Subject: Re: Forge-first impressions...
Date: Fri, 6 May 1994 14:54:59 -0700
From: kkalnasy@bvu-lads.loral.com (Kent Kalnasy)

At  3:25 AM 5/7/94 +1000, Nikola Vukovljak wrote:

>-The interface looks good and works well! Another BIG plus!

Agreed.  Very nice design.

>-No support for Display database. Seems funny to me that almost everyone
>on this list is bagging Impulse for not supporting it and yet no one
>except for Steve Koren mentions that Forge doesn't support it either.

I was disappointed with this and expected better, but given the price,
I couldn't complain too much.  Still, I would like to see this rectified
in a future version.

I noticed that the texture animation preview didn't work correctly on
my ECS 68040 setup.  I tried it on a 3000 and it worked beautifully.
Instead of a smooth animation, the picture just 'blips' and stops.
Stepping through the animation doesn't seem to work either.  On the
other hand, others report that VMM40 works with Imagine, so I may be
seeing a software conflict unrelated for Forge.

Is it just me, or does the hard path need to be set every time you
start Forge?  It forgets where I set it, even when I select 'save'.

One thing I would love to see is the ability to freeze a frame once
rendered and use it as a control frame.  That way I could easily compare
the alterations against the original.  I know I can use the grid to
show two, four or nine views, but all are re-rendered whenever I make
a change.  I would like to see a fixed view and a view that is updated
whenever I make a change.  When I want a new baseline, I could "snap-
shot" the current rendered image.  Does this make sense?

>All in all though, I am pretty happy with Forge. Steve, Glenn and the
>rest of the Apex gang, you've done a GREAT job. (just fix the EGS problem
>OK ?)

Very worthwhile product.  Makes the textures *much* more approachable.
Apex is to be commended.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Kent Kalnasy (speaking only for me)              kkalnasy@bvu-lads.loral.com
 Loral Advanced Distributed Simulation, Inc.             Bellevue, Washington
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