This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (121 messages)
Congrats on MAX
Message #185093
Hi Gary, It was good to see you again!! Big congratulations on "nailing" the direction for 3DS. MAX is hot as a firecracker!! Very impressive, unfortunately, after seeing MAX, it made the rest of the exhibit hall kind of dry ! BTW, who's idea was it to use Intergraph system…
Hi Martin, It was nice to meet you at Siggraph. Congrats on your special showing at the 3DS party! Later, -Jeff
Martin, I too have had excellent success with the playlists. We primarily do raw graphics…..black header and footer, bars, copyright, etc. along with the animation. Instead of doing the ever painful "JOINS" on the PAR, the playlist is much simpler. Nonetheless, it would be useful to do an occasional join…
Hi Martin, I can vouch for the 100 mhz vs 90 mhz setting…..sort of. I was originally installing my PVR in a P66, which runs at the same speed as the 100mhz (Assus as well). It would seem to initialize and operate, but some frames had a "glitch"….horizontally displaced bands…
Hi Alan, I've checked the recommended hotels on INET, I'm just curious if there will be a congregation of ASOFTers (AMMEDIAers) at one or two particular hotels. Can't slip us any hints about the party location yet, can you ? Thanks, -Jeff
#Siggraph Accomodations
Message #171943
Fellow Siggraph Attendees and Ammedia Forumites, A couple of staff from our company will be attending Siggraph this year. I've never been to LA before, so, I'm looking for recommendations on the popular hotels to stay at during the party….er, uh… the show . Thanks, -Jeff
I can also account for having to switch to field order = 2 for TGAs from 3D Studio. I thought this seemed odd at the time, but it worked!
Bob, the patch that you found for Acad12…….use it on 3DS 2 and I believe it will work.
Uh, Gary, I get the distinct impression you didn't *enjoy* working with PharLap… Later, -Jeff
Hopefully we'll see DPS and others writing drivers for the PAR under NT fairly soon…. I can only imagine what you have in mind for your future….this oughta be good !
Both hardware and software cost is definitely in 3DS' favor. That can quickly be turned into a performance advantage as well….rendering is usually faster on 8 cheapo PCs than on one high end workstation !
Glad it worked for you Dion. Later, -Jeff
Hi Dennis, Windows NT has been around for a couple of years already. It has recently been upgraded to version 3.5. The "client" version you saw is frequently referred to as Windows NT Workstation……there is a Windows NT Server package that would be used on network servers. Windows 95 is…
Hi James, Your comments about a local university sure sound familiar to me as well…. At a recent technology show, our local university was showing off their newly aquired SGIs loaded with Alias PowerAnimator (the Alias gurus helping, of course). And at the far end of the exhibit hall, was…
>> MIC 2217a running _Disk Mangler_ !! < Gotta call it the way I see it….! Later, -Jeff
Hi Jerry, I'm coming into this thread a bit late, but I'm guessing you have the MIC 2217a running Disk Mangler that came with the drive…. If you plan on keeping the drive for your DOS system, then invest the money in an Enhanced IDE controller (sometimes referred to as…
3DS on IBM PS2 77s
Message #142709
All, Is anyone out there running 3D Studio 3 or 4 on an IBM PS/2 77s DX4/100? I have a client with trouble getting the hardware lock to be recognized. We have verified that the lock is O.K. on another system, so that isn't the problem. We haven't yet checked…
Hi Don, I can confirm the frame number 896 being the last good frame when restoring ani files to the PAR. I had a project last week that I had this problem with…..well, it wasn't really a problem, I also had the individual .tga files to rebuild it. Later, -Jeff
Thanks James, Between yours and Doug's replies, I should have this figured. Later, -Jeff
Excellent!! Thanks very much Doug, I'll give this a try! -Jeff
PAR UNDER OS/2 WARP
Message #137370
I don't suppose anyone has figured out how to run the PAR under OS/2 WARP yet, have they? If it's possible, I'd sure be interested in finding out how to do it? I've got it to the point where I seem to have enough memory, etc. in a DOS session,…
Oh, I was assuming you used AutoCAD….. Yes, if you import the .dxf files into AutoCAD (or AutoCAD LT) you could join them into polylines. Polylines are essentially a "line string". That is, a group of individual line segments that are handled as one line object with multiple vertices. Kind…
Robert, Re: Item #4, importing 2D .dxf as 3d meshes. You can currently do this right now. The trick is that you must create 2D closed Polylines in AutoCAD and send them out in the .dxf file. 3D Studio will automatically "cap" any closed area that comes from AutoCAD, i.e.…
>Sorry.. but Autodesk does not discuss future product features, platforms, >shipdates.. Uh, come on, please…..why wouldn't you want to say anything… Later, -Jeff P.S. couldn't resist with all these "you promised it" threads running….
#129503-
Info. 3D Studio/Dealer?
Message #129536
Hi Bill, For a dealer referral in Canada, contact Glen Wilson at Autodesk Canada at 905-946-0928. Tell Glen I sent you. -Jeff
It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of a show like Siggraph ! It's unfortunate that the patch modeler didn't make it, but like you say, maybe R5…. -Jeff
You've got a couple of interesting points, but unless you've had different discussions with Autodesk about R4 than I have, I am not under the impression that Autodesk has solicited me to upgrade. They have advertised that an upgrade will be available soon and have provided information on the features…
>Hey, they promised it. They made the agreement with people (a contract). >They're trying to change their part of the contract at this late date. Of all the press releases, messages, faxes, notices, etc. that I've read on Release 4, I can't recall a single one that "promised" these features.…
As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather wait for a full featured patch modeler, than have one delivered that is so basic in operation that it doesn't provide the user with many advantages.
I've seen this sort of thing happen, oh…., just a few times before People have to realize that "feature lists" that software developers release for public consumption are *NOT* promises. They're more like the developers' version of the wishlist. Sometimes it just doesn't come true! -Jeff
I don't mean to direct this only at you, but I think your comment about "Adesk offering the patch modeler as a free plug-in when available" is EXACTLY why Autodesk *NEVER* releases information about future products until they're very near ready to ship. Had Autodesk not "promised" the patch modeler,…
#128944-
NETWORK RENDERING
Message #129140
Phil, Yes, you require a math co-processor abilities in any machine running 3D Studio. If the machines you are referring to are 486 "DX" systems, the math co-processor is already there. If the machines are 486 "SX" they will require a co-processor to be installed. If the machines are 386…
Uh, Gary, Does that mean that an UNDO *IS* possible for move, rotate & scale? I'd go for that at least…. Later, -Jeff
I can also confirm that the mouse movement required in 1.30b is whacko. You really have to stroke the mouse to get through long animations. This is just tooooo slooooowwwww!! What happened to the scrub bar function from 1.0??? If it ain't broke, don't fix it!! Later, -Jeff
Stephen, I am currently running PAR (1.27b) along with Lantastic 6.0 and don't have any problems reading network drives from the PAR software. You have to be sure to load your network software *BEFORE* (yes, before) you run the PAR drivers. Oh, and set up the PAR as an "OTHER"…
I also prefer the old scrub bar response. The new method is too slow, i.e. you have to drag your mouse very slowly so that the PAR keeps up. With the old method, I could quickly drag the mouse to the end of the scrub bar and the corresponding frame…
Hi Don, I frequently optimize my drive, so that shouldn't be the problem. Regarding how full the drive is; of the 1.7gbyte drive, I usually had about 500 megs left free. BLF setting of 250 seemed to be O.K. at this point with the 1.01 software. Since I installed the…
Hi Jonas, I have a couple of ideas regarding the MCS system for 3DS. 1) Create a DOS command line method of adding, editting and reviewing the MCS without having to tie up one of the computers that is currently running 3DS. In other words, when all of the machines…
Randy, I've just been experiencing *EXACTLY* the same problem with my PAR, that is animations starting out playback properly and then flaking out part way through. Especially where there are big color changes….. The problem seems to be related to block setting being too high. The strange thing is that…
Ahhhh, This is beginning to make sense for an explosion that has many elements within the EXPLODE box, however, I still don't understand why if you have a single element (built via booleans) of say 256 faces inside of the EXPLODE box and you have MIN/MAX both set to 256,…
I really don't know…. It just seems so strange that 3DS core functions can understand the element vs. object logic of objects built using boolean functions, but EXPLODE doesn't follow the same logic. I'm outa town for the next couple of days, but when I get back, I'll upload a…
Hi Tim, I understand what you're saying about two objects being joined together, resulting in a single object with more than one element. Unfortunately, the problem appears to be deeper than that. What I'm refering to is a single object that contains a single element. If the object/element has been…
Hi Jamie, I could send you the kernels, or you could build a "problem" object by simply taking two intersecting spheres and boolean subtracting one from the other. Attach this boolean object to a "box" for the explode command and voila, an explosion that won't honor the face MIN/MAX values.…
Gary, Looks like detaching faces and rebuilding the face list won't work either. I even went so far as to .DXF out the faces, load them in AutoCAD, blast them apart even further there and .DXF them back to 3DS to have 3DS rebuild them……no go!! Welding (even to large…
Gary, Even after rebuilding the popcorn elements with the same number of faces, I still have the same problem. It turns out that if you build elements for the explode from the Editor, i.e. a sphere or a box, etc., explode (honoring elements) will work exactly as prescribed in the…
Gary, But what if the elements don't have the same number of faces….? I guess I'll have to rebuild them… Thanks, -Jeff
#Explode w/elements
Message #118158
Gary, (and others) Is there a way to use the Explode IPAS, such that it maintains the shape of the elements within the "boxed object"? In other words, instead of the source object being broken into randomized triangles (tweaking min and max variables), I'd rather have the source object maintain…
… and I wish I could be there, but it just won't happen…. In other words, I have 2 tickets available to those who require them. Just EMAIL or leave your name, address, etc. Jeff Richardson Altered Image Productions P.S. only one stipulation….the two people getting the tickets have to…
>>editors bitch about it
Ahhhh, TARGA8, color mapped…..so the PAR will handle the full 32 bit image, but not the color mapped alpha file. O.K., so instead of splitting alpha to the standard drive, I'll write full 32 bit files to the PAR directly. Then use VP to split the ALPHA off of the…
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