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Show HN: 3D model file thumbnails for Windows Explorer

77 points by eyhn 4y ago

sph 4y ago
You might want to add "Show HN:" to the title, as this is your creation.
- eyhn 4y ago
  You are right, thanks for reminding
folli 4y ago
That's cool! Related question: is there a straightforward way to generate a preview image (PNG or JPG or whatever) from a 3D model (e.g. GLTF file)?
- eyhn 4y ago
  Yes, there is a command line program in the repository https://github.com/EYHN/space-thumbnails/tree/main/crates/cli https://github.com/EYHN/space-thumbnails/tree/main/crates/cl... USAGE: space-thumbnails-cli.exe [OPTIONS] --input <INPUT> <OUTPUT> Currently it is not released in github release, you need to build it manually. It is written in rust, if you don't know much about rust, let me know I can help you.
fexelein 4y ago
Hope it’s fast. I’m using a similar plugin which really is fast, but so many others are not!
- eyhn 4y ago
  In fact, this is just a preview version, there is still a lot of room for speed optimization, such as the current re-initialization of rendering contexts for each generation, caching contexts can save a lot of time
- saint_angels 4y ago
  can you share which fast plugin are you using?
marie159 4y ago
[flagged]
high_byte 4y ago
I wanted something like this. it's really cool but unfortunately it freezes explorer & crashes for most of my folders...
- eyhn 4y ago
  Sorry, it is a preview version, it may get stuck when large models or error files, I will try to fix this issue in next version.
alkonaut 4y ago
Entering a new era when something written in rust can be on HN without saying "written in Rust".
- pjerem 4y ago
  I’m glad you commented so I can know it’s written in Rust :D
- jeroenhd 4y ago
  You're not wrong, but every time someone omits "written in Rust", someone comments about how great it is that people don't add that to the title anymore.
- recuter 4y ago
  Honestly, 3D model file thumbnails would require some sweet performant code so we all just assumed this was written in Rust anyway ;)
  - gfxgirl 4y ago
    well, not really. you load the data and pass it to the GPU. There's no real work to do on the CPU. I'm not saying it's trivial to write a viewer but to doesn't require performant code. I've written a GLTF viewer in JavaScript. You parse the JSON, pass the data to the GPU, apply shaders. It requires knowledge of how to render 3D and PBR but it's a day or 2 project to get working if you know the topic and no part of it requires any perf.
    - recuter 4y ago
      So you're saying this could only properly be done with Rust. Hear, hear.
causality0 4y ago
Oh nice. Sometimes when I'm iterating on a model really fast I'll have a whole list of model(1), model(2), etc files and having thumbnails would be a great help in differentiating them.
pjerem 4y ago
It’s nice ! I don’t do 3D but I miss all those little life enhancements I feel we have lost during the past decades. The nowadays version of this would be an explorer dedicated to 3D projects. Well done !
Mike-br 4y ago
Looks great. It would be great if you could continue to develop this project.
- eyhn 4y ago
  Yes, there is a roadmap here https://github.com/EYHN/space-thumbnails/issues/1 https://github.com/EYHN/space-thumbnails/issues/1
jeroenhd 4y ago
I don't really have a lot of 3D models to view, but I did find it interesting to see how well the Windows API crate for Rust integrates with the COM stuff that Microsoft likes to use for these APIs. It's farf from trivial, but it's quite clear code to read and doesn't require too much language hacking. I've never thought it would be this easy to extend the Windows shell with anything other than C(++)!
- fassssst 4y ago
  Enabling multiple languages to consume the Windows API was the whole motivation behind COM. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/com/the-component-object-model https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/com/the-compo...
- eyhn 4y ago
  I tried to use sharpshell and C# to do this at first, but the tools for sharpshell are too old and not maintained for years. Then I found microsoft/windows-rs and it was very easy to implement the COM interface using Rust, all thanks to the work of microsoft/windows-rs, but there is not a lot of documentation about this and you need to read a lot of code.
dagmx 4y ago
FWIW it would be nice for the README to link to both Filament and Assimp, since they're doing quite a bit of the heavy lifting here. Also because, in the case of Assimp, it supports a lot more formats than you list. However even for the listed formats, it has several issues. Especially for reverse engineered formats, which might not be an intuitive thought for many users who don't know what's backing this.
- eyhn 4y ago
  You are definitely right, I have added them to the readme
smoldesu 4y ago
This is cool, a lot of Linux filemanagers do this and it's great for dealing with big "Blender/" folders.
kennydude 4y ago
Looks like this supports a lot more than Microsoft PowerToys which can do a couple formats https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/powertoys/file-explorer https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/powertoys/file-expl...

77 points by eyhn 4y ago

sph 4y ago

You might want to add "Show HN:" to the title, as this is your creation.

eyhn 4y ago
You are right, thanks for reminding

folli 4y ago

That's cool! Related question: is there a straightforward way to generate a preview image (PNG or JPG or whatever) from a 3D model (e.g. GLTF file)?

eyhn 4y ago
Yes, there is a command line program in the repository https://github.com/EYHN/space-thumbnails/tree/main/crates/cli https://github.com/EYHN/space-thumbnails/tree/main/crates/cl... USAGE: space-thumbnails-cli.exe [OPTIONS] --input <INPUT> <OUTPUT> Currently it is not released in github release, you need to build it manually. It is written in rust, if you don't know much about rust, let me know I can help you.

fexelein 4y ago

Hope it’s fast. I’m using a similar plugin which really is fast, but so many others are not!

eyhn 4y ago
In fact, this is just a preview version, there is still a lot of room for speed optimization, such as the current re-initialization of rendering contexts for each generation, caching contexts can save a lot of time
saint_angels 4y ago
can you share which fast plugin are you using?

marie159 4y ago

[flagged]

high_byte 4y ago

I wanted something like this. it's really cool but unfortunately it freezes explorer & crashes for most of my folders...

eyhn 4y ago
Sorry, it is a preview version, it may get stuck when large models or error files, I will try to fix this issue in next version.

alkonaut 4y ago

Entering a new era when something written in rust can be on HN without saying "written in Rust".

pjerem 4y ago
I’m glad you commented so I can know it’s written in Rust :D
jeroenhd 4y ago
You're not wrong, but every time someone omits "written in Rust", someone comments about how great it is that people don't add that to the title anymore.
recuter 4y ago
Honestly, 3D model file thumbnails would require some sweet performant code so we all just assumed this was written in Rust anyway ;)
- gfxgirl 4y ago
  well, not really. you load the data and pass it to the GPU. There's no real work to do on the CPU. I'm not saying it's trivial to write a viewer but to doesn't require performant code. I've written a GLTF viewer in JavaScript. You parse the JSON, pass the data to the GPU, apply shaders. It requires knowledge of how to render 3D and PBR but it's a day or 2 project to get working if you know the topic and no part of it requires any perf.
  - recuter 4y ago
    So you're saying this could only properly be done with Rust. Hear, hear.

causality0 4y ago

Oh nice. Sometimes when I'm iterating on a model really fast I'll have a whole list of model(1), model(2), etc files and having thumbnails would be a great help in differentiating them.

pjerem 4y ago

It’s nice ! I don’t do 3D but I miss all those little life enhancements I feel we have lost during the past decades. The nowadays version of this would be an explorer dedicated to 3D projects. Well done !

Mike-br 4y ago

Looks great. It would be great if you could continue to develop this project.

eyhn 4y ago
Yes, there is a roadmap here https://github.com/EYHN/space-thumbnails/issues/1 https://github.com/EYHN/space-thumbnails/issues/1

jeroenhd 4y ago

I don't really have a lot of 3D models to view, but I did find it interesting to see how well the Windows API crate for Rust integrates with the COM stuff that Microsoft likes to use for these APIs. It's farf from trivial, but it's quite clear code to read and doesn't require too much language hacking. I've never thought it would be this easy to extend the Windows shell with anything other than C(++)!

fassssst 4y ago
Enabling multiple languages to consume the Windows API was the whole motivation behind COM. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/com/the-component-object-model https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/com/the-compo...
eyhn 4y ago
I tried to use sharpshell and C# to do this at first, but the tools for sharpshell are too old and not maintained for years. Then I found microsoft/windows-rs and it was very easy to implement the COM interface using Rust, all thanks to the work of microsoft/windows-rs, but there is not a lot of documentation about this and you need to read a lot of code.

dagmx 4y ago

FWIW it would be nice for the README to link to both Filament and Assimp, since they're doing quite a bit of the heavy lifting here. Also because, in the case of Assimp, it supports a lot more formats than you list. However even for the listed formats, it has several issues. Especially for reverse engineered formats, which might not be an intuitive thought for many users who don't know what's backing this.

eyhn 4y ago
You are definitely right, I have added them to the readme

smoldesu 4y ago

This is cool, a lot of Linux filemanagers do this and it's great for dealing with big "Blender/" folders.

kennydude 4y ago

Looks like this supports a lot more than Microsoft PowerToys which can do a couple formats https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/powertoys/file-explorer https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/powertoys/file-expl...