# r4 paranoia
Paul (and all concerned):
I'm here at SIGGRAPH and in one day you guys have generated so much
confusion
concerning R4 that I thought I'd try to clear up a few things. I
actually
met Gary today, quite a fellow. He told me that there would be some
upgrades
(he said 'around 40 different API changes') to the core code of 3DS
which
makes the core code of R4 a different animal than R3. Other changes
to the
core code will allow more hooks for 3rd party development.
I have a printed copy of the official R4 feature list right in front
of me as
I type so here you go:
Six Plug-ins (a guy at the Autodesk booth was saying that in R4 the
six
'IPAS' routines which would be included would be called 'Plug-ins' vs
'IPAS'
– I took this as meaning that 3rd party software would be 'IPAS' and
Autodesk/Yost stuff would be called 'Plug-ins':
"1. Inverse Kinematics to animate linked objects with intuitive
controls.
2. Spline-Based Modelling to quickly sculpt complex organic and
free-form 3D
surfaces and shapes.
3. Fast Preview Rendering to interactively create and evaluate color
keyframe animation tests.
4. A Keyframe Scripting Language to create data-driven animations
through
the use of BASIC-like scripts.
5. Perspective Match to accurately render a 3D model into a scanned
photograph or video still.
6. Encapsulated PostScript(EPS) output to produce raster files
directly from
the renderer. "
The price for R4 has been correctly noted as $2995 and is scheduled
(according to my first copy of 'Planet Studio') for the end of
September.
Current owners can upgrade for much less, of course; from R3 for
$295, from
R2 for $695, from version 1 for $795.
I hope I haven't added to the confusion. <G>
Bob