About "4D Blue"

The Name

The origin of the name "4D Blue" is simple. I was searching for a name that’s catchy and bears a connection to the computer graphics and 3D applications. 4D is often used to describe 3D graphics in motion where time is the fourth dimension, and blue is my favorite color. And hence, "4D Blue" was born.

The Beginning

The idea behind this project began in the summer of 2003 when I was vacationing in Spain with my parents. While sitting at the edge of a swimming pool, I was mesmerized by the visual presentation of the pool and the iridescent water. Even though the geometry of the structures before me was simple--a swimming pool with curvy border, a single ladder, and lights--it was the play between the light and the water that made the whole scene memorable. The image’s visual impact took its root in my mind and refused to go away.


Upon my return, however, my new job at Maxis, now Electronic Arts, prevented me from exploring the initial idea further until the completion of the EA project at the end of November 2003. During the holiday seasons, I dusted off my old ray tracer that I wrote for a class in college, and began working by adding photon mapping features.

Although the pool was rectangular, the caustics looked good. To make the whole development process much easier, I extended my 3D modeler with UI interface to manipulate objects and their parameters. The idea of describing the whole scene in a text file didn't appeal to me; I knew the difficulty of working with them from experience: the non-intuitiveness of the transformations and the amount of time involved to achieve the optimal look. The endeavor on the project, however, was again deterred as I returned to my day job at Maxis. And it became increasingly challenging to devote more time towards my passion for 3D graphics when Maxis moved to EA headquarter at Redwood Shores.

Back at EA, I confronted a project of numerous changes in organization and code structure that was set within an unrealistic time-frame; furthermore, the tasks that were assigned to me had little to do with my area of expertise. My interview was clearly for a graphics position, but I hardly had a chance to work on anything 3D related. The closest that I ever got to 3D was writing 3DS Max plugins for about a month, of which the sole purpose was to get data out of it.

Subsequently in May of 2004, I made the decision to resign from a position that seemed to be a dead-end. I did not intend to return to the corporate environment for a while, and wanted to focus on my own life for a few months. Thus I started working full time on what has become known initially as the "Blue Light" project, and now officially the "4D Blue" Modeling, Animation and Rendering Suite.

The Goal

You may ask and probably wonder why I'm doing all of this? There are many reasons. First, I wanted to work for a while on a project that I truly enjoy. Second, I want my next job to be 100% 3D Graphics related, and there is nothing better than the resume and portfolio that demonstrate my strength. Third, I wanted to create a software that others will enjoy using because of its usefulness to them. I believe I succeeded with all of my goals.

The Current Status

I would like to emphasize that the released Version 1.0 Preview is a pre-Alpha version, and it is incomplete and unstable. The purpose of the release is to obtain user feedback and feature requests. And I wish to avoid the pitfall of blindly seeking for perfection while not being mindful of developing the most important features, and end up dealing with the ramification of an unusable and non-intuitive software. At the current state, the documentation is also nonexistent. The web-page, although simple, places more emphasis on functionality and readability than the appearance. My goal is to reach Alpha by the beginning of April, and from there I will see how things develop. My ultimate goal is to have a Release version by the end of summer, 2005. Many of you probably think that it is unrealistic, but I have worked for a company where we would move from Alpha to Beta and release within two to three months.

The Future

The future is never certain. At this stage, my goal is to complete the Version 1.0 Release. And the continuation of the project is contingent upon the subsequent user feedback, donations, and advertising revenues. If future circumstance limits the further development of “4D Blue”, I will consider the release of the source code as open source or I will find employment and update the project in my spare time while keeping the source code closed. No matter the outcome, I will say that I had heck of time working on "4D Blue"!