Wish List!
The reason Borland and Microsoft compilers can't be used to write IPAS
routines is because they're not 32-bit compilers, and 3DS is a 32-bit program.
Any programs that run under 3DS, including ADI drivers and IPAS plug-ins, must
also be 32-bit programs or they and the system will crash horribly. You simply
cannot run a 32-bit program designed for 80386-or- greater protected mode or
flat memory mode under 8086 real mode or virtual 8086 emulation mode. Can't be
done. It's like the way an airplane can function as a ground vehicle (albeit
rather inefficiently), but a car cannot function as an air vehicle at all. The
Borland and Microsoft compilers are optimized for writing 16-bit apps designed
to run under DOS and/or Windows (note: Win3 is still a 16-bit environment,
despite having a few 32-bit features).
3DS is a 32-bit program, and the Phar Lap 386|DOS-Extender is a library that
interfaces 32-bit programs with 16-bit MS-DOS. To develop your own IPAS
routines, you'd need to get Phar Lap yourself, as well as a compiler that can
handle it and 32-bit flat memory models. Right now that's Watcom and Metaware,
and no others.
You mentioned doing booleans "while the geometry is still lines and arcs."
You mean from the Shaper? That's available now, in release 3. Check it out!
It's MUCH more reliable and efficient than the Editor's booleans, but not as
flexible. Still, between the Shaper and Lofter, you can do quite a bit with
it. For instance, you want bumps on a glass that appear eight times around the
circumfrence of the glass? Make the plain glass outline as usual for SurfRev,
then clone that polygon, add a circle or oval overlaying it, and Boolean Union
to make it part of the polygon. Now select the original polygon as the Shape
and bring it in to the Lofter and set up a SurfRev path with 16 levels around
the circumfrence. Copy the Shape to every other level, then go back to the
Shaper and select the Booleaned polygon as the new Shape, then back to the
Lofter and assign it to the remaining levels, and loft. Ta-daaaa! And you
don't even have to touch the 3D Editor's Boolean to do it!
On cameras, check out my wish for "Object Cameras." I think that will do
what you want.
Most of your other wishes I agree with wholeheartedly!