CompuServe Thread

>>Have you heard about Real 3D V2 Windows? It is available as a prerelease (a.k.a. beta?) for $500 and the features look good. If anyone has any comments, I would be interested. Especially about the interface being better or worse than either Animation Master or 3D Studio. Also the modeling capabilities. Albert, PMJI, but I can comment briefly on Real 3D for Windows. I won't use this forum for an in-depth analysis for obvious reasons, but I have been HEAVILY involved in the beta program for some time. You singled out 2 program areas, modeling & interface, which conincidentially are the program's most truly noteable features. You design your own interface, literally. There are viewport windows, measuring sytem windows, color pallette, cam control, animation control, materials, tool icons, etc.. You just call them up and size/place them to your liking, and save the environment for future use, and they are interchangeable as needed while working on a project. Very nice implementation with only some minor caveats. As far as the modeler is concerned, I have used virtually every 3D app. ever written on the SGI, PC, Amiga, and to a lesser extent, Mac platforms over the last 10 years. I will not get into the feature set here, and you probably have seen it anyway, but let me just say it is one of the best and most complete modelers that I have ever used on any platform, including Alias on SGI. The B-Spline implementation only deals with the UNIFORM variety (unlike Alias), but short of the NURB support, the B-Spline implementation is incredible. (You must be pretty experienced with advanced B-Spline construction though). I have been trying to drive it into their heads to package just the modeler with GOOD 3ds object converters, and market that as an alternative modeler for 3DS. I was told that John Foust was working on this, but you may want to check with him for the real story. The rest of the program, while laden with functional – not so functional features such as Collision Detetction, Procedural Modeling / Animation, Inverse Kinematics, (CRYPTIC) Programming Language, etc.., is not up to par with the modeler though. The documentation is out-dated, full of errors, and very incomplete. They are supposedly working on much improved doc's (essential), and in fact, asked me to write the B-Spline related portions. I have so far declined, as my technical questions have been literally avoided by the programmers OR answered incorrectly, and the programmers seem to not be able to distinguish constructive criticism from program bashing. With this attitude and the many shortcomings of the program for COMPLETE animation production (no traditional keyframer for example – time based only), I did not feel my labor would be justified, as they would not sell many copies. But who knows in this market ! Unfortunately (as this COULD BE a most amazing app.), the program's development is ENTIRELY engineering-driven as opposed to market-driven. And while the programmers are quite sharp, they ONLY program what interests THEM, as opposed to what is needed to "complete the package" to serious commericial standards and requirements. If this should change over time and/or if good 3DS converters do materialize, then I HIGHLY reccomend the program, if only for use as a modeler. Otherwise, it can not be used realistically for commercial production for a variety of reasons too numerous to mention here. This is a great shame, as the program has SO MANY very nice and unique features. Hope this has been helpful, if not too explicit. Trust me. Bill – MEDIA MAGIC