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TRUESP
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1994-09-08
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trueSpace
by Judy Litt
Caligari's trueSpace is not for the faint of heart. If you have
some 3D experience, it is probably fairly easy to learn. If you
know next to nothing about 3D, like me, it is much more daunting -
but you can still create neat graphics with it.
Caligari states, "If you are a graphic artist, designer or video
professional using Windows, you need Caligari trueSpace, the first
3D graphics application with a natural user interface. With
trueSpace, you can produce photorealistic images beautiful enough
for the cover of Time magazine or video animation professional
enough for the CBS Evening News. It is also easy enough for a 6
year old to use." I beg to differ with that last statement.
Almost every action you take in trueSpace is done by clicking on
an icon. There are almost no menus to wade through. Right
clicking on icons generally brings up a panel with more options.
If you run your monitor at 1024 x 768 resolution, the icons will be
in one row - otherwise they occupy at least two rows. You can
arrange the icons either at the top or bottom of the screen.
There's also a help bar on the bottom which can be turned on or
off. When the mouse cursor is over an icon and the help bar is
turned on, you will see an explanation of the icon and the keyboard
shortcut for the icon if there is one assigned. You can also
assign your own keyboard shortcuts to icons.
I haven't decided yet whether all those icons are a good thing.
They certainly clutter up the screen. Since there are so many, they
are quite small and certain ones are difficult to recognize. You
can close all open panels with a single click of the mouse - on an
icon, naturally!
The manual begins with several tutorials. Then there are
sections explaining each icon group, its functions, and its panels.
Mini-tutorials are included in the explanations. The tutorials in
the front should follow the explanations. When I tried to follow
them, I got lost - I couldn't find the particular icon I needed or I
couldn't decipher the instructions. Instructions such as "move the
mouse pointer over the front bottom center vertex of the box, at the
bottom center of the subdivided polygons" might be more
understandable if accompanied by a diagram.
I'd also like to see a discussion of some 3D basics for novices
like myself. Terms like planarity, vertex, and ray tracing are
never adequately explained. Of course, the manual is already over
300 pages long. A second manual, a primer on 3D, would be useful.
One thing you'll notice about trueSpace - it's fast. 3D
programs are notorious for taking forever to render (draw).
Caligari's trueSpace represents objects in a wireframe mode - you
see just the frame of the object. You can render one object or an
entire scene. Rendering an entire scene is still fast - but may be
longer than you want to wait. I found the best way to render scenes
was to add a new perspective. This adds a small window to the
screen - you see everything the same as you do on the desktop, only
smaller. You can change the perspective of the new window: for
instance, get a top perspective in the new window and a left
perspective from the main window. You can render the scene only in
the new perspective if you wish. Since the new perspective window
is much smaller than the main desktop, rendering it takes much less
time.
You cannot print directly from trueSpace. You must first render
the scene to a file in .BMP, .TGA, or .AVI format. Support for the
.TIF format is noticeably lacking, but is supposed to be offered in
an upcoming release. Once you've rendered to a file, you can open
the rendered file that supports that format and then print it.
Caligari's trueSpace includes a small amount of material
libraries and objects. Materials are essentially "textures" that
can be applied to objects, although some are definitely too colorful
to be a real texture. Objects are 3D clipart. A CD-ROM with
additional textures and objects is supposed to be available to
registered users (due to ship in late September). An existing .BMP
can also be imported and applied to a face of an object.
If you're already familiar with 3D, trueSpace is a good value.
It's fast. I don't find the interface quite as user friendly as
Caligari claims, but after a week I was comfortable with it. What
could you use trueSpace for? Marketing communications, animation,
training, scientific illustrations, prototyping new products, and
architectural walkthroughs and simulations.
Caligari Corporation
1955 Landings Drive
Mountain View, CA 94043
(800) 351-7620