This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (1,176 messages)
>> If you want to have something say, slowly emerge from darkness. An alternate solution ships with TSE. I wrote a sample script that has similar functionality as SeeZ, but gives control over near and far limits and colors. Keep in mind though, that as an interpreted script rather than…
>> Just making it known that I will be off the forum from 4/21 to 5/1. GASP!!!! Hopefully you are going somewhere to relax, going somewhere to make money or (best choice) BOTH! Take care, Dave
>> The highest density of uv coordinates you can have for an object is >> equal to the number of vertices in that object. It's a >> fundamentals-kinda- thing. Oh well. I will have to "make do" with what I've got. BTW. I've now got a moving/warping AXP generated version…
>> not covered by examples in the manual, such as flowing sand. >> …is there a better resource of in-depth understanding? May I suggest a good book on graphics principles such as "Computer Graphics Principles and Practice" by Foley and VanDam. It will give you helpful background on the fundamentals.…
>> But doesn`t that pump up my rendering time extreme? Automatic Reflections do boost your render time, but you could tell it to calculate the reflection for only the first frame. You could also try to create a custom .CUB for better control of your reflection map. The problem you…
More script questions.
Message #165641
Martin, On TSE doc's pages 50/51, are Reserved variables "TVerts" and "DefaultTVerts". Are these remnants of functions that no longer exist? I think I saw in the early documentation that the AXP and PXP handled Vertices and UV texturing separately. Is this still an option? Would it allow an object…
>> What can I do to solve the problem? Set your windows to use Flat Mirror Auto Reflection. Map your photograph onto a cylinder surrounding the building. (Be sure to remove the top and bottom of the cylinder and flip the normals to the inside.) – Dave
My script woes
Message #165594
Ed, Thanks for the suggestions. I compared my script to Tornado2.a3d (duh) and found that I missed 2 simple commands that initialize the reserved variables. The commands "GetCurrentMtl" and "Extents" were what I needed. They were more or less hidden in the documentation. – Dave
AXP script BUG?
Message #165593
Martin, Where does this one come from??? "EXP ERROR: Material called but not present." In script.axp I accessed the assigned material of my object with "GetCurrentMtl" and confirmed by writing to a file that "MtlIndex" was set to "4" and "MtlName$" was "TEST". During the creation of faces I assigned…
#scripting job
Message #165592
— Moved from Section 12 to Section 18 (Scripts) — >> I have a tree, I want the tree to sit flat on the terrain so the bottom >> of the tree sits on the top of the terrain. I only want the tree to >> move on the Z…
>> I need a way to get Targa files onto the Exabyte Hi James! I think people have been using PC-TAR utilities to store stuff to tape. ASDG (now Elastic Reality, I think) makes Exabyte drivers as well. – Dave
>> video wall measuring a total 24 feet by 12 feet for viewing at 2:1 >> aspect ratio. Whoa! Sign me up for one of those! – Dave
>> Is there any network you recommend I use Lantastic. It is extremely easy to get up and running, and not very expensive. Peer-to-peer access makes it very convenient. However, I have had occassional network troubles because of the way it handles heavy traffic and data collisions. I'd recommend it…
>> I'm involved in legal action against the "C/NET" show which included a >> misleading interview with me… It's a shame such nonsense takes place, but I'm sure this won't be the last time. Technology is making it easier and easier to distort the truth. BTW, did you see any…
>> they just want to see the nail pounded in real nice. Keep pounding! Nicely said. – Dave
>> SummaSketch III 1210 tablet There is no AutoCad-like template available for tablets within 3DS. To get the best results with your tablet under 3DS, work in mouse emulation mode. If you MUST use tablet (absolute) mode, use the built in 3DS SUMMA setting. There are inherent problems with ADI…
>> render/setup/configure [comments] Wow! How long has that been hiding there!?! Yet another feature that I (and probably many others) missed. – Dave
>> Should be rather simple . Yeah, and so is quantum physics! I like your suggestion though. As time permits, I'll tinker with it. I'll post news of my success or failure here. – Dave
>> Hmmm… the possibilities… Cough. Wheeeze… Ain't it great!? I'll let you know when I make it work. Are you going to that visualization symposium whatchyamacallit in May? We'll have to get together there. – Dave
>> I'm curious: what's your application? He he. In my (very limited) spare time, I'm still experimenting with various TSE modules and the basic graphics principles. In this case, I'm trying to fill a volume with evenly spaced objects. In another experiment, I'm also tinkering with meshing an mathematically defined…
>> bounding box… marching cubes… Let me know if you need a hand… This gets me looking in the right direction. I'm faced with a few problems in my script development: 1. I'm trying to dig through the cobwebs to the calculus, vector and matrix mathematics I learned many years…
>> inside or outside of a mesh object? Answering my own question: How about determining if the point falls on the side of EVERY nearest face that falls away from the normal? (Again, suggestions are appreciated.)
>> "Say Yost-a-berry" or something like that. Is this another of your >> inventions? 🙂 Is there garden space on Balboa? John, I also noticed a Yost Candy Company recently. We can't get away from this guy!!!
>> (I got three invites. ) Great! Show us YOUR best work.
#Inside/Out
Message #163329
Do any of you scripting or math maniacs have any suggestions on how to determine if an x,y,z coordinate falls inside or outside of a mesh object? (All suggestions welcome – regardless of how simple or complex.) – Dave
>> I never said… I apologize if I read more into your words than you intended. It was getting late when I replied, and I should have waited until morning before sending it. Your written tone sounded confrontational and I took a similar approach. The next year will be interesting…
>> I will make sure I point this out when I show DaveM the video tape. Is the segment a good representation of forensic animation? It might be good to show at the Users' Group. – Dave
>> I hope that I have not stirred any hard feelings through my admittedly >> strong opinions. Regards. Ha ha ha. Perhaps I'll go over to a Lightwave Users' Group meeting (is there such a thing?) and explain how much better the core 3DS is and how much flexibility is…
>> I'm going to have to bite the bullet. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I for one would "give up" any IPAS I purchased for the added benefit of having it integrated into your core software. Let's keep moving forward. – Dave
#Anyone out there?
Message #161937
Dave, I haven't seen any traffic here on Section 18 in the past few days, so I am just writing myself a message to confirm my software is working correctly. – Dave
>> Nope, that was a special student price. The regular price is twice that. Re-read the original message. The reason for my toungue-in-cheek remark was that I figured you misread the letter. He said he got it for half the price which was listed at $495 (or something along those…
>> especially since we were going to be buying a completely new computer Hi Kevin! So is your new system up and running yet? Drop me a line in either the Take 5 section (Message area #12) or by e-mail and let me know how things are going out there.…
>> $495.00… …I'm not going to pay more than $500 By my math it IS less than your price limit. I fortunately am able to build the price of needed routines into the projects on which I'll use them. If I can save several hours effort, or create an effect…
>> Have you tried Meshpaint, yet? What a trip, now if I could only >> paint……. Yeah, I tinkered with the demo enough to know that it will show up as a "computer expense" on the next project!
>> I do like the "new" transparency feature very much. I've had some trouble with "cookie cutter" opacity maps and "new" transparency, so for most of my work I've elected to use "old" style. I agree with all your thoughts, though. – Dave
>> To anyone with an Abekas or Accom unit: If you are interested in >> beta-testing some new software products… How about "To anyone with software products… interested in testing some new Abekas or Accom units?" Sign me up!!!
>> I dropped the project and forgot to mention it here on CIS, but it >> would be interesting if someone could make it work. I put Lee up to that challenge when he first moved up here and he made it work with no problems whatsoever. In his case,…
>> What I did was render a white ball… John, try lofting a long twisty "shaft" in the lofter. Mapping coords on. Length repeat 1. Perimeter repeat 1. Create an animated opacity map that goes from all black to all white, over time. As soon as the "beginning" of the…
Regarding your items #2 and #3: I faced EXACTLY the same problem when applying an animated opacity map to a lofted object. To me, it appears that the map filtering wraps to the end of the map (to create a smoother seam). I never completely eliminated the problem, but instead…
>> But when they are hierarchically linked to a moving mesh object, >> InterpolateKey returns the same x,y,z values for every frame. If I'm not mistaken, you need to obtain the x,y,z coords for the parent, then step through the heirarchy (GetChild or somesuch…) and calculate the child's position. -…
Thanks for the NAB info. The date/location prevents me from being there. Oh well. I'm sure there are still plenty of others from the forum that you'll see there. – Dave
>> Get a memory error. Do you get some sort of GPF? (This is my understanding of what happens…) When you attempt to access files on that system's hard drive, you are likely accessing the SERVER TSR running on that system. Also running as a TSR would be the network…
>> Is there some way that you can do this in animation? Any view can be rendered into an animation. Line up your camera to closely approximate the isometric view. Click "U" then to turn it into a User View, and then render like any other viewport. This takes away…
>> Who else is going to NAB????? Let's plan on a 3DS gathering! Could you please post information about the date and specifics of NAB? I heard something about Washington, DC. If that's true, perhaps I'll make it an overnighter and check out the exhibition. I'm only about 6-7 hours…
>> Which number is it? Msg. 159659.
>> this script demonstrates the calculation of surface normals, and the >> inverse dot product which returns the angle between two vectors. Cool! This is the kind of stuff that has me blowing the dust off my Calculus books. – Dave
>> I thought it was your civic duty – you mean you can get payed for it? Oh yes! Expert witnesses are paid professionals who support or impeach the technical details of the case. (to Paul:) There should be several people around here who can give you an idea about…
>> I'm just getting a black screen PMJI, but make sure that "VPOST-ZBUFFER = YES" in your 3ds.set file. – Dave
>> Wavefront is buying copies of 3DS for $5K each, huh… Yeah, they wanted a more affordable way to render on their PC network!
>> Just how difficult is it to "duplicate" objects that already exist in >> the editor? I haven't done it yet, but with the PXP Scripter it should be a piece of cake! – Dave
Page 5 of 24