This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
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I'll grab it and put it on the list of issues to look at in December, JJ. (thanks) – G
Ooops! (frumiously gimbling…)
>>I think you meant "slithy" No, I said _some_ might think it "brillig." I _know_ that _you_ think it's "slithy."
They actually look worse in 8-bit rendered than when you're using an 24-bit card, JJ. (I know… that's a small consolation.) – G
This has generated an amusing thread. Hmmmm…where _could_ that term have come from? Might it have anything to do with the fact that, in _every_ demo I did at Siggraph, I used the phrase: "3DS MAX is the first complete rearchitecture of a 3D animation system." I have to confess…
Not at the moment, but I'll keep it in mind for when things get a little farther along in render-land. – G
An ominous thought! – G
Yup. CIS _did_ run out of domestic ID's. It used to be easy to tell who was dialing in from overseas, but now… – G
Hey! – G
Heya, Don't worry about giving me redundant bugs… it's easier than for me to cull through my database and post them here. Re section 20… I'm running a little beta program in there for NON developers, and I thought that the dream team would make a good addition to that…
#5995-
#Mouse Handling Assertion
Message #6029
Hey JJ! That's a great one! (it's on the list) note that I'm going to talk to Phil this week about getting ya'll in on the section 20 bug stuff. (are you into it?) – G
As you've probably seen by my other messages, Gary's not on the forum for awhile, while we try to get MAX out. He's addressed the dual processor question in the past, and there might be some readers here who could tell you about that. Briefly, MAX takes advantage of double-processors,…
Hello Germany! Gary hasn't been on the forum — and won't be, for awhile, because we're busily working 3DS MAX. (And I'm just rushing thorugh here myself.) Hopefully, one of the forum sysops or ASoft regulars can help you with your question. Jonas will probably drop by to pick up…
In the crunch of MAX, Yost Group is barely on the forum for awhile, so you'd be better addressing either All or Jonas on things like this. _However_, the first item fits in the category of "wishlist," which, I'm sure, Jonas will add. As for the second category, we have…
I was the one who suggested setting the ambient to zero. As long as you've got ambient turned up, both that, and any other lights in the scene are going to alter the color intensity of the surface of the monitor (and, therefore, the bitmap). Another way around this is…
As Jonas said, you need alpha to properly composite something like that, and flics don't have alpha. You'd be better off making Targa frames with alpha, and programatically flipping through them while positioning them over your bitmap. (Presumably, you're planning on programming your own compositing system as well?) – J
Turn your ambient light down to 0, and make sure that the object(s) on which you're casting the projector light are excluded from all other lights in the scene. – Jack
Too late, he's gone. Nice try, though. – Jack
HA! Jack just forwarded this to me on the net (thanks again Jack). It made me laugh a LOT. Thanks for your great and continuous sense of humor. I wish I had the time to hang out in the forum with ya'll… I really miss it. Unfortunately, this M-thing is…
Huh? – J
We can't help her Anne. She should probably contact Bob Bennett. – Jack
#Yost exists
Message #187807
Heya, I just wanted to let ya'll know that I made it back a few days ago, but have so much work going on that I haven't been able to find any time to log into the forum. Thanks for holding down the fort without me. I'm _deep_ in the…
Alec, we're still _months_ away from shipping. I don't want to get into benchmarking at this point. Besides, it wouldn't really tell you much. It would depend on the kind of modifiers, the type of object you start with (parametric, patch, mesh, etc.), what the object might be converted to…
About the time we were putting together demo's for Siggraph. – J
The Stack data is not really "Undo/Redo" (though it can be used for that). Each object has its own stack, and they're stored in the scene file. As to size, I haven't done any benchmarks yet. You'll have the capability of collapsing the stack on any object, which will eliminate…
That's his name now. – J
The letters will be puce. – J
#184277-
Why MAX name?
Message #187054
MAX is the name of Steven Spielberg's firstborn male child. – J
Whoa! Sooooooo many questions! Since we've got a product to get out — and several months to go — I think we're getting into a little too much detail at this point. We can answer questions people might have on what we showed at Siggraph, but it's _far_ too early…
I can't answer your question about raytracing, but I want to clear up a misconception about "plug-ins" for MAX and "core components" (or "corecomps"). They're the same thing. Just about every function we showed at Siggraph was a core component plug-in. In the first two demos, we showed corecomps that…
Instead of a standard box, try using a grid box with several segments, and see if that doesn't improve things. – Jack
Gary's off on vacation, and I haven't the foggiest. As Ted mentions, NT has an option to take care of the bug, but I'm wary of a software fix — not sure what the speed hit would be. Since no one else in the Yost Group has expressed the slightest…
I can see that I'm getting buried in details in this thread — and could go on forever. Let me just say that we'll be supporting morphing in addition to the animated parameters we showed. I'd like to tell you everything, but we still have a product to ship. -…
I believe parametric objects are smaller than meshes, since they're only instructions. Once you convert to a mesh, though, it goes back up. (Don't hold me on this detail; I haven't actually checked it yet.) – J
You apply an Edit Mesh modifier to the stack, which gives you all the sub-object stuff. In our demo, we build the battlements of a chess rook using the Edit Mesh modifier. At the end of the demo, we deactivated the Edit Mesh, and all the editing disappeared, leaving the…
To expand slightly, the real difference is between a "dumb mesh" and a "parametric object." At the bottom of the modifier stack for a parametric object are its creation parameters (a cylinder's radius, height, segments, etc), and you can go back and adjust those. A dumb-mesh cylinder has no adjustable…
Yeah, I heard that subsequent to my posting. Funny world… – J
#imminent haiku
Message #186376
FWIW, I'm off the net for awhile due to an extreme urge to blow this joint and head to the desert for the rest of the week. This'll be my last chance to split the scene for a looooong time, so wish me a complete disconnect! Hasta la, – G
1) In a similar was that 3DS/DOS handles network rendering. 2) Basically, yes. The jury is still out on whether or not Win95 will ever make a decent host for a rendering slave. 3) Nope. 4) Nope. 5) Depends upon how big the scene is… the second processor doesn't increase…
Whoa! Someone was listening! You're right on, Alan… When you load a 'dumb' mesh (from 3DS, DXF, etc), it actually becomes the base of a new modifier stack, and can end up being taught to perform any sort of behavior a modifier (or space warp) is capable of (in addition…
Sorry, but I'm barely on the forum these days… too much to do getting Max ready. You'll have to concentrate on getting answers to questions like this from the Adesk folks. Thanks for understanding (I haven't figured out how to clone myself yet). – G
3DS/DOS is very float intensive, since there's not much zippy stuff going on in the interactive UI (and most of the math is happening in the scanline renderer). But 3DS/MAX uses both int and float math extensively, so a fast int-based system is important (as well as fast floats). -…
Understood… Like I said, I completely agree with you. – G
You could probably get a few extra zzzz's if you didn't feel compelled to hit _every_ party! – J
I'm NOT. I promise. I'm _really_ NOT! I HATE HARDWARE. But in the war against the machines, knowledge is power. – G
Although I've never run Max on more than two processors, the information that I've managed to dig up is pretty much in line with what Matt just quoted you. The bottom line is that although 4 processors will all get used, they won't get used efficiently. So, it's best to…
NT Workstation only supports 2 processors. You've got to get NT Advanced Server to support more than that (NTAS is much more expensive). Also note that two dual-processor machines are almost twice as fast as one four-processor machine, due to smp overhead. Finally, a dual P6 system ought to be…
That wasn't a production box, fyi. – G
Brad Carvey
Message #185836
Isn't Brad Carvey the guy who did those great George Bush impersonations on Saturday Night Live? – J
You're correct, Cameron. Because the Alpha is a risc processor, it must use many more cycles (per instruction) than the Pentium does. Cycle for Cycle, this does make the 300mhz Alpha slower than a dual P5/150 for many operations. However, for floating point ops, and for ops that may fit…
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