#EX AMIGA
I'm so glad you asked….
I have also been involved with Real3D since last year, being a beta tester.
Bill and I had many phone conversations about Real3D, and most of them we were
shaking our heads wondering why the programmers felt they could release a
product that was so boneheaded and cumbersome interface-wise.
problems (a few…):
1) one has to press the respective function key EVERY SINGLE TIME one wishes to
perform the operation. If you want to move a CV, you have to push the "move
CV" button. Makes sense. If you want to move another CV, or the same one
again, you HAVE to push the "move CV" button each time again, no matter what.
Hot keys make this a teeeeeeeeeeeeny weeeeeeeeeeny bit less frustrating, but it
still causes unbeleavable wasted motion.
2) Inverse Kinematics is totally unuseable, IMHO. While it does work (more or
less), it is not possible to assign constraints other than friction, so elbows
can rotate 360 degrees, etc… This is not the way it's supposed to work, and
the Yost Group IK IPAS is infinitely superior, and worth the price of Real3D
alone, IMHO.
3) setting user windows is a royal pain in the butt. There are defaults, but
if you don't happen to like them, although it is totally possible to set the
windows any way you want, I found it very time consuming and frustrating to do
so.
4) rendering is too slow, and under any sort of _speedy_ raytrace settings it
doesn't look 1/4 as good as 3DS. If you crank the settings up to take
advantage of the raytracer, you'll grow a grey beard before your animation is
finished, unless you're happy with chrome balls floating above checkerboard
planes. Great Compuserve Image of The Month program <g>.
5) The export filter is all but useless, unless you're planning on going out to
a spline based CAD package that can read spline info DXF's.
6) Screen redraws on large models are EXCRUTIATINGLY slooooooooooooooooow.
I've got a superfast windows card (MGA 4meg) and running in anything over
640x480x8bit (why use windows if this is the only useful rez?!) slows things
down much to much.
7) setting a keyframe is about as simple as breaking into fort knox. In my
beta version there wasn't even a way to set keyframes – one had to write out
morph targets! They wanted to release the software like that! We screamed and
yelled, and I guess on this one they listened… but 3DS' method is much more
direct.
8) Interface sucks. Interface sucks. Interface sucks. Interface sucks.
'Nuff said.
9) I crashed it quite a few times. I haven't crashed 3DS since I got all the
memory managment bugs straightened out (two years ago).
There are plenty other reasons I don't think this is a productive package in a
buisness environment, but you can see for yourself if you like. I'll sell you
my copy of Real3D, with original installation disks and printed manual (release
version) for many hundreds less than you can get anywhere else. I'll even call
Adam Godfrey (realsoft north america) personally and make sure you get full
support. But full support in Real3D didn't mean much to me.
I just want to add that I think you overreacted severely about R4 and the
"subject to change" feature list. I don't understand how you could have missed
the "subject to change" thingy? It's on all feature lists of unreleased
software, as well it should be. Things happen, and not all features can make
it into a final, bug free version.
IMHO, spline patch modeling is of severely limited use, VASTLY overestimated by
many people on this forum, maybe because it contains the buzzword "spline".
You would probably have used it 10% of the time compared to lofting,
primitives, and 3D editing, and you would have been very disappointed. If you
think moving vertices is tedious, there are plenty of vertices to be moved in
spline modeling. As a matter of fact, in spline patch modeling it is the only
way to make a model, unless your model happens to be a flat peice of paper, or
a cylinder. Think about it: each patch has something like 16 CV's. The more
detail you want in your model, the more patches you will need to increase the
model's resolution, the more CV's you'll have to push and pull. It's JUST like
vertice editing. The biggest advantage of splines would not be available in a
patch modeler like the one that was to come with 3DS, and that is the ability
to draw a series of curves and skin or patch them. These functions are part of
a more complete spline package. Real3D does have these features, but they are
implemented in such a way as to be unuseable to MOST people.
I have seen some good work done in Real3D, but not that much. Real3D would
have been a great tool had the programmers put one iota of effort into clever
interface design, which, IMHO is just as important as juicy feature lists. If
Real3D could have a better implementation, and export models to 3DS, I probably
wouldn't offer to sell the program to you. If you're interested, e-mail me.
If you want, give me a ring and I'll tell you all about real3D.
John Tissavary | LUNA cie, inc