Recruitment: tsunami visualization tool [paid]

We're looking for a python-ogre expert to help with the upgrading of an existing tsunami visualization tool. This work is being coordinated by EDM Studio under contract to Geoscience Australia. The existing program (windows build available here) is OpenSceneGraph-based and written in pure C++. We're using the upgrade as an opportunity to switch to python-ogre. The low-level work is nearing completion, culminating in a python-ogre package with a high-level API for reading the tsunami data files and creating Ogre entities. We have 3 weeks to complete the front-end. Tasks include

1. OIS-based class to replicate the existing program's pan/zoom/roll "feel". This continuity is necessary as Geoscience Australia scientists have been using the existing program in their daily work for several years. [/*:m]
   
2. Either CEGUI or betaGUI implementation of menus (this is part of upgrade, no menus in existing program).[/*:m]
   
3. Ability to record, save, replay user actions.[/*:m]
   
4. Ability to save animation as a standalone movie (worse case scenario, numbered images, best-case scenario, a standard format such as AVI, quicktime or theora).[/*:m]
   
5. Shader work to achieve improved visual look (not python specific)[/*:m][/list:u]
   If you are a talented python-ogre programmer who believes in unit testing and good OO design, and you're available to work on this project in some capacity over the coming weeks, feel free to PM me. Include details about expected hourly rate (please quote in US dollars). Payment terms will be a PayPal transfer within 30 days following receipt of your invoice for work completed. You must be willing to assign copyright on your work to EDM Studio so that we can similarly transfer the final work to Geoscience Australia (who, I believe, will continue releasing this package under the terms of the GPL).
   
   

I should point out that you don't have do *all* of the tasks. We are quite happy to partition the work based on interest and ability.

We have had great success in the past with the main Ogre recruitment forum. We're curious if the python-ogre community similarly has people interested in paid work ...

I would certainly be interested in a bit of paid work, but I'm not exactly what you'd call an expert. If there's any small work I could help out with for around $8/hour + maybe a small performance related bonus, let me know!

bb (dot) esquire (at) gmail (dot) com

I would certainly be interested in a bit of paid work, but I'm not exactly what you'd call an expert. If there's any small work I could help out with for around $8/hour + maybe a small performance related bonus, let me know!

Hi Biggles, sorry for the delay in responding; I've been tied up with other projects for the last week.

I'll be perfectly honest and say that when someone offers to work for $8/hour, my initial reaction is one of fear ;-) We typically pay contract artists and programmers anywhere from $20 - $100/hour. The rate depends on a number of factors, most importantly demonstrated ability - up at $100/hour, you start to afford gurus who are many times more productive than us mortal folk. Below the lower bound, I'd worry about the amount of oversight necessary: cheap isn't cheap if you end up spending large amounts of time managing someone else's work. I'd be interested in seeing some of your code though (both python-ogre and just pure python). Maybe you're very good *and* willing to work for $8/hour [heh].

As a company, we are eager to pump money back into the python-ogre community. We are presently pitching large projects that will require many man-months of development work. If the lack of feedback to this post is any indicator, we're either going to have to go pure Ogre or hire generic python programmers and train them in python-ogre. It would be so much nicer to find them here.