This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (524 messages)
Interface Design
Message #188153
Tim, I too have tried to bevel text that the Deform/Bevel couldn't handle (which includes such highly intricate fonts as HELVETICA!! ), and have resorted to using Create/Outline in the Shaper. That's not a perfect solution either, as the resulting outlines are very often distorted and don't properly follow the…
#studio tutorial
Message #188152
"… few of those deal with pressure sensitivity …" Uh, of the programs Al listed, at least Corel (both Draw [for PowerLines] and Photo-Paint), Photoshop, Fractal Painter, and Fauve Matisse all use pressure sensitivity. That's not "few." That's a third of the programs he listed!
We thought of that and can do that. It just takes too long to be done on a regular basis. We used another workaround for the critical project mentioned. The point is that this is just something else that needs to be taken care of in the promised "continuing support…
#FIELD-NO-DOUBLE & .IFLs
Message #187419
HELP!! We're working on a project which requires smoothly-animated (as in field-rendered) MAPPING!! I was hoping that setting "FIELD-NO-DOUBLE" in the 3DS.SET file to ON/YES/TRUE would allow this. It apparently does not. It does cause each frame in the Keyframer to represent one rendered FIELD instead of one rendered FRAME,…
What the HECK is a .VLM?
Message #179278
VIB3DS.VLM. LSPEED.VLM. FPREVIEW.VLM. Under Novell Netware using the newer client shells, .VLM means Virtual Loadable Module, which can be located anywhere in memory (EMS, XMS, UMB, Conventional, whatever happens to be most efficient). But what do they mean in 3DS? I have the feeling that it means "Vibrant's Loadable Modules."…
#Field Render Design Flaw
Message #179277
Some time ago I posted about a "Field Render Design Flaw." At the time I couldn't think of any reason Gary would have done it the way he did it, as it made no sense in relation to actual field/frame timing in real video. But recently it occurred to me:…
#NURBS Modeler
Message #179276
We, too, would like info on your NURBS Modeller, including specs and pricing info. Thanks in advance.
If you check my original post on this subject, you will see that it came from an IBM announcement that a major subset of Win32 API calls would be supported by OS/2. I said that _IF_ 3DSr"5" doesn't _need_ API calls that aren't on this list, it would be compatible…
TAOS is sort of a "stealth" OS. It runs under other OSes, so you don't install it on a computer system. Instead, you bundle it with an application. It's sort of like Phar Lap 386|DOS-Extender in this regard — everyone who has 3D-Studio (or Animator Pro or AutoCAD 386 for…
BRADLEY, NO! You STILL DON'T GET IT!! You do NOT have to do ANY of that! One more time, with feeling: I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT **PORTING** 3DSr"5" TO OS/2!! I am talking about making the WINDOWS NT version (read that again, Bradley: THE WINDOWS NT VERSION!!) capable of running…
IPAS/Plug-Ins Wish List
Message #176753
So, is anyone working on that Outliner IPAS I described here some weeks ago yet? 🙂
Uh, James, uh, no one is talking about doing a SEPARATE OS/2 version. I am only talking about making the ONE AND ONLY version able to run under BOTH Windows NT _AND_ OS/2, which is feasible since IBM will support the vast majority of the Win32 API under future versions…
Oh yes Microsoft has TOO "so much as stumbled!" Or have you forgotten MS-DOS 4.0 already? Not to mention all and I do mean ALL versions of Windows prior to Windows 3.0? Remember when Windows was considered "Microsoft's attempted clone of GEM"? And most of the other companies I mentioned…
Oh, we will replace them. It's just that we were assured here that the bug could not possibly affect 3DS in any way. And yet it does. We didn't replace them before because we didn't think we needed to. We took the information given in this forum at face value.…
What were those "few things" that Warp wouldn't support? Your network? No big surprise there if so, because that's what OS/2 Warp CONNECT is for. OS/2 Warp was for stand-alone PCs. Oh, and OS/2 Warp Connect's network installation generally works much more smoothly than NT "3.5"'s. Of course, NT "3.51"…
#173531-
#Radiosity
Message #173933
I suppose that if the camera FOV never changed that an .IXP could do the job (one that does something similar to the "Map to Sphere" effects in CorelPHOTO-PAINT or PhotoShop etc. with mild settings), or perhaps the current camera FOV value could be output to the same file that…
As I understand it, all Intel FPUs from the original 8087 up to the "80587" built-into the Pentium use the maximum precision internally and drop to a lower precision only for the final result, to maintain the maximum possible accuracy. This is common among FPUs. In fact, there is an…
Jack, in a word, no. The screens we are viewing are flat (or very nearly so). They certainly don't have the real-world depth that their images portray. So they aren't affected by the curvature of perspective. And that is, in fact, the problem. As for viewing through a frame, if…
David, read my message again. The "flickering pixel" is along the edge of a BUMP MAP. Bump Mapping, especially in Release 3 and above, utilizes floating-point mathematics to get those nice smooth rounded edge shading effects. Note also that the View Log showed that EVERY SINGLE FRAME out of over…
Code to fix it in r"5" (r4 — what we have now is r3.5 at best and I am NOT going to let that slide!)? Would this mean doing it right, or just something to aid in keyframe reduction? Gary, this is not a major rewrite I'm talking about here.…
You're just not getting it, Paul. Sure, the straight lines would line up with the straight lines of the frame, but that's because the frame itself is also subject to perspective and is thus visually curved to the same degree. Besides, the main point here is in FLYING ANIMATIONS where…
As I understand it, the Win32 API calls not on the list are mostly Really Obscure ones used primarily for NT-specific system utilities, which something like 3DS would have no reason to ever want to call anyway. The only "features" 3DS would be "giving up" would be things like the…
Besides, I wasn't saying that Autodesk should abandon Win NT and go for OS/2 instead. What I was saying was that they should, if feasible (i. e. if they don't need any of the esoteric Win32 API calls that aren't on the list that IBM says OS/2 will support), simply…
Uh, have you actually tried both? Warp's installation has been praised in comparative reviews as being easier than NTs in most circumstances (of course, there are exceptional configurations that will confuse both, but that goes for any significant software packages: witness all the threads in this very Forum regarding getting…
#Field Render Design Flaw
Message #172851
I don't smoke, but thanks anyway. Nice try but no cigar for you either, though, Gary . First off, just because everyone else does it wrong doesn't mean 3DS should. 3DS is the market leader in its price range and thus should be the one DEFINING the correct way of…
#Autodesk Confirms NT 3ds
Message #171881
IBM has released to ISVs a listing of Win32 (Windows NT, Windows95) API calls (over 1,000 of them) that will be supported in future versions of OS/2 (presumably including the microkernalized Workplace OS and OS/2 for the PowerPC, OS/2 Warp Server, OS/2 Warp SMP, etc. as well as Service Pack…
Net Queue on a single machine is even more useful if you have OS/2! 🙂
You are correct, Jonas. I was simplifying the situation. I know about the A-buffer as opposed to Z-buffer, but that's internals and isn't germane to the discussion on IPAS routines since the A-buffer isn't made available to them.
That's basically what I had in mind.
David, you miss the point. Of course light does not bend. But we're not talking about light. We're talking about angles of view. Ever see string art? You know, made of straight pieces of string tied between pegs, but the result looks like it has lots of hyperbolic curves even…
Phil, not so. I wouldn't consider my eyes exceptionally trained (I'm not an architect, engineer, or any other similar profession), yet even I'VE noticed the unrealism in animations (NOT STILLS!!) caused by straight perspective. For a long time, I didn't know what was causing the unrealism, only that it "felt…
Actually, it's more in animation rather than stills that true curved perspective is most important. Sure, in a still, most people might not find the curves "realistic" unless they're very understated. But watch an animated flythrough of a city or a building in which the camera changes angles on multiple…
I haven't tried that, but it should work if instances share .AXPs, and I believe they do. I mean, if you have any other .AXP such as, say, Tornado, assigned to a box, and you make an Instance of the box, do you see a box or do you see…
Same way we did. Call them and have them send it to you.
QTW supports a wide variety of codecs, as does AVI. Indeo is good (certainly better than Microsoft Video 1!). But there are two things QTW has that AVI lacks regardless of which codecs you use: ability to precisely synchronize audio with video, and ability to run on a Macintosh. When…
Good point about adjacent objects that are the same distance from the camera. That may be able to be handled by referring to the bounding boxes in the .LOC files produced at render time (the same files that the now-defunct FLARE.IXP from Yost used), but that would only show the…
Mark, you're correct that 3DS renders everything within the FOV of the camera, regardless of whether it is blocked by other objects or not. The reason for this is simple: transparency. 3DS has no way of knowing whether a given object will be at all visible through layers of objects…
Uh, Rotate and Mirror can't be buttons in the Dialog Box, for the simple reason that .BXPs can't have dialog boxes or any other user-interface (at least not directly, or without bypassing the API which would greatly interfere with future portability). They are bitmap file import/export filters ONLY. The usual…
#Radiosity
Message #170750
Actually, there is a Power Macintosh program that can do radiosity (they call it "Raydiosity" which implies that it may be ray-tracing with pseudo-radiosity) — Strata Studio. (It also has a mode called Ray-Painting, which is ray-tracing with painterly effects — sort of what you'd get using Pyros's Paint .IPXs…
3ds and Win311
Message #170749
Note that under Windows, merely excluding memory ranges in your memory manager (EMM386.EXE, QEMM386.SYS, etc.) may not be enough. You might also have to exclude it from WINDOWS's OWN memory management, by adding a line like this to the [386enh] section of SYSTEM.INI: EMMexclude=A000-C7FF Add one such line for each…
#WIN95 & Ani Pro
Message #170259
You should be able to load the mouse driver at bootup by creating and using a CONFIG.SYS file. If the mouse driver has a .SYS version, you can specify it directly there with DEVICE= or DEVICEHIGH=. If not, you will need to load the .COM or .EXE with INSTALL= or…
Penello returned
Message #170258
We returned our Penello for a refund. It'd be a lot more useful if it took more advantage of Release 4 features such as the Z-buffer, so that brush sizes and other effects can be keyed on distance. Also, there should be a Penello .SPX to allow painterly effects to…
#R5 IPAS Support, future
Message #170257
Tim, have you considered copying off everything you might want from that 486, erasing any personal stuff and licensed software you want to keep the licenses of, and donating the computer to a local school, church, or charity organization as a tax write-off? A 486/33 may not be considered useful…
#Bones final mesh save?
Message #170256
The new BONES PRO 1.5 upgrade eliminates the need for .GEO and other special files, and instead stores the data right in the object's data space in the .3DS file, just like Optimize, IK, etc.! Thus, BONES_I.PXP is no more. Instead, the BONES_I.KXP has a Morph button which allows you…
#latest vers aaplay.dll
Message #170255
PMJI, but have you considered "hiding" the palette flash by using a brief fadein from black at the beginning? When all the colors are black, palette flashes tend to be rather invisible. Fadeins also look nifty. But if a fadein is unacceptable for your purposes, then there is no solution…
#IPAS/Plug-Ins Wish List
Message #169663
Hey, another idea for this Thread: to encourage more suggestions, how about all the IPAS manufacturers agree that if they use an idea they find here, they do not owe the suggester remuneration other than: name credit for the idea in the docs (the suggester can waive that), a free…
"Object Cameras" would not REPLACE the current "Camera/Target Quaternian Roll Cameras" that 3DS currently has, but rather be a new type of Camera that SUPPLEMENTS the existing type, just as we now have both Omni and Spot Lights. Which Camera type you use would be based on the types of…
That's an excellent idea, and close to another one I had earlier, and the two could be merged! How about, in addition to what you suggested, the .BXP could perform random TRANSFORMS (rotation at random 90 increments combined with optional horizontal and/or vertical mirroring) on the cells? When used with…
Giving more thought to it, I figured out a better way to do it. It should indeed be an .IXP, not an .AXP. But it would use the Z-Buffer (with the appropriate change to 3DS.SET made, which should already be enabled if you have LenzFX up and running) to determine…
#IPAS/Plug-Ins Wish List
Message #168417
I'm starting this Thread as a place to put ideas for new IPAS/Plug-Ins where developers can see them. Post away! 🙂 Here's one I thought of today: how about an .APX that at render time compares the current camera view with the object, and renders the object as-is but also…
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