How related can be 2D and 3D libraries?

People have been asking me if I'm doing a completely new piece of software and new studies/researches for 3D tasks.

Well ... the answer is "yes and no". It sounds strange, but I will explain.

I'm really doing new libraries regarding source code. Despite in a Math sense a lot of 2D operations and transformations are just a special (simpler) case of 3D ones, the 2D implementation shouldn't pay the overhead of a 3D (more complex) one.

Anyway, after some more time, it will bring other good consequences. Usually, to be really flexible, 3D rendering software need a very modularized project, usually not needed in 2D rendering software. Being clearer: every software should have modularization and encapsulation (preferably in a object-oriented meaning), but it's a good idea take this to extreme in 3D projects. So, if you can, don't mix 2D and 3D libraries.

Just in a software sense, I'm creating new libraries. But, considering all of this in a Math sense, things are not so disjoint. If you understand and know how to implement math in 2D world, usually you are able to generalize it for 3 (or more) dimensions without study a lot.

Even separated in different source files or so, 2D and 3D libraries can be very related concerning analytic geometry and vector calculus.

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Picture to People tutorials about CG

Now P2P site has an evolving "Tutorials" section about Computer Graphics (CG). There I tell how to render nice images or how to get better graphics with Picture to People.

Just taking a look at the tutorials images (without read the text), it's possible realize Picture to People tools are more flexible than you can imagine at first moment. Of course you can already get nice results just with the trivial use, but, with imagination and a good mix of all functionalities, the possibilities are almost endless.

Regarding I intend to improve a lot the number of features of P2P site, maybe someday in future I can even write a book about good practices and what you can make using its tools.

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Managing P2P software project

Picture to People project has more than 1 million lines of code. As you can imagine, it's not easy to manage a big amount of software like that.

Now I have been making a restructuring of most of libraries. It's boring and generate no direct product.

Anyway, since the source code gets more complex day by day, as the time goes I will feel the benefits of this work.

Beside this, I'm recoding some very low level libraries in a better way. Hard work for overall improvement of P2P.

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Transforming 3D objects

Now Picture to People 3D libraries can make geometric transformations over some kinds of complex 3D objects.

After some more development effort it will be possible make transformations over the camera.

Above you can see an "a" letter after applying some geometric transformations.

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Complex 3D objects

Now Picture to People 3D libraries can deal with complex 3D objects. By "complex" I mean objects composed by two or more simple objects, and they can even have holes.

An important point is the libraries can correctly represent the holes normals of these complex 3D shapes.

Above you can see a 3D "a" letter in wire-frame correctly drew with its hole and all its important normals.

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