#Add depth …
>>prompted several people to ask whether it
>>was ray-traced. (Which seems to be all the vogue. <g>)
I hear this too, sometimes, and I sometimes think the people who ask just like
the sound of the word 'ray-traced'… it's like a favorite buzzword. I
constantly hear it misapplied to almost any CG thing (sprite-based "Asteroids"
type computer games claiming "raytraced graphics"). I really like the way the
scanline renderer of 3DS works. In a production situation, I love it's speed.
It's amazing.
If raytracing were available with 3DS, I think we'd use a raytrace option about
as much as we currently use the 'scene motion blur' option… only when we had
lots of time and renderpower.
I'm currently working on an article on raytracing scenes created in 3D Studio.
I think one of the things people overlook about ray-traced chrome is that it
reflects only what's around it. You have to build stuff around the chrome for
it to reflect. Reflection mapping is much faster and often more effective for
the flying logo stuff. With the metallic shader in R3, I've seen no reason for
any 3DS user to feel metallicly deprived. <G>
There are only a few cases where raytracing is called for: Prominent glass
refraction, perfect metallic reflection, and colored translucent objects that
have prominent colored shadows. Anyway, that's my opinion…
>>Personally I hope 3DS never loses the ability to
>>create the softer look like in the Death Gate scenes.
>>There appears to be a renewed interest in CG
>>animation not looking CG and in that regard
>>3DS certainly has _all_ the bases covered.
I agree with you heartily. I thought we'd all seen enough "pinballs on chess
boards".
Jim