CompuServe Messages

John, everytime I stand under my shower I`m thinking about new computer animation stuff (software, concepts, ideas…) Often I think a raytracer SXP would be great. Imagine you aply RAYTRACE.SXP as an reflection map. You would have an dialog box where you can set all your raytracing options. Now, everytime the 3DS renderer hits your object the SXP is called by the 3DS API. Now the SXP calculates the pixels of your object. This is only the first step of my thoughts and so there`re not perfect and they might be some technical problems but it brings idea on the right way: Let`s see what the A-Buffer of 3DS (should) do: everytime a pixel on the screen belongs to an object with a SXP the renderer calls the SXP to calculate the color of the pixel. It doesn`t matter for the 3DS render how the SXP calculates the color of the pixel (it may fire light rays through the scene or use complex fractal algorithm), the result is the same: the SXP returns the color value to 3DS. The 3DS render engine continues with the next pixel and so on… You can share this process over endless number of processors. So, if you have an object like a coke bottle, apply the raytracer-SXP to the bottle. If you have some cloud objects, apply a cloud-sxp. What are already doing if you want to have water or smoke? You apply WATER.SXP or SMOKE.SXP. So get a little step further. Think about RAYTRACE.SXP, CLOUD.SXP, FUR.SXP and LIQUID.SXP… Doesn`t that sound good? Let`s wait for the new 3DS version. I haven`t seen anything from this version but I know it will beat Softimage or Alias and so on… Why? Because the developer team doesn`t work for money (not only <g>) but for their dreams and for the user community. More than 50,000 user have deffinetly enough creativity to make everything possible. >>Sounds like you've got some interesting projects in the works. >>Its been awhile but I wanted to be clear on this. Your Rayman is >>a standalone that runs in DOS? Yes, Release 1 of RayMan is a DOS standalone program. Ok, you can run it from the DOS shell of 3DS or in a DOS window of Windows, Windows NT or OS/2 but it`s only a DOS program. If you use RayMan in your production cycle you have to create your 3DS scene, leave 3DS, start RayMan, make your rendering settings and let your image render. I know it would be better to have it implemented in 3DS but it wasn`t the time to do that. So let`s wait for the next version. Can`t say more but that it`s faster, better, further <g>. Michael