CompuServe Thread

Gary, Sorry I'm late, but then I always was late with my homework! I've been using 3DS3 since late last year and my previous 3D experience is only with Plamation – which I did not get very far with since it is so S L O W ! (sorry Mr. Hash) These are my observations as I work through the books and CD: * The on-line help is week. I know that was another thread but I'd like more anyway. * The manuals are too terse and lack background information. Perhaps all that is needed is another manual that concentrates on the science and technique of 3D graphics, as well as a really good, complete how-to manual for illustrating principals and technique. This would include the simple stuff and lots of outrageous, complicated, involved projects. It could offer projects tutorials like TV/Movie Sci-Fi stuff (robots, space ships, cities, monsters) and real world things like broadcast quality tutorials on Movie of the week, major sports, and news flying logos. I'd like tutorials on real world stuff like buildings, barns, stone houses, cars, plants and trees… things that the pros do for the big money. I'd also like some example on using the World Creating Tool kit. There should be some printed reference that has the CD ROM images in it. * The color sliders used all over 3DS are difficult to use. I like the color box or color circle that many other graphics program have like CorelDraw or the Macintosh color system. These styles make it a lot easier to get the exact color desired fast and mush more accurately. For instance I find it quite difficult to get a good brown using 3Ds's color sliders, but it's a real snap using the color box in CorelDraw 4. * Creating a bit map as a texture on an object is too hard! I'm trying to create a photo realistic image of the interior a local movie palace, and getting the bit maped murals lined up on the curved ceiling over the proscenium is a trial by error process. This should be more straight forward. For instance someone on the forum is working with sharks and created a grid to help align (and distort) an image on to a curved surface. Something that unfolds a surface so it will lie flat would be a big help. Also an interactive 2D morph routine that would let the user stretch a bit map on to and around a flatted surface (as I mentioned above) would greatly help. * The modeler has a few weakness that could be strengthened. One area that I want to see is NURBS (I said I used Playmation – This is the part I liked best). Another is booleans with procedural geometry – I like to create some geometry and slice and dice it up with booleans. The current implementation has weaknesses with this – if the boolean operations were performed when the geometry was still lines and arcs it would work better. * I want to be able to use bit maps to help line up geometry, lights and cameras in the 3D editor and keyframer. The current implementation uses too few colors and is not useful for using captured video to match the action. It also lays on the screen and can't be moved. I want to be able to lock the bit map in position and have it move with the geometry. I also want to zoom the bit map with the geometry as well. The 2d Shapper suffers from the same limitations and needs the above new features as well. * I might be wrong about this, but it seems to me that vertexes on a path imported into the keyframmer from the shaper can't be moved individually in the keyframer. The path's vertexes should be editable, at lest individually movable. If I'm wrong about 3DS not already doing this please disregard this one. * I want cameras that will match the real camera movements in film/video. I've got a project that will require precise camera matching with moving camera video. This ability to do this was one of the reasons I bought 3DS in the first place. I understand from a previous thread on the forum that 3DSr3's cameras are not intended to precisely mimic real film/video movements. Sadly, I lost out on that one. Although I'm not using it yet, motion control data in and out would be nice too. * All the IPAS stuff you've got should be in the next release. * 3DS should take full advantage of the Pentium. * Windows or OS/2 (or OS/3?) will win out over the other and 16 bit DOS will DIE!! (I hope) 3DS should become a native application of a true 32 bit OS as soon as the dust clears. * IPAS routines should be able to be written with Borland and MicroSoft compilers. Would supporting DLLs (DOS and Windows) work? I like Borland's DOS DLLs in Borland Pascal. Would they work for you? * Add an interface for dedicated display/rendering hardware. Perhaps the Matrox Impression could be a model of hardware assisted rendering. Another possibility is to use NewTek's rendering Screamer, or even another design. -Andy