#Wish list
Object Cameras in the next release!? YIPPEE!! And here I've been trying to
figure out how to go about using KeyScript to transform and copy Rotation keys
from a Dummy object and translate them to appropriate Roll keys for a Camera
linked to the Dummy, in effect doing my Object Cameras in a round-about way…
It looks like the next release is going to have some REAL New Features and
thus be the REAL Release 4, whereas the current is at best Release 3.5. <grin>
Speaking of features, remember WAY back when when I asked you about the
4:1:1 Subsampling being done in the JPEG output? JPEG can support either
4:1:1, 4:2:2, or 4:4:4 (in order of increasing image quality and decreasing
compressability — the latter is effectively no subsampling at all). By
hard-coding 4:1:1, Release 3 generated JPEG files which simply could NOT be set
to the best possible image quality no matter how high the Q-Factor (Quality vs.
Compression) slider was set to. Note also that NTSC and I believe PAL video
perform 4:2:2 subsampling in their own YUV encoding, so that 4:1:1 is lesser
image quality than NTSC standard, so ANY JPEG FILE OR SERIES OF FILES CREATED
WITH 3D STUDIO CANNOT BE CONSIDERED "BROADCAST QUALITY"!! They must have at
LEAST 4:2:2 to be Broadcast Quality!
I asked that an interim release be made which would if nothing else at least
add a 3DS.SET file parameter "JPEG-SUBSAMPLING" which could be set to 1, 2, or
4, for 4:1:1, 4:2:2, or 4:4:4 subsampling, respectively. The default would be
1 for compatibility, but the default included in the sample 3DS.SET file and
commented out would be 2 for minimal compliance with NTSC broadcast standards.
You said you would do this, remember? No such interim release has come out.
When we got (so-called) Release 4, I eagerly read through its new
parameters, and NO "JPEG-SUBSAMPLING" parameter, or anything else! I was
hoping that Release 4 (which in my opinion we have yet to see — what we have
now is Release 3.5 and I will NOT back down on that, but I do digress here…)
would have an actual "Subsampling" set of radio buttons or slider or spinner
control with available values of 4:1:1, 4:2:2, and 4:4:4/None in the
Render/Setup/Configuration box when JPEG is selected, just as it now includes
the Q-Factor slider, since you told me that it was Autodesk's policy that
changes to the user-interface, however minor, had to wait until the next major
Release and couldn't be included in any interim Releases, which is why some
additions in Release 2.1a had to be implemented as 3DS.SET file parameters.
But not only did we not get that, we didn't even get the 3DS.SET file
parameter! Or if we did, it wasn't documented. What gives!?