CompuServe Thread

Greeting 3DS IPAS Users, There has been a lot of talk about LenZFX and LenZFX 2, alias Lumina, alias Inferno, etc. on the forum. Here is the official statement about LenZFX 2 and our plans for the future. LenZFX 2 will be available shortly (we have scheduled a September ship date). It will contain many subtle enhancements and new features. It will be available in two versions; LenZFX 2 and LenZFX 2 with Inferno. Following is a feature list and upgrade information for both products; LenZFX 2 builds upon the foundation of LenZFX by offering the widest variety of animatable special effects. It includes 4 modules; Glow, Hilight, Lens Flare and Focus. Here is a list of enhancements in LenZFX 2. (Of course LenZFX 2 retains all of the popular features of the original LenZFX.) Ability to load a bitmap into the background of the preview window Ability to set a range of frames and step value for the animation preview. For example preview frames 80 – 190 every 3 frames. Ability to preview the animation or effect in a lo-res mode for faster rendering. Plus and Minus gadgets for all slider bars to step through values one at a time. In Lens Flare you can now set the occlusion level of the Glow, Rays and Secondaries seperatly. For example, if a lens flare light (like the sun) moves behind a planet, you can have the secondaries occlude (diminish in size and intensity) 100%, the rays occlude by 40% and the glow not occlude at all. In Lens Flare you can globally set the size, position and shape (Circle, Octagon, Hexagon, Ellipse) of all secondary flares at once. Envelopes have been enhanced including the ability to resize effects by fractional values instead of whole jumps. Object detection is cleaner. For example glowing an object by name does a better job of glowing just the object selected and not surrounding objects. Eyebrowse has been replaced by standard file requestors. This saves alot of time and memory. LenZFX 2 is a lot more friendly to networked machines since it will search the 3DS map paths for LenZFX files and not just the LenZFX subdirectory. Cleaner interface with fewer buttons but more functionality. Selecting pixels by brightness and hue work reliably with Gamma on or off. Field rendering is supported – (yes, you read it correctly). LenZFX 2 with Inferno has all the functionality of LenZFX 2 plus adds the Inferno module (in Glow and Lens Flare) to create fantastic explosion effects. Check out any of the images done by Frank Delise using Lumina (the early name for LenZFX 2) for examples. Following is a short description of Inferno. Three types of fractal noises to choose from; Gaseous, Fiery and Electric. Create explosions, clouds, fire, smoke, electric bolts, solar flares and caustic water reflections. About a dozen controls let you specify the color, density and speed of fractal disturbence for various effects. Every setting has an envelope so that it can be animated over time. You can create excellent explosions by animating the size and amplitude of the noise over time. The MSRP for LenZFX 2 is still $395. The MSRP for LenZFX 2 with INFERNO is $495. LenZFX users are encouraged to upgrade to LenZFX2 as follows; LenZFX to LenZFX2 $50. LenZFX to LenZFX2 with Inferno $100. LenZFX2 to LenZFX2 with Inferno $100. David Avgikos Digimation, Inc.