Qt3D

Basically, this page is about the debian package that I built from the ​GitHub sources, compatible with Qt 4.8.1.

However, let me first dwell here a bit on the ​Qt3D module of the ​Qt environment.

I have been using it for quite some while (Qt version 4.8.1), whence it was available as a GitHub repository and basically in full functionality. The example that started it all was the "teapot". Qt3D not only draws 3D objects through triangles ("tesselation") but also a nifty magic: It has a second buffer where for each pixel in the real image it will draw a another pixel in the second buffer in a certain fixed color. This color is defined by assigning a 3D object an object id. When the user is clicking the object, the color is picked from the second buffer and the program knows which object the user has tried to access.

This is the very functionality that I require for molecuilder. Atoms are 3D objects (spheres) and I want to make them clickable for selection, ...

This is all nice and shiny cause Qt3D seemed very stable and well-working. However, it never (for like 4 years up till now) integrated into the full Qt environment. I don't know why but even with Qt5.5. it is still a "tech preview". However, to me, this was the sign, that Qt3D is becoming final and it is worthwhile to invest some time into making molecuilder into a debian package including the GUI.

Making a debian package