By Popular Request 2.0/By Popular Request 2.0 (Arsenal Computer).ISO/amiga_4/imlarc62.lha/IML_May62.txt

Internet Message Format | 1995-06-01 | 696KB

Date:    Monday, 01 May 1995 00:15:02
Subject: Re: diminish intensity
From:    Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi imagine@etc.

    Charles Blaquiere  wrote:
> The light I used had intensities of 255, 255, 255. As you can see,
> illumination stays constant for 256 units, after which it drops
> exponentially by 50% every 256 units.

   Thanks Charles, for a lucid explanation of a subject which has
never been clear to me. (What baffles me is how you found this out,
was it just by experimenting ?)

   This gives me an idea for the "wish list" for V4.
What about a technical reference section in the manual, which gives
us some idea how certain functions work, in order for experienced
users to get straight to the nuts and bolts of Imagine, without
bogging down new users with too much confusing detail ?

   Maybe you could write it Charles !





--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Monday, 01 May 1995 09:40:31
Subject: Real 3d mailing list
From:    Steve McLaughlin <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Correction on the real3d mailing list
  wrong: [e-mail]
  right: [e-mail]
  send subscribe real3d in the text area

Date:    Monday, 01 May 1995 11:05:04
Subject: Request for textures
From:    Stuart Hogton <[e-mail]>


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>From: [e-mail] (Milan Polle)

>If you want the textures, reply to this and I will reply with the
>uuencoded file.

This sounds good, I would like these textures if possible. You must
be fed up with all these requests, so I say a big hearty thanks in
advance.

      Stu <[e-mail]>


Date:    Monday, 01 May 1995 12:24:15
Subject: Virtual Memory Matters
From:    Stuart Hogton <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Greetings all,
            Is there anybody out there who can help me with a couple
of problems I have with Imagine?

System configuration : Amiga 1200 with Viper 030 + MMU + 10MB RAM
                      Imagine version : 3.0

1 - I cannot get Gigamem to work in conjuntion with Imagine without
    crashing frequently. I have tried many different settings in
    the preferences in both Imagine and Gigamem, but to no avail. Are
    there any PD virtual memory programs which work well with Imagine?
    Has anybody managed to get Gigamem to work well at all?

2 - I've completely forgotten what the other matter was, so if
    anybody knows of a cure for unstable human memory, let me know.


Thanks in advance. Stu.


Date:    Monday, 01 May 1995 15:02:49
Subject: Upgrade fees
From:    [e-mail] (Michael Mulhall)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Howdy,

Could someone in Oz please let me know how much it would cost to upgrade
Imagine
2 to the latest version.

RE:Gards,

Michael Mulhall
[e-mail]

#  Voice: [phone]  #  Data/Fax: [phone]  #


Date:    Monday, 01 May 1995 15:18:00
Subject: Fw:re: TextureStudio on aminet!!
From:    "rob (r.d.) hounsell" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> I used it last night and it GURU'd everytime on me when I loaded a supplied
>> texture and then a Imagine texture. GURU 80...03
>> Looks like it is not completly bug free :)
>
>It works on my machine.. just tried it with Radar.itx and BeamMeUp.itx.
>
>However, all the menus are blank!  Makes using it rather difficult...
>A great program however, works with all the user-textures I have
>written and collected too.  I just wish it could render directly to
>DCTV or graphic boards.

  I get both problems - blank menus and the occasional spinning process
(extremely slow mouse response and screen updates). But I loved being able to
manipulate the Imagine textures similar to Forge. Fix the bugs, and it's a
winner.

  I'm using a stock 25MHz A3000 @ OS2.04.

Rob

Date:    Monday, 01 May 1995 15:28:03
Subject: Imagine3.0, a500 and mem
From:    [e-mail] (Rogelio J Quintanilla)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



Ok i have an amiga 500 with a total of 2.5mb of ram. I have read
that imagine3.0 requires 2mb of ram to run, but i can't imagine3.0
to work with 2.5mb,
Can anyone tell me what the problem is, and maybe how i could fix it.


Date:    Monday, 01 May 1995 16:32:25
Subject: Re: Mirroring Objects
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Yes. Just use the Translations R/A_T and set the Scale value to -1 for
the direction you want to mirror.(example)to mirror an object in the X
direction set x to -1.00.

=RRW=


>         Hello!  I've been using Imagine 3.0 since December and have just
> recently upgraded to 3.2.  I think it's a wonderful program.  It allows me
> to do stuff I've always dreamed of doing.
>
>          Anyway, I have a question.  I'm am currently working on a human
> figure.  I'm using the forms editor to make the basic shapes which I then
> combine point to point in the detail editor.  I was wondering if there is a
> way to "mirror" an object so that I would have two objects, one being the
> relfection of the other.  For example, I have a rather complex left hand and
> I would like to be able to make an identically proportioned right hand
> without connecting and positioning the points to match the left.  If there
> is a way to do this, please let me know.  However, if there is currently no
> way to do this, I think a "mirror" function would be a wonderful time-saving
> addition to upcoming versions of Imagine.
>
>         Thank you.
>
>
>         Andy Krieg
>         [e-mail]
>
>

Date:    Monday, 01 May 1995 16:42:52
Subject: Re: Virtual Memory Matters
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


>System configuration : Amiga 1200 with Viper 030 + MMU + 10MB RAM
>                     Imagine version : 3.0
>1 - I cannot get Gigamem to work in conjuntion with Imagine without
>    crashing frequently. I have tried many different settings in
>    the preferences in both Imagine and Gigamem, but to no avail. Are
>    there any PD virtual memory programs which work well with Imagine?
>    Has anybody managed to get Gigamem to work well at all?
Try VMM_V3.lha from Aminet. It is much better and cheaper than GigaMem.
Big advantage: Uses a file like a partition meaning: Fast like a partition
and deletable like a file. Disadvantage: can't be any bigger than halve your
HD partition it resides on.
Use Reorg to make the largest free block as large as possible.

>2 - I've completely forgotten what the other matter was, so if
>    anybody knows of a cure for unstable human memory, let me know.
Err, there is a cure for but ehhem, I forgot. ;)

Greetings Joop

Date:    Monday, 01 May 1995 17:50:29
Subject: Imagine 4
From:    Darren Priestnall <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does anyone know when the Imagine 3.3 and 4.0 update's are due ?
I ask because I heard that V4 was due out at the end of May but I
wondered if this has been put back to a later date to allow V3.3 to be
released.
I fail to see how they can release 2 update's so close together.....I
personally would rather see one more update in the form of a fully
working and decent Imagine 4.

What about everyone else, would you like another update bashed together
to meet the deadline while all their real attention is on getting V4
working or would you rather V4 to be released at the original deadline.

How about just releasing V4 in May and then the final update could be a
month or so later in the form of a fully working version with all bug
fixes...(I'm not being pessimistic with Impulse it's just that all new
software has bug's so I'm certain the new V4 interface will need severe
Beta testing by all us Imagine user's)


--
~===========================================================================~
 Darren Priestnall - [e-mail] (PandGImaging)
Connecting via Demon Internet, Finchley, London, N3 1TT. Tel: [phone]
-- Full IP Connectivity for a 10 UKP per month - no usage/online fees!! --

Date:    Monday, 01 May 1995 19:26:45
Subject: Real3DSy
From:    Darren Priestnall <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry, wrong Real3D mailing list address.

try:

[e-mail]

What's the Imagine address to unsubscribe ?


--
~===========================================================================~
 Darren Priestnall - [e-mail] (PandGImaging)
Connecting via Demon Internet, Finchley, London, N3 1TT. Tel: [phone]
-- Full IP Connectivity for a 10 UKP per month - no usage/online fees!! --

Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 00:15:54
Subject: Re: Virtual Memory Matters
From:    Mike Cheng <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 1 May 1995, Stuart Hogton wrote:

>     the preferences in both Imagine and Gigamem, but to no avail. Are
>     there any PD virtual memory programs which work well with Imagine?

I have used VMM (from aminet) in conjunction with Imagine for a while
now.  It is pretty stable. (I've had no experience with Gigamem).  There
are a few things of which you should take note:

      Running Grapevine (irc client) and Imagine at the same time often
leads to a guru.

      Things seem more stable if you specify that the program stays in
real RAM and only swaps out DATA to vmem. (this is an option in VMM,
which will make itself apparent when you run it)

      If you leave programs running idle for a time, VMM sometimes seems
to 'forget' that you had them running, and immediately gives you a
#80000004 program fail error when you try to 'un-minimize them'. (which
you can just suspend).  Moral: run as few programs as necessary.


If anyone else has tips for stable VMM operation, don't hesitate to share.

MiKE (Cstar on #amiga)
  [e-mail]  http://joffre.newcastle.edu.au/


Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 00:55:07
Subject: Re: Imagine for Windows II
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To all:

Just thought you might like to hear something NEW and SIGNIFICANT about
Imagine for Windows. Especially since it came from the source!!!

And I Quothe (cut and paste actually):

>>Subj:       Re: Imagine for Windows II
>>Date:       95-04-29 22:48:49 EDT
>>From:       [e-mail]
>>
>>From: [e-mail] (Mike Halvorson)
>>To: [e-mail] (INTERNET:[e-mail])
>>
>>Falko
>>
>>Imagine will run under Win 32s, Windows 95 and WIndows NT all in each
native
>>mode, it will be faster than any other windows rendering engine, and it
will be
>>as small in code size as we can make it.  Hope that helps.
>>
>>Mike

Seems Mike overheard an earlier remark I made on the IML about my hopes for
this and responded quite promptly. This is quoted as he responded to me
privately. I hope some of you other Win users out there are as exited as I am
about this. It means that Imagine for Windows will utilize full preemptive
multitasking on Win95 and WinNT. Not to mention the performance boost form
32bit code and data moves.

Falko

Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 02:29:00
Subject: Gigamem/imagine
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I use Gigamem with Imagine 3.2 all the time. It sounds like your problem may
be that Imagine is timing out. I use a swap partition, not a swap file. By
using a swap file of any size, your Vmem is spread all over that partition/
drive. Also, make sure, in your Gigimem Prefs, that your Cache size is set
to 300k, the reccomended size for 32 bit machines. To use Vmem, I first run
Imagine, pop it to the backround and run Gigamem, then run Gigamem Prefs,
making sure the Im32.fp executeable is selected, then I bring Imagine back
to the front, use the check memory command in the Project editor, and make
sure everything is cool. Also, your swap buffer needs to be between 25-35%
of your fast ram.

Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 04:14:32
Subject: Re: Virtual Memory Matters
From:    Gregory Helleren <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 1 May 1995, Stuart Hogton wrote:

>           Is there anybody out there who can help me with a couple
> of problems I have with Imagine?
>
> System configuration : Amiga 1200 with Viper 030 + MMU + 10MB RAM
>                     Imagine version : 3.0
>
> 1 - I cannot get Gigamem to work in conjuntion with Imagine without
>     crashing frequently. I have tried many different settings in
>     the preferences in both Imagine and Gigamem, but to no avail. Are
>     there any PD virtual memory programs which work well with Imagine?
>     Has anybody managed to get Gigamem to work well at all?
>
You cannot have your Gigamem swap file on the same HD partition as any of
the input and output data for the task using VM. In other words the swap
sapce should be either a separate partition or a swap file on a different
partition to your objects, maps, brushes, textures, output pics...

This is clearly mentioned in the Gigamem manual.

I have successfully used Gigamem on an A4000/040 using Imagine 2.0, 3.0,
3.1 and now 3.2. It works flawlessly.

Love Peace and Wing Mirrors
Gregg

Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 07:40:01
Subject: Re: imagine3.0, a500 and mem
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Rogelio, in <[e-mail]> on May 1 you wrote:

> Ok i have an amiga 500 with a total of 2.5mb of ram. I have read
> that imagine3.0 requires 2mb of ram to run, but i can't imagine3.0
> to work with 2.5mb,

This is'nt surprising, you have to allow for system overheads such as your
ROM, Workbench screen etc. Open a Shell and type AVAIL to get an accurate
memory read-out after you have booted. Even with 2.5Meg of spare memory you
would be hard pressed to do anything complex in Imagine.

I tried to render a complete detailed chess set with 15Megs of spare memory
and ran out of RAM.  :-(

> Can anyone tell me what the problem is, and maybe how i could fix it.

Yuo need to upgrade - more RAM? a new computer?

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 07:56:04
Subject: Re: fw:re: TextureStudio on aminet!!
From:    James Brooks <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 1 May 1995, rob (r.d.) hounsell wrote:

> >> I used it last night and it GURU'd everytime on me when I loaded a supplied

> >> texture and then a Imagine texture. GURU 80...03
> >> Looks like it is not completly bug free :)
> >
> >It works on my machine.. just tried it with Radar.itx and BeamMeUp.itx.
> >
> >However, all the menus are blank!  Makes using it rather difficult...
> >A great program however, works with all the user-textures I have
> >written and collected too.  I just wish it could render directly to
> >DCTV or graphic boards.
>
>   I get both problems - blank menus and the occasional spinning process
> (extremely slow mouse response and screen updates). But I loved being able to
> manipulate the Imagine textures similar to Forge. Fix the bugs, and it's a
> winner.
>
>   I'm using a stock 25MHz A3000 @ OS2.04.
>
> Rob

Hmm, I have been playing with the program off and on and I have NOT ran
into any of the problems that I have been seeing going across this
mailing list.  I must be one lucky soul!  :-)

I have also E-Mailed the programmers about their program.

My setup:  A4000w 20MB RAM, OS 3.0, Warp Engine 28MHz

If I was you all just write an E-Mail msg letting them know the problem.
Their addresses are in the AmigaGuide format docs.


Alex

---------------------------------------------------------------
James "Alex" Brooks              Amiga 4000/040/28MHz 20MB RAM
Lightwave 3.5 / Imagine 3.0      VideoToaster 4000 3.1
Syquest 3.5" 270MB             Bernoulli 90Pro
NEC 3xp Triple Speed CDROM       Warp Engine 4028
Epson ES-600C Scanner            E-Mail: [e-mail]
--------------------------------------------------------------


Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 11:16:42
Subject: Re: TextureStudio problems fixed
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Andy, and mates,

      Thanks, you, for TextureStudio.  The only prob I've had with it
so far is that blank menu's thing.  No biggy for me.  Especially as the
rest of it's so delicious.  Way to go, you.

Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 11:19:22
Subject: Re[2]: Imagine for Windows II
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------






Great.  But I wonder what other goodies will show up in later releases.
Some of my wishes: A spline forms editor, and the ability to use splines
with control handles for paths: Point editing in new mode: snap object
to grid: sound support:collisions detection: etc: etc:

Greg Denby
[e-mail]

     -----------------------------------------------------

     Let's see Impulse do the WinNT thing first; we can ask
     for options AFTER we see some software.

     This is the first time I've heard that Impulse is
     actually going in the direction that the users have
     asked for, and I think it's great that Impulse has
     decided to listen to its customer base. I applaud them
     for this move.

     And before we get a flame war, I own BOTH Amiga's and
     IBM's.

     As long as the rendering engine underneath can handle
     the same staging, I really don't care what platform I'm
     on.

     As for the Imagine related question: Does anyone use
     the deformations cube that the Detail Editor supplies?
     I made a 10x10 cube, pinched the center of it (so it
     looked like a hourglass), placed a sphere in the
     middle, applied the cube, and instead of getting an
     "hourglass-shaped sphere", I got an egg. Does this make
     sense? Did I need to pinch the deformation cube
     tighter?

     Since I haven't had time to play with this, I thought
     I'd ask. Oh, and also so this message had some
     relevance to the list.

     -AC

Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 11:44:23
Subject: Re: Imagine for Windows II
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


>>>Imagine will run under Win 32s, .....

Great.  But I wonder what other goodies will show up in later releases.
Some of my wishes: A spline forms editor, and the ability to use splines
with control handles for paths: Point editing in new mode: snap object
to grid: sound support:collisions detection: etc: etc:

Greg Denby
[e-mail]

Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 13:09:22
Subject: Glass texture trouble...
From:    [e-mail] (Milan Polle)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hi all,

This is about the bug in the glass texture Bob reported. I have tried it out
and it seems the glass texture sometimes shows odd looking faces when using
shadowcasting in trace mode. The buggy faces seem to show up around the shadow
edge of the object. I have tried to find an explenation for this behaviour,
but haven't found the cause of it yet.
Now for some other trouble with the released version. First I will explain
how it works, the ray hits the first layer of glass and after that the second.
When the second layer is hit, the texture alters the object's attributes.
The first layer (front) cannot be altered because the thickness of the object
is unknown at this point. The problem is that I didn't think of removing the
first layer (except for highlights) so when you want to make an object
that turns from red glass into blue glass according to thickness, it wont
work because the front layer is still red. This problem is now fixed.
Another thing is that when making the glass opaque or turbid, the shading
will be that of the second layer, for instance when using a sphere, the
shading will look mirrored. A solution would be to use the normal vector
of the first layer for the second layer. This works, but removes the second
highlight you get with glass (not a problem when the glass is thin).
I will make this shading fix an option.
So an update is in order. For now it seems the buggy faces problem is a complex
one, I hope that I can fix it, but I cannot garantee it.
I will send the updated version to the list as soon as possible.
Sorry for the inconvinience.

Greetings, Milan


Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 13:18:01
Subject: Got the textures?
From:    [e-mail] (Milan Polle)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To all who requested my textures,

please reply to me privatly if you requested them but didn't receive them.
Then I will see if I can find the problem and send them again.

Greetings, Milan


Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 14:43:42
Subject: TextureStudio problems fixed
From:    Andrew Dean <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all!

        My name is Andy Dean and I am the co-author of 'TextureStudio' -
the shareware Imagine3 texture renderer for the Amiga. I've just joined
the list and I guess from seeing a post by James "Alex" Brooks that
several of you are having problems with v1.0.0 of the software. The
problem is due to us incorrectly building the final executable (oops!)
and a corrected version 1.0.1 has been uploaded to Aminet today (2/5/95)
which should fix all the strange problems. Apologies for the
inconvenience.

      In the meantime, if you have any questions about the program
feel free to Email either me or the list - I'll do my best to answer
them. If the answer to your question is likely to benefit others I
suggest posting to the list, that way I can avoid answering the same
question over and over again.

      Many thanks, I look forward to your feedback,

              Andy Dean
--------
Andy Dean, co-author of ImageStudio and TextureStudio
Email: [e-mail]

Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 15:18:19
Subject: Transparent or Genlock
From:    MCADOO <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What attribute color should I use to allow a video tape playing in the back
ground to be seen?  I've used 0,0,0 with no luck. This is with Imagine 3.0.
Dpaint 0,0,0 give me no problem.

Direct from my keyboard to your screen

[e-mail]


Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 17:54:29
Subject: Job
From:    Darren Priestnall <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't suppose where there's any job's going for a soon to be
unemployed animator :(

I can send examples of me work either as computer digital image's on
disk or via the net or animation's in the Mpeg, Fli, Flc, SSA, Anim
format's or on video tape.

Email me if anyone can help or else I'll just have to try and get more
Freelance work........thank's.


--
~===========================================================================~
 Darren Priestnall - [e-mail] (PandGImaging)
Connecting via Demon Internet, Finchley, London, N3 1TT. Tel: [phone]
-- Full IP Connectivity for a 10 UKP per month - no usage/online fees!! --

Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 19:36:26
Subject: I'm happy again!
From:    Goeran Ehrsson <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Sorry for the waste of bandwidth but I just wanna tell you
how easy it was for Impulse to make me happy again.  :)

I ordered Imagine 3.1 for Amiga AND PC back in December but
Impulse "lost" my order! One fax and one Email didn't help.
But after a recent mail conversation with Mike H I refaxed my order
on April 25. They shipped my order on April 27 and I received it
today May 2 (lots of disks, v3.0, v3.1 and v3.2)
That is the fastest delivery from the states I ever received!

Thank you very much Mike, I accept your appology.

- Goran

--
Email: [e-mail] (MIME compliant)
Earth: Goran Ehrsson, Abalon AB, Box 11129, 16111 BROMMA, SWEDEN
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 22:29:58
Subject: Re: diminish intensity
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>
>
>
>     Charles Blaquiere  wrote:
> > The light I used had intensities of 255, 255, 255. As you can see,
> > illumination stays constant for 256 units, after which it drops
> > exponentially by 50% every 256 units.
>
>    Thanks Charles, for a lucid explanation of a subject which has
> never been clear to me. (What baffles me is how you found this out,
> was it just by experimenting ?)

Yes, I simply placed the camera, a point light, and a vertical plane
along they Y axis, and did test renders with the plane at various
distances from the light.

>    This gives me an idea for the "wish list" for V4.
> What about a technical reference section in the manual, which gives
> us some idea how certain functions work, in order for experienced
> users to get straight to the nuts and bolts of Imagine, without
> bogging down new users with too much confusing detail ?
>
>    Maybe you could write it Charles !

Users have always wanted better documentation from Impulse, but I must
say that quality has much improved with 3.x. <gush> I'd _love_ to write
tutorials and documentation for Imagine and other software, and am
slowly gearing up to do so. Certainly would be more permanent than those
fleeting messages on the IML. (Although there _are_ compendia)




--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------


Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 22:48:56
Subject: Re: Genlock button
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Richard Heidebrecht <[e-mail]>
>
> This is probably going to sound like a dumb question (I'm still
> relatively new to Imagine(2.0, PC)), but what exactly does the genlock
> button do?

Amiga computers have always enjoyed an intimate relationship with the
video world, going back to the original design of the first Amiga in
1985. Along with computer-type RGB signals, Amigas are made to output
regular NTSC composite video, just like the "video out" from your VCR or
camcorder. In fact, many Amigas include a "video out" connector.

If you want to _combine_ your Amiga graphics with another video signal,
or if your Amiga model does not include a video output, you must buy a
peripheral called a "genlock". The name is actually a misnomer, since
Amiga genlocks typically perform three functions:

1) They synchronize the computer's video circuitry to an input video signal;

2) They mix and/or overlay the Amiga's graphics on top of that video image;

3) They output the result as a composite video signal.

(Strictly speaking, a genlock performs function #1)

Function #2 is where the Imagine "use genlock" button comes into play.
As you know, computers often display graphics in one of two modes:
register-based and true-color. In true-color mode, often 24-bit, each
pixel contains the actual red, green and blue color values at that
position; for example, a fully red pixel would have values of 255, 0, 0.
Such displays are not meant to be overlaid on top of video by most Amiga
genlocks.

In register-based modes, the image contains a reduced number of colors,
normally a multiple of 2 such as 16 or 256, along with a color palette.
The palette contains the RGB values which can be displayed by each pixel.
The pixels contain, not a triplet of RGB values, but a _single number_
that points to one of the palette positions. For example, in a 256-color
image, that fully red pixel might contain a single value of 137, and the
palette would contains 256 RGB triplets numbered from 0 to 255; palette
position #137 would contain 255, 0, 0.

Amiga genlocks work in a straightforward manner: color zero is deemed to
be transparent and will let the video input show through; all other
colors are overlaid on top of the video. If you used Imagine to render a
flying logo in 256-color mode, you would want to force Imagine to use
color zero as the background, and colors 1-255 for any foreground
objects. The resulting image or animation would show the logo flying on
top of whatever video signal was input into the genlock, for example a
shot of a TV news anchor desk.

In a nutshell, this is what "use genlock" does: it prevents Imagine from
using color zero to render foreground objects, allowing the render to be
overlaid on top of live video using a genlock. I don't know how relevant
this is in the PC world, and in any case, the function has been broken a
few versions back, and won't be fixed until alpha channel functionality
is finalized.


Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 22:55:49
Subject: Re: Double your RAM!!!
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Falko,

      This sounds sweet--if it works.  A friend of mine has a 386, and
he recently did something similar to his system, allegedly doubling the
'size' of his hd.  As with all things pertaining to Windoze, I was
skeptical.  But it worked.  (Halving everything except graphic size, of
course.  I want to see someone crunch graphics down to half their size
without losing).

Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 23:01:32
Subject: Re: Imagemaster R/t
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Nikola Vukovljak <[e-mail]>
>
> > Interface-wise, it's a major revision of IM! It has a
> > full-fledged timeline. Imagine dragging an entire directory's worth of
> > animation files onto the timeline, then dragging an FX button, which
> > becomes an FX timeline; double-click to set parameters at any keyframe,
> > even play with spline interpolation controls! No scripting required!
> > It's absolutely gorgeous, and even has 2 new classes of effects,
> > including plasma, fire, lightning, all animatable.
>
> How typical! They never bothered with this on the Amiga! They kinda just
> implied - you've got Arexx - go forth and program all the effects!
>
> I remember buying one version after the other hoping that they'd put in a
> useable interface...

I can't really fault Black Belt. When they started writing WinImages for
Windows, they had the luxury of 4 years of Amiga development, yet
starting with a clean slate on the PC. Like having your cake and eating
it too. They could count on certain consistencies on the PC side in the
way menus, dialogs, area selections, the underlying 24-bit image...
could be combined, compared to the assortment of Amiga display
peripherals. (Firecracker24, HAM-E, and DCTV all work in radically
different ways)

So, with years of Imagemaster refinement under their belt, plus all the
design work they'd put in towards a planned Imagemaster version 10, they
set forth creating a dramatically-improved interface on top of the
existing powerful functionality.

In addition, the PC market was really ripe for programs as powerful, yet
as inexpensive, as WinImages:Morph and WinImages:FX. When Commodore went
into liquidation, Black Belt put a stop to Amiga development to
concentrate on the PC. This probably saved them from bankruptcy. It
would've been a folly to spend the man-years needed to overhaul the
interface, on a platform in limbo, compared to the vast and virgin
territory that was the PC market, certainly at WinImages' price point. The
result is that Black Belt is still alive today, and has just released a
new version of Imagemaster R/t. I wouldn't have it any other way.



Of course, it would be nice if they'd port the improved interface to the
Amiga, now that the company has been picked up by Escom. We can always
wish, can't we? Me, I'm buying a Pentium to sit next to my trusty 3000,
ready to run the WinImages sitting on my shelf. Best of both worlds.


Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 23:08:56
Subject: Imagine Documentation
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Mike Vandersommen <[e-mail]>
>
> No doubt it's a transcript....or someone retyping an Imagine manual.
> My question was whether it was ok to send it out for those users that
> bought 2.0 via Magazine or Modelling Lab but have scarce documentation
> to actually use the program they bought. Seems rather sadistic to buy a
> fully functional program (though dated version) and not be able to use
> it due to no documentation of it's features. What's the point of selling
> it?  If they can get 2.0 going, they may actually take Impulse up on the
> upgrade offer to 3.0. Nespa'?
>
> ...can you Imagine (no pun) what it would be like to use 3.0 without
> documentation? :)

(Sorry for the late reply -- I've been away for most of April)

No, it's not sadistic. They got the program on the cover of a magazine
that cost them $10 or so. I paid hundreds of dollars for it. That's why
I got an (inadequate) manual and they got maybe 3 pages of instructions.

As has been explained so often on the Imagine Mailing List, they can
spend $55 and get the wonderful book by Philip Shaddock. Or wait for the
new Steve Worley book, or Mr. Shaddock's new version, for that matter.
If they don't want to spend the money, they can download IML archives.
If they have a PC with CD-ROM drive, they can buy Imagine L/T for $99
and try it free for 30 days. But regardless what they want, there is no
excuse for justifying the piracy of a manual that did not, and was never
meant to, come with the magazine version they bought.


Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 23:44:21
Subject: PC hotkeys (Was: Ids and Imagine newsletter)
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Dan Gervais <[e-mail]>
>
> Also I am so used to using my Amiga with the Arq requesters that I keep
> hitting keys to remove the (OK/CANCEL) requesters.  Its a pain to have to
> mouse up for that one operation when my fingers are flying. :)

Here is a message I captured the other week. You're in for some good news.

------------------------------------------------------------


Yes, and did you know that Left Amiga which I believe on the IBM is the
Alter key. Well heres a short list of some others

L/A_T = Twist
L/A_B = Bend
L/A_C = Pinch
L/A_H = Shear
L/A_E = Stretch
L/A_P = Taper
L/A_O = Smooth

------------------------------------------------------------

> I have been thinking of networking my Amiga 2500 and my PC together to
> share a drive or something.  Anyone out there have any experience with
> this?  Ok I think thats all from me for now. DanGer

You may want to e-mail Dale Larson at Intangible Assets Manufacturing,
and ask about his book on Amiga networking. I believe it's called
"Connect your Amiga" and sells for $25 + $8 postage and fondling, as he
humourously puts it. I'll be getting a PC and am ordering his book
tomorrow, since I also want seamless, peer-to-peer networking between my
faithful Amiga and my new PC.


Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 23:46:40
Subject: Imag 2.0 PC and mem
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> If you want to render a anim or still quickrender a object in the detail
> or stage editor and you get an out of RAM message dont lose hope ! I've
> found that for some objects which require a bit more mem than your own
> config, render fine in the project editor. This is due to the fact that
> the wireframe/shaded viewports in imagine require memory.

In addition, check your Preferences settings. You'll find some
True/False flags that control whether Imagine will dump anything in the
Undo, Copy/Paste, and Play Movie buffers before quickrendering.


Date:    Tuesday, 02 May 1995 23:49:38
Subject: Imagine & OS/2
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> will it run on a machine with OS2 installed? Imagine is the one program I
> won't go without, so this answer is critical for me.

Here's an answer straight from Mike Halvorson:

------------------------------------------------------------

#: 6635 S3/Impulse
    01-May-95  17:35:04
Sb: #6606-Amiga --> PC
Fm: Mike Halvorson 72662,3330

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 00:11:27
Subject: Imagine 3.x or 4.0?
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Richard Heidebrecht <[e-mail]>
>
> BTW, what are some of the differences between v2.0, v3.0, and v3.24?

Since someone else has posted the 3.1 differences, I'll post the 3.2
improvements. This is an edited version of the Impulse docs, to try and
give an idea of the new functionality without revealing to pirates
exactly how they work.

------------------------------------------------------------

Howdy

Here is Imagine 3.2

        Sorry for the delay, but trying to decide on how long things are
going to take to invent is an art form that requires years of practice.
So we
continue to practice.  Never-the-less we are happy with the new
improvements that have found their way into Imagine 3.2 and we are sure
you will feel likewise.

        This document is your resource for the new additions to 3.2,
please print this document or if you like, use it on line, and save the
paper.

        Over the years people have wanted a way to increase the size of
the workspace or to take more advantage of the higher resolutions that the
computer can display.  If you are using a PC and have a vesa compliant
card you can now set Imagine to run in several different modes, and as an
added bonus you can now run Imagine in 256 color mode.  There is one
drawback, however, unless your computer is a speedy one, you will find
that the new modes slow things down a bit.  This is understandable due to
the increase in memory usage and the shear fact that there is much more to
keep track of.

        Other new features include, QUICK ATTRIBUTES, seems silly
after all these years that people would still need this function but
after we
used it here in the office, it became one of the neatest and most useful new
features of Imagine 3.2.

        There are numerous new features and more importantly we have
fixed a box full of bugs in Imagine 3.2.  The following list is a
comprehensive list of things that were fixed, please take the time to review
the list and make sure that we have wacked the ones you have told us
about.

        So, on to all the new goodies and bug fixes.  Ah yes before we get
into the middle of it all, of course the next question you have is, when is
3.3 going to be out.  At the time of this writing it looks like Imagine 3.3
will be out at the end of March with 4.0 following close on its heels.  The
constant update program promised each of  you 4.0 by May and it looks
like we are right on track.

        Again thanks for you support and as always, let us know what you
think, we are listening.

        The Gang At Impulse.

BUGS BUGS AND HOPEFULLY THE END OF BUGS
        oldest bugs ...

1.  Star field - animates correctly now

2.  Cloning states - works correctly now

3.  fog length changes now in "load attributes"

4.  Fixed "Constrain" menu item check mark

5.  transformations requester does constrained movement in "Pick Objects"
    mode only now (not Pick Groups).  Also, it ignores scale factors in
    constrained motion

6.  Fixed object morphs in looping animation's

7.  Fixed change from tweened motion to following a path, so objects
    don't slow down just before hitting the path

8.  Fixed a bug in the Particle F/X -- where points could move way too far

9.  Fixed "diminishing intensity" light sources

10. Fixed a couple of bugs with shaded perspective view, where the
    display would change after deleting objects, etc.

11. Fixed bug where state and forms data wasn't blown out on extrudes,
    etc., ... where the point count changes.

12. Fixed a bug in "Make Path" that caused trouble down the line
    if the "selected" object was one of the path axes

13. Fixed palette bugs (RGB reversals) in TGA files

14. "Add Font Object" works correctly on Amiga version now (compiler bug)

15. Fixed face colors on extrudes -- they work correctly again

16. "Fixed" brush/texture tacking with scaled up objects -- they use
    the texture axes in set in the "tacking state" now

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

        newer bugs..

17. Fixed a bug with the Phong shader in the PC version ... that caused
    odd behavior in rare circumstances

18. Fixed "Make Big/Small Bones Subgroup" functions ... big does big,
    and small does small now

19. Fixed bugs in "Pick/Unpick Subgroup", "Edge Filter", and "Pick Range"
    ... bugs where hidden points, edges, etc., were not ignored.

20. "Fracture" in edge/point/face mode deals correctly with subgroups now

21. "Hide Points" using "pick subgroup" can be undone now ... just like
    hiding with mouse clicks, drag box, etc.

22. Unpick subgroup works allot faster now -- still needs a redraw to see
    the changes

23. Fixed bug where interactive scaling of points was leaving edges picked
    internally ... which would screw up a "Join" later on  ... maybe more.

24. Removed un-necessary warnings (in Pick Points mode, etc.) about losing
    state data, when the states don't actually contain any "per-point" or
    "per-face" data

25. Made switch back to Pick Objects or Pick Groups mode in detail editor
    cause a perspective view redraw if points had been hidden in the
    previous mode.

26. Changed "OK to Quit PS Editor ?" text to "OK to Quit Spline Editor ?"

27. Added a ".FLC with more than 8 bits per pixel -- not supported"
    error message for 16 or 24 bit .FLC file format

28. Changed "Imagine" version number in TGA file headers to "3.0"

29. Fixed bug with ".FLI" files used in brush mapping ("LC" deltas)

30. Fixed EditPath/NewMode display bugs -- re-center, cursor scroll,
    etc., work correctly now.

31. Changed "Coordinates" format on title bar so large negative values
    don't mess up the display

32. Sped up "Edge Filter" a bit -- no delay before requester appears now

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

        recent bugs ...

33. "Cancel" is now allowed in Action editor's Cut/Copy modes

34. "Undo" allowed after Cut/Paste operations in Action editor

25. Fixed bug with Attributes requester's brush/texture slider ...
    it doesn't crash now when scrolling a large list, when the one
    of the items is highlighted, and it scrolls out of the box.

26. Fixed bugs with F/X data in staging files ... they didn't cause
    any problems with existing effects, but newer ones may not work
    with old software ... which, incidentally, is always the case.

27. Fixed a bug with the "color chip" in the Attributes/Light requester

28. Fixed a bug deleting "Quickrender" pictures when the directory path
    was set to "" in Preferences ... Fixed similar bugs when user sets
    the "Path for Movie" in the Subproject requester to "".

29. Fixed bugs in loading DXF files, using the "One Object Per Color"
    or "Color Change -> Layer Change" options

30. Fixed bug where Mold/Extrude would try to work in "Pick Points" mode

31. Fixed bug with hot-key for "Magnetism On/Off"

32. Made "darkons" work in the PC version (like Amiga now) ... Detail
    Editor light sources with negative intensity values.

33. Fixed bugs where "fog objects" and "global fog" appeared together,
    with no objects behind them in the scene

34. Fixed (an old) bug with specular hardness values ... a hardness
    value of 0 was the same as a value of 4, and the behavior for values
    1,2, and 3 was a bug  ... now values of 0,1,2,... act like the old
    values of 4,5,6,...

35. Fixed bug in Scanline rendering with transparent objects and global fog

36. "Drive Full" errors are now properly detected ... system doesn't
    keep slowly chugging along now.

37. Changed the way objects are saved to disk to avoid "stack overflow"
    crashes when groups with very "deep" hierarchies are saved ...

38. Fixed cases where perspective view was not redrawn after certain
    operations

39. Fixed "Hide Points" menu item -- doesn't come back disabled now,
    after going to Preferences editor from Pick Points mode, etc.

40. Changed the behavior of "Fracture" on entire objects ... now, it
    separates the faces in an object, and shrinks them down (for scale
    factors less than 1.0) to look like the holes that "Latticize"
    leaves in an object

41. Fixed interactive camera manipulation in the stage, for cases where
    the camera is tracked to an object.

42. Made the staging file (action editor data) remember "Y rotation"
    values if the camera is interactively manipulated, or manipulated
    with the transformation requester, in a frame corresponding to the
    first or last frame of a "tracking alignment" bar in the action editor.

43. Added support for "brush tacking" with altitude brushes ...



        NEW THINGS THAT WILL  MAKE IT HAPPEN!


        QUICK ATTRIBUTES

OK, so after all this time we have implemented Quick
Attributes, you will find this new function under the functions menu.
Click on it and you will be presented with 25 pre-set attributes.  To
use it,
simply select an object, then choose the Quick Attributes menu item, click
on one of the buttons that describes what you are looking for in an
attribute, i.e. glass, or chrome etc.  Once the attribute is loaded, the
object
has all of the properties that you were looking for.
        In the event that you want to make your own attribute presets we
considered this as a viable alternative to the 25 that we have made as
presets.

        SET EDGE LINE, FILL EDGE LINE...This new menu item
under the Functions menu will save you lots of time and help you do
something that has been very time consuming in the past.  Consider  that
you have two objects, or even a open seam in a single object.  In the past
you had to add faces to the two objects after joining them or you had to add
the triangles by hand to the open seam in a single object.

        Using this command will make creating Contiguous objects from
several object very easy and will add in the creation of some great objects
that will lend themselves to being given bones.


        PICK MORE, HIDE UNPICKED, UNHIDE ALL, UNHIDE SUBGROUP.

        Just what it sounds like, when you are heavy into editing and
have hidden
several points of an object, in order to get back the points you had to
exit to
Object mode and then start all over.  This made us just as mad as it made
you so now we have fixed it.  From point, edge or face mode you can after
hiding some points, simply invoke the Unhide All command, all the points
that were hidden will now be reshown without ever leaving the mode that
you were in.  The same is true of the other command, Unhide Subgoup,
except that it works only on subgroups of faces, edges and points.

        Conversely, you may find that you want to hide the unpicked sets
of points and faces or edges that you are working on, not to worry,
Just use
the Hide unpicked menu item, then all of the points, edges or faces that are
not currently picked will be hidden from view.

        PICK MORE... As you create more and more elaborate objects,
you will become very aware that selecting a series of triangles that share
the same basic areas, can be much harder than it  appears to be.  With the
PICK MORE command you can select the next row of faces directly connected
to the area that you are working on.

        SMOOTH EDGE LINE... No matter how hard you try, you will
most likely never make a st of points perfectly smooth in an arc.  If
you have a
line of points connected by edges, you multi pick the
edges, then you invoke the Smooth Line command and hit return when the
small requester comes up just hit the return key.  The value of 3 will cause
the line of points to be smoothed.  If you don't like the results,
simply use
the UNDO command and try a different figure.  From our experience the
lower the number the more sever the arc that is created, the higher the
number the lower the effect on the line.

        MONITORS AND HIGHER RESOLUTIONS

        This section is mainly for PC users, and for Amiga users with a
Retina display card installed ... although the "SMOD" setting, below,
(run Imagine on a 256 color screen), applies to Amiga users with a AA
(or better) graphics chip set (i.e. Amiga 1200 or Amiga 4000)

        If you like you can now make Imagine work in a higher
resolution.  One BIG caution, the increase in resolution will in most cases
slow your machines redraw don't by at least 50%.

        To set things differently you must make some changes in the
Preferences Editor.

        SMOD    0       # imagine screen width: 0=640,1=800,2=1024,3=1280

        Setting the SMOD variable to a value of 0 which is the default of
640, if you use the value of 1 it will set the Horizontal res to 800
pixels, a
value of 2 makes it 1024 and  a value of 3 will make the screen 1280 pixels
wide.  The vertical res of these different settings are as follows,  800 by
600, 1024 by 768 and 1280 by 960 or 1024 depending on what your video
card is capable of.  For Amiga users, this setting is ignored unless you
have a Retina display card, and are running RetinaEMU ... in this case,
you should set the "REMU T/F" setting to "T" ... this tells Imagine to
expect that RetinaEMU will trap its calls to the graphics library, and
cause the screen to appear on the VGA display.

        The ( S256      F       # run 640x480 Imagine in a 256 color
display (if possible)) function in the preferences editor will tell Imagine
that you want to use the 256 color mode of the display card, if the card is
capable of doing 256 SVGA colors.  By default this value is set to F
(false),
if you change it to TRUE (T) then you will be running your video card and
the Imagine interface in 256 color mode.  You won't notice much of a
change because Imagine still only uses 16 colors for the interface, the
biggest change will come when you view an image as a backdrop picture,
you will see the picture in 32 levels of gray, much better to look at
than the
single color of Imagine 3.1.

        BACKDROP Images can now be loaded independently into each
of the quad view windows, this will allow for up to four images at a
time in
the quad view.  All you need do is click in the window where you want the
image to show, then choose the load backdrop image function.

        Fracture has been changed so that you can now put in an amount
to fracture that is smaller than the number one.  If you choose fracture and
then input the number .5  (point 5) the triangles will be decreased in
size to
one half their initial value and the object will maintain the general size
with the separated triangles.

        COOL NEW TOY, classic hand drawn animators use a technique
called page flipping, this is where as they draw the animation they keep
several pages of the animation secured between each finger of the hand
that they don't draw with.  This allows them to flip back and forth to see
the flow of the animation as well as the timing of the animation.  While we
don't have real pages to put in-between your fingers, we have added a
slider at the bottom of the animation requester that comes up in the detail
and stage editor,  after you have made an animation and want to preview
the animation before you commit to rendering it.  If you grab the small
black box and move it left to right you will see that it moves the animation
backwards and forwards.  This should make your timing work much
smoother and the animation process in general much easier.


        NEW TEXTURES

        Chaser Texture

Use:
Used statically, this texture can be used to paint a row of windows (bright
and not bright) onto a building or like on a space ship.  By animating, you
can do all kinds of chasing and random blinking effects - ie. LED bar
graphs, ping pong LEDs, landing strip strobing lights, blinking light
patterns on flying saucers, etc.



SHREDDER EFFECT

Shredder (Explosion) effect:

Example Project:

100 frame animation.
Default size primative sphere at position (0, 0, 0).
Ground object at position (0, 0, -100.0).
Shredder applied to the Sphere from frame 2 to frame 100.

This example will give you a starting point when working with Shredder.
To speed up the animation so that all the particles stop moving, increase
the "End Time" to something like 2.

Overview:

Shredder does an explode that breaks up an object into random
shaped/sized
particles.  The effect can also explode an object while keeping subgroups
intact or, in the case of a grouped object made of many, smaller parts, it
can keep the whole objects intact.

The effect tries to use real-world numbers (seconds and meters) instead of
the usual frames and units measurements.  Because of this, you have to tell
Shredder how many units are in a meter and how many seconds are
represented
in the included frames.

Textures that are properly tacked to an object (State objects with shape
and texture data saved as well as lock states in all the textures) will
remain tacked during the explode.

Shredder is a very complex effect, and shredding an object with a lot of
faces will be slow compared to Imagine's other effects.  Using subgroups
or keeping objects intact is much faster than shredding up an object La
Machine style.

Shredder F/X Info

The first part of the Sredder requester asks the following info:

o Whole Objects as Parts (Grouped Object)
o Use Defined Subgroups as parts
o La Machine
Maximum Number of Triangles in Group []
Bounding Subgroup []

This Controls how the object(s) are shredded.  "Whole Objects as Parts"
keep
entire objects intact - like you may use to explode a grouped object while
keep the individual objects intact.  By selecting this, you can also
make a
single object bounce on the ground like a rubber ball.  "Use Defined
Subgroups" lets you absolutely control the size and shape of the pieces that
fly off the shredded object.  By defining subgroups on the object you
can do
something like blowing up a sphere with a logo pasted on it while keeping
the chunk of the object with the logo intact.  "La Machine" is where
Shredder gets its name - it totally shreds an object into random shaped and
sized pieces.  The size of the pieces is controlled with the "Maximum
Number of Triangles" parameter.  The "Bounding Subgroup" can be use to
restrict the explosion to a specific part of the object.  Try the example
project with "Whole Objects" selected to see the sphere bounce.

When Shredder shreds an object in "La Machine" mode, it selects groups of
adjacent faces by doing a random walk over the surface of the object.  This
produces shapes that tend to wander across the surface instead of looking
like clumps of faces all grouped together.

The Timing of the effect is controlled in the following seciton of the
requester data:

Start / End Time (seconds) [] []
Explosion Timing Delay (%) []
"Hold at" Frame Number []

The data that describes the bouncing of the particles is as follows:

o Bounce Particles
o Flip on Bounce
Ground Z Position (Imagine units) []
o Use Maximal Bounding Sphere
o Use Minimal Bounding Sphere
o Use Average Bounding Sphere
Elasticity Min/Max (%) [] []

The particle conditions are set up in the following:

Inital Velocity Range Min/Max   (m/s) [] []
Triangle Rotations Min/Max    (rot/s) [] []
Particle Trajectory Min/Max (degrees) [] []
Final Scaling Factor Range Min/Max    [] []
Gravitational Acceleration    (m/s^2) []

Lastly, the following parameters must be set up:

Imagine Units per Meter      []
Random Number Generator Seed []




------------------------------------------------------------



Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 00:34:03
Subject: Re: Impulse Gazette and Wasted Bandwidth.
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Anime a day... <[e-mail]>
>
> On Wed, 5 Apr 1995 [e-mail] wrote:
>
> >
> >      Is it just me, or does it seem that Impulse hires
> >      people who speak French to do their writing?

Heyy, careful there... *I* speak French. <grin> And my explanations tend
to be on the clear side. Maybe we should start the rumour that
Impulse writers speak Norwegian, and have Conny jump in! <G,D&R ->
grinning, ducking & running>

>   BTW, whatever happened to Impulses attempt for digital non-linear
> editing? They had this box they were planning on doing magic with..
> forgot the name..

It's not dead. Sanyo will be marketing it later this year. (Maybe
they've even announced it at last month's NAB, for all I know)

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 00:51:53
Subject: Re: Re[2]: Imagine for Windows II
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>     As for the Imagine related question: Does anyone use
>     the deformations cube that the Detail Editor supplies?
>     I made a 10x10 cube, pinched the center of it (so it
>     looked like a hourglass), placed a sphere in the
>     middle, applied the cube, and instead of getting an
>     "hourglass-shaped sphere", I got an egg. Does this make
>     sense? Did I need to pinch the deformation cube
>     tighter?
>
I've had some great luck with the deform cube. What do you mean by pinched?
Did you use the pinch function in the Detail Editor? I've found that if you
pick and move the points of the deform tool, and at an exagerated amount it
works pretty well. That is, you have to deform the cube a lot more than you
think you need to in order for it to work ok.

In your example, yes, you have to pinch the cube much tighter...

---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

Relax, it's all just 1's and 0's

---------------------------------


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 00:54:55
Subject: Re: Real3DSy
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Darren, on May 1 you wrote:

> What's the Imagine address to unsubscribe ?

[e-mail]
subject: unsubscribe    (OR subscribe)

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 00:55:27
Subject: Double your RAM!!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

This may be of interest to Imagine PC/WIN

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 01:02:51
Subject: Double your RAM!!!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ooops!! Sorry, previous msg was sent incomplete!

Anyways, this may be of interest to Imagine PC/WIN users.

Seamless Software Corp. has announced that they will be shipping Soft RAM in
mid-May.

This product can effectively double your installed RAM. It does not
accomplish this as some other products on other platforms have done, by using
virtual memory/swapfile technology. This product apparantly is to RAM as
Stacker is to disk space. The product claims to accomplish its task through
advanced and intelligent memory management which includes data compression as
well as memory optimizing/defragmenting. From the article that I have read it
works very low-level in the system, good enough to fool diagnostics that can
access memory managment into thinking an 8mb PC actually has 16mb installed.
It is said to achieve this without sacrificing performance and should work
with DOS, Windows, and Windows95.

Considering the increasing cost of RAM (yes, wholesale prices are up due to
increased demand.) This may be one possible solution. Admittedly nothing is
better than physical RAM, but for the price this may meet the needs of many
an Imagine fan that's run out of memory rendering that long animation or
large complex object/project. Oh, yes  the price. Soft RAM $99 retail $69 -
$79 anticipated street price.

As soon as I can get it will give it a try on my 486/66/16mb system and tell
you what I find.

Falko

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 01:43:05
Subject: Re:WINE
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry...AOL splits the mail for system convience.  If you want I can UUE
again or send it to specific people.  ::Now raise your hands!::
Its just a cup(not great) against a stipped wall(incorrect bathtile texture
axis :) with two spotlites projecting the shadow in two directions.  I
actually did this to test its shadow scanning ability. Thr ripples in the
wine look pretty on the wall.

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 01:54:10
Subject: Deformations (was Re: Re[2]: Imagine for Windows II)
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello aciolino, in <[e-mail]>
on May 02 you wrote:

>      As for the Imagine related question: Does anyone use
>      the deformations cube that the Detail Editor supplies?
>      I made a 10x10 cube, pinched the center of it (so it
>      looked like a hourglass), placed a sphere in the
>      middle, applied the cube, and instead of getting an
>      "hourglass-shaped sphere", I got an egg. Does this make
>      sense? Did I need to pinch the deformation cube
>      tighter?
>
>      Since I haven't had time to play with this, I thought
>      I'd ask. Oh, and also so this message had some
>      relevance to the list.

I've played with this feature for days with unpredictable results. I know
the positioning and scale of the positive side of the axis' is important,
more so than the position of the cube itself.

There is only half a page devoted to this subject in the manual, I'd love
to see a tutorial on this one.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 02:36:00
Subject: Cloth,carpet,etc.
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Try using a low resolution bitmap (very pixelated) with few colors in
conjunction with the Crumpled texture, with any applied color turned off. I
make the Crumpled size about half the size of the bitmap pixels in the
rendered image, so the size of the bitmap used obviously will depend on the
final image's resolution. There is an Essence texture called Fiber that is
worth playing with to simulate fur, you could also try using a custom object
for Particles, should you have tons of ram.

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 04:07:21
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  From what Mike Halvorson has told me, V4.0 will not be a major rewrite
so the "look-and-feel" will be same as it is now. He has said Impulse
plans on a major re-write after V4 is released, I guess meaning V5.
Apparently V3.3 is almost completed so it should be out shortly
(relative). V3.4, which will be V4.0 is planned to come out shortly after
V3.3.
  Maybe Mike H. doesn't want it spread around but he told me that V4.0 is
planned to have Metaballs modeling! I think Impulse has stated that the
release date of V4.0 is more dependent on when it is ready versus meeting
a proposed schedule.

On Mon, 1 May 1995, Darren Priestnall wrote:

> Does anyone know when the Imagine 3.3 and 4.0 update's are due ?
> I ask because I heard that V4 was due out at the end of May but I
> wondered if this has been put back to a later date to allow V3.3 to be
> released.
> I fail to see how they can release 2 update's so close together.....I
> personally would rather see one more update in the form of a fully
> working and decent Imagine 4.
>
> What about everyone else, would you like another update bashed together
> to meet the deadline while all their real attention is on getting V4
> working or would you rather V4 to be released at the original deadline.
>
> How about just releasing V4 in May and then the final update could be a
> month or so later in the form of a fully working version with all bug
> fixes...(I'm not being pessimistic with Impulse it's just that all new
> software has bug's so I'm certain the new V4 interface will need severe
> Beta testing by all us Imagine user's)
>
>
> --
> ~===========================================================================~
>  Darren Priestnall - [e-mail] (PandGImaging)
> Connecting via Demon Internet, Finchley, London, N3 1TT. Tel: [phone]
> -- Full IP Connectivity for a 10 UKP per month - no usage/online fees!! --
>


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 04:22:07
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do any of you out there have any good tricks for making realistic-looking
fur/carpet/cloth. I've had a heck of a time trying to get that "fuzzy look".
None of the noise textures seem to do quite what I want.

Any and all suggestions appreciated.


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 09:12:48
Subject: Re:WINE
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Lumbient, in <[e-mail]> on May 2 you wrote:

> Sorry...AOL splits the mail for system convience.  If you want I can UUE
> again or send it to specific people.  ::Now raise your hands!::
> Its just a cup(not great) against a stipped wall(incorrect bathtile texture
> axis :) with two spotlites projecting the shadow in two directions.  I
> actually did this to test its shadow scanning ability. Thr ripples in the
> wine look pretty on the wall.

For anyone that's interested the Amiga PD program FJPEG loads in as much of
the pic as possible, so you can get a good idea of these reflections. It's
the only program I've found that does'nt reject the pic outright.

The results are quite interesting, I wonder if standard lights as opposed
to spotlights would create the same effect?

--Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 09:44:25
Subject: Re: amiga->pc upgrades
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>From: Peter Appleton <[e-mail]>
>Does anyone know if Impulse has an upgrade offer for those of us
>swapping platforms?  I realise this is a long shot as it probably goes
>against the licencing or copyright laws.
>
>I an using v3.2 on an A1200/030/882 40MHz 6MB and will CONSIDER moving to
>a Pentium as I am unwilling to upgrade my Amiga hardware/software any
>further until the C=/Escom saga is finalised and NEW machines appear...
>

  You can upgrade to the PC version (cross platform) of Imagine 3.0 for
$200.00 U.S.
Overseas freight: $10.00  Constant Upgrade Program for PC Img3.0 is $100.00
  Yes, we all love the Amiga. I've owned a 500,3000, and 4000, but hey..
what can I say? My 90mhz pentium renders 4 to 5 times faster than my old
25mhz/3000. I love speed.
                                                           Sandman

-----------------------------------
Erik Sanders
Liquid Light Animations
[e-mail]
-----------------------
Erik Sanders
Claremont,NC
   USA
[e-mail]


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 10:12:22
Subject: Re: Imagine 3.x or 4.0?
From:    Ted Stethem <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Another new feature in V3.2 that was not immediately significant to me
until I used it, is Pick More.  This new tool is incredibly valuable in
modeling and especially for Bones. With the Fast Bones and Pick More, the
effort to make an animated character has become much easier.

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 10:19:12
Subject: Re: Imagine Documentation
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Tue, 2 May 1995, Charles Blaquiere wrote:

.....
> As has been explained so often on the Imagine Mailing List, they can
> spend $55 and get the wonderful book by Philip Shaddock. Or wait for the
                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
<sigh>. And, as I and others have tried to explain, the "wonderful"
Shaddock book *doesn't* cover the animation features of Imagine 2.0
very well.

I give up. I can certainly understand the mentality that finds
the piracy of the Imagine 3.x software or manual repugnant, but
this selfish, recriminatory attitude concerning the now-obsolete
documentation of Imagine 2.0 just strikes me as mean-spirited.
I too have paid "hundreds of dollars" for software that is now
obsolete, and, while I wouldn't just pass copies of this software
around on the internet or bbs's, if somebody had a perfectly legal
copy of the software in their possession, it wouldn't take me a
New York minute to give my approval to them obtaining the documentation
for this software. And, for what it's worth, I don't understand any
contrary opinion to this at all.


And, as a side issue:

(re: the suggestion to purchase Imagine LE and use it for
 the 30 day free trial period)

To me, "LE" ("Light Editions" of software) are ancillary give-aways
usually accompanying a hardware purchase that enhance the "out-of-box"
experience, and I resent any company that makes a marketing decison to
attempt to use these editions of their software as a separate profit line.
It all just muddies the waters of software purchase and use - waters that
certainly don't need this kind of muddying.


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 10:20:58
Subject: TextureStudio on the PC? No.
From:    Andrew Dean <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all,
      In answer to the "Will you be porting TextureStudio to the PC?"
questions, the answer I'm afraid is no. We intend to continue developing
and improving both ImageStudio and TextureStudio on the Amiga and don't
really have the time to consider a PC port (it's more than just a re-
compile).

--------
Andy Dean, co-author of ImageStudio and TextureStudio
Email: [e-mail]

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 10:24:14
Subject: TextureStudio's support for graphics cards
From:    Andrew Dean <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all,
      It is quite likely that we'll be adding CyberGraphics support
to both TextureStudio and ImageStudio (although ImageStudio will get
it first). Before that though, we've got to get a Cybervision64 card :-)
We have no intention of supporting the EGS standard.

--------
Andy Dean, co-author of ImageStudio and TextureStudio
Email: [e-mail]

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 11:16:20
Subject: Tutorials! we need more of them
From:    Steve McLaughlin <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Imagine Tutorials!
We need more of them!

Here is my suggestion, please comment and tell me what you think!
I'd like to see more tutorials about Imagine on this list so I
thought to myself how do we encourage people to contribute!
Prizes? Money?  Fame? Thanks from other Imagineers?  The one that
would be easiest and get more response would be more tutorials in
return.  I am suggesting that we keep a growing list of tutorials
offline available ONLY to those who contribute a tutorial about
a feature in IMAGINE.  This would encourage people to write a tutorial
about IMAGINE, and they would be rewarded with a compilation of
tutorials to date and future editions.
    What about beginners you ask?  How does a beginner how doesn't
know anything about IMAGINE, write something about IMAGINE?  Well,
there are examples in the manual that could definately use some cleaning
up and commenting about, or there have been tutorials posted on this
list that can be expanded and cleaned up.
 If you are willing to write a tutorial about IMAGINE, please
email me privately, or if you have suggestions or comments about
this idea please post to this list.
THanks!
Steve McLaughlin
 [e-mail]

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 11:19:05
Subject: Amiga->pc upgrades
From:    Peter Appleton <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Does anyone know if Impulse has an upgrade offer for those of us
swapping platforms?  I realise this is a long shot as it probably goes
against the licencing or copyright laws.

I an using v3.2 on an A1200/030/882 40MHz 6MB and will CONSIDER moving to
a Pentium as I am unwilling to upgrade my Amiga hardware/software any
further until the C=/Escom saga is finalised and NEW machines appear...

No flames please....  I am an amiga die hard, I love the OS but I need
the speed.



Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 11:21:46
Subject: Pick/select bug!?
From:    Peter Appleton <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


S.O.S.

I am using Imagine V3.2 on an A1200/030/882 40MHz 6MB and have found that
when I use the PICK SELECT menu item in the detail editor I get garbage
drawn in the 2D view windows.

The garbage disappears when I use REDRAW but this is still annoying.

I have many commodities running which maybe causing the problem but have
been unable to track it down.  The problem does not occur when I run
Imagine from boot/early startup.

Has anyone had similar probs or have any ideas for a fix....




Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 13:32:12
Subject: Re: transparent or Genlock
From:    Dylan Neill <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Tue, 2 May 1995, MCADOO wrote:

> What attribute color should I use to allow a video tape playing in the back
> ground to be seen?  I've used 0,0,0 with no luck. This is with Imagine 3.0.
> Dpaint 0,0,0 give me no problem.

Try loading a blank Dpaint picture as the background for the anim maybe?

Just a wild guess! :)

---
                               |\ /|
                                o O
  ________________________oOO_=( ^ )=_OOo___________________________
 |                        '''     U   '''                           |
 | Gumby Death Man (Dylan Neill) Amiga 1200/6/120  486DX2-66/24/500 |
 | Email: [e-mail]   WWW: http://www.pcug.org.au/~dylann/ |
 |__________________________________________________________________|


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 14:23:00
Subject: Imagine 4.0
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To Mike H. (if listening) or anyone else in the know.Will Imagine 4.0 be coming
with a completely NEW manual or simplyaddendems to the 3.0 manual?Also, will the
 Imagine for Windows eventually replace the PC DOS onlyversion, or will there co
ntinue to be dual OS versions on the PC side=?        __________________________
_____________________________      /____________________________________________
_____________\    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=
3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Emai
l:                                =|=3D  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  mike.vande
[e-mail] =|=3D  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || _________________
_____________________ =|=3D  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse pl
ay golf..."     =|=3D  =3D|          14.4k v.32bis 24 hours - 805-683-1388
          =|=3D    \_____________________________________________________________/--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - (805)
683-1388

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 14:34:15
Subject: Re: TEXTURE-STUDIO
From:    Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 (ref TEXTURE STUDIO)
> it's the answer to my prayers. I've sent off my registration
> and it's back to waiting for the posty again !
>
> (just like waiting for Im. 3.0 -but not for nearly a year.)

   Damn right ! It's here already, virtually by return of post,
Now that's good service.
   It's the latest version, fully working, (of course) and no
longer crashes with the "older" textures which I listed in my
original post. Most of them seem to actually work properly too,
except bricks and dots, but I'll have to experiment further.

It seems to work with all my (old) Essence stuff too, but I'm
not sure about the newer ones,- I haven't got them !

You can even generate anims via Arexx, there's a couple of
example scripts which are simple, but work well.

Amiga users - Do yorselves a favour and get this (and register!)
as soon as you can. I love it (more than ever)
BTW - I have had no problems with blank menus.. I use WB 3

   Dave



--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 14:50:42
Subject: Re: Imagine for Windows II
From:    Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi [e-mail]
   gregory denby  wrote:

> Some of my wishes: A spline forms editor, and the ability to use splines
> with control handles for paths: Point editing in new mode: snap object
                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   You can edit points in new mode, at least on the Amiga version -
although you have to make sure that you haven't got any of the buttons
in the perspective window selected, i.e. A,Z or P.
   Just get the view so you can see the points you want to move, for
instance, select drag points, (or whatever) and de-select A,Z or P and
there you have it.  This confused me at first.
   Best wishes
Dave



--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 15:10:34
Subject: Re: Imagine Documentation
From:    Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi [e-mail]
   In <[e-mail]> Charles Blaquiere <bl
[e-mail]> wrote:

> > From: Mike Vandersommen <[e-mail]>
> >
> > No doubt it's a transcript....or someone retyping an Imagine manual.

    Are you talking about the post to this list which was called something
like Imagine 2.0 Documentation ? -- if so, it turned out to be only the
Imagine FAQ , but the note from the guy that posted it said he thought it
was the manual. (That says something in itself...)

> No, it's not sadistic. They got the program on the cover of a magazine
> that cost them $10 or so. I paid hundreds of dollars for it. That's why
> I got an (inadequate) manual and they got maybe 3 pages of instructions.

I have to agree with you Charles, they were lucky to get it at all, I've no
real objection to people getting it for (nearly) free, if it helps to
spread The Word, but they can't expect the whole package.. for what it's
worth.
      People have to believe they can get something not available elsewhere
when they buy a program like Imagine, or piracy will surely send Impulse
          ^^^
(and our dearly beloved) down the tubes.

Dave


--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 17:30:47
Subject: Essence PC Textures
From:    Curtis White <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

For all you PC users out there, it is time to get excited again.  The
following is the latest response from Steve Worley concerning Imagine
Textures for the PC and other Apex products.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Curtis!

Yes, Apex still exists. The demise of the Amiga has slowed things
down a whole lot, but we've ridden along and haven't quite
submerged.

We certainly are not dropping Imagine support in any way; that's
our entire user base! In fact, we are just now putting together
our next newsletter which announces the availability of Essence
for PC Imagine. EssPC is effectively available now; I have master
disks I can copy, though I don't expect to for a week or so until
the newletter and official announcement goes out.

Understanding Imagine, Third Edition. Ready June 15.

Lightwave plugins, code named Tsunami, are currently under development.
No release date yet, I'd expect August or so. I'd be nice to have
them for SIGGRAPH.

The "official" announcement of EssPC and UI  will be made next week,
when we send out the mailing.

Hope this answers your questions.

-Steve

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


=========================================================
=        Do not follow where the path may lead.         =
= Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.  =
=========================================================

Curtis White


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 18:13:14
Subject: Re: Impulse Gazette and Wasted Bandwidth.
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> >      Is it just me, or does it seem that Impulse hires
>> >      people who speak French to do their writing?
>Heyy, careful there... *I* speak French. <grin> And my explanations tend
>to be on the clear side. Maybe we should start the rumour that
>Impulse writers speak Norwegian, and have Conny jump in! <G,D&R ->
>grinning, ducking & running>

Conny is Sweedish!!!! I AM NORWEGIAN!!!! KILL :) (I think, Mike H, is
Norwegian BTW..)

>>   BTW, whatever happened to Impulses attempt for digital non-linear
>> editing? They had this box they were planning on doing magic with..
>> forgot the name..
>It's not dead. Sanyo will be marketing it later this year. (Maybe
>they've even announced it at last month's NAB, for all I know)

I remember reading about this in comp.sys.amiga.graphics. It was supposed to
be pretty good as well..


Torge!r

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 18:35:15
Subject: Metaballs?
From:    Richard Heidebrecht <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Somebody recently mentioned that Metaballs might be included in Imagine
4.0.  I have heard of them before, but I have no idea what they do.
Would somebody please enlighten me?

   Rick




Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 19:13:54
Subject: ESSENCE PC
From:    [e-mail] (Paul Claessens)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi there,

Could anyone tell me if ESSENCE is already available for the PC.
If so, ***PLEASE*** tell me where and how to get it....

Is it possible to order it through E-Mail?

Many thanks in advance...



P.S. Please send replies to my own adress, cause I'm currently not on the
     list.    (snif...)

     [e-mail]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Life's a towel...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 19:53:00
Subject: Rayman/Renderman?
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have herd of a programme on the PC called Renderman or Rayman?
Does anyone know anything about this programme. I am considering getting
a PC to increase my rendering speeds instead of spending lots of money
souping up my Amiga 2000. If this programme is specifically for rendering
and can out-gun Ami Imagine or PC Imagine then I will consider puchasing
a PC. My personal preferance is for Amiga, but I work with PCs, Macs,
Unix professionally as a graphic artist, and I realise that there are
other computers out there that will do things that I need to do much
quicker than an Amiga can.
I will not throw out my Ami yet though. 8-)

########################################
## YYY YYY RRRRRRR   OOOOOO  DDDDDD   ##
## YYY YYY RRR  RRR OOO  OOO DDD DDD  ##
## YYYYYYY RRRRRRR  OOO  OOO DDD  DDD ##
##   YYY   RRR RRR  OOO  OOO DDD DDD  ##
##   YYY   RRR  RRR  OOOOOO  DDDDDD   ##
##        [e-mail]         ##
##       A2000/030 FPU 4MB &-(        ##
## GeneralProtectionFaultFreeZone 8-) ##
########################################


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 19:53:54
Subject: Re: Essence PC Textures
From:    [e-mail] (Perry Lucas)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>For all you PC users out there, it is time to get excited again.  The
>following is the latest response from Steve Worley concerning Imagine
>Textures for the PC and other Apex products.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Hi Curtis!
>
>Yes, Apex still exists. The demise of the Amiga has slowed things
>down a whole lot, but we've ridden along and haven't quite
>submerged.
>
>We certainly are not dropping Imagine support in any way; that's
>our entire user base! In fact, we are just now putting together
>our next newsletter which announces the availability of Essence
>for PC Imagine. EssPC is effectively available now; I have master
>disks I can copy, though I don't expect to for a week or so until
>the newletter and official announcement goes out.

<Chanting>
Phone #, Phone #, Phone #, Phone #, Phone #, Phone #, Phone #...

--Perry


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 20:18:45
Subject: Re: Tutorials! we need more of them
From:    [e-mail] (Andrey Zmievskiy)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> return.  I am suggesting that we keep a growing list of tutorials
> offline available ONLY to those who contribute a tutorial about
> a feature in IMAGINE.  This would encourage people to write a tutorial
> about IMAGINE, and they would be rewarded with a compilation of
> tutorials to date and future editions.

I feel that keeping tutorials only for selected few is not such a good
idea.  There shouldn't be an incentive to write a tutorial except to
help others. Look at "Dare to Imagine" - wonderful compilation of
freely available tutorials.

Andrey


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 20:43:07
Subject: Neon?
From:    [e-mail] (Perry Lucas)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How do you make a Neon light?  I have been playing around with
FOG, Bright, and Haze, but to little avail.

Also here is a request for an update.

Barndoors - For those that do not know, shutters that attach to a
light so that you can control where the light falls more accurately.

                _____________
                |\         /|
                | \       / |
                |  \_____/  |
                |   |___|   |
                |  /     \  |
                | /       \ |
                |/_________\|

Okay, so I am not the best ascii artist, but the doors allow you to direct
the light.  For this to work, the light lines feature would have to be extended
and, a falloff circle would have to be created, and some other features to
let you know where the light is going.  (Like 3d studio)

--Perry


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 20:50:12
Subject: Re: Imagine Documentation
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Wed, 3 May 1995, Dave Rhodes wrote:
....
> I have to agree with you Charles, they were lucky to get it at all, I've no
> real objection to people getting it for (nearly) free, if it helps to
> spread The Word, but they can't expect the whole package.. for what it's
> worth.
>       People have to believe they can get something not available elsewhere
> when they buy a program like Imagine, or piracy will surely send Impulse
>           ^^^
....
<sigh>.

*I* didn't get the program from a 10 dollar magazine and *I* have no
problem with people obtaining any documentation for Imagine 2, a program
for which, I might point out, one *can't* purchase any documentation for
at any price.


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 21:13:34
Subject: TextureStudio and Bricks.itx and Dots.itx
From:    Andrew Dean <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all,
      It is documented in the manual that neither Bricks.itx or Dots.itx
work with TextureStudio (Bricks doesn't do anything, Dots draws quarter
dots). We don't currently know why this is, they may still have remenants
of their Imagine2 origins.

--------
Andy Dean, co-author of ImageStudio and TextureStudio
Email: [e-mail]

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 21:27:33
Subject: Amiga->pc upgrades
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Peter Appleton <[e-mail]>
>
> Does anyone know if Impulse has an upgrade offer for those of us
> swapping platforms?

The latest Impulse Gazette (Winter 1995, received in March) mentions:

   "Cross-platform upgrade from Amiga version of Imagine to
    PC version of Imagine 3.0 -- $200" (US)

You may want to send e-mail to Mike Halvorson, explaining that you're a
few miles too far (!) to benefit from their toll-free number, and ask
about your specific situation. If you have Imagine 2.x, or 3.0, or are
on the auto-upgrade, different situations may apply.

Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 21:39:03
Subject: Re: Imagemaster R/t
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: William Bogan <[e-mail]>
>
> Can you tell me where I can get more info about
> WinImages/Black Belt? It sounds very interesting.

I'd love to! When I find hardware or software I really like, I turn into
the PR person from hell. <g> Ben Williams, president of Black Belt, can
be reached at [e-mail]. WinImages is one of the true
bargains of the PC world, but (possibly) due to Black Belt's lack of
advertising support, the program never seem to get reviewed.


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 22:04:40
Subject: Iterated Systems
From:    [e-mail] (Craig Andera )


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Mike,
>
>In the PC world there is a company called Iterated Systems that uses
>fractal
>algorithms to achieve as much as 200:1 compression ratios. I can't remember
>the name of the product, but it is supposed to be as near to lossless as
>makes no difference in the 2-4:1 area. In the neighborhood of 20-100:1 it
>is
>supposed retain much better image quality than jpeg at any level.
>
>Falko

I have a demo of exactly this product that came with the Microsoft Jumpstart
CD. It is *very* impressive. Most of the demo images were compressed at
around 30:1 and they looked really nice. The best thing about it arises from
the fractal nature of the algorithm: if you enlarge the picture beyond its
original size the image is fractally interpolated, and you get something
that looks way better than a blurred enlargement.

Now I don't know if the images they used (all seemed to be scanned
photographs of city and natural scenes) were specifically chosen for the
compression ratio they achieved. From what I understand of fractal
algorithms they are heavily dependent on image content, and they perform
best when used to compress natural scenes. This makes sense, as things like
trees and flowers have fractal features.

The big thing, of course, is the price tag. I didn't look into it too
deeply, but they have several different products which *start* at around
$700. Out of my price range. Maybe I'll take a look into writing my own
stuff over the summer: I'll have all this free time and a couple of degrees
in EECS I'm not using...


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 22:08:06
Subject: New Web Page and Programs
From:    Ian Smith <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A bunch of minor things here. :-)

Both IIUtilities and IITextures have new versions and I just put up a Web
page with Imagine related items on it.

IIUtilities has a new script to generate circular and sipral paths, and
IITextures has one new texture and most of the textures also include IBM
versions now.

Both are available on my web page at:

                            http://moose.erie.net/~iansmith

Make sure to check out my big page of Imagine textures.  :-)  I am trying
to collect as much information as I can on various textures programmed by
us users.  So if anybody out there knows of any not listed on that page,
send me mail!

Let me know if you find any glitches too, as both archives and the Web
pages are pretty new.  Enjoy!

--
[e-mail]


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 22:11:08
Subject: Re: Imagine Documentation
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> this selfish, recriminatory attitude concerning the now-obsolete
> documentation of Imagine 2.0 just strikes me as mean-spirited.

Why do we get tarred with this brush? People who pay $10 for a coverdisk
should expect to get the software and a page or two of hints. No fancy
packaging, no manual, and often no technical support. This is the reason
the software is being given away, rather than sold for its normal price.

These rules of coverdisks should be well-known by now, and anybody who
complains about having a hard time with their freebie software is just
plain unreasonable. It's simple: you get what you pay for. The fact that
Imagine isn't as self-evident as a shoot'em-up game is irrelevant. With
coverdisks, "you pays your money and you takes your chances".

Do I sound unpleasant? Yes, I sound unpleasant. It's because this
situation reminds me of a whiny kid at the fair, who never gets enough
rides and always wants more.

"Imagine costs too much."

Okay, here's an alternative. You get an old version of program, and no
documentation, for $10. That's about _ three percent_ of the street price.

"I want more! Gimme the manual."

If you want documentation, you could download the IML archives. They're
free. Or, you could buy books such as "The Imagine companion", by David
Duberman, or "3D Modeling lab", by Philip Shaddock.

"I want more! The Shaddock book covers modeling, but only animation basics."

Okay, you could buy Imagine L/T, which has almost everything version 3.0
has. It's $99, and you get the 3.0 manual.

"I want more! Imagine L/T is missing 3 features."

Basically, what people seem to want, is a full version of Imagine 3.x,
with full manual, for $10. This is why I'm annoyed.

> if somebody had a perfectly legal copy of the software in their
> possession, it wouldn't take me a New York minute to give my approval to
> them obtaining the documentation for this software.

You just said it: they have a legal copy of the _software_. They have no
legal copy of the _manual_. And that's where we disagree, and where I
think your position is invalid.


> I resent any company that makes a marketing decison to attempt to use
> these [L/T] editions of their software as a separate profit line. It all
> just muddies the waters of software purchase and use - waters that
> certainly don't need this kind of muddying.

Impulse has repeated this time and again: Imagine L/T is a way for
people to try 3D software without having to lay $500 on the table. It
has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, so that if you find 3D is too
complicated for you, you haven't lost a cent. If you do like the
program, you have an excellent deal. I'd say that half (?) of the
textures, and over 95% of the functionality, is a great deal when you
pay one-third the price. And for those professional users who really
need the high-end features, there's the full version of Imagine.

Impulse is being depicted as some ogre out to rob innocent people.  Just
the opposite: their extensive line of Imagine versions shows their
willingess to offer a variety of products, each at a different price.



Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 22:14:49
Subject: Re: Imagine Documentation
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Richard Heidebrecht <[e-mail]>
>
> Does anybody have any information on what Philip Shaddock's newer book
> contains that the previous didn't, and what is Steve Worley's book like
> (what's it called)?

Unfortunately, I have no idea what Mr. Shaddock will cover in his book,
although it's safe to venture that he'll cover animation in detail, and
the functions that have appeared in Imagine 3.1 and up.

Steve Worley's "Understanding Imagine 3.0" is still vaporware at this
point, although I will immediately send him my money when he releases
it. His "... 2.0" book was the most enjoyable software book I have ever
read.




Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 22:18:17
Subject: Re: Impulse Gazette and Wasted Bandwidth.
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>
>
> >Maybe we should start the rumour that
> >Impulse writers speak Norwegian, and have Conny jump in! <G,D&R ->
> >grinning, ducking & running>
>
> Conny is Sweedish!!!! I AM NORWEGIAN!!!! KILL :) (I think, Mike H, is
> Norwegian BTW..)

D'ohh! I'm sorry! This is exactly the kind of mistake I always try to
avoid! (Like confusing a Belgian for a Frenchman... few people live to
tell about it)


Date:    Wednesday, 03 May 1995 23:34:02
Subject: Font Objects
From:    Richard Heidebrecht <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


How do you creat font objects (Imagine 2.0, PC)?  I know this is a simple
question that I could figure out on my own by thumbing through the
manual, but I got my copy of Imagine 2.0 with 3D Modeling Lab, so I don't
have the manual.  Any help would be greatly appreciated, as it's for an
assignment due relatively soon and Iv'e been playing around with it
trying to get it to work but have had no luck as of yet.

Thanks,

    Rick



Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 00:04:53
Subject: Modelling Bike Parts
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Whoa! What an ambitious message! (Thanks for bringing the focus back to
Imagine, by the way)

It seems like your level of expertise is too high for this little
tutorial, but some of the newer users may appreciate it:

Modeling a symmetrical object is always simpler, and Imagine lets you
model objects which have circular symmetry, like a bicycle derailleur
or a daisy.

- Add a Primitive disk. Accept the defaults. The disk should be located
at 0, 0, 0. Change the Pick Method to Drag Box, and in the Front view
select all points except three: the center, the top, and its left-hand
neighbour (like the 11 and 12 o'clock positions). Delete the selected
points. You are left with a single wedge.

- Go back to Pick Groups mode. Add a Primitive Tube, radius = 5,
circle sections = 12, stagger points = off. Transform its orientation
to 97, -90, 90 and its position to -6.5, 5, 51.

- Select All and Slice, then select PARTS and Ungroup it. Delete
everything except the flat wedge with a round indentation at the short
end. This is the prototype for a single gear tooth.

- If you zoom in on the indentation in the Front view, you'll see some
duplicate points. Let's clean them up. Multi-select the two points
around X = -9.5, Z = 47 and Join them into a single point. Do the same
with the three other pairs of almost-identical points. (Remember to
click the mouse into empty space, without the Shift key, between
selections to clear all selections, or else you'll be joining each pair
of points to the previously-selected points) You should be left with an
object with 9 points, 15 edges, and 7 faces.

- Select the object and position its AXIS ONLY to 0, 0, 0. Enter the
Replicate requester, with length = 0.0001, copies = 23, and angle =
(one full rotation minus 1/24th) 345 degrees.

- In replicating the object, we have created pairs of points at the
outer edge of each copy, which should again be joined. You'll find 24
such pairsat X = 0, Z = 50; X = 13, Y = 48.25; and so on. Each pair of
points should be joined. There's also a group of duplicate points at
the object center; don't forget them! When the object is cleaned up, it
should have 169 points. You now have a flat gear.

- Extrude the object 3 units in Y. If you do a quickrender at this
point, the gear will look funny, because we haven't defined any sharp
edges. By default, Imagine objects have Phong shading, and all edges
are soft. To define hard edges, pick the object and enter Pick Edges
mode. Under the Pick/Select menu, you'll find the mighty Edge Filter.
Apply it with its defaults, and see all edges that deviate from each
other by more than 60 degrees automatically get picked!

  If you see any picked edges in the Top or Side view, (set Zoom to 16
for a better look) then the Edge Filter was too stringent. Click in
empty space to deselect the edges, and try the Edge Filter again with a
higher Min. Angle value. Your goal is to select all perimeter edges, as
seen in the Front view, but none of the edges which are parallel to the
Y axis. When that's done, Make Sharp will tell Imagine that it
shouldn't use smooth Phong shading across these edges.

- Now, let's give our object some attributes. Change its name to GEAR,
color to 64, 64, 64, reflect to 64, 64, 64, specular to 255, 255, 255,
hardness to 200, 200, 200. Finally, to get that metal look, you must
add a reflection brush, either to the object, or in the Action editor
as an environment map. (Globals actor bar) Just paint some irregular
oval shapes in white over a black background, outlined with darker and
darker shades of grey.


Some of the key points in this tutorial: looking out for duplicate
points, which can cause rendering problems, and correctly specifying
sharp edges. Class dismissed.


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 00:10:59
Subject: Morphing
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Marty Nussbaum <[e-mail]>
>
>     Got a quick question. I am trying to morph a small sphere,
> radius 50 units, into a large sphere, 300 units. When I do a wireframe
> view of the animation the sphere acts like a balloon. What I mean is that
> the small sphere expands to about 175 units then back to its original
> size.

You may have fallen victim to the common affliction known as "spline
sickness", where Imagine, rather than take a simple path from A to B,
makes a wild curve to one side. (I'm talking about a path in the widest
sense possible: not a spatial path, but just the act of morphing a value
from A to B) Try activating the "discontinuous knot" button, to warn
Imagine that it shouldn't attempt to smooth this morph segment with the
next, since there is no next segment. (Does that make sense?)


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 00:16:29
Subject: Morphing...
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: FERNANDO PENA D'ANDREA <[e-mail]>
>
>     About morphing, how I can determine what will move to a wanted
> position? When I make my morphing object it morphs to the other with
> unwanted results. How to fix?

As you know, to morph between objects, each object must have the same
structure: same number of points/edges/faces, edges/faces connecting the
same points. If your object has, say, 1000 points, Imagine will simply
morph the location of point 1 in object A with point 1 in object B;
point 2 with point 2; and so on.

To see how the points are numbered, enter Pick Points mode and press
RightAmiga-N (for Next). The first point will be highlighted. Every time
you press RightAmiga-N, the next point will be shown.

To prevent unwanted results, you should morph between similarly-shaped
objects, and try to preserve the points' relationship. For example, you
could morph between a building and a pencil, but you should not move the
points so that the bottom of the building becomes the eraser at the top
of the pencil; you should use the _top_ points of the building to do that.

I realize this is a very basic answer, but my intuition tells me yours
is a very basic situation.



Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 00:21:01
Subject: Re: Morphing...
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Ayalon Hermony <[e-mail]>
>
> But, is it possible to make the 'chin' points where the 'nose' where,
> and only move the axis down (Shift-M, Shift-Z) and drag down the axis?
>
> Or, leave axis at same place, in Actin editor, add a new position bar,
> for 2nd object (chin') and change Z value to new position?

The axis is the reference point for all XYZ positions related to an
object. (Its points, textures, brushes) As such, moving the axis when
creating multiple objects for morphs (or multiple states) is pointless.
(No pun intended) You should always leave the axis at the same position.
To move the axis, you must move the object in the Stage or Action editor.

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 00:22:03
Subject: Re: Double your RAM!!!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>But it worked.  (Halving everything except graphic size, of
>course.  I want to see someone crunch graphics down to half their size
>without losing).

Mike,

In the PC world there is a company called Iterated Systems that uses fractal
algorithms to achieve as much as 200:1 compression ratios. I can't remember
the name of the product, but it is supposed to be as near to lossless as
makes no difference in the 2-4:1 area. In the neighborhood of 20-100:1 it is
supposed retain much better image quality than jpeg at any level.

Falko


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 00:37:34
Subject: Object speed
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Paul Rance <[e-mail]>
>
> Is there away to vary and object's speed a number of times
> along a path in v3.2?

Boy, I can't believe that nobody has responded to you in a month. B^(

The answer is no. Using acceleration/decceleration, or using spline
velocity, you only have control over the beginning and ending behaviour.
You'll need to separate your path in segments, and define multiple
"follow path" bars in the Action editor.


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 00:42:48
Subject: How to make a lake on PC?
From:    Dave Wilson <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm trying to make my own MYST Island but I'm having a b*tch of a time
making even half decent looking water.  I just moved to a DX4/100 from an
Amiga 3000 where I guess I took things a little for granted.  I've tried
Waves and I've tried disturbed but they aren't giving me the results I'm
after.  Any help would be great, Thanks.
\


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 00:52:54
Subject: PC 2 Amiga redux...
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The March 1994 Amiga World had an article on Amiga networking. One
option would be to use Oxxi's Amiga Client Software to turn your Amiga
into a Netware client. You can also ask Dale Larson about his book on
Amiga networking; his e-mail address is [e-mail], or use the
World-Wide Web: http://www.iam.com


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 01:03:13
Subject: Rayman/Renderman?
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> I have herd of a programme on the PC called Renderman or Rayman?

Renderman is a powerful, but slow, rendering engine. Note that it only
renders; you have to model objects and set up scenes in other programs.

> If this programme is specifically for rendering and can out-gun Ami
> Imagine or PC Imagine then I will consider puchasing a PC.

Why not do a cross-platform upgrade to Imagine/PC, and continue using the
powerful program you know and love? That's what I'll be doing:  Imagine
modeling/rendering on the PC, and Imagemaster/ARexx post-processing on
the Amiga.


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 01:15:12
Subject: Re: OBJECTS.
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
>     Well, some people asked me by the objects which I put the list on
> our dear IML. So, I decided to send an object each time directly to
> IML, so anyone who wants will be free to pick them and extract. The
> objects will start to appear in IML compacted by LHa, with the
> subject:

      Please do *not* start posting uuencoded files to the IML. I really
don't want to come off as some sort of idiot, but this type of thing is the
last thing my E-Mail account needs.
      Don't feel singled out, it wasn't my intention. I usually don't
complain about things on the IML because we go through stages. I'm usually
sure that anything I have a problem with will go away in due time (usually
short), so I just wait in silence, but if something were to start occuring
regurlarly, specifically the uuencoding of files, I would have to register my
objections. And I am...
      As an alternative, could these objects be mailed to individuals, or to
FTP sites, or individuals willing to upload them to FTP sites, etc??
      Much as I would love to see the work of others, I would rather have
the option of choosing the method in which I receive the material, as some
systems simply can't handle the traffic.
      Thanks...

                                                              Jeff-->

E-Mail: [e-mail]


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 01:22:25
Subject: Star Trek - Generations
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Andrew <[e-mail]>
>
> Anyone see the latest Star Trek movie?  In it, there is this cosmic thing
> called the Energy Ribbon (??).  I believe that was generated on a Silicon
> Graphics machine.  Any idea how it can be done on Imagine?

I would model a ribbon and add a noise texture to affect the filter
parameter. This way, the center of the ribbon would be visible, trailing
off into invisibility at the edges. I would then add a bunch of states,
with the texture locked to the default state, and deform the ribbon in
each state. I would also change the texture seed or time parameter over
time.

Anybody have another approach?


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 01:30:37
Subject: Re: Double your RAM!!!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steve,

I have no idea yet. I work for a PC reseller and have access to distributors
and one that we deal with was mentioned as a source for Soft RAM. As it is I
don't think they are taking pre-orders, but I will check and post to the IML
with this threads subject line.

Falko

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 01:42:45
Subject: TextureStudio and Bricks.itx and Dots.itx
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Andrew Dean <[e-mail]>
>
>     It is documented in the manual that neither Bricks.itx or Dots.itx
> work with TextureStudio (Bricks doesn't do anything, Dots draws quarter
> dots). We don't currently know why this is, they may still have remenants
> of their Imagine2 origins.

Perhaps it's because TextureStudio maps textures onto a plane located at
0, 0, 0? (Conjecture -- I haven't even seen the program) At the wrong
location/orientation, textures such as Bricks will show grout only,
since the plane intersects the brick wall between layers of bricks;
similarly, Dots may show no dots, if the spheres are small enough that
they don't touch, and the plane intersects the texture between layers of
dots.


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 01:52:49
Subject: Transparent or Genlock
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: MCADOO <[e-mail]>
>
> What attribute color should I use to allow a video tape playing in the
> background to be seen?  I've used 0,0,0 with no luck. This is with Imagine
> 3.0. Dpaint 0,0,0 give me no problem.

The _color_ of the background is irrelevant. What matters is the
_palette position_. Color zero is removed by genlocks and replaced by
the incoming video signal, regardless what color zero is. (Try it: load
DPaint and scribble something on the screen. Activate your genlock, and
play with the palette requester. You'll see that no matter what value
you give color zero, the genlocks works the same)

Imagine used to have a "Use genlock" button to force it to render the
background as color zero (and prevent it from using color zero for
objects, of course), but that was removed in versions 3.0 and above. The
reason is that Imagine will soon offer alpha channel capability, so
Impulse removed gelnock functionality. Unfortunately, bugs appeared in
the alpha channel, so we won't be able to render genlockable images
directly from Imagine for a while. (instant definition: an alpha channel
is a 256-color greyscale foreground/background mask which supports
anti-aliased object edges, plus semi-transparency. It doesn't work with
standard, "color-zero" genlocks, but will do wonders for Opalvision users)

You can use an image processing program, such as Imagemaster R/t,
ImageFX, or ADPro, to remap the palette so whatever color was used in
your Imagine background will occupy palette position zero.



Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 01:59:18
Subject: Binaries to the IML
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


      I would appreciate if we didn't post binaries to the Imagine
      mailing list, as I have to pay for the time I use to download
      email and it's upsetting to have to pay for things I didn't
      request. If possible, could those wishing to post binaries,
      ask for email requesting it and send it just to those individuals?

      Thanks....

                                                     Jon
                                                     Commish CFL95

[e-mail]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CFL95 Web Page URL http://www.voicenet.com/voicenet/homepages/jkee/cfl.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date and Time originated 05/04/95 00:59:18


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 02:03:05
Subject: Wine
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> If you take a fluid like brandy or wine and pour it in a glas (what the
> h*ll, drink it directly from the bottle if you like) you will see "more
> colour" in the middle of the glas than you do at the edges simply because
> the light has to travel through more fluid in the middle.
> I want my fluid-objects to behave the same way!!
> Using fog is not a good idea since fog can't reflect or have hardness.

I would enclose the fog liquid in a glass-like "skin" object; this
object would show the hard specular highlights and reflections you're after.


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 02:58:24
Subject: Re: Iterated Systems
From:    [e-mail] (Ian M. Smith)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the IML [e-mail] (Craig Andera) wrote:
> The big thing, of course, is the price tag.  I didn't look into it too
> deeply, but they have several different products which *start* at
> around $700.  Out of my price range.  Maybe I'll take a look into
> writing my own stuff over the summer:  I'll have all this free time
> and a couple of degrees in EECS I'm not using...

I wouldn't work too hard on it.. Iterated Systems has patents on the
idea of fractal encryption and charges a HUGE amount for the honor of
using *their* property.  They would probably sue anyone who had the
nerve to use any ideas that they own.  You just HAVE to love the US
patent system... bleah!

--
Ian M. Smith <[e-mail]>
Home Page - http://moose.erie.net/~iansmith (PGP Key and Imagine info)



Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 03:31:26
Subject: Re: Tutorials! we need more of them
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Steve, in <[e-mail]>
on May 3 you wrote:

> Imagine Tutorials!
> We need more of them!
>
> Here is my suggestion, please comment and tell me what you think!
> I'd like to see more tutorials about Imagine on this list so I
> thought to myself how do we encourage people to contribute!
> Prizes? Money?  Fame? Thanks from other Imagineers?  The one that
> would be easiest and get more response would be more tutorials in
> return.  I am suggesting that we keep a growing list of tutorials
> offline available ONLY to those who contribute a tutorial about
> a feature in IMAGINE.  This would encourage people to write a tutorial
> about IMAGINE, and they would be rewarded with a compilation of
> tutorials to date and future editions.
>     What about beginners you ask?  How does a beginner how doesn't
> know anything about IMAGINE, write something about IMAGINE?  Well,
> there are examples in the manual that could definately use some cleaning
> up and commenting about, or there have been tutorials posted on this
> list that can be expanded and cleaned up.
>  If you are willing to write a tutorial about IMAGINE, please
> email me privately, or if you have suggestions or comments about
> this idea please post to this list.
> THanks!
> Steve McLaughlin
>  [e-mail]

Sounds like the beginning of another Dare To Imagine book.  I've never
thought anyone needed encouragement to write tutorials on Imagine features.
It's done in the spirit of the IML - help a fellow user, share ideas and
experiences.  I'd be happy to write a tutorial, but only to share it with
EVERYONE.  Seems to me the whole idea of passing on informatiom is to
inform those who don't have it. That's what the InterNet is about.

We've seen one division arise with the IBM<->Amiga debate, this could start
another one The Experienced<->The Inexperienced.

Sorry if I sound completely negative, but you did ask.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 08:32:20
Subject: Re: Wine
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Doug Kelly wrote;

>Just FYI, if you have access to the CD-ROM version of Photoshop v.2.5.1
>there is a very nice JPEG of a glass of red wine against a white
>background, at high enough resolution that you can examine the meniscus
>and other reflection/refraction phenomena very closely.
>The file is #99 in the hi-res directory.

Erhh, I don't have a CD-ROM. I don't even have a PC or Photoshop.
Do you know if this image is accessible from somewhere else?
Is it copyrighted? Or could you upload it somewhere public where I could get
it or even email it to me directly?

-----------------------------------------------------------------
|   Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |
|   Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |
|   Sweden           |   [e-mail]                     |
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 08:32:22
Subject: Re: Glass texture
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Byrne wrote;

>I just did a test render (full trace) of Milan Polle's Glass texture and
>got a slight flaw in the object. There are about four faces around the
>equator of the sphere that are black.
>Has anyone had similar results.

Sorry, haven't had the time to use these textures yet, but I do have a
little question: The faces that are black (or white as you mentioned in a
later posting), are they around the equator (as you say they are) or are
they the faces that are (more or less) orthogonal to the camera view point?

From what I understand Milan has used this angle as one of the parameters to
his texture.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
|   Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |
|   Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |
|   Sweden           |   [e-mail]                     |
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 09:07:33
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    dave <@post.demon.co.uk:[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> <sigh>.
From: [e-mail] (Dave Rhodes)

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 09:43:03
Subject: Re: Imagine Documentation
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Date:          Wed, 3 May 1995 21:11:08 -0400 (EDT)
> From:          Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>
> To:            [e-mail]
> Subject:       Re: Imagine Documentation

> If you want documentation, you could download the IML archives. They're
> free. Or, you could buy books such as "The Imagine companion", by David
> Duberman, or "3D Modeling lab", by Philip Shaddock.
>

Could anyone be so polite to give the ISBN-number of "The Imagine
Companion" book, so i can order it over here in the Netherlands

Cu A3

----------------------------------------------------------
Real life  : Adri Mathlener
E-Mail     : [e-mail]
----------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 10:15:20
Subject: Copy Protection
From:    [e-mail] (John Yiannis - T/HY)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm looking at PC versions of Imagine, Lightwave and Animation Master.
Do any of these have some form of copy protection?
I've seen the word dongle mentioned in some mail. If I had 2 or more programs
would I have to have a dongle on top of a dongle on top of a dongle ... ?
Will this work ?
If there must (but preferably not) be some form of copy protection why not
try the method used by some PC-CD ROM games. All they require is that the
CD be in the drive. They then just check for the presence of the CD in the
drive before they will start. I dont find this form of copy protction too
intrusive and must be much cheaper than a dongle.
What do others think?


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 10:52:10
Subject: Re: Neon?
From:    [e-mail] (Patrick Sauvageau)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>How do you make a Neon light?  I have been playing around with
>FOG, Bright, and Haze, but to little avail.

I create the "glow" around lightsource by using a second object, larger than
the light itself. This object is a fog object with the ghost texture.  It's
color should be less saturated (ie: more white) than the lightsource. It
work well when the fog object is a sphere. Of course, the fog object should
be larger than the light source itself. I generaly make the light source
"bright", with sometime a "radial" texture to fade it's color from it's
natural color in the edge to bright white-blue in the centre.

I have read that in Star Trek-Deep Space Nine, they make all the tiny
windows appears bright by using a 2 pass method. First, they film the space
station in normal lighting condition, then they re-film the exact same scene
without any lighting, so only the internal (windows) ligh of the space
station model appears. They then re-compose the 2 films. To achieve the
"glow" around light source, they use a slightly out-of-focus lens on the
second film.

This technic may be used in Imagine. render each image 2 times, one with and
one without lighting. Only the "bright" object will appears on the second
image. Use an image manipulation program to blur the second image and
compose the two. This way, the "bright" object will appears slightly blurred.

Sory for the bad english...

Good luck
-----
Patrick Sauvageau
([e-mail])


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 11:35:00
Subject: Re: Wine
From:    Kelly Computer Consultants <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Thu, 4 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:
> Erhh, I don't have a CD-ROM. I don't even have a PC or Photoshop.
> Do you know if this image is accessible from somewhere else?
> Is it copyrighted? Or could you upload it somewhere public where I could get
> it or even email it to me directly?

It's over 1Mb even in JPEG compression, and I don't know what the
copyright on it is.  I think your best bet is to find somebody nearby who
uses Photoshop, and ask to look at it there.

Other than that, I dunno. Any other suggestions?

Doug Kelly

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 12:09:37
Subject: Duh! (was Re:Imagine for WindowsII)
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


I wrote:"Some of my wishes...point editing in new mode..."
and Dave Rhodes responded "You can edit points in new mode...
make sure that you haven't got any of the buttons in the
perspective window selected..."

Oh duh, again.  I must have missed a line in the manual, or
something.  This will really help.

The reason I follow up on this is as an encouragement to
new users.  I've spent at least 2 hours a day on Imagine
for years now, and still stumble on features and tricks.
So keep workin' at it, post questions here, etc, and your
skills will really sharpen.

Thanks again Dave,
Greg Denby
[e-mail]

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 12:21:05
Subject: Suggestion for a project
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


I'll bet a lot of you have become tired of Imagine's opening
screen, and have made your own.  I realize that some new
feature of Imagine is featured in the opening screen, such
as logo extrusion, so it's unlikely that someone might come
up with a fitting title for a new release of the program.
However, I've often thought that it might be an interesting
project/competition for the list. Perhaps the powers that be
could award a free upgrade to the winner(hint hint to anyone who
might be listening.)

Looking to the furture, when everyone has big, fast machines,
how about an opening anim, small of course?

For what it's worth, my current screen is a slightly extruded
IMAGINE piercing a black plane, with an open field with wispy
clouds floating in the sunlit sky seen through the letter's
cutout. What've you folks done?

Greg Denby
[e-mail]

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 12:53:56
Subject: Re: Neon?
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Perry, et al,

      In aminet/pix/imagi, there's a pic called NeonCool.  Check and
see if this is the sort of neon tubes you have in mind.  I'll be glad to
share whatever tips I can with you, privately or in broad daylight.

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 13:50:51
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>I have herd of a programme on the PC called Renderman or Rayman?
>Does anyone know anything about this programme. I am considering getting

There is a 3D-studio IPAS routine (shareware) that is called RAYMAN, and it
does raytracing for you in 3D-studio. I haven't got it personally, 'cause I
couldn't find anywhere... If anyone knows something about this module, feel
free to contact me...

Isn't renderman the PIXAR standard for describing and rendering 3D models?
Does it exist on the PC too? I thought that was only for high end guys...


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 14:07:15
Subject: Re: your mail
From:    [e-mail] (Andrey Zmievskiy)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Isn't renderman the PIXAR standard for describing and rendering 3D models?
> Does it exist on the PC too? I thought that was only for high end guys...

Yes, it does. It's included with Macromedia Macromodel and will soon
be supported by other packages.

Andrey


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 14:33:44
Subject: Re: Imagine Documentation
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>To me, "LE" ("Light Editions" of software) are ancillary give-aways
usually accompanying a hardware purchase that enhance the "out-of-box"
experience, and I resent any company that makes a marketing decison to
attempt to use these editions of their software as a separate profit line.<<

Bottom line,  no one forces you to buy a light edition or a older version
with unsupported documentation from a book.  If you want to pay a lot more
for a program that does a lot less there are plenty of programs out there
that are overpriced.  Imagine is not one of them and has consistently sold
for a reasonable amount.  If you don't like it then buy the full product and
stop bitching.

Stephen G.

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 14:52:00
Subject: IMAGINE
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-> Mike,->-> As it was explained to me, Imagine 4.0 will NOT have a new manual,=
 on-> addendums to the existing one.  Imagine 4.0 will NOT be marketed a=s a-> p
roduct, but rather as an upgrade from IM3.0...therefore no new ma=nuaYeah, I got
 the same answer from Mike H. Since 4.0 is not a NEW produ=ct,but simply a gradu
al improvement of 3.0, the current manual plusaddemdums made more financial sens
e. With the good news of SteveWorley's impending release of Understanding Imagin
e 3.0, I suppose it='sjust as well. :)        __________________________________
_____________________      /____________________________________________________
_____\    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D==3D=3D=3
D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:
                          =|=3D  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  mike.vandersommen@
caddy.uu.silcom.com =|=3D  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =|=3D  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apoca
lypse play golf..."     =|=3D  =3D|          14.4k v.32bis 24 hours - 805-683-13
88                =|=3D    \____________________________________________________
_________/--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 14:59:14
Subject: WWW Imagine page
From:    [e-mail] (John Yiannis - T/HY)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do Impulse have a WWW page?

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 15:09:16
Subject: Re: Metaballs?
From:    "DEBEAUMONT, GEORGE" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Metaballs is a modelling technique (similar to drops of liquid that the user can

stretch, enlarge and join with other metaball objects to form naturally curving

surfaces. Its a modelling technique used to create life like organic models...Is

this Imagine 4.0/metaballs rumor well founded?...George

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________



Somebody recently mentioned that Metaballs might be included in Imagine
4.0.  I have heard of them before, but I have no idea what they do.
Would somebody please enlighten me?

   Rick




Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 15:15:18
Subject: Re: Rayman/Renderman?
From:    "DEBEAUMONT, GEORGE" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> I have herd of a programme on the PC called Renderman or Rayman?

     Renderman is a standardized software specification for describing 3D
     scenes. It describes everything the computer needs to know to simulate
     a 3D environment (ie. objects, lightsources, camera specifics, global
     characteristics...). Once the 3D scene is in the Renderman (RIB) file
     format, the image or animation can be rendered via any Renderman
     engine which are available on the Mac, PC and Silicon Graphics
     platforms...George


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 15:21:00
Subject: Re: Imagine Documentation
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-> Impulse is being depicted as some ogre out to rob innocent people.=  J-> the
opposite: their extensive line of Imagine versions shows their-> willingess to o
ffer a variety of products, each at a different pri=ce.Your points are valid and
 Impulse's pricing is the best in the busine=ss.However, the whole point of "giv
ing away" 2.0 is to encourage newcustomers for Imagine Pro or Lite. It seems to
me if you can get some=onehooked and excited about a fully functional older vers
ion, they mayjust want all the muscle of the Pro version. I don't think it would
have jeopardized Impulse's position by including 2.0's manual on thedisk. I have
 the REAL 2.0 manual and if you've ever seen or read it,you would understand why
 Steve Worley's book sold so well! :)One other thing. Home PC 3D rendering progr
ams have evolved from the$50- $100 range of years back to the $600-$3000 range o
f today. I'd b=emore inclined to want to really give something a hard test drive
 befo=reI spent the price of a good used car for software of any type. I thin=kthe Imagine 3.0 Lite offer is an excellent move!        _________
______________________________________________      /___________________________
______________________________\    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3
D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\  =3D| Mike van de
r Sommen ||  Email:                                =|=3D  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS
   ||  [e-mail] =|=3D  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  ||
______________________________________ =|=3D  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of
the Apocalypse play golf..."     =|=3D  =3D|          14.4k v.32bis 24 hours - 8
05-683-1388                =|=3D    \___________________________________________
__________________/--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - (805)
 683-1388

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 15:23:40
Subject: Re: How to make a lake on PC?
From:    "DEBEAUMONT, GEORGE" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>I'm trying to make my own MYST Island but I'm having a b*tch of a time
>making even half decent looking water.  I just moved to a DX4/100 from an
>Amiga 3000 where I guess I took things a little for granted.  I've tried
>Waves and I've tried disturbed but they aren't giving me the results I'm
>after.  Any help would be great, Thanks.

A recipe for a lake...hmmm...lets see:

Start with a plane or ground object. Add the following attributes:
   color 43,43,103
   reflect 68,68,68
   filter 73,73,112
   specularity 163, 163, 163
   hardness 150
   roughness 0
   shininess 0
   index of refraction 1.33
Next, add the Imagine wave texture (to get the rhythmic swell/peak/trough
effect). Then add an altitude brush map (flat x, flat z, repeat) to provide the

small scale random rippling effect. My brush map consists of 640x480 randomly
scattered pixels (16 shades of gray). The pic has that black and white "TV
static" look. Adjust the brush map axis, as necessary, to obtain the desired
appearance.

Position the primary light source in front of the camera position to obtain
specular highlights.

Render until done!!!...Good luck...George



Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 15:29:00
Subject: Font Objects in 2.0
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-> From: Richard Heidebrecht <[e-mail]>-> How do you creat f
ont objects (Imagine 2.0, PC)?  I know this is a= si-> question that I could fig
ure out on my own by thumbing through the-> manual, but I got my copy of Imagine
 2.0 with 3D Modeling Lab, so =I d-> have the manual.  Any help would be greatly
 appreciated, as it's f=or-> assignment due relatively soon and Iv'e been playin
g around with i=t-> trying to get it to work but have had no luck as of yet.If I
 remember right, you need the .pfb files for Adobe Type Fonts(Postscript) in a d
irectory called PSFONTS. You also need, from thePreferences screen, to point to
that directory where it says: ....         Text "D:\PSFONTS       PostScript fon
t directory.I can't remember, but I think in 2.0 it only creates flat faced font
objects (no splines) that you have to extrude to get depth.Hope that helps. I'm
working from a faded memory here. :)        ____________________________________
___________________      /_________________________________________________________\    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
3D=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D==3D=3D=
3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||
  Email:                                =|=3D  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  mike
[e-mail] =|=3D  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ___________
___________________________ =|=3D  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocaly
pse play golf..."     =|=3D  =3D|          14.4k v.32bis 24 hours - 805-683-1388
                =|=3D    \______________________________________________________
_______/--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 15:29:06
Subject: WWW-Site
From:    Cyber Sex <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Imagineers!

I'm working on a Hompage for Tom Gtanberg. I know most of you have
heard of him here at IML.(Hes the guy from TV2 Norway)

At the moment there's some Renderings used by TV2, and there's some
pics not used on tv.

More to come!!!

You'll find the http below!

See ya all later!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Peder Naalsund

[e-mail]
[e-mail]
www.nhidh.nki.no/~pednaa     (Imagine page!)

"Intel inside... Idiot outside..."

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 15:43:15
Subject: Re: Tutorials! we need more of them
From:    "DEBEAUMONT, GEORGE" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Imagine Tutorials!
We need more of them!

>Here is my suggestion, please comment and tell me what you
>think! I'd like to see more tutorials about Imagine on this list
>so I thought to myself how do we encourage people to contribute!
>Prizes? Money?  Fame? Thanks from other Imagineers?  The one
>that would be easiest and get more response would be more
>tutorials in return.  I am suggesting that we keep a growing
>list of tutorials offline available ONLY to those who contribute
>a tutorial about
>a feature in IMAGINE.  This would encourage people to write a tutorial
>about IMAGINE, and they would be rewarded with a compilation of
>tutorials to date and future editions.

 I've been following the IML posts for short while and have picked up a numbe of

 useful tips. I believe more structured tutorials would be of great benefit.
 Some general thoughts/suggestions regarding your proposal (IMHO):
 1)   Don't make it a firm requirement to submit a tutorial prior to gaining
 access to the tutorial compilation (lets keep the IML an open forum). Instead,
 encourage those who find the tutorials useful to give back to the Imagine
 community.
 2)   Suggest that a standardized format be adopted (as the compilation grows,
 it remains somewhat coherent)
 3)   Solicit topics from the IML population and prioritize
 4)   Route draft tutorials through some of the power users out there (comments,

 accuracy and enhancements...) before making it available to the IML.
 Anyway just some thoughts...I'd be glad to assist...George


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 16:18:29
Subject: Imagine 3.0 Fonts (fwd)
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



---------- Forwarded message ----------

For either version, you can use PostScript fonts, available throughout
the Internet, in shareware, or on CD-ROMs, which I use, containing about
2000 of the suckers. Go into the Spline Editor and choose Load Font from
the menu. Go to the directory where all your PS fonts are located.
Double-click on ANY file, and your list of fonts will appear in the
window. Choose one, type in a line of text, and viola! You have a spline
object!! Choose Add Points from the menu, decide on how you want your
object beveled, and click on OK. Viola! You have a 3D mesh object!!
Choose Save Points and save it. Now you can import it into Detail so you
can add surface attributes. Happy rendering!!

See ya,
      Roger


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 18:23:00
Subject: Re: How to make a lake on PC?
From:    Michael North <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> I'm trying to make my own MYST Island but I'm having a b*tch of a time
> making even half decent looking water.  I just moved to a DX4/100 from an
> Amiga 3000 where I guess I took things a little for granted.  I've tried
> Waves and I've tried disturbed but they aren't giving me the results I'm
> after.  Any help would be great, Thanks.
> \
>

Hard to tell without knowing what results you're looking for, but
you might try putting a little crumpled on top of the waves.  Also
choose your global brush carefully and use a little reflection.

Michael

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 19:05:36
Subject: Re: Star Trek - Generations
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>I would model a ribbon and add a noise texture to affect the filter
>parameter. This way, the center of the ribbon would be visible, trailing
>off into invisibility at the edges. I would then add a bunch of states,

Could you Charles, please explain to us newbies (well, me anyway) how to add
a noise texture to affect the filter?


---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

Relax, it's all just 1's and 0's

---------------------------------


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 19:59:16
Subject: Re: Double your RAM!!!
From:    Ian Smith <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Thu, 4 May 1995, Lawson Gold wrote:
> There is a mathmatician working on a new form of JPEG compression which will
> compress a 4MB 24-bit picture down to 6K with no visible loss of quality. this

> is not vapourware; He is one of only four people in the world who can understa
nd
> the maths involved, & he employs the other three.In it's beta version it
> decompresses at the same speed as JPEG does now.

I heard about this guy.. pretty cool.  Unfortunatly the release date got
pushed back due to some legal problems so it won't be out until next
year, probably early April.  REAL early in April.  :-)

--                             My Imagine Home Page - Visit!
[e-mail]            http://moose.erie.net/~iansmith


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 20:37:31
Subject: Font Objects in 2.0
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Mike Vandersommen <[e-mail]>
>
> -> From: Richard Heidebrecht <[e-mail]>
> -> How do you creat font objects (Imagine 2.0, PC)?  I know this is a si
>
> If I remember right, you need the .pfb files for Adobe Type Fonts
> (Postscript) in a directory called PSFONTS. You also need, from the

Sorry Mike. For once, you're off the mark. (Pretty good track record so
far, though!) Imagine 2.0 only supported Amiga-format bitmap fonts.
Postscript support appeared around 2.9.

Richard, you'd need to get ahold of Amiga fonts (FTP to Aminet?) and
install them in a directory on your PC, like this:

C:
  AMIFONTS
          COURIER
                 7
                 9
                 11

Each number is the font for that specific size; the parent directory is
the font name. In Imagine's Preferences, you'd need to tell Imagine
where the fonts are located, in this example "C:\AMIFONTS"

Since I don't have a PC, I can't guarantee the results. And even then,
the objects will be really blocky. Really, really blocky.


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 21:22:00
Subject: Re: Double your RAM!!!
From:    [e-mail] (Dan Gervais)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
>Mike,
>
>In the PC world there is a company called Iterated Systems that uses fractal
>algorithms to achieve as much as 200:1 compression ratios. I can't remember
>the name of the product, but it is supposed to be as near to lossless as
>makes no difference in the 2-4:1 area. In the neighborhood of 20-100:1 it is
>supposed retain much better image quality than jpeg at any level.
>
>Falko
>
I use Iterateds Fractal compression (images incorporated et. al.) and its
amazing but thats not the only kid on the block for great image compression.
 If anyone cares to know more email me and I can tell you more.   I am not
selling anything here I just have been using a lot of compression
techniquies and can help anyone out who might be interested.
Dan


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 21:34:32
Subject: Re: Double your RAM!!!
From:    Lawson Gold <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is a mathmatician working on a new form of JPEG compression which will
compress a 4MB 24-bit picture down to 6K with no visible loss of quality. this
is not vapourware; He is one of only four people in the world who can understand

the maths involved, & he employs the other three.In it's beta version it
decompresses at the same speed as JPEG does now.

He is also apparently going to revamp the MPEG format to give vastly superior
compression rates...watch this space!

I have this information from one of the head honchos at Almathera.

--
~===========================================================================~
 Lawson Gold - [e-mail] (Demon Account)
Connecting via Demon Internet, Finchley, London, N3 1TT. Tel: [phone]
-- Full IP Connectivity for a 10 UKP per month - no usage/online fees!! --


Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 22:09:46
Subject: A500Prob
From:    Darren Priestnall <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry for sending this to the list but I wiped the message asking for
help regarding a A500 with 2.5meg of ram while tidying up my
drive....OOPS.

A friend had the same problem with a A500 with 2.5Meg but I got it
running by changing the startup-sequence to load Imagine first before
workbench.
This worked fine though the software ran a bit slow using the A500's
68000 so if possible.....upgrade :)

Call me if you need more help..


--
~===========================================================================~
 Darren Priestnall - [e-mail] (PandGImaging)
Connecting via Demon Internet, Finchley, London, N3 1TT. Tel: [phone]
-- Full IP Connectivity for a 10 UKP per month - no usage/online fees!! --

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 22:15:00
Subject: Cool coolfir effect
From:    [e-mail] (Gareth Qually)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



I have been experimenting with the coolfir texture.
Try this out if you want steam, shafts of light, smoke.

Make a cube and go to the attributes requester.

Make the object color a shade of white.
The filter values are 125, 125, 125.

Add the coolfir texture.

Color 0, 0, 0.
Reflect 0, 0, 0.
Filter 255, 255, 255.
Noise Magnitude 1.
Noise Velocity 3.

The texture axis should have the positive part
of the Z axis slightly smaller than the object.
Scale the X and Y axis by 2 or 3 from their natural
state.

You can animate it by rotating around the Z axis or
moving along the X and Y axis.

Note: if there are a lot of overlaping layers on the
object, make sure resolve depth (preferences editor)
is quite high, 9 or so, otherwise you will get black
areas on the object.

You can render this in scanline. Try it out and tell
me what you think.

Chow...

[e-mail]

 * AmyBW v2.11 *
....                             4 May 95  23:15:47

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 22:55:02
Subject: Re: Copy Protection
From:    [e-mail] (Vance Gloster)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  I'm looking at PC versions of Imagine, Lightwave and Animation Master.
  Do any of these have some form of copy protection?
  I've seen the word dongle mentioned in some mail. If I had 2 or more programs
  would I have to have a dongle on top of a dongle on top of a dongle ... ?
  Will this work ?
  If there must (but preferably not) be some form of copy protection why not
  try the method used by some PC-CD ROM games. All they require is that the
  CD be in the drive. They then just check for the presence of the CD in the
  drive before they will start. I dont find this form of copy protction too
  intrusive and must be much cheaper than a dongle.
  What do others think?

Animation Master does use a dongle.  I do not use multiple dongles
myself, but a friend of mine does with no problems.  I doubt that you
could find anyone who likes the dongle, but the CD-ROM solution has
its own set of problems.  When I work with A:M I frequently load
bitmapped textures from CDs (I use the Pixar and Autodesk texture
libraries) and I would find needing to exit or reload the A:M CD even
more intrusive.  Also, not all users of A:M have CD-ROM drives at this
point.  But I support your effort to find a viable alternative to the
dongle!

-Vance Gloster
 [e-mail]

Date:    Thursday, 04 May 1995 23:38:14
Subject: Re: How to make a lake on a PC?
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>I'm trying to make my own MYST Island but I'm having a b*tch of a >time
>making even half decent looking water.  I just moved to a DX4/100 >from an
>Amiga 3000 where I guess I took things a little for granted.  I've tried
>Waves and I've tried disturbed but they aren't giving me the results >I'm
>after.  Any help would be great, Thanks.
\

Here is a cool way to make water,

    Make the color a dark blue and use Fractal Noise texture and change the
colors of this to miscelauneous shades of blue, then you can animate this by
making some changes and states and stuff. Fiddle around with it until you get
it good.

  Another way to make water is to use the crumpled texture.




Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 00:01:48
Subject: Re: How to make a lake on PC?
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>I'm trying to make my own MYST Island but I'm having a b*tch of a time
>making even half decent looking water.  I just moved to a DX4/100 from an
>Amiga 3000 where I guess I took things a little for granted.  I've tried
>Waves and I've tried disturbed but they aren't giving me the results I'm
>after.  Any help would be great, Thanks.

I have used the Crumpled texture and gotten pretty good results.
Just don't use too small size values.

You could check out my result on "http://www.kiruna.se/is/cjo/gallery.html".

The "only" problem is that "crumpled" _takes_time_ to render.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
|   Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |
|   Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |
|   Sweden           |   [e-mail]                     |
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 00:07:02
Subject: Re: Impulse Gazette and Wasted Bandwidth.
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Maybe we should start the rumour that Impulse writers speak Norwegian, and
> have Conny jump in! <G,D&R -> grinning, ducking & running>

Pray that we never meet!    <growl>
"Norwegian"! Pff!

;-)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
|   Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |
|   Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |
|   Sweden           |   [e-mail]                     |
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 01:32:37
Subject: IML DIGEST
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


      The quantity of message on IML is very important why can't we
switch to a DIGEST IML (compilation of all messages mail to IML during the day).

Many people unsubscribe because of this! Sorting the personal mail from IML
messages is a mess. I'm getting tired of it and many people are also tired
of this! IML is great but the format is VERY ennoying! I don't see why we are
stuck whith this mailing list program. It would easier to manipulate the
messages and it would be possible to archive the DIGEST for each month etc.

      I'm tired of receiving 30 and more messages per day! I want a DIGEST!
What about you?

      What is the procedure to ask for a change for a DIGEST IML?

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 02:49:54
Subject: Re: How to make a lake on PC?
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>To: Dave Wilson <[e-mail]>
>From: [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)
>Subject: Re: How to make a lake on PC?
>
>>I'm trying to make my own MYST Island but I'm having a b*tch of a time
>>making even half decent looking water.  I just moved to a DX4/100 from an
>>Amiga 3000 where I guess I took things a little for granted.  I've tried
>>Waves and I've tried disturbed but they aren't giving me the results I'm
>>after.  Any help would be great, Thanks.
>>\
>
>Have you tried the Applique function?
>
>First, you need a greyscale picture with smooth transitions between areas
of light and dark. Something like smooth clouds will give you the idea.
Then, make a plane with lots of points (100x100 with 25 vertical and
horizontal sections is good for starters). Pick the plane, select Applique,
and in the requestor choose Transform Axis. Make the size of the Y axis 10
to 20 units (the greater the size of Y, the more pronounced the effect).
>What you get is a plane that has been deformed, based on the colors of the
picture! With some experimenting, you can get pretty good water shapes.
>
>Once you get the hang of it, you can make your own map and have much
greater control over the end result. High contrast maps make deeper waves,
blurring the original map gives smoother waves, etc.. With more precise
control over the map, you can even make a series of "waved planes" that you
can morf for some pretty cool animating.
>
>Good luck!
>
>
---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

Relax, it's all just 1's and 0's

---------------------------------


Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 02:57:03
Subject: Re: IML DIGEST
From:    "Anime a day..." <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Fri, 5 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

>
>     The quantity of message on IML is very important why can't we
> switch to a DIGEST IML (compilation of all messages mail to IML during the day
).
> Many people unsubscribe because of this! Sorting the personal mail from IML
> messages is a mess. I'm getting tired of it and many people are also tired
> of this! IML is great but the format is VERY ennoying! I don't see why we are
> stuck whith this mailing list program. It would easier to manipulate the
> messages and it would be possible to archive the DIGEST for each month etc.
>
>     I'm tired of receiving 30 and more messages per day! I want a DIGEST!
> What about you?
>
>     What is the procedure to ask for a change for a DIGEST IML?
>


 There was a lot of talk about doing one in Amiga Guide format.  BUt then
PC users wanted to view it also... there are programs that can take an
ascii file and make good Amiga Guides out it with a little effort..
Amazing Computing had a review about such a program...  anyway.. an ascii
file could work for both worlds, but who is willing to do it??? Who has
the time???


b0nez



Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 05:15:02
Subject: Re: IML DIGEST
From:    Ian Smith <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Fri, 5 May 1995, Anime a day... wrote:
> >   What is the procedure to ask for a change for a DIGEST IML?
>
>  There was a lot of talk about doing one in Amiga Guide format.  BUt then
> PC users wanted to view it also... there are programs that can take an
> ascii file and make good Amiga Guides out it with a little effort..
> Amazing Computing had a review about such a program...  anyway.. an ascii
> file could work for both worlds, but who is willing to do it??? Who has
> the time???

A digest format is something done BEFORE the messages get to your system.
Instead of getting dozens of IML messages mixed in with all your other
mail, you get ONE big file once a day with all the messages in it. Much
more convienent for many people.  Most mailing list software supports this
automaticly, but I do not think the current software in 'standard' due to
all the bouncing undeliverable mail messages that happen now and then and
the problems with dual replies, ect.

--                             My Imagine Home Page - Visit!
[e-mail]             http://moose.erie.net/~iansmith



Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 05:17:58
Subject: Re: Binaries to the IML
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
>     I would appreciate if we didn't post binaries to the Imagine
>     mailing list, as I have to pay for the time I use to download
>     email and it's upsetting to have to pay for things I didn't
>     request. If possible, could those wishing to post binaries,
>     ask for email requesting it and send it just to those individuals?
>

I'd agree. While I love the idea of being able to see more of what
everybody's up to, there's gotta be a better place than the IML.

Just my 2 cents!

---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

Relax, it's all just 1's and 0's

---------------------------------


Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 05:44:56
Subject: Re: Duh! (was Re:Imagine for WindowsII)
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello gregory, in <[e-mail]>
on May 4 you wrote:

> I wrote:"Some of my wishes...point editing in new mode..."
> and Dave Rhodes responded "You can edit points in new mode...
> make sure that you haven't got any of the buttons in the
> perspective window selected..."
>
> Oh duh, again.  I must have missed a line in the manual, or
> something.  This will really help.
>
> The reason I follow up on this is as an encouragement to
> new users.  I've spent at least 2 hours a day on Imagine
> for years now, and still stumble on features and tricks.
> So keep workin' at it, post questions here, etc, and your
> skills will really sharpen.

Yeah, it's easy to miss those little tips in the margin too (I think I need
glasses). Like extruding points off a cylinder to make tree-like branches
or using an object as a path when extruding a two dimensional object like a
primitive disk.   Great stuff :-)

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 06:16:35
Subject: Re: Glass texture
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello cjo, in <[e-mail]> on May 4 you wrote:

> Bob Byrne wrote;
>
> >I just did a test render (full trace) of Milan Polle's Glass texture and
> >got a slight flaw in the object. There are about four faces around the
> >equator of the sphere that are black.
> >Has anyone had similar results.
>
> Sorry, haven't had the time to use these textures yet, but I do have a
> little question: The faces that are black (or white as you mentioned in a
> later posting), are they around the equator (as you say they are) or are
> they the faces that are (more or less) orthogonal to the camera view point?
>
> From what I understand Milan has used this angle as one of the parameters to
> his texture.

          .........................
          .                       .
          .                       .
Top View: .    ____       ____    .   Side View:         ____
          .   /    \     /    \   .                     /    \
          .  |      |   |      |  .        Camera ->   X      |
          .  |      |   |      |  .                    |      |
          .   \____/     \_X_X/   .                     \____/
          .                       .
          .........................                    ---------------
                                                      Gound Plane
                      ^
                      |
                   Camera

X marks the spot, the sphere on the left did'nt have the texture added to
make a comparison. The camera was slightly above the axis of the spheres
and angled down to get the ground plane in the background.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 06:49:39
Subject: Re: unsubscribe
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

PCONNELLY wrote:

>
> The volume is just too heavy.
>

A lot of the discussion here should be relegated to an appropriate
newsgroup, comp.sys.*.*

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 08:14:00
Subject: More On IML Digest
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I whole-heartedly agree that there should be a digest format.  I subscribe
to two other lists, and getting one 2000-line message per day is a lot
cleaner than getting 50 messages per day.  It's also nicer to sit down
with a cup of coffee, and read through the entire thing all at once.

I think that the listserve software that the IML is using may not
have this capability.  Anyone know?
\KenR
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If only I had time to think!
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 08:57:03
Subject: Re: Mirroring Objects
From:    RIX JAMES <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Sat, 29 Apr 1995, Andrew A Krieg wrote:

>         Hello!  I've been using Imagine 3.0 since December and have just
> recently upgraded to 3.2.  I think it's a wonderful program.  It allows me
> to do stuff I've always dreamed of doing.
>
>          Anyway, I have a question.  I'm am currently working on a human
> figure.  I'm using the forms editor to make the basic shapes which I then
> combine point to point in the detail editor.  I was wondering if there is a
> way to "mirror" an object so that I would have two objects, one being the
> relfection of the other.  For example, I have a rather complex left hand and
> I would like to be able to make an identically proportioned right hand
> without connecting and positioning the points to match the left.  If there
> is a way to do this, please let me know.  However, if there is currently no
> way to do this, I think a "mirror" function would be a wonderful time-saving
> addition to upcoming versions of Imagine.
>
>         Thank you.
>
>
>         Andy Krieg
>         [e-mail]
>
>
Here is a proecure for making a mirror object from another object.

1. Copy your original object.

2. Paste the new object.

3. Select the new object.

4. Using the transform requestor perform a negative (-1) scale to the
   axis you want to reverse.

Jim

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 09:14:31
Subject: Inspiration
From:    "DEBEAUMONT, GEORGE" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Ever flipped through a magazine and have an exquisite 3D image capture
     your undivided attention? You admire the color, textures, interplay of
     light and shadows...each small detail. Your thought patterns
     transformed...You can think of nothing else but the computer, 3D and
     Imagine.

     I'd like to start a personal "Best of Imagine" image collection (to
     provide inspiration, motivation and to better my technique). Anybody
     have any nominations? Please include ftp sites/locations.

     Thanks (from a traveler in search of photorealistic enlightenment)


Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 09:41:36
Subject: Re: IML DIGEST
From:    Ted Stethem <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Fri, 5 May 1995, Ian Smith wrote:

>
> --                             My Imagine Home Page - Visit!
> [e-mail]             http://moose.erie.net/~iansmith
>
                                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                                 I have visited briefly. Very nice. But
Home Pages in general are pretty neat. Maybe you will include other
Imagine users' mpeg anims in the future?

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 09:57:08
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    Alpie Kasal <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

info request on current Amiga and PC versions. And 3D Digitizer.
[e-mail]


Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 11:24:05
Subject: Re: Star Trek - Generations
From:    Dylan Neill <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Thu, 4 May 1995, Charles Blaquiere wrote:

> > From: Andrew <[e-mail]>
> >
> > Anyone see the latest Star Trek movie?  In it, there is this cosmic thing
> > called the Energy Ribbon (??).  I believe that was generated on a Silicon
> > Graphics machine.  Any idea how it can be done on Imagine?
>
> I would model a ribbon and add a noise texture to affect the filter
> parameter. This way, the center of the ribbon would be visible, trailing
> off into invisibility at the edges. I would then add a bunch of states,
> with the texture locked to the default state, and deform the ribbon in
> each state. I would also change the texture seed or time parameter over
> time.
>
> Anybody have another approach?
>
>

Yes, I've got the making of the movie on video and I know EXACTLY how
they did it. I'm gonna sit down with the video and Imagine and write up a
tutorial for it.

---
                               |\ /|
                                o O
  ________________________oOO_=( ^ )=_OOo___________________________
 |                        '''     U   '''                           |
 | Gumby Death Man (Dylan Neill) Amiga 1200/6/120  486DX2-66/24/500 |
 | Email: [e-mail]   WWW: http://www.pcug.org.au/~dylann/ |
 |__________________________________________________________________|


Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 11:26:31
Subject: Re:Re:OBJ
From:    FERNANDO PENA D'ANDREA <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    A few days ago, Jeff writed to the list about the objects which I
said. Well, I must to give up. Ok, Jeff, you're right, and not
everyone have space in their mail to receive these type of messages,
and the Im. objects usually are a bit large even when Lha compacted.
Sorry. We can't use the list in this way.
    All you who sent mail asking by objects. If you decide to send a
mail, send ONE directly to me. I really can't send a lot of
objects to everyone, but you can ask one, two or even a BIT more
objects. If you ask many ones, I will have no way to manage a large
amount of mail. I will not send all models at a time to, but slowly,
one by one. Finally, I ask all you who send me the mail to send your
object list to. I'm doing it because I think that a good way to
expand our object collection is share them.

    SEND THE LIST OF OBJECTS MADE BY YOU TOO! SHOW US YOUR TALENTS!

    *********************************
Fernando Pena D'Andrea.
E-Mail: [e-mail]
*********************************

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 11:45:08
Subject: About Particles
From:    FERNANDO PENA D'ANDREA <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I use a version of Imagine thet has no particles (2.0) :( .
    I want to do a scene containing an object made with little cubes
in a sphere pattern, as the cubes were the sphere's vertex. More: I
want to do the cubes spin arround itselves to produce a nice effect
in my sphere. A friend told me that only particles makes it possible
(just a C='s remenber), but without particles, no way men (and women
too!) If you have a soluction, help me please!*********************************
Fernando Pena D'Andrea.
E-Mail: [e-mail]
*********************************

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 11:56:04
Subject: IML digest--are you folks really that bored?
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> to two other lists, and getting one 2000-line message per day is a lot

Here's the rub:  a message of two or more thousand lines big is a LOT harder
to deal with/edit than having the header of each message up there in
plain view.

I can't believe you people honestly read EVERY post to the IML.  Don't
you go through and use the delete key, before you even start?

This is another example of cyber-fiddling.  If it works fine in white,
some bored tinker has to come by and make it black.

Perhaps what people are really whining about here is all the whining
lately on the list.  An awful lot of air, and very little substance.
Hence, the 'D' key.

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 12:12:28
Subject: Re: IML DIGEST
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi everybody,

>     The quantity of message on IML is very important why can't we
>switch to a DIGEST IML (compilation of all messages mail to IML during the
>day).
Maybe it is possible to setup a DIGEST subscribe and a normal SUBSCRIBE so
one can choose. I like it as it is now because answering a certain message is
much easier than reading through a big mail file and do a lot of cut and
paste.

>of this! IML is great but the format is VERY ennoying! I don't see why we are
>stuck whith this mailing list program. It would easier to manipulate the
>messages and it would be possible to archive the DIGEST for each month etc.
There is only one person on this List which uses a very annoying mail program
and that is Mike vander Somme ;)
It looks like there are no CR/LF. All text is one single big line which my
reader nicely wordwraps at the wrong places. First I wanted to hand edit
Mike's mail, for the IML archives, but it is just to much work. Sorry for
that.
I wrote a small basic program which turns my IML mail archive into a very
nice amigaguide file, with two indices, the first sorted on date and the
second sorted on subject thread, like:
Subject: Imagine is great
Subject: Re: Imagine is great
Subject: Lightwave Mailinglist ?
Subject: Re: Lightwve Mailinglist ?
etc.

Have a look at the last archives on Aminet, they should be in gfx/3d. The
last 10 or so are done by me and I hope to upload the version from March and
April this weekend.

I've been working on an AmigaGuide reader for all those PC users. It works
for AmigaReport guidefiles but not mine. Mine seems to be a little to
complicated, not to mention the amount of memory needed. Some IML archives
are close to 1MB and those da**ed PC have such a stupid memory management,
even VisualBasic can't hide it for me.

Anyone want to help me out with this since there are only 24h in a day and I
need to sleep/eat/drink as well.

Greetings Joop

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 12:13:42
Subject: Imagine DIGEST
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The bottom of this message is a part of another Mailing list wich uses
Majordomo software. It gives the possibility to receive the messages
immediately or the digest of this particular Mailing list.

I personally wrote to Brian L. Heess to have information about his software
and also if it would be possible to include our mailing list ( Imagine ) on
his version of Majordomo. Presently his Majordomo runs about 5 different
Mailing (if I understood correctly).

I just want to make things clear. The List administrator is Dave Wickard not
me, I just hope that the information we can get will help him. I just want to
help us with gathering information and looking trough possibility of
improving IML and to stop people for unsubscribing and complaining about
the amount of messages.


>Last edited: Thu Apr 13 22:04:06 PDT 1995 by bheess (Brian L. Heess) on pimpf
>
>(This info page documents "bong" and "bong-digest".)
>
>Welcome to bong! (The Depeche Mode Mailing List).  This list was again
>relocated: to the Operations Department at Earthlink Network, an Internet
>Service Provider in Atwater, California, USA as of February 1995.  It was
>previously in the CIS Dept. at the University of Florida from February,
>1994.  It is running on almost the same software Scott used at UFL, so,
>it should behave almost exactly as it did previously, using Majordomo.
>
>There is also a digest version of bong named "bong-digest".  They are
>2 completely different lists as far as majordomo is concerned.  You
>can be on one or the other or both.  bong-digest is simply a 35000 byte
>nightly compilation of postings to bong sent during the day.  The format
>of bong-digest is compliant (I think) with Internet RFC 1153 which
>defines conventions for digestified mail messages.  You do not send
>postings to "bong-digest".  If you wish to post a message it can only
>be posted to "bong" itself, as detailed below, which will then go into
>the next digest.  Right now there seem to be 2-4 digests coming out
>per day.
>
>For COMPLETE information about subscribing to either 'bong' or 'bong-digest'
>please write to [e-mail].
>
>Please note that subscription requests are only supposed to work if
>they are sent to "[e-mail]" but I am currently using
>some modifications to majordomo that allow simple list commands to be
>automatically processed even though they are sent to
>[e-mail], which is currently NOT working.
>
>Anyway, to subscribe to either bong or bong-request, use the format below
>when sending a message to [e-mail]:
>
>    subscribe <list> [<address>]
>    Subscribe yourself (or <address> if specified) to the named <list>,
>    which would be either bong or bong-digest.
>
>    unsubscribe <list> [<address>]
>    Unsubscribe yourself (or <address> if specified) from the named <list>,
>    which would be either bong or bong-digest.
>
>For basic majordomo help, send a message of 'help' to
>[e-mail].
>
> [...]
>
>-Brian
>[e-mail]

Any comments?

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 12:15:00
Subject: I don't have a d key
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Concerning the IML Digest - I don't have a "D" key in my mail
software.  It forces me to read every header - and in fact some
messages come up with the title of "   ". (Yep, blank)  I'm forced
to read these, as well.

Some people pay by the message.  A digest form would be cheaper
for them, too.

Of course, thanks to Joop, we could just d/l the archive once
a week (or however often he is creating it) and forget about the
daily discourse.
\KenR
PS:   Mike, is your last name really "McCool"?

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 12:19:04
Subject: Re: Inspiration
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>      I'd like to start a personal "Best of Imagine" image collection (to
>      provide inspiration, motivation and to better my technique). Anybody
>      have any nominations? Please include ftp sites/locations.

This is a great notion.  And it's about time.  There's hardly a day I
don't download something from the net, a pic or an anim, and they're
invariably labeled 'totally awsome,' or the like.  Makes me wonder about
the average age (mental, if not chronological) of uploaders.

As you all must have discovered, nearly all of it is rubbish.  There is
so much unalloyed crap on the net that when you finally come across
something worthwhile, your mouth drops and your eyes water.

I wouldn't envy anyone the task of winnowing.  I'll just drop a few
names, like Carmen R, and Jason Jack ([e-mail]).


Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 14:07:00
Subject: Imagine 3.0 Fonts
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-> From: Roger Straub <[e-mail]>-> For either version, you can use PostScr
ipt fonts, available throug=hou-> the Internet, in shareware, or on CD-ROMs, whi
ch I use, containing= ab-> 2000 of the suckers. Go into the Spline Editor and ch
oose Load Fon=t f-> the menu.Er...um, Imagine 2.0 didn't have a spline Editor. I
 believe that wasimplimented in 3.0 (if memory serves).        _________________
______________________________________      /___________________________________
______________________\    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
3D=3D=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D==3D=
3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\  =3D| Mike van der Sommen
 ||  Email:                                =|=3D  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  m
[e-mail] =|=3D  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ________
______________________________ =|=3D  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apoc
alypse play golf..."     =|=3D  =3D|          14.4k v.32bis 24 hours - 805-683-1388                =|=3D    \___________________________________
__________________________/--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca
 - [phone]

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 15:03:00
Subject: Re:TextureStudio problems fixed
From:    "rob (r.d.) hounsell" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Andy,

In message "TextureStudio problems fixed",
'[e-mail]' writes:

>Hi all!
>
>        My name is Andy Dean and I am the co-author of 'TextureStudio' -
>the shareware Imagine3 texture renderer for the Amiga. I've just joined
>the list and I guess from seeing a post by James "Alex" Brooks that
>several of you are having problems with v1.0.0 of the software. The
>problem is due to us incorrectly building the final executable (oops!)
>and a corrected version 1.0.1 has been uploaded to Aminet today (2/5/95)
>which should fix all the strange problems. Apologies for the
>inconvenience.

  What is the updated file name/size, and where did you upload it to? I checked
wuarchive last night, and I seem to have downloaded the same version (at least,
the archive size was the same as before, and my menus are still blank). An
impressive program, though!

Thanks,
Rob
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Rob Hounsell                           Internet: [e-mail]            |
| UNIX Team Leader                       PHONE: [phone]                |
| DMS System Performance Development     Bell-Northern Research               |
| Dept. 7D13                             Ottawa, Ontario, Canada              |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 15:08:07
Subject: Imagine Newsgroup
From:    John Grieggs <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>     I'm tired of receiving 30 and more messages per day! I want a DIGEST!
> What about you?
>
I'm tired of the same thing, especially with the very large quantity of
off-topic posts.  However, I think the correct solution is a newsgroup.

The Lightwave folk did it, and it didn't kill them.  In fact, the lightwave
newsgroup is quite popular.  Why not an Imagine newsgroup?

_john


Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 15:46:52
Subject: Re: Imagine Newsgroup
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Fri, 5 May 1995, John Grieggs wrote:

> I'm tired of the same thing, especially with the very large quantity of
> off-topic posts.  However, I think the correct solution is a newsgroup.
>
> The Lightwave folk did it, and it didn't kill them.  In fact, the lightwave
> newsgroup is quite popular.  Why not an Imagine newsgroup?

I agree!  a newsgroup would be great, and traffic seems to be much higher
than before (constant whining by the mentally handicapped about which
platform is better notwishtanding...it's what you render damnit not what
you render with!) I'd certainly be in favor of a newsgroup.

Aloha,
      Sharky

[e-mail]/CIS#70614,2011 __   v  Home Page : http://aloha.com/~sharky
WebSurfer & Fun Guy,Funky    __/  \ >*< Hawaii Related Links and Etcetera's
WWW Page Designs,       ____/    ) | ^  3D Modelling & Animation Art,Objects,
Tech. Planning  /\_____/          } \   Home Server:http://www.websharx.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(_________ALOHA!_______)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 16:00:10
Subject: Upgrade fees
From:    [e-mail] (Michael Mulhall)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Howdy,

Just a note to say thankyou to all those ppl that responded to my query in
regards to upgrade fees.

THANKS!

RE:Gards,

Michael Mulhall
[e-mail]

#  Voice: [phone]  #  Data: [phone]  #



Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 17:26:49
Subject: Re: I don't have a d key
From:    [e-mail] (Craig Andera )


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well it seems to me that the software mentioned earlier is the answer to it
all. With two addresses - imagine and imagine-digest - where users can
subscribe to one or both, every situation is covered. If you want the
digest, you can get just the digest. If you just want the individual
messages, you can have it that way. If you want both, that's an option as
well.

At least, that was my interpretation of the capabilities of the list server.

FWIW: I check my email roughly 10 times a day, and read every single message
that goes to the list.


Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 18:35:59
Subject: Re: IML DIGEST
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Many people unsubscribe because of this! Sorting the personal mail from IML
>messages is a mess. I'm getting tired of it and many people are also tired
>of this! IML is great but the format is VERY ennoying! I don't see why we

Have you condidered a different mail reader? I've seen several that allow
"Rules" to be defined, where you can have messages automatically moved to
specific folders. So, any message with the string "imagine" in the "To"
field gets seperated from your other mail. Of course, my mail reader dosen't
do this, but it's free. I agree, it's a little clunky dealing with a bunch
of seperate messages, but I can live with it...


---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

Relax, it's all just 1's and 0's

---------------------------------


Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 19:16:54
Subject: Re: Imagine 3.0 Fonts
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Fri, 5 May 1995, Mike Vandersommen wrote:

>
> -> From: Roger Straub <[e-mail]>
> -> For either version, you can use PostScript fonts, available throughou
> -> the Internet, in shareware, or on CD-ROMs, which I use, containing ab
> -> 2000 of the suckers. Go into the Spline Editor and choose Load Font f
> -> the menu.
>
> Er...um, Imagine 2.0 didn't have a spline Editor. I believe that was
> implimented in 3.0 (if memory serves).

Doh! Didn't look at the version # before I posted that. Sorry.

>         _______________________________________________________
>       /_________________________________________________________\
>     /=============================================================\
>   =| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                |=
>   =| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] |=
>   =| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ |=
>   =|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     |=
>   =|          14.4k v.32bis 24 hours - 805-683-1388                |=
>     \_____________________________________________________________/
> ---
>  ~ InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]
>

See ya,
      Roger

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 21:14:44
Subject: Latest version of TextureStudio
From:    Andrew Dean <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In answer to :

>  What is the updated file name/size, and where did you upload it to? I checked

> wuarchive last night, and I seem to have downloaded the same version (at least
,
> the archive size was the same as before, and my menus are still blank). An
>impressive program, though!

The latest version of TextureStudio is v1.0.1 (archive size 448405 bytes)
and was uploaded to Aminet on Tuesday 2/5/95. I haven't had any new files
from Aminet for several days now, so I guess something's holding up several
days of new Aminet files. The original file was uploaded to
ftp.uni-erlangen.de and it has disappeared from the 'new' directory so
it's in the pipeline somewhere...

      As I've said before, I don't suggest using v1.0.0 of the program
as we compiled it incorrectly and it shows several strange problems.

--------
Andy Dean, co-author of ImageStudio and TextureStudio
Email: [e-mail]

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 21:16:24
Subject: Re: Latest version of TextureStudio
From:    Ian Smith <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Fri, 5 May 1995, Andrew Dean wrote:
>     As I've said before, I don't suggest using v1.0.0 of the program
> as we compiled it incorrectly and it shows several strange problems.

I just grabbed v1.0.1 out of the new/ directory and the menus are still
blank.  And I checked the About menu and yes, it was the new version.
(Executable is 191820 bytes)

--                                My Imagine Home Page - Visit!
[e-mail]               http://moose.erie.net/~iansmith


Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 21:20:11
Subject: Re: Questions
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Fri, 5 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

> I'm looking for help on the following:
>
> 1.  Is there a utility that will convert .avi files to .flc files?

Couldn't tell ya.

>
> 2.  I remember reading somewhere (which is the question) that Imagine has the
> ability to convert a bitmap to a GRAYSCALE image and then extrude it to
> different depths according to the color of gray.  Could have been a dream.

No, but Imagine 3.0+ does have the option of taking a greyscale image and
applying it to a surface, sort of like a bumpmap, but it actually deforms
the triangles. It's called Applique.

>
> 3.  A problem with states.  Instead of doing it with the rotate2 effect,
> which would be easy, I tried to rotate an object by states.  I would make the
> original object the default state, rotate the object and create another
> state.  Problem is when I went back to the default state the object stayed
> rotated.  As could be figured when animated the object didn't move.  Is there
> a requester to lock the default state to as with textures?

You can't do this. It's not right.
If you're creating states based on grouping information, you need to
create an axis and make it the parent of the entire object. Then rotate
the object (NOT the parent axis) and make states, and it will work.
Imagine just assumes that if you rotate an object that you mean for the
object to rotate and will not include that info in the state. If you move
an object within the group, then it will save it.

>
> Thank-you
>
>

See ya,
      Roger

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 21:20:11
Subject: Re: Questions
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Fri, 5 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

> I'm looking for help on the following:
>
> 1.  Is there a utility that will convert .avi files to .flc files?

Couldn't tell ya.

>
> 2.  I remember reading somewhere (which is the question) that Imagine has the
> ability to convert a bitmap to a GRAYSCALE image and then extrude it to
> different depths according to the color of gray.  Could have been a dream.

No, but Imagine 3.0+ does have the option of taking a greyscale image and
applying it to a surface, sort of like a bumpmap, but it actually deforms
the triangles. It's called Applique.

>
> 3.  A problem with states.  Instead of doing it with the rotate2 effect,
> which would be easy, I tried to rotate an object by states.  I would make the
> original object the default state, rotate the object and create another
> state.  Problem is when I went back to the default state the object stayed
> rotated.  As could be figured when animated the object didn't move.  Is there
> a requester to lock the default state to as with textures?

You can't do this. It's not right.
If you're creating states based on grouping information, you need to
create an axis and make it the parent of the entire object. Then rotate
the object (NOT the parent axis) and make states, and it will work.
Imagine just assumes that if you rotate an object that you mean for the
object to rotate and will not include that info in the state. If you move
an object within the group, then it will save it.

>
> Thank-you
>
>

See ya,
      Roger

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 21:33:16
Subject: Questions
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm looking for help on the following:

1.  Is there a utility that will convert .avi files to .flc files?

2.  I remember reading somewhere (which is the question) that Imagine has the
ability to convert a bitmap to a GRAYSCALE image and then extrude it to
different depths according to the color of gray.  Could have been a dream.

3.  A problem with states.  Instead of doing it with the rotate2 effect,
which would be easy, I tried to rotate an object by states.  I would make the
original object the default state, rotate the object and create another
state.  Problem is when I went back to the default state the object stayed
rotated.  As could be figured when animated the object didn't move.  Is there
a requester to lock the default state to as with textures?

Thank-you


Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 21:33:39
Subject: TextureStudio
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Could the nice person who managed to download the newest version from
aminet/new please re-post the exact name of the file?  I've tried every
variation I can think of for TextureStudio1.0.1.lha, but I haven't gotten
it right yet.

Thanks.

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 22:54:06
Subject: IM 3.1-3.2 Textures
From:    Marcus <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


     Hi, I have been having a certain problem with Imagine textures
working, specifically the new ones that came with 3.1 that came through
the mail. The first time I got the updates through the mail and noticed
the faulty textures(imagine reads the error message "Error: bad texture
file") I called impulse and asked them about it. They seemed to think
that it was just probally a faulty disk that they had sent me, they
agreed to send me another copy. Now I have the newer copy and the same
problem happens. Did anyone else on here have this problem or know how to
fix it. I am starting to get kind of annoyed and tired of calling
Impulse. The textures that do not seem to work are fire.itx, quilt.itx
and a couple of the ones after those that follow them on the directory.

   Thank you in advance

                                 Mark Krenz

Date:    Friday, 05 May 1995 23:55:01
Subject: Re: IML DIGEST
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>       The quantity of message on IML is very important why can't we
>switch to a DIGEST IML (compilation of all messages mail to IML during the
>Many people unsubscribe because of this! Sorting the personal mail from IML
>messages is a mess. I'm getting tired of it and many people are also tired
>of this! IML is great but the format is VERY ennoying! I don't see why we are
>stuck whith this mailing list program. It would easier to manipulate the
>messages and it would be possible to archive the DIGEST for each month etc.
>       I'm tired of receiving 30 and more messages per day! I want a DIGEST!
>What about you?

You should get yourself an offline reader like theo one I use on my amiga.
THOR 2.0 automatically removes all the mailing list messages from the mailbox,
and puts them into separate conferences. It works great.

I suppose Offline Express for the PC also has this feature.


Torge!r

Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 01:13:59
Subject: Re: PC hotkeys (Was: Ids and Imagine newsletter)
From:    Kent Marshall Worley <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
> > I have been thinking of networking my Amiga 2500 and my PC together to
> > share a drive or something.  Anyone out there have any experience with
> > this?  Ok I think thats all from me for now. DanGer
>
> You may want to e-mail Dale Larson at Intangible Assets Manufacturing,
> and ask about his book on Amiga networking. I believe it's called
> "Connect your Amiga" and sells for $25 + $8 postage and fondling, as he
> humourously puts it. I'll be getting a PC and am ordering his book
> tomorrow, since I also want seamless, peer-to-peer networking between my
> faithful Amiga and my new PC.
>
I have a amiga ethernet card and the amigatcp software. I am having
trouble making it communicate with my PC. I would like Dale Larson's
email address. PC amiga communication via ethernet would be great. I like
the rendering speed of the PC but I like the animation capabilities of
the amiga.
 [e-mail]


Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 01:35:02
Subject: Re: object speed
From:    Kent Marshall Worley <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Wed, 3 May 1995, Charles Blaquiere wrote:

> > From: Paul Rance <[e-mail]>
> >
> > Is there away to vary and object's speed a number of times
> > along a path in v3.2?
>
> Boy, I can't believe that nobody has responded to you in a month. B^(
>
> The answer is no. Using acceleration/decceleration, or using spline
> velocity, you only have control over the beginning and ending behaviour.
> You'll need to separate your path in segments, and define multiple
> "follow path" bars in the Action editor.
>
I am running into this exact limitation. I am doing an animation of cars
racing around a track. The tedium of creating all those paths for one lap
would not happen if I could create a single looped path and adjust the
speed the object follows the path.
 [e-mail]

Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 01:53:49
Subject: Objects
From:    Jeff Keena <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi guys. I am trying to get hold of some Star Trek objects. I already
have many but am still after some particually a model of DS9 station. Can
anyone help?

      Jeff.


Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 04:47:04
Subject: Impulse's address
From:    Jaco Gerber <docnet![e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


HI all,

I'm visiting the US at the mo from South Africa and I just decided to
invest in the 3d Digitiser and also to pay my first Imagine subscription,
since I have 3.1.
 My problem is I don't know how to contact Impulse at all since all my
info is back home. I'm currently in ALbany NY.... any help would be
appreciated.

Regards,
Jaco Gerber


Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 05:01:55
Subject: Re: How to make a lake on PC?
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In regards to making a lake like in Myst.  Use the Bumpnoiz texture and scale
it very large except in the Z dimension which has no effect after a certain
point.
You should keep Z fairly small.  Then add some reflectivitiy, refraction,
etc. to your own taste.  Remember, you need a nice sky to reflect  off of the
water if you are trying to create good water.  I have used this to create a
very realistic looking lake.  Bye.

Stephen


Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 05:28:08
Subject: Re: TextureStudio
From:    Ian Smith <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Fri, 5 May 1995, Mike McCool wrote:
> Could the nice person who managed to download the newest version from
> aminet/new please re-post the exact name of the file?  I've tried every
> variation I can think of for TextureStudio1.0.1.lha, but I haven't gotten
> it right yet.

Oops, sorry!  I *hate* it when somone gives only half the information.
The file is "pub/aminet/new/TextureStudio.lha".  You can grab the readme
first to make sure it is the 1.0.1 version.

If you want to make your own textures, I have the documentation on
textures from Impulse on my homepage, as well as a HTML version of their
TDDD docs.  I am having FTP related problems, so let me know if you have
any problem grabbing various files.

--                            My Imagine Home Page - Visit!
[e-mail]           http://moose.erie.net/~iansmith



Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 06:34:26
Subject: Re: Impulse's address
From:    Rodney McNeel <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Wed Apr 12 05:47:15 1995
[e-mail] Subject: Re: Gazette

> Please post the address or email address for subscribing > to the gazette.

      Impulse Inc.    8416 Xerxes Ave. N.     Brooklyn Park, Minnesota

                                                               55444  USA

      [phone]  [phone]  FAX: [phone]




Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 14:53:00
Subject: Impulse's address
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-> From: Jaco Gerber <docnet![e-mail]>-> I'm visiting the US at
 the mo from South Africa and I just decided= to-> invest in the 3d Digitiser an
d also to pay my first Imagine subscr=ipt-> since I have 3.1.->  My problem is I
 don't know how to contact Impulse at all since al=l m-> info is back home. I'm
currently in ALbany NY.... any help would b=e-> appreciated. Impulse Inc. 8416 X
erxes Ave. N. Brooklyn Park, Minnesota 55444 USA [phone] [phone] F
AX:  [phone]--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - (805)
 683-1388


Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 14:55:17
Subject: TextureStudio
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Could the nice person who managed to download the newest version from
>aminet/new please re-post the exact name of the file?  I've tried every
>variation I can think of for TextureStudio1.0.1.lha, but I haven't gotten
>it right yet.

It's the same as v1.0.0 The old version has been overwritten.

TextureStudio.lha in gfx/3d  Just got it from wuarchive today.


Torge!r

Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 15:16:00
Subject: 3.x addendums
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was trying to find the settings info on a certain texture theother day and was
 frustrated flipping through all the printouts.I was wondering if anyone has com
piled all the addendums to 3.xso far and formatted/indexed them? Since there wil
l not be a newmanual with 4.0 and I assume there will be addendums with 3.3 and4
.0 when released, it sure would be handy to have ALL the addendemsorganized by t
opics with an index for easier look up.I guess my question is, has someone done
this...or is willing todo this. And...without creating a big legal debate, could
 thiscompilation be distributed? I'd even be willing to pay for an"authorized" m
ini addendum manual if it's indexed up to 4.0.        __________________________
_____________________________      /____________________________________________
_____________\    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=
3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =|=3D  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS
  ||  [e-mail] =|=3D  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || _
_____________________________________ =|=3D  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of t
he Apocalypse play golf..."     =|=3D  =3D|          14.4k v.32bis 24 hours - 80
5-683-1388                =|=3D    \____________________________________________
_________________/--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - (805)
683-1388

Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 15:22:49
Subject: WWW Page
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


I'm in the process of getting my WWW page up, actually, some of it is already
online.  If anyone want to check it out, it's mostly a collection of a few of
my Imagine works, the URL is http://www.websharx.com/~greg

I don't have a page for any Imagine or related 3D links, this will be coming
soon.  If you have any that you want me to check out for inclusion, please let
me know either here, or send me e-mail from my page.

NOTE:  If you aren't using NetScape, you won't get the right effect, and the
Dazzle Me page won't be formatted properly.

-GreG
http://www.websharx.com/~greg


Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 16:20:57
Subject: Re: Imagine Newsgroup
From:    James Brooks <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Fri, 5 May 1995, John Grieggs wrote:

> >   I'm tired of receiving 30 and more messages per day! I want a DIGEST!
> > What about you?
> >
> I'm tired of the same thing, especially with the very large quantity of
> off-topic posts.  However, I think the correct solution is a newsgroup.
>
> The Lightwave folk did it, and it didn't kill them.  In fact, the lightwave
> newsgroup is quite popular.  Why not an Imagine newsgroup?
>


I use BOTH Lightwave Mailing List and newsgroup.  I guess it has
something to do with the "format" you are use to in sending and receiving
messages.   You are right, the newgroup did NOT kill the LW Mailing list
one bit.

It would be good to see a Imagine newgroup!  I am all for it!  :-)

Later,

Alex

---------------------------------------------------------------
James "Alex" Brooks              Amiga 4000/040/28MHz 20MB RAM
Lightwave 3.5 / Imagine 3.0      VideoToaster 4000 3.1
Syquest 3.5" 270MB             Bernoulli 90Pro
NEC 3xp Triple Speed CDROM       Warp Engine 4028
Epson ES-600C Scanner            E-Mail: [e-mail]
--------------------------------------------------------------


Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 16:24:49
Subject: Re: Tutorials! we need more of them
From:    Kent Marshall Worley <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> experiences.  I'd be happy to write a tutorial, but only to share it with
> EVERYONE.  Seems to me the whole idea of passing on informatiom is to
> inform those who don't have it. That's what the InterNet is about.
>
> We've seen one division arise with the IBM<->Amiga debate, this could start
> another one The Experienced<->The Inexperienced.
>
> Sorry if I sound completely negative, but you did ask.
>
> -- Bob
>
>   : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
>   :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :
>
 "information wants to be free"
                  -Bruce Sterling


Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 18:17:11
Subject: Re: Questions
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Fri, 5 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:
> I'm looking for help on the following:
>
> 1.  Is there a utility that will convert .avi files to .flc files?

If you're a Amiga user you can try out XanimAmiBeta4.lha. Its on Aminet
directory gfx/show and should show up in the RECENT list as soon as Wuarchive
is back.
Requirements: An Amiga with a 3.x.
Thats all. If you want to view them you'll also need a 256 color mode, either
provided by an AGA machine or one with an gfxcard. If you have a Merlin you
can directly play to the card, EGS and PicassoII is untested, should work but
since I don't have one I can't test it.

Just try: Xanim +Di8ram:test filename.avi and the whole AVI is saved as
single frames, 8bit, to ram: with a filename of 'test' and a number attached
to it. If you want 24bit use '+Di24ram:test' instead.
Get MainActor from Aminet and read in the single frames and write out a FLC
anim. Done. Ready.

Too bad if you're a PC user without access to an Amiga ;)

Greetings Joop



Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 18:52:07
Subject: Cool coolfir effect
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Gareth Qually <[e-mail]>
>
> I have been experimenting with the coolfir texture.
> Try this out if you want steam, shafts of light, smoke.

Gareth, nice! Thanks for the contribution.


Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 18:58:59
Subject: Re: Genlock button
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Darryl Lewis <[e-mail]>
>
> This is one of the best descriptions that I've read in a long time.
> Easy to read and it makes sense.

Aww shucks. B^)

> I have 3.1 , does your last line mean that this function does not work
> with my version?

I'm not sure. I believe genlock was screwed up in 2.9, fixed in 3.0,
screwed up again for good (or removed) in 3.1. I can't find the button
in either 3.1 or 3.2. (Previous versions have been removed from my hard
drive)


Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 19:04:46
Subject: Re: Questions
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>I'm looking for help on the following:
>
>1.  Is there a utility that will convert .avi files to .flc files?
>

There's a program called Video for DOS (VFD) that will convert an RLE
encoded avi to flc. The trick is, you need something to convert the avi to 8
bit if it's not already. I can do this with Adobe Priemere, but there are
other video editing programs out there that I'm sure do a better job.

You can probably find VFD (I think the latest is 1.6d) on AOL. It's a great
program that also makes fli's and avi's from a series tga's and does a great
job dithering 24 bit pictures and eliminating color banding. Check it out!

---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

Relax, it's all just 1's and 0's

---------------------------------


Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 19:14:37
Subject: Re: Imagine Documentation
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> Could anyone be so polite to give the ISBN-number of "The Imagine
> Companion" book, so i can order it over here in the Netherlands

Adri,

"The Imagine Companion" is, unfortunately, out of print. The book is
still available directly from the author, in Word 6 format. (And only in
that format) I'm sorry, but I don't have David's e-mail address. I
believe the electronic format was priced around $20, but I could be
wrong. (It was affordable is what I'm trying to say)


Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 19:24:17
Subject: IML digest--are you folks really that bored?
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Mike McCool <[e-mail]>
>
> Perhaps what people are really whining about here is all the whining
> lately on the list.

I'm not whining! It's just that these off-topic messages are giving me a
really bad migraine, you know, the kind that feels like a Mack truck is
parked on your forehead, and every little noise resonates in your skull
like Big Ben whine whine whine whine whine...

<VBG>


Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 19:25:51
Subject: TextureStudio and blank menus
From:    zceec07 <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all,
        We've just managed to run TextureStudio on a Workbench2.04
Amiga and we now see the blank menus problem (both Graham and myself
develop on Workbench3 Amigas so we haven't seen this bug before).
Do we assume therefore that everyone who is running Workbench2.x is
experiencing this, and everyone running Workbench3.x is OK? We'll
fix the problem as soon as possible. Are there any other problems
people are experiencing that we should know about, or is this the
only remaining problem?

        Many thanks for your patience and feedback as we iron out
these teething problems,

--------
Andy Dean, co-author of ImageStudio and TextureStudio
Email: [e-mail]

Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 19:27:25
Subject: Lumbient
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Ken F. Morton <[e-mail]>
>
>         Hi can this lumbient fellow be taken off the list?  I'm getting a
> bit tired of his cups.

His cups runneth over, I guess.

<grinning, ducking, & running>

Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 20:21:02
Subject: Re: Star Trek - Generations
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Fred Aderhold <[e-mail]>
>
> >I would model a ribbon and add a noise texture to affect the filter
> >parameter. This way, the center of the ribbon would be visible, trailing
> >off into invisibility at the edges. I would then add a bunch of states,
>
> Could you Charles, please explain to us newbies (well, me anyway) how
> to add a noise texture to affect the filter?

Unfortunately, I had one of the Essence textures in mind. However, there
is an Imagine texture which could work well, and that's DancSprk
(dancing sparks).

Create a primitive plane, 1 horizontal and 10 vertical sections, 50 wide
by 100 tall. In Attributes, give it a bright yellow color of 255,255,100,
filter at 255,255,255 to make it invisible, and click on Bright.
(Light-emitting objects should not be affected by shading)

Add the DancSprk texture, with branches = 2, branch width = 0.2, color =
-1, reflect = -1, filter = 0,0,0, noise 2 magnitude = .3, noise 2
velocity = 4; transform the axes to alignment = 90,0,0 (to have the
texture Z axis sticking out of the ribbon) and size = 150,250,250.

You have created a transparent ribbon with an opaque yellow wave of
energy, which can be animated. The results are fairly different from the
Generations ribbon, but have a quality of their own. Also, this is only
a starter object I created on the fly. A little experimentation could
probably improve on my design quite a bit.



Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 20:24:43
Subject: Suggestion for a project
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: gregory denby <[e-mail]>
>
> I'll bet a lot of you have become tired of Imagine's opening
> screen, and have made your own. (...) What've you folks done?

Oddly enough, nothing.

I still like the Imagine logo. It has a Middle-Eastern, Arabian Nights
flavor which brings to mind an exotic genie endowded with magical
powers asking, "How may I serve you?"

I like your idea, though. Personally, I'm a logo freak. Can't get enough
of them. Love the beauty of a well-designed font. Looking forward to see
how others respond to the thread.


Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 20:30:18
Subject: TIP #0001, Ummm...Water.
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
>
> I've tried to use the mnttop texture to get whitecaps but I'm not sure
> how to use the texture.

I don't think it will work. MntnTop adds another color to any part of
an object which sticks out, above the texture's zero Z level. For this
to work, your object mush have actual bumps and valleys, like a modelled
mountain.

Bump-mapping and bump textures do not modify the geometry of the object;
they simply add highlights and shadows as if the object _were_ bumpy.
Your lake would still remain a flat plane, with no points to stick out
for MntnTop to color.



Date:    Saturday, 06 May 1995 20:49:04
Subject: TIP #0001, Ummm...Water.
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi the person that posted the question about creating a realistic lake in
Imagine should read this.
Color: 0, 255, 255
Reflect: 100, 120, 140
Filter:0, 0, 0  ::Unless you want it!::
Specular:255, 255, 255
Dither:?
Hardness:128-255  ::whatever you like::
Roughness:0  ::though 20 looks OK too::
Shinyness:0

Then add the bumpnoiz.itx texture.
LEFT SIDE                        RIGHT SIDE
100.0000                           All= 0.0000
20.0000
10.0000
0.0000
0.6000
0.0000
0.2000
I think theres 8 in a side of the texture box?

The bumps look elongated and are more random than waves.  I've tried to use
the mnttop texture to get whitecaps but I'm not sure how to use the texture.
 If anyone has additions(or usage of mnttop) please write.

                                               ----Lumbient

Date:    Sunday, 07 May 1995 04:18:18
Subject: Re: Star Trek - Generations
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> Could you Charles, please explain to us newbies (well, me anyway) how
>> to add a noise texture to affect the filter?
>
>Unfortunately, I had one of the Essence textures in mind. However, there
>is an Imagine texture which could work well, and that's DancSprk
>(dancing sparks).

Thanks! Very helpful, as usual...

Perhaps I misunderstood what you had in mind with the Essence texture.
Is it possible to use a texture as a filter map?

---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

Relax, it's all just 1's and 0's

---------------------------------


Date:    Sunday, 07 May 1995 04:56:30
Subject: Re: WHAT THE F*CK....
From:    Rodney McNeel <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Looks like Ian_Dunn? and others are doing a stupid thing to prove THEIR
point-of-view. I, for one, apreciate any and all examples, tutorials,
ideas, etc. people want to share with the world. Put me on your mailing
list of things your slightly proud of :)  I think we SHOULD start up an
Imagine newsgroup for binaries (pics) just so we have yet another place
to see the results of our imaginations!


On Sat, 6 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

> I don't know but i've checked the addresses the mail (my damn cups!!!!) seem
> to be coming from other peoples mail systems!!
> It's not my fault I'v sent them only once!!!  Please, perhaps the runner of
> the IML knows whats going on????  Sorry.
>
> ::sigh:: never seem to do anything right :*(
>
>                                               ----Lumbient
>

Date:    Sunday, 07 May 1995 08:37:06
Subject: Re: Tutorials! we need more of them
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Great Idea. What about a comp for renders and anims. There doesn't
necessarily have to be any monetry prizes, just fame 8-)
I have been using imagine for around 6 months, and I really enjoy seeing
magazines that showcase top class graphics. It gives me something to aim for.
It certainly would be good to see the iml being used for imagine instead
of compuwars.


.... Generating 36.75% complete ...

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##   YYY   RRR RRR  OOO  OOO DDD DDD  ##
##   YYY   RRR  RRR  OOOOOO  DDDDDD   ##
##        [e-mail]         ##
##       A2000/030 FPU 4MB &-(        ##
## GeneralProtectionFaultFreeZone 8-) ##
########################################


Date:    Sunday, 07 May 1995 11:15:28
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    Darren Priestnall <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is anyone reading and acting on the Imagine requests ?
I've requested a number of times to be unsubscribed and I'm still
getting mail :(

Does anyone know where I can get hold of the Realize package ?
It's a software package for converting the Imagine/Essence texture's
into Real3D procedural textures.........I don't know how well it
work's...yet.



--
~===========================================================================~
 Darren Priestnall - [e-mail] (PandGImaging)
Connecting via Demon Internet, Finchley, London, N3 1TT. Tel: [phone]
-- Full IP Connectivity for a 10 UKP per month - no usage/online fees!! --

Date:    Sunday, 07 May 1995 12:22:54
Subject: Re: Imagine Documentation
From:    Kelly Computer Consultants <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last I checked, you could reach David Duberman at Morph's Outpost,
[e-mail], or 510-704-7104.

On Sat, 6 May 1995, Charles Blaquiere wrote:
> > From: [e-mail]
> >
> > Could anyone be so polite to give the ISBN-number of "The Imagine
> > Companion" book, so i can order it over here in the Netherlands
>
> Adri,
>
> "The Imagine Companion" is, unfortunately, out of print. The book is
> still available directly from the author, in Word 6 format. (And only in
> that format) I'm sorry, but I don't have David's e-mail address. I
> believe the electronic format was priced around $20, but I could be
> wrong. (It was affordable is what I'm trying to say)
>

Date:    Sunday, 07 May 1995 12:26:57
Subject: Re: Imagine Documentation
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Charles,

> > Could anyone be so polite to give the ISBN-number of "The Imagine
> > Companion" book, so i can order it over here in the Netherlands

> "The Imagine Companion" is, unfortunately, out of print. The book is
> still available directly from the author, in Word 6 format. (And only in
> that format) I'm sorry, but I don't have David's e-mail address. I
> believe the electronic format was priced around $20, but I could be
> wrong. (It was affordable is what I'm trying to say)

Could you give me the complete title and author of the book.

Is ther anybody in the ist that knows the E-Mail address of this
author ?
----------------------------------------------------------
Real life  : Adri Mathlener
E-Mail     : [e-mail]
----------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Sunday, 07 May 1995 13:35:36
Subject: Re: Star Trek - Generations
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
> Perhaps I misunderstood what you had in mind with the Essence texture.
> Is it possible to use a texture as a filter map?

      Only if the procedural texture you want to use supports filter mapping
as one of its variables. EssenceI, however, used to have texture, called
"Swapcrf", designed to "rotate" the variables of another texture so that the
other texture could support various types of mapping aside from the types
originally programmed into the texture.
      For instance, Essence's "Bozo" texture only affects color values. Yet,
you can use the Essence texture "Swapcrf" to change the affected mapping to
filter or reflect. Hierarchically, "Swapcrf" would be placed after the texture
you want to alter, in this case "Bozo" first, "Swapcrf" second.
      If you've got EssenceI you're all set. If you don't there may be a PD
texture that can do this, but I don't know...
      Hope it helps...

                                                              Jeff-->

E-Mail: [e-mail]






Date:    Sunday, 07 May 1995 13:48:02
Subject: Re:WINE
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

VT (ViewTek) will also load as much of the corrupt file as possible then
you get some lovely green noise 8-)


########################################
## YYY YYY RRRRRRR   OOOOOO  DDDDDD   ##
## YYY YYY RRR  RRR OOO  OOO DDD DDD  ##
## YYYYYYY RRRRRRR  OOO  OOO DDD  DDD ##
##   YYY   RRR RRR  OOO  OOO DDD DDD  ##
##   YYY   RRR  RRR  OOOOOO  DDDDDD   ##
##        [e-mail]         ##
##       A2000/030 FPU 4MB &-(        ##
## GeneralProtectionFaultFreeZone 8-) ##
########################################


Date:    Sunday, 07 May 1995 15:50:53
Subject: Re: Star Trek - Generations
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Sun, 7 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

> >
> > Perhaps I misunderstood what you had in mind with the Essence texture.
> > Is it possible to use a texture as a filter map?


Actually, it is. You can use the "Transpar" texture included with 3.0+ to
convert all of the color values currently on the object to filter values.
Read the Transpar entry in the textures text file that came with Imagine.

See ya,
      Roger

Date:    Sunday, 07 May 1995 16:06:55
Subject: TextureStudio
From:    pducker@158.152.11.158


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In reply to Andy Deans question I can confirm that TextureStudio runs just
fine on my 4000/030. I was so impressed I mailed the registration fee the
same day. BTW, ImageStudio is great as well.


-------------------------------------------------
Peter Ducker
Weymouth, Dorset, UK

Internet:   [e-mail]
CompuServe: [e-mail]


Date:    Sunday, 07 May 1995 23:38:49
Subject: Re: Suggestion for a project
From:    James Brooks <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 8 May 1995, Jeff Keena wrote:

> On Sat, 6 May 1995, Charles Blaquiere wrote:
>
> > Date: Sat, 6 May 1995 19:24:43 -0400 (EDT)
> > From: Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>
> > To: [e-mail]
> > Subject: Suggestion for a project
> >
> > > From: gregory denby <[e-mail]>
> > >
> > > I'll bet a lot of you have become tired of Imagine's opening
> > > screen, and have made your own. (...) What've you folks done?
> >
> > Oddly enough, nothing.
> >
> > I still like the Imagine logo. It has a Middle-Eastern, Arabian Nights
> > flavor which brings to mind an exotic genie endowded with magical
> > powers asking, "How may I serve you?"
> >
> > I like your idea, though. Personally, I'm a logo freak. Can't get enough
> > of them. Love the beauty of a well-designed font. Looking forward to see
> > how others respond to the thread.
> >
> >
>
> Simple reply. Deleted the file 8-)
> One less thing to fragmet memory.

If I am not mistaken, Imagine will not load without having some kind of
pix as the intro.  At least that was the way back with version 2.0

Just my 2 1/5 cents.

Alex

---------------------------------------------------------------
James "Alex" Brooks              Amiga 4000/040/28MHz 20MB RAM
Lightwave 3.5 / Imagine 3.0      VideoToaster 4000 3.1
Syquest 3.5" 270MB             Bernoulli 90Pro
NEC 3xp Triple Speed CDROM       Warp Engine 4028
Epson ES-600C Scanner            E-Mail: [e-mail]
--------------------------------------------------------------


Date:    Monday, 08 May 1995 01:02:12
Subject: Re: Suggestion for a project
From:    Jeff Keena <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sat, 6 May 1995, Charles Blaquiere wrote:

> Date: Sat, 6 May 1995 19:24:43 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>
> To: [e-mail]
> Subject: Suggestion for a project
>
> > From: gregory denby <[e-mail]>
> >
> > I'll bet a lot of you have become tired of Imagine's opening
> > screen, and have made your own. (...) What've you folks done?
>
> Oddly enough, nothing.
>
> I still like the Imagine logo. It has a Middle-Eastern, Arabian Nights
> flavor which brings to mind an exotic genie endowded with magical
> powers asking, "How may I serve you?"
>
> I like your idea, though. Personally, I'm a logo freak. Can't get enough
> of them. Love the beauty of a well-designed font. Looking forward to see
> how others respond to the thread.
>
>

Simple reply. Deleted the file 8-)
One less thing to fragmet memory.

      Jeff.


Date:    Monday, 08 May 1995 01:43:27
Subject: Re: Suggestion for a project
From:    Rodney McNeel <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I for one just added  "Rodney's Imgination" in similar font. :)


Date:    Monday, 08 May 1995 04:51:32
Subject: Re: Star Trek - Generations
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> > Perhaps I misunderstood what you had in mind with the Essence texture.
>> > Is it possible to use a texture as a filter map?
>
>
>Actually, it is. You can use the "Transpar" texture included with 3.0+ to
>convert all of the color values currently on the object to filter values.
>Read the Transpar entry in the textures text file that came with Imagine.
>
>See ya,
>     Roger
>

Read the docs??? Read the the docs??? Are you kidding, I might learn
something that way!

Thanks for the info... :)

---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

Relax, it's all just 1's and 0's

---------------------------------


Date:    Monday, 08 May 1995 07:23:07
Subject: Re: Suggestion for a project
From:    James Brooks <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 8 May 1995, Rodney McNeel wrote:

> I for one just added  "Rodney's Imgination" in similar font. :)
>

Hmm, that's not bad!  :-)

I guess I NEED to personalize my intro screen on Imagine as well.

Have to think of something that will catch the eye.


Alex

---------------------------------------------------------------
James "Alex" Brooks              Amiga 4000/040/28MHz 20MB RAM
Lightwave 3.5 / Imagine 3.0      VideoToaster 4000 3.1
Syquest 3.5" 270MB             Bernoulli 90Pro
NEC 3xp Triple Speed CDROM       Warp Engine 4028
Epson ES-600C Scanner            E-Mail: [e-mail]
--------------------------------------------------------------


Date:    Monday, 08 May 1995 07:23:07
Subject: Re: Suggestion for a project
From:    James Brooks <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 8 May 1995, Rodney McNeel wrote:

> I for one just added  "Rodney's Imgination" in similar font. :)
>

Hmm, that's not bad!  :-)

I guess I NEED to personalize my intro screen on Imagine as well.

Have to think of something that will catch the eye.


Alex

---------------------------------------------------------------
James "Alex" Brooks              Amiga 4000/040/28MHz 20MB RAM
Lightwave 3.5 / Imagine 3.0      VideoToaster 4000 3.1
Syquest 3.5" 270MB             Bernoulli 90Pro
NEC 3xp Triple Speed CDROM       Warp Engine 4028
Epson ES-600C Scanner            E-Mail: [e-mail]
--------------------------------------------------------------


Date:    Monday, 08 May 1995 12:17:10
Subject: Re: Morphing
From:    Marty Nussbaum <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks Charles,
      What I ended up doing was using the size bar in the Action Ed. Something
that was so simple that I overlooked it.

On Wed, 3 May 1995, Charles Blaquiere wrote:

> You may have fallen victim to the common affliction known as "spline
> sickness", where Imagine, rather than take a simple path from A to B,
> makes a wild curve to one side. (I'm talking about a path in the widest
> sense possible: not a spatial path, but just the act of morphing a value
> from A to B) Try activating the "discontinuous knot" button, to warn
> Imagine that it shouldn't attempt to smooth this morph segment with the
> next, since there is no next segment. (Does that make sense?)
>
>


              Marty

              ***************         _ _ /|
              *    ACK!!    *         \'o.O'
              *  Hairball!  *         =(___)=
              ***************            U



Date:    Monday, 08 May 1995 12:27:04
Subject: Re: Imagine Newsgroup
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>    I'm tired of receiving 30 and more messages per day! I want a DIGEST!
>> What about you?

>I'm tired of the same thing, especially with the very large quantity of
>off-topic posts.  However, I think the correct solution is a newsgroup.

I think the off-topic-messages have decreased in number, haven't they?

>The Lightwave folk did it, and it didn't kill them.  In fact, the lightwav=
e
>newsgroup is quite popular.  Why not an Imagine newsgroup?

OK, maybe. If the IML won't suffer from it.
Because I have access to email, but not always to news, so I would miss
things if all of it came by news...

I would prefer a digest-IML.
The only thing we need is someone to moderate it.

*---------------------------------------------------------------*
|   Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |
|   Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |
|   Sweden           |   [e-mail]              |
*---------------------------------------------------------------*

Date:    Monday, 08 May 1995 12:37:44
Subject: Re: WHAT THE F*CK....
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> I think we SHOULD start up an
> Imagine newsgroup for binaries (pics) just so we have yet another place
> to see the results of our imaginations!

Now _this_ is an idea!

*---------------------------------------------------------------*
|   Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |
|   Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |
|   Sweden           |   [e-mail]              |
*---------------------------------------------------------------*

Date:    Monday, 08 May 1995 14:01:16
Subject: Re: Glass
From:    [e-mail] (Milan Polle)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all,

I posted earlier about this, but it seems to have passed by some people.
The glass texture doesn't use the camera/object angle, it calculates
the thickness of every two layers of glass for every ray.
Then it modifies the second layer's attributes (that is where there is
another bug, I didn't think of making the first layer completely transparant)
The buggy faces (well I don't think they are faces, just triangular artifacts
due to the faceted nature of the object) occurr perpendicular to a shadow
casting lightsource (without shadowcasting the problem is gone).
Also the artifacts only seem to show up on objects with high detail.
Now the reason for the artifacts seems to be that the rays behave differently
for calculating shadows (more rays are traced). I will have to see if I can
filter out the right rays in order to remove the bug, but I haven't
succeeded yet.
Updates will be sent out as soon as I find out how to make an alias for
all the people who requested my textures.

BTW: I wouldn't like a newsgroup instead of a mailinglist; I don't have
access to newsgroups. Also I don't want the whole list in one mail,
it would be very inconvenient to send out textures to people requesting
them this way.

Oh jeah, I am currently working on a 'lumbient' texture; it will map
uuencoded pictures of cups onto any object, but will take a long time
and lots of memory to render :)

Let your imagination run wild,

Milan


Date:    Monday, 08 May 1995 15:48:32
Subject: Rendering Prices?
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi, I was just wondering how much to charge someone for a render?
Should I work it out by the hour, the resoloution or what. Charging by
the hour might be too expensive as my machine isn't that quick, certainly
not as quick as a pentium.
Any ideas?
BTW, am I allowed to ask questions of a commercial nature to this list?
Appologies if I am not...


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##   YYY   RRR RRR  OOO  OOO DDD DDD  ##
##   YYY   RRR  RRR  OOOOOO  DDDDDD   ##
##        [e-mail]         ##
##       A2000/030 FPU 4MB &-(        ##
## GeneralProtectionFaultFreeZone 8-) ##
########################################


Date:    Monday, 08 May 1995 16:00:35
Subject: IMLarc60+61 text & guide format on Aminet
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello IML,

Umm, do I need to explain or is the Subject: line enough.

For those that can't wait 'til the archives show up in the RECENT list here
is some important information:
Upload site: ftp.luth.se
Directory:   pub/aminet/new
Names:       IMLarc60.lha        ~140KB
             IMLarc60guide.lha   ~160KB
             IMLarc61.lha        ~160KB
             IMLarc61guide.lha   ~175KB
             +readme's ofcourse.

Enjoy your reading.

Thanks to all who responded on my question for mail I lost from 20-03 to 14-
05.

Greetings Joop

Date:    Monday, 08 May 1995 16:56:45
Subject: Re: Apex (was Yo- Kelly)
From:    "Glenn M. Lewis - MPG DA ~" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


>>>>> "Sam" == WALKER, SAM <[e-mail]> writes:
Sam> New news, on the Imagine mailing list (same friend), it turns
Sam> out that Apex is not out of business, just cut way back (to
Sam> something like two people). They announced they will be
Sam> releasing a PC version of Essence this year (I think it was
Sam> around the end of summer).

Hi, all.

      I didn't Realize (:-) that Apex Software Publishing was
suspected of being out of business.  :-)  Nope, we are all still
here, healthy and happy.  Charles Congdon has done some impressive
work with Real3D plugins, Steve Worley is extremely busy as usual,
and I'm just kind of hacking away as usual.  :-)  I'll send this to
the Imagine mailing list as well just to keep them up-to-date, since
I am not on that list anymore.  Sorry if people don't like me posting
to two "competitive" mailing lists... maybe you should send replies
directly to me instead of both lists.

      Yep, we are all hoping that Essence PC will hit the market
Real Soon Now.  I'm afraid I can't give a definite date... Steve has
control over this one.

      Oh, and I never have and never will speak officially for Apex
Software Publishing... Steve is the President and CEO, so his words
are the only official ones.  Heck, I don't speak for Intel either.
At times I can get rather opinionated though.  :-)

      Check out ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/gl/glewis/similar.html and
let me know if you would like me to add Real3D file support to those
utilities, and I'll check into how difficult that will be if there is
enough interest.  Imagine support is already in there.

      Yeah, I know that access to Netcom's ftp is really a pain in
the rear.  Please keep trying, though, and you should be able to get
through eventually.  :-(

                                              -- Glenn Lewis

Glenn Lewis | [e-mail] | These are my opinions...not Intel's
<URL:ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/gl/glewis/index.html>
GCS/E:d,H,s++:++,!g,p?,au+,a28,w,v-,C++,UL++++,UV++,P+++,L++,N+,E++,!W,M-,
      V-,po+,!t,!5,!j,!R,G?,tv--,b+,D--,B,e+++,u+,h----,f+,r+++,!n,y++++

Date:    Monday, 08 May 1995 22:08:57
Subject: RSDP settings
From:    "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been trying to make a forest of trees using a bitmap of a tree mapped
onto a plane, and black/white image of the same tree as a transparency map.
The plane is cloned several times and rotated around it's z axis so you get
sort of a 3d tree. I've also made each of the planes bright which seems to
make the individual planes less noticable when rendering. Anyway my problem
is when rendering the trees in the foreground look ok, but the trees in the
background don't. The plane of the trees in the background turn out black.
So I've read that you can increase the RSDP setting to reduce this problem,
but it's still there, although to a lesser degree. I've reduced the number
of trees in the background to get rid of this problem, but it's not very
much of a forest, and not a very good solution.


Date:    Monday, 08 May 1995 23:40:29
Subject: Re: rendering price.
From:    El Guapo! <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been trying to figure out what to bill for rendering too.
If I bill at the regular firm rate for all the hours I spend it
would blow the project budget.  But, I don't want to under sell
the work...

The best I've come up with is to compare what I've been doing to
the traditional alternative -- watercolor. ( I've been doing
architectural rendering).  From what I've seen the Top name
watercolor renderers arround here get anywhere from $1500 - $4000
for a rendering (depending on how much work they have to do).
I figure if I provide a fully developed rendering printed out
on an iris printer, for just under what a watercolor version would
cost, the client shouldn't choke (shouldn't being the key word).

Cris. {[e-mail]}


Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 00:57:02
Subject: Rendering Prices?
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> Hi, I was just wondering how much to charge someone for a render?
> Should I work it out by the hour, the resoloution or what. Charging by
> the hour might be too expensive as my machine isn't that quick, certainly
> not as quick as a pentium.

People normally charge by the frame; I myself would charge by the hour,
given the wide differences in render times between projects. Your rates
might seem reasonable, until someone dumps a ray-traced animation with
Resolve Depth set to 16...

When charging by the hour, what counts is the class of machine you have:
25 MHz '030? 40 MHz '040? 486 DX2/66? Pentium 100? I'm sure others will
pipe in with their rates, and hopefully they'll include such details to
help us sort out how much we should charge.

I'll start. I know someone who computes their render time, on a 25 MHz
'040 Amiga, at $15 CDN ($11 US) an hour. This is his internal figure,
used to construct bids; this is not the figure the client would see, if
they asked for a breakdown between creation time and render time.

> BTW, am I allowed to ask questions of a commercial nature to this list?

This list is dedicated to the exchange of information between Imagine
users, and that includes commercially-related questions such as the
ever-popular "how do I charge?" An example of commercially-related
material which would be less acceptable, would be an _advertisement_ for
an item or service for sale. (There are classified newsgroups and
mailing lists for that purpose)

So don't worry. How you present yourself on the Net, as in the real
world, accounts for much, and your polite query was certainly
well-received by this reader. Your initial message was, how shall I put
it, politely paranoid <grin> and that's always a safe attitude to have
when entering a new domain.

Welcome to the List.


Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 01:01:58
Subject: RSDP settings
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail] <[e-mail]>
>
>
> I've been trying to make a forest of trees using a bitmap of a tree
> mapped onto a plane, and black/white image of the same tree as a
> transparency map. (...) Anyway my problem is (...) The plane of the trees
> in the background turn out black.  So I've read that you can increase the
> RSDP setting to reduce this problem, but it's still there, although to a
> lesser degree. I've reduced the number of trees in the background to get
> rid of this problem, but it's not very much of a forest, and not a very
> good solution.

Sorry, that's all you can do. RDSP is precisely the parameter which
tells Imagine how many layers of transparency/refraction/reflection to
compute before giving up. You'll simply have to pump RDSP up to the
maximum number of layers a light ray is expected to go through; if each
tree is made up of 2 planes at right angles with each other, a light ray
could pass through both planes on its way to the background; so, if you
have 10 rows of trees, you'll need to set RDSP to 20. (Or 21, perhaps)



Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 01:12:00
Subject: Re: Star Trek - Generations
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Fred Aderhold <[e-mail]>
>
> Perhaps I misunderstood what you had in mind with the Essence texture.
> Is it possible to use a texture as a filter map?

Some textures are hard-coded to only affect one attribute, such as
color, while others may affect color, filter, and/or reflect. For
example, you could use Dots on a plane to force opaque dots on an
otherwise transparent plane. The base filter value of the plane could be
255,255,255, and the filter value of the Dots texture 0,0,128. The
texture would modify the filter value of the object where it was
applied. Noise-type textures could have a variable effect depending on
the strength of the fractal algorithm at any point.

Essence has some noise textures which apply a noisy transition border
between the base object attributes and the texture attributes. Such a
wispy border would be perfect for an "energy ribbon" effect, mapping a
visible ribbon onto an otherwise transparent plane object. In case you
didn't have Essence, I approximated the effect using Imagine's Dancing
Sparks texture.

So yes, you can vary an object's filter attributes using a texture,
although the wording you use ("use a texture as a filter map") is a bit
misleading. The texture is used as a texture, not as a brushmap, but I
assume you meant the end effect obtained, not the specific method used.

Of course, you may want to use a texture as a <xxx> map. If you're not
going to zoom in close to the object, and the texture is a complicated
one to compute, you may want to avoid having to re-calculate the texture
in each frame, and replace the texture with a brushmap stand-in. I do
this all the time on my Amiga 3000, as the 25 MHz '030 is too slow to
calculate textures when rendering an entire animation. Simply apply the
texture to a Bright plane, position the plane perpendicular to the
camera, zoom in to fill the Perspective view, and do a full-resolution
Quickrender. The resulting image can be applied as a brushmap. (Is
_this_ what you actually were asking about?)


Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 01:48:59
Subject: Re: WHAT THE F*CK....
From:    Jeff Keena <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sun, 7 May 1995, Rodney McNeel wrote:

> Date: Sun, 7 May 1995 03:56:30 -0500 (CDT)
> From: Rodney McNeel <[e-mail]>
> To: [e-mail]
> Cc: [e-mail]
> Subject: Re: WHAT THE F*CK....
>
> Looks like Ian_Dunn? and others are doing a stupid thing to prove THEIR
> point-of-view. I, for one, apreciate any and all examples, tutorials,
> ideas, etc. people want to share with the world. Put me on your mailing
> list of things your slightly proud of :)  I think we SHOULD start up an
> Imagine newsgroup for binaries (pics) just so we have yet another place
> to see the results of our imaginations!
>
>
> On Sat, 6 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:
>
> > I don't know but i've checked the addresses the mail (my damn cups!!!!) seem

> > to be coming from other peoples mail systems!!
> > It's not my fault I'v sent them only once!!!  Please, perhaps the runner of
> > the IML knows whats going on????  Sorry.
> >
> > ::sigh:: never seem to do anything right :*(
> >
> >                                               ----Lumbient
> >
>

While were talking about setting up newsgroups etc. what about one for
objects?

      Jeff.


Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 03:10:57
Subject: Coolfir effect cool!
From:    [e-mail] (John Prusinski)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gareth,
Just wanted to note that I tried your coolfir steam effect
on a cup of coffee (sorry, I know cups are a sore subject
on this list of late) and it works perfectly!
One note: for this purpose, at least, rotating the Z axis
for the animation caused an undesirable "pumping"
effect in the looping .flc; moving along the X and Y axes,
as you suggested, however, worked fine, particularly as
long as the center of the axis remained within the borders
of the elongated egg shape I used for the steam.

Thanks for the tip!

John Prusinski
________________________________________________
|  "The next great step toward a planetary holism is a     |
|    partial merging of the technologically transformed    |
|    human world with the archaic matrix of vegetable     |
|    intelligence that is the Overmind of the planet."        |
|                                                    -Terence McKenna         |
|_______________________________________________|


Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 07:21:23
Subject: Re: RSDP settings
From:    "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Tue, 9 May 1995 00:01:58 -0400 (EDT),
Charles Blaquiere  <[e-mail]> wrote:

>> From: [e-mail] <[e-mail]>
>>
>>
>> I've been trying to make a forest of trees using a bitmap of a tree
>> mapped onto a plane, and black/white image of the same tree as a
>> transparency map. (...) Anyway my problem is (...) The plane of the trees
>> in the background turn out black.  So I've read that you can increase the
>> RSDP setting to reduce this problem, but it's still there, although to a
>> lesser degree. I've reduced the number of trees in the background to get
>> rid of this problem, but it's not very much of a forest, and not a very
>> good solution.
>
>Sorry, that's all you can do. RDSP is precisely the parameter which
>tells Imagine how many layers of transparency/refraction/reflection to
>compute before giving up. You'll simply have to pump RDSP up to the
>maximum number of layers a light ray is expected to go through; if each
>tree is made up of 2 planes at right angles with each other, a light ray
>could pass through both planes on its way to the background; so, if you
>have 10 rows of trees, you'll need to set RDSP to 20. (Or 21, perhaps)
>
This makes much more sense now. But I've found the maximum setting for RDSP
is 16. I can understand this limitation for refraction, but for
transparency it doesn't really take that long to render (at least at 16).
It seems my only solution is to keep the camera up above the trees, and to
space the trees out sparsely so as to not pass through so many planes.


Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 11:09:55
Subject: Re[2]: Newsgroup ? TempStorage
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> > newsgroup is quite popular.  Why not an Imagine newsgroup?

Every year about this time, the same topic comes up.  I think this has occurred

for the last two years, not including this year.  People complain about wasted
bandwidth, off-topic discussions and the like, but isn't this more of the same?

People should also realize that this list exists because of the grace of a few
individuals and one company that isn't doing so well - Unisys.  Should any one
of those parties decide that the list is too much effort, we could all be out in

the cold.  I'm not saying that change isn't good, but beggers can't be choosers.

So unless someone out there is willing to take charge and implement the news
group, let's get back to our regularly scheduled program - Imagine.

-Scott
[e-mail]

P.S. If you do want to implement the news group, please talk to Dave Wickard
first!


Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 11:33:59
Subject: Re: Newsgroup ? TempStorage
From:    Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi.
> > newsgroup is quite popular.  Why not an Imagine newsgroup?
>
> It would be good to see a Imagine newgroup!  I am all for it!  :-)
>
I don't know how feasible this would be, but I wish we had
access to some kind of temporary storage area where we
could send files such as pictures, objects, etc. which
relate to our postings on the IML, but don't merit being
uploaded to Aminet or whatever. Then we could refer to them
in our postings by filename,(e.g. see cups.jpg) and those
who don't want them, don't get them. If this was defined
as strictly temporary, then anything over (say) 14 days
old would be automatically deleted, and we won't end up
with loads of irrelevant stuff cluttering it up.

   It would be nice to be able to say, for example,

I get this funny effect when I use Fog <see davesfog.jpg>

rather than having to try and explain it in words, or
god forbid, uuencode it and make everyone have it.

I'm not sure how making a newsgroup would help, I don't
use one at the moment, (every time I tried to get news, my
server said it was too busy, that's EVERY time) but I think
they've got it sorted now, so could someone explain how
things would be different ? Doesn't a newsreader get all
the postings to it just like mail anyway, or do some
people intend to <kill> poor old lumbient and his legendary
cups ?



--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 14:20:09
Subject: Re: IM 3.1-3.2 Textures
From:    Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Mark
>      Hi, I have been having a certain problem with Imagine textures
> working, specifically the new ones that came with 3.1 that came through

   Erm.. kick me if I'm being too obvious here, but have you got an FPU,
or are you using the integer version of imagine ? I understand that the
textures need the FPU to work, but as you can use some of them, I may be
barking up the wrong tree, unless some of them work without one.
   Have you got enough RAM also ?
   Woof woof
   Dave


--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 14:28:33
Subject: Re: Glass etc
From:    Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Oh jeah, I am currently working on a 'lumbient' texture; it will map
> uuencoded pictures of cups onto any object, but will take a long time
> and lots of memory to render :)

....And presumably we'll have no control over the number of times it repeats
itself over the object ?....


--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 14:39:41
Subject: Texturemapping
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey y'all,

      Creating a worm object, using extrude along a path option, I'm
having trouble with my texturemapping.

      Probably something obvious, but I'm not seeing it.  When I map a
texture, say bumpnois, to the object, it looks great on the object itself,
before I've extruded it.

      But once the object is extruded along its path into an actual
worm, the texturemap is only applied at the TIP of the worm, and not
along its entire length.

      (I don't think it's a bug, but a dweebish phenomenon in the brain
of the user).

Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 15:32:59
Subject: PC Imagine: Hardware Incompatibilities?
From:    Trin Yuthasastrackosol <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are there any known x0x86 hardware incompatibilities with vers. 2.0 of
Imagine? I have tried to run it on a Blue Lightning 486SLC/100 with a
Cyrix Co-pro and it always reboots my machine.
I've also tried the imagine /noxms flag to no avail.
Any help in this regard would be greatly appreciated!


Trin Dominic Yuthasastrakosol         |A great many people think they are
Dept. Pharmacology and Therapeutics   |thinking when they are merely
University of Manitoba                        |rearranging their prejudices.
A5002MbChip1MbFastSupraturbo28GVPII354Mb| -William James


Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 15:36:00
Subject: Moving ground
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does anyone know the rule of thumb or formula for animating a groundobject to gi
ve the illusion of perpetual movement in one direction oranother? What I mean is
, if I have a textured or brushmapped ground a=ndI want it to look as though it
is moving ...say from left to rightthroughout the animation smoothly. I've seen
this illusion mostly wit=hwalking type objects and was wondering if there is an
easy way to do =itso it cycles seemlessly.Thanks for any info...        ________
_______________________________________________      /__________________________
_______________________________\    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3
D=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\  =3D| Mike van d
er Sommen ||  Email:                                =|=3D  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS
    ||  [e-mail] =|=3D  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  ||
 ______________________________________ =|=3D  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =|=3D  =3D|          14.4k v.3
2bis 24 hours - 805-683-1388                =|=3D    \__________________________
___________________________________/--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Ba
rbara, Ca - [phone]

Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 16:00:53
Subject: Re: RSDP settings
From:    Dylan Neill <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 8 May 1995, [e-mail] wrote:

> I've been trying to make a forest of trees using a bitmap of a tree mapped
> onto a plane, and black/white image of the same tree as a transparency map.
> The plane is cloned several times and rotated around it's z axis so you get
> sort of a 3d tree. I've also made each of the planes bright which seems to
> make the individual planes less noticable when rendering. Anyway my problem
> is when rendering the trees in the foreground look ok, but the trees in the
> background don't. The plane of the trees in the background turn out black.
> So I've read that you can increase the RSDP setting to reduce this problem,
> but it's still there, although to a lesser degree. I've reduced the number
> of trees in the background to get rid of this problem, but it's not very
> much of a forest, and not a very good solution.
>
>

Try changing the Use Old Anti-Alias? in the prefs to T.

I've also noticed strange behaviour with Imagine when using a lot of
bright objects (like big black lines down the side of the picture) try
turning off some (or all) of the bright trees (like that ones in the
distance or ones near a light.

---
                               |\ /|
                                o O
  ________________________oOO_=( ^ )=_OOo___________________________
 |                        '''     U   '''                           |
 | Gumby Death Man (Dylan Neill) Amiga 1200/6/120  486DX2-66/24/500 |
 | Email: [e-mail]   WWW: http://www.pcug.org.au/~dylann/ |
 |__________________________________________________________________|


Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 17:26:15
Subject: Re: RSDP settings
From:    [e-mail] (Gary Beeton, [e-mail])


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> I've been trying to make a forest of trees using a bitmap of a tree mapped
> onto a plane, and black/white image of the same tree as a transparency map.
> The plane is cloned several times and rotated around it's z axis so you get
> sort of a 3d tree. I've also made each of the planes bright which seems to
> make the individual planes less noticable when rendering. Anyway my problem
> is when rendering the trees in the foreground look ok, but the trees in the
> background don't. The plane of the trees in the background turn out black.
> So I've read that you can increase the RSDP setting to reduce this problem,
> but it's still there, although to a lesser degree. I've reduced the number
> of trees in the background to get rid of this problem, but it's not very
> much of a forest, and not a very good solution.


You might be able to side-step the problem by using tree shaped "planes"
instead of rectangular ones.

Gary Beeton
[e-mail]

Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 19:04:06
Subject: Re: IM 3.1-3.2 Textures
From:    Marcus <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


>    Erm.. kick me if I'm being too obvious here, but have you got an FPU,
> or are you using the integer version of imagine ? I understand that the
> textures need the FPU to work, but as you can use some of them, I may be
> barking up the wrong tree, unless some of them work without one.
>    Have you got enough RAM also ?
>    Woof woof
>    Dave


     Well, I'm not sure whether you know this but, not every-one uses the
Amiga version of Imagine, I own an Amiga(and once used Imagine on it) but
I now use Imagine on my Pentium-90MHz system with 8MB RAM, I would think
that this would not be a problem. Although, ***my Pentium is one of the
chips with the flaw in it*** this could be what is causing the problem
but I am not sure. I guess I'll just have to test this theory out on my
386 when I go home. Although that means that I might not be able to let
you know whether that worked or not. Also, Imagine does not come with two
different versions on the PC like it did(or still does) on the Amiga.

    But anyways, I called up Impulse on yesterday and they said that they
are currently looking into the problem. So I guess that all of you will
find out.

                                       -mark

Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 19:20:41
Subject: Re: RSDP settings
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Tue, 9 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

> > I've been trying to make a forest of trees using a bitmap of a tree mapped
> > onto a plane, and black/white image of the same tree as a transparency map.

> > The plane is cloned several times and rotated around it's z axis so you get

> > sort of a 3d tree. I've also made each of the planes bright which seems to
> > make the individual planes less noticable when rendering. Anyway my problem

> > is when rendering the trees in the foreground look ok, but the trees in the

> > background don't. The plane of the trees in the background turn out black.
> > So I've read that you can increase the RSDP setting to reduce this problem,

> > but it's still there, although to a lesser degree. I've reduced the number
> > of trees in the background to get rid of this problem, but it's not very
> > much of a forest, and not a very good solution.
>
>
> You might be able to side-step the problem by using tree shaped "planes"
> instead of rectangular ones.

OR (watch the light bulb explode above my head) you could use the
brushmap as a clip map! Apply the transparency brush, then apply the
ClipTran texture! Will this work? The dox say that it only affects the
specular spot and reflection of the clipped parts. Hmmm. Worth a try,
perhaps?

Hope this helps...

>
> Gary Beeton
> [e-mail]
>

See ya,
      Roger

Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 20:21:07
Subject: Re: Star Trek - Generations
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
>     Can you tell me in which version of Imagine can I find "Fractal
> Noise texture"? I look in the imagine 3.0 directory and didn't find any
> textures of that name! Thanks

BumpNoiz, ColrNoiz, Dirt, ClrNoiz2, FilNoiz2, RefNoiz2, Zooloo, CoolFir,
Fireball are some of the texture which resemble the classic fractal
noise texture. Several other Imagine textures have some fractal noise as
part of their effect. I just went through the "texture.txt" file and did
a text search on the word "noise".


Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 21:32:49
Subject: Nobody
From:    [e-mail] (Lucas Janin)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Hello,

 A few weeks ago, i substrict to this conference and i have got 0 message!!!
 Somebody can reply me!! I'm so lonely....


 Lucas JANIN                     [e-mail]



Date:    Tuesday, 09 May 1995 23:15:11
Subject: About Particles
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: FERNANDO PENA D'ANDREA <[e-mail]>
>
>     I use a version of Imagine thet has no particles (2.0) :( .
>     I want to do a scene containing an object made with little cubes
> in a sphere pattern, as the cubes were the sphere's vertex. More: I
> want to do the cubes spin arround itselves to produce a nice effect
> in my sphere. A friend told me that only particles makes it possible

You can do it without particles; you'll just have to create and animate
each cube by hand. Don't worry, it's less intensive than you might think.

Here's the basic plan: you'll create an Imagine group that has a simple
axis as the parent, and tons of little cubes as its children. Save as
"CubeSphere.1". Then, you'll rotate each cube individually by 120
degrees, and save the group as "CubeSphere.2". Rotate the children a
second time, and save the group as "CubeSphere.3". Since the only
thing that changes between saves is the _orientation_ of each cube
_relative to its parent_, you can then morph between groups 1, 2, 3, and
back to 1, and you'll see little rotating cubes. (I assume you already
know how to morph objects in the Action editor)

*** If you have a version of Imagine which includes the Tumble FX, you
don't need to manually rotate each cube! This repetitive chore is for
2.0 users only. Read to the end of the message before diving in. ***

Okay, let's build a sphere of cubes! First, add a primitive sphere, with
the desired parameters. (More sections means more cubes for you to build.
I used 12 circle sections and 6 vertical sections, which still creates 62
cubes in your final model!) This sphere will be your guide, to be used
when building the actual sphere-of-cubes, which I'll call the s-o-c.

The guide sphere has triangular faces pointing up, and others pointing
down. To make things simpler, we'll only create a cube for each
upwards-pointing face. The cube will be centered at the bottom of the
triangle. For example, as seen from the front view:


    A
   / \
  /   \   This is the existing triangular face.
 /     \
/ +---+ \
--|   |-- This is the cube you'll be adding.
  +---+


If you followed my directions, your sphere has 6 horizontal layers or
rings of triangles, and the base of the triangles just above the
equator is about 25 units wide. Let's start by creating the cubes which
will correspond to these equatorial triangles: the cubes should be
scaled to fit comfortably there, so we'll make 12-unit wide cubes.

Add a primitive plane, 12 x 12 units, 1 x 1 sections. If the plane does
not appear at location 0,0,0, move it there with the Transform requester.
Extrude it to a length of 12 units. You have a basic cube. With the cube
picked, transform its AXIS ONLY to position = 0,6,0 (we want the axis
centered on the cube) and size = 6,6,6 (for esthetic purposes). Now that
the axis reflects the cube, let's center the cube by moving it to
position 0,0,0. Object/Copy the cube to keep a copy around, to be
Object/Pasted every time we need a fresh cube.

We'll start by making the single cube at the top of the sphere, and the
single cube at the bottom. Since the guide sphere's faces become smaller
as we move towards the top and bottom, these cubes will also need to be
smaller. Change the size of the object to 3,3,3, and its position to 0,0,50.

Bring a new cube into the world by using Paste, and change its size to
3,3,3 and position to 0,0,-50.

Now that we've created the single cubes at the poles, we can create the
rest, one ring at a time. The finished sphere will have 5 horizontal rings
of cubes between the poles: one at the equator, 2 above, and 2 below.
These will be numbered 1 through 5 going from top to bottom, as seen in
the Front view. This means that ring 3 is the equator.

RING 3
------

Paste a new cube into place. Rotate the sphere 15 degrees in Z, to make
one of the equatorial triangles face you in the front view. In the Front
view, you should see the cube perfectly centered on the triangle's base,
just as I drew in the diagram above. Pick the cube and move it to Y =
-50. The cube will be perfectly centered with our guide triangle, in all
3 views.

Okay, that's one cube. You can now do the other 59. <grin!> No, no,
don't run away! Just a little Imagine Mailing List humour. From this
cube, we'll start duplicating the others with minimal expense.

With the cube picked, Transform its AXIS ONLY back to position 0,0,0
and alignment = 90,0,0 (you'll see why below). Copy the cube; we'll need
this newly-oriented cube later. We're now ready to create an entire ring
of cubes. The guide sphere has 12 upward-pointing triangles in each ring;
there's already one cube onscreen, so we need to create 11 more cubes.
Replicate the cube, with length = 0.0001, copies = 11, and Y rotation =
(11/12 of one full turn) = 330 degrees. Poof! The middle ring of cubes is
done. (Since Replicate only allows Y rotation, you now know why we had to
rotate the cube's axis so that its Y axis pointed upwards)

RING 2
------

Paste a new cube into view. Since we copied the object after we changed
its orientation, we don't need to do so anymore; any cube we paste from
now on will be ready for replication. (Sounds Star Trek-ish to me B^)

We'll create the ring immediately above the equator. Transform the cube
to size = 5,5,5 and position = 0,-43,25. This moves it into place,
although the cube is at the corner of its guide triangle, not the base.
Change the position of the AXIS ONLY to 0,0,25 to bring the axis back to
the desired center of rotation. When that's done, as a separate step,
you may want to rotate the cube (entire object, not just the axis) by 15
degreez in WORLD Z; this will center it with the triangle's base. (Do
this if you want a staggered look, the same effect as the "stagger
points" button when you create a sphere)

Then, Replicate the cube with 11 copies spread around a 330-degree
rotation, while moving along local Y by a length of 0.0001 units. (i.e.
the exact same parameters you used before) You need to enter 0.0001, by
the way, because Imagine will refuse a length of zero.

RING 4
------

Now that you have created the ring immediately above the equator ring,
you can replicate it to create its southern counterpart, automatically!
This ring contains triangles whose base lies at Z = -25, so you can
simply pick the newly-created ring and replicate one copy, with length
= -50. (Remember, extrude operations work based on an object's local
axes, and the extrusion length is measured along the object's Y axis)
Since our ring's Y axis points upwards, making a duplicate ring 50 units
below requires a length of -50 (local Y) units for the single copy.

RING 1
------

Paste a new cube into view. Transform it to size = 4,4,4 and position =
0,-24,43. Change the position of the AXIS ONLY to 0,0,43 to bring the
axis back to the desired center of rotation. Because of the staggered
points in the guide sphere, this cube doesn't need to be rotated 15
degrees to fall at the base of its guide triangle.

Then, Replicate the cube with 11 copies as we've done all along. This
creates ring 1.

RING 5
------

With ring 1 picked, we can create another ring at world Z = -43, which
is 86 units below this one. Replicate one copy, with length
= -86.

MAIN AXIS
---------

Now that we have created all the cubes we need, let's add a single axis
to serve as parent. Actually, there's already one -- the sphere's axis,
and it's just the right size, too! Pick the sphere, enter Pick Points
mode, RightAmiga-A to Select All, and RightAmiga-D to Delete. This
deletes every bit of geometry associated with this axis. (Deleting points
also deletes any edges and faces they belong to; deleting edges would
delete any faces they belong to, but leave the points untouched; deleting
faces would leave edges and points untouched) Go back to Pick Groups or
Pick Objects mode.

I'm a neat guy, so I like to reorient the empty axis to get rid of this
pesky 15-degree rotation we gave the sphere at the beginning. But that's
just me.

With the former sphere still picked, hold the Shift key and Select All
to select all other objects. Hold your breath and press RightAmiga-J to
join them all into one single object. (The resulting object will be
built around the axis you first picked, in this case the sphere)

INDIVIDUAL CUBES
----------------

Okay, so we have a single object that _looks_ like a bunch of cubes. What
we want is a _real_ bunch of individual cube objects! Here's a devious
Imagine trick that someone else discovered. You'll fall off your chair.

You normally use Slice to have Imagine create separate objects from the
intersection of two source objects. But what if you slice an object with
itself? You'd expect error requesters for the next 4 weeks, but no --
slicing an object with itself results in a new object for each separate
part.

So, all you need to do to turn this single sphere, made up of faces
assembled in the shape of little cubes, into a bunch of actual, separate,
cube objects, is to pick the sphere and press RightAmiga-X.

The result, as with all Slice operations, will be a group. With a single
axis as the parent. And each separate object as the children. Exactly
what we want. Isn't Imagine wonderful? You'd think I made this d'Andrea
guy up myself, just to force this contrived scenario. <g>

Enter Pick _Groups_ mode, pick the sphere (make sure everything redraws
blue), and save the group as "CubeSphere.1".

You may want to raid the fridge for a snack at this point. You deserve it.



MAKING THE SECOND OBJECT
------------------------

Here's where it gets, unfortunately, a bit tiresome. (If you have a
mouse-and-keyboard macro recorder such as Mach IV, this might be the
time to install it! Recording the following actions and assigning
then to an unused hotkey might save you some effort)

You'll need to rotate each cube individually by 120 degrees in local Z.
Enter Pick Objects mode, open the Find requester, and click on PARTS.
Then follow this routine:

- RightAmiga-N to select the next object

- F1 to pick it

- RightAmiga-T to transform

- Click on Rotate, <Enter><Enter>120<Enter> to rotate 120 in local Z.

- Click OK.

When RightAmiga-N brings you back to the central, empty axis, you've
rotated all 61 cubes. Enter Pick _Groups_ mode, pick PARTS (everything
should turn blue) and save as "CubeSphere.2".


MAKING THE THIRD OBJECT
-----------------------

Now enter Pick Objects mode and go through all 61 cubes all over again,
then enter Pick Groups mode, pick PARTS, and save as "CubeSphere.3".


All you need to do now is to morph from group 1, to 2, to 3, and back to
1.
(For example: Action editor max. frames = 61;
CubeSphere.1 from frame 1 to 1;
CubeSphere.2 from  2 to 21, transition frames = 19;
CubeSphere.3 from 22 to 41, transition frames = 19;
CubeSphere.1 from 42 to 61, transition frames = 19;
Render frames 1 to 60 only)


By the way, there is a Tumble FX in Imagine (2.9?) and above, which
automatically rotates children around their local axes; if you had a
higher version of Imagine than 2.0, you could've avoided all those
manual rotations.


Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 01:08:25
Subject: Re: moving ground
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
>Does anyone know the rule of thumb or formula for animating a ground
>object to give the illusion of perpetual movement in one direction or
>another? What I mean is, if I have a textured or brushmapped ground and
>I want it to look as though it is moving ...say from left to right
>throughout the animation smoothly. I've seen this illusion mostly with
>walking type objects and was wondering if there is an easy way to do it
>so it cycles seemlessly.
>

I don't know if there are any rules, but anytime I've tried to do something
like this, it's been a pain. I usually wind up in PhotoShop, where I take
the image, cut and paste it into a new, larger resolution picture so I can
paste the image right next to itself. Then you can use Photoshop to try and
blend the two sides so they match. Of course, it helps if the image isn't
too complicated to begin with. If your looking to make a landscape
background, Vistapro makes it easy to make 360 panoramic views...

---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

Relax, it's all just 1's and 0's

---------------------------------


Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 01:08:35
Subject: Re: texturemapping
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Hey y'all,
>
>     Creating a worm object, using extrude along a path option, I'm
>having trouble with my texturemapping.
>
>     Probably something obvious, but I'm not seeing it.  When I map a
>texture, say bumpnois, to the object, it looks great on the object itself,
>before I've extruded it.
>
>     But once the object is extruded along its path into an actual
>worm, the texturemap is only applied at the TIP of the worm, and not
>along its entire length.

I think that's what's supposed to happen. When the texture was first
applied, the tip was all that was there... I'd say, try applying the texture
after you extrude the object.



>     (I don't think it's a bug, but a dweebish phenomenon in the brain
>of the user).

You get those too? Must be all those rays we're tracin' affecting the higher
thought processes... :)

---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

Relax, it's all just 1's and 0's

---------------------------------


Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 01:08:38
Subject: Re: Star Trek - Generations
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> From: Fred Aderhold <[e-mail]>
>>
>> Perhaps I misunderstood what you had in mind with the Essence texture.
>> Is it possible to use a texture as a filter map?
>
>Some textures are hard-coded to only affect one attribute, such as
>color, while others may affect color, filter, and/or reflect. For

Ok, now I get it!

>visible ribbon onto an otherwise transparent plane object. In case you
>didn't have Essence, I approximated the effect using Imagine's Dancing
>Sparks texture.

I'm on a PC, so I await the Essence PC debut with everyone else... Your
example worked perfectly! I animated the sparks, then animated the
transparent plane up between two poles to get that "Frankenstien" electrode
effect. Neat!

>
>So yes, you can vary an object's filter attributes using a texture,
>although the wording you use ("use a texture as a filter map") is a bit
>misleading. The texture is used as a texture, not as a brushmap, but I
>assume you meant the end effect obtained, not the specific method used.

I think I meant, "Can you use the color pattern created by a texture like
Pastella, to say, make an object bumpy, like you can with a brushmap".
You very clearly explain how to do this below! Sorry about the confusion, I
still stumble a bit with the lingo here and there...

>Of course, you may want to use a texture as a <xxx> map. If you're not
>going to zoom in close to the object, and the texture is a complicated
>one to compute, you may want to avoid having to re-calculate the texture
>in each frame, and replace the texture with a brushmap stand-in. I do
>this all the time on my Amiga 3000, as the 25 MHz '030 is too slow to
>calculate textures when rendering an entire animation. Simply apply the
>texture to a Bright plane, position the plane perpendicular to the
>camera, zoom in to fill the Perspective view, and do a full-resolution
>Quickrender. The resulting image can be applied as a brushmap. (Is
>_this_ what you actually were asking about?)

Yup...

Someone suggested that you write you own Imagine manual, and I for one would
whole-heartedly aggree(and buy it!). I always seem to "get it" from your
explinations. Thanks!!!!

---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

Relax, it's all just 1's and 0's

---------------------------------


Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 01:15:41
Subject: Re: texturemapping
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wow! you described a project I made about two months ago!  I made a worm,
just like you then applied the textures:(in this order)
WormVien
Ribbed
BumpNoiz
The worm I created can be found on aol(I believe there id an ftp site that
you can download it, maybe aol.com?)its really ugly and has bulgin' red viens
and slimmy bumpy skin.  I'll refrain from uuencoding it :)
PS It worked fine for me? Did you apply the texture ofter you extruded it?

Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 01:30:54
Subject: Re: object speed
From:    Ayalon Hermony <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Well this won't be a clear answer, although I've looked for a few hours
for it, in past AmigaWorld and Amazing magazines.
I remember reading an article then, about the same problem. Didn't have
Imagine then, so didn't try it, and what's left in those fading grey cells,
isn't much.

Anyway, the idea was, to have your object following your path.
Let's say, it's an oval shape racing track.
Have another path, I think it should be a copy of the first, and change its
shape in a way, that it has 'bumps' in places you want accel/deaccelerations.
Have your object (let's assume a car) tracking to an object (can be just an
axis, but for testing, put an object, so you can watch it in relation to
the car) on the second path.

Sorry for a very uncomplete help. It's just a wild shot in a direction that
might lead someone from the group to  the correct answer.

I don't remmeber the name of the writer, if anyone recalls, please give
him/her credit.

There are a bunch of things to test:

- Different number of dots in each of the path, not equal like was writen.
- Crossing of the bumps with the oval path.
- Might be a problem if you animate a car, like the 'nose' is turning in the
  wrong direction.

Well, I ended having more problems than answers, have to sharpen those grey
cells, they give me noisy sounds lately...


           How do you come back from 3D ?
Ayalon M. Hermony      Internet: [e-mail]



On Sat, 6 May 1995, Kent Marshall Worley wrote:

>
>
> On Wed, 3 May 1995, Charles Blaquiere wrote:
>
> > > From: Paul Rance <[e-mail]>
> > >
> > > Is there away to vary and object's speed a number of times
> > > along a path in v3.2?
> >
> > Boy, I can't believe that nobody has responded to you in a month. B^(
> >
> > The answer is no. Using acceleration/decceleration, or using spline
> > velocity, you only have control over the beginning and ending behaviour.
> > You'll need to separate your path in segments, and define multiple
> > "follow path" bars in the Action editor.
> >
> I am running into this exact limitation. I am doing an animation of cars
> racing around a track. The tedium of creating all those paths for one lap
> would not happen if I could create a single looped path and adjust the
> speed the object follows the path.
>  [e-mail]
>

Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 04:15:37
Subject: Re: texturemapping
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


>     Thanks, you, for responding.  And I do think your suggestion
>would work fine.  Only problem would be--and I should have mentioned
>this in my original query--that I actually intend to
>have my worm object 'grow' up from out of the ground in an anim.

Ahhh, now that's different eh? So let me get this straight - do want your
worm to actually change size, or is it just sorta crawling out of a hole(now
there's a question you don't ask every day...)? If it's crawling, I would
make a bunch of different states in various stages of "squiggle", and morf
between them while keyframing(or following a path or whatever) the worm up
and out. Make sure you save the texture state as well as the shape from
state to state. As for the Grow effect, I never tried it with a textured
object, but I'm sure it will keep the texture where you put it...

Just a thought!



---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

After we pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is
NOT our friend!

---------------------------------


Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 05:42:52
Subject: 3DSite - A 3D WWW page
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To those of you that are creating Imagine related Web pages, let me suggest
that you contact 3DSite. This is a Web page that has links to many 3D related
subjects and private Web pages. You may wish to see if you can get a
link/listing for your Web page there to arouse additional interest in
Imagine. They have a wide variety of subjects. But Imagine is not listed. I
have sent them mail to request at least a listing - but someone with an
actual Web page may have more clout and/or luck with them. They seem to cover
virtually all platforms from PC to Amiga to Unix to Workstation class
machines. You can get their page at:

http://www.lightside.com/~dani/cgi/software-packages-index.html

I hope to stir up additional interest in my favorite 3D program!!

Falko

Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 06:58:17
Subject: Re: moving ground
From:    James Brooks <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Tue, 9 May 1995, Fred Aderhold wrote:

> >
> >Does anyone know the rule of thumb or formula for animating a ground
> >object to give the illusion of perpetual movement in one direction or
> >another? What I mean is, if I have a textured or brushmapped ground and
> >I want it to look as though it is moving ...say from left to right
> >throughout the animation smoothly. I've seen this illusion mostly with
> >walking type objects and was wondering if there is an easy way to do it
> >so it cycles seemlessly.
> >


I know in Lightwave (LW) I would use something like a displacement
mapping to give the illusion that the ground is moving.  Is there
something like that for Imagine as well?
I have to check and see.  ;-)

Good Day

Alex

---------------------------------------------------------------
James "Alex" Brooks              Amiga 4000/040/28MHz 20MB RAM
Lightwave 3.5 / Imagine 3.0      VideoToaster 4000 3.1
Syquest 3.5" 270MB             Bernoulli 90Pro
NEC 3xp Triple Speed CDROM       Warp Engine 4028
Epson ES-600C Scanner            E-Mail: [e-mail]
--------------------------------------------------------------


Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 09:08:23
Subject: Re[2]: IM 3.1-3.2 Textures
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


     Well, I'm not sure whether you know this but, not every-one uses the
     Amiga version of Imagine, I own an Amiga(and once used
     Imagine on it) but I now use Imagine on my
     Pentium-90MHz system with 8MB RAM, I would think that
     this would not be a problem. Although, ***my Pentium is
     one of the chips with the flaw in it***
     [snip]

     I have a flawed Pentium, and Imagine has always worked
     fine (so far) on the machine.

     -AC

Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 09:08:54
Subject: Re[2]: moving ground
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------




>Does anyone know the rule of thumb or formula for animating a ground
>object to give the illusion of perpetual movement in one direction or
>another? What I mean is, if I have a textured or brushmapped ground and
>I want it to look as though it is moving ...say from left to right
>throughout the animation smoothly. I've seen this illusion mostly with
>walking type objects and was wondering if there is an easy way to do it
>so it cycles seemlessly.
>
     It's been a while since I did a moving ground, but when
     I did it, it was with simple checkerboarded texture and
     a sphere. Mind you, if you use a brushmap, it'd better
     be even on all 4 sides! Wrap in on a sphere and rotate
     the sphere 360 degrees and see if you can see any
     breaks. Better yet, get a piece of software that will
     allow you to "wrap around" a bitmap in a 2-dimensional
     plane by moving the cursor keys over it. For the IBM,
     Fractal Design Painter and Photoshop should allow this.
     But I digress...

     What I did was:

     1) Determined the length of a single square (32 units
     was the default, so I used it...)

     2) Placed my target object in the world (The Sphere)

     3) Placed my camera parallel to the object and at equal
     height (in other words, Aligned the Y-axes to be equal)

     4) Moved my camera the length of one square (32 units)
     in a direction, keeping it parallel with the ground
     plane and pointing at my target object.

     - or -

     4) Moved THE GROUND 32 units, keeping the object AND
     THE CAMERA stationary.

     Either way, SOMETHING remained stationary...

     This SHOULD produce a seamless "over the ground"
     animation. I don't recall if there were glitches in
     this, but that was the theory I used.

     You could take the sphere out and test this, it should
     render pretty quickly in a lo-res mode, and it SHOULD
     play seamlessly, too.

     I don't know what you'd do if you wanted wavy water. I
     guess you'd just have a 32-unit wavelength and probably
     morph the water over 32 units (wasn't that in the
     Imagine 2.0 or 3.0 manual?)

     -AC

Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 10:31:00
Subject: Particles with Dust2
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Fernando,

>    I use a version of Imagine thet has no particles (2.0) :( .
>    I want to do a scene containing an object made with little cubes
>in a sphere pattern, as the cubes were the sphere's vertex. More: I
>want to do the cubes spin arround itselves to produce a nice effect
>in my sphere.
Try 'Dust20.lha' from aminet. Allows you to make a particle object and make
the key frames for Imagine. In Imagine you can load the objects and morph
between them.

The small tutorial of Charles might also work.

Greetings Joop


Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 12:08:43
Subject: Shredder
From:    [e-mail] (ERNESTO POVEDA CORTES)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi to all,
      After get my copy of Im32 (Amiga PAL) in response ( a fast one indeed)
      to my $100 Upgrade fee, i think i found a bug in Shredder effect.
      The effect is .... well no words to describe it, i always like the
      explosion effect of imagine, but this..... :))
      Bug here cames my question.
      If you try the tutorial that cames in the 32.doc, in stage Ed. all works
      fine, but if you try to render the project, when the parts begin to
      dissapear, the phong will begin to give a lot of errors.
      But if you don't use any phong settings the effect will work ok.

      Sorry for my English. :/
--

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 'Do not underestimate the power of the Force.'                            |
|                                                                           |
| email: [e-mail]  --> Ernesto Poveda Cortes (I am not a number :) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 13:57:15
Subject: Re: moving ground
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Mike, on May 9 you wrote:

> Does anyone know the rule of thumb or formula for animating a ground
> object to give the illusion of perpetual movement in one direction or
> another? What I mean is, if I have a textured or brushmapped ground and
> I want it to look as though it is moving ...say from left to right
> throughout the animation smoothly. I've seen this illusion mostly with
> walking type objects and was wondering if there is an easy way to do it
> so it cycles seemlessly.

>From an Amiga point of view I would use ADPro's "Roll" operator on the
background and composite the Imagine renders onto it.  Roll, used with its
Wrap option takes a user defined number of pixels from one edge of the pic
and places them on the other side. To make it seamless the left edge and
right edge of the picture have to be identical. You can do this by making a
mirror image of the background and joining the two together.
This method saves rendering the ground plane for every frame.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 14:31:04
Subject: Re: texturemapping
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Fred, in <[e-mail]> on May 9 you wrote:

> >   Thanks, you, for responding.  And I do think your suggestion
> >would work fine.  Only problem would be--and I should have mentioned
> >this in my original query--that I actually intend to
> >have my worm object 'grow' up from out of the ground in an anim.
>
> Ahhh, now that's different eh? So let me get this straight - do want your
> worm to actually change size, or is it just sorta crawling out of a hole(now
> there's a question you don't ask every day...)? If it's crawling, I would
> make a bunch of different states in various stages of "squiggle", and morf
> between them while keyframing(or following a path or whatever) the worm up
> and out. Make sure you save the texture state as well as the shape from
> state to state. As for the Grow effect, I never tried it with a textured
> object, but I'm sure it will keep the texture where you put it...
>
> Just a thought!

I've done the worm thing too, it's an ideal object for Bones.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 19:51:19
Subject: TextureStudio v1.0.2
From:    zceec07 <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all,
      This is just to announce that I've just uploaded TextureStudio
v1.0.2 to Aminet this evening (10/5/95) and this should fix the bug which
caused blank menus under Workbench2.x Amigas. If you own v1.0.1 and a
Workbench3 Amiga, there is nothing extra to be gained by getting v1.0.2.

      Aminet still seems to be a go-slow, so you may get the file directly
from:
      ftp.uni-erlangen.de
as:
      /pub/aminet/new/TextureStudio.lha

Apologies for the initial problems with the program, v1.0.2 now fixes
all known problems.

--------
Andy Dean, co-author of ImageStudio and TextureStudio
Email: [e-mail]

Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 20:17:33
Subject: Threat
From:    Darren Priestnall <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please please please take me off the mailing list......or I'll be
forced to download this great new render I've seen of these cup's a few
dozen times.......have you seen them yet ? :)

Partly light hearted, partly annoyed at all this unstoppable mail.


--
~===========================================================================~
 Darren Priestnall - [e-mail] (PandGImaging)
Connecting via Demon Internet, Finchley, London, N3 1TT. Tel: [phone]
-- Full IP Connectivity for a 10 UKP per month - no usage/online fees!! --

Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 20:30:34
Subject: IMAGINE NEWSGROUP
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

You know if you really want an Imagine news group, you would have to name it
something interesting.  Something catchy.  And memorable....

I GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!

ALT.SEX.IMAGINE.BINARIES

Perfect...
                                           ---Lumbient

Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 21:30:53
Subject: Re: texturemapping
From:    [e-mail] (Gary Beeton, [e-mail])


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> ...
>     Well, 'grow' was what I was actually intending in the first
> place.  The worm needs to 'grow' up out of the ground.  I was only doing
> the extrusion thing in Detail to get a quick idea of the look of the
> worm.
> ...

Okay, here's a stupid question:  Do you really need your worm to
grow, or do you just want the tail end to be covered by the ground
(sort of like real life)?


Gary Beeton
[e-mail]

Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 22:22:32
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi everbody,
yes, I read FAQ 6, but I still have three questions:
1. How do I decompress *.lha files from the Aminet on my PC?
2. What is the location and the filename of the famous "Dare to Imagine"?
3. Imagine (2.0-3.1, I haven't checked 3.2 yet) seems to skip faces or even
whole objects in scanline rendering when being short of
RAM but before any messages like "not enough memory" appear. Is there a
way to know that my scene won't be rendered properly before I start rendering?

           ----------------------------------------
          | Thomas Gaiser                          |
          | [e-mail]         |
           ----------------------------------------


Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 22:33:39
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi
    Mike McCool (and others) wrote about making worms in Imagine.
    Are worms contagious then ?  _We've_ all got them anyway...
   I've also done this, but I did it by making a section, (by chopping
the front and back off a simple sphere), and replicating it along a
path, - which doesn't lose the texture info you assigned to the single
section, - at least mine didn't...but if you've used a brush map,
then the axis will still be set up for the first section only, and
will look different if you scale it up to fit.
  I tried to make a state for the single section, in the hope that I
might be able to tack on the texture, and then replicate the thing
faces and all, but it didn't work. It didn't complain either though,
  I suppose it's too much to ask, but it would be neat if you could
do this. Any ideas anyone ?
   Dave



--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------


Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 22:38:11
Subject: Depth of brush maps
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have have been quitely eavesdropping on this mailing list for a week or so.
 Well now I have a problem that i could use some help on.  I have created a
multi page book object that I plan to use in a video.  The book is animated
to "fly" into the scene, open, and then slowly turn its pages showing
different pictures on each page.  Each page is build from a plane and has a
rag texture and brush map for the picture that is center on each page.
 States are uses to define the curl as each page is flipped open.  So far so
good.  But when a page is turn and you can see the reverse side, the rag
texture bleads through as desired, but so does the picture--not what is
intended.  The reverse side should be blank.  I know the source of my problem
is the lack of any depth to the plan.  But,short of either adding a second
plane for the picture infront of the page's plane or  extruding the page to
give it some dept, both of which would wreck havac with all the states I have
definned for the page curl/ turning cycle, is there any easy way to limit the
depth of a brush map so it will not blead through the page and will not
require redefinning all states that contain the page.

Thanks in advance for any help...

Jay

Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 22:56:06
Subject: Re: Moving Ground
From:    Ian Smith <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Wed, 10 May 1995, Jaco Gerber wrote:
> Hmmmm, I've previously experimented with moving ground by using animated
> bitmaps..... the problem there is that Imagine has a funny way of
> stretching the animation over the duration  rather than repeating it over
> and over again. Does anyone know if this problem is solved in later
> versions of Imagine or if there is a way around it, rather than having to
> use 2000 repeats of a 20 frame animation or something equally
> harddrive space-intensive?

I haven't tried this, but I would assume that you can take the actor bar
and shorten it to 20 frames, and then cut an paste it until you have 100
of them.  That should do the trick.  You can make a copy, paste it, make
a copy of the two bars, paste them, make a copy of the four bars, ect to
keep from having to place 100 copies manually.  Hope this helps!

--                             My Imagine Home Page - Visit!
[e-mail]           http://moose.erie.net/~iansmith


Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 23:12:19
Subject: Moving Ground
From:    Jaco Gerber <docnet![e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hmmmm, I've previously experimented with moving ground by using animated
bitmaps..... the problem there is that Imagine has a funny way of
stretching the animation over the duration  rather than repeating it over
and over again. Does anyone know if this problem is solved in later
versions of Imagine or if there is a way around it, rather than having to
use 2000 repeats of a 20 frame animation or something equally
harddrive space-intensive?

Thanks,
Jaco Gerber


Date:    Wednesday, 10 May 1995 23:30:31
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-> From: [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)->-> I don't know if there are an
y rules, but anytime I've tried to do =som-> like this, it's been a pain. I usua
lly wind up in PhotoShop, where= I-> the image, cut and paste it into a new, lar
ger resolution picture =so-> paste the image right next to itself. Then you can
use Photoshop t=o t-> blend the two sides so they match. Of course, it helps if
the imag=e i-> too complicated to begin with. If your looking to make a landscap
e-> background, Vistapro makes it easy to make 360 panoramic views...Huh? Maybe
I wasn't too clear. Not an OBJECT on the GROUND, but theactual infinity "ground"
 primitive. For instance, I've seen a checker=ed"ground" animated to give the il
lusion the camera is moving over theground in a seemless loop. I was wondering i
f the best way to do this= ismoving the texture or brush ON THE GROUND....or act
ually moving thetexture or brush wrapped ground object over the course so many f
rames=..        _______________________________________________________      /_________________________________________________________\    /=3D
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3
D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:
            =|=3D  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail]
m.com =|=3D  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________
=|=3D  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =|=3D
 =3D|          14.4k v.32bis 24 hours - 805-683-1388                =|=3D    \__
___________________________________________________________/--- =FE InterNet - G
raFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]

Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 00:41:46
Subject: Re: Rendering Prices?
From:    Kent Marshall Worley <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Mon, 8 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

> Hi, I was just wondering how much to charge someone for a render?
> Should I work it out by the hour, the resoloution or what. Charging by
> the hour might be too expensive as my machine isn't that quick, certainly
> not as quick as a pentium.
> Any ideas?
> BTW, am I allowed to ask questions of a commercial nature to this list?
> Appologies if I am not...

 I think this is an interesting question. Imagine is able to do some 3D
effects that are competitive with other platforms. I am not so much
concerned with dollar amounts but specific applications that Imagine is
being used for.
 I have used Imagine for animations for the Atlanta Braves to show on the
big video screen inside the stadium. I sort of remember mention of
Imagine used in medical description. I am interested in how people use
this program and what keeps them so interested in it.

   [e-mail]

Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 00:51:09
Subject: Fwd: texturemapping
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think the object only extrudes the object, not the texture.  You have to
extrude the object then map it with a texture then scale it to how you want
it.  Hope that helps.

---------------------
Forwarded message:

Hey y'all,

      Creating a worm object, using extrude along a path option, I'm
having trouble with my texturemapping.

      Probably something obvious, but I'm not seeing it.  When I map a
texture, say bumpnois, to the object, it looks great on the object itself,
before I've extruded it.

      But once the object is extruded along its path into an actual
worm, the texturemap is only applied at the TIP of the worm, and not
along its entire length.

      (I don't think it's a bug, but a dweebish phenomenon in the brain
of the user).


Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 01:01:18
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi,   Mike Vandersommen
>
> Does anyone know the rule of thumb or formula for animating a ground
> object to give the illusion of perpetual movement in one direction or

      I have done this with some success, by mapping a 256 pixel square
picture onto a ground, sized to x=256 y=256 and then moving it towards
the camera by 256 units minus one frames worth of units.    (eh???)
   I'm not very good at formulas, but I'll give an example, and hopefully
you can work it out from that.  The animation I made was of an arrow
travelling along with the camera following slightly behind, (so as to keep
the arrow in view) but of course, the arrow and camera never actually had
to move through the imagine world, other than a bit of shaking to simulate
turbulence, and the arrows rotation about the world Y axis.
   Using (say) a 20 frame anim, I moved the ground towards the camera by
 (256 divided by 20) X 19 units to make it loop properly
   So that's (256/frames) X (frames-1), therefore, for a 20 frame anim:-

frame 1 had the ground at 0,0,0, moving to 0,-243.2,0 at frame 20.

The trouble with moving the ground is, you can't see it move in the
stage editor, as it's always shown as an infinite grid, so it appears
to be stationary. You'll have to render a small anim from the project
editor, as a test.

   In my case, I didn't need many frames, as it was supposed to be moving
very fast, and I was going to loop the first part over a few times, before
getting to the part where the arrow hit someone err. something.
   I never got round to finishing it. (as usual)...

   I should think that the distance you move the ground has more to do with
the size of the ground on the axis along which it moves, so the example I
gave assumes the ground to be 256 units big along the Y axis.

   ...boy, I wish I had Charles's way with words, he could have said the
same thing better in one paragraph !

      Dave


--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 01:51:24
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just generated a quick moving ground (plane) looping animation and it
worked fine. In the detail editor create a large plane (1000x1000 will do)
and add the checks texture with default settings.  This will give you
plane with white and black checks 32 units each.  In the action editor
set max frames to 100.  Load the plane in the stage editor and add a light.
Move the camera until you are satisfied with the view.  Goto frame 100
and move the plane 64 units along a local axis that would make the checks
move through the field of view (x or z if you use the default plane).
Update the position bar under the object menu. In the action editor,
click on the position bar and remove spline interpolation so the plane
does not slow down near the end of its motion.  Create a looping
animation using frames 1-99.  (Skip the last frame so the animation loop
is smooth).

Ed Totman
[e-mail]



Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 02:17:55
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey,

      Thanks Fred, Milan, and all of you who responded to my t-mapping
query.  Turns out the problem was indeed one of dweebishness.  I was
trying to get my worm to look wormy in the detail editor, as an
extrusion.

      Well, 'grow' was what I was actually intending in the first
place.  The worm needs to 'grow' up out of the ground.  I was only doing
the extrusion thing in Detail to get a quick idea of the look of the
worm.

      And thank goodness, grow works just fine in the application of the
texture map.

      Again, thanks, for all your help.

Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 02:25:00
Subject: Pages in a book
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

You'll need to extrude the page, no way around it. Many renderers will not
allow single thickness polygons, or open geometry, but Imagine does. But
there is no thickness to your page, so there is no way to limit the bitmap
to just one side.

Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 03:34:52
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To Thomas Gaiser,

>1. How do I decompress *.lha files from the Aminet on my PC?

1.Ummm..To decompress a .lha file I like to use WinZip + LHARC.

>3. Imagine (2.0-3.1, I haven't checked 3.2 yet) seems to skip faces >or even
whole objects in scanline rendering when being short of
>RAM but before any messages like "not enough memory" appear. >Is there a way
to know that my scene won't be rendered properly >before I start rendering?

3.The only thing I can suggest is to run a lot of quick renders to see...

Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 08:23:03
Subject: Re: Depth of brush maps
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------




Author:  [e-mail] at ~WLBRK3
Date:    5/10/95 7:26 PM


I have have been quitely eavesdropping on this mailing list for a week or so.
 Well now I have a problem that i could use some help on.  I have created a
multi page book object that I plan to use in a video.  The book is animated to
"fly" into the scene, open, and then slowly turn its pages showing different
pictures on each page.
[snip]
      This is more than my usual wild guess, but I think what needs to be done
      is that your "page" object, presumably a primitive plane, needs to be
      extruded a little.

      If you aren't using a primitive plane, and you are using a "ground" type
      object, you're in big trouble. But if you *are* using a primitive plane,
      you'll need to extrude the Y axis a slight amount, and then, in your
      bitmap texture that you are adding every page, you will need to make sure

      that ITS Y-axis is *NOT* wider than the page.

      Now, the next problem you'll likely face is that the bitmap will do one of
      two things
      1) It will appear on the *wrong side* of your page
      2) It will appear reversed (and probably on the wrong side again)
      3) It just won't appear at all (yeah, I lied about two things...)

      If #3, delete and re-ally the brushmap.
      If #1 or #2, fiddle with it's axes, you've probably got them "flipped"
      incorrectly. It least, I know *I* get them backwards...

      -AC


Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 10:57:41
Subject: Re: Babylon-5 Jumpgate
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


     I'd encourage you to get Imagine 3, a lot of the steps
     you mention are very simple to do in that package. The
     Tube tapering and the flowing in/out streams are pretty
     easy.

     -AC

Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 11:54:11
Subject: Re: TextureStudio v1.0.2
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>     This is just to announce that I've just uploaded TextureStudio
> v1.0.2 to Aminet this evening (10/5/95) and this should fix the bug which
> caused blank menus under Workbench2.x Amigas. If you own v1.0.1 and a
> Workbench3 Amiga, there is nothing extra to be gained by getting v1.0.2.
>
>     Aminet still seems to be a go-slow, so you may get the file directly
> from:
>     ftp.uni-erlangen.de
> as:
>     /pub/aminet/new/TextureStudio.lha
>

Just tried; it ain't there.  (That's cool.  I'm still having enough fun
with the menu-blank version--and any minute I hope to upgrade to 3.1).

Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 13:54:00
Subject: Jabber
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

=2E.ever notice that all the people who complain most about"off topic" discussio
ns tend to leave the most "off topic"messages about "off topic" messages? :)ps.
I like the IML just the way it is, FWIW!--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Sant
a Barbara, Ca - [phone]

Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 14:19:00
Subject: Missing faces
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-> From: [e-mail]-> 1. How do I decompress *.lha files
 from the Aminet on my PC?Get LHA for the PC. I have version 2.13 and it works d
ucky.-> 2. What is the location and the filename of the famous "Dare to Im=agiIf
 memory serves, you can get it on wuarchive.wustl.edu/aminet/gfx/D2IMxxx.LHA (or
 something close to that).-> 3. Imagine (2.0-3.1, I haven't checked 3.2 yet) see
ms to skip face=s o-> whole objects in scanline rendering when being short of->
RAM but before any messages like "not enough memory" appear. Is th=ere-> way to
know that my scene won't be rendered properly before I star=t rStill happens in
3.2. Especially if you have lots of objects/maps andtextures going. I've never h
ad a PROJECT render do it, but I wouldassume you'd get a "Not Enough Memory" war
ning at the very beginningif you are over taxing your system.        ___________
____________________________________________      /_____________________________
____________________________\    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\  =3
D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =|=3D  =3D| Gra
FX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =|=3D  =3D| Santa Bar
bara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =|=3D  =3D|   "..where the
4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =|=3D  =3D|          14.4k v.32bi
s 24 hours - 805-683-1388                =|=3D    \_____________________________
________________________________/--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barba
ra, Ca - [phone]

Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 15:36:26
Subject: Re: Babylon-5 Jumpgate
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

      B5 Stuff snipped...

> However what I now what to do is to taper the tube so that I can zoom my
> camera in and the tube looks like it extends to infinity.

      If your tube is made up of one section you should be able to enter
Pick Points Mode, select all the points that make up one circular edge of the
tube (one end), and scale the points down (using 's' and the required
axes). That will effectively create a taper without a need for IM3.0's Taper
tool.
      If the tube is made up of multiple sections you could do the same
thing described above, and then manually use Taut to straighten out points
along separate circular sections between the top and bottom of the tube. Hard
to describe. But then, you really shouldn't need to use a tube with more than
one section.

> Also what texture  parameters will give the desired effect ?
> I realise they use fractal noise in bab 5, what can I use on My PC ?
> Looking at the Jumpgate, shows that the texture spirals in or out (depending o
n
> whether a ship is going to or coming from a destination ). Can I create two
> objects,one with the texture applied normally and one with the texture transla
ted on two axes. Then do a transition between the two ? Will it work ?

      You could create two identical tubes. You'd then have the texture axis
move along one axis (from the top of the tube to the bottom) by translating the
texture axis position values between the two objects. For instance, one tube,
assuming its length travels along the x-axis, would have a texture position
value of x=-200, and the second tube would have a texture position value of
x=200. Morph (transition) between the two and the texture will appear to move
down the x-axis.
      To create a spiral motion, use the FX Rotate2.0 to rotate the tube
along its x-axis. The combination of object rotation and texture translation
should provide a spiral effect.

      I always used Essence for Fractal Noise. I don't know if there's
anything available for IM2.0 PC. I suppose you could draw a similar effect in
a paint program, but it would have to be a pretty large brush map.

      Good luck...

                                                                      Jeff-->
E-Mail: [e-mail]


Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 15:59:48
Subject: Babylon-5 Jumpgate
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello everyone , for the past couple of days I've been trying to build
a copy of the jumpgate in Bab5 using Imagine PC 2.0 . This what I've done
so far ....

1. Create a tube primitive
2. Apply a filter brush map to the tube (flat x flat z )
The map is a horizontal gradient going from Black to White. I saved it as
a 24 bit tiff.
3. Use a pastella texture with two colours, Dark orange and light orange.
4. When rendered , the object has transparent edges just like in Bab5.
However what I now what to do is to taper the tube so that I can zoom my
camera in and the tube looks like it extends to infinity.
Also what texture  parameters will give the desired effect ?
I realise they use fractal noise in bab 5, what can I use on My PC ?
Looking at the Jumpgate, shows that the texture spirals in or out (depending on
whether a ship is going to or coming from a destination ). Can I create two
objects,one with the texture applied normally and one with the texture translate
d on two axes. Then do a transition between the two ? Will it work ?

PS. Does anyone have the Simtel CDROM , what graphics related utils are on it ?
I'm asking due to a sale at my local shop .

Thanks .
Ramesh Suren.

Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 16:00:06
Subject: Help!
From:    FERNANDO PENA D'ANDREA <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Someone in this list know something about an Amiga exclusive user
list ?  Or an Amiga exclusive page in WWW ? I'm looking for a file of
aminet called Dust2.lha. The program in this file alow the poor
imagineers with no particles in their Imagine version to do quasi
everything that the happy particles users can do. It was recommended
to me by another imagineer. Thanks to him! My problem is that this
archive has more tham 600 kb, and the net which gives me access to
the aminet is VERY slow (about 100 bits per second). What I can do???

    Thanks.

    Fernando D'Andrea


*********************************
Fernando Pena D'Andrea.
E-Mail: [e-mail]
*********************************

Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 18:09:26
Subject: Visible Light Prob
From:    Dave Wilson <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

        O.k. Call me stupid but why won't this work?  I'm trying to make
my own MYST Island and on this island is a particular item that I want
to have spotlights aimed at.  I've got the lights made and working for
the most part but I wan to have that sort of hazy effect right around the
light (mostly just to enhance the effect that the light is on).  I'm
doing this with cones (as is the way) but for some reason I can't manage
to get rid of the look of the cone.  It looks fine with black behind it
but when there is a color the fuzzy light becomes fuzzy darkness.

        I hope this legible and I hope someone can please help.  I've
tried everything I can think of and I know I'm just missing one really
obvious thing but I can't see it.


Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 21:34:09
Subject: Digital Portfolios
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm sorry if this is considered off-topic but how many of you animators and
artists are tired of the demo and resume shuffle?  You send out demo after
demo at substantial cost only to have it put into a pile somewhere and
forgotten....

Introducing Digital Portfolios....send your resume, best anim, and jpeg still
photos to one place and have them included on an interactive searchable CDROM
database that will be sent every two months to hundreds of companies
searching for new in-house and freelance talent.  Instead of a pile of
resumes and uncatalogued demo reels to serch through the prospective employer
need only insert the CD and pick the talent he needs, see demo anim and
stills, review your education, etc.  No mess, current information in an
online multimedia format.

If any of you think this is a good idea please email me at [e-mail]
for further details...etc.



Date:    Thursday, 11 May 1995 23:23:32
Subject: Re: Babylon-5 Jumpgate
From:    Clive Thomas <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi aciolino,
      You wrote this about Re: Babylon-5 Jumpgate:
:
:     I'd encourage you to get Imagine 3, a lot of the steps
:     you mention are very simple to do in that package. The

      I'd  also  recomend that you get JUNE issue of Amiga Computing #87.  It
comes  with  a  LightWavePro  Newsletter.   In  it  are  about  4  pages of
tips/hints  for  B5 objects (including the jump-gate) by Mojo, who seems to
be  one of the artists for the prog.  judging by some of his remarks.  It's
all good reading and can be transfered over to Imagine :)

BFN,Clive

--
 +-- [e-mail] ------------------------------------------+
 | Get it from:   ftp.demon.co.uk:pub/amiga/info/AmosaicFAQ_v1.02.lha |
 |          or    aminet: docs/misc/AmosaicFAQ.lha                    |
 +------------------------- *285 No good deed ever goes unpunished ---+


Date:    Friday, 12 May 1995 03:08:22
Subject: Re: Babylon-5 Jumpgate
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Clive, on May 11 you wrote:

> Hi aciolino,
>     You wrote this about Re: Babylon-5 Jumpgate:
> :
> :     I'd encourage you to get Imagine 3, a lot of the steps
> :     you mention are very simple to do in that package. The
>
>     I'd  also  recomend that you get JUNE issue of Amiga Computing #87.  It
> comes  with  a  LightWavePro  Newsletter.   In  it  are  about  4  pages of
> tips/hints  for  B5 objects (including the jump-gate) by Mojo, who seems to
> be  one of the artists for the prog.  judging by some of his remarks.  It's
> all good reading and can be transfered over to Imagine :)
>
> BFN,Clive

Also, there is a whole directory on the LightROM Vol 1 CD devoted to the
JumpGate. There's a pretty good Vorlon ship as well. I converted it to
Imagine format and used a pic of the Jumpgate as a backdrop and animated
the Vorlon ship's petals with the Essence Plasma texture with great
results.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Friday, 12 May 1995 05:38:45
Subject: Imagine Crashes!! mem problems?
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To Impulse Inc.

I have a problem running Impulse Imagine 2.0 that I hope you can solve.  I
would start Imagine with
the noxms switch, and I would start with simple editing of primitives, point
editing, and moving, though
nothing complex.  The program would crash and bring be back to DOS within 3
to 10 minutes, and
would display the message:  1302304 bytes still allocated (this is a average
number).

My system has a 486 DX 50 upgrade, 4 meg of extended memory, 8 meg of
expanded memory (All of
which is used fine by my other programs and correctly configured). It seems
to me that Imagine is
only using the extended memory, and not the total of 12 meg which is more
than enough for the
simple operations which I am trying to do.  PLEASE HELP!!

Thank you

Joe Bracco
email: [e-mail]
email:  [e-mail]


Date:    Friday, 12 May 1995 11:08:53
Subject: Dare to Imagine Queries
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


     I just leeched the iml-d2im.lha file from Aminet.

     Has anyone yet written a "viewer" for the PC to view
     this file easily? Is anyone working on it?

     If not, I might just make one for Windows to view this
     thing. It's massive!

     Thanks, Shane, for taking the time to do this thing.
     It's broken out well. Was there a reason that you broke
     things out the way you did?

     -AC

Date:    Friday, 12 May 1995 11:14:00
Subject: Re: jabber
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> ..ever notice that all the people who complain most about
> "off topic" discussions tend to leave the most "off topic"
> messages about "off topic" messages? :)
>
> ps. I like the IML just the way it is, FWIW!


Right on, Mike.  And the whining-about-off-topic posts almost invariably
outnumber the off-topic posts.  I'm with you.

Date:    Friday, 12 May 1995 11:49:21
Subject: Re:Visible Light Prob
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dave Wilson describes making cone shaped light beams, and says: "It looks
fine with black behind it but when there is a color the fuzzy light
becomes a fuzzy darkness."

I'll bet you are using fog cones, right?  Fog uses the shaped of an object,
and adds a bit of the specified color to that area.  Effectively, you add the
fog color to the background, thus muddying the background color.

The easy solution: just make the fog object BRIGHT, and the added color
glows!  This was mentioned here some time ago.  When I read about it,
I thought to myself "Why didn't I think of that?" and happily went
about making fog liughts for a couple weeks.

Have fun,
Greg Denby
[e-mail]

Date:    Friday, 12 May 1995 14:36:10
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail] (Attila Montvai)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



Mike  wrote:


>..ever notice that all the people who complain most about
>"off topic" discussions tend to leave the most "off topic"
>messages about "off topic" messages? :)


A message, which is in the next "off topic" class!

...and so on...

attila


Date:    Friday, 12 May 1995 15:52:00
Subject: Re:Babylon5 jumpgate
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to your helpful comments , I'll try them out when I get home .
I  just got the Amiga magazine with the issue of LightwavePro,  it has
some valuable info and techniques which can be applied to other programs
as well as LightWave . I'm trying to create anims and stills solely for
fun and as such I do not plan to buy any programs until next year. Hopefully
by then Imagine 4.0 will be out as well as Lightwave 4.0 PC . I'm basically
trying to improve my 3d skills and techniques. If you look at some of the
creations of artists like Carmen R , you realise they are using the same
software as us (Imagine 2.0 ) . I could go all the way and buy 3d studio but
it would take the fun out of it . I still would not match the professional
results obtained by such artists. Also here in the UK prices are alot
higher than in the US.
Lets keep the thread on the jumpgate up, Does any one know of places I can
FTP to obtain realistic looking Babylon-5 objects ? . I got some Objs but
they have not been made well, and cause Imag 2.0 Pc to crash while rendering.
Objects by Carmen R and others render fine so its not the software or the
Hardware .

Date:    Saturday, 13 May 1995 01:55:33
Subject: Re:Babylon5 jumpgate
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello surentrr, on May 12 you wrote:

> <deleted>
> Lets keep the thread on the jumpgate up, Does any one know of places I can
> FTP to obtain realistic looking Babylon-5 objects ? . I got some Objs but
> they have not been made well, and cause Imag 2.0 Pc to crash while rendering.
> Objects by Carmen R and others render fine so its not the software or the
> Hardware .
>

Aminet - gfx/3dobj/bab5ships.lha  210K

I've only checked these in wireframe but the Delta Fighter and Soul Hunter
ships are grouped objects and look reasonable.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Saturday, 13 May 1995 04:22:58
Subject: Imagine 2.0 Crashes, Expanded Mem Probelms?
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have a problem running Impulse Imagine 2.0 that I hope you can solve.  I
would start Imagine with
the noxms switch, and I would start with simple editing of primitives, point
editing, and moving, though
nothing complex.  The program would crash and bring be back to DOS within 3
to 10 minutes, and
would display the message:  1302304 bytes still allocated.

My system has a 486 DX 50 upgrade, 4 meg of extended memory, 8 meg of
expanded memory (All of
which is used fine by my other programs and correctly configured). It seems
to me that Imagine is
only using the extended memory, and not the total of 12 meg which is more
than enough for the
simple operations which I am trying to do.  PLEASE HELP!!

Thank you

Joe Bracco

email: [e-mail]


Date:    Saturday, 13 May 1995 11:40:20
Subject: Re: TextureStudio v1.0.2
From:    "Heberle H." <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On May 11, 10:54am, Mike McCool wrote:
> Subject: Re: TextureStudio v1.0.2
> >   This is just to announce that I've just uploaded TextureStudio
> > v1.0.2 to Aminet this evening (10/5/95) and this should fix the bug which
> > caused blank menus under Workbench2.x Amigas. If you own v1.0.1 and a
> > Workbench3 Amiga, there is nothing extra to be gained by getting v1.0.2.
> >
> >   Aminet still seems to be a go-slow, so you may get the file directly
> > from:
> >   ftp.uni-erlangen.de
> > as:
> >   /pub/aminet/new/TextureStudio.lha
> >
>
> Just tried; it ain't there.  (That's cool.  I'm still having enough fun
> with the menu-blank version--and any minute I hope to upgrade to 3.1).
>-- End of excerpt from Mike McCool

It's in /pub/aminet/gfx/3d.

The /pub/aminet/new directory is only for "UPLOADS".

Horst


--
      http://fsai.trier.fh-rpl.de/home/heberle/

    _/_/_/  _/          _/_/_/_/   _/     Dipl. Ing. Horst Heberle
   _/      _/_/        _/         _/_/            Lindenstrasse 9 54292 Trier
  _/      _/  _/      _/_/_/_/   _/  _/           eMail [e-mail]

 _/      _/    _/          _/   _/_/_/_/    Phone [phone]
_/_/_/  _/_/_/_/_/  _/_/_/_/   _/      _/   Fax [phone]



Date:    Saturday, 13 May 1995 18:06:32
Subject: How do you make trees ?
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Is there an easy way to make a tree, I've been experimenting with some
simple triangle shaped planes around an axis and some different textures but
it never seems right. Can anybody help me?


 Thanx in advance

Date:    Sunday, 14 May 1995 02:05:44
Subject: Re: How do you make trees ?
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Broctune, on May 13 you wrote:

>      Is there an easy way to make a tree, I've been experimenting with some
> simple triangle shaped planes around an axis and some different textures but
> it never seems right. Can anybody help me?

I've tried creating branches from a cylinder by picking faces and extruding
them but the results are not very good.

The best way I know of is to use a program called Vertex by The Art
Machine. Making trees is only one of its features, you can for example make
a tree-like object without leaves and use that as a lightning strike.

There's a demo of it on Aminet - gfx/3d/Vertex2_0_Demo.lha

I don't know if there is an MSDOS version.

I've seen one method for making 2d trees using a brushmap of a tree which
has the background as colour 0 in the palette. When you apply the map to a
plane, select the genlock button and the background will be transparent.


-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Sunday, 14 May 1995 09:17:26
Subject: Rendering Prices Posts
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To all of the people who replyed to my question about rendering prices,
thanks! 8-)
I have a small problem though, I seem to have lost my last couple of days
posts, possibly through human error and the d key (oops).
Would it be too much trouble for the people who responded to re-post them
if you have them? I still have yours though Charles.
Thanks again. I did manage to read them before I stuffed up.

Rod Macey
[e-mail]
.... generating  15.39% complete ...



Date:    Sunday, 14 May 1995 20:39:13
Subject: Babylon-5 Jumpgate
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
>
> Hello everyone , for the past couple of days I've been trying to build
> a copy of the jumpgate in Bab5 using Imagine PC 2.0 . This what I've done
> so far ....
>
> 1. Create a tube primitive

If you want to have the tube taper, try the following:

Add a disc, 48 sections. Move it to position 0,0,0, if need be. Delete
the center point, and all the points from the 7 o'clock position to the 2
o'clock position, leaving an axis with 13 points, 12 edges, and no faces.

Translate the AXIS ONLY by 50 units in X (to establish a sweep center)
and change the axis size to 50 (to better reflect the object). Sweep the
object using 24 sections. You get a basic jumpgate shape.

Rotate -90 in X to have the jumpgate face away from you in the front
view, then transform the AXIS ONLY to alignment 0,0,0 and position
50,-50,0.

So far, the jumpgate is too circular. Scale the object in X by 1.5 and
in Y by 3. Poof! Jumpgate. Move the object to 0,0,0.

Enter Attributes. Give your object a gold color (255,224,128) and make it
Bright. Add a noisy Filter brushmap using FlatX/FlatZ mapping. (Don't
have one?  Render Pastella, in shades of grey/black, onto a Bright, white
plane, and quickrender -- the quickrender can be saved and used as a
brushmap) If you followed my instructions, the texture will be
positioned at -25.1, -0.1, -50.1 and will be 150.2, 150.2, 100.2 units
in size. Save this object as "Jumpgate-2.iob".

If render the jumpgate straight on, it looks OK, but if you turn the
Perspective view and quickrender, the texture will streak towards the
center of the jumpgate, as the faces turn away from the X-Z plane; this
is exactly the effect you want. The stretching will give the viewer an
impression of accelerating matter.

To add movement to the brushmap, edit the brushmap axes: scale X and Z by
2, and compensate by moving them to X = -100.1 and Z = -100.1. If you
peek using Edit Axes, you'll see in the Front view that the X and Z axes
have doubled in size, but we moved the brush origin down and to the
left; as a result, the new, larger brushmap is still perfectly centered
on the object. Save this object as "Jumpgate-1.iob".

If you morph from Jumpgate-1.iob to Jumpgate-2.iob, the brush will
shrink; given the shape of the object, the filter blobs will seem to run
along the sides of the jumpgate, towards the event horizon, or whatever
they call the back end in Babylon-speak. (Again, this effect will only
be visible if you see the jumpgate from an angle)

> 2. Apply a filter brush map to the tube (flat x flat z )
> The map is a horizontal gradient going from Black to White. I saved it as
> a 24 bit tiff.

If you're dissatisfied with the sharp edges on the outside front of the
jumpgate, fade them into full transparency using the Linear texture,
rather than a memory-consuming brushmap:

Add Texture to your object, select Linear. Place the texture at 50,-11,0,
give it a Z size of 10, and align it to 90 degrees in X. This will place
the texture 11 units inside your object, with the Z axis pointing towards
the opening of the jumpgate. Set the texture parameters to Z transition
width = 10, color = -1,-1,-1, reflect = -1,-1,-1, and filter =
255,255,255.

What Linear does, is change your object attributes from their current
value to the texture's values, starting at the texture's zero Z position,
increasing towards the texture's +Z axis, for a length of "Z transition
width". In our case, use Edit (texture) Axes to see the Right view: since
we made the texture's Z axis the same length as the transition value
parameter, you have a visual representation of the area affected by the
texture, starting at world Y = -11 (the texture's origin) and achieving
maximum strength at world Y = -1 (the end of its Z axis).  The negative
parameter values prevent the texture from affecting the object's color
and reflect values; setting reflect to 255,255,255 will force the parts
of the object in the texture's positive Z direction to become more and
more transparent; anything beyond texture Z = 10 (world Y = -1) will be
fully transparent. Our jumpgate's outer edges are at world Y = 0, so they
are invisible.

Whew! A long-winded explanation to a simple hint: use Linear, not a
gradient brushmap.

> 3. Use a pastella texture with two colours, Dark orange and light orange.

For Imagine 2.0 users, Pastella is a real life-saver. You can do
planets, clouds, grass... not always photo-realistically, but it's
better than nothing.


Date:    Sunday, 14 May 1995 20:47:20
Subject: Fwd: texturemapping
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail] (Mike McCool)
> To: [e-mail] (imaginemailinglist)
>
> When I map a texture, say bumpnois, to the object, it looks great on the
> object itself, before I've extruded it.
>
>     But once the object is extruded along its path into an actual
> worm, the texturemap is only applied at the TIP of the worm, and not
> along its entire length.

Umm Mike, is this one of those texture whose effect is delimited by one
or more texture axes? If so, the texture axes may be just right for the
initial object (e.g. a disk -> texture is 0.2 units deep), but this same
texture size would not cover the object once extruded, just the initial
end cap.


Date:    Sunday, 14 May 1995 21:04:05
Subject: How do you make trees ?
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
>
>      Is there an easy way to make a tree, I've been experimenting with
> some simple triangle shaped planes around an axis and some different
> textures but it never seems right. Can anybody help me?

It seems like one of the best ways is to create two brushmaps in any
paint package: 1) a tree profile, 2) the same image, but with all tree
pixels colored black and the background colored white. Create a simple
"fake tree" in Imagine by adding a plane, stretching it to the
proportions of your brushmap (e.g. a tree image 50 pixels wide by 100
pixels tall could be mapped on a plane that's twice as tall as it is
wide), and applying the two brushmaps, IN ORDER, as 1) color, and 2) filter.
The color map will show as detailed a tree as you can draw (or scan,
hint hint), and the filter map will make the flat plane opaque where the
tree is supposed to be (black), and force the rest of the plane to be
fully transparent (white). Then, duplicate the plane and rotate one copy
90 degrees in Z. Join the two, and you have something that sounds
suspiciously artificial, but will render convincingly in the background.

If you do use this technique, you may start overlapping several trees,
and should increase the Preferences parameter called RSDP (Resolve
Depth) to (2 times the max. number of overlapping trees) + 1. This
parameter tells Imagine when to throw its digital hands up in the air
and give up, when faced with complex transparency, reflection, and
refraction situations. If you add more transparency layers than allowed,
you'll get black pixels in the offending areas.

I've been told, by the way, that the renowned Pacific Data Images
animation, "Locomotion", used such mapped planes in lieu of trees.
(That's the one with the locomotive faced with the dilemma of being late
once too often)

If you really want to get into modelling, why not do the following?
Create a green sphere, add Pastella to add multiple shades of green, and
Explode it over 10 frames in the Action editor, with Triangle Scaling =
0, and Max # Triangle Rotations = 1. Then, go to Stage, and Snapshot the
exploding sphere at various frames. (Use different filenames, of course)
Finally, go back into Detail, and load the snapshots. They will give the
appearance of layers of leaves. You may want to rotate them at odd
angles to prevent the Pastella leaves from showing the same shades. Add
brown cones to create trunk and branches, and you have a geometric tree
with a definite "quick architectural sketch" style.

Using Snapshot allows you access to any Imagine animation effect, as a
modelling tool. Cool!

Any other ideas from the peanut gallery?



Date:    Sunday, 14 May 1995 21:09:47
Subject: Moving ground
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>
>
>    ...boy, I wish I had Charles's way with words, he could have said the
> same thing better in one paragraph !

*blush*

ObImagine: One can move the ground/big plane, or one can move the
brush/texture on the plane... the only differences I would see are that
1) moving the actual plane would show on the quad-views, giving you a
visual indication of the motion. This can be helpful. 2) you don't have
to create two objects and morph between them, which makes revisions easier.


Date:    Sunday, 14 May 1995 21:13:08
Subject: Moving Ground
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Jaco Gerber <docnet![e-mail]>
>
> Hmmmm, I've previously experimented with moving ground by using animated
> bitmaps..... the problem there is that Imagine has a funny way of
> stretching the animation over the duration  rather than repeating it over
> and over again. Does anyone know if this problem is solved in later
> versions of Imagine or if there is a way around it, rather than having to
> use 2000 repeats of a 20 frame animation or something equally
> harddrive space-intensive?

Instead of using a 40,000-frame animation, why not use 2,000 separate
Actor bars in the Action editor, with each bar being 20 frames long? I
haven't actually tried it, but I assume Imagine would treat each Actor
bar independently. With Imagine 3.x's cut & paste functions, it's
child's play to duplicate an Actor bar 4 times, then copy those 5 bars
and lay down 4 duplicates, copy the 25 bars and lay down 4 duplicates...
you'd get 2,000 copies with very few mouse clicks.


Date:    Sunday, 14 May 1995 21:31:07
Subject: Re: RSDP settings
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Roger Straub <[e-mail]>
>
>
> OR (watch the light bulb explode above my head) you could use the
> brushmap as a clip map! Apply the transparency brush, then apply the
> ClipTran texture! Will this work? The dox say that it only affects the
> specular spot and reflection of the clipped parts. Hmmm. Worth a try,
> perhaps?

Great comment, Roger! I keep forgetting that filter mapping doesn't
affect specularity and reflection. (It doesn't, right?) I'll have to try
real hard and remember ClipTran.

(Later...)

I just tried it, and it works! Unfortunately, it doesn't take into
account varying levels of transparency. My test brushmap was a blurred
"3", and I got a blurred red "3" where an entire plane had been defined.
So far so good. However, the specular clipping gave me very hard-edged,
jaggy outlines where the "3" became the brushmap background. Do I have
an older version of ClipTran, which might only make a crude yes/no
decision? Is there (hopefully) a newer version, which uses the
anti-aliased filter brush value, not the straight brush pixel value? Is
such a thing even possible?


Date:    Sunday, 14 May 1995 21:35:09
Subject: Re: Star Trek - Generations
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Fred Aderhold <[e-mail]>
>
> Someone suggested that you write you own Imagine manual, and I for one
> would whole-heartedly aggree(and buy it!). I always seem to "get it" from
> your explinations. Thanks!!!!

*blush* (twice the same night -- stop it, you guys! <g>) I prefer doing
what I enjoy most: the give-and-take of offering online advice. I figure
between Philip Shaddock and Steve Worley, we're pretty well served as
far as third-party Imagine 3.x references go.

Of course, there _are_ other wonderful programs which might benefit from
additional documentation and tutorials... <grin>


Date:    Sunday, 14 May 1995 23:07:30
Subject: Re: How do you make trees ?
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey y'all,

      Don't know what your platforms are, but there are a couple of 3d
tree fractalizers out there.  No offense to Vertex, but their demo is
anything BUT user friendly, while the pd tree machines couldn't be
simpler to use.  Of course, being free, they're not worth anything,
right?  :).

      Buzz me if you're interested.  I've uploaded the uu'd version so
many times to imaginoids I can do it in my sleep.

      Reminds me: there are some pretty fine tree objects up for grabs
on aminet/gfx/3dobj.

Date:    Monday, 15 May 1995 13:17:19
Subject: ClipTran texture
From:    [e-mail] (Milan Polle)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all,

in reply to Charles's question, you probably do have the old cliptran
texture. The latest version has much nicer edges (the one from the 10
texture package). One thing the cliptran texture doesn't (and can't) do
is resolve the resolve depth bug (black parts in transparant objects).
Charles, did you already ask for the textures ?

Later, Milan


Date:    Monday, 15 May 1995 14:00:02
Subject: Multiple copies of mails...
From:    Waland J F <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


After all the problems of multiple mails being sent to the list, I thought
this would be quite interesting.

I'm on the I-Amiga list (info amiga), and by mistake sent the same mail twice,
and recieved this reply...

-----included post-----------
From [e-mail]
 Mon May 15 12:54:52 1995
Received: from sersun1.essex.ac.uk by ossparc12.essex.ac.uk; Mon, 15 May 95 12:5
4:50 BST
Received: from UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu by sersun1.essex.ac.uk with SMTP (PP);
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          Mon, 15 May 1995 07:49:20 -0400
:Date:         Mon, 15 May 1995 07:49:19 -0400
:From: "L-Soft list server at UBVM (1.8a)" <[e-mail]>
:Subject:      Rejected posting to [e-mail]
:To: Jonathan Waland <[e-mail]>

Your message  is being returned to  you unprocessed because it  appears to have
already been distributed to the I-AMIGA list. That is, a message with identical
text (but  possibly with different  mail headers) has  been posted to  the list
recently, either by you or by someone else. If you have a good reason to resend
this message  to the  list (for instance  because you have  been notified  of a
hardware failure with  loss of data), please  alter the text of  the message in
some way and resend  it to the list. Note that altering  the "Subject:" line or
adding blank lines at  the top or bottom of the message  is not sufficient; you
should  instead add  a  sentence or  two  at  the top  explaining  why you  are
resending the  message, so that the  other subscribers understand why  they are
getting two copies of the same message.

------------------------ Rejected message (36 lines) --------------------------
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[snip]


even this would be an improvement on the old software (although as mentioned
before rocking the boat isn't always a good idea, when someone elses hardware
is the provider)

jon
  Jonathan Waland        University of Essex, UK       [e-mail]
A4000/030-25/882-33 14Meg Ram, 540Meg Hard, 2x Floppy, Double Speed CDROM
       <http://cswww2.essex.ac.uk/users/walaj/homepage.html>

Date:    Monday, 15 May 1995 14:06:28
Subject: Re:Babylon5 jumpgate
From:    Waland J F <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


> <deleted>
> Lets keep the thread on the jumpgate up, Does any one know of places I can
> FTP to obtain realistic looking Babylon-5 objects ? . I got some Objs but
> they have not been made well, and cause Imag 2.0 Pc to crash while rendering.
> Objects by Carmen R and others render fine so its not the software or the
> Hardware .


if you can convert them, there are some lightwave models on
ftp://tomahawk.welch.jhu.edu/pub/LW/objects

such as...
FILE:  vorlon2.lzh     SIZE:  55251 bytes
DESCRIPTION:  Vorlon Fighter, not to be confused with other Vorlon ships.
             Great object and scene file.

FILE:   jgate3.1.lha  SIZE:  24906
DESCRIPTION:  None Given

FILE:   vorship2.lzh SIZE: 360904
DESCRIPTION:  None given.

FILE: b5bluneb.lha               SIZE: 87349
DESCRIPTION: Babylon 5 object. (new)

FILE: b5delta.lha                SIZE: 653173
DESCRIPTION: Babylon 5 delta (new)

FILE: b5jgate4.lha               SIZE: 327235
DESCRIPTION: Babylon 5 Jumpgate (new)

FILE: b5statn2.lha               SIZE: 581038
DESCRIPTION: Babylon 5 station (new)

jon
  Jonathan Waland        University of Essex, UK       [e-mail]
A4000/030-25/882-33 14Meg Ram, 540Meg Hard, 2x Floppy, Double Speed CDROM
       <http://cswww2.essex.ac.uk/users/walaj/homepage.html>

Date:    Monday, 15 May 1995 15:43:53
Subject: Date & Time stamp
From:    Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Does anyone else have this problem ?  (Amiga version)

When I render a pic. and click on info. in the project editor,
the date is right, but the time is out by hours (and minutes..)
e.g. I just rendered a file at 13.00 (GMT) and it says 07.32 in
the info box.
   All other programs read my internal clock right, so where
does Imagine get this from ? (No - I'm not looking at the time to
render bit !! )   Could it be that Impulse thought it would be
funny to convert everyone to EST or whatever they use ?



--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Monday, 15 May 1995 16:06:58
Subject: DAre 2 Imagine Info
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


     Ok, apparently I made it sound like I was INCAPABLE as
     far as viewing this file.

     I am not. I was just wondering if there were any wares
     written to take advantage of the indexing job that was
     done. There are not. Fine.

     So:
     1) I CAN view and print the file
     2) I will be writing something that uses the index so
     that I can choose a topic and view the file.

     I don't know if I'll make a winhelp file or just a
     hyperlink viewer. But I'll probably do something other
     than flat text.

     -AC

Date:    Monday, 15 May 1995 17:01:09
Subject: Babylon5 Jumpgate.
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the interesting comments received, I'll try them out when I
get home . Someone mentioned the Lightwave CD ROM . How do you convert
a lightwave object into a Imagine object ?. I can use the windows Truespace
demo program to render it if I get the objects ,but I want to be able to use
it in Imagine . So , how do I convert objects from LW to Imagine TDD format
on a PC. Also it would be interesting to hear about the utils we use from
day to day for object conversion , and the ftp sites they appear on.
So mail in your details. I know of the following :

      Dem23ds    Converts Vistapro dem files into 3dstudio files.
                   (better than exporting as a DXF as 3ds files are smaller)
        3ds2pov    Converts 3DS. files to povray file format.
                   (Povray is an excellent freeware ray-tracer and is
                    available for PC,Amiga,Unix,Linux and then some) :-)
        Tdd2asc    Converts Imagine objects to Asc files ,I think the asc
                   files are used in 3d modelling progs as raw data
        DTA       Dave's Targa Animator . Creates anims from TGA's ,PCX's
                  and other graphic file formats. Creates 8 bit anims for
                  use with AAPLAY and AAPLAYHI. Also creates 15,16 and 24
                    bit anims for use with DFV .
        DFV       Dave's Flic viewer . Anim player for .fli and .flc 8 bit
                  anim files. will also view TGA files in upto 24 bits as
                  well as playing true color(24 bit) anims created with
                  DTA.

        AAPLAY is a freeware animation player for fli files. Its supports
               8 bit anims in upto 320x200 resolution.
               It also supports scripts which can be used for self-running
               presentations and such.
        AAPLAYHI is similar to the above. It also supports SVGA animations
                  in a maximum of 8 bit's (256 colours)
        CONVERT   Is a utility which reads amiga anims,fli's ,PCX's,GIFS
                  and other files and can save them to the fli format.
                   ( I dont believe that it is shareware/freeware , I believe
                  it is part of Autodesk's Animator program .I got it as well
                  as Autodesk's Animator on the cover of PCHOME magazine.
                  2 years ago. )

         The majority of the described programs are shareware and as such
         require registration after a trial period.
Well does any one else have any other interesting utils they have come across?
These files are all for the PC by the way.

BTW . Does anyone have the POVRAY CDROM ? Does it contain all the files at the
POVRAY FTP site ?

Date:    Monday, 15 May 1995 17:44:56
Subject: Re: Date & Time stamp
From:    James Brooks <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 15 May 1995, Dave Rhodes wrote:

>    Does anyone else have this problem ?  (Amiga version)
>
> When I render a pic. and click on info. in the project editor,
> the date is right, but the time is out by hours (and minutes..)
> e.g. I just rendered a file at 13.00 (GMT) and it says 07.32 in
> the info box.
>    All other programs read my internal clock right, so where
> does Imagine get this from ? (No - I'm not looking at the time to
> render bit !! )   Could it be that Impulse thought it would be
> funny to convert everyone to EST or whatever they use ?


Hmm, this is something I have said on the Mailing list a good while ago
but I did not get a response (I think).  I know this bug was around since
(I believe v2.0) I know 2.9 FOR SURE.

Good Luck


Alex

---------------------------------------------------------------
James "Alex" Brooks              Amiga 4000/040/28MHz 20MB RAM
Lightwave 3.5 / Imagine 3.0      VideoToaster 4000 3.1
Syquest 3.5" 270MB             Bernoulli 90Pro
NEC 3xp Triple Speed CDROM       Warp Engine 4028
Epson ES-600C Scanner            E-Mail: [e-mail]
--------------------------------------------------------------


Date:    Monday, 15 May 1995 19:11:01
Subject: Re: How do you make trees.
From:    Gavin Lipscombe <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[This message is converted from WPS-PLUS to ASCII]


Here`s a vague thought.  I haven`t tried it but it might just work.

If you have Vista/Vistapro create a landscape with trees in it export to Imagine

then just cut out the trees you want.

Can anyone confirm this will work as I don`t have Vista?


Gavin.

Date:    Monday, 15 May 1995 19:31:28
Subject: Form_Tutorial.lzh
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm working through Dare To Imagine's tutorials, and Steve Worley
instructs you to go to hubcap.clemson.edu and pick-up the file mentioned
above in the subject.
Hubcap's amiga section is now closed. Does anybody out there have a copy
of this file? If so could you mail me? Is it on another FTP site now?

TIA (thanks in advance)

Rod Macey
[e-mail]
.... generating ... 39.88% complete



Date:    Monday, 15 May 1995 21:25:37
Subject: Screen Size hack for 3.2
From:    [e-mail] (Dennis Grant)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

My first post to the list :)

Has anybody found the hex locations to hack the 3.2 screensize for the
Amiga binary?

For that matter, is it possible to get Imagine to work properly on a
Super72 800X600 screen?



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dennis Grant   Cycor Tech Support Staff/HTML Design/Graphic Artist/Amiga support

[e-mail]  Amiga 4000/030/6/970/'882/17" IDEK/NEC CD-ROM/14.4
CLSIP/AmiTCP
http://www.cycor.ca/TCave/                Visit Trog's Cave!



Date:    Monday, 15 May 1995 23:14:05
Subject: Quickies!
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Fred Aderhold <[e-mail]>
>
> 1. In the Detail Editor, make a default cone with 4 sections. Make it green!
> 2. Pick the cone, choose Particle from the function menu.
> 3. In the requestor, choose pyramid for the shape, specify 7 for the size,
>    random alignment, and interpolated for the centering method.
>
> Add a tube for a trunk, and you've got sort of a tree. Well, maybe more
> of a bush. But it could be a tree in the background!

Wow! What a great quickie! Anybody else have other simple techniques?
Here's mine:

1) Create a detailed, bevelled logo in the Spline editor. Save Points.

2) In Detail, Fracture the logo with a number _greater_ than 1, for
example 2.

Result: a punk-like, spiky logo. I have no idea where you may want to
use this, but you might!



Ladies and gentlemen, show us your quickies!


Date:    Monday, 15 May 1995 23:24:34
Subject: Re: Screen Size hack for 3.2
From:    "Anime a day..." <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 15 May 1995, Dennis Grant wrote:

> My first post to the list :)
>
> Has anybody found the hex locations to hack the 3.2 screensize for the
> Amiga binary?
>
> For that matter, is it possible to get Imagine to work properly on a
> Super72 800X600 screen?
>
>

  Yes, its called NewMode.   Get it from AmiNet... not sure which
directory, but it should be in util/???


I'll reply if I find it before someone else...


Bill



Date:    Monday, 15 May 1995 23:31:19
Subject: Transparent decal?
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Fred Aderhold <[e-mail]>
>
>
> Here's something I've wondered about -
>
> Is it possible to color map a brush onto an object, and have the
> background of the brush be transparent?

If your brushmap is a register-based image, for example a 256-color BMP,
simply activate the "use genlock" button in the Attributes/brushmap
requester. This will instruct Imagine to disregard any brushmap pixel
containing palette color zero. As long as your logo is drawn over a
color-zero background, you'll be all right. The actual color found in
palette position zero is irrelevant.

If your brushmap is a 24-bit image, you can still activate the "use
genlock" button, but you'll also have to go into the Preferences editor
and change the GENC parameter to match the actual color of your
background, since in 24-bit images, there is no palette, and therefore no
color zero; in this case, the actual background color _is_ relevant.
The default for GENC is 010101, meaning that on a scale of 0 to 255, any
brushmap pixel with R = 1, G = 1, B = 1 will be invisible.


Date:    Monday, 15 May 1995 23:42:39
Subject: Moving Ground
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Instead of using a 40,000-frame animation, why not use 2,000 separate
>Actor bars in the Action editor, with each bar being 20 frames long? I
>haven't actually tried it, but I assume Imagine would treat each Actor
>bar independently. With Imagine 3.x's cut & paste functions, it's
>child's play to duplicate an Actor bar 4 times, then copy those 5 bars
>and lay down 4 duplicates, copy the 25 bars and lay down 4 duplicates...
>you'd get 2,000 copies with very few mouse clicks.

There was a lot of discussion around this a while back, and I remember
people's version behaving differently. Some would loop the anim, just using
one actor bar, and some would have to use multiple bars. However some versions
wouldn't load the anim in the second action bar, for some mysterious reason.
Voodoo Magic?

Haven't tried this with 3.2, so I don't know how my version wil behave..


Torge!r

Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 01:08:03
Subject: Re: How do you make trees ?
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>     Is there an easy way to make a tree, I've been experimenting with some
>simple triangle shaped planes around an axis and some different textures but
>it never seems right. Can anybody help me?
>

You don't specify how detailed a tree you need, but here's a way to make a
quick tree -

1. In the Detail Editor, make a default cone with 4 sections. Make it green!
2. Pick the cone, choose Particle from the function menu.

3. In the requestor, choose pyramid for the shape, specify 7 for the size,
random alignment, and interpolated for the centering method.

Add a tube for a trunk, and you've got sort of a tree. Well, maybe more of a
bush. But it could be a tree in the background!

If you need more leaves, you can copy and paste the cone, then rotate the
second one to fill in the gaps. You can also make the second cone a
different color, like brown and orange for a fall tree, etc.

This method also works if you need a distant pile of rocks or something.

Now, if you need oodles of detail, there's a program for DOS called Lparser
that makes incredibly detailed trees in DXF format, but they are HUGE files.

Hope that helps!


---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

After we pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is
NOT our friend!

---------------------------------


Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 01:08:08
Subject: Transparent decal?
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's something I've wondered about -

Is it possible to color map a brush onto an object, and have the background
of the brush be transparent?

Let's say you wanted to make an orange with the word "Sunkist" on it. You
make a sphere, color it orange, apply a bump map to make it bumpy. So can
you, for example, take a white picture with red letters, apply it as a color
map, and have the white background be transparent so only the letters show
up on the orange?

In this example, I got around this by making a picture with an orange
background, so it worked ok, but I was stuck with that color of orange.

Any thoughts?

---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

After we pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is
NOT our friend!

---------------------------------


Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 02:18:08
Subject: Re: How do you make trees.
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Gavin, on May 15 you wrote:

> Here`s a vague thought.  I haven`t tried it but it might just work.
>
> If you have Vista/Vistapro create a landscape with trees in it export to Imagi
ne
> then just cut out the trees you want.
>
> Can anyone confirm this will work as I don`t have Vista?

No, VistaPro only saves the landscape info not the detail. It will save the
polygon colours though.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 05:13:01
Subject: Freelancers needed
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

We're looking for modelling and animation help for a sci-fi cdrom adventure.
 Pro experience not required (but realistic models are!).  Please email
[e-mail] if interested.

Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 06:50:38
Subject: Re: Transparent decal?
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> Is it possible to color map a brush onto an object, and have the
>> background of the brush be transparent?
>
>If your brushmap is a register-based image, for example a 256-color BMP,
>simply activate the "use genlock" button in the Attributes/brushmap
>requester. This will instruct Imagine to disregard any brushmap pixel
>containing palette color zero. As long as your logo is drawn over a
>color-zero background, you'll be all right. The actual color found in
>palette position zero is irrelevant.

Perfect! I tried it on my orange, and that's exactly what I needed. I read
the messages about the genlock button, but somehow I got the impression that
it was an Amiga video thang. Thanks to all for responding...

Now, why does the manual say I shouldn't use a 320x200 brush map?


---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

After we pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is
NOT our friend!

---------------------------------


Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 07:48:34
Subject: LightROM Vol 1 CD
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a message dated 95-05-12 09:25:25 EDT, you write:

>LightROM Vol 1 CD

Where can I get this CD-ROM

Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 09:23:19
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


     Hi all.
 Long winded quickie coming up.


  Most of the projects I make with Imagine tend to be interiors,
so I spent a lot of time trying to make decent picture frames,
but as usual, I tried the hard way first, using real-world joinery
thinking processes, i.e. I made an extruded piece of virtual wood
and tried to slice the ends off at 45 degrees, and butt four
pieces together... Oh dear me ..no no no...
   The answer was so simple that some of you will know it anyway,
but for the hard of thinking, like me, I'll post it here.
   This method makes a square frame, but by dragging the points
which make up the sides of the frame, you can easily make it
rectangular without changing the width of the frame itself-(or
ripping the canvas).

 Front view - Add axis - Pick select it - Add lines.

 Use pick method=lock to make the first point in exactly the same
place as the axis, (0,0,0 unless you moved it), and make the next
point to the left of the axis to define half the width of the
canvas, (from corner to corner), still at Z=0.


  _                                 Z   Point 1 (0,0,0)
 | |   _  point 2                   |  /
 |  \_/ \_  /        canvas         | /
 |        \____________|____________|/_ _ _ X
 |__________________________________^
          ^                         \
    Back of frame                    \
                           Last point (0,0,Z= -depth of canvas)

   Make the fancy extrusion,(turn off Lock if your grid size is too
big to allow enough detail), and make the last point directly under
the first, keeping the back of the frame and the canvas parallel to
each other.

   Now pick object, SWEEP it 360 degrees, with 4 sections,
(unless you want a round frame) and it will appear...the wrong way
round. Use the transformation requester four seperate times, in
this order, to make it easy to wrap your picture onto it.

   1. rotate Z +45 (perform)
   2. Align AXIS ONLY to 0,0,0 (perform)
   3. rotate X +90 (perform)
   4. Align AXIS ONLY to 0,0,0 (perform)

     If you make the 4 canvas faces into a subgroup, you can easily
restrict your brushmap to it, and make the rest of the frame wood,
or whatever. I love the hardwood texture with a deep mahogany color
(as long as it's taken from a sustainable forest of course)
  Judicious use of Make Sharp Edges will enhance the look of the
frame, if you want some phongy bits in it.

 Of course, sweeping it with more than four sections and scaling the
Z size will make those lovely oval cameo type frames, and sweeping it
with less than four will make a ... erm  -  mess.

Dave




--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 10:08:21
Subject: WTB: Pagoda object
From:    Toby Edwards <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does anyone know where I can lay my hands on a
Pagoda object ?

I could build it but I've got a tight schedule :-(

--------------------------------------------------------------------
A student asked the master for help... does this program run from
the Workbench? The master grabbed the mouse and pointed to an icon.
"What is this?" he asked. The student replied "That's the mouse".
The master pressed control-Amiga-Amiga and hit the student on the
head with the Amiga ROM Kernel Manual.          -- Peter da Silva
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Toby Edwards                      |               \|/
Amiga A4000 030 40mhz 68882 FPU   |              /^^^\
         500 MB HD   16 Meg Fast  |             | o o |
                      2 Meg Chip  |             |  O  |
---------------------------------------------oOO|-----|OOo----------


Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 10:35:27
Subject: About un/subscribing
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


It seems like a lot of people are going off on vacation, and needing
to unsubscribe, but are having difficulty.  Perhaps the old address
does not work any more.  Try [e-mail], maybe
twice, since our respected moderator, Dave Wickard is probably a
busy guy, and might miss the first one.

Greg Denby

Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 10:45:59
Subject: Re: Quickies
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Charles B. says, "...show us your quickies."  O.K.

Quick snow (a little memory intensive.)  Create a primitive disk, six sides.
Save as "flake." Create another primitive, anyone may do, depending on
the situation.  I like to use another 6 sided primitive disk.  Scale it
large.  Pick all edges. Fracture, fracture, fracture.  Pick object.
fracture = .5.  Bend, twist, shear, pull push, etc till well deformed.
Apply particles, specify file "flake," align to face, specify size to
something small, around 5 +- 2.  Set attribute to bright.  Render.

Of course, succeeding deformations can be used for various states, making
a swirling snow storm.

Greg Denby
[e-mail]

"Have dots, will connect."

Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 12:13:22
Subject: Re: Transparent decal?
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Now, why does the manual say I shouldn't use a 320x200 brush map?

Could it be as simple as that the 320x200 doesn't use square pixels?
But I can't understand why that should affect anything...

*---------------------------------------------------------------*
|   Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |
|   Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |
|   Sweden           |   [e-mail]              |
*---------------------------------------------------------------*

Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 13:14:00
Subject: Re: Transparent decal?
From:    Michael North <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Yeah, but your "transparent" part needs to be 0,0,0 BLACK. Then use the
> Genlock button from the brush map requestor. Seems this wouldn't work
> with TIFS in 3.1 so I had to convert the image to IFF format (on the PC
> version). I can't remember if they've fixed the TIF genlock in 3.2 or
> not. (..I believe so).

I messed with this quite a bit recently and couldn't get it to work.
Set the GENC to 0,0,0, made the transparent parts black, set the
genlock button in the requestor.  Nothing.  I ended up converting
the 24-bit tiff I was using to 256 with white where I wanted
transparency.  But this could simply be my own lack of ability
(it so often is).

Michael

Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 14:46:00
Subject: Transparent decal?
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-> From: [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)->-> Here's something I've wonder
ed about -->-> Is it possible to color map a brush onto an object, and have the
b=ack-> of the brush be transparent?Yeah, but your "transparent" part needs to b
e 0,0,0 BLACK. Then use t=heGenlock button from the brush map requestor. Seems t
his wouldn't workwith TIFS in 3.1 so I had to convert the image to IFF format (o
n the =PCversion). I can't remember if they've fixed the TIF genlock in 3.2 orno
t. (..I believe so).        ____________________________________________________
___      /_________________________________________________________\    /=3D=3D=
3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3
D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D==3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:
        =|=3D  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail]
m =|=3D  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =|=3D  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf...
"     =|=3D  =3D|          14.4k v.32bis 24 hours - 805-683-1388
=|=3D    \_____________________________________________________________/--- =FE
InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]

Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 15:57:32
Subject: Re: How do you make trees.
From:    Dylan Neill <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 15 May 1995, Gavin Lipscombe wrote:

> [This message is converted from WPS-PLUS to ASCII]
>
>
> Here`s a vague thought.  I haven`t tried it but it might just work.
>
> If you have Vista/Vistapro create a landscape with trees in it export to Imagi
ne
> then just cut out the trees you want.
>
> Can anyone confirm this will work as I don`t have Vista?

Nah, I've tried it before and it only saves the landscape. (PC and Amiga
versions)

---
                               |\ /|
                                o O
  ________________________oOO_=( ^ )=_OOo___________________________
 |                        '''     U   '''                           |
 | Gumby Death Man (Dylan Neill) Amiga 1200/6/120  486DX2-66/24/500 |
 | Email: [e-mail]   WWW: http://www.pcug.org.au/~dylann/ |
 |__________________________________________________________________|


Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 20:30:08
Subject: Re:Babylon5 jumpgate
From:    [e-mail] (Brad Molsen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> <deleted>
>> Lets keep the thread on the jumpgate up, Does any one know of places I can
>> FTP to obtain realistic looking Babylon-5 objects ? . I got some Objs but
>> they have not been made well, and cause Imag 2.0 Pc to crash while rendering.

>> Objects by Carmen R and others render fine so its not the software or the
>> Hardware .
>
>
>if you can convert them, there are some lightwave models on
>ftp://tomahawk.welch.jhu.edu/pub/LW/objects
>
>such as...
>FILE:  vorlon2.lzh     SIZE:  55251 bytes
>DESCRIPTION:  Vorlon Fighter, not to be confused with other Vorlon ships.
>             Great object and scene file.
>
>FILE:   jgate3.1.lha  SIZE:  24906
>DESCRIPTION:  None Given
>
>FILE:   vorship2.lzh SIZE: 360904
>DESCRIPTION:  None given.
>
>FILE: b5bluneb.lha               SIZE: 87349
>DESCRIPTION: Babylon 5 object. (new)
>
>FILE: b5delta.lha                SIZE: 653173
>DESCRIPTION: Babylon 5 delta (new)
>
>FILE: b5jgate4.lha               SIZE: 327235
>DESCRIPTION: Babylon 5 Jumpgate (new)
>
>FILE: b5statn2.lha               SIZE: 581038
>DESCRIPTION: Babylon 5 station (new)
>
>jon
>  Jonathan Waland        University of Essex, UK       [e-mail]
>A4000/030-25/882-33 14Meg Ram, 540Meg Hard, 2x Floppy, Double Speed CDROM
>       <http://cswww2.essex.ac.uk/users/walaj/homepage.html>

        To all, Along the same line, there are some Amiga Imagine Objects
from the show at http://www.uml.edu/Babylon-5/ . They are in the .LHA
compression format. There are also some jpegs availible for viewing also. I
would have mentioned this earlier but, I thought it had been posted to the
list before. I it has I'm sorry for the redundantcy :) .
                                        later,
                                          Brad

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Almond rocca?!! Ahhh..no thanks, I have a cat!

Brad Molsen c/o  LORAL                          [e-mail]

13810 SE Eastgate Way Suite 500                 [phone]
Bellevue, Wa 98005                              Fax: [phone]



Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 21:19:34
Subject: Re: Date & Time stamp (fwd)
From:    Wayne Waite <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  On Mon, 15 May 95 14:43:53 GMT Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]> said
[-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------]

   Does anyone else have this problem ?  (Amiga version)

When I render a pic. and click on info. in the project editor,
the date is right, but the time is out by hours (and minutes..)
e.g. I just rendered a file at 13.00 (GMT) and it says 07.32 in
the info box.
[------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------]
I too have the same problem. I don't think this ever happened on version 2
or version 3 of Imagine.


Wayne (waitey)


--
~===========================================================================~
 Wayne Waite - [e-mail] (Personal)
Connecting via Demon Internet, Finchley, London, N3 1TT. Tel: [phone]
-- Full IP Connectivity for a 10 UKP per month - no usage/online fees!! --

Date:    Tuesday, 16 May 1995 22:38:38
Subject: Re: About un/subscribing
From:    Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi [e-mail]
>
> It seems like a lot of people are going off on vacation, and needing
> to unsubscribe, but are having difficulty.  Perhaps the old address
> does not work any more.  Try [e-mail], maybe
> twice, since our respected moderator, Dave Wickard is probably a
> busy guy, and might miss the first one.
>

      I thought ALL subscribe and unsubscribe requests
should be made to [e-mail],  as sending
it to the imagine@ etc. will result in it appearing on the list ?


--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 02:00:29
Subject: Re: Transparent decal?
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> Yeah, but your "transparent" part needs to be 0,0,0 BLACK. Then use the
>> Genlock button from the brush map requestor. Seems this wouldn't work
>> with TIFS in 3.1 so I had to convert the image to IFF format (on the PC
>> version). I can't remember if they've fixed the TIF genlock in 3.2 or
>> not. (..I believe so).
>
>I messed with this quite a bit recently and couldn't get it to work.
>Set the GENC to 0,0,0, made the transparent parts black, set the
>genlock button in the requestor.  Nothing.  I ended up converting
>the 24-bit tiff I was using to 256 with white where I wanted
>transparency.  But this could simply be my own lack of ability
>(it so often is).

It depends on what you've made the picture with, I think. In my case I used
PhotoShop, and you can accuratly define the color you want as the
background. In your paint program, look for a way to key in values for
colors instead of just making it "Black". The first time I tried this,
nothing happend for me also, I found that Photoshop had made the color black
0,0,0 and GENC color was 01,01,01. In Photoshop, I specified 1,1,1 fo the
background color and all was well.

---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

After we pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is
NOT our friend!

---------------------------------


Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 09:07:06
Subject: Quickies - Hack Trees
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


     Imagine 3.x quickie:

     I've had to make a few Fantasy Cities before and show an aerial view,
     but the buildings look pretty stark without any flora, so I wanted to
     add some "trees", just something to give the eye another focus. They
     didn't need to be realistic, just "there".

     After running out of memory a few times trying to make 100 real trees,
     I changed my thinking and did the following:

     Make a primitive plain, 20x20 or 10x10, and change it's color to
     forest green.  Turn on Particles, select pyramids, make them all
     pretty large in relation to your other objects (buildings), make the
     particles render on the location of the points (don't interpolate,
     it's harder to control mentally, see below), render!

     Of course, the primitive plain might have a few too many trees, so go
     into pick points mode (Detail editor) and delete a few points on the
     plain where you don't want trees. Pick a number of points in the
     center, delete them and re-render, with your "object" in the center
     and bam! you have a forest for the trees.

     Also, I needed to surround a "suburb area" with smaller trees than the
     "rural" area's trees, so I just made another plain with a slightly
     different (lighter) color and made the pyramids smaller, deleted a few
     more points and bam! again, another group of trees.

     Afterwards, I threw them down on my land-mass, added my buildings and
     towers, rendered, and had a full map ready for use in under 2 hours,
     after wasting 2 days with real tree objects.

     This method can be used to lay down houses (cubes) or towers (Yech!)
     or anything that is large and needs alignment.

     Hmmm...I wonder what would happen if I told Imagine to Load an object
     (a Tree!)? Would it load 500 trees if I had 500 points via the
     particle effect? Or would it load just one tree, save memory, and
     simply render 500 copies of it, exponentially increasing renderind
     time...

     -AC

Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 10:22:00
Subject: Re: Transparent decal?
From:    Michael North <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> It depends on what you've made the picture with, I think. In my case I used
> PhotoShop, and you can accuratly define the color you want as the
> background. In your paint program, look for a way to key in values for
> colors instead of just making it "Black". The first time I tried this,
> nothing happend for me also, I found that Photoshop had made the color black
> 0,0,0 and GENC color was 01,01,01. In Photoshop, I specified 1,1,1 fo the
> background color and all was well.
>

Yes.  I was using Picture Publisher on the original picture and was
making the "Black" 0,0,0.  What I did was to set the 01,01,01 that
I found in the GENC slot to 0,0,0 to correspond to my color.  Maybe
I would have had better luck setting my color to 01,01,01 as you
did, though it's hard to see why that would work.

Michael

Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 10:29:41
Subject: Re: Transparent decal?
From:    Ayalon Hermony <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hello,
It's better to use HiRes mode brush map, 640x400, you'll get better results.
If you don't make the map with Amiga/IBM and move it to another platform,
it dosen't matter. If you move maps, the aspect ratio changes.

I guess the meaning in the manual was, don't use LowRes map.
You can use any dimension you need for your map, it need not be exactly
320x200 or 640x400, in Amiga's terms, it's the resolution of the screen,
in it, if you have a map that is 100x200 in 640x400 screen, it's still
a HiRes brush map, with width=100 hight=200.

When using 756x566 over scan, it's still HiRes (640x400) mode, if you 'go'
to video (PAL)

I try to make the brush map the biggest I'll need. If in your project,
your camera will zoom in on an object with a brush map, and it will fill
half the screen, and your brush map is HiRes (640x400), make it at least:
width=320 and hight=200, (it's not LoRes, it's still HiRes) you can make it
full screen of course, but it will consume memory.

Make your brush map (HiRes) the same ratio your object is.
If you have an object 50x75, your brush map should be - 50x75, or 100x150
and if you'll zoom in full screen on it, 500x750.

Learned a lot from past posts about it, in the IML.
Hope I got it right...

            How do you come back from 3D ?
Ayalon M. Hermony         Internet: [e-mail]

On Tue, 16 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

> > Now, why does the manual say I shouldn't use a 320x200 brush map?
>
> Could it be as simple as that the 320x200 doesn't use square pixels?
> But I can't understand why that should affect anything...
>
> *---------------------------------------------------------------*
> | Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |
> | Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |
> | Sweden           |   [e-mail]              |
> *---------------------------------------------------------------*
>

Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 11:50:15
Subject: Re: About un/subscribing
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


I said: "try [e-mail]..." to un/subscribe
which is wrong, as Dave Rhodes notes.  It should be (emphasis mine)
[e-mail]....(etc.). That's imagine-request@...etc.

From the mail headers, it seems that the address [e-mail]
is still functioning, but Dave Wickard did say back in Nov. that it would
become disfunctional.

Sorry for the bad pointer.
Greg Denby
[e-mail]

Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 11:57:18
Subject: Re: Quickies
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dave Rhodes writes: "Long winded quickie coming up..."

Nice picture frame, and not so long winded. Perhaps the topic should be
"Quickies, the shortest way to a good result."

Greg Denby
[e-mail]

Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 11:59:25
Subject: Re: TextureStudio v1.0.2
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
> The /pub/aminet/new directory is only for "UPLOADS".
>
>
Hey Horst,

      I used to think this was the case, but I have actually nabbed
files from the new directory.  Obviously you have to know their exact
name, since they're invisible--but it is possible to download from the
new dir.  (Files just don't stay in there very long, which is why I think I
was unable to find TS vl.0.2).

Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 12:05:27
Subject: Re: Transparent decal?
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


> It's better to use HiRes mode brush map, 640x400, you'll get better results.

I ALWAYS use a 24bit brushmap.  It just comes out better every time.  Am
I missing something here?  HiRes to me implies 16colors.  Do you mean the
SIZE should be 'hi-res?'  That is, a 24-bit pic that's 640x400? (If this
query seems too dumb, I'll understand your not responding).

Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 14:28:00
Subject: Transparent decal?
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-> From: Michael North                        <[e-mail].E=DU>->-> I
messed with this quite a bit recently and couldn't get it to wor=k.-> Set the GE
NC to 0,0,0, made the transparent parts black, set the-> genlock button in the r
equestor.  Nothing.  I ended up converting-> the 24-bit tiff I was using to 256
with white where I wanted-> transparency.  But this could simply be my own lack
of ability-> (it so often is).I dunno. I'm a bit confused about it myself. A pre
vious message said =thecolor doesn't matter, as long as the "position" of the co
lor is 0 (orsomething like that). However, in preferences it gives a specific"ge
nlock" color for non-Amiga IFFs as f0f0f0 (white), so your examplewould make sen
se. I always assumed what ever color you set for GENLOC=Kin preferences would be
 the transparent color. I always set this toBLACK.Now I'm not sure. If it's "pos
ition" and not color, what is the genlo=ckcolor setting for in preferences?--- =
FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]

Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 14:33:48
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail] (Attila Montvai)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Subject: death of my IM.3.0


People,
last night I got angry with my Imagine 3.0 so I wiped it off
 my HD.

Reasons for that (which I sent to Impulse as well) are as
follows:

1. ........................................................
   ..................................................

2. I wanted to load an ~5 Mb DXF file.
   It took me more than 1/2 hour trashing of the HD not to
   see a single line thereafter.
   Mxxxxxxxxxxxx: ~ 5 min. and the thing is there.
   (with shadow map and phong rendering is about 1 min.)
   Txxxxxxxx: ~8 min. loading time (it is a modeler, raytracer) and
   less then 2 min rendering time with raytracing algorithm.

3. After importing the thing (shareware converters)
   I made the wrong choice of attributes, so I wanted
   to change it. An other fight to get rid off the old one.
   (Imagine is buggy like Hell - you know it as well, don't you?)
    - user commands not working, (PARENT)
    - the stage editor gets corrupt after switching to other
      modules (right! not always.)
    - in my version the ZO ZI gadget do not work properly in the
      stage editor.
    - ...

4. No on-line help. It is a must even for a lousy
   shareware. Not speaking of the really good ones!

5. (Correlates with 4.) The manual like a short story written by
   an amateur writer for a charity event in a small willage.
   (I have compiled a list to argue in favour of the claim so
    I can send it to anyone
    including 'the gang at Impulse', and the author too.)
   Data, basic information missing...
   It is like looking for a specific piece of potato in a mixed vegetable
   soup.

6. The 'scanline' mode is a joke. No shadow- reflexion- ... maps.
   So I could just see: was the thing there or not -  admittedly
   with this
   buggy stuff it was a very important information! With rendering
   times and resolutions nowhere as compared to a host of decent
   renderers
   (with shadow- reflexion- and surrounding maps)
   using it was waste of time.

7. There are (FREE!) raytracers out there (and  shareware
   modellers):
   -with speed and physically correct (computed) radiance distribution
    (you guessed: Rxxxxxxx ...)
   -built in procedural texture language, parametric
    modelling (suitable for animation) - Rxxxxxx,
    ! no C, C++, ADA, LISP ..  compiler, secret knowledge, etc. needed. !!
   -CSG modeller+incredibly sophisticated raytracer (bxxxxxxx)
   - ...

8. Using uncompressed TIF as a  brush source is a fault. GIF, JPG ...
   compressed formats are widely used in the business with much
   less memory overhead.
   However  it may be necessary because of royalties, inappropriate
   code engineering, etc.
   (Don't be silly shouting at me! I got 20Mb RAM (chips))

9... (I just do not want to proceed. What for?)

A month or so ago there was a long que of wish-lists containing hints,
fancy thigs that were missing. I have the feeling Imagine is
not so far still. Fulfilling  requirements following from the points
listed above
  can be considered as a minimum
to survive in the  market (and stay alive) and beeing considered
as something professional(ish).

Conclusion: the ~ ten bucks cover-disk price for 2.0 is about right!
(To my luck I got the 3.0 relatively cheap but in a honest business.)

I miss:

the Forms editor!
the GUI - it is refreshingly different from others at least on
my abacus.

Attila
[e-mail]


1.P.S: #1.above is about platforms, RAM utilisation  etc...

2.P.S - the xxx-s are brands I do not want to campaign for,
        the results are measured.

==============================================================

      |-00000-------|    !!! M U L T I T A S K I N G !!! **
      |0-------000-0|
      |---0000------|  1.2 Hz    ABACUS, 11 rows, 13 spheres
      |---------0000|           of different colors on each
      |             |
      |             |
     ---           ---  ** can sing while tossing the balls.
===============================================================


Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 16:17:48
Subject: Re: your mail
From:    "Anime a day..." <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Wed, 17 May 1995, Attila Montvai wrote:

>
> Subject: death of my IM.3.0
>
>
> People,
> last night I got angry with my Imagine 3.0 so I wiped it off
>  my HD.
>
> Reasons for that (which I sent to Impulse as well) are as
> follows:
>
> 1. ........................................................
>    ..................................................
>
> 2. I wanted to load an ~5 Mb DXF file.
>    It took me more than 1/2 hour trashing of the HD not to
>    see a single line thereafter.
>    Mxxxxxxxxxxxx: ~ 5 min. and the thing is there.
>    (with shadow map and phong rendering is about 1 min.)
>    Txxxxxxxx: ~8 min. loading time (it is a modeler, raytracer) and
>    less then 2 min rendering time with raytracing algorithm.



   Impulse, welcome to the world of the PC market..  not 100% sure but it
looks like a safe bet to me...

Sounded like a spoiled brat, didn't it?


b0nez




Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 16:19:38
Subject: Re: UNSUBSCRIBE
From:    Marty Nussbaum <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

For all of those who wish to "Unsubscribe" we hate to see you go, but
here are the addresses that I have according to the info that was sent in
the beginning.
              "[e-mail]"
              "[e-mail]"
              "[e-mail]"
              (in order of preference)

Hope that this helps some of you. Come back soon. :)



              Marty

              ***************         _ _ /|
              *    ACK!!    *         \'o.O'
              *  Hairball!  *         =(___)=
              ***************            U





Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 16:53:00
Subject: Babylon/Star Trek Texture
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Buonincontro)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


 Is there a way to duplicate the Space ship patterns found in Babylon
and Startrek using standard Imagine textures?

          robert.buonincontro&canrem.com
---
 * DeLuxe2 1.12 #8947 * The Amiga Is Not A Religion! It's A Computer!

Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 19:13:54
Subject: Re:BABYLON 5 objects
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi ! , I've FTP'ed some Lightwave Objects onto my hard disk.
I viewed them with the Truespace demo disk (for Windows).
They look great !     Now how do I get them into Imagine 2.0 PC ?
I've got IM2LW from the aminet, but this converts Imagine Objs to LW .
I need it to work the other way round !
I've heard WC2POV mentioned, but I dont think it will output Imagine Objs.
Thanks in advance for any help .
Ramesh Suren (And an excellent Bab5 tube to boot )

Date:    Wednesday, 17 May 1995 22:04:21
Subject: Transparent decal?
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 17-May-95 13:28:00, Mike Vandersommen wrote:
>I dunno. I'm a bit confused about it myself. A previous message said the
>color doesn't matter, as long as the "position" of the color is 0 (or
>something like that). However, in preferences it gives a specific
>"genlock" color for non-Amiga IFFs as f0f0f0 (white), so your example
>would make sense. I always assumed what ever color you set for GENLOCK
>in preferences would be the transparent color. I always set this to
>BLACK.

>Now I'm not sure. If it's "position" and not color, what is the genlock
>color setting for in preferences?

The color0 only applies to index-colored pictures, that is pictures that have
a palette with anything from 2 to 256 colors. In this case the first color in
the palette is made transparent.

24 bit pictures don't have this kind of palette, so Imagine is unable to
locate any color0 in the image. This is what the prefs setting for genlock
color is all about. It allows you to specify a color in RBG, which will be
made transparent when you use 24 bit images.


Torge!r

Date:    Thursday, 18 May 1995 01:18:44
Subject: Re:your mail
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Its funny, we all love Imagine!  Wonder what's wrong with his copy!

Maybe he had 3D-Studio, and thought it was Imagine :) I can see the
frustration!

Date:    Thursday, 18 May 1995 01:34:13
Subject: Re: Transparent decal?
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


>Yes.  I was using Picture Publisher on the original picture and was
>making the "Black" 0,0,0.  What I did was to set the 01,01,01 that
>I found in the GENC slot to 0,0,0 to correspond to my color.  Maybe
>I would have had better luck setting my color to 01,01,01 as you
>did, though it's hard to see why that would work.

I could've done that also, but I was already in Windows, so I just made
another map, and made the map "black" 1,1,1. Who knows why we do things the
way we do, but as long as it worked for you, cool!

I suppose as long as the actual RGB value matches the GENC option, you could
have any transparent background color. I think the GENC color is specified
in hex, though, so it might be tricky if you wanted a purple background...



---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

After we pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is
NOT our friend!

---------------------------------


Date:    Thursday, 18 May 1995 01:34:16
Subject: Re:BABYLON 5 objects
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Hi ! , I've FTP'ed some Lightwave Objects onto my hard disk.
>I viewed them with the Truespace demo disk (for Windows).
>They look great !     Now how do I get them into Imagine 2.0 PC ?
>I've got IM2LW from the aminet, but this converts Imagine Objs to LW .
>I need it to work the other way round !
>I've heard WC2POV mentioned, but I dont think it will output Imagine Objs.
>Thanks in advance for any help .
>Ramesh Suren (And an excellent Bab5 tube to boot )

WC2POV doesn't output Imagine objects directly, but it will output a dxf
file that can be imported into Imagine...


---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

After we pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is
NOT our friend!

---------------------------------


Date:    Thursday, 18 May 1995 01:34:21
Subject: Re: Transparent decal?
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
>> It's better to use HiRes mode brush map, 640x400, you'll get better results.
>
>I ALWAYS use a 24bit brushmap.  It just comes out better every time.  Am
>I missing something here?  HiRes to me implies 16colors.  Do you mean the
>SIZE should be 'hi-res?'  That is, a 24-bit pic that's 640x400? (If this
>query seems too dumb, I'll understand your not responding).

I've always considered Hi-Res to mean the size of the picture. The number of
bits is what determines how many colors the picture has, regarless of the
size. Any pros out there have an "Official" definition?

---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

After we pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is
NOT our friend!

---------------------------------


Date:    Thursday, 18 May 1995 10:27:25
Subject: IM 3.0 Drive Wipes (long msg, 1 tip)
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


     Ya know, there's a lot of time that I've wanted to wipe 3.0 off my
     drive, too. It can be frustrating to get things to work properly with
     this package.

     Most of what I'm going to say will apply to the PC version of Imagine.
     Amiga users - ignore this message, and go on about your business. I've
     migrated off the Amiga because the oomph isn't there anymore, and I
     have 3 PC's, so I have 3 rendering engines...instead of my old
     A500/030 @ 33Mhz. If you are here for the tip ONLY, go to the end of
     the message.

     If you want to paint, you've got to learn how to use your brushes and
     pigments! Imagine is NOT a kids' toy, it is a powerful renderer that
     is EXTREMELY tempermental. The actual program interface and underlying
     memory structures SUCK for low-end machines, and they are marketing
     for low-end machines, instead of 128MB RAM computers, where we
     wouldn't notice the flaws (interface, loading objects every frame).
     But, Imagine still runs, and runs well, for compu-artists looking to
     experiment with powerful lighting and color techniques.

     I agree with many of Atilla's (?) points: Imagine is horrid in
     comparison with the marketplace, except that it CAN produce some of
     the best images. The engine under Imagine is GREAT, but we've got this
     damn rusty VolksWagen 1973 body around the thing!

     Also, I have to admit: I'm used to pulling up the help when using an
     app, and I NEVER think of doing that in Imagine. Why? Because Imagine
     DOESN'T HAVE HELP AND IT NEVER HAS BEEN USEFUL TO READ THE DOCS! In
     this respect, I agree with this guy: Imagine could use an actual
     writer to assist (by coincidence, my wife is a consulting writer,
     Halvorsen!) in creation of thier docs. If they go to WinImagine, it
     will be IMPERATIVE that they produce a help file, since there is no
     way the market would buy without on-line help. KEEP THIS IN MIND!

     IM30, however, is bad, and Atilla should have upgraded. I've noticed
     that 3.2 is MUCH better than 3.0, even though it has kept all of the
     inherent problems 3.0 had (interface, loading objects every frame).
     Some of his issues were actually addressed in 3.2 indirectly (CSG
     objects aren't possible, but SLICE works better now...)

     In closing, I hope that WinImagine comes out soon for beta-testing,
     and that it addresses many of the age-old problems we've been dealing
     with (loading objects every frame, interface) since PC Imagine 2.0. It
     would be wise to split the interface code out and make a generic
     rendering engine underneath. AFter seeing a sample of the Textures Doc
     for creation, it seems that most of the code is already modular, and
     that the interface is the last step toward completing modularity. That
     way, Amiga and PC code can still be made without too much difficulty.

     In either case, Atilla is right: Imagine BLOWS in comparison to the
     market. But we are right to still use it: Imagine costs much less than
     3D Studio and haas powerful capabilities. Yeah, I'd like to see the
     problems with Imagine solved (interface, loading objects every frame),
     but I've been around since Turbo Silver, and I already know that I
     probably won't see them solved in my lifetime. I can deal with that.
     Imagine is still a great app, and I've decided long ago that I'd NEVER
     wipe it from my drive, even when I'm up at 4AM and STILL can't get
     that tube to twist "just the right way".

     Keep up the good work, Impulse.
     -or-
     Do things right for a change, Impulse.

     Both are valid closes to this mail.

     -AC

     (interface, loading objects every frame)
     I just wanted to say it one more time!

     Useful Imagine related tip: if you try to load a DXF file that isn't
     working, look at the tail of the file. It might not be properly
     terminated. If not, do this:

     1) Use a small, properly terminated file (END is in the file, for
     example)
     2) Edit this file, copy the ermination section (I think, the last 4-6
     lines)
     3) now copy the bad file and the good file into one file. In DOS that
     would be: COPY BADFILE.DXF + ENDFILE.DXF GOODFILE.DXF where
     ENDFILE.DXF is the result of step 2.
     4) Try to re-load your DXF! I've had to do this with WCVT2POV before
     to solve it's DXF port problems.

Date:    Thursday, 18 May 1995 12:57:28
Subject: Babylon 5 converted objects
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Devilbunnies,

Been reading a bit lately concerning the inability of some users (PC I think)
in being able to convert the LWOB's especially the Bab5 stuff for their use.

Fear not, If you want converted copies of the files the a good freind of mine
has them on his BBS or will have them very shortly. So if you dont want the
hassle of finding possibly several converters to do the job then give him a
call. I don't know which area they will be in but it should be straightforward
for you to find them, amongst all of the other imagine objects that he has for
download.

His BBS is CREATIONS (North) and can be reached on 0191-455-1564, Sorry I don't
know the code for the UK if you are going to dial in from abroad, never having
to do that...

Hope that this will be of some use to some of you.

Keep up the good and very helpful work.

JR.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 Oops I've run out of Tagline idea's. Quick Brainstorm.....



Date:    Thursday, 18 May 1995 13:39:01
Subject: Re: Transparent decal?
From:    [e-mail] (Dennis Grant)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


>I've always considered Hi-Res to mean the size of the picture. The number of
>bits is what determines how many colors the picture has, regarless of the
>size. Any pros out there have an "Official" definition?

The difference is the difference between "screen size" and "display mode"

You can display a 320X200 graphic on a 640X400 screen. However, there are
320X200 screen *modes* (NTSC Low res, DBLNTSC Low Res) that I guess Imagine
doesn't like.

I believe there is an IFF chunk that sets screen mode, as well as actual size.

Just make sure you save your brushes in something other than one of the
320X200 modes.

As a side note, anybody notice that Imagine won't read IFF's produced in
Brilliance? I have to load & save them in ADPro before Imagine will use
them.

>---------------------------------
>Fred Aderhold

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dennis Grant   Cycor Tech Support Staff/HTML Design/Graphic Artist/Amiga support

[e-mail]  Amiga 4000/030/6/970/'882/17" IDEK/NEC CD-ROM/14.4
CLSIP/AmiTCP
http://www.cycor.ca/TCave/                Visit Trog's Cave!



Date:    Thursday, 18 May 1995 13:43:47
Subject: Lightwave OBJs and Bab5.
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi to all!, I FTP'ed the Lightwave Objects from tomahawk.welch.jhu
The objects are in Zip format and are about 300K in size. The Bab5 material
is excellent. Included in the ZIP files are pre-rendered Jpg and gif files
of the objects and scenes. The files include readme files. For you Lucky
amiga users out there there are Utils for conversions and such .
The LW files include animation scene files so you can render full 560 frame
anims ! Cant wait to buy LW4.0 PC when it ships , I want to see the Jumpgate
fully rendered .
Also , pastella is a useful texture for creating clouds and grass in Im2.0 .
How can I create some !
Thanks .

Date:    Thursday, 18 May 1995 14:28:03
Subject: Imagine textures
From:    [e-mail] (Milan Polle)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all,

first an important tip for Amiga imagine texture programmers. I changed
(cleaned up) my scoptions in SAS a few days ago. A few days after that I
needed a shingles texture I made earlier and which worked fine. I found out
I didn't keep the compiled binary, so I compiled it again.
It didn't work anymore.
The source code was okay, but whatever I did, the texture wouldn't work.
Here's what I found out after two days of serious stress:
TURN ON THE SAVEDS OPTION IN SCOPTS!!! This is not documented in impulse's
texture doc, but it is VERY important. Fmod will not work if you don't
(and probably lots of other functions). I turned it on by accident and
then turned it off because I thought it didn't matter.

To all who received my textures: If you make something neat with them, send
me a JPeg sometime (uuencoded) I'd love to see what you do with them.

Well, time for some more tea,

Later, Milan


Date:    Thursday, 18 May 1995 15:28:13
Subject: Font objects
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey y'all,

      Suddenly I can't seem to add font objects in Detail.  It lets me pick
my font, type in my script,--but then I get a system prompt, something like
"Blank image -- no object created."  A girl could cry.

      The only recent change in my setup is an upgrade to WB3.1.
Anyone else encountered similar frazzles?

Date:    Thursday, 18 May 1995 18:14:30
Subject: Lightning and other Natural Phenomena
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I create a Lightning type effect for my anims using a PD/Shareware util
What utilis can I use ?
You lucky Amiga users can use Phenomena on the aminet which can simulate  it .
A PC version is on the horizon I think. Also for Amiga users is a program called
Dust. This can create terminator style morphs and other great effects.
If you look at Carmen R's Stingray scene he has a great Electricity effect , I
think he may have used Essence.
Anybody know when Essence PC is out and pricing bracket (i.e. over 100 pounds,
under 100 pounds e.t.c)
I don't want to resort to drawing my lightning effect using a paint package as
I'm not to good at 2D drawing.
Tip: If you want some neat  Fractal noise textures use POVRAY 2.2 it has some
great inbuilt noise textures. Render them onto a White Bright plane in Imagine
and save as a 24Bit IFF. Use as you like.
BTW MY BAB 5 Jumpgate is looking great! Now All I need to do is animate it and u
pload it somewhere. I've never uploaded anything ,so  where do I upload it to ?
What files do I include ?
Thanks :
Ramesh R Suren.
PS.( Good Luck to all the people who have exams coming up this semester , shame
  we wont see any exam papers on Imagine :-) )

Date:    Thursday, 18 May 1995 21:33:38
Subject: Re: Project render date bug
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wayne --

I have Imagine 3.0, and I have the same problem with the dates
in "INFO" on the Project editor.  What OS are running under?
I am using AmigaDOS 2.04, and I have heard that AmigaDOS 3.x has
something or other about timezones.  Could Imagine be assuming its
running under 3.x and is getting "confused" about what the "local"
time is (this is just a wild guess)?

                            -- Dave


Date:    Thursday, 18 May 1995 23:34:17
Subject: Finding postscript fonts
From:    [e-mail] (Dave Jacob)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Just a quick question--where are some FTP sites that have postscript fonts
for the PC version of Imagine 3.0 ? I keep hearing about sites that have
shareware font files, but can't find them.

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 00:48:14
Subject: Re: object speed
From:    Kent Marshall Worley <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> > >
> > > The answer is no. Using acceleration/decceleration, or using spline
> > > velocity, you only have control over the beginning and ending behaviour.
> > > You'll need to separate your path in segments, and define multiple
> > > "follow path" bars in the Action editor.
> > >
> > I am running into this exact limitation. I am doing an animation of cars
> > racing around a track. The tedium of creating all those paths for one lap
> > would not happen if I could create a single looped path and adjust the
> > speed the object follows the path.
> >  [e-mail]
> >
I am using the multiple path segments method and it works fine. I noticed
tonight that the acceleration deceleration function is actually a
parameter to adjust how many frames it takes for the object to get up to
or slow down to a speed that you can define in that same menu. I have not
tried it yet but it should work.
 [e-mail]


Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 02:17:30
Subject: Re: Transparent decal?
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
>You can display a 320X200 graphic on a 640X400 screen. However, there are
>320X200 screen *modes* (NTSC Low res, DBLNTSC Low Res) that I guess Imagine
>doesn't like.
>

Thanks!

---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

After we pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is
NOT our friend!

---------------------------------


Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 03:26:41
Subject: Re: Neon?
From:    Derek Hardison <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

a good way to make neon is to have a 'bright' tube inside a transparent
tube with high specularity.  works like a charm.

 --
Derek Hardison     Imagine on Amiga 4000s
                            New Intelligence on Video
             Seeking Contracts or Job using Alias or SoftImage
Domain:  [e-mail]
UUCP:  ...!emory!pd.org!derekjh


Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 05:31:00
Subject: Decals
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A genlock is a device that allows you to overlay rgb animation over video.
The Imagine genlock options are for defining colors that will be transparent
when using a genlock device. They have nothing to do with "decals" on an
object. To decal an irregular shaped image onto an object the simple, tho
seemingly mysterious thing to do is to make the "backround" color, i.e.,
the color you don't want to be noticed, the same color as the object. So
if your object is rgb 125,125,200, just make the backround of the bitmap
125,125,200. Nice and clean. If you are decaling glass, just make an out
line black and white map for a Filter map in the same location as the color
"decal". With some experimentation, you can decal reflective objects also.
Imagine has all the tools, you just have to tweak them, but the power is
definately there.

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 07:36:55
Subject: Re: Date & Time stamp
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wayne Waite wrote;

>On Mon, 15 May 95 14:43:53 GMT Dave Rhodes <dave=C9darhodes.demon.co.uk> s=
aid
>>Does anyone else have this problem ?  (Amiga version)
>>When I render a pic. and click on info. in the project editor,
>>the date is right, but the time is out by hours (and minutes..)
>>e.g. I just rendered a file at 13.00 (GMT) and it says 07.32 in
>>the info box.

>I too have the same problem. I don't think this ever happened on version 2
>or version 3 of Imagine.

Yes, it probably did. (I'm not quite sure since the timing on my A500 is
completely screwed up).
This is a known bug in Imagine wich has been discussed on the IML before.
It offsets the creation time by 12 hours or something. Dunno why...

*---------------------------------------------------------------*
|   Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |
|   Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |
|   Sweden           |   [e-mail]              |
*---------------------------------------------------------------*

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 09:03:20
Subject: Re: No subject given, but could we include one?
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


     Hey Attila,

        I was never questioning your capabilities on rendering or designing
     or onprogramming. I DID question your thought processes that led you
     to wipe Imagine from the HD, even though you've re-installed it.

       I wrote a message a while back that was based on many of the points
     you've raised (We'll get back to the forms editor later). The owner of
     Impulse was not too pleased at my comments, but at least he took it in
     stride and, hopefully, decided to implement some changes. What I am
     talking about is the poor quality of documentation. There is more here
     than is worth going into, but let's just say that Imagine's docs do
     suck and we all can agree on this point.

        As far as the capabilities of Imagine, I'd think that to compare
     them against SGI's and Cray's is a little out of league. If Imagine
     could hold it's own against those types of programs, then we'd all be
     paying BIG BUCKS for what is still basically a hobbyist piece of code
     right now. Hobbyist sounds a bit cruel, but, as you've stated, there
     is a significant difference between professional and non-professional
     packages. Imagine simply isn't professional...yet.

        Comparing it to freewares such as POVRay, DKBTrace, etc, I must say
     that you are right. Even those cheapo warez have simple CSG, while we
     don't. But those warez are based on a group of college kids getting
     together and showing knowledge that they had time to create. Imagine
     is a money-making enterprise, and as such had to evaluate what options
     are useful or not. In this case (CSG), they guessed that people really
     didn't need that as much as..textures? Particles? Applique? I can live
     without CSG, but man, since I've seen particles under IM32, I'm glad
     I've got particles now! I don't see POVRay of DKB allowing EASY
     creation of snow or rain. Now if only we had TRUE Kinematics with the
     particles...and a Cray to run it on...

        Most of the people here are not able to get thier hands on the
     equuipment you've listed. If we were, we'd ALL wipe IM30 (but maybe
     NOT IM32!) in favor of a few Radiosity programs. I know I would. But
     we don't have that stuff, we're all on Amiga 4000's and P-90/P-100
     chips. And we're getting a darn good back for the buck with Imagine.

        I'd like to close with this: If you need a more powerful renderer,
     go ahead and BUY Studio 3D ($4000 US) or if you need a more intuitive
     interface, get TrueSpace (Windows, $795US), if you need CSG, get
     POVRay ($FREE, but non-portable staging). But if you need quick
     animation with powerful effects at a reasonable cost, get Imagine 3.2
     ($695 US, $100 US upgrade from 3.0) and ...

        Lets all render something, on WHATEVER box we've got!

     -AC

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 09:04:22
Subject: Re: Finding postscript fonts
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------





Subject: Finding postscript fonts

Just a quick question--where are some FTP sites that have postscript fonts
for the PC version of Imagine 3.0 ? I keep hearing about sites that have
shareware font files, but can't find them.

     I know this is useless, but I've got about 8MB of fonts from SOME ftp
     site, I think CICA.

     ftp.cica.indiana.edu?
     -AC

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 09:08:29
Subject: Re[2]: Neon?
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------





a good way to make neon is to have a 'bright' tube inside a transparent
tube with high specularity.  works like a charm.

 --
Derek Hardison     Imagine on Amiga 4000s
                            New Intelligence on Video
             Seeking Contracts or Job using Alias or SoftImage

     I assume you mean that the TRANSPARENT tube should have a high
     specularity, right?

     -AC

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 09:11:05
Subject: ?????
From:    Michael Whitten <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can somebody tell me what's going on with the Imagine Mailing List?  One
day I'm subscribed - the next, its disappeared!  Why have I dropped off?

Thanks,

Michael

 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 +    M.D. Whitten   [e-mail]    Sentience is overrated.   +
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+


Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 09:14:19
Subject: Atilla's Forms Editor
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


     Oh, yes, the Forms editor.

     Well, it's nice.

     It's not as useful as the deformation tool (is supposed to be), but
     the Forms editor did produce some nice things. I'm pretty sure that if
     you really needed to use it, you could use one of your 10 machines :)
     and just run Forms on that machine and port your objects over the
     Ethernet 100Mbps wiring between the Cray and the Indigo Reality Engine
     that you've got access to ;)

     I've never been paid to do a render that I used Forms in. And yes,
     I've done a paid job. I use Imagine as a tool, so it's not always
     being used. Since I do multimedia on PC's, there isn't as much room
     for Raytracing as I thought, so now I use it to play, create, and
     generate map/environments for the frp games my friends and I play.

     -AC

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 09:36:41
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail] (Attila Montvai)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: you got the point


Hi -AC,

(sorry for the line above, I was unable to decode
anything more appropriate from the mail) BUT:

 FIRST  I have reinstalled Imagine because:

>it CAN produce some of
> the best images. The engine under Imagine is GREAT,

and you did not mention   the Forms editor yet, which is
(at least to my praxis) essential.

My opinion is based on experience because
I am lucky enough to get my hands on a whole  line of modellers-renderers
on different platforms

(some of them: Autocad+Renderstar, Microstation, Radiance,
Truespace, Renderman, 3DS(incl. v4.0), POV, Rayshade, Bob, DKBtrace,...
Explorer (on Silicon Graphics), Radiosity program on Cray, IDL - volume
renderer on mainframe ...
under Iris, Unicos, Linux, OS/2, MSDOS, MsWindows )

* with some results (to check: Photographers Encyclopaedia International
1938 - 1983, Edition Camera Obscura, Switzerland, 1986., Vol.II - under M).

* To some extent I can write programs and  develop original algorithms
(To check: Proc. of Physics Computing 1992, Prague, + publications.)

* I am always forced to write papers (which I hate) to publish.

If I have something greate as an idea and:

I leave bugs in the code, or
I try to publish it improperly written, than

I AM DEAD (at least professionally.)

So I'm annoyed by the fact, that there is something that is potentially
UNIQE and a single phenomenon in its own class, but is let down by
amateurish compromises, which could be (partially) corrected easily.

Attila
[e-mail]




Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 11:31:37
Subject: Re: Neon?
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> a good way to make neon is to have a 'bright' tube inside a transparent
> tube with high specularity.  works like a charm.

Hey Derek,

      That's a nice tip--only I can't get it to work much unless I'm in
trace mode.

      I've found a quicker way to do it, ala-scanline, is to have
that outer tube a fog object--which also evokes a kind of neon glow.

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 11:59:01
Subject: Re: Finding postscript fonts
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Dave,
>Just a quick question--where are some FTP sites that have postscript fonts
>for the PC version of Imagine 3.0 ? I keep hearing about sites that have
>shareware font files, but can't find them.

Check out the CICA archives. They have both a directory for postscript and
truetype fonts. Since you have a PC you can also find font converters in
those archives.

There are losts of CICA mirrors around the world. My own favorite is:
ftp.nic.surfnet.nl directory /software/mirror-archive. You'll find the CICA
dir in here together with the SIMTEL and a bunch of other archives. I think
there is a README in the CICA dir, get it for some sites which might be
closer by.

Doing a search on 'postscript & fonts' might reveal a couple of nice places
with lots of fonts, Aminet has some nice PS fonts too.

Greetings Joop

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 12:35:44
Subject: Re: Imagine Hater
From:    Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Imagine Lovers
>
> Its funny, we all love Imagine!  Wonder what's wrong with his copy!
>
> Maybe he had 3D-Studio, and thought it was Imagine :) I can see the
> frustration!

    Poor guy.. I think we all hate Imagine some days, - it's a bit
like when the fat guy on the tiny moped passes your car up a hill,
you hate your car for a while, but most of us forget the frustration
and get on with the fun...

     He'll be back !


--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 12:38:02
Subject: Re: decals
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello w.graham6, on May 19 you wrote:

> A genlock is a device that allows you to overlay rgb animation over video.
> The Imagine genlock options are for defining colors that will be transparent
> when using a genlock device. They have nothing to do with "decals" on an
> object. To decal an irregular shaped image onto an object the simple, tho
> seemingly mysterious thing to do is to make the "backround" color, i.e.,
> the color you don't want to be noticed, the same color as the object. So
> if your object is rgb 125,125,200, just make the backround of the bitmap
> 125,125,200. Nice and clean. If you are decaling glass, just make an out
> line black and white map for a Filter map in the same location as the color
> "decal". With some experimentation, you can decal reflective objects also.
> Imagine has all the tools, you just have to tweak them, but the power is
> definately there.

Apparently the "use genlock" option has changed since V2.0. I used it all
the time with V2 and colour 0 was transparent regardless of the colour
used. Your suggestion of using the same background colour as the object is
fine but what if the object has a texture applied to it, which is the norm,
not the exception? You could achieve this with other programs such as Forge
or TextureStudio by duplicating the texture on a plane, saving it as an IFF
and put the decal on it in a paint program. It would still be a bit of a
fiddle though to line up the texture patterns when applying the brush.
Seems like a lot of effort compared to the easier genlock method in V2.0.

-- Bob


Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 13:24:52
Subject: Decals
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>A genlock is a device that allows you to overlay rgb animation over video.
>The Imagine genlock options are for defining colors that will be
>transparent when using a genlock device. They have nothing to do with
>"decals" on an object. To decal an irregular shaped image onto an object
>the simple, tho seemingly mysterious thing to do is to make the "backround=
"
>color, i.e., the color you don't want to be noticed, the same color as the
>object. So if your object is rgb 125,125,200, just make the backround of
>the bitmap 125,125,200. Nice and clean. If you are decaling glass, just
>make an out line black and white map for a Filter map in the same location
>as the color "decal". With some experimentation, you can decal reflective
>objects also.  Imagine has all the tools, you just have to tweak them, but
>the power is definately there.

Where on earth have you been hanging out for the past couple of years?   ;-=
)
Genlock _does_ have an effect on tacking a brush onto an object!
Just read the past couple of mails on this thread and you'll find out how.

*---------------------------------------------------------------*
|   Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |
|   Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |
|   Sweden           |   [e-mail]              |
*---------------------------------------------------------------*

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 13:30:08
Subject: Re: Finding postscript fonts
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Just a quick question--where are some FTP sites that have postscript fonts
>for the PC version of Imagine 3.0 ? I keep hearing about sites that have
>shareware font files, but can't find them.

Try any Aminet site, like ftp.wustl.edu or ftp.luth.se or...
In directory "pub/aminet/text/font" are tonnes of ps-fonts.
Try "AT1-Font***.lha", there are several of them.

*---------------------------------------------------------------*
|   Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |
|   Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |
|   Sweden           |   [e-mail]              |
*---------------------------------------------------------------*

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 14:09:07
Subject: Re:font objects
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> >
> >   Suddenly I can't seem to add font objects in Detail.  It lets me pick
> >my font, type in my script,--but then I get a system prompt, something like
> >"Blank image -- no object created."  A girl could cry.
>
>   I'm experiencing the same problem in Im3.0 and WB2.04. I haven't spent much
> time working out why, as I've been using postscript if I need fonts, but I
> was surprised to see the requestor you mention.
>

This is way weird, since I know I used to do this sort of thing all the
time.  It's not that I don't love the Spline Editor, I just didn't
have that many PS fonts to play with, so I always made 'logo' objects in
Detail.  What happened?

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 14:19:00
Subject: Brush Tacking
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm sure this is relatively simple request but I haven't been able to
figure out how to tack a picture down and use a special effect such as
explode and keep the various parts of the picture tacked down to the
various pieces as they explode.  Is this possible? If so could somebody
give a quick synopses of how this is accoplished?  I would really
appreciate any help in this regard....Tks

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 14:29:00
Subject: Re: decals
From:    Michael North <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> A genlock is a device that allows you to overlay rgb animation over video.
> The Imagine genlock options are for defining colors that will be transparent
> when using a genlock device. They have nothing to do with "decals" on an
> object. To decal an irregular shaped image onto an object the simple, tho
> seemingly mysterious thing to do is to make the "backround" color, i.e.,
> the color you don't want to be noticed, the same color as the object. So
> if your object is rgb 125,125,200, just make the backround of the bitmap
> 125,125,200. Nice and clean. If you are decaling glass, just make an out
> line black and white map for a Filter map in the same location as the color
> "decal". With some experimentation, you can decal reflective objects also.
> Imagine has all the tools, you just have to tweak them, but the power is
> definately there.

Well, there are a couple of problems here.  simply making the background
of the decal the same as the background color will not get you other
textures, bumps, etc. that may  be on that object and that may be hard
to match up.  Using the filter map dodge tends to make your entire object
transparent where the "genlock" color is, not good, unless you're doing
glass.

Michael

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 14:47:00
Subject: Decals
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-> From: [e-mail]->-> A genlock is a device that allows you to o
verlay rgb animation ove=r v-> The Imagine genlock options are for defining colo
rs that will be t=ran-> when using a genlock device. They have nothing to do wit
h "decals"= onYour definition of "genlock" is correct, though how Imagine uses i
twith BrushMapping is not. The GENLOCK button in the BrushMap requesto=rallows y
ou to make decal wraps of irregular images as long as thebackground color is pro
perly configured.(see previous posts on color position and palette selections)
 /------------------------------           ___   ___   ___   ___  | Mike van der
 Sommen                     / __  /__/  /__/  /_   \ =/  | Santa Barbara, Ca.
                  /___/ / \  /  /  /      / =\  | [e-mail]
com.com     HAUS BBS (805-683-1388)  |           "Irony can make revenge a welco
me alternative"   \_____________________________________________________________
--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 16:07:00
Subject: Re:font objects
From:    "rob (r.d.) hounsell" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mike et. al.

In message "font objects", '[e-mail]' writes:

>Hey y'all,
>
>     Suddenly I can't seem to add font objects in Detail.  It lets me pick
>my font, type in my script,--but then I get a system prompt, something like
>"Blank image -- no object created."  A girl could cry.

  I'm experiencing the same problem in Im3.0 and WB2.04. I haven't spent much
time working out why, as I've been using postscript if I need fonts, but I
was surprised to see the requestor you mention.

Rob
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Rob Hounsell                           Internet: [e-mail]            |
| DMS System Performance Development     Bell-Northern Research               |
| Dept. 7D13                             Ottawa, Ontario, Canada              |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 17:30:00
Subject: Re: DATE & TIME STAMP
From:    [e-mail] (Peter Borcherds)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


> [-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------]

>    Does anyone else have this problem ?  (Amiga version)

> When I render a pic. and click on info. in the project editor,
> the date is right, but the time is out by hours (and minutes..)
> e.g. I just rendered a file at 13.00 (GMT) and it says 07.32 in
> the info box.
> [------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------]
> I too have the same problem. I don't think this ever happened on version 2
> or version 3 of Imagine.


I have Imagine 3.0 (Amiga), and I also have this problem - I thought it was an
error with the internal clock of my A4000, but obviously not. I also use Amiga
OS 3.0. Any clues as to what the problem is?

Peter Borcherds                  E-Mail: [e-mail]

=========================================================================
              ---Greetings from the Southern Hemisphere---    :*)

             Amiga 4000/030  68882/40mhz  540mb HD  10mb RAM
=========================================================================

 * AmyBW v2.11 *
....                            19 May 95  17:59:41

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 19:50:13
Subject: Excomunicated
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have I been excomunicated or is IML gone quiet?

If the list is still humming along nicely, could someone post me so I can
resubscribe? Haven't had a post for two days now.

Thanx

Rod Macey
[e-mail]
generating ... 58.83% complete



Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 20:17:23
Subject: Re: Help!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Actually I'mnot helping I'm gonna cry :).
Why can't anyone create stuff for the amigas little brother?
I'm talkin' about the PC, Imagine has virtually NO support here on my side!
 I'll be glad to write partical systems and texture and FX if I had the
compiler!  But I have no money(and no compiler!) I already know "C"!

Arrrgggg-this is the reason Imagine is falling.  Without the hundreds of FX
like 3ds has how can it manage.  Now if Impulse make imagine able to accept
regular code! (not compiler to be REX!)

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 20:56:58
Subject: PSfonts
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey,

      Bill Graham has a bookoo of these, up on aminet/gfx/3d, or
aminet/gfx/3dobj.  I forget which.

      And in a query earlier, about being unable to load fonts into
Detail, I think I must have been remembering the olden days, when I could
do this sort of thing with Imagine 2.0.   I haven't really tried it since
2.9, and I suspect the requirement is that fonts all be PostScript.
Sorry to waste folks time.

      Speak of aminet, has anyone else had trouble www'ing there
lately, or is it just my server?

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 21:33:21
Subject: Re: Project render date bug (fwd)
From:    Wayne Waite <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  On Thu, 18 May 1995 20:33:38 -0400 (EDT) [e-mail] said
[-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------]

I am using AmigaDOS 2.04, and I have heard that AmigaDOS 3.x has
something or other about timezones.  Could Imagine be assuming its
running under 3.x and is getting "confused" about what the "local"
time is (this is just a wild guess)?

                            -- Dave


[------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------]

I am running Imagine 3.2 on an Amiga 4000/030 with AmigaDOS 3.0 so I don't
think it could have anything to do with time zones.

Wayne
..


--
~===========================================================================~
 Wayne Waite - [e-mail] (Personal)
Connecting via Demon Internet, Finchley, London, N3 1TT. Tel: [phone]
-- Full IP Connectivity for a 10 UKP per month - no usage/online fees!! --

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 21:38:22
Subject: Re: Finding postscript fonts (fwd)
From:    Wayne Waite <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  On Thu, 18 May 95 22:34:17 PDT Dave Jacob <[e-mail]> said
[-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------]


Just a quick question--where are some FTP sites that have postscript fonts
for the PC version of Imagine 3.0 ? I keep hearing about sites that have
shareware font files, but can't find them.

[------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------]

Dave--
   You can get various postscript fonts for imagine by ftp from the aminet
at: src.doc.ic.ac.uk
or at: ftp.wustl.edu
 in the gfx/3dobj directory

                        Wayne


--
~===========================================================================~
 Wayne Waite - [e-mail] (Personal)
Connecting via Demon Internet, Finchley, London, N3 1TT. Tel: [phone]
-- Full IP Connectivity for a 10 UKP per month - no usage/online fees!! --

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 22:18:35
Subject: Imagine's future... hmmm
From:    Jaco Gerber <docnet![e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

HI all,

I've been quietly following the posts about Imagine's use as a
professional tool/toy/whatever. I recently paid $100 for my first year's
subscription to the service program and I do intend to get my money's
worth. The problem is that a lot of people see things wrong with Imagine
but never mention it.... The whole point of the service program is to
have Imagine grow to the needs of the users.

If Impulse don't know what we want, how can they change/add anything?
They won't do a thing unless the demand for it is great either. I believe
that the strength of that kind of informatioion to Impulse could come
from lists like this one. If a whole bunch of people write/email Impulse
and say 'Hey, this stinks, why dn't you just keep the already loaded
objects from frame to frame and just load in the new ones and the new
positions, it'll be faster and more efficient.' they just might alter the
code accordingly. Hell, there's a lot of things I can think  of that I
would want in Imagine, but even if everyone else want the same things and
only I say anything... it won't happen... and I myself am guilty of not
saying anything, so I'll just have to get my butt in gear too.

OK, yes... the service program IS just another money-making scheme, but
hey... if they claim they're gonna do something for that money, they
should. Imagine is like a 3-year old... and it still has a long way to go
before it grows up and matures. To have a kid grow up you gotta feed the
damn thing though... so if you have the time and you are on the service
program, please do write Impulse. Actually... I'd like to know what
people are thinking too, so maybe the IML is a good place to discuss what
should be done to/with Imagine.

If you read through this and didn't fall asleep, thanks. :*)

Happy modelling.... and if any of you have a Digimax, or have seen one
working, I'd like to know what its like...

Thanks again,
Jaco Gerber


Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 23:01:48
Subject: Re: Brush Tacking
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On 19 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

> I'm sure this is relatively simple request but I haven't been able to
> figure out how to tack a picture down and use a special effect such as
> explode and keep the various parts of the picture tacked down to the
> various pieces as they explode.  Is this possible? If so could somebody
> give a quick synopses of how this is accoplished?  I would really
> appreciate any help in this regard....Tks
>

OK. Create your object. Pick it. Choose the `States' command under the
`States' menu. Click on `Create'. Name your state. Now go into Attributes
(F7) and bring up the info screen for your map. type your state's name
into the `LockState' field. Click on OK. That's it. Now you can use
explode, shredder(if you're lucky and have 3.2), particles, whatever, and
your map will be tacked to the object as if you painted it there yourself.

See ya,
      Roger

Date:    Friday, 19 May 1995 23:47:02
Subject: No subject
From:    [e-mail] (Anders Lattermann)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone got an address and faxnumber to Elastic Reality?

Thanks!

/Anders Lattermann - Jag =E4r PC aktiv!


Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 02:03:32
Subject: TIP...OCTREES
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi, I always wonder what the hell octrees are!  Imagine uses them, I know
that, but what are they? Well after reading a book I finally figured it out!
 Octrees are a method for spliting up the screen into boxes-the spliting
continues on places on the screen where only objects are-eventually stopping
at a certain level (# of levels in octree)
The octree is used as a means of determining the contents of parts of the
screen so the renderer doesn't have to run intersect test on all objects.

Anyway heres the tip-If you have an animation of a dog fight with 20 planes
doing barrel rolls and stuff, keep the Octree level high! So you can be sure
of a high enough octree resolution.
But, if you have a single object(or two :) lower the levels. With one object
the # of levels can be two!
REASON-octrees may sound cool but the time needed to transverse the octree
list(nodes)can kill the preformance, so, keeping the # low can significantly
increase preformance!

                                               ----Lumbient

Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 03:20:28
Subject: Re: Transparent decal?
From:    Ayalon Hermony <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Wed, 17 May 1995, Mike McCool wrote:

>
> > It's better to use HiRes mode brush map, 640x400, you'll get better results.

>
> I ALWAYS use a 24bit brushmap.It just comes out better every time.  Am
> I missing something here?HiRes to me implies 16colors.  Do you mean the
> SIZE should be 'hi-res?'That is, a 24-bit pic that's 640x400? (If this
> query seems too dumb, I'll understand your not responding).
>

Sorry for not explaining it right...

By writing 640x400 I meant HiRes interlace in Amiga's terms.
With Amiga you can have 16 colors (HiRes), 256 (AGA) 3-4 Milions (DCTV)
or 16 milions (a 24bit graphics card, IFF-24 pic)
Imagine for the Intel (PC) it's HiRes as well, 640x480. And could be 256
colors, 15, 16 or 24bit.
Your brush should be 24bit, not Amiga HiRes 16 colors (4bit).
If you don't need 24bit, you can use less (16 or 256 colors) it'll save
you memory.

Amiga has 320x200 LoRes (non-interlace) 320x400 LoRes (interlace)
640x200 MedRes (non-interlace) and 640x400 HiRes (interlace)

Intel PC has either 320x200 LowRes 8 bit (fli type animation)
or 640x400 HiRes 8 bit (flc type animation) you can do 16 bit and 24 bit
flc, flh and flx.

I should not post at 2 A.M again...


           How do you come back from 3D ?
Ayalon M. Hermony      Internet: [e-mail]


Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 03:27:07
Subject: Lightning and other Natural Phenomena
From:    [e-mail] (Tom Ellard)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Originally-From:     <[e-mail]>
>To: [e-mail]
>How can I create a Lightning type effect for my anims using a PD/Shareware util

>What utilis can I use ?

Also have a look at BlackBelt's "WinImages:FX" which isn't PD/shareware but
comparatively cheap. It does lightning, fire, auras and all sorts of image
processing with effects over time. There is a demo at blackbelt.com

Tom Ellard, Severed Communications Australia [e-mail]


Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 11:11:33
Subject: Digest
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi,
      My research are finally done. The Digest capable mailing list software
is free and you can get it at this anonymous ftp site;

      ----->     ftp.GreatCircle.com
in the directory ->  pub/majordomo

      I hope that IML will be switch to majordomo. It will please people
who wants DIGEST and people who wants single messages (like the present software
).

Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 12:06:33
Subject: Re: TIP #0001, Ummm...Water.
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Sat, 6 May 1995, Charles Blaquiere wrote:

> > From: [e-mail]
> >
> >
> > I've tried to use the mnttop texture to get whitecaps but I'm not sure
> > how to use the texture.
>
> I don't think it will work. MntnTop adds another color to any part of
> an object which sticks out, above the texture's zero Z level. For this
> to work, your object mush have actual bumps and valleys, like a modelled
> mountain.
>
Maybe this is not very helpful, but I thought you might find dinoskin
useful in this case too. Dinoskin is a very flexible texture which can
produce loads of other kind of surfaces than dinoskin.
The shape of the bumps can be modified to a great extend by adjusting the
noise values. Also, you have control of how "widely" the bumps are
colored by adjusting the color clip value. So you can certainly make some
kind of whitecaps (if I understand correctly the term) with it without
having actual modelled bumps in the object.

Marty


Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 12:25:53
Subject: Black triangles
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Mon, 8 May 1995, Milan Polle wrote:

> Then it modifies the second layer's attributes (that is where there is
> another bug, I didn't think of making the first layer completely transparant)
> The buggy faces (well I don't think they are faces, just triangular artifacts
> due to the faceted nature of the object) occurr perpendicular to a shadow
> casting lightsource (without shadowcasting the problem is gone).
> Also the artifacts only seem to show up on objects with high detail.
> Now the reason for the artifacts seems to be that the rays behave differently
> for calculating shadows (more rays are traced). I will have to see if I can
> filter out the right rays in order to remove the bug, but I haven't
> succeeded yet.

I haven't tried Milan's glass texture yet, but I wonder if the black
triangles are something new. I mean, if I render a complicated object
with lots of curved surfaces (which, of course are not actually curved
because they are made of flat faces) in trace with shadow casting light
sources, there are always a few dark triangles here and there. And they
certainly _are_ faces that are shadowed completely as if the phong-effect
wasn't working in that spot.
Have you ever tried rendering a landscape with a sunset, so that the
mountains in the horizon would cast long shadows on the valleys? It's
awful, especially if the faces on the landscape object are large (if you
dont't have 30 megs of Ram, they have to be quite large): the shadows are
anything else but smooth.
I think this is because the drop shadows really don't handle the phong
effect. So, a face is either totally lit or totally in the shadow. I
wonder if this has been fixed in 3.2...

Marty


Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 12:49:50
Subject: Re: Re[2]: Newsgroup ? TempStorage
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Tue, 9 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

> > > newsgroup is quite popular.  Why not an Imagine newsgroup?
>
> Every year about this time, the same topic comes up.  I think this has occurre
d
> for the last two years, not including this year.  People complain about wasted

> bandwidth, off-topic discussions and the like, but isn't this more of the same
?
>
I have considered for a while now whether to unsubscribe or not. Simply
because there might often be a week or too when I don't have a
possibility to use the net. After such a break there are more than 300
articles to check out.
I have one suggestion that might lessen the amount of mail a bit
(someone has probably said this before). I have noticed that there are often
responses that are clearly aimed to one person only. Such as

"Thank's for your help..." (please be thankful for help, but dont't thank
everybody),

"What kind of hardware do you have..." (if it's essential for the
subject, ask it via personal mail and state it in the reply to IML),

"This does not belong to IML...",

"What do you mean..." (the answer to this could be mailed to IML)

and so on.

So, please reply personally if it's targeted to one person only. I'm sure
you folks don't think that I'm being inpolite here.

Marty

Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 13:07:49
Subject: Re: About Particles
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Fri, 5 May 1995, FERNANDO PENA D'ANDREA wrote:

>     I use a version of Imagine thet has no particles (2.0) :( .
>     I want to do a scene containing an object made with little cubes
> in a sphere pattern, as the cubes were the sphere's vertex. More: I
> want to do the cubes spin arround itselves to produce a nice effect
> in my sphere. A friend told me that only particles makes it possible
> (just a C='s remenber), but without particles, no way men (and women
> too!) If you have a soluction, help me please

Well, it depends on how small you want the cubes to be. If you want
hundreds of them then it might be very hard to model the sphere made of
cubes.
But if you are satisfied with,say 34 cubes, here's a suggestion:

1. Make one cube (for example, add primitive->plane: hor. & vert.
sections 1 -> extrude).

2. Move the axis into the middle of the cube using shift+move.

3. Copy and paste it to make a ring of 8 cubes. You can firs add a disk
with 8 corners for reference. After duplicating the cubes, destroy the disk.

4. Now make a ring of 7 cubes in the same way. move them above the ring
of 8.

5. Make a ring of 5 (or maybe 4) cubes. Move it abobe the previous ring.

6. Copy one cube and move it on the top of them all.

7. Adjust the vertical positions so that the overall shape is a semisphere.

8. Select all the cubes that are not in the lowest ring and group them.
Copy and paste this group.

9. Use transformations to mirror the group vertically (scale z-axis to
-1). You get the lower half of the sphere of cubes.

10. Group all the cubes together and save the group.

11. Use tumble effect in the action editor to rotate the individual cubes.

There might seem to be a lot of work in this. But I don't think there
really is. Because copying and pasting is really quick and easy.

Marty

Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 13:24:41
Subject: Re: object speed
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


My method of getting variable speed on a path: get rid of the path!
Confused? You won't be after this episode of advice.

First, make your path. Make an object follow the path (it might be just
an axis) in the action editor.
Now, load the actual object that is supposed to follow the path. Make
changes to it's position and alignment in regular intervals (every 10th
frame, every 20th frame - depends on the density of curves in the path,
if your path is very variable, you might want to use irregular interval)
using the previous object (let' say its an axis: it's an axis) as reference.
When you want to slow down the object's speed place it a little behind
the axis, when you want it to speed up, make it catch up the axis or
place it in front of it, and so on. Remember to make position and
alignment bars for each key frame. If your object is for ecample a car on
a road, don't align it to the path in the curves: Make it turn a little
too early and straighten a little too late.
When all is well, destroy the path and the axis. Some people might want
things to be controlled more automatically, but manual key framing is
still a good way to make nice animations!


Marty


Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 13:45:23
Subject: Re: font objects
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi All,

>> >
>> >  Suddenly I can't seem to add font objects in Detail.  It lets me pick
>> >my font, type in my script,--but then I get a system prompt, something
like
>> >"Blank image -- no object created."  A girl could cry.
>>
>>   I'm experiencing the same problem in Im3.0 and WB2.04. I haven't spent
much
>> time working out why, as I've been using postscript if I need fonts, but I
>> was surprised to see the requestor you mention.
>>

>This is way weird, since I know I used to do this sort of thing all the
>time.  It's not that I don't love the Spline Editor, I just didn't
>have that many PS fonts to play with, so I always made 'logo' objects in
>Detail.  What happened?

I think Imagine started behaving like this when the PC version was made. The
PC users don't have Amiga bitmap fonts so the dropped support for from
Imagine but FORGOT to remove the relevant menu item. Postscript fonts are
better anyway IMHO.

Greetings Joop

Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 14:19:00
Subject: Brush Tacking
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-> From: [e-mail]->-> I'm sure this is relatively
simple request but I haven't been able= to-> figure out how to tack a picture do
wn and use a special effect suc=h a-> explode and keep the various parts of the
picture tacked down to t=he-> various pieces as they explode.  Is this possible?
 If so could som=ebo-> give a quick synopses of how this is accoplished?  I woul
d really-> appreciate any help in this regard....TksIt's always amazing how some
one seems to ask the very question youare currently wrestling with? I had the sa
me problem, and it "appears="that ...atleast with Shredder... you can't tack bru
shmaps on explodedparts. However, you can fudge by making a subgroup of parts yo
u want =to"shred" leaving in tact the part with your brushmap. Just color yourob
ject to kinda match the map, so when it explodes (or shreds) itappears to be par
t of your map. If there really IS a way to makebrushmaps TACK to exploded pieces
, I'd love to hear the technique!BTW, if you haven't played with the Shredder Effect, DO! It's a GAS!!   /------------------------------
   ___   ___  ___   ___  | Mike van der Sommen                     / __  /__/ /_
_/  /_   \ /  | Santa Barbara, Ca.                     /___/ / \  /  /  /     /
\  | [e-mail]     HAUS BBS (805-683-1388)  |
    "Irony can make revenge a welcome alternative"   \__________________________
___________________________________--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Bar
bara, Ca - [phone]

Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 14:44:00
Subject: Multimail
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

My apologies for any multicopy posts from me. I have no idea why it s=entout so
many copies.....but I will investigate.Sorry for the irritation. (I got nine bou
nced returns of the samemessage myself). Wierd!--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS
 - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]

Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 15:04:14
Subject: >Dave Wickard  [phone]   "It's not the SIZE of your ima
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUBJECT too long. Original SUBJECT is '>Dave Wickard  [phone]   "It's not
 the SIZE of your image,'

----------------------  Original Message Follows  ----------------------

>[e-mail]     it's how you MANIPULATE it."
>[e-mail]    -ancient proverb from Amiga Kama Sutra
>[e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>
>
OK...

Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 17:04:00
Subject: Re: flc-scr/imagine-svga/interchange
From:    [e-mail] (Dan Gervais)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
>
>dear all,
>i`ve a few questions i would love answering:-
>1.is interchange available for the pc? if so, who what etc.
this I don't know. sorry.
>2.how do you get the svga modes in imagine 3.0? i`m stuck in 320x200 and i
> know a few more who are too.
What I did was use the presets button but if yours is messed up all you have
to do is plug in the values for the screen resolution in the Preferences.
You need to also make sure your videocard has the VESA mode activated or you
get a VESA driver.  Mine worked right away and I have a cheapo card.
>3.how do you create a windows screensaver from an flc or any other form of
> anim?thanks for reading - please help if you can. Regards P.T.
WEll I know that Moon valley has an inexpensive package called RoMaterial
Again and it has a thing called video savers but it only playes avi's.  I am
checking out a piece of shareware that supposedly makes AVI's and such from
targas and tiffs.  I'll share more later when I get it working.  Its called
Playit.  Anyone else use this package?
Dan

>
>|
>| Internet: [e-mail]
>|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
>| Gated from RAYTECH BBS - free access raytracing support in the UK |
>|------------------------- call [phone] modem - 24 hours ! |
>
>


Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 17:32:58
Subject: Lost Mail
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Imagineers,
I have just found out what was wrong with my mail box.
If anyone has sent me mail in the past three days, would you be so kind
and send it again please. Also, if there were any important messages,
relating to Imagine, that were posted to IML, could someone out there who
can take pity on a stupid bumbling idiot and send them to me as well.
Any help at all would be most appreciated.

Rod (sorry for my stupidity) Macey
[e-mail]
.... generating ... 39.49% complete

20/5/95





Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 17:43:08
Subject: States bug! and fix
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


I'm using v. 3.2 on the PC (will check to see if this "feature" also
occurs on the Amiga) and just ran into an awkwardness in states.

Without going into to much detail, I'll just say that I deformed
some objects by both manually moving points and by scaling the object.
As I did this, I defined the various shapes as State One, Two, etc.
as usual.  I made a states anim in detail, and everything appeared
O.K. I then went to Action and set up the scene.  When I rendered a
test in Stage, the motions between the states were frequently jerky,
or sometimes absents.  At first I thought it might be a problem
with the "spline" interpolation in the states, so I turned that off.
This did not remedy the problem.  I went back into Detail, checked the
states, did another anim, and everything looked fine.  Detail anims
and Project anims showed the same flaws nevertheless.  After watching
the messed up anims for a while, it looked like the various states
were "hitting walls," as it were. !a clue!

I went into Action and deleted the objects size bar.  It worked!

It seems that if an object has had its size changed by moving points
in one state, and its size changed by scaling in another state,
Imagine is ubable to morph smoothly, at least outside of Detail.

So, watch out for this kink.

Greg Denby
[e-mail]

P.S. As to the recent comments about having online help, my own feelings
are that I can readily do without it.  Help files just takes up room
on the drive, and space on the screen.  Just give me a nice spiral
bound manual with a really complete Index (hint hint to the powers)
                    ---------------------


Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 17:44:55
Subject: Viewmodes
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just a quick question about the above.

I want to create images to be used for printing.
If the resoloution and aspect ratio was a custom setting, and the file
format was ILBM24, does a viewmode have to be selected?
Basically I require my images to be 1:1 ration at varying sizes. Is the
viewmode setting there just to add a pallette  or something for displaying
on Amiga? If I pick HAM or HIRES or whatever, does this affect the
quality of the image or will it always be 24bit?

Thanx
Rod (back to imagine) Macey
[e-mail]
.... generating ... 94.93% complete




Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 18:32:00
Subject: Flc-scr/imagine-svga/interchange
From:    Paul Townend <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



dear all,
i`ve a few questions i would love answering:-
1.is interchange available for the pc? if so, who what etc.
2.how do you get the svga modes in imagine 3.0? i`m stuck in 320x200 and i
 know a few more who are too.
3.how do you create a windows screensaver from an flc or any other form of
 anim?thanks for reading - please help if you can. Regards P.T.

|
| Internet: [e-mail]
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Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 19:04:58
Subject: Re: About Particles
From:    Bush Doktor <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sat, 20 May 1995, Martin Keitel wrote:
>
> On Fri, 5 May 1995, FERNANDO PENA D'ANDREA wrote:
>
> >     I use a version of Imagine thet has no particles (2.0) :( .
> >     I want to do a scene containing an object made with little cubes
> > in a sphere pattern, as the cubes were the sphere's vertex. More: I
> > want to do the cubes spin arround itselves to produce a nice effect
> > in my sphere. A friend told me that only particles makes it possible
> > (just a C='s remenber), but without particles, no way men (and women
> > too!) If you have a soluction, help me please
>
> Well, it depends on how small you want the cubes to be. If you want
> hundreds of them then it might be very hard to model the sphere made of
> cubes.

  Time consuming stuff deleted...
>
> Marty

      Wouldn't Ian's STARS.LHA do what he he wants?  Works great for me.

Bush


Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 20:13:00
Subject: Re: flc-scr/imagine-svga/interchange
From:    [e-mail] (Dan Gervais)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I got my Video for windows installed and this thing works!  It's a little
flakey but I have created an AVI with The targas generated by Impulse 3.0
for the PC.  I am delighted to find that For very little money I can make
AVI's of 3D stuff.  It has quite a bunch of options for compression so you
can get the AVI down to a resonable size.  One small caveat, you have to
have frames starting with 0 not 1 so I just copied the first frame to
pic0000.tga and it worked fine.  One other thing I discovered is that is HAS
to have consecutive frame numbers.  I had an anim that I put in a skip
amount when I generated the frames and I had to re-render the rest of the
frames.  I could have renumbered but in this case it was easy to make the
rest of the frames.
I hope this helps anyone out there who was wondering about Imagine and AVI's
Dan


Date:    Saturday, 20 May 1995 22:41:26
Subject: Re: About Particles
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 20-May-95 12:07:49, Martin Keitel wrote:

>Well, it depends on how small you want the cubes to be. If you want
>hundreds of them then it might be very hard to model the sphere made of
>cubes.
>But if you are satisfied with,say 34 cubes, here's a suggestion:

[...snip...]

>There might seem to be a lot of work in this. But I don't think there
>really is. Because copying and pasting is really quick and easy.

It is also posible to replicate the cube alogng a primitive sphere.

Just add a primitive sphere, make a tiny cube, and replicate it along a path.
Type in the sphereobject name (should be sphere) as the path, enter the number
of copies, and *Shazam*! You have a sphere covered with cubes...

If you want the cubes to be perpendicular to the sphere surface, check the
allign Y axis to path box.

You will notice that this produces one object, so the tumble effect won't
work. in order to solve this, select the object, select slice, and it will
make each cube a child object, and create a parent axis. Now tuble (and sway)
will work perfectly.


Torge!r

Date:    Sunday, 21 May 1995 00:10:45
Subject: Re: Black triangles
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Martin, on May 20 you wrote:

> I haven't tried Milan's glass texture yet, but I wonder if the black
> triangles are something new. I mean, if I render a complicated object
> with lots of curved surfaces (which, of course are not actually curved
> because they are made of flat faces) in trace with shadow casting light
> sources, there are always a few dark triangles here and there. And they
> certainly _are_ faces that are shadowed completely as if the phong-effect
> wasn't working in that spot.
> Have you ever tried rendering a landscape with a sunset, so that the
> mountains in the horizon would cast long shadows on the valleys? It's
> awful, especially if the faces on the landscape object are large (if you
> dont't have 30 megs of Ram, they have to be quite large): the shadows are
> anything else but smooth.
> I think this is because the drop shadows really don't handle the phong
> effect. So, a face is either totally lit or totally in the shadow. I
> wonder if this has been fixed in 3.2...

As I understand it, phong is for smoothing edges not faces and if Imagine
decides a face has to be in shadow it can't split that face and colour part
of it.

You will have to fracture some of the faces to get more detailed shadowing.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Sunday, 21 May 1995 00:39:50
Subject: Re: Help!
From:    Kelly Petlig <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  You'll find that there are many fewer 32 bit C compilers for the PC
than the Amiga, so many of the texture support is more difficult.  Amiga
users also tend to be more of a roll-your-own group.  Don't fret, though,
as the Imagine/Turbo-Silver platform has only been out on the PC one
fifth the time as it has the Amiga.

ObImBit: A vortex type object looks great with a wide angle lense, trick
is to make it look like a vortex.  Use ADPro to "Twirl" almost any image
and map it X&Z flat onto the vortex object.

Mr.Kelly Petlig <[e-mail]>
(Yes, I'm using an Amiga computer)


Date:    Sunday, 21 May 1995 00:44:37
Subject: Re: object speed
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Martin, on May 20 you wrote:

>
> My method of getting variable speed on a path: get rid of the path!
> Confused? You won't be after this episode of advice.
>
> First, make your path. Make an object follow the path (it might be just
> an axis) in the action editor.
> Now, load the actual object that is supposed to follow the path. Make
> changes to it's position and alignment in regular intervals (every 10th
> frame, every 20th frame - depends on the density of curves in the path,
> if your path is very variable, you might want to use irregular interval)
> using the previous object (let' say its an axis: it's an axis) as reference.
> When you want to slow down the object's speed place it a little behind
> the axis, when you want it to speed up, make it catch up the axis or
> place it in front of it, and so on. Remember to make position and
> alignment bars for each key frame. If your object is for ecample a car on
> a road, don't align it to the path in the curves: Make it turn a little
> too early and straighten a little too late.
> When all is well, destroy the path and the axis. Some people might want
> things to be controlled more automatically, but manual key framing is
> still a good way to make nice animations!

Has anyone used Association in the Action Ed to any degree. I've done basic
movements as a test but nothing elaborate. It could be used in the car
example, the manual says you can associate objects and still alter their
position and orientation while maintaining the association.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Sunday, 21 May 1995 02:17:50
Subject: Re: Viewmodes
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Rod, on May 20 you wrote:

> Just a quick question about the above.
>
> I want to create images to be used for printing.
> If the resoloution and aspect ratio was a custom setting, and the file
> format was ILBM24, does a viewmode have to be selected?
> Basically I require my images to be 1:1 ration at varying sizes. Is the
> viewmode setting there just to add a pallette  or something for displaying
> on Amiga? If I pick HAM or HIRES or whatever, does this affect the
> quality of the image or will it always be 24bit?

Viewmode sets the Amiga screen resolution that will be used when the
picture is displayed.  You could for example render a 320x256 image and
select a viewmode of HIRES/LACE, after rendering, the image will be
displayed on a HiRes Lace screen when you view it. The Width and Height of
the image is the page size and is independant of the screen resolution.
These settings don't alter the palette but the aspect ratio will be
different for various screen modes. If you want a 1:1 ratio select either
LoRes or HiRes/Lace.  The HAM button is only for viewing, your rendered
image will still be 24-bit.

Try this test pattern:- set up a project to render a primitive disk
(default settings). Set your camera so the disk looks like a circle in the
perspective view. In the Project editor, select a preset of LoRes (320x256)
with all the viewmodes off. Render. Select Show. Now select Modify and
select the LACE viewmode and render again then Show. You will see the disk
is now egg shaped because you are displaying a 256 pixel image on a 512
display and the horizontal resolution is the same. You can see how this
could affect your print-out.


-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Sunday, 21 May 1995 11:41:16
Subject: SOS - HELP!!
From:    "Myles.Johnson" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Help!!  I,ve got some work on that involves writing a basic set of 3-d modelling
 tools.  This involves implementing a volume sweep which allows 3-d objects to b
e created from solid 2-d shapes.  If any of you out there have experience in gra
phics programming then I would love to hear from you!!  Im thinking of implement
ing the package in either Turbo C++ or Visual Basic.  At the moment im really st
ruggling with the volume sweep implementation.

Date:    Sunday, 21 May 1995 12:16:41
Subject: Probs With Attributes
From:    [e-mail] (Bill Falconer)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi There Imagineers,
                    I just got a copy Imagine2 on a PcFormat Coverdisk and
realised that there was no Attributes included. So I grabbed my Amiga Imagine2
Attributes and I am now using them. The problem is that when in Attribute
requester I load the Attribute in and realise that only last 2 RGB values
are present the rest of the selections are correct. I have also noticed after
rendering the Image there is a Light Blue tinge to the so Called Perfect
White Lights. So I reset and the Lamps to white (255,255,255) and still I
get that blue tinge ( CYAN).

        Any Help on these 2 problems would be greatly appreciated.

 reagards

 Bill Falconer

V-Tag:
Gravity doesn`t exist: the earth sucks.
Bill Falconer
Written on The Attic BBS .Contact me on the BBS as Bill F  or mail me at
[e-mail]

Date:    Sunday, 21 May 1995 18:54:06
Subject: Re: Probs With Attributes
From:    Kelly Computer Consultants <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sun, 21 May 1995, Bill Falconer wrote:
> The problem is that when in Attribute
> requester I load the Attribute in and realise that only last 2 RGB values
> are present the rest of the selections are correct. I have also noticed after
> rendering the Image there is a Light Blue tinge to the so Called Perfect
> White Lights. So I reset and the Lamps to white (255,255,255) and still I
> get that blue tinge ( CYAN).

This was a known bug with 2.0; the RGB values are actually shifted one
field over, so the Red value is left blank (0) and the other two values
are taken from the preceding field.

It was fixed in 3.0.

Doug Kelly
Kelly Computer Consultants

Date:    Sunday, 21 May 1995 19:02:56
Subject: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    [e-mail] (Dave Jacob)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


I want to extrude some postscript text in the spline editor, and I'm
following the manual,s instructions, but when it comes time for Imagine
to display text, all it displays is an axis. No text appears at all. I've
got PC Imagine 3.0 -- can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong, or what
button to push?

Any help appreciated--thanks.

Date:    Sunday, 21 May 1995 22:10:00
Subject: Re: flc-scr/imagine-svga/interchange
From:    [e-mail] (Dan Gervais)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I forgot to say what the program was.  It is playit from:
    Shamrock Systems and Technology
    #428, 10636 - 120 Street
    Edmonton, Ab, T5H 4L5
    Canada

    You can contact Shamrock Systems for business other than orders at
    FAX:                    403-426-5040
    Compuserve              70274,24
    Internet                [e-mail]

>I got my Video for windows installed and this thing works!  It's a little
>flakey but I have created an AVI with The targas generated by Impulse 3.0
>for the PC.  I am delighted to find that For very little money I can make
>AVI's of 3D stuff.  It has quite a bunch of options for compression so you
>can get the AVI down to a resonable size.  One small caveat, you have to
>have frames starting with 0 not 1 so I just copied the first frame to
>pic0000.tga and it worked fine.  One other thing I discovered is that is HAS
>to have consecutive frame numbers.  I had an anim that I put in a skip
>amount when I generated the frames and I had to re-render the rest of the
>frames.  I could have renumbered but in this case it was easy to make the
>rest of the frames.
>I hope this helps anyone out there who was wondering about Imagine and AVI's
>Dan
>
>
>


Date:    Sunday, 21 May 1995 23:41:18
Subject: Re: Suggestion for a project
From:    Jeff Keena <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sun, 7 May 1995, James Brooks wrote:

> Date: Sun, 7 May 1995 22:38:49 -0400 (EDT)
> From: James Brooks <[e-mail]>
> To: Jeff Keena <[e-mail]>
> Cc: [e-mail]
> Subject: Re: Suggestion for a project
>
> On Mon, 8 May 1995, Jeff Keena wrote:
>
> > On Sat, 6 May 1995, Charles Blaquiere wrote:
> >
> > > Date: Sat, 6 May 1995 19:24:43 -0400 (EDT)
> > > From: Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>
> > > To: [e-mail]
> > > Subject: Suggestion for a project
> > >
> > > > From: gregory denby <[e-mail]>
> > > >
> > > > I'll bet a lot of you have become tired of Imagine's opening
> > > > screen, and have made your own. (...) What've you folks done?
> > >
> > > Oddly enough, nothing.
> > >
> > > I still like the Imagine logo. It has a Middle-Eastern, Arabian Nights
> > > flavor which brings to mind an exotic genie endowded with magical
> > > powers asking, "How may I serve you?"
> > >
> > > I like your idea, though. Personally, I'm a logo freak. Can't get enough
> > > of them. Love the beauty of a well-designed font. Looking forward to see
> > > how others respond to the thread.
> > >
> > >
> >
> > Simple reply. Deleted the file 8-)
> > One less thing to fragmet memory.
>
> If I am not mistaken, Imagine will not load without having some kind of
> pix as the intro.  At least that was the way back with version 2.0
>
> Just my 2 1/5 cents.
>
> Alex
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> James "Alex" Brooks              Amiga 4000/040/28MHz 20MB RAM
> Lightwave 3.5 / Imagine 3.0      VideoToaster 4000 3.1
> Syquest 3.5" 270MB           Bernoulli 90Pro
> NEC 3xp Triple Speed CDROM       Warp Engine 4028
> Epson ES-600C Scanner            E-Mail: [e-mail]
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
>

It works for me...then again, I am using Imagine 3.1. Actually the PC
version is only 2.0 and it works without a pic. Oh well...

      Jeff.


Date:    Sunday, 21 May 1995 23:56:54
Subject: Re: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    "Anime a day..." <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sun, 21 May 1995, Dave Jacob wrote:

>
> I want to extrude some postscript text in the spline editor, and I'm
> following the manual,s instructions, but when it comes time for Imagine
> to display text, all it displays is an axis. No text appears at all. I've
> got PC Imagine 3.0 -- can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong, or what
> button to push?
>
> Any help appreciated--thanks.
>

  Hello..  after reading your message I wasn't positive on the process.
I do have 3.2 so someone correct me if it is easier now..
But the last I did this was when I had 3.0


ok..


    I read your message, multi-tasked and opened Imagine.   went to the
Spline editor and picked 'load font'.  Up came the register (with nothing
in it) .  So I clicked on 'read' and went to my psfonts dir.  Clicked on
TStimes23 and then typed in  'Yo Joe!' (first thing that popped in my
mind ;^)  )   press return and  presto...  up came Yo Joe! in all its
fontness.



   go get some psfonts if need be.. I think there are some scattered
through aminet.  I should pick up more since I only have 1.  But I think
there is a way to convert text through TypeSmith.


see ya

  Bill



Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 00:48:15
Subject: Re: Lightning and other Natural Phenomena
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
> >Originally-From:   <[e-mail]>
> >To: [e-mail]
> >How can I create a Lightning type effect for my anims using a PD/Shareware ut
il
> >What utilis can I use ?
>
> Also have a look at BlackBelt's "WinImages:FX" which isn't PD/shareware but
> comparatively cheap. It does lightning, fire, auras and all sorts of image
> processing with effects over time. There is a demo at blackbelt.com
>
> Tom Ellard, Severed Communications Australia [e-mail]

tried to find "blackbelt.com" no luck, ftp.backbelt.com connects to
someplace, but it did not look like blackbelt.


--
..__________________________________________________________________________.
|   -== When Dreams Become Reality ==-                    -= IM Design=-   |
|"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""|"""""""""""""""""""""|""""""""""""""""""""|
|     [e-mail]       | FTP: ftp.netcom.com |  Video Production  |
|   [e-mail]     |  DIR: pub/videoman  |  3D Graphics & DTP |
| Mosaic Home Page: file://ftp.netcom.com/pub/vi/videoman/web/HOME.html    |
~""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""~

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 02:47:13
Subject: Probs With Attributes
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 21-May-95 11:16:41, Bill Falconer wrote:

[...snip...]
>noticed after rendering the Image there is a Light Blue tinge to the so
>Called Perfect  White Lights. So I reset and the Lamps to white (255,255,255)
>and still I  get that blue tinge ( CYAN).

Could be the color blance of your monitor. Does a 255x3 square look white in a
paint program?


Torge!r

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 02:47:14
Subject: No subject
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 20-May-95 00:47:02, Anders Lattermann wrote:

>Anyone got an address and faxnumber to Elastic Reality?

Elastic Reality inc.
925 Stewart St.
Madison, WI 53713
USA

Phone: [phone]

sorry, but didn't have the fax number...


Torge!r

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 03:17:12
Subject: Re: Black triangles
From:    "Anime a day..." <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sun, 21 May 1995, Robert Byrne wrote:

> Hello Martin, on May 20 you wrote:
>
> > I think this is because the drop shadows really don't handle the phong
> > effect. So, a face is either totally lit or totally in the shadow. I
> > wonder if this has been fixed in 3.2...
>
> As I understand it, phong is for smoothing edges not faces and if Imagine
> decides a face has to be in shadow it can't split that face and colour part
> of it.
>
> You will have to fracture some of the faces to get more detailed shadowing.
>


 Funny, I was just messing with font objects since someone was asking
(btw, I might have steared that user wrong.) If you want to USE the fonts
in the Detail editor, just go to the Detail editor and use the Make Font
Object feature under Add....   the Spline stuff is used for refrence I
think..  but there might be a way to get the spline fonts to come to
Detail.. I just don't bother with that way... maybe someone else can
mention it..


  anyway.. back to the black triangles.   I just rendered a Capital 'T'
that was extruded and started adding textures to it.. I got a great
effect with the Monster & Pebbles textures on it and a green color to it..

  well, there ARE black streaks in it...and I did have a second light
caszting shadows..  it sucks.. but I guess I have to tinker with it or
lose the second light...


  Bill   (b0nez)





Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 08:47:39
Subject: Re: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    Ted Stethem <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The PS font loader in V2.9 and V3.0 was not...hmmm, what's a diplomatic
word here...very robust. It requires the font to be a specific Type 1 if
I remember correctly.
  The PS font loader was...let's see, what's the right word here...highly
optimized in V3.1.
  If you don't upgrade, there are some PS fonts around that will load in
V3.0 but you might have to do some searching. Some of the PS fonts on
aminet are the "proper" Type 1.

On Sun, 21 May 1995, Dave Jacob wrote:

>
> I want to extrude some postscript text in the spline editor, and I'm
> following the manual,s instructions, but when it comes time for Imagine
> to display text, all it displays is an axis. No text appears at all. I've
> got PC Imagine 3.0 -- can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong, or what
> button to push?
>
> Any help appreciated--thanks.
>

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 09:04:09
Subject: Re: Probs With Attributes
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------





______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________


Hi There Imagineers,
                    I just got a copy Imagine2 on a PcFormat Coverdisk and
realised that there was no Attributes included. So I grabbed my Amiga Imagine2
Attributes and I am now using them. The problem is that when in Attribute
requester I load the Attribute in and realise that only last 2 RGB values
are present the rest of the selections are correct. I have also noticed after
rendering the Image there is a Light Blue tinge to the so Called Perfect
White Lights. So I reset and the Lamps to white (255,255,255) and still I
get that blue tinge ( CYAN).

     I have the same problem with Amiga Imagine 2.0 and PC Imagine 2.0. I
     stopped using the Amiga and weent to PC 3.0, but I've loaded those
     objects since then, and nothing was wrong.

     Point is: I've had the problem. I think I resolved it by re-adding my
     Red to the object (255 in this case).

     I never had the lights issue, though. Mostly because I don't usually
     use White Light.

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 10:50:47
Subject: Creating faces in the spline editor
From:    Steve McLaughlin <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Is there a way to limit the number of faces and points created
in the Spline editor?  I created a simple outline with about 10
knots and then added points (extruded to 50 units), with no bevels,
faces on both front and back, and a godzillion tiny faces get created!
I don't need that many, is there someway to reduce the number of faces and
points?

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 11:04:15
Subject: Crestline Software
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does anoybody know the Fax number of this company??

Thanx & Greetinx

Daniel

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 11:04:49
Subject: Re: Imagine's future
From:    "Breno A. Silva" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Jaco.

   I've seen of those Digimax stuff actually working, and I've gotta
admit that it's big bang for the buck($700). Keep in mind it looks like
a poor man's solution for 3d digitizing, but after some gluing... it works!
Works very well. And it comes with the software, that's got basically the
same interface of Imagine, obviously with different options. It's got
good 3d resolution, and Mike Halvorson's brother really impressed me
with the intuitiveness of the digitizing. As a matter of fact, you don't
really need to draw a grid over the object just parallel lines (horizontal,
vertical or wichever best), and later you just passes the pointer (a lethal
weapon, I have to say), over the lines of the object, previously glued in
the digitizing axis in two ends. you simple pitch the object as needed, and
the software/hardware does the rest. Great idea, 'couse the pointer tip,
always ponts to the exact 3d relative point (ie, if your glue is good enough
:). Since it's minimally mechanic, they can make it cheap, and considering
the software features was much better than the closest competitor, which on
its turn costs around $2,500 _without_ the software... well, you get the
picture. So, if you want my advice, just get a good hot glueing/soldering
device and step on it! ;)
****************************************
*  Breno A. Silva ([e-mail]) *
*  PRO Graph Computer Graphics         *
****************************************

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 11:08:02
Subject: Particles
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

May be my question has been already discussed here before and I missed it...

Is it possible to add brush maps to individual objects which have been grouped
together by the particle function. I dont want the brush to extend over all
individual copies but rather to repeat on each object.

What I want to do is to create windows which have all the same picture on it.

Is this possible and if yes could someone please post a short how to do it ?

Thanx & Greetinx

Daniel

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 11:43:18
Subject: Re: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey y'all,

      All these references to TypeSmith . . .  I'm a bit new to fonts,
so pardon my asking, but is this a pd util?


Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 11:58:14
Subject: Re: Displaying text in spline editor...
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dave Jacob writes...
>...all it displays is an axis.

Evidently there are quite a few variants of the AT1 fonts. Some Imagine
loads just fine,some you get just and axis, others you get an error
message "missing encoding vector" or some such.

So try a disfferent font.

Theres a big collection on aminet in the text/fonts subdirectory.  They
start with "AT1Fonts....lha"  There are perhaps a dozen files, from
san serif fonts to dingbats.  Of the dozens of fonts available, about
one in four works in Imagine.

Check 'em out.

Greg Denby

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 12:51:42
Subject: Re: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>On Sun, 21 May 1995, Dave Jacob wrote:
>> I want to extrude some postscript text in the spline editor, and I'm
>> following the manual,s instructions, but when it comes time for Imagine
>> to display text, all it displays is an axis. No text appears at all. I've
>> got PC Imagine 3.0 -- can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong, or what
>> button to push?
>  Hello..  after reading your message I wasn't positive on the process.
>I do have 3.2 so someone correct me if it is easier now..
>But the last I did this was when I had 3.0
>    I read your message, multi-tasked and opened Imagine.   went to the
>Spline editor and picked 'load font'.  Up came the register (with nothing
>in it) .  So I clicked on 'read' and went to my psfonts dir.  Clicked on
>TStimes23 and then typed in  'Yo Joe!' (first thing that popped in my
>mind ;^)  )   press return and  presto...  up came Yo Joe! in all its
>fontness.

You just happened to have a lot of luck :) on that one.
There are a lot of fonts flying around which have the wrong encoding vector
builtin. On the Amiga you can import/change encodingvector/export them using
Typesmith. Imagine is quite picky which encoding vector to use. Try to find a
postscript font editor/converter which will let you change the encoding
vector from adobe to custom or vice versa. I'm not sure which vector Imagine
wants.

Hope this might help you, Joop




Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 13:58:44
Subject: Re: particles
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------




Is it possible to add brush maps to individual objects which have been grouped
together by the particle function. I dont want the brush to extend over all
individual copies but rather to repeat on each object.

What I want to do is to create windows which have all the same picture on it.

     I might have this right, but I'm thinking you want a bunch of
     "particle" windows that are flat planes, like hanging in space of
     something, or looking into a spaceship window, but it's really just
     the same bitmap.

     Make a primitive plane. Orient it any way you like.

     Attach your brushmap. Render to taste.

     When you've got the brushmap and plane looking good, save it.

     Make a Sphere? Plane? in Detail editor. Particlize it. In the
     particles requestor, choose the option to load an object as the
     particle, instead of choosing pyramid or octagon. You add the object
     in the dialog box, and Boom! Imagine makes every particle your object
     from the first step!

     -AC

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 16:31:28
Subject: Re: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    Waland J F <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>I want to extrude some postscript text in the spline editor, and I'm
>following the manual,s instructions, but when it comes time for Imagine
>to display text, all it displays is an axis. No text appears at all. I've
>got PC Imagine 3.0 -- can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong, or what
>button to push?


check the encoding of the font - Imagine is a bit picky. Apparently the best way

to fix this on the Amiga, is to load the font into TypeSmith with typesmith
encoding, and then save it out. (Or is it the other way round, and use
adobe encoding???)

jon
  Jonathan Waland        University of Essex, UK       [e-mail]
A4000/030-25/882-33 14Meg Ram, 540Meg Hard, 2x Floppy, Double Speed CDROM
       <http://cswww2.essex.ac.uk/users/walaj/homepage.html>

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 18:20:00
Subject: Re: Creating faces in the spline editor
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Mon, 22 May 1995, Steve McLaughlin wrote:

>  Is there a way to limit the number of faces and points created
> in the Spline editor?  I created a simple outline with about 10
> knots and then added points (extruded to 50 units), with no bevels,
> faces on both front and back, and a godzillion tiny faces get created!
> I don't need that many, is there someway to reduce the number of faces and
> points?
>

Yah, just scale up your spline object's axis before extruding. I usually
double the size of the axis and then extrude, and the object turns out
nicely. The larger your axis, the fewer faces will be created.

See ya,
      Roger

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 21:16:50
Subject: Re: Creating faces in the spline editor
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
>  Is there a way to limit the number of faces and points created
> in the Spline editor?  I created a simple outline with about 10
> knots and then added points (extruded to 50 units), with no bevels,
> faces on both front and back, and a godzillion tiny faces get created!
> I don't need that many, is there someway to reduce the number of faces and
> points?


      Yes, as a matter of fact... If you scale up the spline object's axis
you will reduce the degree to which Imagine interpolates points along spline
curves. To modify the axis' scale while maintaining object size use Shift-s,
and scale the axis up. The larger the axis, in relation to object size, the
coarser the results. Scale factors greater than 5 will create very visible
differences. Experiment for best results.
      Hope it helps...

                                                              Jeff-->

E-Mail: [e-mail]



Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 21:39:31
Subject: Re: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hi    Dave Jacob

> I want to extrude some postscript text in the spline editor, and I'm
> following the manual,s instructions, but when it comes time for Imagine
> to display text, all it displays is an axis. No text appears at all.

       Imagine (on my Amiga) is very picky about which PostScript
fonts will work, and which won't, the ones that don't either give
you an error message, or just a pointless axis (literally).

   I bought a set of over 100 PS fonts when I first got 2.9, and
by trial and error, found that only EIGHT of them would work !
   I've studied them all, but can't find the common denominator in
the ones that work, which is missing in the ones that don't.

   I believe that Imagine 3.2 has a better success rate, (at least
better than 8% !) but maybe a PC man with 3.2 could let us know
if this is true.


--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 21:59:08
Subject: Re: Creating faces in the spline editor
From:    Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Steve.

>  Is there a way to limit the number of faces and points created
> in the Spline editor?  I created a simple outline with about 10
> knots and then added points (extruded to 50 units), with no bevels,
> faces on both front and back, and a godzillion tiny faces get created!
> I don't need that many, is there someway to reduce the number of faces and
> points?

     Yes there is, luckily.

       After you get the splines the way you want them, (i.e.the outline
looks good), scale the _axis only_ to be bigger, befor you add points,
and it will make far less edges out of the splines.
   It's not very scientific, I know, but at least you can just keep
trying with different axis sizes until you get the resolution you
want. You don't have to delete the points if you go too far, for example,
just go to add points and do it again, and the old points will have gone.
    Obviously, the same works the other way, in that making the axis
smaller will make more points/edges/faces on the object.



--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Monday, 22 May 1995 23:06:03
Subject: Re:Crestline Fax
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can't find a fax number but I do have this

Crestline Software publishing
P.O. Box 4691
Crestline, CA 92325 USA
Tel. [phone]

Also I think some of their products are available at AntiGravity

Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 00:16:10
Subject: Spike Fx Prob (PC)
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Before I write a bug report letter let me ask:  Anyone else using Imagine
v 3.2 PC having a problem with the Spike FX.  It is doing nothing when I use
it.  My Amiga version is just fine, as it was in earlier versions.

Explode, fireworks, and shred all work just fine, but I suppose I'll have to
look at them all.

Thanks for replies,
Greg Denby
[e-mail]

Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 09:39:00
Subject: Adding brushes/Edit Axis
From:    Toby Edwards <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am having a problem with mapping a brush to an object,
the object in question is a roof, but not just an
ordinary roof !

The roof is bowed somewhat and is alot narrower at the
top than the bottom.

When I map the tiles iff to it (using colour, genlock,
flat Z, flat X) instead of the tiles looking as if they
were straight across they appear to bow TOWARDS the top of the
roof ! (I would have thought the other way !).

I have tried editting the axis but it doesnt seem to
have any effect, eek, err... What effect should
rotating/scaling (?!) do (apart from the brush
disappearing).  I think I am a bit confused by this
edit axis thing... errr ... help ?!


Lost and confused,

Toby


============================================

"Remember kids, if theres a gun in the room"
"make sure your the one holding it."
                         -- Captain Combat

============================================


Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 12:38:52
Subject: Re: Postscript fonts
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Hi, just replying about some folks having probs with PS fonts.
> I have with great success, any .pfb PC PS fonts. No errors at all.
> Haven't tried any Amiga PS fonts as I have many, many PC PS fonts.
> BTW, I am using the Amiga version of Imagine.
>

I thought folks were exaggerating, when they said they were getting like
one out of eight fonts to load and work properly.  Then I started finding
all these fonts that wouldn't work.  Even PS fonts that would load into
the spline editor wouldn't always extrude.  Got that message about bad
numbering bug.

Word to the wise:  if Imagine asks you to show results, for gravy's sake
say yes.  It spent the next five minutes spewing out all the incorrectly
numbered spots on the font.  I couldn't re-boot out of the mess, cause I
was doing something of vital importance to the survival of mankind on
another screen.

Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 12:45:08
Subject: Re: Black triangles
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> >Object feature under Add....   the Spline stuff is used for refrence I
> >think..  but there might be a way to get the spline fonts to come to
> >Detail.. I just don't bother with that way... maybe someone else can
> >mention it..
>
> You have to use the ADD points function in the Spline editor. This makes an
> object out of your curves. You can then save this object, just as you would
> in detail (just remember to use the save points item, not the save item).
>
> If you add a font object in detail, it uses amiga bitmap fonts, giving you a
> lot less detail, and you lose the beveling options you have in the Spline
> Editor

Thanks, Torgier, for reminding us.  It really does pay to read the
manual--be it ever so mummbly.

Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 12:49:06
Subject: Babylon 5 .iob's
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all,

Re- the problems in converting the LWOB's to iob's for PC.

I have already mailed one or two people personally about this problem, If you
can't get access to Creations (north) BBS , like if you are using a university
account, then a possible solution to the problem was suggested by the sysop,

namely, since there seems to be no converters yet, that we might upload the
converted objects to the aminet so that you can all get at them.

This may take a short amount of time as we both have exams looming but quite
alot of the objects have been converted for our own use already, we can finish
this off in between revision and exams and upload them.

Since there seems to be a demand then we'll get on to it. Don't hold your
breath though as it may take a week or two...

JR.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 Oops I've run out of Tagline idea's. Quick Brainstorm.....



Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 14:22:30
Subject: Phone
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anybody ever come across a telephone object, either for us, for LW?

Thanx.

Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 14:34:58
Subject: Spline editor
From:    [e-mail] (Milan Polle)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all,

wouldn't it be a lot easier if you could just specify the maximum angle you
would like to have in your object, to reduce the point/edge/face count?
This way you also get rid of a lot of inline vertices forming a simple straight
line.
And it would also be neat if you could convert a spline from the spline editor
to a path for use in stage or extrusion in detail.
You can make an outline of edges and points in spline though, for use in the
detail editor with spin or sweep or something. Just make sure the shape is c
closed and don't add any faces.

Let your Imagination run wild, Milan

BTW Neat .sig about the earth sucking :)


Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 17:11:49
Subject: Re: Black triangles
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 22-May-95 02:17:12, Anime a day... wrote:

> Funny, I was just messing with font objects since someone was asking
>(btw, I might have steared that user wrong.) If you want to USE the fonts
>in the Detail editor, just go to the Detail editor and use the Make Font
>Object feature under Add....   the Spline stuff is used for refrence I
>think..  but there might be a way to get the spline fonts to come to
>Detail.. I just don't bother with that way... maybe someone else can
>mention it..

You have to use the ADD points function in the Spline editor. This makes an
object out of your curves. You can then save this object, just as you would
in detail (just remember to use the save points item, not the save item).

If you add a font object in detail, it uses amiga bitmap fonts, giving you a
lot less detail, and you lose the beveling options you have in the Spline
Editor


Torge!r

Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 17:11:51
Subject: Re: Imagine's future
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 22-May-95 10:04:49, Breno A. Silva wrote:

>   I've seen of those Digimax stuff actually working, and I've gotta
>admit that it's big bang for the buck($700). Keep in mind it looks like
>a poor man's solution for 3d digitizing, but after some gluing... it works!
>Works very well. And it comes with the software, that's got basically the
[...snip...]
>its turn costs around $2,500 _without_ the software... well, you get the
>picture. So, if you want my advice, just get a good hot glueing/soldering
>device and step on it! ;)

And it also got the DV magazine's award of excellence (or something like
that), and scored the most points in their 3D digitizer test.


Torge!r

Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 18:04:21
Subject: Re: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    Waland J F <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>        All these references to TypeSmith . . .  I'm a bit new to fonts,
>so pardon my asking, but is this a pd util?

nope, it's commercial, I'm afraid...

theres a review on aminet...
 TypeSmith2.02.txt    docs/rview   5K Text: TypeSMITH version 2.02


jon
  Jonathan Waland        University of Essex, UK       [e-mail]
A4000/030-25/882-33 14Meg Ram, 540Meg Hard, 2x Floppy, Double Speed CDROM
       <http://cswww2.essex.ac.uk/users/walaj/homepage.html>

Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 18:48:05
Subject: TEXTURES...
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

High I would like to converse about an idea I had one night about a texture.
 But I have limited coding experience and(as you know!) no compiler.  I don't
know who I can trust!  Maybe Milan, or ???  The texture would be awsome! and
allow ANYONE to write textures for their favorite program(not LW!
Imagine!!!).  Please someone respond!

                                                   ---Lumbient

Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 19:06:01
Subject: Re: Digimax WAS: Imagine's future
From:    Joe Cotellese <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not owning one I am not sure if this is feasable but wouldn't it be bette=
r if instead of gluing the arm was spring loaded?  I would imagine it wou=
ld be more flexible and probably not much more expensive?

Joe Cotellese


>a poor man's solution for 3d digitizing, but after some gluing... it wor=
ks!
>Works very well. And it comes with the software, that's got basically th=
e
[...snip...]




Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 19:18:42
Subject: Re: phone
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Tue, 23 May 1995, Mike McCool wrote:

> Anybody ever come across a telephone object, either for us, for LW?
>

Carmen Rizollo has made one, I can uuencode it to those who want it. It
IS rather large, however, and will run over the memory limitations of
most users.

> Thanx.
>

See ya,
      Roger

Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 21:35:27
Subject: Re: Black triangles
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Mon, 22 May 1995, Anime a day... wrote:

>   anyway.. back to the black triangles.   I just rendered a Capital 'T'
> that was extruded and started adding textures to it.. I got a great
> effect with the Monster & Pebbles textures on it and a green color to it..
>
>   well, there ARE black streaks in it...and I did have a second light
> caszting shadows..  it sucks.. but I guess I have to tinker with it or
> lose the second light...
>
I'm not quite sure that this is the same problem here. Because a capital
T is not the kind of object that should procuce these black triangles.
And secondly, I have noticed some unwanted black shadowlike spots in
monster texture even when there are no shadow casting lights. I think
there is something wrong with the texture.

Marty


Date:    Tuesday, 23 May 1995 23:12:43
Subject: Re: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    [e-mail] (Gregory Helleren)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Mike (Mike McCool), in <[e-mail]
> on May 22 you wrote:

> Hey y'all,
>
>       All these references to TypeSmith . . .  I'm a bit new to fonts,
> so pardon my asking, but is this a pd util?
Most definitely not.
TypeSmith is an excellent commercial product from Soft-Logik (the PageStream
people). AFAIK it is the only PS font editor/creator for the Amiga.




--
+-----------------------------------------///\__/E\/S\/C\/O\/M\__/\/\/\/\__+
  Gregory Helleren      AMIGA is REBORN  /// Lecturer Information Technology
  Developer - LaseRage                  ///  SEMC TAFE Western Australia
  Ferndale W.A. Australia  ___/\___/\\\///   [e-mail]
  CBMNET:[e-mail]\XX/    [e-mail]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+



Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 00:04:47
Subject: Re: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 22-May-95 10:43:18, Mike McCool wrote:

>       All these references to TypeSmith . . .  I'm a bit new to fonts,
>so pardon my asking, but is this a pd util?

Nope, it's a commercial program from SoftLogic


Torge!r

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 00:27:37
Subject: Re: Postscript fonts
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi, just replying about some folks having probs with PS fonts.
I have with great success, any .pfb PC PS fonts. No errors at all.
Haven't tried any Amiga PS fonts as I have many, many PC PS fonts.
BTW, I am using the Amiga version of Imagine.

Rodney Macey
[e-mail]
.... generating ... 01.48% complete



Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 00:55:28
Subject: Re: Digimax WAS: Imagine's future
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 23-May-95 14:06:01, Joe Cotellese wrote:

>Not owning one I am not sure if this is feasable but wouldn't it be better if
>instead of gluing the arm was spring loaded?  I would imagine it would be
>more flexible and probably not much more expensive?

Sounds to me as if a spring load would be a lot less safe than gluing the
model on. When you're digitizing, you don't want that model to slip at all.
And if it has an awkward shape, a spring loaded arm would have problems
holding it without it slipping.

just my 2 norwegian xre's worth


Torge!r

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 01:11:00
Subject: Re: How do you make trees ?
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


I have also had lots of troubles making trees. But my troubles haven't
actually been in the modelling itself (well, I admit a realistic tree is
not one of the simpliest objects to model) but in how to make the tree
consume as little memory as possible yet remaining somewhat detailed.
And this is naturally because I want to make a forrest, or a garden at least.

But let's think about it. A forrest is made of hundreds of objects that
have (or at least can have) exactly the same structure. Why couldn't it
be possible to clone an object in the stage editor as many times as one
wants, so that the object is loaded only once. In this way, only the
object's position, size and alignment data would consume precious memory.
Actually I expected this from 3.0:s clone function.

Now, wouldn't this be a nice feature in 4.0?

Marty

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 01:27:00
Subject: Re: How do you make trees.
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Tue, 16 May 1995, Dylan Neill wrote:

> > If you have Vista/Vistapro create a landscape with trees in it export to Ima
gine
> > then just cut out the trees you want.
> >
> > Can anyone confirm this will work as I don`t have Vista?
>
> Nah, I've tried it before and it only saves the landscape. (PC and Amiga
> versions)
>
But naturally you can render close-ups of trees in Vista and use them as
brush maps in Imagine. Vista really makes some very nice looking trees if
you use hihg or ultra detail. I hope they would add a feature in Vista,
which would enable you to use Imagine (or DFX) objects in the landscape.
I know you can save DEM landscapes in Imagine format, but they consume
_so_ much memory.

Marty


Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 01:33:43
Subject: Re: Quickies (snow)
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Tue, 16 May 1995, gregory denby wrote:

> Quick snow (a little memory intensive.)  Create a primitive disk, six sides.
> Save as "flake." Create another primitive, anyone may do, depending on
> the situation.  I like to use another 6 sided primitive disk.  Scale it
> large.  Pick all edges. Fracture, fracture, fracture.  Pick object.
> fracture = .5.  Bend, twist, shear, pull push, etc till well deformed.
> Apply particles, specify file "flake," align to face, specify size to
> something small, around 5 +- 2.  Set attribute to bright.  Render.
>
> Of course, succeeding deformations can be used for various states, making
> a swirling snow storm.

Why not use the particle effect with rain option to make animation? I
have made a "rain" of autumn leaves with this technique. A plain plain
(plain plain?) with enough sections will do as the rain object though.

Marty


Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 01:44:12
Subject: Re: Quickies (snow)
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


I wrote some stuff about making quick snow showers, and Marty (Keitel)
replied "Why not use the particle effectwith the rain option..."

I've got to admit that after my first few tries with particle, and
was unable to figure just what was going to happen with the FX, I
decided to form shapes by hand.  That way I could be assured of not
having particles flying out of walls or bouncing of of invisible
coordinates.

Just recently I've been working with the FX a lot more, and I suppose
I'll get a better grasp of how they work.  For now it is still easier
to make a shape out of fractured faces, and sweep 'em around a corner.

Greg Denby
[e-mail]

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 02:57:21
Subject: Programming Textures
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Imagine users!

I keep hearing talk on this "channel" about programming textures.
Not to sound naive, but...you mean one can program CUSTOM textures
for Imagine?  Like in C or C++ ??????  Can anyone tell me how to
get info. on how to do it?

                            -- Dave ([e-mail])

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 03:19:00
Subject: Trees and stuff
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you have the RAM, you can make forests, porcupine quills, things like
that by duplicating the base object, say the ground, selecting some of
it's polys and making a subgroup out of them, and doing custom particles,
one set for the tree, one for the leaves. To save memory, you can delete
the polys not included in the particles. The particles are positioned on
the triangles based on the position of the particle object's axis, so for
the tree just make sure the axis is at the bottom, and make sure the leaves
axis is in the same place. With a texture on them, and if you don't look
too close, it'll work. Needs lots of RAM, tho, but does work. Coplanar, a
way of life.

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 04:28:29
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 22-May-95 10:43:18, Mike McCool wrote:

>       All these references to TypeSmith . . .  I'm a bit new to fonts,
>so pardon my asking, but is this a pd util?

Nope, it's a commercial program from SoftLogic


Torge!r

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 05:42:37
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Tue 23-May-1995  2:20a, aciolino wrote:

a>
a>      I have the same problem with Amiga Imagine 2.0 and PC Imagine 2.0. I
a>      stopped using the Amiga and weent to PC 3.0, but I've loaded those
a>      objects since then, and nothing was wrong.
a>
a>      Point is: I've had the problem. I think I resolved it by re-adding my

a>      Red to the object (255 in this case).
a>
a>      I never had the lights issue, though. Mostly because I don't usually
a>      use White Light.


   Actually I found out what the problem was I noticed that the reflect
settings had been altered too. So I reset them and now everything seems to
be working fine. Does anybody know if PcFormat HD Disk version came with
Attributes. Also does anybody know what the RGB values are for GOLD .


   Thanks to all those who have replied to this message and I am very grateful
for your help.

V-Tag:
New from McAfee: WiScan.  Removes all Windows programs.
Bill Falconer
Written on The Attic BBS .Contact me on the BBS as Bill F  or mail me at
[e-mail]

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 06:26:26
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Wed, 17 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

>
>      Hmmm...I wonder what would happen if I told Imagine to Load an object
>      (a Tree!)? Would it load 500 trees if I had 500 points via the
>      particle effect? Or would it load just one tree, save memory, and
>      simply render 500 copies of it, exponentially increasing renderind
>      time...
>
It does load all the trees. Nevertheless, I made an island with trees in
the following way:

I generated the island with Vista Pro and Terraform and used several
mountaintop textures to alter the colour at different altitudes of the
surface (I also used the bumpnoise texture to add more detail to
landscape).
I modelled a very simple trunk of a tree with a few branches to use as a
particle object.
I duplicated the whole landcape and removed most of it's points (this was
rather laborous because I wanted the trees to be scattered around
somewhat realistically). Then I told this new object to be a particle
object with the simple tree as the particle (I copied the tree to ram: to
speed up rendering).
Then I copied this leafless forest-object again. I changed the particle
from the tree to spheres and adjusted the size of the particles so that
it was convinient. This object was moved slightly higher than the trunk
object because it was supposed to make the leaves to the trees.
I made it a fog object and added the zooloo-texture to make small dots in
it representing leaves (you might use some other texture for this
purpose). Voila!
The whole island still consumed lots of memory but I was able to render
it and a bunch of birds without troubles with 18 megs of RAM (not my own
Amiga, I only have 6 megs).
I was dissappointed that the depth of field effect does not work with fog
objects. If the fog object doesn't have a texture it really doesn't
matter. But if it does, it gets blurred heavily even when it should be
perfectly in the focus.

Marty K


Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 10:54:25
Subject: VISTA PRO3 and TOASTER on PC
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes ! 2 Great things are on the horizon :-)

1) In the current PC FORMAT , in the News section they mention that
the guys who produced the Video Toaster on the Amiga have released a
similar product on to the PC Market (in America ). I cannot remember
its name or specific details (the copy is at home ).

2) Future publishing (the people who publish PC formats ,Amiga Format e.t.c. )
are selling another PC mag . called PC Guide . On the cover of the first
issue will be the FULL version of Vista Pro 3.0 (CD ONLY)
The reason I think it is the full version is that the cover will have two
CD's on it . In the past Mags have given cover programs which are incomplete.

I think it's priced around 5.00 pounds . I think its aimed towards new users
and people who are just starting out on computers/PC's


Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 12:24:04
Subject: Re: Digimax
From:    "Breno A. Silva" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I totally agree with Torgeir (did I spell it right?). A spring holder
would certainly distort the shape as it's being digitized. That's why
they suggest hot glueing devices, and not normal glues. Remember you
need to rotate the object very frequently around the x axis, so it'd be
easy to lose it's fixed axis correspondently if you had a loosy connec-
tion. By the way, that's on the left side. The right side appears to
have a more "pressure-like" approach, 'cause it's the one mechanicaly
dedicated to make easier the rotation.
While we're on the subject, it's amazing how the software builds the
object for ya. It seems to create cross sections in the orientation
you're digitizing, and then later builds the object, and the cross-sec-
tions are point relativeness independent, so you can easily add more
points in the area you need, without worrying. The other software I
saw just simply couldn't do any connection to the object after you'd
made a digitizing "pass". Really amazing.

Greetings,

*****************************************
*  Breno A. Silva <[e-mail]> *
*  PRO Graph Computer Graphics          *
*****************************************

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 13:15:58
Subject: MovingTheAxis
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Joe,

      If I understand your query, you should be able to just click the
Shift button, then the Move button, and put your axis anywhere you want
it.

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 14:34:48
Subject: Re: Programming Textures
From:    Joe Cotellese <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dave,

The information you seek is on AMINET.  There is a document which describ=
es how to program textures for Imagine.  If you wish to program textures =
for the PC you must be using a compiler which supports the relocatable ex=
ecutable format (REX)  the only one that I know of is Watcom 10.x.  I am =
really bummed about it, I have VC++ and Borland.  I really don't want ano=
ther compiler on my system :-).

Joe Cotellese

Hi Imagine users!

for Imagine?  Like in C or C++ ??????  Can anyone tell me how to
get info. on how to do it?

     ------------------------------------------------------------
xƒ>"1
Éæ

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 14:38:37
Subject: Re: How do you make trees ?
From:    Joe Cotellese <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Actually, this would be a great feature.  I really wish we had that capab=
ility.  I have 16MB of RAM but it never seems to be enough. =20

Actually though, if you did want to do a forest couldn't you just render =
some trees and that picture as a backdrop.  I would guess that if you pla=
ced some additional trees in front of the backdrop you could make a prett=
y realistic looking forest.

Joe Cotellese

be possible to clone an object in the stage editor as many times as one=20
wants, so that the object is loaded only once. In this way, only the=20
object's position, size and alignment data would consume precious memory.=

Actually I expected this from 3.0:s clone function.

Now, wouldn't this be a nice feature in 4.0?


     ------------------------------------------------------------
xƒ>"&
ÉQ0

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 14:45:34
Subject: Re: How do you make trees.
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Martin, on May 24 you wrote:

> But naturally you can render close-ups of trees in Vista and use them as
> brush maps in Imagine. Vista really makes some very nice looking trees if
> you use hihg or ultra detail. I hope they would add a feature in Vista,
> which would enable you to use Imagine (or DFX) objects in the landscape.
> I know you can save DEM landscapes in Imagine format, but they consume
> _so_ much memory.

If Imagine had an Arexx interface the ASCII scripts that Vista produces for
the camera could come in real handy. These scripts contain the map
coordinates, pitch, roll, yaw etc. You could render an aircraft or vehicle
on a black background to follow the Vista camera movements and composite it
onto the Vista landscape.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 14:49:33
Subject: Re: About Particles
From:    Ian Smith <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Wed, 24 May 1995, Joe Cotellese wrote:
> Does STARS work with Imagine 2.0 (I have 3.0 for the PC).
>
> Joe Cotellese
>
> Wouldn't Ian's STARS.LHA do what he wants?  Works great for me.

I don't see why it wouldn't work with 2.0 as long as you don't try
and make it a particle object.

--                            Imagine Page - Visit!
[e-mail]              http://moose.erie.net/~iansmith

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 14:55:00
Subject: Is it soup yet?
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just curious. Wasn't v3.3 due last month and 4.0 this month?=2E.." duck and cove
r....incoming"   /------------------------------           ___   ___  ___   ___
 | Mike van der Sommen                     / __  /__/ /__/  /_   \ /  | Santa Ba
rbara, Ca.                     /___/ / \  /  /  /     / \  | mike.vandersommen@c
addy.uu.silcom.com     HAUS BBS (805-683-1388)  |           "Irony can make reve
nge a welcome alternative"   \__________________________________________________
___________--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - (805) 683-138
8

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 15:01:34
Subject: Re: phone
From:    [e-mail] (Per-Erik Westerberg - T/HY)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> On Tue, 23 May 1995, Mike McCool wrote:
>
> > Anybody ever come across a telephone object, either for us, for LW?
> >
>
> Carmen Rizollo has made one, I can uuencode it to those who want it. It
> IS rather large, however, and will run over the memory limitations of
> most users.
>

The object can be found in aminet under gfx/3dobj and it is named
"SpeakrFON.lha".

> > Thanx.
> >
>
> See ya,
>     Roger
>

/* Per-Erik Westerberg ! \ ~~~  E-mail: [e-mail]      */
/* Ericsson Telecom AB ! !>-!"> Voice: [phone] Fax: ...94060 */
/* EO8/ETX/TX/HM       ! / ~~~                                        */
/* 12625 Stockholm     ! . . .  "Yet to be filled in with ...?" . . . */


Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 15:22:58
Subject: FAQ and question
From:    Joe Cotellese <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello,

If anyone is interested, I converted latest Imagine FAQ into a Word 6.0 d=
ocument - complete with tables and Table of Contents.  (Not that I don't =
have a life, just wanted to learn some new Word features).  It still need=
s some work and I'll probably improve it with the next FAQ release.

If you are interested email me with the Subject FAQ REQUEST and I'll send=
 it to you.

Now, the question.  Is their anyway to interactively move the Axis on an =
object? I swore I was able to do that before but last night I couldn't fi=
nd anything.  Basically I was playing around with the deformations last n=
ight and wanted to move the axis around to see what effect it had.  The o=
nly way I found was to use the Transformations requester.  I would much r=
ather just drag the axis to a new spot on the object.

Joe Cotellese



Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 15:25:51
Subject: Re: About Particles
From:    Joe Cotellese <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does STARS work with Imagine 2.0 (I have 3.0 for the PC).

Joe Cotellese

Wouldn't Ian's STARS.LHA do what he wants?  Works great for me.






Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 15:56:37
Subject: COOL PIC's
From:    Granberg Tom <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

HEY DUDES!

I've been out of reach the last couple of months, due to mailserver problems
here at TV2 in norway.
I've promised you all some godies to look at, my first attempt to uppload it to

aminet didnt work, so instead I made a deal with a friend of mine to make a
homepage(html) for it. And here are the address:
www.nhidh.nki.no/~pednaa
Then click on the "Tom Granberg homepage"

Remember that none of the pictures can be used whitout my permision,but you may

download it for your own pleasure/inspiration. All of pictures are
modeled&rendered in imagine, have look and enjoy!
Please feel free to send me some toughts about what you like or not.
See you around?
[e-mail]


Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 18:20:27
Subject: Re: FAQ and question
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Wed, 24 May 1995, Joe Cotellese wrote:

>
> Now, the question.  Is their anyway to interactively move the Axis on an
>object? I swore I was able to do that before but last night I couldn't

Yah - just hold down shift when you press `m', and you will move the axis
only. Or click on the `Shft' button on the screen.

> Joe Cotellese

See ya,
      Roger

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 18:58:24
Subject: Phone
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 23-May-95 13:22:30, Mike McCool wrote:

>Anybody ever come across a telephone object, either for us, for LW?

I think Carmen R. made a phone object a while back.. Should be on aminet in
3Dobj.


Torge!r

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 20:15:31
Subject: Re: telephone (fwd)
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hey Brian, et al,

      Thanks, you, for the offer of the cordless.  I'm afraid this is
for a personal project, and my style is the old coaltar plastic phones
with the traditional rotary dial and the headsets heavy enough to crack
hickory nuts.

      Strangely enough there's an awakening of interest in this style of
phone.  Yuppies (you know, those people who have wire phones on them all
the time and who wonder why the stats on brain tumors are going off the
charts) are gobbling up these old phones at garage sales and thrift shops
and having them renovated to use in their homes.  How quaint.

      But thanks again, for the tip on tomahawk.  I'll shoot over there
when I hang up and check out your object.  If not for now, for later use,
right?  See ya.



Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 20:39:29
Subject: Re: Moving Axis - Thanks
From:    Joe Cotellese <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to everyone who responded to my moving axis question.  I knew I was able
to do it, I just forgot how

Anyway, as Mike Reid puts it:

>Select the object then hold down the shift key and press R to rotate, S to
>scale and M to move the axis. You can also use the transformation requester
>(R Alt/Amiga / T) and select axis only. Hope this helps.


Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 20:48:27
Subject: Quickies!
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey, this is fun! After a week away from home, I come back to find lots
of little modelling tricks in my mailbox! C'mon folks, let's make this a
thread to archive. I volunteer to save all contributions and upload them
to Aminet as a worthy text file.

Let's keep the thread moving. I'm sure there are a lot more quickies
waiting to be shared.

I guess "slicing an object with itself, to create a group with separate
objects corresponding to each separate object part" (the opposite of
Joining a group into a single object) would qualify for the quickie hall
of fame, right?


Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 20:48:32
Subject: FAQ and question
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 24-May-95 10:22:58, Joe Cotellese wrote:

>Now, the question.  Is their anyway to interactively move the Axis on an
>object? I swore I was able to do that before but last night I couldn't find
>anything.  Basically I was playing around with the deformations last night
>and wanted to move the axis around to see what effect it had.  The only way I
>found was to use the Transformations requester.  I would much rather just
>drag the axis to a new spot on the object.

Shift-M


Torge!r

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 21:11:31
Subject: Re: About Particles
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>
>
> >Well, it depends on how small you want the cubes to be. If you want
> >hundreds of them then it might be very hard to model the sphere made of
> >cubes.
> > [...snip...]
> >There might seem to be a lot of work in this.
>
> It is also posible to replicate the cube alogng a primitive sphere.
>
> Just add a primitive sphere, make a tiny cube, and replicate it along a
> path. Type in the sphereobject name (should be sphere) as the path,
> enter the number of copies, and *Shazam*! You have a sphere covered with
> cubes...

D'oh!

And to think of all the clicking I had to go through, not to mention
digging Mach IV (macro recorder) out of its dusty drawer... but hey,
this is what this mailing list is for! To learn painfully simple answers
from others with a different perspective. Thanks a bunch, Torgeir, for
this quick tip! I'd pretty much given up on the "extrude along an
object" trick, because extruding a circle along a sphere _did not_ give
me a 3-d wireframe sphere... but "replicating along an object" worked
the first time around!

And, you can specify the wrong number of copies, to have the cubes
misaligned automatically.

Date:    Wednesday, 24 May 1995 22:36:03
Subject: Another possible bug (3.2)
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hi All,
      As I mentioned a few days ago, the FX "spike" doesn't seem to work
on my copy of Imagine v 3.2 PC.  No one has replied that they have the same
problem, so maybe its just my copy, but... It appears Global Fog also
does not work.  Since "spike" works just fine on the Ami version of 3.2,
I'm supposing global fog also is O.K.
      Could anyone else with 3.2 PC check either of these out, since
I don't want to mail Impulse with a notice of a broken feature when its just
my copy.

Thanx
Greg Denby
[e-mail]

Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 00:11:32
Subject: Re: About Particles
From:    Bush Doktor <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Wed, 24 May 1995, Joe Cotellese wrote:

> Does STARS work with Imagine 2.0 (I have 3.0 for the PC).
>
> Joe Cotellese
>
> Wouldn't Ian's STARS.LHA do what he wants?  Works great for me.

    I would think so, but then I haven't tried it on 2.0.:-)  Just
put in the parameters you want & it makes the object.  I've used it
for all kinda things so far (except making stars, duh!).

Bush


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 00:24:43
Subject: Re: Brush Tacking
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Roger Straub <[e-mail]>
>
> > I'm sure this is relatively simple request but I haven't been able to
> > figure out how to tack a picture down and use a special effect such as
> > explode and keep the various parts of the picture tacked down to the
> > various pieces as they explode.  Is this possible?
>
> OK. Create your object. Pick it. Choose the `States' command under the
> `States' menu. Click on `Create'. Name your state. Now go into Attributes
> (F7) and bring up the info screen for your map. type your state's name
> into the `LockState' field. Click on OK. That's it. Now you can use
> explode, shredder(if you're lucky and have 3.2), particles, whatever, and
> your map will be tacked to the object as if you painted it there yourself.

Ummm Roger, I believe that Lockstate only applies to object transforms
obtained through the uses of various states; Action-editor FX modules do
not take Lockstate into account. I just tried exploding a 2 x 2-section
plane (big triangles = easy to see) with a repeating brushmap (double
gradient -- the border where the brush repeats is highly visible). The
result: the flying pieces did not carry their original brush mapping
with them, but rather moved through a fixed "brushmap space", which is
the problem we were trying to fix.

If the user wants an explosion where the pieces will maintain their
original brushmap color, I believe (though I may be wrong) that he'll
have to deform the object into an exploded shape, create a state based
on that, and lock the brushmap to the default state. Does anybody else
have an opinion? I really haven't touched states that much.

Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 00:44:56
Subject: Decals
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> A genlock is a device that allows you to overlay rgb animation over video.
> The Imagine genlock options are for defining colors that will be
> transparent when using a genlock device. They have nothing to do with
> "decals" on an object.

Actually, the "Use genlock" button, found in the brushmap requester,
_does_ have something to do with irregular decals. I just drew a red
ampersand (&) on a black background. (Black was palette position zero) I
added this brush onto a white plane. With "Use genlock" inactive, (the
default) I got a red ampersand on a black plane, i.e. the entire image
was mapped onto the object. With "Use genlock" activated, I got a red
ampersand onto a white plane, white being the base color of the plane,
as defined in Attributes.

So, to create irregular decals, just make sure your brush's background
is color zero, and click on the "Use genlock" button.

> To decal an irregular shaped image onto an object the simple, tho
> seemingly mysterious thing to do is to make the "backround" color, i.e.,
> the color you don't want to be noticed, the same color as the object.

Will only work if the underlying object is a solid color, without
textures or other brushes.

Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 00:51:43
Subject: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Dave Jacob <[e-mail]>
>
> I want to extrude some postscript text in the spline editor, and I'm
> following the manual,s instructions, but when it comes time for Imagine
> to display text, all it displays is an axis. No text appears at all. I've
> got PC Imagine 3.0 -- can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong, or what
> button to push?

One thing Impulse doesn't tell you is that in order to be supported, PS
fonts must use the Adobe standard encoding vector. Just open up the .PFB
file in any text editor and search for the following string:

      /Encoding StandardEncoding

If /Encoding is something else, such as "(Postscript Outline Character
Set)", then Imagine won't even show the font in the file list. If
Imagine shows the font, but an empty axis appears, you may have some
weird PD fonts built using who-knows-what-utility. <said in a disgusted,
"ewww--cooties" tone B^) > You may then want to load the font into a
translation utility, such as Fontographer or Typesmith, and resave the
font. This might clean it up. Maybe.


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 00:56:37
Subject: Re: FAQ and question
From:    dunc <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Torgeir,

> On 24-May-95 10:22:58, Joe Cotellese wrote:
>
> >Now, the question.  Is their anyway to interactively move the Axis on an
> >object? I swore I was able to do that before but last night I couldn't find
> >anything.  Basically I was playing around with the deformations last night
> >and wanted to move the axis around to see what effect it had.  The only way I

> >found was to use the Transformations requester.  I would much rather just
> >drag the axis to a new spot on the object.
>

 it all depends on how you use the move command ie mouse or keyboard if you clic
k on the buttons at
the bottom of the screen then the object is affected if you use keyboard shortcu
ts then the axis only
is affected (you have to use the shift button or key though)

 or is it the other way around ??

 duncan


while im here a little tip for pixpro users

 if you convert an object(or obtain one) and it wont render because of face erro
rs etc just fracture
the whole object with a value of 1.0 and it should render ok im not sure if this increases the size
of the object you could merge it afterwards for safty

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|                                   |
|      [e-mail]      |
|                                   |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 00:57:31
Subject: Re: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>
>
>    I bought a set of over 100 PS fonts when I first got 2.9, and
> by trial and error, found that only EIGHT of them would work !

Dave, for what it's worth, I've been told that the PS fonts which come
with the Corel Draw CD are very palatable to Imagine.

Here's what David Hoffman had to say on CompuServe:

------------------------------------------------------------
#: 72715 S4/Impulse
    21-Jan-94  14:57:06
Sb: #72653-Corel Fonts & Imagine
Fm: David Hofmann 100112,3243

Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 01:09:05
Subject: Imagine's future... hmmm
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Jaco Gerber <docnet![e-mail]>
>
> OK, yes... the service program IS just another money-making scheme,

Actually, the continuous upgrade program is not a money-making scheme at
all. If you have Imagine 3.0 and subscribe to the program, you're paying
Impulse $100 US to get versions 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 4.0. If you don't get
onto the program, it'll still cost you $100 US to upgrade to 4.0 whenever
it's released... except you'll have spent a year or two using 3.0, while
the rest of us were happily playing with the additional functions, and
bug fixes, in 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3.



Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 01:15:08
Subject: Lightning and other Natural Phenomena
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> I don't want to resort to drawing my lightning effect using a paint
> package as I'm not to good at 2D drawing.

Here's an idea: create a lightning bolt by zooming in on a forked area
of a Mandelbrot set, using any of the 2^15 PD fractal programs out
there. The image should be 16- or 256-level greyscale, with a
black background; the outer edge of the lightning would have the darkest
grey, and the innermost areas would be full white.

You could then bring down the brightness to 10%, using a PD image
processor, and save as "lightning.001". Then reload, bring down the
brightness to 20%, and save as "lightning.002". And so on. This 10-frame
sequence could be mapped into Imagine.

Because of the color selection in the original image, revealing the
brighter areas first, will make it look as if the lightning bolt is
actually growing.


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 01:16:35
Subject: Re: Lightning and other Natural Phenomena
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> tried to find "blackbelt.com" no luck, ftp.backbelt.com connects to
> someplace, but it did not look like blackbelt.

They're now on the World Wide Web! I logged on yesterday, but have no
recollection of the exact address. Try www.blackbelt.com or www.bbelt.com.


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 01:25:05
Subject: Re: particles
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> > Is it possible to add brush maps to individual objects which have been
> > grouped together by the particle function. I dont want the brush to
> > extend over all individual copies but rather to repeat on each object.
> >
> > What I want to do is to create windows which have all the same picture
> > on it.
>
>    <Stuff about making a single, brushmapped plane deleted>
>
>      Make a Sphere? Plane? in Detail editor. Particlize it. In the
>      particles requestor, choose the option to load an object as the
>      particle, instead of choosing pyramid or octagon. You add the object
>      in the dialog box, and Boom! Imagine makes every particle your
>      object from the first step!

Unfortunately, particles get rendered as the base object, without their
brushmap. I just tried it: I added a colorful brushmap to a plane, saved
it. I added a sphere, particlized it, using my plane as the particle
filename. Quick-rendered, and got a bunch of white planes. Bummer.


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 01:37:19
Subject: States bug! and fix
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: gregory denby <[e-mail]>
>
> I'm using v. 3.2 on the PC (will check to see if this "feature" also
> occurs on the Amiga) and just ran into an awkwardness in states.
>
> Without going into to much detail, I'll just say that I deformed
> some objects by both manually moving points and by scaling the object.

Ummm, I _hope_ you're not telling us that you scaled the object, axes
and all, in some states? That's a big no-no, Gregory. Remember, the main
axis of an object is a stable reference point, against which everything
else is measured; it cannot be moved, rotated, or scaled when you are
defining states. (You're allowed to do such transformations as long as
you then transform the AXIS ONLY back to its former setting, leaving the
axis untouched, but the points deformed)


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 01:40:24
Subject: TIP...OCTREES
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> Anyway heres the tip-If you have an animation of a dog fight with 20
> planes doing barrel rolls and stuff, keep the Octree level high! So
> you can be sure of a high enough octree resolution.
> But, if you have a single object(or two :) lower the levels. With one
> object the # of levels can be two!
> REASON-octrees may sound cool but the time needed to transverse the octree
> list(nodes)can kill the preformance, so, keeping the # low can
> significantly increase preformance!

Since you now know how octrees work, perhaps you can tell us what kind
of numbers to plug into what kind of situation? I'd love to know.


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 01:43:31
Subject: Transparent decal?
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Mike Vandersommen <[e-mail]>
>
> I dunno. I'm a bit confused about it myself. A previous message said the
> color doesn't matter, as long as the "position" of the color is 0 (or
> something like that). However, in preferences it gives a specific
> "genlock" color for non-Amiga IFFs as f0f0f0 (white), so your example
> would make sense. I always assumed what ever color you set for GENLOCK
> in preferences would be the transparent color. I always set this to
> BLACK.

Mike, please go back and reread my message. If you're using
_register-based_ images, Imagine will always use palette position zero
as the genlock (transparent) area, whatever its color. For _24-bit
images_, however, there is no palette; in this case, you must tell
Imagine which of the 16 million colors you wish to make transparent.


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 01:54:39
Subject: Re: Transparent decal?
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Mike McCool <[e-mail]>
>
> I ALWAYS use a 24bit brushmap.  It just comes out better every time.

Amen, brother! Please everyone, remember that Imagine always stores
brushmaps in memory as full 24-bit images; it doesn't matter is your
320x200 logo is a 1-bit image (8K uncompressed) -- Imagine will expand
it to full 24-bit when loading (192K uncompressed!)

You can't do anything about it. And when nature gives you lemons, you
make lemonade. In this case, take advantage of the full 24-bit nature of
all loaded brushmaps! Add subtle discolorations to your plane fuselage,
they'll render faster than a texture! Add subtle, or flashy, gradients
anywhere you see fit! Imagine's gobbling up the RAM anyway, so why not
take full advantage of it?

In addition, there's another aspect that's quite important to
understand: since every brushmap gets expanded to 24 bits/pixel, large
brushmaps may not fit into memory. However, since you have a full 24
bits of color to play with, you can shrink the bitmap in a good image
processing program, which will average neighboring pixels. The result
will be a smaller file, which looks practically identical to the memory
hog you had before. (You'd need to zoom in to see the difference)
Depending on your application, in Imagine, 320x200 may be all you need.

So remember: you gain NOTHING by reducing the _palette depth_ of a
brushmap, or converting it from 24-bit down to a smaller bit depth. You
potentially gain LOTS of free memory by redusing the _pixel size_ of a
brushmap, with little or no visible degradation. This concept should be
firmly etched into every Imagine user's mind.


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 02:21:45
Subject: Quickies!
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> Blaq or whoever started this thread:
>
>  >I guess "slicing an object with itself, to create a group with separate
>  >objects corresponding to each separate object part" (the opposite of
>  >Joining a group into a single object) would qualify for the quickie hall
>  >of fame, right?
>
> Can you explain this one again? I've tried it a few times and I just
> get the object with an additional axis, even when the object was
> created by joining primitives. Maybe I'm missing something?

Here's an example. Add a default primitive sphere. Add a plane, 5x5
units, 1x1 sections. Extrude it 5 units to make a cube. Then replicate
the cube along a path, but instead of entering the name of a path
object, enter SPHERE! Select a suitable number of copies, such as 50.

You now have a bunch of cubes, but since Replicate only adds copies to
your existing object, all the cubes are attached to a single axis;
they're a single Imagine object.

Now here comes the trick. Pick the object, and only the object, and
Slice. After a while, you'll get the usual Slice result: (and I'm not
talking about "an edge is too close to an edge"! <grin> This is not 3.0)
a group, with an empty axis called PARTS as the parent, and each child
representing a different set of intersecting components... but since the
object was sliced with itself, you get a child for each separate part of
the original object, i.e. wherever a set of faces is totally distinct
from the rest of the original object, and does not intersect with any
other faces, it becomes an object of its own.

In this case, under PARTS you'll get 51 separate cubes, rather than one
single object which just _looks_ like 51 cubes. Think of it as the
opposite of Joining separate objects into one.




Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 02:26:23
Subject: Is it soup yet?
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Mike Vandersommen <[e-mail]>
>
> Just curious. Wasn't v3.3 due last month and 4.0 this month?
>
> ..." duck and cover....incoming"

You're still new to this Impulse thing, arent' you? <grin>


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 02:31:13
Subject: Amiga&PC in class
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> I've been teaching a college computer animation class on Amigas,
> lately using Imagine quite a bit. We are probably going to buy two
> Pentiums to add to our lab and I'm hoping that students will be able
> to move files and images back and forth easily between the two
> platforms. At first I guess we'll just sneakernet PC formatted
> floppies, but I'd love to get anyone's suggestions/warnings about such
> a mixed platform production environment, particularly around Imagine.

I intend to plop down a Pentium 100 next to my trusty Amiga 3000 this
summer. I want to set up a full peer-to-peer network, so that the two
machines may access each other's files transparently. I'll be asking for
information and real-life experiences, both here and on CompuServe, and
I certainly intend to report on my findings when done. So Jon, it may be
a couple of months, but you should have an answer before the fall semester.

> Please let's not start a platform war!

Oh Gawd, please don't! I'm still dizzy from the last one.


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 03:01:47
Subject: Re: Lightning and other Natural Phenomena
From:    [e-mail] (Tom Ellard)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


>> Also have a look at BlackBelt's "WinImages:FX" which isn't PD/shareware but
>> comparatively cheap. It does lightning, fire, auras and all sorts of image
>> processing with effects over time. There is a demo at blackbelt.com

>tried to find "blackbelt.com" no luck, ftp.backbelt.com connects to
>someplace, but it did not look like blackbelt.
>
My apologies, here is some extra information regarding Black Belt.

Black Belt Systems
Building #2, 398 Johnson Road
Glasgow,  MT (Montana)
Postal Code: 59230
USA

   US & Canadian Sales: [phone]
   International Sales: [phone]
      Technical Issues: [phone]
14.4 v32 Multiline BBS: [phone]
  Incoming G3 FAX line: [phone]

Company Hours: 9 A.M. through 5 P.M., M.S.T. (two hours earlier
               than E.S.T., seven hours earlier than GMT) Monday
               through Friday, excluding holidays.

Further information for modem users is also available online via the
CompuServe Information Service (CIS) in section 8 of the ANVENA forum. Log
onto CompuServe and type GO BLACKBELT at any ! prompt; this will take you
directly to the ANVENA forum. Address your inquiries to CIS ID 74774,3106.

Tom Ellard, Severed Communications Australia [e-mail]


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 03:16:54
Subject: Re: Rendering times
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steve Jalim wrote;

>Am i just being unreasonable or is 14 hours for a hires 24bit trace with
>two proceduaral terxtures, two brushmaps and a plastic bottle with water i=
n
>the bottom with EDLE at 0 on an Amiga 3000/040 a little on the slow side?

As we say in Sweden; spik i foten! (If you don't understand that I suppose
you'll just have to learn Swedish, don't you ;)
Yesterday I rendered a 800x600 image with a (reflective) piano and a sconce
(sort of a candlestick): 22 hours!!! :-O
And I'm just using the default preferences, no extreme values.
Hmmm, anybody managed to fit a Cyberstorm into a A500 yet? (It _is_
accelerated, I just want _more_ speed...)

>What tricks can I perform so that I can see my renders before I have
>grandkids?

Set OLDA true (use old antialiasing).
Set RSDP as low as you can, obviously you'll have to be able to see through
the bottle and the water, so maybe 5 will do.

*---------------------------------------------------------------*
|   Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |
|   Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |
|   Sweden           |   [e-mail]              |
*---------------------------------------------------------------*

Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 04:41:00
Subject: Amiga&PC in class
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been teaching a college computer animation class on Amigas,
lately using Imagine quite a bit. We are probably going to buy two
Pentiums to add to our lab and I'm hoping that students will be able
to move files and images back and forth easily between the two
platforms. At first I guess we'll just sneakernet PC formatted
floppies, but I'd love to get anyone's suggestions/warnings about such
a mixed platform production environment, particularly around Imagine.
Please let's not start a platform war! I'm just hoping to lower the
learning curve next semester. Thanks in advance.

Jon (Cooper Union in NYC)


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 04:41:00
Subject: Quickies!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



Blaq or whoever started this thread:

 >I guess "slicing an object with itself, to create a group with separate
 >objects corresponding to each separate object part" (the opposite of
 >Joining a group into a single object) would qualify for the quickie hall
 >of fame, right?

Can you explain this one again? I've tried it a few times and I just
get the object with an additional axis, even when the object was
created by joining primitives. Maybe I'm missing something?



Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 09:43:17
Subject: Impulse's Phone&Fax Numbers
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi,

I need Impulse's phone and fax numbers.

Thanx,

Kaj Wierda
SpartaCom Sales Europe
[e-mail]




Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 10:09:20
Subject: Re:Amiga&PC in class
From:    "DEBEAUMONT, GEORGE" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

     I've got a Pentium 90 sitting next to an A2000/030 and have
     also been looking at options for a transparent peer to peer
     network. I'm sorry to say I haven't found a satisfactory solution
     (yet). I'm currently using PC2Amiga (public domain, null modem
     connection, makes the PC a peripheral device to the Amiga).
     However, data transfer is slow!!!

     Other potential (but unexplored options):
     1) Oxxi Amiga Client software which allows ARCNet or Ethernet
        configured Amigas to operate as a client on a Novell network.
        Oxxi's phone # [phone]
     2) Legendary Design "Link It", Its a parallel transfer cable and
        software package (similar to the public domain Amiga to Amiga
        software "Parnet"). "Link It" is currently "vaporware"
        (I placed my order 5 mo's ago).
        Legendary Design's phone # [phone]
     3) TCP/IP AmiNet shareware and other PC based TCP/IP software package?
        I've got a Commodore A2065 Ethernet card, AmiNet and Windows for
        Workgroups version of TCP/IP. I've yet to purchase an ethernet card
        for the PC, roll up my sleeves and give this option a try. Anyone
        out there with any first hand experience?

     George


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 10:47:29
Subject: Latest ESCOM news
From:    "DEBEAUMONT, GEORGE" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

     The latest on the Amiga front line...

---------- Forwarded message ----------

ESCOM PLANNING POWERPC AMIGA NEXT YEAR; PONDERING OTHER OS's (May
23rd 1995) Escom AG, the Heppenheim, Germany-based computer
manufacturer and retailer that has bought Commodore's technology
and rights will produce a PowerPC-based machine next year. The
company is also planning to support other operating systems
including Windows NT, OS/2 and Mac OS.

The company will lay out its full technical plans for the Amiga
next week, however on the face of it, it looks as if the company
will produce a version of the Amiga based on the new PowerPC
Hardware Reference Platform, which would let it run the foreign
OS's without too much trouble.

The corollary of this is that, going with the HRP hardware
platform would let the company license its operating system out
to other PowerPC-based manufacturers. An Escom spokesman said the
company intended that the licensing policy would be "as open as
possible", though could not give details, as we went to press.

The company is focusing its efforts on retaining and growing the
Amiga's traditional multimedia base. Production of the Amiga models
4000, 1200 and 600 will be restarted. Even the trusty Commodore 64
will be dragged out of retirement to server the East European market.
Before the PowerPC machines appear, the company intends to bolster
its top end with a machine based on the Motorola 68060 processor.

The company also intends to push Amiga technology into the set-top
box arena and is talking of a PC-add in card that will let PC-users
run Amiga applications.

(C) PowerPC News -  Free by mailing: [e-mail]




Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 11:26:18
Subject: Re: Fonts and eps files
From:    "DEBEAUMONT, GEORGE" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Chales forward a message from a compuserve forum, in which it was
>stated that you can save a logo as a Type 1 font and then use this
>in Spline.
>If the logo was saved as Type 1, how would you get this font to display
>the orig. logo?
>Can you import object orientated .eps files from Illustrator, Freehand,
>Art Expression, Corel Draw etc. into the Spline editor?
>It would be pretty cool if you could.
>At the moment, I create the logo, save it as an .eps file, go to
>Photoshop and convert the file to .iff the import this file in Detail
>with Convert bitmap.
>Any other sugguestions?

I use Pro Draw 3.0, Art Expression and Typesmith 2.0 (Amiga software products)
to develop logos and other 2D objects for subsequent import to Imagine. Their
structured drawing tools are far superior to those of Imagine's Spline Editor.

If you have these programs, here's the process:

1)  Design a structured drawing in Pro Draw 3.0, save as a clip file, use the
Art Expression "Convert" utility program to convert to an IFF D2RD file or:

2)  Design a structured drawing in Art Expressions and save as a IFF D2RD file.

3)  Start Typesmith.

4)  Create a new project (project/new/outline).

5)  Import the IFF D2RD file (project/import/IFF D2RD drawing).

6)  Edit the font attributes to give the "full name" field a unique font name.

7)  Initiate the export of the structured drawing as a font now preserved as a
capital "A" (project/export/PFM Postscript type 1 outline).

8)  Set the encoding type to "Typesmith".

9)  Start the Imagine Spline Editor.

10) Set the current font to the previously saved Typesmith font name.

11) Set the input text field to capital "A"

12) Your Pro Draw or Art Expression structured drawing is now an Imagine spline

object.

George





Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 12:05:15
Subject: 1950
From:    Red Hawk <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi!!!!!!
Can someone tell me the frequency of monitor 1950 from commodore.......
I have lost the instruction....
                                      Please Help me !!!

                                      Flavio Ceruti

 .---------------------------------------------------------.
 ! E-Mail: [e-mail]              __/// !
 ! Amiga 4000/40 25Mhz 18Mb 2.0GbSCSI                \XX/  !
 | Home Page:                                              !
 ! http://cdc715_0.cdc.polimi.it/~qua1397/                 !
 `---------------------------------------------------------'

Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 14:13:08
Subject: Re[2]: Amiga&PC in class
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>     3) TCP/IP AmiNet shareware and other PC based TCP/IP software package?
>        I've got a Commodore A2065 Ethernet card, AmiNet and Windows for
>        Workgroups version of TCP/IP. I've yet to purchase an ethernet card
>        for the PC, roll up my sleeves and give this option a try. Anyone
>        out there with any first hand experience?


No, but this is the approach I am going to try.  The other piece of this puzzle

is the actual client to client software - NFS.  TCP/IP would only allow FTP'ing,

I believe.

-Scott
[e-mail]

The following is an attached File item from cc:Mail.  It contains
information that had to be encoded to ensure successful transmission
through various mail systems.  To decode the file use the UUDECODE
program.
--------------------------------- Cut Here ---------------------------------

--> ATTACHEMENT: rfc822.txt <--


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 14:33:00
Subject: Displaying text in spline
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-> From: Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>->->         /Encoding StandardEncoding-
>-> If /Encoding is something else, such as "(Postscript Outline Chara=cte-> Set
)", then Imagine won't even show the font in the file list. If-> Imagine shows t
he font, but an empty axis appears, you may have so=me-> weird PD fonts built us
ing who-knows-what-utility. <said in a disg=ust-> "ewww--cooties" tone B^) > You
 may then want to load the font into= a-> translation utility, such as Fontograp
her or Typesmith, and resave= th-> font. This might clean it up. Maybe.Thank you
 Charles! I have directory with TONS of PS fonts that arehit and miss when loadi
ng. Most do....many don't. I've been tryingto weed out the ones that DON'T, and
you hit the bullseye. I triedloading fonts with different encoding and nada. Now
 all I have to do =isview the font and kill the "non-standard" encoded ones.Brav
o, sir!   /------------------------------           ___   ___  ___   ___  | Mike
 van der Sommen                     / __  /__/ /__/  /_   \ /  | Santa Barbara, Ca.                     /___/ / \  /  /  /     / \  | mike.vande
[e-mail]     HAUS BBS (805-683-1388)  |           "Irony can
make revenge a welcome alternative"   \_________________________________________
____________________--- =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - (805
) 683-1388

Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 15:02:12
Subject: Re: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Wed, 24 May 1995, Charles Blaquiere wrote:

> translation utility, such as Fontographer or Typesmith, and resave the

What's Fontographer?

See ya,
      Roger

Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 15:06:07
Subject: Re: Brush Tacking
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Wed, 24 May 1995, Charles Blaquiere wrote:

>
> Ummm Roger, I believe that Lockstate only applies to object transforms
> obtained through the uses of various states; Action-editor FX modules do
> not take Lockstate into account. I just tried exploding a 2 x 2-section

Aha. I see. Sorry for the slip-up.

>
> If the user wants an explosion where the pieces will maintain their
> original brushmap color, I believe (though I may be wrong) that he'll
> have to deform the object into an exploded shape, create a state based
> on that, and lock the brushmap to the default state. Does anybody else
> have an opinion? I really haven't touched states that much.
>

You could explode the object in Stage, then use the Snapshot function and
then import that object as a state.

See ya,
      Roger

Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 15:15:19
Subject: Rendering times
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

hiya all


Am i just being unreasonable or is 14 hours for a hires 24bit trace with
two proceduaral terxtures, two brushmaps and a plastic bottle with water in
the bottom with EDLE at 0 on an Amiga 3000/040 a little on the slow side?

What tricks can I perform so that I can see my renders before I have
grandkids?


cheers

steve
______________________________________________________________________________
| Steve Jalim -> [e-mail] | http://www.ex.ac.uk/~ge94saj/steve1.html |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Scully: Can you determine the cause of death?                              |
|           My instinct tells me that burial in cement is murder.            |
|____________________________________________________________________________|



Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 15:31:24
Subject: Re[2]: How do you make trees.
From:    "DEBEAUMONT, GEORGE" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>If Imagine had an Arexx interface the ASCII scripts that Vista produces
>for the camera could come in real handy. These scripts contain the map
>coordinates, pitch, roll, yaw etc. You could render an aircraft or vehicle
>on a black background to follow the Vista camera movements and composite
>it onto the Vista landscape.
>-- Bob
  >: Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail]
  >: :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia

     I wonder if the decompiled stage file (produced by the public domain
     program Imagine Staging Language, "ISL") and a VistaPro script file
     could somehow be used to synchronize camera position and angle in both
     Imagine and Vistpro animations for subsequent compositing?

     George



Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 16:06:41
Subject: Workbench 3.1 upgrades?
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry, this message relates only to Amiganoids.

I have the A2000, with workbench 2.1 on board.
If anybody out there has upgraded their A2000 to workbench 3.1,
I would be interested to know if the screen redraws are quicker now
when using Imagine 3.0.
Also, what effect does extra fast ram have to the screen re-draws if any?

Thanx
Rodney Macey
.... generating ... 99.99% complete



Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 18:09:36
Subject: Re: Brush Tacking
From:    [e-mail] (DThompson)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Ummm Roger, I believe that Lockstate only applies to object transforms
>obtained through the uses of various states; Action-editor FX modules do
>not take Lockstate into account.
                        Deleted material
>If the user wants an explosion where the pieces will maintain their
>original brushmap color, I believe (though I may be wrong) that he'll
>have to deform the object into an exploded shape, create a state based
>on that, and lock the brushmap to the default state. Does anybody else
>have an opinion? I really haven't touched states that much.
>
>
Sorry, Charley,

I don't know what you're doing wrong, but I use it all the time and it
works. As long as you set a default state, lock the brush to it, and set its
state in the action or stage editor, it will work. You could atomize it and
each individual poly keeps its color. It works on all the other effects, too.

Dave Thompson


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 18:10:07
Subject: Re: Brush Tacking
From:    [e-mail] (DThompson)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

At 11:24 PM 5/24/95 -0400, Charles Blaquiere wrote:
>> From: Roger Straub <[e-mail]>
>>
>> > I'm sure this is relatively simple request but I haven't been able to
>> > figure out how to tack a picture down and use a special effect such as
>> > explode and keep the various parts of the picture tacked down to the
>> > various pieces as they explode.  Is this possible?
>>
>> OK. Create your object. Pick it. Choose the `States' command under the
>> `States' menu. Click on `Create'. Name your state. Now go into Attributes
>> (F7) and bring up the info screen for your map. type your state's name
>> into the `LockState' field. Click on OK. That's it. Now you can use
>> explode, shredder(if you're lucky and have 3.2), particles, whatever, and
>> your map will be tacked to the object as if you painted it there yourself.
>
>Ummm Roger, I believe that Lockstate only applies to object transforms
>obtained through the uses of various states; Action-editor FX modules do
>not take Lockstate into account. I just tried exploding a 2 x 2-section
>plane (big triangles = easy to see) with a repeating brushmap (double
>gradient -- the border where the brush repeats is highly visible). The
>result: the flying pieces did not carry their original brush mapping
>with them, but rather moved through a fixed "brushmap space", which is
>the problem we were trying to fix.
>
>If the user wants an explosion where the pieces will maintain their
>original brushmap color, I believe (though I may be wrong) that he'll
>have to deform the object into an exploded shape, create a state based
>on that, and lock the brushmap to the default state. Does anybody else
>have an opinion? I really haven't touched states that much.
>
>


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 18:12:08
Subject: Re: Brush Tacking
From:    [e-mail] (DThompson)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>To: Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
>From: [e-mail] (DThompson)
>Subject: Re: Brush Tacking
>
>>Ummm Roger, I believe that Lockstate only applies to object transforms
>>obtained through the uses of various states; Action-editor FX modules do
>>not take Lockstate into account.
>                        Deleted material
>>If the user wants an explosion where the pieces will maintain their
>>original brushmap color, I believe (though I may be wrong) that he'll
>>have to deform the object into an exploded shape, create a state based
>>on that, and lock the brushmap to the default state. Does anybody else
>>have an opinion? I really haven't touched states that much.
>>
>>
>Sorry, Charley,
>
>I don't know what you're doing wrong, but I use it all the time and it
works. As long as you set a default state, lock the brush to it, and set its
state in the action or stage editor, it will work. You could atomize it and
each individual poly keeps its color. It works on all the other effects, too.
>
>Dave Thompson
>


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 18:17:48
Subject: Re: Amiga&PC in class
From:    [e-mail] (DThompson)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

At 03:41 AM 5/25/95 UTC, [e-mail] wrote:
>I've been teaching a college computer animation class on Amigas,
>lately using Imagine quite a bit. We are probably going to buy two
>Pentiums to add to our lab and I'm hoping that students will be able
>to move files and images back and forth easily between the two
>platforms. At first I guess we'll just sneakernet PC formatted
>floppies, but I'd love to get anyone's suggestions/warnings about such
>a mixed platform production environment, particularly around Imagine.
>Please let's not start a platform war! I'm just hoping to lower the
>learning curve next semester. Thanks in advance.
>
>Jon (Cooper Union in NYC)

We've got a multiple platform net going here with Amigas, PC's, and an SGI.
Wasn't easy, but it can be done. There was another product called Link It
that used a cable on the serial or parrallel port to transfer data, but we
never received the product we had ordered and cancelled it. If you want to
know more about multiplatform networking, E-mail me and we'll have a shot at it.

Dave Thompson
[e-mail]


Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 18:42:12
Subject: Fonts and eps files
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chales forward a message from a compuserve forum, in which it was
stated that you can save a logo as a Type 1 font and then use this
in Spline.
If the logo was saved as Type 1, how would you get this font to display
the orig. logo?
Can you import object orientated .eps files from Illustrator, Freehand,
Art Expression, Corel Draw etc. into the Spline editor?
It would be pretty cool if you could.
At the moment, I create the logo, save it as an .eps file, go to
Photoshop and convert the file to .iff the import this file in Detail
with Convert bitmap.
Any other sugguestions?

Rod Macey
[e-mail]
.... generating ... 59.48% complete



Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 18:48:42
Subject: Re:Amiga&PC in class
From:    [e-mail] (David Monachello)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From [e-mail] Thu May 25 10:23:57 1995
> Received: from micom.micom.com by sid.micom.com (4.1/SMI-4.1)
>     id AA07287; Thu, 25 May 95 10:23:57 PDT
> Received: from email.sp.paramax.com ([129.218.87.10]) by micom.micom.com (4.1/
SMI-4.0)
>     id AA11225; Thu, 25 May 95 10:23:54 PDT
> Received: by email.sp.paramax.com (4.1/SMI-4.1)
>     id AA21137; Thu, 25 May 95 11:11:52 CDT
> Return-Path: <[e-mail]>
> Received: from sce.com ([155.13.32.41]) by email.sp.paramax.com (4.1/SMI-4.1)
>     id AA21133; Thu, 25 May 95 11:11:50 CDT
> Received: from SONGS.sce.com by sce.com (AIX 3.2/UCB 5.64/4.03)
>      Other potential (but unexplored options):
>      1) Oxxi Amiga Client software which allows ARCNet or Ethernet
>         configured Amigas to operate as a client on a Novell network.


hi,

I have this setup at home. It works fine with pcs, macs and amigas. The drawback
s are:

  1) it is not peer to peer. You only share the disks on the novell server
  2) you have to dedicate a pc to be the server

I have minimal harddisks installed on my non-server machines. Almost all my driv
e space
(a few gigs) are on the server.

I had an old 386 just laying around so the 2nd point was not an issue for me.

later,
dave

Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 19:46:16
Subject: IM
From:    Darren Priestnall <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm not on the Imagine list any more everyone.....couldn't cope with
all the mail.......I do miss the debate though.

Just mailing to say I look forward to Imagine V4.
My biggest grievance with Imagine is it's interface, especially it's
use of splines and animation path's compared to Lightwave's.
I do however love all the little trick's I keep finding in Imagine and
all the textures.......Imagine with a useable front end, sound's like a
winner to me :)
My only other grievance is Imagine's rendering engine.
I use Real3D a lot and when I render glasses, they really look like
glasses, not plastic imitation's.
However, I am told by fellow Imagine user's that the V4 update will be
a new interface...GREAT.....and the next big update will be a rewrite
of the rendering engine........Imagine look's like it has a bright
future     :)

Any new's regarding the new Imagine updates, email me direct, I'm not
on the list :(


--
~===========================================================================~
 Darren Priestnall - [e-mail] (PandGImaging)
Connecting via Demon Internet, Finchley, London, N3 1TT. Tel: [phone]
-- Full IP Connectivity for a 10 UKP per month - no usage/online fees!! --

Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 20:33:53
Subject: Questions...
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since this is the first time I've been able to say something on this list (a
professor gave me an archived copy of the list from around last summer, I believ

e) I'm going to ask one question that's been on my mind since I first saw a
discussion on ARexx/Rexx support in Imagine. If the problem is 'portability' and


lack of access to Rexx on some fronts, what about implementing a command-line
interface? This would give the ability to write ARexx scripts, as well as DOS
batch files, to automate some things... and would avoid the problem of some
people not being able to take advantage of this feature... Any comments?

That being said, does anyone have any suggestions or modeling tips relating to
doing organic/semi-organic models? I'm thinking in particular of trying to
model a T-Rex or a person's face. I tend to approach modeling with the idea
that the points and polygons are basically virtual clay, and thus pulling,
stretching, and otherwise maneuvering points, lines, etc. to try to accomplish
the form that I want. I can get something which resembles what I want in a very
basic form (ie, blocky instead of nicely formed...) by using the Forms Editor,
but when I try to manipulate the models in the Detail Editor to try to smooth
them out, I end up with unsightly splotches of black 'pits'. Am I approaching
this wrong? Anyone have any suggestions on how to approach such models differ-
ently?

Also, I'm running Imagine on a '386 with 8 megs of RAM. Any suggestions on how
to get realistic models without so many details that the RAM evaporates? Anyone
care to share stories about 'the least amount of RAM you've used to create a
satisfyingly realistic scene'?

Finally, does anyone know of a mailing list for professional animators/modelers/
whatever that covers the subject of being a professional in that field from a
cross-platform/cross-package standpoint? (This list, I assume, covers Imagine
first and foremost and anything else secondarily...) If no one knows of such a
list, how many people would be interested in joining/creating such a list?

Thanks in advance,

Jeff Krase ([e-mail])

Date:    Thursday, 25 May 1995 21:47:49
Subject: Upgrade Program
From:    Jaco Gerber <docnet![e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


to: Charles Blaquiere

I do happen to be on the Service Program... but all I meant was that
at $100 for four upgrades, the upgrades should really be notable. More
than just one or two new features, a bugfix or two and some textures.

Thanks for reading the post though,
Jaco


Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 00:46:30
Subject: Re: FAQ and question
From:    Kent Marshall Worley <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Wed, 24 May 1995, Joe Cotellese wrote:

> Hello,
>
> If anyone is interested, I converted latest Imagine FAQ into a Word 6.0 docume
nt - complete with tables and Table of Contents.  (Not that I don't have a life,
 just wanted to learn some new Word features).  It still needs some work and I'l
l probably im
prove it with the next FAQ release.
>
> If you are interested email me with the Subject FAQ REQUEST and I'll send it t
o you.
>
> Now, the question.  Is their anyway to interactively move the Axis on an objec
t? I swore I was able to do that before but last night I couldn't find anything.
  Basically I was playing around with the deformations last night and wanted to
move the axis
 around to see what effect it had.  The only way I found was to use the Transfor
mations requester.  I would much rather just drag the axis to a new spot on the
object.
>
> Joe Cotellese
>
>
>
sure send me the FAQ.
 as for interactively moving the axis I know I will be dreaming when I
say it should be part of the up coming texture/ attributes preview menu
in 3.3. I have essence and I am eagerly awaiting this new feature.
 mumu

Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 02:59:49
Subject: Realistic Render
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have Imagine 3.2 and I want to know what the settings are for the most
absolute best render of a scence.

P.S. Does anyone have any info on what majors new things will be added to
Imagine 4.0, will metaballs be included?

Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 04:14:20
Subject: Brush Tacking
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Regarding the recent discussion on locking a brush to an object. Here's a
tip I found in Carmen Rizzolo's "Imagine Organizer" found on
Aminet/docs/miscIM_ORG12.lha. It was written before V3 was released.

Basicly it is a Slice tutorial but with a twist. You use a plane to slice a
sphere into two halves and save them. Wrap a brush onto the original sphere
select Transform Axes then write down the X,Y,Z values for Position, Align
and Size.  Save the attributes.  Return to the Detail Editor and select
Transformations and write down the X,Y,Z values for Position and Size.
Reload one of the hemispheres and bring up the Transformations requester
again and click on Transform Axes Only and enter the Position and Size
values you wrote down earlier. Bring up the Attributes requester and load
the previously saved attribute, select the brush to get at its requester
and select Transform Axes and restore the Position, Align and Size values
to the ones you wrote down. Save the object. Repeat this operation for the
other half of the sphere.

When you render the hemispheres, the brushmap will be split down the middle
and orientated exactly as the original sphere.

This technique could be applied to any object with any amount of sliced
sections. The object you use as the slicer could be a distorted plane to
give a rough look to the pieces.

Of course Carmen had a much fuller explanation in his tutorial which covers
about thirteen subjects. The version I have was updated in March '93, there
may be a later version.

All credit goes to Carmen Rizzolo for this mini tutorial.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 05:54:13
Subject: Re: Rendering times
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello S.A.Jalim, on May 25 you wrote:

> Am i just being unreasonable or is 14 hours for a hires 24bit trace with
> two proceduaral terxtures, two brushmaps and a plastic bottle with water in
> the bottom with EDLE at 0 on an Amiga 3000/040 a little on the slow side?
>
> What tricks can I perform so that I can see my renders before I have
> grandkids?

Sounds way too slow.

Can you give some more details, more config file settings, type of lights
and how many, world size etc.

Here's a comparison for you on an A3000/030.

The VertiSketch digitised Hand object with Bones and eight States, size
900Kb, no brushes or textures, but one group of faces for the fingernails.
This is placed on a primitive plane which has a 210KB 24-bit brush mapped onto
it.  One main light with shadows off, one fill light with shadows on.
Global world size is the default settings, XYZ = 0.

Config: EDLE = 12, AARC = 10, RSDP = 6, OCTD = 6

Full Trace render: 45 mins

It's not a complex scene, but neither is yours.  I've watched a friend
render similar scenes on his A4000/040 and his times are at most 10% of
mine.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 06:14:39
Subject: Re[3]: How do you make trees.
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello DEBEAUMONT,, on May 25 you wrote:

>      I wonder if the decompiled stage file (produced by the public domain
>      program Imagine Staging Language, "ISL") and a VistaPro script file
>      could somehow be used to synchronize camera position and angle in both
>      Imagine and Vistpro animations for subsequent compositing?
>
>      George

I've never used ISL and just had a look at ISL_2_0.lha. This was created
for use with Imagine V2.0 staging files. If these are compatible with V3+
or there is a later version of ISL then it would be worth a try.  It would
really enhance Vista anims to have an animated object included in an
otherwise stagnant landscape.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 09:23:41
Subject: Organic Modelling
From:    [e-mail] (Greg Denby)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jeff Krase writes:
>That being said, does anyone have any suggestions or modeling tips
>relating to doing organic/semi-organic models? I'm thinking in particular
>of trying to model a T-Rex or a person's face. I tend to approach modeling
>with the idea that the points and polygons are basically virtual clay, and
>thus pulling, stretching, and otherwise maneuvering points, lines, etc. to
>try to accomplish the form that I want. I can get something which resembles
>what I want in a very basic form (ie, blocky instead of nicely formed...)
>by using the Forms Editor, but when I try to manipulate the models in the
>Detail Editor to try to smooth them out, I end up with unsightly splotches
>of black 'pits'. Am I approaching this wrong? Anyone have any suggestions
>on how to approach such models differently?

I'll bet part about "splotches and black 'pits'" is related to phong
shading problems.
If I remember  correctly, neither phong nor gourand shading interpolates
from the
vertices(points) defining the objects, but (?I think?) the face normals and
edge
normals respectively.  So, while the points on a either side of a human
face may
have symetrical co-ordinates, if their edges are not also symetrical, the
surface
will have bends that shade badly, i.e. what is an bulge on one side can be
a dent
on the other.

This problem often happens when deforming a primitive or Forms object in
Imagine.  All the diagonals go the same way, like so, : / : / : / :  (was that
recognizable?)  If you were to pull a nose, for example, from such a mesh, one
side will slant up to the ridge of the nose, while the other will slant from
the ridge towards the eye.  A mesh like so works better : / : / : \ : \.

To see how shading will work, use the shaded view option in Perspective, or
do quickrenders in colored face mode.

When I want really specific organic objects, I've stopped using Forms, and
draw them by hand.  Its a bit tedious, but the results are better.  Think of it
as making a wire frame work, and glueing tissue on it.  From the front
view, use Add lines, and sketch in the high, mid, and low features.  Using and
eye for example: on the eye-lid, draw the indented upper curve, the bulging
lower curve, and the swell in the middle.   From the side view, pull these back

and forth to get the proper depth.  Then its connect the dot time.

So far I've not figured out how to automatically or manually work around the
unexpected crinkles that appear when animating a shape.

Hope this helps,
Greg Denby
[e-mail]


Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 11:08:49
Subject: Blackbelt address
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> > tried to find "blackbelt.com" no luck, ftp.backbelt.com connects to
> > someplace, but it did not look like blackbelt.
>
> They're now on the World Wide Web! I logged on yesterday, but have no
> recollection of the exact address. Try www.blackbelt.com or www.bbelt.com.
>
The correct address is:

www.blackbelt.com/blackbelt/bx_top.html

ftp.blackbelt.com/corporate/blackbelt

It has all the demo's  and images you looking for

cu A3
----------------------------------------------------------
Real life  : Adri Mathlener
E-Mail     : [e-mail]
----------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 11:42:12
Subject: Re: States bug! and fix
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Awhile back I wrote about problems with deforming objects through
states animation, and solving it byremoving the size line in the
Action Editor.

Charles B. corrected me, "Remember, the main object of the object
is the stable reference point, against which everything else is
measured; it cannot be moved, rotated or scaled when you are defining
states.  (You're allowed to do such transformations as long as you
the transform the AXIS ONLY back to its former setting, leaving the
axis untouched, but the points deformed)

Charles' comments are more extensive than the manual's, which,
upon several rescans say nothing about maintaining the axis size.
This much appears to be true, although I did some further testing,
and found that some point deformations don't work even if the axis
remains unchanged.

To sum up what I learned, the objects axes, especially the z axis
influence how the points deform in Stage and thus in Project.
If you make the object's axis large enough to encompass all the
point changes you make, they will work O.K.  For instance, if
the top of the z axis is a 100, and you move your points to 200,
the objects surface will not expand past 100, but only when you
use it in Stage.  In Detail everything will work fine.

It appears that Imagine's design is to control size changes in
animations through the Stage/Action size line, while shape deformations
are created in Detail.  As you probably all know, stretching or
smashing an object through the Stage/Action size line works just fine.
If you make these transforms in a Detail state, for them to work
you must:

Remove the objects size bar in Action.
or
Size the objects axes larger than the outermost points.
or
Group the object to a stable parent object, just as you would
with grouped states objects.

Perhaps another FAQ could be called "Imagine under the microscope."

Back to animating,
Greg Denby
[e-mail]

Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 11:48:39
Subject: Re: Amiga&PC in class
From:    Dylan Neill <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Thu, 25 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

> I've been teaching a college computer animation class on Amigas,
> lately using Imagine quite a bit. We are probably going to buy two
> Pentiums to add to our lab and I'm hoping that students will be able
> to move files and images back and forth easily between the two
> platforms. At first I guess we'll just sneakernet PC formatted
> floppies, but I'd love to get anyone's suggestions/warnings about such
> a mixed platform production environment, particularly around Imagine.

It works fine! I've got an Amiga and a PC set up and Imagine objects and
IFF pictures, brushes etc work straight away. You can even load Imagine 3
objects onto imagine 2!

---
                               |\ /|
                                o O
  ________________________oOO_=( ^ )=_OOo___________________________
 |                        '''     U   '''                           |
 | Gumby Death Man (Dylan Neill) Amiga 1200/6/120  486DX2-66/24/500 |
 | Email: [e-mail]   WWW: http://www.pcug.org.au/~dylann/ |
 |__________________________________________________________________|


Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 12:39:36
Subject: Re: Realistic Render
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
> I have Imagine 3.2 and I want to know what the settings are for the most
> absolute best render of a scence.
>
> P.S. Does anyone have any info on what majors new things will be added to
> Imagine 4.0, will metaballs be included?
>

In the preferences menu set EDLE =0 and then set the rendering subproject to
ILBM/RGBN 24 and the resolution to as high as you want. (1024 x 976 if you are
insane or have a raptor :) ) Remember to view the end image in as high a resolut
ion
and number of colours as possible. I go so far as to JPEG the pic and take it
to a friends PC, rather than being forced to endure HAM6 of my 3000 :)

Set the Global Axis to as close to the boundaries of the visible scene as
possible to keep the rendering time as low as possible (see aminet/docs/misc
IM_ORG.lha for details). This method only really speeds up Im2 renders tho..
I only get a 25% speed increase with Im3.2

good luck

steve


Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 14:02:42
Subject: Re: Imagine's future... hmmm
From:    Ed Totman <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Actually, the continuous upgrade program is not a money-making scheme at
> all. If you have Imagine 3.0 and subscribe to the program, you're paying
> Impulse $100 US to get versions 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 4.0. If you don't get
> onto the program, it'll still cost you $100 US to upgrade to 4.0 whenever
> it's released... except you'll have spent a year or two using 3.0, while
> the rest of us were happily playing with the additional functions, and
> bug fixes, in 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3.

Yes, it works in theory, but we paid for the continuous upgrade program
too and only received 3.1.  I've called Impulse 3 times and spoke with
Mike himself 2 times.  He was courteous and polite, even offering to ship
it to my home address to be sure I got it, but 3+ weeks later -- no 3.2.

Your mileage may vary...

Ed Totman
[e-mail]


Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 14:13:05
Subject: Re: Fonts and eps files
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>If the logo was saved as Type 1, how would you get this font to display
>the orig. logo?
>Can you import object orientated .eps files from Illustrator, Freehand,
>Art Expression, Corel Draw etc. into the Spline editor?
>It would be pretty cool if you could.
>At the moment, I create the logo, save it as an .eps file, go to
>Photoshop and convert the file to .iff the import this file in Detail
>with Convert bitmap.
>Any other sugguestions?
I did it the following way.

I got the logo in IFF form in a rather high resolution (~1024x1024). Fired up
Typesmith, told it to start a new font, import the IFF as the letter A and
autotrace it.
It generated far too many points but you can fine tune it. Then delete any
points you don't want adjust them if needed and save as Type1 with adobe
encoding/typesmith encoding, I never know which one.
In Imagine goto the spline editor and load your Type1 font with only the
letter A and say "text:=A"--> there is your A erm, logo ready for extrusion.

Should also work on the PC only have to fill in xxx instead of Typesmith.

Greetings Joop

Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 17:39:17
Subject: PC reads Amiga Disks (Wanted)
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Imagineers !,
I've always been reading Amiga mags with articles on Ray-tracing and GFX.
I've also got a collection of Cover disks.
The question is can I read them on My PC ?
I realise the PC can't emulate an Amiga using Software ,but can
I access the data on the disks using a PD/Shareware program.
I want to using some 3d objects on the cover disks with my PC.
Also to UK readers , Don't forget to buy PC-Guide this month as it has
Vista -pro 3 CD on the cover as well as another cover CD.
I believe it costs 4:99 and is published by Future Publishing.

Also ,on this months PC-Answers ,an animation utility will be found.
The program can create TGA's as well as FLC's in upto 24 bits.
The utility can do Video style fades/wipes .
The utility requires Windows and a decent PC.\
I bought the Mag since it had a save disabled version of a 400 pound video
editing program (Adobe Premeier).

Hope the above is of interest to Graphic Wizards .

Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 21:00:23
Subject: Editor color preferences
From:    [e-mail] (Dennis Grant)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Which colors are people using for the editor colors, or is everyone using
the defaults?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dennis Grant   Cycor Tech Support Staff/HTML Design/Graphic Artist/Amiga support

[e-mail]  Amiga 4000/030/6/970/'882/17" IDEK/NEC CD-ROM/14.4
CLSIP/AmiTCP
http://www.cycor.ca/TCave/                Visit Trog's Cave!



Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 21:02:10
Subject: FastROM/VMM render speedup?
From:    [e-mail] (Dennis Grant)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just installed VMM, and enabled the FastROM option.

A test render (trace, old AA) ran TWICE AS FAST. Is this consistant with
other people's results?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dennis Grant   Cycor Tech Support Staff/HTML Design/Graphic Artist/Amiga support

[e-mail]  Amiga 4000/030/6/970/'882/17" IDEK/NEC CD-ROM/14.4
CLSIP/AmiTCP
http://www.cycor.ca/TCave/                Visit Trog's Cave!



Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 22:21:25
Subject: Re: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 25-May-95 14:02:12, Roger Straub wrote:

>> translation utility, such as Fontographer or Typesmith, and resave the
>What's Fontographer?

Font design program on the mac. Made by altsys (frehand people) and
distributed by Macromedia.


Torge!r

Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 22:21:27
Subject: Re: Brush Tacking
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 25-May-95 14:06:07, Roger Straub wrote:
>>
>> If the user wants an explosion where the pieces will maintain their
>> original brushmap color, I believe (though I may be wrong) that he'll
>> have to deform the object into an exploded shape, create a state based
>> on that, and lock the brushmap to the default state. Does anybody else
>> have an opinion? I really haven't touched states that much.
>You could explode the object in Stage, then use the Snapshot function and
>then import that object as a state.

Actually, you would have to do some work with the action bars to make this
work. The reason is that exploding an object alters the point count.

You would need two objects, (unless you don't use phong shading) one basic
object, and the eploding version, which would have two states. The first state
could be acheived by fracturing the object using 1 as the scale. Apply the map
to this object, create a state, and tack the map to this state. Now you will
be able to import a snapshop of the blown-up object, beacuse the frame count
will be tha same...

Hope that made any sense... Sorry about the messy structure :-/


Torge!r

Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 23:26:40
Subject: Re: Amiga&PC in class
From:    Kent Marshall Worley <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Thu, 25 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

> I've been teaching a college computer animation class on Amigas,
> lately using Imagine quite a bit. We are probably going to buy two
> Pentiums to add to our lab and I'm hoping that students will be able
> to move files and images back and forth easily between the two
> platforms. At first I guess we'll just sneakernet PC formatted
> floppies, but I'd love to get anyone's suggestions/warnings about such
> a mixed platform production environment, particularly around Imagine.
> Please let's not start a platform war! I'm just hoping to lower the
> learning curve next semester. Thanks in advance.
>
> Jon (Cooper Union in NYC)
>
>
I have been working on an Ethernet connection without much success.
Ethernet is a new learning curve I am having a hard time with. I have
been using "Twin Express" which is a serial transfer package that I get
115200 CPS transfer rates. I render on a pentium and it takes a couple of
hours to transfer 100 or so frames to the Amiga.
 Mumu

Date:    Friday, 26 May 1995 23:54:40
Subject: Re: Editor color preferences
From:    [e-mail] (Fred Aderhold)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Which colors are people using for the editor colors, or is everyone using
>the defaults?
>

Here are my colors -

BGRD  555     # background color
FGRD  000     # edge color
REQC  777     # requester & gadgets color (bounding box & drag points)
BVLB  ccc     # bright bevel color (points & group lines)
BVLD  444     # dark bevel color (selected objects edges & points)
GRID  666     # grid color
PICK  66f     # picked edge color
PPNT  f66     # picked point color
SPCK  c6f     # selected picked edge
SPPT  ff6     # selected picked point
BWLC  fff     # line color in "B & W Wire/Shade"
COLC  fff     # line color in "Color Shade"
STAR  888     # star color in "Trace" and "Scanline"
COL0  000     # "color 0" RGB value for stills
QSKY  555555  # "Quickrender" background color

I couldn't stand the default orange - made me nuts!

---------------------------------
Fred Aderhold
[e-mail]

After we pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is
NOT our friend!

---------------------------------


Date:    Saturday, 27 May 1995 02:15:02
Subject: Re: Rendering times
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


S.A. Jalim asks about a 14 hour render, and Robert (Bob) Byrne offers
a comparison using the "VertiSketch digitized Hand object with Bones
and eight States."

Wow, a hand with eight states!  Where is this found?

Greg Denby

Date:    Saturday, 27 May 1995 02:41:12
Subject: Re: Amiga&PC in class
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> > floppies, but I'd love to get anyone's suggestions/warnings about such
> > a mixed platform production environment, particularly around Imagine.
> > Please let's not start a platform war! I'm just hoping to lower the
> > learning curve next semester. Thanks in advance.
> >
> > Jon (Cooper Union in NYC)
> >
> >
> I have been working on an Ethernet connection without much success.
> Ethernet is a new learning curve I am having a hard time with. I have
> been using "Twin Express" which is a serial transfer package that I get
> 115200 CPS transfer rates. I render on a pentium and it takes a couple of
> hours to transfer 100 or so frames to the Amiga.
>  Mumu
>
I looked at Ethernet for some time, but on the amiga it is costly and not
very strongly supported (IBM already has a card) so for my pentium to
amiga data I'm going to use a ZIP drive. They are had to find right now
due to populatity, but for $200 you get a removable SCSI drive, and each
$15-$20 disk holds 100Megs.  It's SCSI, it's external... all I have to do
is find a SCSI 50 ribbon --> scsi 25pin cable for the IBM .. figure out a
mountlist for the amiga side... (useing crossdos) and... bingo copy 100
megs per disk...(about 1 meg per sec) re-hook it to the amiga.. all done.


--
..__________________________________________________________________________.
|   -== When Dreams Become Reality ==-                    -= IM Design=-   |
|"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""|"""""""""""""""""""""|""""""""""""""""""""|
|     [e-mail]       | FTP: ftp.netcom.com |  Video Production  |
|   [e-mail]     |  DIR: pub/videoman  |  3D Graphics & DTP |
| Mosaic Home Page: file://ftp.netcom.com/pub/vi/videoman/web/HOME.html    |
~""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""~

Date:    Saturday, 27 May 1995 16:22:00
Subject: Steve Worley email address
From:    Paul Rance <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does anyone know what Steve Worley or Apex's email address is. I
want to ask a few questions about Essence & Forge.

failing that does anyone know when the PC version of Essence will
be out.

thanks

Paul R
--
..-----------------------------------------------------------------.
!Email [e-mail]                2:254/516.2@Fidonet  !
!                                                                 !
! WWW page is http://metro.turnpike.net/P/paulr/index.html        !
`-----------------------------------------------------------------'

Date:    Saturday, 27 May 1995 17:00:06
Subject: OBJECTS&ATTRIBUTES
From:    Granberg Tom <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Howdy folks, out there in cyberspace!

For your information I have been out of reach the last couple of months due to
problems with our mail system, but now they have installed a new version of the

software, so it's seems to work just fine.
Glad to be back on the list, and enjoy all you guys&gals superb devotion to one

of the finest 3D packages there is!


Just wonder if you folks are interested in som very cool and somwhat huge
objects from my own collection?
I've also made a rather huge and nice sellection of attr. mostly containing 1 or

more textures, some of them uses essence I&II, others are compatible with
Imagine 3.2 's textures. You PC users can also use some of them. I think some of

the attr. will blow your socks of, one of my friends in an animation company
that uses SGI-Wavefront/Softimage saw some of the rendered attr. and he just
went loco!
If you want to have a look, just pop into this WWW address:
http://hobbes.nhidh.nki.no:80/~pednaa/tv2/tomg.html

I maybe going to put up some of the objects&attr on this site for you to
download.
If not you guys&gals know a better place to put them? And if you do please tell

me where and how to get them there!

[e-mail]

-A4000/04040warpengine -2GB HD -36MB ram -DPS-PAR

PS. could somone point me at the correct adress, where I could find VMM(Virtual

Memory, I think?)
PS2. Does anyone know what IM4.0 going to be like?

Date:    Saturday, 27 May 1995 17:20:09
Subject: FONT TROUBLE
From:    Granberg Tom <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Howdy all!

Can anybody help me, I can't seem to get all of the characters to work. This is

a problem since I live in Norway, and need to use the:o slash,o ring, and ae,
but it seems like imagine doesnt bother loading those characters. I've checked
the font in Typesmith, and all of the char. is there.
This problem also ocour on the pc version!

[e-mail]

Date:    Saturday, 27 May 1995 22:12:44
Subject: Showcase on SGI
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

      My friend is new to rendering program and he has access to a
silicon graphics Indigo with Showcase 3D renderer. I don't know at all
ShowCase so I would like to know.

      -If there is possibility to exchange stuff between ShowCase and
      Imagine project things like animation, object?

      -Is there any format that he can render that would permits me to
      see his graph on a PC?

thanks for your help

Date:    Saturday, 27 May 1995 23:55:25
Subject: Re: Organic Modeling
From:    Ayalon Hermony <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hello,

Don't have the former posts handy, it was about Forms editor making different
sides (let's asume a human head) hmmm... different.
So, when you fine tune the object in Detail, you get shading problems, for
faces in opposite places.

To overcome it and get the ' ////|\\\\ ' placing of faces, I use the Forms
editor by making only one half of the head. Think of a half ball, which has
its inner side - flat, like a rubber ball cut in half.

It's not easy to get the right aspect, when making only half of a head, but
when you load it into Detail, copy, paste, scale -1, join, delete the
inner faces, and merge all the points of the outter circle, it looks like
it's the easy part yet...



           How do you come back from 3D ?
Ayalon M. Hermony      Internet: [e-mail]



Date:    Sunday, 28 May 1995 00:19:42
Subject: Re: Editor color preferences
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Dennis, on May 26 you wrote:

> Which colors are people using for the editor colors, or is everyone using
> the defaults?

I've been using these since V2.0

BGRD  888     # background color
FGRD  000     # edge color
REQC  e92     # requester & gadgets color (bounding box & drag points)
BVLB  fc7     # bright bevel color (points & group lines)
BVLD  b62     # dark bevel color (selected objects edges & points)
GRID  999     # grid color
PICK  66f     # picked edge color
PPNT  f66     # picked point color
SPCK  94f     # selected picked edge (was c6f)
SPPT  0b0     # selected picked point (was ff6)
BWLC  fff     # line color in "B & W Wire/Shade"
COLC  fff     # line color in "Color Shade"
STAR  888     # star color in "Trace" and "Scanline"
COL0  000     # "color 0" RGB value for stills


-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Sunday, 28 May 1995 00:43:00
Subject: Re: Steve Worley email address
From:    Paul Townend <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hello Paul - nice to talk to someone whose work I admire.
Hope this address is OK as I've dug it out from the old archives.
I'm interested in what system You have now as I know You used to run an
A4000 16meg , but I understand You took the PC path as I have recently
done.
Plus, have You "made it" in the commercial sense? If so, what've You done
so far? (Nosey or what?!).

Steve Worley is at [e-mail]

Please mail me back if You have time. Thanks. Paul.
|
| Internet: [e-mail]
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Gated from RAYTECH BBS - free access raytracing support in the UK |
|------------------------- call [phone] modem - 24 hours ! |

Date:    Sunday, 28 May 1995 00:46:51
Subject: Re: Rendering times
From:    Ted Stethem <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



> Hello S.A.Jalim, on May 25 you wrote:
>
> > Am i just being unreasonable or is 14 hours for a hires 24bit trace with
> > two proceduaral terxtures, two brushmaps and a plastic bottle with water in

> > the bottom with EDLE at 0 on an Amiga 3000/040 a little on the slow side?
> >
> > What tricks can I perform so that I can see my renders before I have
> > grandkids?
>
> Sounds way too slow.
>
  Viewed your picture uploaded to Aminet and you mention using Virtual
Memory. I take it this means you used something like VMM or Gigamem. If
you do, using a hard disk for memory will result in very slow rendering
times. If the hard disk access time is 8 msec, compare that to the access
time for 70 nanosecond RAM and it is several thousand times slower. Maybe
you just need more RAM. Also, textures, transparency, reflections and
refraction in trace mode just has a high cpu cycle cost. Nice picture,
though.

Date:    Sunday, 28 May 1995 01:28:30
Subject: Re: Rendering times
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Gregory, on May 26 you wrote:

> S.A. Jalim asks about a 14 hour render, and Robert (Bob) Byrne offers
> a comparison using the "VertiSketch digitized Hand object with Bones
> and eight States."
>
> Wow, a hand with eight states!  Where is this found?


It is on the LightROM Vol 1 CD in a demo directory.  In there are some
samples of the VertiSketch 3d digitizer including the hand.  It's a
LightWave object converted with InterChange then I added bones and various
states for individual finger movements. I've just finished rendering an
Opal anim of it which only has a skin coloured attribute applied, but still
looks good. With the right noise texture (skin pores) it would be quite
realistic.

Bones would have to be one of the best features of Imagine, it's much
easier and faster to put together complex movements than using the Cycle
Editor.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Sunday, 28 May 1995 01:39:22
Subject: Re: Organic Modeling
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


>
> It's not easy to get the right aspect, when making only half of a head, but
> when you load it into Detail, copy, paste, scale -1, join, delete the
> inner faces, and merge all the points of the outter circle, it looks like
> it's the easy part yet...

      I'm assuming everyone knows they can select symmetry for the Top view
(in both the X and Y axes), as well as the standard right (Z/Y) and front
(Z/X) views, by selecting which axis to be symmetrical upon creating a new
object. No?
      Well, it does eliminate the need to Detail editor copy/scale/paste for
most examples. There are incidences where symmetry is needed in the object,
but setting X or Y symmetry is not beneficial, however...
                                                              Jeff-->

E-Mail: [e-mail]



Date:    Sunday, 28 May 1995 01:46:56
Subject: Re: Steve Worley email address
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Paul, on May 27 you wrote:

> Does anyone know what Steve Worley or Apex's email address is. I
> want to ask a few questions about Essence & Forge.

Steve Worley - [e-mail]

He may be hard to track down in which case I'm using Forge and Essence Vol
2 Version 3 on an Amiga.  If the questions are not of a technical nature,
fire away.

> failing that does anyone know when the PC version of Essence will
> be out.

Can't help you there.

FWIW - If anyone is using Real3D on an Amiga, there supposed to be a
program called Realism or something similar that converts Essence textures
for use in that program.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Sunday, 28 May 1995 01:57:07
Subject: FONT TROUBLE
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 27-May-95 18:20:09, Granberg Tom wrote:

>Can anybody help me, I can't seem to get all of the characters to work. This
>is  a problem since I live in Norway, and need to use the:o slash,o ring, and
>ae,  but it seems like imagine doesnt bother loading those characters. I've
>checked  the font in Typesmith, and all of the char. is there. This problem
>also ocour on the pc version!

Move the character to a different key in typesmith.


Torge!r

Date:    Sunday, 28 May 1995 10:54:47
Subject: Re: FastROM/VMM render speedup?
From:    "JOSEPH F. HART" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interesting...  I have VMM 3.0a and cannot get it to work
with either CPU or SetCPU using the FASTROM translation.
It simply hangs when I try it.  VMM works find without
FASTROM, however.  I am using an A2000 with a 2630 accelerator.

___________________________________________________________________
                  |         Internet: [e-mail]
Joseph Hart       |     /// Plink   : OSS542
Niagara Falls, NY | \\\///  Ham call: WA2SND
                  |  \XX/   FreeNet : [e-mail]
                  |     *** AMIGA - Computers for REAL MEN ***
===================================================================

Date:    Sunday, 28 May 1995 13:06:10
Subject: Re: How do you make trees.
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Wed, 24 May 1995, Robert Byrne wrote:

> If Imagine had an Arexx interface the ASCII scripts that Vista produces for
> the camera could come in real handy. These scripts contain the map
> coordinates, pitch, roll, yaw etc. You could render an aircraft or vehicle
> on a black background to follow the Vista camera movements and composite it
> onto the Vista landscape.
>
Yes. And even without Arexx you could always load the Vista script into
some text editor and write down the coordinates and values by hand (after
first finding out how the parameters are organized in vista scripts) and
use them in the imagine script. But: Unfortunately this does not help, if
you want to place objects on the ground. Because then they would have to be
sometimes partially or totally covered by the hills in the landscape.

Marty



Date:    Sunday, 28 May 1995 13:15:34
Subject: Fire and quilt textures
From:    Dylan Neill <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


HI! I recently had an error happen on my hard drive and it killed my fire
and quilt textures. Is it OK for someone to send me these textures (cause
I also seemed to have lost my update disks!). If you want I can send you
whats left of my fire and quilt textures just so you know I'm not try ing
to scam a free copy or something! (BTW They're the PC versions)

---
                               |\ /|
                                o O
  ________________________oOO_=( ^ )=_OOo___________________________
 |                        '''     U   '''                           |
 | Gumby Death Man (Dylan Neill) Amiga 1200/6/120  486DX2-66/24/500 |
 | Email: [e-mail]   WWW: http://www.pcug.org.au/~dylann/ |
 |__________________________________________________________________|


Date:    Sunday, 28 May 1995 14:35:54
Subject: Re: OBJECTS&ATTRIBUTES
From:    Dave Rhodes <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Tom,


> Just wonder if you folks are interested in som very cool and somwhat huge
> objects from my own collection?

  How huge ? i.e. could I render them in 10 meg (without VMM) ?

> http://hobbes.nhidh.nki.no:80/~pednaa/tv2/tomg.html

 Thanks for this, I'll have a look later...


> I maybe going to put up some of the objects&attr on this site for you to
> download.

> -A4000/0404
 warpengine -2GB HD -36MB ram -DPS-PAR
                     ^^^^^^^^           ...and you want virtual memory..?
Well, it's on Aminet, as follows:

   VMM_V3_0.lha  aminet/util/misc    (179K)
I have it, but I haven't tried it yet...

See yer.

   Dave


--

~===========================================================================~
 Dave Rhodes - [e-mail] - Yorkshire - England -
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Sunday, 28 May 1995 14:46:24
Subject: Re:FONT TROUBLE........
From:    Granberg Tom <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I WROTE:

>Can anybody help me, I can't seem to get all of the characters to work. This
>is  a problem since I live in Norway, and need to use the:o slash,o ring, and
>ae,  but it seems like imagine doesnt bother loading those characters. I've
>checked  the font in Typesmith, and all of the char. is there. This problem
>also ocour on the pc version!

TORGEIR REPLAYED:Move the character to a different key in typesmith.

Hello again Torgeir, nice to have a mail from you again!

What kind of keyboard mapping are the Imagine spline editor using, becouse this

confuses me a little bit, you see I can use all the characters when I write text

in the text box! So it seems to me that when the spline editor tries to get them

it uses another keyboard map than I have set it to, is this right or am I wrong?


See you again Torgeir.

[e-mail]

Ps. Have you visited my homepage yet?


Date:    Sunday, 28 May 1995 15:03:25
Subject: Re:MY HOMEPAGE
From:    Granberg Tom <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Adri Mathlener wrote:

-HELLO Tom,

-i visited your home-page and i'm impressed. Is all the
-work done with imagine alone or did you use packages like photoshop ?

-cu adri


Yes almost every picture is made exclusively in Imagine, the exceptions are: the

picture of me(urgh,photoshop),fotball ekstra logo(Lightwave), the rest are made

by our truly great software package!

-The machines doesnt make nice graphics, I do!

[e-mail]


Date:    Sunday, 28 May 1995 19:56:32
Subject: Re: Steve Worley email address
From:    Paul Rance <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  On Sun, 28 May 95 10:46:56 +1000 Robert Byrne <[e-mail]> said


>Hello Paul, on May 27 you wrote:

>> Does anyone know what Steve Worley or Apex's email address is. I
>> want to ask a few questions about Essence & Forge.

>Steve Worley - [e-mail]

>He may be hard to track down in which case I'm using Forge and Essence Vol
>2 Version 3 on an Amiga.  If the questions are not of a technical nature,
>fire away.

>> failing that does anyone know when the PC version of Essence will
>> be out.

>Can't help you there.

>FWIW - If anyone is using Real3D on an Amiga, there supposed to be a
>program called Realism or something similar that converts Essence textures
>for use in that program.

>-- Bob


Thanks for the reply, theyre not really technical questions just
wanting to make some suggestions for Forge, like real bumpmap
output. I'm using a PC as well as an Amiga and I dont half
miss the Essence/Forge combination on the PC.

Paul R

--
..-----------------------------------------------------------------.
!Email [e-mail]                2:254/516.2@Fidonet  !
!                                                                 !
! WWW page is http://metro.turnpike.net/P/paulr/index.html        !
`-----------------------------------------------------------------'

Date:    Monday, 29 May 1995 00:24:53
Subject: Re:FONT TROUBLE........
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Granberg, on May 28 you wrote:

> What kind of keyboard mapping are the Imagine spline editor using, becouse thi
s
> confuses me a little bit, you see I can use all the characters when I write te
xt
> in the text box! So it seems to me that when the spline editor tries to get th
em
> it uses another keyboard map than I have set it to, is this right or am I wron
g?

I use a custom keymap where the : and ; keys are reversed, I use colons
more often than semi-colons. These map correctly in the Spline Editor
(Amiga IMv3.0) so it is using my system's keymap.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Monday, 29 May 1995 10:51:35
Subject: Re: Rendering times
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Ted,

Thanks for the advice..... and the compliment :)


Just one thing... I though VMM does page swaps.. that is to say that, yes,
it does cache ram onto HD, but it doesn`t do it continually... I thought
that it swaps every 2 meg or something....

Can someone clear it up for me please?

Thanks

steve
______________________________________________________________________________
|Steve Jalim -> [e-mail] | http://www.ex.ac.uk/~ge94saj/steve1.html|
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Deep Throat: Why do people like you believe what you believe when there is |
|                 so much evidence to the contrary to dissuade you?          |
|                                                                            |
|    Mulder:   Because some of the evidence to the contrary is not entirely  |
|                 disuasive....                                              |
|                                                                            |
| Deep Throat: Exactly, Mr. Mulder.                                          |
|                                                                            |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Date:    Monday, 29 May 1995 12:14:27
Subject: Re: Latest ESCOM news
From:    FERNANDO PENA D'ANDREA <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Here in Brazil are arriving news about an new Amiga with PC slots
in the mother board. It's true? News about Amiga tend to be a few out
of the truth here |(. Sorry to ask about Amiga news in an Imagine
list, but we have very few ways to get news here.

    Fernando D'Andrea.  A1200/2mb/HD 64mb/14mhz.
    [e-mail]*********************************
Fernando Pena D'Andrea.
E-Mail: [e-mail]
*********************************

Date:    Monday, 29 May 1995 14:08:45
Subject: Re: FastROM/VMM render speedup?
From:    [e-mail] (Dennis Grant)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Interesting...  I have VMM 3.0a and cannot get it to work
>with either CPU or SetCPU using the FASTROM translation.
>It simply hangs when I try it.  VMM works find without
>FASTROM, however.  I am using an A2000 with a 2630 accelerator.

Don't use setCPU to use FASTROM, use the FASTROM option within VMM instead.

(as documented in the VMM manual)

>
>___________________________________________________________________
>                  |         Internet: [e-mail]
>Joseph Hart       |     /// Plink   : OSS542
>Niagara Falls, NY | \\\///  Ham call: WA2SND
>                  |  \XX/   FreeNet : [e-mail]
>                  |     *** AMIGA - Computers for REAL MEN ***
>===================================================================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dennis Grant   Cycor Tech Support Staff/HTML Design/Graphic Artist/Amiga support

[e-mail]  Amiga 4000/030/6/970/'882/17" IDEK/NEC CD-ROM/14.4
CLSIP/AmiTCP
http://www.cycor.ca/TCave/                Visit Trog's Cave!



Date:    Monday, 29 May 1995 16:09:03
Subject: Re: FastROM/VMM render speedup?
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Mon, 29 May 1995, Dennis Grant wrote:

> >Interesting...  I have VMM 3.0a and cannot get it to work
> >with either CPU or SetCPU using the FASTROM translation.
> >It simply hangs when I try it.  VMM works find without
> >FASTROM, however.  I am using an A2000 with a 2630 accelerator.
>
> Don't use setCPU to use FASTROM, use the FASTROM option within VMM instead.
>
> (as documented in the VMM manual)
>

Which version of VMM are you using? I'm using 3.0, and I can't find the
FastROM option anywhere.

> >
> >___________________________________________________________________
> >                  |         Internet: [e-mail]
> >Joseph Hart       |     /// Plink   : OSS542
> >Niagara Falls, NY | \\\///  Ham call: WA2SND
> >                  |  \XX/   FreeNet : [e-mail]
> >                  |     *** AMIGA - Computers for REAL MEN ***
> >===================================================================
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Dennis Grant   Cycor Tech Support Staff/HTML Design/Graphic Artist/Amiga suppo
rt
> [e-mail]  Amiga 4000/030/6/970/'882/17" IDEK/NEC CD-ROM/14.4
> CLSIP/AmiTCP
> http://www.cycor.ca/TCave/                Visit Trog's Cave!
>
>
>

See ya,
      Roger

Date:    Monday, 29 May 1995 19:36:12
Subject: Re:FONT TROUBLE........
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 28-May-95 15:46:24, Granberg Tom wrote:

>Hello again Torgeir, nice to have a mail from you again!

>What kind of keyboard mapping are the Imagine spline editor using, becouse
>this  confuses me a little bit, you see I can use all the characters when I
>write text  in the text box! So it seems to me that when the spline editor
>tries to get them  it uses another keyboard map than I have set it to, is
>this right or am I wrong?

I don't know what keymap the spline editor uses... maybe Mike H can enlighten
us if he is reading this.. So we norwegians can get the entire alphabet :)

>See you again Torgeir.

later

>Ps. Have you visited my homepage yet?

Haven't had the chance, but I'll stop by tonight.


Torge!r

Date:    Monday, 29 May 1995 19:59:03
Subject: Old Antialias Switch?
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a message replying to a users rendering speed problems, someone
(Charles or Robert?) gave a hint to turn on the Old Antialias switch.
So I tried this.
Wow, a render that previously took around 6hrs now took 2hrs.
I view the two renders to see if I could spot any difference in the
output, but they looked identicle. I was using a low res though
(320x256).
What are the benefits, apart from having to watch your machine render
three time longer, of the new antialiasing?
And what is the Antialiasing Rays per pixel setting?

Thanks for the tip who ever wrote it, I guess it was either Charles or
Robert, as they always come up with the goods.

Rodney Macey
[e-mail]
.... generating ... 69.69% complete



Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 01:19:01
Subject: Re: Brush Tacking
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: DThompson <[e-mail]>
>
> >If the user wants an explosion where the pieces will maintain their
> >original brushmap color, I believe (though I may be wrong) that he'll
> >have to deform the object into an exploded shape, create a state based
> >on that, and lock the brushmap to the default state. Does anybody else
> >have an opinion? I really haven't touched states that much.
> >
> >
>
> Sorry, Charley,
>
> I don't know what you're doing wrong, but I use it all the time and it
> works. As long as you set a default state, lock the brush to it, and
> set its state in the action or stage editor, it will work. You could
> atomize it and each individual poly keeps its color. It works on all
> the other effects, too.
>
> Dave Thompson

Dave,

I can't get it to work. I created a very coarse sphere, added a
WrapX/WrapZ brushmap. I then created a state called DEFAULT, and
activated all 5 buttons. I went into Attributes and set the Lockstate
for the brush to DEFAULT, then saved the object.

I loaded the sphere and set its state to DEFAULT. I exploded the sphere
over 10 frames, with distance = 10, min and max rotations = 0.2. This
results in mostly rotating triangles, and clearly shows the brush image
perfectly immobile, while the triangles rotate as they wish. The
triangles do NOT carry the brushmap with them as they move.

Please, give me some more detailed instructions.



Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 01:28:06
Subject: Displaying text in spline
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Mike Vandersommen <[e-mail]>
>
> Thank you Charles! I have directory with TONS of PS fonts that are
> hit and miss when loading. Most do....many don't. I've been trying
> to weed out the ones that DON'T, and you hit the bullseye. I tried
> loading fonts with different encoding and nada. Now all I have to do is
> view the font and kill the "non-standard" encoded ones.

<blush> Thanks! I'll risk repeating myself, but this tip is certainly
worth it:

#: 72715 S4/Impulse
    21-Jan-94  14:57:06
Sb: #72653-Corel Fonts & Imagine
Fm: David Hofmann 100112,3243

Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 01:32:07
Subject: Editor color preferences
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Dennis Grant <[e-mail]>
>
>
> Which colors are people using for the editor colors, or is everyone using
> the defaults?
>

I believe the default Imagine background color is 5,5,5, and on my
screen, it makes text and numbers very hard to read. I lightened it up
to 6,6,6 and left everything else the same.

Tip: in Preferences, you (1) click on a parameter to edit, then (2)
enter values in the label and value fields. You're told that the color
sliders and color swatch are there only to assist you visually. I don't
remember, however, if the 3.0 docs ever got around to mentioning that if
you CLICK ON THE COLOR SWATCH, the slider numbers will be automagically
copied into the value field -- no manual typing required.


Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 01:36:49
Subject: Tom's Homepage
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Tom!

Stopped by your hompage last night. A lot of good stuff there, too bad the
file sizes were too big for me to download them all... I only have a 14,4
connection, so 300k+ files take a while. May I suggest that you jpeg them with
a higher compression. 50-150k woks great :)

I liked the T-bag pictures, are they from an animation? And is the steam a
fog object? how did you animate this (supposing you did)

My hompage is under construction, and is not very exciting, but look for my
gallery section *soon* on http://www.powertech.no/~torgeirh


Torge!r

Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 01:44:33
Subject: Re: Realistic Render
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
> Set the Global Axis to as close to the boundaries of the visible scene as
> possible to keep the rendering time as low as possible

Close, but not quite. In the Action editor, set the Globals size to
0,0,0. This will cause Imagine to auto-size the world on every frame, so
you don't have to figure out the value yourself. (Also prevents
chopped-off parts if you change your scene later)


Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 01:51:02
Subject: Tom's Homepage
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>
>
>
> Hey Tom!
>
> Stopped by your hompage last night. A lot of good stuff there, too bad the
> file sizes were too big for me to download them all... I only have a 14,4
> connection, so 300k+ files take a while. May I suggest that you jpeg
> them with a higher compression. 50-150k woks great :)

I second that motion, Tom. It's fine to put up high-quality renditions
of your renders, but a Web page builder should always include much
smaller files, 20 to 50K, to allow people with a slow connection to
decide whether to download the huge files.


Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 01:55:09
Subject: Re: Imagine's future... hmmm
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: James Brooks <[e-mail]>
>
>
> So from I understand you are saying there is a chance for me that is
> using Imagine 3.0 (right now) to UPGRADE to 4.0 for $100 when it comes
> out?

Exactly. As a matter of fact, you can do yourself a big favor and spend
the $100 on the Constant Upgrade program instead. You'll get to play
with 4.0 features as they are released in 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3, rather than
having to wait for the final 4.0 to come out.

Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 07:40:33
Subject: Re: Brush Tacking
From:    [e-mail] (The Prophet)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


>Dave,
>
>I can't get it to work. I created a very coarse sphere, added a
>WrapX/WrapZ brushmap. I then created a state called DEFAULT, and
>activated all 5 buttons. I went into Attributes and set the Lockstate
>for the brush to DEFAULT, then saved the object.
>
>I loaded the sphere and set its state to DEFAULT. I exploded the sphere
>over 10 frames, with distance = 10, min and max rotations = 0.2. This
>results in mostly rotating triangles, and clearly shows the brush image
>perfectly immobile, while the triangles rotate as they wish. The
>triangles do NOT carry the brushmap with them as they move.
>
>Please, give me some more detailed instructions.

Don't set your sphere to DEFAULT in Stage/Action.  Create a second
state and use that, even if it is the exact same as your default.
You shouldn't use DEFAULT states, they stand as a reference state
for states that you do use.

Jaeson K.
 ____            ____            _           _
( |  \          ( /  \          ( )       _ / )
 )|   )_   __    /   /_   _  __  /   __  ( X_)
( |  /~ \ /\_)  /---~/ ) / )/  )/~\ /\_)  / _
 )ll/  l/ \__ (/   (/   (_//__//  / \__  (___)
(____________)        (___/        (___)


Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 08:37:24
Subject: Re[2]: Displaying text in spline editor--help
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------






On 25-May-95 14:02:12, Roger Straub wrote:

>> translation utility, such as Fontographer or Typesmith, and resave the
>What's Fontographer?

Font design program on the mac. Made by altsys (frehand people) and
distributed by Macromedia.


     Fontographer is also out for the PC.

Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 12:03:49
Subject: Re: Brush Tacking
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Charles, on May 30 you wrote:

> Dave,
>
> I can't get it to work. I created a very coarse sphere, added a
> WrapX/WrapZ brushmap. I then created a state called DEFAULT, and
> activated all 5 buttons. I went into Attributes and set the Lockstate
> for the brush to DEFAULT, then saved the object.
>
> I loaded the sphere and set its state to DEFAULT. I exploded the sphere
> over 10 frames, with distance = 10, min and max rotations = 0.2. This
> results in mostly rotating triangles, and clearly shows the brush image
> perfectly immobile, while the triangles rotate as they wish. The
> triangles do NOT carry the brushmap with them as they move.
>
> Please, give me some more detailed instructions.

Although it is'nt mentioned in the manual's States tutorial, in the Bones
tutorial it says under no circumstances should you use the DEFAULT state in
the Action Editor as it holds the information which all other states are
based on and any morph to this state will be linear. I realise that your
not actually morphing from one state to another but you could try this:-

Clone the DEFAULT state, call it MAIN and de-select the Shape button, use
this state in the Action Editor.  Also it might be worth Updating the MAIN
state after everything is set up, someone has mentioned this as a fix for a
brush tacking bug but I forget what version of Imagine he was referring to.

-- Bob

  : Robert (Bob) Byrne : [e-mail] :
  :   Amiga  A3000/25  :  Ballina, NSW  Australia  :


Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 12:57:54
Subject: DANDREA: about Dust2.lha
From:    Bassilis Psomiadis <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

DANDREA,

      Sorry but I can't send you the Dust2.lha file I promised
you.However I have an alternative way for you to get it.The
answer if ftp by mail.
      Send mail to:


Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 14:48:21
Subject: FW: States bug! and fix
From:    Joe Cotellese <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



----------
From:         Joe Cotellese[SMTP:[e-mail]]
Sent:         Thursday, May 25, 1995 2:02 PM

Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 15:20:34
Subject: Re: Brush Tacking
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: The Prophet <[e-mail]>
>
> Don't set your sphere to DEFAULT in Stage/Action.  Create a second
> state and use that, even if it is the exact same as your default.
> You shouldn't use DEFAULT states, they stand as a reference state
> for states that you do use.

I still can't get it to work. I created a very coarse sphere, added a
WrapX/WrapZ brushmap. I then created a state called DEFAULT, and
activated all 5 buttons. I created a second state, identical to DEFAULT,
and called it TACKED. I went into Attributes and set the Lockstate for
the brush to DEFAULT, then saved the object.

I loaded the sphere and set its state to TACKED, not DEFAULT. I exploded
the sphere over 10 frames, with distance = 10, min and max rotations =
0.2. This time, I didn't even check whether the triangles were carrying
the brush around with them as they rotated, because _most
triangles did not have ANY brush mapping applied_. They were just
white.

Obviously, I'm still missing something. How cum youse guyz can explode
an object, but I can't? <pout>

Again, more detailed instructions seem in order.


Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 17:40:01
Subject: Re: Brush Tacking
From:    [e-mail] (DThompson)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
>Dave,
>
>I can't get it to work. I created a very coarse sphere, added a
>WrapX/WrapZ brushmap. I then created a state called DEFAULT, and
>activated all 5 buttons. I went into Attributes and set the Lockstate
>for the brush to DEFAULT, then saved the object.
>
>I loaded the sphere and set its state to DEFAULT. I exploded the sphere
>over 10 frames, with distance = 10, min and max rotations = 0.2. This
>results in mostly rotating triangles, and clearly shows the brush image
>perfectly immobile, while the triangles rotate as they wish. The
>triangles do NOT carry the brushmap with them as they move.
>
>Please, give me some more detailed instructions.
>
>
>
try not using DEFAULT for a state name, in the earlier versions this seems
to be meant only for use in bones. Using the state DEFAULT causes state
attributes to be lost.

Also try upgrading to 3.2 and 3.3 (whenever it's out).



Date:    Tuesday, 30 May 1995 17:43:55
Subject: Spline Editors
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does anyone know of a FreeForm-type program for Dos or Windows? Or does anyone
know of where to get a copy of FreeForm that will *run* under Windows? I think
that splines would be the easiest way to get an organic-looking object modelled.
  Does anyone know of a better/easier/at-least-as-good method of getting organic
 objects in Imagine?  Or am I going to have to fall back on something like 3DS
or trueSpace?

Jeff ([e-mail])

Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 01:44:29
Subject: Tom's Homepage
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Tom!

Stopped by your hompage last night. A lot of good stuff there, too bad the
file sizes were too big for me to download them all... I only have a 14,4
connection, so 300k+ files take a while. May I suggest that you jpeg them with
a higher compression. 50-150k woks great :)

I liked the T-bag pictures, are they from an animation? And is the steam a
fog object? how did you animate this (supposing you did)

My hompage is under construction, and is not very exciting, but look for my
gallery section *soon* on http://www.powertech.no/~torgeirh


Torge!r

Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 01:49:54
Subject: Fountain-Particles
From:    dunc <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 does anyone have any ideas on how to make a fountain with the particle fx (acti
on
ed) i have managed to get a spout of triangles going up and down but i cant mana
ge
a spread at the top of the spout
 what i have is a pool of 'water' with a tube comming out of the water and some

triangles sort of shooting out of there its very crude at the moment but im work
ing
on it well as soon as i get the fountain 'up and running'

 anyone got any suggestions ???????


 duncan



 [e-mail]

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|                                   |
|      [e-mail]      |
|                                   |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 03:00:38
Subject: TIP...LIGHT!!!
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A lot of you have been talking about using a fog object to simulate the
effect of a bright light reflecting off thousands of tiny particles suspended
in air(well thats what it is).  Here is a sort of short thing you can try to
further the effect:

Make a cone.

Make it white and bright.

add the textures: filtnoiz(think thats it) and mnttop.
align the Z axis for the mount top texture so its running down in the
direction of the light. Ajest the length of the Z axis so the axis reaches
all the way to the end of the cone.  In the texture box-make the color white
and the filter 255-255-255 and reflect 0-0-0.
OK now comes the fun part-the noise settings can be anything. I usually use
#'s that are relativly low: magnitude- .5 and velocity 1.0.

The filter noise is really just an addition to help make the texture appear
blochy. WHY? becuase-"the distribution of particles in and area is not
perfect throughout the entire area but rather, more highly 'active' in some,
although the average of the area is generally the same as other areas"
anyway, add the texture and make the Z axis align with the cone(like the
previous texture). Then make the "size" larger in the Z direction than in any
other.  Finally make the amount of noise high to cut up the spheres.

The effect should fade with distance and have the little bloches.  The mnttop
texture should go second not first in the list.  The only thing that would
make this texture complete is if there was someway to align the two texture
with the world coords. and lock them there.(if there is tell me :)

Damn, that was a "short" description!!!

                                                   ---Lumbient

Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 03:42:09
Subject: TIP...LIGHT!!!
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> From: [e-mail]
>
>
> The only thing that would make this texture complete is if there was
> someway to align the two texture with the world coords. and lock them
> there.(if there is tell me :)

Well, you could always add an empty axis as the parent of your object,
and apply the textures to this parent axis. Make sure the "Apply to
children" button is activated in all textures, and you have a group
where the actual beam of light is free to move, but the textures will
stay fixed in space.


Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 05:45:42
Subject: Two things
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1
=3D
There's a new image in my gallery.
URL http://www.kiruna.se/is/cjo/gallery.html
(Check out  --"--              /monthly.html  as well)

2
=3D
Why on earth haven't I used "set zone" before?!?
What a neat feature!

*---------------------------------------------------------------*
|   Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |
|   Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |
|   Sweden           |   [e-mail]              |
*---------------------------------------------------------------*

Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 08:30:25
Subject: Re[2]: brush tacking
From:    "DEBEAUMONT, GEORGE" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>ON 5/31/95 Milan WROTE:
>BTW I was checking the DOF feature, and it's userfriendliness sucks like
>a vacuumcleaner. Try reading the doc, I saw the words dancing before my eyes.
>Pretty stupid to mix the 3D glasses and DOF settings like that.
>I am currently (well, when I have time) trying to find out exactly what the
>settings are, so I can come up with a system to set the camera to real life
>settings like 50mm lens and 5.6 F-Stop. Imagine needs much more real life
>stuff, like lightwave has. Otherwise you could never compose imagine images
>with life action (Jurassic Park III done with Imagine?) How about a pref
>setting for x imagine units = 1 cm ?

     As a final addition to an image, I decided to defocus background
     objects. The DOF text file was a mess...just downright painful to
     read. After several passes, I decided to do a quality control check on
     my thought processes. I pulled out a text book on radiation chemistry
     (which I know little about) and found I could make better progress.
     Anyway, with a few clues hiding in the DOF text file and several hours
     of trial and error I managed to get the result I wanted. If there is
     someone out there who has pulled himself/herself up out of the gutter
     and understands Imagine's implementation of DOF, there are at least a
     couple of us who are still face down in the mud and in need of
     assistance.
     George



Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 11:52:33
Subject: ReversePath'sDirection?
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've tried several ways to do this, but I can't figure it out, so I
thought I better go to the well.

It would be nice if I could get my path to 'turn around and come back the
same way.' I've tried rotating the path's y-axis 180 degrees, and moving
it to the tail end of the path--but no soap.

This sounds a bit vague, so maybe my exact designs would help.  I have a
curly s-shaped path, along which a wormy-snake-like object will
grow/extrude over time.  The GROW effect is delicious for this--but I
want the worm/snake to go on past the camera and leave the scene.  You
know, his head passes the camera and passes out of the screen and then
his tail comes on by and passes out too?

I've gotten interesting results just using GROW's 'Time Reversed' button,
making the worm/snake wiggle in, then recede the way he came--and I was
hoping to use this trick to somehow make the object pass on into and
through the scene.  You know, make the object's head and tail identical,
then load in a second identical version of the object, only with the path
ends inverted, so the start of the path becomes the end of the path, and so
that, with the Time Reversed button set, he'll 'grow' backwards, past the
camera and out of the scene?

(The above paragraph reads like a bad translation from the German. If anyone
makes sense out of it, I'll give them fifty bucks).

Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 11:53:34
Subject: Re: Brush Tacking
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 30-May-95 00:19:01, Charles Blaquiere wrote:

>Dave,

>I can't get it to work. I created a very coarse sphere, added a
>WrapX/WrapZ brushmap. I then created a state called DEFAULT, and
>activated all 5 buttons. I went into Attributes and set the Lockstate
>for the brush to DEFAULT, then saved the object.

>I loaded the sphere and set its state to DEFAULT. I exploded the sphere
>over 10 frames, with distance = 10, min and max rotations = 0.2. This
>results in mostly rotating triangles, and clearly shows the brush image
>perfectly immobile, while the triangles rotate as they wish. The
>triangles do NOT carry the brushmap with them as they move.

>Please, give me some more detailed instructions.

Charles, try fracturing the sphere with a 1.00 scale in detail, before you
apply the map. That way the default state, and the exploded object will have
the same point count. I haven't tried this myself, but i get the impression
that this is the problem.


Torge!r

Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 12:08:02
Subject: TIP...LIGHT!!!
From:    Torgeir Holm <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 30-May-95 22:00:38, Lumbient wrote:

>The effect should fade with distance and have the little bloches.  The mnttop
>texture should go second not first in the list.  The only thing that would
>make this texture complete is if there was someway to align the two texture
>with the world coords. and lock them there.(if there is tell me :)

Just add an axis and make it the parent of the cone. Apply all the textures to
the parent axis, with the apply to children box checked. Now you can animate
the cone through states without touching the parent, and the textures will
follow world coordinates, producing the spotlight-in-smoky-room effect you
want.

Any fog textures that need to go on the object itself (such as fog top, or
ghost) don't need to be mapped to the parent. These could go directly on the
cone, since they don't deal with the noise effect, but rather with the fog
length of the object. Adding the nebula texture to the parent might look good
though.


Torge!r

Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 13:22:32
Subject: Help with an effect
From:    "Murray L. Crane" <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all.  I wonder if you could help me with an effect I'm trying to get...

For a picture I'm doing in Imagine 3.0 (on PC and/or Amiga...) I have
made a model of a submarine.  What I want doming out of the back of the
sub is a disturbed water style of effect, much like the one that they
used in "The Hunt for Red October" for that wierd aqua-jet on the Red
October, but I don't want to surround my scene with a HUGE sphere of
water, I just want the effect to be in the "air" at the back of the
sub... any help would be appreciated...

Also, to Tom Granberg, on your picture of the half-face in a fish tank
(don't blame me, that's what it looks like) how did you make the wires
bend so smoothly... every time I try that effect I get nothing as good
looking as you do...

Cheerio, Murray.

+--------------
|  Murray L. Crane - [e-mail]         (until July '95)
|                    [e-mail]  (coming soon)
+--------------
| The Inedible Buddahs
|  Bashing it out in Imagine for all the Universe to see
+--------------


Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 13:42:04
Subject: Re: brush tacking
From:    [e-mail] (Milan Polle)


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deselect the shape button? I thought this was the only important info for
the other state. I recall doing it this way: Make a DEFAULT state with all
buttons selected, make another state and just select shape. (make sure you
had the lockstate set to DEFAULT in the first place). Now you should pro-
bably select the other state in the action editor (actor bar).
If it all won't work, maybe you should fracture the object first to get
the faces disattached. I can't remember if I ever succeeded with tacking a
brush/texture to an exploding object. I thought it was pretty lame that
particles didn't keep a piece of the map, but simply turned to one colour.
Now I am thinking of something else, maybe the texture/brush's bounding
box (axis) should contain the whole explosion size, I'm not sure, but you
might check it.

Well, that's all I can squeeze out of my neurons at the moment, hope it
contains something useful.

Milan

BTW I was checking the DOF feature, and it's userfriendliness sucks like
a vacuumcleaner. Try reading the doc, I saw the words dancing before my eyes.
Pretty stupid to mix the 3D glasses and DOF settings like that.
I am currently (well, when I have time) trying to find out exactly what the
settings are, so I can come up with a system to set the camera to real life
settings like 50mm lens and 5.6 F-Stop. Imagine needs much more real life
stuff, like lightwave has. Otherwise you could never compose imagine images
with life action (Jurassic Park III done with Imagine?) How about a pref
setting for x imagine units = 1 cm ?


Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 14:31:06
Subject: Re: Fire and quilt textures
From:    Joe Cotellese <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I would just call IMPULSE.  They would have your customer number which wo=
uld verify that you have a real copy.  I would bet that they probably wou=
ld send you out the textures.

Joe C.
     =20
       I recently had an error happen on my hard drive and it killed my fire=20
and quilt textures. Is it OK for someone to send me these textures (cause=
=20
I also seemed to have lost my update disks!). If you want I can send you =

what's left of my fire and quilt textures just so you know I'm not try in=
g=20
to scam a free copy or something! (BTW They're the PC versions)


     ------------------------------------------------------------
xƒ>"
ÉJoÉC%╓'ä
å▀
æ
ßδ#Q╨c@

Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 14:33:01
Subject: Re: Two things (zones)
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Wed, 31 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

> What does set zones do exactly?
>

When you select `Set Zone' from the Display menu, you can draw a square
in the perspective window. This controlls how much of the Persp. window
is rendered when you do a QuickRender.

> Rodney Macey
> [e-mail]
>
>
>

See ya,
      Roger

Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 16:28:29
Subject: How do I create a picture on my AMIGA for the PC world?
From:    Steve McLaughlin <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi, what's the easiest way to get a picture created on my AMIGA Imagine v3.0
to a pc paint program, for example Corel?  I want to print them out at my
local copier store.  Does Imagine(amiga) have any output other than ILBM?
thanks

Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 16:30:06
Subject: Re: Two things (zones)
From:    Ian Smith <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Wed, 31 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:
>
> What does set zones do exactly?

Set Zone lets you render only part of an image.  You select Set Zone from
the menu, and you can then use a drag box to select part of the
perspective view.  When Imagine renders the image, it only renders what
you selected.  Great for test renders, and since it even works in the
project screen, you can continue an aborted trace due to a crash or power
outage.  Just remember to keep the old file so you can composite the two
together.  Now, if Imagine only would let you enter numeric values, or
better yet, automaticly let you resume an interupted render.  That seems
simple enough to see in 3.3 perhaps.. :-)

--
[e-mail]         Visit Below! :-)
My HP48/Imagine Home Page  ---  http://moose.erie.net/~iansmith

Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 16:52:26
Subject: Trouble using tiff file as brush map
From:    Rich Van Gaasbeck <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last night I tried to use a tiff file saved from Fractal Design
Painter 3.1 as a brush map.  Imagine 2.0 PC complained that it didn't
like the file.  I think the error was "unknow tiff format" or
something.  I was able to save my FDP image as a jpeg and then convert
it with the image processing tool that comes with Shaddock's imagine
book to a "tiff 5.0" file.  This worked.  There must be an easier way.

I didn't even know that tiff had different versions, but apparently
so.  Which versions does Imagine 2.0 understand?  Is there restriction
on the variations of tiff that I'm hitting.  Like number of colors or
compression or something?

Rich

Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 19:36:50
Subject: Re: Two things (zones)
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What does set zones do exactly?

Rodney Macey
[e-mail]



Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 21:41:06
Subject: Re: Lighting Calculations
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------



On Wed, 31 May 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

>                                                     ... Also, in the FAQ, it
> says that we can use values greater than 255 for lights...? Does this actually

> work, or does Imagine simply treat values greater than 255 as being equal to
> 255?

Values greater than 255 are treated as brighter light sources, i.e., if
you place a 255,255,255 light 20 units off of a ground and render, the
area that the light illuminates is relatively small, but if you increase
the light's intensity to 1000,1000,1000, then it will illuminate a much
greater area. I hope that's decipherable by someone other than me...

>
> --Jeff
>

See ya,
      Roger


Date:    Wednesday, 31 May 1995 23:25:08
Subject: Lighting Calculations
From:    [e-mail]


  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are there any means of determining how 'bright' a light to use based on wattages
? What I mean is, is there any way to equate the values in Imagine with the
wattage rating on a RL light-bulb, and if so, how? ... Also, in the FAQ, it
says that we can use values greater than 255 for lights...? Does this actually
work, or does Imagine simply treat values greater than 255 as being equal to
255?

--Jeff