#3ds & NT ????
9 messages in this thread
Howdy Scott!
Things slowed down Yet? <BG>
Murph'
Murph,
You timed it just right. I just finished my first project. It's
funny. I was hired to produce high end graphics and VR simulations. Although,
the first day I arrived I set in on a meeting with Vending (Nabisco) and became
a programmer. They had me design a laptop Sale and Support system for the
Vending sales force. I can't go into the details until we roll it out, but
surfice it say no other company has developed such a system and Nabisco is
positioned to become the industry leader. Now, thanks to that project, I have
been called a GOD by the executives at Nabisco. You could say my ego is
feeling very good right now! Basically, I design and delivered a project that
has more functionality than another project being delivered at the same time to
the sales force by the marketing IS group of Nabisco. I completed my project
in 2 months, while IS took over a year and there project is still not complete.
🙂 My future with Nabisco is looking very good! Now, I am being trained by
Superscape Corp. in the Superscape VR developement system. The software
doesn't work in a Z-buffer enviroment and is a severe pain in the A++ at times.
It does work though and is very fast. The object creation is the equivelant of
version .5 of 3D Studio. I guess you could say I'm being force into using it.
I have developed techniques to allow me to bring 3D Studio objects in and out
of it. One problem with the 3D Studio objects is that they are based on
triangles. I currently working on a piece of conversion software that will
remove the triangle facets and and replace them with 4 sided facets were
possible. BTW, the reason for 4 sided facets is that Superscape performance is
much faster. Leave me you number on personal Email and I'll call you and
discuss a few things can't be discussed in a public forum ………… "TPC".
Scott
Scott,
>> I currently working on a piece of conversion software that will remove the
triangle facets and and replace them with 4 sided facets were possible.
If you were to come up with a viable utility that will do this reliably, I'm
sure there would be a market, (though probably small), for it. May of our
customers are game developers, and apparently, some of the programs they use
require quadrilateral instead of triangular faces. They've all requested a
triangular to quadrilateral converter from us at one time or another. If you
develope this further, please keep in touch; I'm sure I could provide a certain
outlet for you, and it would probably be worth your while.
John
PMJI-
Superscape! I'm interested in Superscape, but very committed to using 3DS.
I've shied away from Superscape because I've never seen it run, its a tad
expensive, and I don't relish learning another scripting language. I've got a
copy of CDK but not being a coder I really don't know what to do with it.
Superscape's GUI based modeler and world builder intrigued me.
Sure would love to hear more about your experiences with it, frame rates, etc.,
and your thoughts on where it might be in a year. I worry about buying
software that disappears. Oh yes, and why did you guys choose it over the
other systems – CDK, Sense8, MicronGreen's Navigator? I'm just really curious.
I'm a sculptor, who has gotten into 3DS and started to teach it to fine art
students and now seem to spend ALL of my time making hardware work. (VBG)
We've started a computer graphics lab and I feel I've really jumped into the
deep water. I'm looking for a PC based VR system for me and my students to
play with.
Carlton
>> I'm interested in Superscape,<<
Superscape is expensive, but it is a fast stable developement platform that
meets our needs.
>> Superscape's GUI based modeler and world builder intrigued me. <<
Actually the modeler is one of the weekess points. It's the equivalent of
working with a beta of 3DS release 1. They're about 5 years behind in object
creation. We are currently working on ways to use 3DS to create object and
port them into Superscape. I refuse to use modeling techniques I used 5 years
ago!
>>Sure would love to hear more about your experiences with it, frame rates,
etc., and your thoughts on where it might be in a year.<<
The first thing you'll experience with Superscape is that it is a cuboid
developement platform. Meaning that all boundries are determined by cubes and
that facets are rendered by a sorting function. This makes Superscape fast but
very difficult to use. I would prefer a platform that uses a Z-buffer system.
The frame rates are quite acceptable. Rates seem more dependant upon the speed
of you video card bus that in the performance of your CPU. As far as next
year, Superscape is releasing the NT version of their software right now. The
product will run under Windows 3.x with the Win32 add-on. You'll want Win95 or
NT to use the product though. The performance hit is to high if you don't.
>>why did you guys choose it over the other system<<
My world is one of productivity. CDK requires developers with a higher level
skill set that comes at a higher cost. I can have more developers and produce
more product with superscape at the same labor cost. I can't afford a
developement team of C programers. If Autodesk address that issue in the
future I'd move over in a heart beat. Right now though, my computer based
training system standard consist of a 100mhz Pentium, 32 meg ram, PCI video
card, sound blaster AWE 32, CD-Rom, Etc. The software I use for developement
has to be simple and be able to run on my standard system with no hardware
assist. When 3D accelerated cards are common then we'll have Corporate spend a
year plus to decide to include them in the "Standard" system for CBT.
Hopefully, I given you something to think about.
Scott Lunsford
Thanks a bunch! The best review of superscape I've yet received, and
one of the best of any of the VR systems. I'm stumped by CDK's C
threshhold. I'd really like to find a stable program to import my 3DS
models into, without having to get into programing. Superscape seems
to offer some of that possibility – although I'm curious about its
ability to import low mesh count but complex 3DS or DXF files.
>> although I'm curious about its ability to import low mesh count but complex
3DS or DXF files.<<
Superscape has a problem at times with complex low count DXF files.
At times when a scene is load such as the default office.dxf that
comes with 3DS, the Superscape system will import the object but the
floor is 10' above the rest of the scene and the other objects are
scattered about. I have been told that the NT version I'm going to
recieve next week has much better object importation.
Scott-
Thanks for the response. I guess my real question is this: Is SuperScape as
easy to use as they say it is? (VBG)
I teach in an art school where we have a very active sculpture
department. Students are incorporating video, animation, and
interactive media with more traditional objects. Some of them have
gotten pretty good scripting MacroMind Director. But coders we
ain't. Is the visual interface as easy to use as the PR claims? Is
the scripting language usable?
Now that I see how rich CDK could be if we were fluent in C++, I more excited
and frustrated than ever. It seems I'll have to set my sights on Superscape or
Micron Green's Navigator to build the worlds we want to build. Any thoughts on
this?
Carlton