#Imagine 3
I have to agree with some of the points made about the ease of use of
Imagine. I think that you have built an incredible rendering engine
but the interface leaves a great deal to be desired. I have to
disagree with your presumtion that a powerful program means a
difficult interface. I went to a Crystal Graphics demo an saw what
they had to offer and was very impressed with their interface. They
had such features as viewing a scene from a lights POV to see where a
light is shining, and doing a partial rendering of selected area of a
scene to make sure it's looking right (a more powerful quickrender).
It also has the lighting and brush mapping features that Imagine
has. What it lacked was ray-tracing (which should have no effect on
the interface) and what it had was a $3900 price tag. What I am
trying to say in my rambling is that you should use your strengths,
your rendering engine, and build a better interface on top of it.
Look at (and use) some Windows and Mac programs. Not just 3D and
paint programs but any program and learn what makes them easy to learn
and use and take that into your interface design. A powerful program
CAN have a more intuitive interface.
BTW I obviously havn't seen 3.0 and so many of my and other's points
may be moot. And don't worry, I'm not about to spend $3800 more for
a nice interface. You still have the best program for the money.