marco know at the next meeting with him which sub-projects where choosen.
  • Booked meeting with “fackspråk”
  • Put a deadline for our planning report 7/2.

2016-01-28 Group meeting

  • Status: OptiX - Some inital reasearch. Think it would be nice to try and connect the optix renderer with the cloth shader. Cloth - Getting acquainted with mitsuba (will try to implement using this), initial reasearch. Rattan - Initial research.
  • Recognise that there is a lot of terminology and different programs being used. We decided to make a quick document documenting and shortly defining some of these.

2016-02-04 Group meeting

  • Check status on planning report.
  • Jonathan and Victor have had a meeting with Marco about optiX. Where it was decided to first get acquainted with OpenGl and try to implement something using that before takeling optiX.
  • Important dates and deadlines are noted.
  • Peter checks with Jana (head for Engineering Physics) how it is for F and TM students to write in English.
  • Status: OptiX - Looking at openGl, aim is to crate “a moving environment”. Future, will have to do some more optix reasearch and will try to port current work to optiX. Cloth - Implementing a simple shader in mitsuba. Rattan - ???

2016-02-11 Group meeting

  • Planning report almost done. Will hand it in on the 18th.
  • Time to start thinking about the half-time presentation. We want all of us to contribute.
  • Status: OptiX - Able to draw triangles with OpenGl. Have had a lot of trouble with dependencies. Decided with Marco that a good aim is to try and start focusing on OptiX in two weeks time. Cloth - Have begun implementing a cloth shader. Now able to read patterns and represent them using cylinders. Rattan - Have looked for previous work, both for rattan and woven geometry. Think it is a good idea to focus on implementing in Blender first in trying to get it to work. Then look at 3dsmax.

2016-02-11 Group meeting

  • Planning report almost done. Will hand it in on the 18th.
  • Time to start thinking about the half-time presentation.
  • Status: OptiX - Able to draw triangles with OpenGl. Have had a lot of trouble with dependencies. Decided with Marco that a good aim is to try and start focusing on OptiX in two weeks time. Cloth - Have begun implementing a cloth shader. Now able to read patterns and represent them using cylinders. Rattan - Have looked for previous work, both for rattan and woven geometry. Think it is a good idea to focus on implementing in Blender first in trying to get it to work. Then look at 3dsmax.

2016-02-12 Meeting with Marco

  • Seems good to start takling optix within 2 weeks.
  • Important for the rattan project to try and figure out as soon as possible an algorithm for generating geometry. - Rattan plan to make their own algorithm, using splines.
  • “Accellerate”
  • Feedback on our planning report.

2016-02-18 Group meeting

  • Decided that Sven and Vidar will do the half-time presentation.
  • Prepare for meeting with other group in our “fackspråkshandledning”. Need to mail our report/planning report to the other group.
  • Status: OptiX - Having a hard time with linkers. OpenGL: looked at textures and now looking at controlling camera. Hope to be done with OpenGl next week. Rattan - Created rattan pattern in blender! Works by using splines. Cloth - Progress is being made.

2016-02-25 Group meeting

  • Reminder to contribute to work on half-time presentation!
  • Prepare for meeting with other group in our “fackspråkshandledning”. Need to mail our report/planning report to the other group.
  • Peter got reply from Jana. F and TM students are allowed to write in English, but need to submit a Swedish 4 page summary of the project. Need to mail our report/planning report to the other group.
  • Meeting with Marco was skipped this week. Instead we decided to submit a status update via email. Aim to send it by the next day (noon).
  • Status: OptiX - OptiX next week. Rattan - Added a bamboo texture. Offset to make it more realistic. Cloth - Had hoped to be done with our Mitsuba implementation by know according to our own time-plan. Will try to get it done next week.

2016-03-03 Group meeting after a Meeting with Marco

  • With the OptiX Render, the aim seems a bit confused after meeting with Marco. Do not share same vision, or at least that it might be too ambitious. Might need help from the rest of the group.
  • During our half-time presentation the “examinator?” seemed surprised that the project was split up like it is? Is this a problem?
  • It is probably time to start working on the report. It would be nice to try and connect the different sub-projects somewhat to make it more cohesive.

2016-03-10 Group meeting

  • Created a sharelatex document for report.
  • Group evaluation. Done individually and handed in individually to Marco.
  • Discussed structure of the report.
  • Status: OptiX - Not going well! Having a very hard time getting the optix framework up and running. On the opengl side, able to modify individual verticies. Rattan - Frame fields, as suggested by Marco, does not seem to be to applicable. Not much time spent this week. Cloth - Also not so much done this week. A bit unsure how much “new research” should be in these works. Are currently basing a lot of a paper. Will probably also have to look into what to prioratize.

2016-03-24 Group meeting

  • We bring up the point that it seems unbalanced in how much time is reported in the time-sheet.
  • We bring up the point that the diary updates also are sparse.
  • What to do? Suggested that more deadlines and goals would be good. Decide that an update at the latest every Sunday.
  • Rattan group are having trouble and feel stuck. We decied the tuseday after easter we will sit together and try to look at problems together.
  • IKEA-visit: Peter and Vidar went. Got some sample cloth. Emphasised usefulness of a way to model rattan furniture. For rendering they think self-reflection and refraction are areas which could be improved.
  • Repport: discovered the guide on Ulfs homepage Will use this to help structure the report.
  • Status: OptiX - OpenGl woobly cow demonstration. Deformation of vertices. Got OptiX up and running. Getting familiar with the demonstration/sample projects for raytracing. Would like some help though. Decide on Monday/ or tuseday. Rattan - Feel a bit stuck. Do not know how to progress. HAve the general geomtry but do not know how to connect the together or go on. Should also perhaps begin to prioritize what to do. Cloth - Implmeneted the shader in Vray. Have looked at what features we think are important to focus on. Would like some noise and try to get as close to some samples as we can.
  • plan a meeting with marco after easter.

We also set up some deadlines:

  • Saturday 26/3 - Introduction (inc teori) background o prior work Done.
  • Monday 18/4 - Method Done 26/3 - Introduction (inc teori) background o prior work Done.
  • Thursday 28/4 (Handledarmöte) - All content finished ( except maybe Result and discussion)
  • Fredag 13/5 - Completely done.

2016-03-30 No meeting During the Easter break there was confusion weather there would be a meeting or not. Decided not to have one. Instead we made some short points over group chat.

  • Stressed the point that we should have a plan of what to accomplish until after Easter, so that the two weeks do not just disappear.
  • Reminder about date and deadlines.

That is the rundown until after the easter break.