OGLE - The OpenGLExtractor

Today I came across an interesting application that allows you to capture and re-use 3D geometry data from 3D graphics applications, including games, running on Microsoft Widnows.

It works by observing the data flowing between 3D applications and the system's OpenGL library, and recording that data in a standard 3D file format. In other words, a 'screen grab' or 'view source' operation for 3D data.

The primary motivation for developing OGLE is to make available for re-use the 3D forms we see and interact with in our favorite 3D applications. Video gamers have a certain love affair with characters from their favorite games; animators may wish to reuse environments or objects from other applications or animations which don't provide data-level access; architects could use this to bring 3D forms into their proposals and renderings; and digital fabrication technologies make it possible to automatically instantiate 3D objects in the real world.

You can check it out over here. They have an example in which they captured one of their World of Warcraft characters and render it into the real physical world with the Dimension BST 3D printer. Quite amazing stuff.