This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (74 messages)
>> So I guess that 800 "pound" Gorilla really only weighs 57 Stones.. And you all complain that it is a stupid, archaic system! –John
>> Isn't that equal to a half a slug? 😉 — John
Don't forget there is more to England than just London! (Lord knows a lot of people here do ). Here in York pub signs are the preferred means of navigation though our streets are well sign-posted. After all, there is only one "Whip-ma-whop-ma gate" and the Golden Fleece, the closest…
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Autodesk 3D Studio
August 21, 1995 6:36 AM
Jonas, Thanks for your note. Having a bend in each of the joints definitely makes a difference. I had some bend in the intial positions but the follow object stretched the chain to a nearly straight alignment, which caused problems. As long as the follow object is within easy reach…
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Autodesk 3D Studio
August 21, 1995 6:36 AM
Alec, Thanks for your reply but I think you misunderstood my note. I am not having camera trouble, that was simply an analogy to describe the strange "snap" in my IK chain. To clarify, I am using three boxes in the scene, alternately hidden and unhidden as necessary (similar to…
#IK follow obj. problem
Message #186113
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Autodesk 3D Studio
August 20, 1995 11:50 AM
I have an I problem that is driving me nuts. The scene is simple: A man walks into a room, picks up a box and puts it up on a shelf. The box that is carried linked to the left hand — hidden and then unhidden when the box is…
We have used MacroModel extensively over the past 18 months. On the plus side, it is very easy to create organic shapes and offers a great deal of control. On the minus side, it can be slow with large models (even on p90s) and can crash. In addition, using MacroModel…
Video Boards
Message #169065
Depending on how serious you are about real time shading you might want to check out the new Evans & Sutherland Freedom Graphics board. It is PCI based, fully OpenGL compatible, cranking out 300,000 fully shaded triangles per second running under NT. At around $2,500 I haven't heard of anything…
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Autodesk 3D Studio
April 17, 1995 12:52 PM
>> did John's suggestion "SHADOW-BIAS-ABSOLUTE turn it "ON".".. help out?
>> did John's suggestion "SHADOW-BIAS-ABSOLUTE turn it "ON".".. help out?
Missing Shadows -r4
Message #164723
Cheers! I thought I missed something. I couldn't find anything in the docs and completely forgot about readme.doc (which, of course, 3ds.set says to look at — that'll teach me! ). Thanks. Have a nice holiday weekend! John
#Missing Shadows -r4
Message #164710
I'm having a problem with shadows disappearing intermittantly from fields (but oddly never whole frames). The scene is this: A helmet sits on a rusted steel plate floor lit solely by one overhead spotlight. The falloff is fairly quick, forming a clear circle on the floor. A humanoid walks in…
Good advice — thanks for the tip. Cheers, John
It's odd that some that some of the Macromodel objects optimized fine but others did not. Anyway, I changed the weld threshold and that seems to have made the difference. Thanks for the info. Optimize is indespensible. Cheers, John
Jeffery, Thanks for the input. It sounds more and more like naff DXF is the problem. Cheers, John
Dan, Your advice sounds very good. Out of curiousity, what program was used that created the troublesome models? — John
I'm using EMM386 with the RAM option in DOS 6.2. I haven't had any other problems of note (3DS has been amazingly bullet-proof). I haven't checked it yet but the situation that Dan described sounds similar to mine — the object I was trying to optimize was a DXF from…
#IPAS3 Disk 7 & r4
Message #161722
-G, -J & co., Are there any known problems using the routines on disk 7 with 3DS r4? I have sporadically had some trouble with my machine freezing while using Optimize but the problem is not consistant and is hard to pinpoint. I'd appreciate any advice.
UK Animators Wanted
Message #131831
PolyMedia UK, based in York, is looking for experienced 3DS animators for a variety of interactive projects starting in early '95. If interested, please send e-mail only to 100116,343 for further information. John Mateer Producer
Animators Wanted
Message #131830
PolyMedia is seeking 3DS animators, specializing in detailed architectural walk-throughs, for a major project starting in January. We are based in New York and York, England. If interested, please contact me via e-mail only at 100116,343 for further information. John Mateer Producer
Conversion Artist will do it. I use it very often. Its batch processing is quick and its depth conversions (anything from monochrome to 32 bit) are very flexible. CA is very good as a basic image processor. As I recall it's less than $50 – chains like Egghead carry it.…
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Take 5/Want Ads
September 22, 1994 8:28 AM
Jerry, Elastic Reality (aroun $300) is known as a "standard" and has just been ported to Windows. I haven't seen this version but the SGI program is quite useful. The Mac version of ER is stripped down and I'm not sure whether the Windows version is as well. I would…
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Hware/OpSys/video
September 20, 1994 4:11 PM
Sorry to say that I changed all drivers in 3ds vibcfg to 1.04c and still have the same problems. – John
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Hware/OpSys/video
September 18, 1994 9:57 PM
Yes, it's bizarre. The Block Size seems to make no difference at all. Any idea what's up? – John
Seamless Skin Advice
Message #123949
Richard, Were you in the Editor when you got this message? If so, switch to the Keyframer and render it there. – John
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Hware/OpSys/video
September 15, 1994 12:47 PM
Vibrant's next on the list. We'll lick this yet. – John
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Hware/OpSys/video
September 15, 1994 12:47 PM
>>Ahh… hardware problems. What would life be without them? >> >>(worth living)? My hardware problems have turned into a bit of a soap opera… "As The Screen Turns" or "The Bold and the Crashed" . Thanks for the other info too – I learn something new everyday. I'll contact the…
Flic Problem
Message #123780
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Hware/OpSys/video
September 14, 1994 5:07 PM
An update to my last message. I have checked out all modes of my Stealth 64; they seem fine. All Vibrant modes work fine with every other part of 3ds and I'm able to play all flics using external programs (aaplayhi, etc.). It really seems to be a problem within…
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Hware/OpSys/video
September 14, 1994 2:01 PM
Thanks very much for a very clear explanation! Cheers, John
#Flic Problem
Message #123759
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Hware/OpSys/video
September 14, 1994 1:57 PM
Robert: "Wedge" as in "freeze" as in "locks up and does not respond" (also see "crash"). You should get out more often! 😉 I used to live in Stamford but we only had grinders… All the flics play fine in aaplayhi and aaplay. It seems oddly 3DS specific, hence the…
#Flic Problem
Message #123743
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Hware/OpSys/video
September 14, 1994 11:40 AM
I am having a strange problem and I'm not sure whether it's 3DS, Vibrant or hardware related. My old video board (Viper PCI) crapped out and it was replaced with a Stealth 64 (2MB). I have the most recent Vibrant drivers, ran 3ds vibcfg and all display modes look fine.…
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Hware/OpSys/video
September 14, 1994 7:24 AM
Thanks – that was exactly the sort of info I was looking for. I thought it was odd that no one mentioned Turbo DLD on the forum yet Diamond claims a speed increase for 3DS using it. I have literature on Liquid Speed. It's on our list of programs to…
#Liquid Speed v Turbo DLD
Message #123665
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Hware/OpSys/video
September 13, 1994 11:23 PM
Does anyone have experience with TurboDLD? It claims to be similar to Liquid Speed in function. Since it came bundled with my Stealth 64 I'm curious about it. My system is working fine now and I tend to believe the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" so…
Old movies were shot at 18 fps (which is why they look so fast now a-days, projected at 24 fps). Sounds like you have a fun project! Cheers, John
I understand completely – clients et al. Thanks again for your help. I'll let you know how I make out. Best wishes, John
#Seamless Skin Advice
Message #122895
Bill, Thanks for the info. You've already uncovered one fundamental flaw in my approach – I started from the finger tip inward (don't ask me why, I guess I should have stuck to rocket science ). I think working from the wrist out is do-able. I'm using square-ish cross sections…
When is the book due out? It's certainly on my list! – John
#Seamless Skin Advice
Message #122801
Bill, First off, thanks for uploading the "branch" examples – they're very useful. Also, the woman's body is excellent. I am trying to model a reasonably detailed, seamless skinned hand with fully articulated fingers. I've tried your common cross-section approach (or what I gather is your approach from playing with…
The only way to get Renderman for the PC is to purchase MacroModel (it's a bundled package). That version of R-man is set up only for still images and I don't believe there is a way for it to do batch processing. MacroModel is just a modeller so you would…
I have used both Mac and PC 3D systems a good deal. The Mac programs I used, (MacroModel, Director 3-D, Showplace, Renderman, etc.), all work well but are fairly slow (I was using Quadra 950s). They crashed a lot (and I mean a lot), frustrating the hell out of me.…
Simplicity itself. I think I can handle that … Cheers, John
#Another PAR question…
Message #120636
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Hware/OpSys/video
August 27, 1994 12:34 PM
This may be a silly question but can you move IFLs (or other rendered sequences) to the PAR to playback in real time or must you only render to it as a VTR to create animations? My mental model of this thing is still a bit fuzzy… Cheers, John
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Autodesk 3D Studio
August 27, 1994 10:47 AM
You might also be interested to check out Clouds.zip in the library. It's not a space backdrop but it does create a "sky" to fly around in and may be useful to check out for ideas. Just a thought. Cheers, John
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Autodesk 3D Studio
August 26, 1994 8:11 AM
Thanks. I'll give it a try. (BTW you guys did a nice job with "Inside 3ds", I refer to it all the time!) Cheers, John
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Autodesk 3D Studio
August 25, 1994 10:46 AM
I didn't realize there was a limit, thank you. Is that true for r4 as well? I needed to make the object whole to re-shape it and then massively optimize it to get the poly count down to a reasonable level for our VR system. Working with it as a…
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Autodesk 3D Studio
August 25, 1994 10:46 AM
Thanks, I'll check it out. Cheers, John
#Boolean Problems
Message #120223
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Autodesk 3D Studio
August 25, 1994 9:54 AM
I am having a weird boolean problem with 3dsr3. I am trying to join 4 quadrants of a landscape .dxf file from Vista Pro. Each quadrant is 33,282 faces and overlaps adjacent quadrants by 2 rows of faces (about 60 units out of total side length of 7,600). Total face…
#Following Contours
Message #120222
From:
John Mateer [PolyMedia]
Autodesk Multimedia Forum
· Autodesk 3D Studio
August 25, 1994 9:54 AM
I am trying to put a long fence along a hilly landscape. Aside from hand fitting it, is there an easy method to do this? An IPAS routine perhaps? Any suggestions would be great. Cheers, John
Of course I've being trying to re-orient to the real world for a while now… – John
After an hour OR SO? What? You want to live in the thing? Seriously, Division's latest HMD is quite good for a true stereo unit. If extended time is what you seek, a mono unit such as the Liquid Image does very well. Either way, proper fit and adjustment are…
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