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GET TO KNOW Geo STUDIO Pro 4

Geo STUDIO Pro is the ultimate professional-level 3D modeling and animation tool for windows-based computers. It provides a comprehensive suite of modeling, animation, behavior and texturing tools for building real-time low poly models and scenes. Geo STUDIO comes with a full-featured data-driven behavior engine and comprehensive C++ plugin SDK and GeoScript - a Lua*-based embedded scripting language for extending Geo with additional functionality, user-defined nodes and private data extensions to all Geo and user-node types. Geo STUDIO provides full  support, for all the specialized features and tools expected in this market. For example Geo STUDIO Pro  offers a suite of tools for creating and modifying LightPoints, LightPointGroups, LOD's, Switch Node, application and meta-data extensibility. It fully supports the widely-used PRESAGIS* OpenFlight* file format, (up to OpenFlight* version 16.8) along with Coryphaeus' DWB, Aechelon Technologies' HIE and many other common 3D interchange formats.

 

PLUGIN DEVELOPMENT

 

Users can use our C++ Software Developers Kit (SDK) to add your own specialized functionality to Geo STUDIO PRO. Plugins can be...

  • File format import & export

  • Image format import

  • Data modification 

  • Easily create interactive tool plugins

    • Create

    • Modify

    • Selection

    • Optimization tools

    • Appearance

      • Material or Texture tools

    • Helper Points or Lines​

      • Construction points​

  • Behavior

  • Full support for OpenFlight Guid Palette & Private data extensibility

  • User Group nodes

  • User Render nodes

  • Private data extensions

  • Auto generation of C++ Plugin code

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Plugins can also be written in GeoScript which is our Lua-based scripting language built right into the product. GeoScript "plugins" appear in the toolbars and function just like any other tool. There is even a GeoScript code editor and mini-IDE  within Geo to help facilitate this.

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...and much more. Since Geo STUDIO is totally built upon this plugin SDK -  developers can leverage that power for their own application-specific needs,

 

EASY EXTENSIBILITY

 

In addition to the C++ SDK and GeoScript for programmatic extensibility Geo STUDIO also provides an arbitrary length blind-data comment string property for all nodes (except vertices).

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Lastly, in Geo you can add a user-extension field to any node type. These extensions are public and can be of the following types...

  • Bool

  • Float

  • Double

  • Int

  • String

  • XML

  • Coord (a double[3] array)

 

MATERIALS

 

Geo supports the following material types...

  • Basic Materials

    • Classic OpenGL materials​

    • Ambient, Diffuse, Specular, Emissive & Shininess

  • Extended Materials​

    • These completely encapsulate and define poly rendering and consist of the following optional components...​

    • Ambient, Diffuse, Alpha,  Specular & Emissive - all with RGB and 4 texture layers

    • Normal Map, Bump Map, Light Map, Shadow Map, Horizon Map & Reflection Map - all with 1 Texture layer

  • PBR Materials​

    • Full support for GLTF PBR materials plus UV offset & scale

    • Diffuse Map

    • Metallic Roughness Map

    • Ambient Occlusion Map

    • Normal Map

    • Emissive Map

    • Ambient Intensity

    • Alpha cutoff & Alpha mode

 

FEATURES

 

Geo provides a number of tools and features to assist in 3d model creation and editing...

  • User defined Favorites Toolbar

  • Scene Graph Tree view
  • X, Y & Z axes Freeze flags

 

  • ​4 x 3D Viewports

    • Perspective​

    • Front, Side & Top Ortho views

  • View control​

    • Trackball, Zoom & Pan​

    • Fit selected

    • Isolate selected

    • Hide selected

    • Set & toggle Visibility groups

    • Global Draw Style override

    • Shrink Polys

    • Z-buffer, Back-face, Lighting & Texture override

  • User Nodes & Private Data Editor​

    • Auto-generate Private Data plugins​

    • Site Plugin

    • User Extension nodes - including interactive create User Prim plugin

    • Per node Private Data

  • GeoScript/Lua code editor​

  • State Machine Editor

  • Color Palette

  • Material Palette

    • Can contain mix of Basic, Extended or PBR materials​

    • Material Editor

  • Texture Palette​

    • Up to 8 Texture units​

    • Flip texture(s)

    • Delete unused

    • Detail Texure TexEnv with detail distance & Scale

  • Shader Palette

    • User GLSL Shaders​

  • Node Attribute Editor​

    • Extensive - for all node types​

  • Coordinate Panel

    • current, delta, distance, angle​

  • ​Context-sensitive Radial Menu system for quick mouse-gesture tool invokation.​

 

PLUGIN EXECUTION LISTS

 

Every file format importer and exporter can have a number of selected plugins or scripts automatically called pre and/or post import import or export. For example you could specify a Post Execution Plugin list of

  1. Flatten Transforms

  2. MakeTriList

...to be called after the OpenFlight Loader has successfully loaded a flt file into memory but before it is actually rendered. When this completes the model will have its discrete polys sorted Triangle Lists depending on the polys texture and material usage. The result is a huge performance boost!

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Other plugins that can be called in an execution list include...

  • Triangulate

  • Generate PrimSets

  • Decompose PrimSets

  • Strip

  • Unstrip

  • Select nodes based on comment contents

  • Select nodes based on other criteria or data values

  • Compute normals

  • Fix degenerate

  • Remove empty Groups

  • Rename nodes

  • etc​

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FLEXIBLE LICENSING

 

Geo STUDIO Pro is available with either a Node-locked, software Dongle-Locked or a Network-Floating license. A Node-Locked license locks the software to one particular PC. The Software-Dongle license allows the user to deactivate and activate the license on any PC. The Network-Floating license server leases out as many instances of Geo concurrently as were purchased with the Network option and at which level.

 

There is a price premium for the flexibility afforded by the dongle and floating licenses (contact sales@carbongraphics.com for details). Licensing requires an active network connection but Geo STUDIO Pro can be manually activated by users that run on a closed network (e.g. military networks).

 

A timed trial license is available for Geo STUDIO Pro. Trial licenses are available upon request for corporate customers only. Please note that Trial licenses are fully functional (including file import/export in order to fully evaluate Geo STUDIO's interoperability with existing workflows.

 

FILE FORMAT SUPPORT

 

Geo supports the following file formats

  • Import

    • Carbon Graphic's GEO

    • OpenFlight FLT

      • Versions 15.4 through 16.8​

    • Khronos GLTF 

    • Khronos GLB

      • Version 2.0​

    • Khronos GLB​

    • Designers Workbench DWB

    • Aechelon Technologies HIE

    • Aechelon Technologies PTO

    • Aechelon Technologies DB

    • Wavefront OBJ

    • AC3D AC

    • 3DStudio 3DS

  • Export

    • Carbon Graphic's GEO​

    • OpenFlight FLT

      • User Preference allows export of specific OpenFlight versions​

        • 15.41​

        • 15.51

        • 15.6

        • 15.7

        • 15.8

        • 16.0

        • 16.1

        • 16.2

        • 16.3

        • 16.4

        • 16.6

        • 16.8

      • Designers Workbench DWB​

      • Aechelon HIE

      • Wavefront OBJ

 

APPEARANCE TOOLS

 

  • Get & Put Color.

  • Get & Put Material

  • Get & Put Texture

  • Get &Put Shader

  • Vertex Tangent & Binormals 

  • 3-Point Planar Texture Mapping Tool

  • Per-Face Texture Mapping Tool

  • Cylinder Texture Mapping Tool

  • Sphere Texture Mapping Tool

  • Get & Put Texture Mapping Info

  • 2D Texture Space Mapping Tool

  • Put UVs

  • Compress Texture Unit usage

  • Walk UVs

  • Copy UVs between Texture Units

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

CUSTOM DEVELOPMENT

 

Carbon Graphics is available to create your custom Geo STUDIO plugin. The pricing for contract engineering varies based on the intended use of the developed plugin—whether it’s for exclusive customer use, sold through Carbon Graphics as an optional feature, or integrated into Geo as part of bundled functionality. If you have complementary technology, we are happy to co-develop and sell a Geo plugin that brings your tech to our customers.

 

 

 

AUTO LOD GENERATION

 

Starting with the highest Level Of Detail (LOD) model - Select all the Render Groups that you wish to generate a lower LOD for and then choose the desired polygon reduction percentage (50%-80%). A new model with the lower poly count Render Groups will be created. Simply Copy/Paste these groups under an LOD Scene Graph node in the original file.

 

If the reduction percentage was too aggressive and removed desired geometry - retry with a lower percentage.

 

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SCENEGRAPH NODE TYPES

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  • Header

    • Root node for the file
    • Map Projection

    • Ellipsoid model

    • Database Origin and Lat/Lon corners

  • Group

    • Rotate Translate Scale & general 4x4 Matrix Transforms​

    • TOD visibility

  • Switch

    • ​Child visibility Bit masks

  • LOD

    • ​Distance or Screen coverage

    • Switch in & out

  • Render Group

    • Equivalent to a Flt Object​

    • Material Ref (for material batching)

  • Decal Group

  • Light Group

    • Fixed or Mobile​

    • Animation

  • Instance

  • External

  • DCS (equivalent to a Flt DOF )

    • Translate XYZ​

    • Rotate XYZ

    • Scale XYZ

  • Sequence

    • Forward or Back Direction​

    • Swing

    • Frame Time

  • Clip Region

  • Page

  • Visibility Group

  • Multi-Tex Shader

  • Cull Group

  • Z-Offset Group

  • Multi-Sample Anti-Alias Group

  • Line Anti-Alias Group

  • Fade Group

  • User Group

  • Point

    • Defines a 3D coordinate system​ or pivot point

  • Polygon

    • Draw Style​

    • Shade Model

    • Material Palette Ref

    • Shader Palette Ref

    • Decals (Subfaces)

    • Up to 8 Texture Units

  • Mesh

    • Triangle-Strip, Triangle-Fan or Triangles​

    • Inherits all Polygon attributes

  • PrimSet

    • equivalent to a Flt Mesh node​

    • a collection of Mesh nodes

    • Shared local vertex palette

  • Light Point

    • Direction vector​

    • Directionality (Omni, Uni, Bi)

    • Lobe angle

  • Text

    • Raster, Vector or Texture Fonts​

  • User Prim 

 

SUPPORT & MAINTENANCE

 

Carbon Graphics' maintenance is an optional (typically) yearly fee based on a % of the original product purchase price. Maintenance is highly recommended and provides direct contact to our engineers along with influence on the Carbon Graphics' product roadmap and timing. You also get free upgrades to any product version released during maintenance coverage as well as any needed patch releases for critical bug fixes.

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An alternative maintenance option is our product Life-Time maintenance option  which is a one-time maintenance payment for your product purchase(s). This puts you on maintenance and support for the lifetime of your purchased products. So no annual maintenance fees. Obviously this option costs more than the typical annual maintenance fee but it pays for itself very quickly.

 

Contact sales@carbongraphics.com for additional information.

 

THEMES & MORE IN FOUR

 

  • Geo STUDIO version 4.0 introduces UI themes for the first time. Version 4.0 has a flat light and dark mode theme  that completely modifies the user interface. We will probably roll out additional themes in the future.

  • You can now change some built-in application colors...

    • Selection Color​

      • The color used for wireframe highlighting. You can also set the selection linewidth (within reason)​

    • Tool Geometry Color

      • The color used by tools when drawing temporary geometry like extruded polys​

    • Outline Color​

      • The color used when the global draw style override is set to Wire-over-Solid​

  • This capability makes it easy to set up the app in a way that helps with eye strain, familiarity with other applications etc.

    • ​​

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DATA-DRIVEN BEHAVIOR

 

Geo STUDIO features a comprehensive data-driven Behavior System that animates geometry and node properties in real-time. Each node (excluding vertices) can possess between 0 to 8 Behaviors, with each Behavior comprising 1 to 8 actions.

 

Actions are small algorithmic code blocks that are driven by a named variable. Variables can be...

  • Internal

    • Managed by Geo

    • Great for debugging & stimulating real simulation behaviors.

  • Local

    • User defined within Geo

    • Local Vars can be Active which means they auto-update when Behvaior is active

  • Simulation

    • The actual runtime simulation variables used in a simulator.

    • Geo can sync to the real simulator data via a shared memory or ethernet interface

 

Actions take the input variable value and manipulate it in some way (depending on the Action type) and then output a value to the Action's output variable. Actions can therefor be chained together with the last Action in a behavior usually being a Display Action Ultimately, a display action will transform, reveal, change the appearance of, or conceal geometry based on the value of its input variable.

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Data Actions include...

  • Clamp

    • constrains an input value

  • Range

    • remaps a variable's range (i.e from -1 -> 1 to 0 -> 360)

  • Arithmetic​

    • ​add, subtract, multiply, divide or assignment operations 

  • Comparison operations​

  • Linear and periodic equations

  • Trig functions

  • Discrete

    • Switch-statement like functionality

  • If Then Else​

  • Mod and ABS operators

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Display Actions include...

  • Rotate

  • Translate

  • Scale

  • String content

  • Color Ramp

  • Material

  • Texture

  • Visibility

  • Visibility Group

  • DCS 

    • Like a data-driven DOF node​

  • State Machine​

    • The State Machine editor can define reusable FSM's that drive actions based on the state machine logic and rules​

 

​Behaviors are dynamically tested and debugged internally, with the Variable-Watch, Variable-Override, and Variable-Exercise windows aiding in this process.

 

MODELING TOOLS

 

Geo provides a number of tools and features to assist in 3d model creation and editing...

  • Primitive Creation

    • Polygon
    • Mesh
    • Circle
    • Rectangle
    • Text
  • Shape Tools 
    • Cone, Cube, Cylinder, Sphere​
  • Loft
  • Extrude
  • Bevel Face
  • Bevel Edge
  • Duplicate
  • Mirror
  • Light Point Tools
    • Random by area, Light String by number, Light String by delta etc.​
  • Instrument Tools
    • Radial tick marks, Linear tick marks etc.​
  • Strip Face
  • 3 View Template
  • Tube tool
  • Surface of Revolution
  • Proxy Replace
  • Transform Tools
    • Rotate, Translate, Box Translate, Scale, Scale along vector, Scale to size, Rotate about Edge
  • Move Vertex
  • Flip face
  • Slice
  • Merge Polys
  • Turn Edge
  • Triangulate
  • Cut insert
  • Generate PrimSets
  • Decompose PrimSets
  • Strip Polys
  • Unstrip Meshes
  • Make Triangle Lists
  • Fix Orientation
  • Alignment Tools
  • Distribution Tools
  • Project
  • Flatten
  • Selection Tools
    • Many​
  • Grid Manipulation Tools
  • Edit tools
    • Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Undo
  • Normal calculation Tools
  • Scene-Graph Editing Tools
    • Many​
  • LOD Tools
    • Automatic LOD generation
  • Helper Point Tools
    • ​

      • Ambient, Diffuse, Specular, Emissive & Shininess

  • Classic OpenGL materials​

  • Extended Materials​

    • These completely encapsulate and define poly rendering and consist of the following optional components...​

    • Ambient, Diffuse, Alpha,  Specular & Emissive - all with RGB and 4 texture layers

    • Normal Map, Bump Map, Light Map, Shadow Map, Horizon Map & Reflection Map - all with 1 Texture layer

  • PBR Materials​

    • Full support for GLTF PBR materials plus UV offset & scale

    • Diffuse Map

    • Metallic Roughness Map

    • Ambient Occlusion Map

    • Normal Map

    • Emissive Map

    • Ambient Intensity

    • Alpha cutoff & Alpha mode

    • Specular

    • Index of Refraction

    • Unlit

    • SpecularGlossiness

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