Is Ofelia a replacement for Gem?

Is it possible for a user create easy to moderate projects by only using Pd objects? In other words, can a user get work done it it without learning any new languages?

Yes, ofelia could replace Gem, as you can see in this picture. But it's a bit more difficult to understand at begining because the basic objects are not documented yet, all help files lead to the main [ofelia] object, double click on them lead to OpenFramework Graphics functions...

I don't know how to texture an object with a video file as simply as in Gem using few boxes, but it looks far more efficient.

Ofelia is a wrapper for openFrameworks that embed most of its functions and classes as Pd objects or Lua scripts. If you learn the logic and the syntax you could in theory program everything you can do in openFrameworks by just using Pd objects.

The problem is that while Gem has been designed with the final Pd user in mind, Ofelia is just a set functions. This means that it's much more flexible and powerful than Gem (where sometimes you are stuck with the way it was designed), but also that Ofelia in general ends up being very confusing and distracting for a beginner.

The solution for that would be to write better documentation and develop a set of abstractions to get stuff done quickly (like texturing on a 3D primitive, see here). This would have several advantages over Gem:

• These abstractions could either be done with just Ofelia Pd objects or with Lua scripts. Lua scripts are actually a big thing, maybe the most important achievement of Ofelia. You are now basically able to write Pd «externals» using a high level scripting language that hides all the complexity to the user (memory management and stuff like that).

• The graphic framework that Ofelia is built on has a very active community compared to Gem. This means that it is updated more often, uses updated software solutions and has a nice forum where a lot of questions have already been answered.

• Once you learn how to use openFrameworks in Pd, you can move on and script your own objects, either in Pd with Lua or in openFrameworks itself.

TLDR; I believe that Ofelia is a very young project with many usability issues, but it has a lot of potential and might actually replace Gem if enough people will start using it.

Thanks for the feedback. I've been impressed with what has been posted on the forum about it, and I was trying to figure out if I should attempt to bundle Ofelia with Purr Data. But it sounds like I should probably wait until the documentation/interface becomes more solid.

My (perhaps too) quick impression is: GEM is yesterday, Ofelia is tomorrow. Even as a novice with graphics, I feel like I'm already bumping up against the limitations of GEM but Ofelia looks like a wide-open field.

That might offset some of the feeling that the documentation isn't there yet.

Would it be any more or less work just to make it loadable in Purr Data?

hjh

That might offset some of the feeling that the documentation isn't there yet.

I'm not sure how that affects the documentation/lack of documentation.

Would it be any more or less work just to make it loadable in Purr Data?

It's the same amount of work either way. But the payoff for that work is smaller if the documentation/usability isn't there.

Edit: however, don't let me stop anyone from testing it with Purr Data. And if there are bugs in Purr Data that keep it from working with Ofelia please post an issue to the issue tracker.