[svlug] Tux Paint 'Magic' tools becoming plugins

[Chris Miller]

On 7/9/07, Bill Kendrick <nbs at sonic.net> wrote:
>
> Hot on the heels of the latest release of Tux Paint, I've begun adding a
> plugin API that allows the creation of new 'Magic' tools.  (Things like the
> grass and bricks painters, the blur and smudge effect, etc.)  I then yanked
> all of the existing Magic tools out of the core of Tux Paint and converted
> them into plugins.
>
> I'm far from done settling the (current version of the) API, or finishing
> the documentation, but I'm excited by the prospect of people being able
> to more easily contribute new tools to the Tux Paint project, and wanted
> to share with my local LUGs.

Be careful this doesn't turn into the replacement for the aging GIMP,
will 'ya?  I know it's tempting because GIMP hasn't got some color
support, but they try really hard.  ;^)

> In fact, I'm eager to see Tux Paint and its new plugin API being utilized
> by computer programming classes (in high schools, for example) as a
> relatively easy and fun way of teaching graphics programming.

Most of my contacts in that industry are geared around 3D
programming/artistry.  If you built a way to import a 3D model file
and paint on top of that directly instead of having to paint
individual textures and then do a final composite to a mipmap later
that'd be a new thing for the Industry AFAIK.

Also, since NVIDIA's release of a discreet 3D graphics processor
specifically for mobile phones, all that market is going 3D faster
than you can say "Moore's Law."  Curiously that processor is built off
of a GeForce 4... I used a GF4 for years.  Great little card, that
little guy.  I wonder which junk server I left him in...  Oh, the
A1400.  I remember now.