CALIGARI QUESTIONS
10 messages in this thread
I HAVE A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS ABOUT CALIGARI..
1. ONCE I'VE LOADED A SECOND OBJECT INTO A SCENE I CAN'T GET BACK TO
MOVE THE FIRST OBJECT I LOADED – I CANT PICK IT ANYMORE.
2. I HAVE CALIGARI INSTALLED ON MY HARD DRIVE AND EVEN THOUGH I TELL
IT TO RENDER TO FLOPPY , IT STILL INSISTS ON WRITING TO THE HARD DRIVE
FOR CALCULATIONS – CAN THIS BE CHANGED?
3. IS IT POSSIBLE TO RENDER ANIMATIONS WITHOUT HAVING TO SEND THEM TO
VCR?
4. I CAN'T DECIDE WHICH IS BETTER BETWEEN CALIGARI AND IMAGINE – DO YOU
KNOW WHAT MOST PEOPLE THINK?
5. DO YOU KNOW OF ANY RADICAL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE NEW CALIGARI24?
ANYONES IMPUT TO THESE PROBS IS APPRECIATED.
-KEIR. FROM UTAH
My understanding is that Caligari24 is actually a stripped Caligari2 that
supports 24bit rendering. It has less features than Caligari2 (hard to
believe). I have four 3D packages, Caligari2, Real3D, Alladin4D, and the
one that I actually use, Lightwave 2.0. I would suggest that you might
look at Real3D unless you need a lot of font support.
After the simplicity of the Lightwave interface, Caligari2 is a total
nightmare of crude guesswork. I honestly think that Octree put this out in
hopes of teasing buyers into upgrading to Caligari Broadcast (about 1800.00
bucks or so). Imagine has the reputation for being a beast to learn hence
I have stayed away. I'm an intelligent guy. I just think that Lightwave
is already a great product and I know that it can only get much much better
with the next realease.
Jim Roof
Jim, I d/l the recent discussion about alladin, which was a reproduction
of a detailed advertisement, but since you have the real thing, I would be
interested to know a little about its intuitiveness, i.e. the learning
curve and whether things are obviously situated. Are there different
rendering qualities, so that you can get a quick look and how does the
animation compare to Lightwave which I've heard is very easy to use. I
think if lightwave was a stand alone package I would certainly go for it,
but I'm not fussed about video (yet?) and $2000 for a ray tracer isn't in
my buget. Any Ideas? What would be the closest alternative? – Keir _
I am just now getting into Alladin. It seems to be very complete in its
control of surface attributes etc. Along with this there also seems to be
a fairly high degree of complexity. One thing that does concern me with
both Alladin and Real3D is the lack of compatibility with other object
formats. As I get further into it, I'm sure I'll spout praises or other
phrases on the subject.
Jim Roof
Thanx for the input. I'm going to check out alladin today and go from
there!
Jim,
I have used Aladdin since the Draw 4-d days. I find it very easy to setup
the textures and rendering. It works great with a DCTV. Yeah I would love
to have Lightwave to but unless they unbundle it from the Toaster its
still outside my price range. BTW if you get Alladin see if you can find
someone who has the old Draw 4-D Pro manual. It is much better for
learning the editor than the current Aladdin manual. Also be sure to
subscribe to Aladdin's Lamp a quarterly newsletter that it is a *bargain*
at $36 dollars last year each issue came with a disk that uncompressed to
three disks of fonts, animations, drawings, textures and the newsletter
was full of tutorials.
–Robert–
Jim
You can use other format objects with Aladdin. It will read .geo files
(old videoscape format I believe). I have used a number of Imagine objects
after converting them to .geo with Pixel 3d or Vertex.
–Robert–
Thanks for the valuable input. That is good to know and evidence of my
delving in sans the manuals!
Thanks
Jim Roof
We hope to support the Alladin format in future versions of InterChange
Plus. I talked with the author of Alladin recently, and we're swapping
info. By the way, stop by the conference Tuesday night, and I'd be glad to
tell you why InterChange Plus will do a much better job of converting
between 3D formats than Pixel 3D or Vertex.
I agree with you Jim,Imagine is a Nightmare to learn but once you do you
have a $235 prg that is Quite Capable.Some Folks Can't Afford to get a
Toaster just to Play with Lightwave.Midgard Graphics.