This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (664 messages)
Doug, Wizard's models do have hierarchy. The standard models have simple hands (without finger joints) but they do sell a very good set of jointed and hierarchal hands separately. Alec Jason
Roger, Sorry to take so long to reply. I really don't know much about the technical requirements for upgrading from 33 to 66 mhz. We just pulled out the old cpu and stuck in the new one and that was that: 66 mhz. I suggest you call Intel's hotline for…
I want to also heartily endorse Tom Knight's (Wizard) human models. Tom has advanced the human model far beyond anything previously available. The level of photorealism is astounding — and they come with clothing. They are, however, complex items but his models provide a much higher level of detail and…
TRANTOR DRIVERS
Message #25090
If anyone has the Trantor SCSI contoller driver for a SCSI hard drive (NOT for the CD-ROM), please contact or call me. I'm still stuck. Alec Jason 510-724-1003 (PS: This request expires on Monday, 19 Oct.)
Thanks Jack, but what you've given me is for the CD-ROM. My CD-ROM works fine, no problems at all. My question is what the .sys file (or whatever else is needed) to access a NEW SCSI HARD DRIVE ALSO CONNECTED TO THE SAME SCSI CONTROLLER. Do you have a SCSI…
#Trantor SCSI Card
Message #25053
URGENT! URGENT ! If anyone is using the Trantor SCSI Host Adaptor (which comes with the Texel CD-ROM drive) to control a scsi hard drive, could you please let me know what driver file to use. I have installed a new scsi HD to the adaptor card but I believe…
Martin, I can't really give you any good tips on chip removal. I had my local clone dealer guy pull the chip. I was ready to see what kind of tools and techniques he used but all he did was reach in, wiggle, and pull the thing out. It was…
Gary, Yeah, those pages were very informative. I've just finished my upgrade to 32 meg ram and from 33 to 66 mhz. Everything works very well now — and very fast. The ram used indicator now tells me that I need 24 megs to render out one frame from this…
Gary, With one file I am unable to render even a single frame (at 320×200, phong, low, display only). I get a "NO RAM FOR BITMAP" message. Can you tell me what are the "heaviest" items in a project file? Is it the maps, the materials, the vertices, objects, faces?…
Hi Martin, No, I've just been very busy with bodies and bullets. I'm working now on a big animation for a murder trial down your way soon. Thanks for the advice on the chip removal. I've got a crowbar, a dent puller and a jar of Vaseline ready. Alec Jason
Gary, The message states exactly: "ERROR WRITING FILE: NOT ENOUGH SPACE" I'm not using high palette but custom palette. I forget what the current status tells me exactly but it says that all my ram has been used and there are many, many swaps and faults. But I have succesfully…
Thanks for your reply, Yann. I'd -like- to always start with a "clean, 100 megs" of HD space but where do you find all those unused sectors? I'm going to get a 240 Quantum HD with 256k cache with, I'm told, an access speed of 9ms. This might help –…
Alan By using the Intel Overdrive 66 mhz processor, my computer will become a DX2/66. There is no other version, all DX2/66's will use one of the two Overdrive chips so there can not be a difference in performance. Its amazing but I cannot find anyone who knows anything about…
#"Error Writing File"
Message #24798
Gary, I have had several times when my rendering has been terminated with the message: "Error writing file: not enough space." The rendering has maxed out my 16 megs of ram and the computer has to page to disk. Am I correct in assuming that even though I have 7…
33 TO 66 MHZ
Message #24724
I'm planning to upgrade my 486/33 to 66 mhz with an Intel Overdrive chip and after talking directly with Intel, I've found out some interesting things; If you have a motherboard with an Overdrive socket, you can get the 169 pin version of the Overdrive, stick it in, turn the…
I can strongly recommend the NEC 5FG 17" monitor. I've been using with 3DS for a few months and it is excellent. Alec Jason
Mike, Yeah, I see what you mean about the two arms not always moving in the same manner . . . hmmm . . . I'm getting mentally fuzzy about the problem so this may be dumb but how about scaling the arm down and then scaling a new one…
Mike, I forgot to mention: When you make a copy of the arm, use tracks/copy/relative thereby duplicating the relative movements of the sword arm "into" the opposite arm. I'm not sure it will work but its what I would try. It's an interesting problem. Alec Jason
Mike, How about this: At the frame before the arms need to move in a linked fashion, scale down the left arm to one percent and then scale up a copy of the arm which has been linked to the sword (or other arm. Then, after the swordfight, you can…
#Rule Violation
Message #17346
Oye Maestro, This seems strange to me . . . I rendered a single frame and found the following: Phong/High 144 secs Phong/Med 123 secs Phong/Low 106 secs So far, so good but . . . Gouraud/High 149 secs Gouraud/Med 127 secs Gouraud/Low 150 secs Compare the Phongs with the…
Good Article
Message #15677
Evan, That was an excellent article in the May issue of Byte on Photo-Realism. Very well written and organized. I learned a lot (I always wondered where the word "Phong" came from.) I didn't know you were that smart Can you recommend an article which explains the basics of video…
Steve, I don't think you understand my question. I need to know if you can synch audio to fli files and LOCK the synch throughout the entire fli file. Alec Jason
Steve, Can you please tell me about how your SB board synchs to a .fli frame? Does it synch to the first frame and then just play along or can you lock particular audio points to particular frames? I need to synch audio to each frame or perhaps every tenth…
Si, Senor! Yeah, I know I should have used mesh objects instead of clones. I didn't realize that I was painting myself into a corner until late in the job. I might be able to live with the situation if I can change the HF's hair color by linking on…
Kevin, Thanks for your input, but . . . Maybe I don't get it but I can't make your (or Jack's) procedure work. The object I want to replace is an instance object (clone) which means it does not exist in the 3D Editor: only in the Keyframer. There is…
Hi Gary, When you feel up to it, I'd be grateful for a solution to my problem of trying to replace a clone of a Viewpoint human figure (HF) with a new mesh HF. Copy tracks doesn't seem to work. John Mellor couldn't help. (see my message #15240). I might…
I'm not sure of this but it seems that my dongle wants to see the printer in the same status (off or on) as it was the last time I used 3DS. My dongle goes to an A/B box and then to either my laser or dot matrix printer. I…
Jack, Thanks very much. I'm going to play around with your suggestions. Thanks again, Alec Jason
Gary, I've looked into this a bit and I have come to the conclusion that sound and animation (fli's + flic's) cannot be played back in precise synch with any existing audio cards and/or software. Be advised that many dealers and even manufacturers will tell that their boards/software will synch…
Alan, Thanks very much for your suggestions. I guess a marble type bump map will create the appearance of wrinkles by varying the color thereby providing dark spots simulating shadows. Am I on the right track? I tried the r2.0 "noise" and "vary" sxp's and they do something similar, I…
Thanks Gary, I'll look into Gene's technique. Which bump map do you suggest? Thanks for the offer of help but I haven't created any garments yet. I'm not sure I need them at this point but keep your .pxp's warmed up. How come you left out mesh clothing items from…
Evan, I don't think ripple will work. I want stationary, non-moving wrinkles. Thanks anyway. Alec Jason
#Wrinkles and Heaps
Message #12480
Martin, Can you (or anyone else) anyone kindly suggest a method of creating wrinkled bed sheets and jumpled up clothing? I'm working on a homicide case and there are many items of clothing laying around the house. Thanks, Alec Jason
Bruce, Interesting. I still don't understand exactly what point the animation was supposed to demonstrate but if it's something difficult to substantiate and/or difficult to believe then animation will not likely help and may even prove to be counterproductive. The GI=GO principle will still prevail even when filtered through fancy…
I think you're right, Evan. There has to be a strong legal foundation for ANY item of evidence. I don't know what happened in the King case regard ing the denial but I spoke with the animator a week ago and I knew he had a very difficult project. I'm…
#r2 QUESTION
Message #11778
Gary, Thanks very much the "H" key. It sure makes selecting an object easy. Very valuable feature. Two odd occurrances: 1. From a top view, I displayed the path of an object and the path was shown off to one side and above the object — not connected to it.…
June, I know very little about all this but one thought keeps popping up as I read your continuing saga: You appear to be using one fli file for testing: have you tried OTHER fli's? Do they ALL crash the same way? Alec Jason
Gary, I finally had time to try some of the new features on r2 and I must congratulate you for the path editing feature. Wow! It provides another level of control and creation and the ability to do very "fine tuning." I particularly like to use the paths with the…
Good points, Martin. BTW, I don't we'll have to be building as many meshes as we used to now that r2 is here. I couldn't say anything about the CD last night but when I first learned about it, it was to me a very, very welcome feature. "Clip art"…
Thanks for your suggestions, Martin I've got a lot to learn, I know. But I am not an artist and I had a hell of a difficult time trying to create (draw?) even the simple beer bottle I used in the animation. I realize that a real artist or draftsman…
John, You're going to call it the "Mitchell Man" ? I call him "Artie" or "The GHMF" (pronouced "gumpf") for Generic Human Male Form. I did buy your anatomy collection for $395 and I thought that was expensive. After briefly (very briefly) attempting to create one myself, I ordered one…
Chris, Thanks for your reply. Interesting stuff you're into. What were you x-raying in flight? Alec Jason
#10069-
Cheap Video output
Message #10093
Buck, You sure have courage to publicly admit that you use something less than "broadcast quality" gear! From the talk around here, I thought anyone who didn't output frame by frame at the highest resolution to Betacam or D2 was a sissy In my experience in (non animation) video production,…
Jack, You've got some great ideas. Coffee, jeans, VGA card: I hadn't thought of those angles. Start making some phone calls and I'll give you 10% Let's not forget I was using an INTEL cpu and I think I drank some Pepsi's ! I must tell you that in spite…
Hi Scottv, Yes, you were the one who referred me to ASOFT when I first began looking into 3D animation. I started with the Generic Forum becuase I had never heard of 3DS — only Generic 3D. You really did help me by educating me about 3DS. I believe you…
Ken, One thing I forget to mention: be sure to SCAN any floppies which might have been in a drive. And let's practice "safe computing." Alec Jason
No, Robert. When it took 12 hours, the frames went by so slow that they failed to activate my glee glands. Alec Jason
Ken, Glad to read that you got out of a very bad situation. About a year ago I bought a 386 with a HD from a store and after five days of going crazy trying to get everything to work (I had intermittant problems), I finally ran McAfee's SCAN &…
#386-
33/Weitek or 486?
Message #8073
I've just upgraded to a 486 today (with no MCP) from a 386 33mhz with an INTEL MCP. I just finished rendering a file in 3 hours and 20 minutes on the 486. It took 12 hours on the 386. I found myself actually watching the rendering info screen with…
Hey Ken, are you trying to "UH" me? I guess we've been entertainng a bunch of people from the non-forum reaction I've had over this stuff. My response wasn't about something being in the manual — it goes back further than that but its all over now. I want to…
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