CompuServe Thread

Re: 3rd Party Book on 3D Studio & Mirage* Raytracing Engine After almost 2 years of promises from major publishers a book has finally been announced addressing advanced topics on 3D Studio. Because support could not be found among major publishers I personally funded and co-wrote Advanced Modeling and Rendering Techniques for 3D Studio(AMR). The book will be released Oct. 4, and advance orders will be taken immediately. As AMR neared completion in the last several months we began contacting various publishers about publication and distribution. It seems that most publishers wait for an installed base of 100,000 or more before they consider marketing 3rd Party Books on software. We believe there is a need in the 3D Studio community for support from 3rd party sources in the form of books as well as other add-on products. Although this book was written using release 2 as the working model, we believe that it will live long as an advanced reference guide for future releases as well. The book is named Advanced Modeling & Rendering Techniques for 3D Studio. It is comprised of over 200 pages of explanations, examples, and lessons ranging from advanced lofting techniques to lighting theory. It also includes over 225 pages of command reference material in case you desire to look up the proper way to use various commands without having to break out the 3D Studio manuals. I personally come from a background which included extensive work with high-end animation software such as Alias* and Wavefront*. While the 3D Studio reference manuals are well written, clear and concise, I felt there were some essential techniques we've been using on high-end systems that other 3D Studio users would appreciate. The second item, and possibly even more important, is the release of Mirage*. Mirage* is a raytracing engine for 3D Studio which will be released November 1st. A preliminary demo version, Mirage* 1.99, will be offered as a supplement to our book. This is a true raytracer which will accept all data from any binary .3ds file. That's right !! Even material libraries, cameras, and lights will import seamlessly. This demo version will raytrace .3ds files but will only display them to the screen. The final release will save in various formats as well as allow for the specific screen region or specific objects to be rendered only! Our development team ported Mirage* from the SGI platform and we plan to have a major update to Mirage* within 3 months (release 3). Our current plans are for this version to actually work from within 3DSR3 as an IPAS routine. Look for additional announcements on this product in October. Back to the book for now. We feel very strongly that 3rd party information should be made available at the most reasonable price possible. This book will list for $59.99 retail. You can order the book direct from Payne Enterprises at 1-805-259-0821. This line is available for ordering from 12:00 to 4:00 P.M. Pacific time only. The book will also be available at major bookstores in November. Call us for the name of Autodesk dealers who may have the book in stock. Direct fax orders (our preferred way of accepting orders) can be made at 1-805-259-1821.