#Tough BetaTesters Needed
19 messages in this thread
Video International
is urgently looking for 4-5 individuals willing to perform final testing
of our Refraction Mapping IPAS.
We need to test it on huge and complicated models
and also measure its performance on animations without swapping.
So we are looking for people
a. whose machines are equipped with at least 64Mb RAM
(we have already performed thorough testing on 8, 16 and 32Mb machines
and
routine works just fine).
b. who has extremely large and complicated meshes and animations readily
available
c. who has no mercy to IPAS routines and ready to run it through the toughest
tests possible
and
d. who can devote some portion of their time for testing during month of July.
We are in a hurry, because we want to be ready by SIGGRAPH,
so I need your responses by June 30th
when I'll mail to you Refraction Mapping PXP version 1.0 and AXP version 0.95.
Thanks in advance,
Alex, Video International
I would be happy to help!
I am currently running a 486-66dx2 with 64Mb (Gateway), have worked as a beta
site for metaballs,keyfactory, scriptlanguage and have contributed to software
currently in devlopement with Kub in NewYork. Created the Texture Universe CD
for Autodesk and contributed to the Worldbuilder CD 3ds3/4.
Michael spaw
Hi,
sounds good… HW: 4 P90 / 64 MB, Novell Network, Fast VM&DP/R. We could bring
some RAM over from our SGI to get one machine to 128 MB. We betatested and
developped so far mainly hardware, but would be interesting to check software
for holes.
beginning from 1.7 and ending the 24.7 we're producing a videoclip for an
american band, in which lots of quite complex viewpoint-models and
slef-constructed "flying cats with wing" are acting, each about 30K-Vertices.
Bye from Stuttgart, Germany
Jan von Krogh / Imagelab
Good evening!
Jan and others, who responded on my message.
1. Thank you a lot!
2. I will anwer to everybody individually via mail.
3. On June 30 or July 1 most of you will receive RefMap Beta 0.95 to test.
4. I will expect your comments on software and bug reports sent to me via mail
in order not
to disturb forum too much.
5. Thanks again, everybody!
Alex, Video International
Alek,
can you use the refraction mapping plug-in (IPAS) with bones?
>> can you use the refraction mapping plug-in (IPAS) with bones?
Ooohh, sounds like you've got a cool idea. Could do some pretty wild stuff eh?
How's things at Metrolight? Are you going to the party?
DM
David,
>> Ooohh, sounds like you've got a cool idea. Could do some pretty wild stuff
eh? <<
I'd like to combine refraction with bones pro, but it sounds unlikely with the
limit of one .axp – my project doesn't lend itself to dumping morph targets
from bones. It would create a scene of 5 million faces.
>> How's things at Metrolight? <<
pretty hellish at the moment, although I'm loving the challenge. I'm finishing
up a film resolution shot for "Virtuosity". Technically a pretty complicated
shot, I have to composite a CGI holographic talking head to the top of a kiosk
in a live shot. There is no motion data for the camera move other than some
measurements and the kiosk is of a known size. The cyberscanned head reads the
news report and it's done by optically motion capturing the performer reading
the lines then bring the data into 3ds. I used the plug-ins: keyscript, IK,
camera perspective matcher, bonespro – ironically most of Autodesk's r4
plug-ins. Plus a new 3rd party one. Had to pull out all the stops on this one
<g>.
In addition, to the former shot which I'm handling alone, I'm supervising a
team on the production of a commercial for Korean TV (kindof an
Egyptian/Stargate type of thing). Phew <g>.
Martin
Are you going to the party? <<
Sounds very challenging! But great fun too. How long is the head shot? How did
you end up working with the camera matching – every frame or what? I'm sure R5
is going to make this kind of work easier. Can't wait to see it though, sounds
totally cool. <G> As far as I know, I'm going this year. As long as funds
allow. That's my only downfall right now, but I think I can manage. See ya!
DM
David,
>> How long is the head shot? <<
10 seconds during which the camera is never completely locked off. Even when
it's not doing the truck in to the head (dolly) their is some drift.
>> How did you end up working with the camera matching – every frame or what?
I'm sure R5 is going to make this kind of work easier. <<
I'm going to upload the technique I used for this once the shot is done and out
the door. It would be too premature to do it now, although the director has
basicly signed off on the camera tracking – I'm still not perfectly happy with
it <g>. Simply put there is no specific repeat of frames, you put ones where
they are needed: some places every frame, some places only every 30, the
average being every 5-10 I'd guess. The fewer the better.
R5 will undoubtedly make this easier, because the method I use now is at best a
laborious work-around with which you can get good results. It will never be an
exact science though, until every shot which needs CG elements added is shot
with a motion tracking head. Even movies with decent budgets don't have many of
these yet. I think the problem is they take a long time to setup and calibrate
per shot and they crew just doesn't want to deal with that "extra" step.
Martin
>>can you use the refraction mapping plug-in (IPAS) with bones?
Great idea, Martin!
Have never tried it, but will check it today.
Why don't you get a copy of version 0.85 from Greg Pyros and try it for
yourself?
Good Luck,
Alex, Video International
Alek,
>> Why don't you get a copy of version 0.85 from Greg Pyros and try it for
yourself? <<
uh, I already have it <g>. I'm trying to use it but I don't see how you can get
around the limitation of only 1 .axp per object.
Either try to create a dummy and assign AXP properties to it (doesn't work with
RefMap,
cause it doesn't have direct AXP interface)
or
create exact copy of an object and assign one AXP to one copy and another one
to
another (sync the copies, of course) and try to hide prototypes or make them
transparent
in order to make AXP generated object to be visible.
I did that with Refraction Mapping and Aurora Mapping (to get immitation of
Difraction as well)
and it perfectly worked.
Again, don't forget that due to 3DS bug AXP objects can not hold Auto
Reflection properly.
Good Luck,
Alex, Video International
Hi Aleksey,
We have a number of P75's and P90's loaded with 40,64 and 128MB of RAM
I'll email you some images which give an indication of the complexity
of our work – we could certainly give your routine a serious hammering.
Andy Roberts
BITS Corp.
Aleksey;
Sounds like a great Plug-In. I would be very exited to Beta test you
software. In the past I have tested versions 2 & 3 of 3DS, Rayman, Director
for Windows and a couple of others. I know the process and am used to putting
software through it's tests.
In house I have a couple of pentium 90s, one with 96 MB ram, and a few other
486's w/ 64 mb ram.
If you would like to see some of my work, I did the Feb '94 & March '95 covers
of CADalyst magazine. I Also provided a bulk of the 3D graphics and animation
for Mindscapes "How Your Body Works." As well as a bunch of other work.
Please let me know, I am very interested.
Zac (AZ-TECH)
Berkeley
-Zac Rymland (AZ-TECH)
Hi there,
We have built a 400k+ polygon New York city of the future, through which we are
flying a VTOL commuter jet – which lands on a rooftop airport in the city. The
jet is a cross between a harrier and a 737, we would like to create jet
heat-haze below the aircraft while landing. Would this be a suitable
application for your refraction IPAS? If so, we would be very interested in
testing it for you! We have several P90's equipped with over 60meg each to
render on.
Thanks,
Glen Egan
Future Endeavors
Hi, Paul!
>>We have built a 400k+ polygon New York city of the future, through which we
are flying a VTOL >>commuter jet – which lands on a rooftop airport in the
city. The jet is a cross between a harrier >>and a 737, we would like to create
jet heat-haze below the aircraft while landing. Would this be >a suitable
application for your refraction IPAS?
No, Refraction Mapping is useless, unless your heat flow is a mesh.
In your situation I would use Fractal Flow Refraction, which we wrote exactly
for that…
Refraction Mapping would be extremely useful if your jet would be made out of
some
futuristic semi-transparent material and you would want to show how city
skyline
looks through it. Or, at least, if your aircraft would have something like
heliocopter cabin
(some mesh made from refracting material).
Alex, Video International
Hi there,
>>In your situation I would use Fractal Flow Refraction, which we wrote exactly
for that…
This sounds cool, where can we get it? We're in Canada.
Thanks,
Glen Egan
Future Endeavors
>> Fractal Flow Refraction <<
Where, when, who, how much?!
– Dan / n-Space, Inc.