CompuServe Messages

>But in the meantime could you *outline* what your requirements are for such an >IPAS. What specifically do you want it to do? It sounds like you have a pretty good idea already, David. We need the outline of the object, as well as hidden line removal, and then (the tough one, although Jonas suggested that routines similar to those in LensFX for the outline glow) the lines also have to cross over the body of the object correctly, as when a character's arm moves across the body you need to see both "lines" of the outline of the arm as well as the outline of the body. Since I don't understand the 3D logic involved, I'm not sure how it would be determined where such a line ended (when the arm actually attached into the body) and I guess that's the really programming problem. However, in the previous thread Gary said he thought it was doable (then again, he said he thought ANYTHING was doable). Once that was programmed then only niceties have to be added, such as thickness of outline, color, etc. If I were writing it (and I understood such things — I'm a simple humble database programmer) I wouldn't worry about the color of the object, because that can be done now with a self-illuminated material. By leaving that aspect alone, one might achieve interesting shaded effects even within the outline. Indeed, using a Video Post combination of wire shading and self-illumination, you can achieve nearly all the right effects EXCEPT for the @$#@#$@ "arm across body" problem! While Gary is excited about photorealism, I personally think that this animation capability would be the hottest thing to come to 3DS ever. It would bring all the power of 3DS to cell-type animation.