Ray Dream 3D(TM) 1.0.2 - Windows(TM) Version Read Me File Copyright (c) 1992-1997 MetaCreations Corporation. All rights reserved. WELCOME Thank you for purchasing Ray Dream 3D(TM) for Windows. This document contains important information that is not included in the printed Ray Dream 3D documentation. CONTENTS --------- Registration What's on your Ray Dream 3D CD More FREE Natural-Media LiveStyles from ThinkFish More FREE Ray Dream Models from Viewpoint DataLabs Converting Shader files from previous versions Known bugs/issues/limitations Compatible 3D Hardware A Note on Adaptive Rendering vs. Raytracing IVRML Spherical Cameras and the RealSpace Viewer Important Errata REGISTRATION ------------- We strongly encourage you to register your copy of Ray Dream 3D. The benefits of registration include: *Free technical support via phone, email, and the World Wide Web. *Advance information on future releases. *Special offers available to MetaCreations customers only. *Notification of updates and patches. You can register by filling out and returning the postage-paid registration card included in your Ray Dream 3D package, or by filling out an online registration form at MetaCreations' web site (http://www.metacreations.com/register/). If you choose to register by sending in the registration card, be sure to include a copy of your serial number, which can be found on the serial number sheet which came in your Ray Dream 3D package. You will also need your serial number handy to register online. CD CONTENTS ------------ In addition to the Ray Dream 3D installer, you'll find the following folders on your Ray Dream 3D CD: Acrobat -- An installer for Adobe Acrobat 3.0. You'll need Acrobat to view the electronic documentation in PDF format provided with Ray Dream 3D. Documentation -- Electronic documentation for Ray Dream 3D, including the entire User Guide. Dream Models -- 848 Dream Models in native Ray Dream format. Most of these models are fully editable, and a great way to learn the capabilities of the Free Form modeler. RealSpace -- Installers for the standalone and web browser versions of the RealSpace Viewer from Live Picture, Inc. Ray Dream 3D's IVRM Spherical camera can be used to render RealSpace-compatible virtual reality panoramas. Shaders -- Additional shaders for use with Ray Dream 3D. Shaders are organized in folders according to themes. You can add these folders to the Browser palette to access them directly from the CD, or you can selectively copy shaders from the CD onto your system. Textures -- Images suitable for use in shaders, gels, backgrounds, and backdrops. Images are saved in TIFF format. Tutorial -- All of the files necessary to complete the tutorial projects in the Ray Dream 3D User Guide. The tutorial files are NOT installed on your system by default. You can access them directly from your CD, or copy them to your hard drive. RD Extensions -- Electronic documentation and information on available and upcoming Ray Dream Extensions. More Content -- Content for use in Ray Dream 3Ds Browser palette. Should you delete any of the default content installed with Ray Dream 3D, you can restore it by copying it from the CD. MORE FREE NATURAL-MEDIA LIVESTYLES FROM THINKFISH --------------------------------------------------- Ray Dream 3D's Natural-Media renderer is based on LiveStyles technology from ThinkFish Productions, Inc. In addition to the 7 LiveStyles included with Ray Dream 3D, you are entitled to four more LiveStyles FREE, directly from ThinkFish Productions, Inc. For more information, visit the ThinkFish website at http://www.thinkfish.com. 150 FREE RAY DREAM MODELS FROM VIEWPOINT DATALABS ---------------------------------------------------- As a Ray Dream user, you are entitled to an additional 150 FREE models from Viewpoint DataLabs, the worldwide leader in 3D model creation and publishing. These models were created with the Free Form modeler, and are saved in native Ray Dream format. To access your free models, click the Viewpoint button on Ray Dream 3D's Internet toolbar. This will launch your web browser and take you to an exclusive Ray Dream users' page on Viewpoint's web site, where you'll find 150 models available for free download, and hundreds more for sale to meet your specific needs. CONVERTING SHADER FILES FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS ------------------------------------------------ Unlike previous versions, Ray Dream Studio 5 saves shaders in individual files (1 file per shader). Shaders created with previous versions and saved in "families" need to be converted to work with Ray Dream Studio 5: 1. In the Browser palette, select the Shaders tab and choose File > Import Shader Family... A dialog appears. 2. In the dialog, locate and select the shader family you want to import, then click the Open button. A second dialog appears. 3. In the dialog, choose the folder where you want to save the converted shaders. Ray Dream Studio will convert the shader family, saving the new shader files in the directory you have chosen. All of the shaders included with previous versions of Ray Dream Studio have already been converted, and are on the Ray Dream Studio 5 CD. You need only convert shaders you have created yourself. KNOWN BUGS/ISSUES/LIMITATIONS ------------------------------- Bugs: The Open dialog does not automatically appear when you choose Movie from the popup in the Properties palette:Gel tab. To choose a movie, you need to click and hold the disk icon and choose Open from the menu that appears. Scaling a linked parent object or moving its hot point can cause its children to move unpredicatbly. To avoid this problem, scale your objects and set their hot points before linking them. Compatibility issues: In general, 3D hardware does not support acceleration in 8-bit color display mode. If you attempt to choose Direct3D hardware acceleration while your display is in 8-bit mode, the Ray Dream Z-Buffer will be used instead and you will be notified with an alert. To improve compatibility with 3D hardware, an additional setting has been added to the Shaded Preview preferences: the "Line Compatibility mode" checkbox. With some 3D hardware products, lines (like the planes of the Working Box) may not be drawn when you enable hardware acceleration. To correct this problem, open the Preferences dialog, choose Shaded Preview from the popup menu, and enable the Line Compatibility mode checkbox. The ThinkFish LiveStyles file format (.LIV) has evolved since it was first introduced. The styles included with Ray Dream 3D and the free styles available from ThinkFish for Ray Dream users all work with the Natural-Media renderer. However, other styles you acquire may be incompatible. If you have styles that don't work with the Natural-Media renderer, contact ThinkFish. Although Ray Dream 3D allows you to use Photoshop-compatible plug-ins, some newer plug-ins (particularly those which ship with Photoshop 4) do not work within Ray Dream 3D. Ray Dream 3D does not open progressive JPEG files. Shadows generated by volumetric primitives (fountains, clouds, fog and fire) may behave strangely. You can turn shadow casting off for these primitives in the Properties Palette:General Tab. Limitations: The Mapping Mode for Master objects cannot be set within the Free Form modeler. To set a Master object's Mapping Mode, exit to the Perspective window, then select the Master object in the Masters tab of the Time Line/Hierarchy window and choose the Mapping Mode tab in the Properties palette. If you cannot seem to select a paint shape on the surface of an object in the Perspective window, it may be on the Master shading layer. To select and edit it, you must work with the Master object in the Free Form or Minimum modeling window. For more information on the Master shading layer, consult your User Guide (page 193). When editing Natural-Media render settings in the Batch Queue, no preview will appear if you have enabled the "Preview Scene" option. This is because the Batch Queue does not load the entire scene into memory, so no geometry is available. As a result, you should disable the "Preview Scene" option and work with the default (cube) preview in the Batch Queue. Windows NT - The Icon Handler only works in 32-bit display mode. If your display is set in a different mode, standard Ray Dream 3D icons will be substituted for the custom icons saved with some Browser files. The faux-SMPTE shader installed by default in the Iguana 1 shader directory is very complex. When creating a paint shape using this shader, you may need to click and hold the mouse momentarily before you can drag the paint shape tool. Although the G-buffer options in the Scene Settings window:Output tab are not disabled when the Draft Z-buffer is selected, the G-Buffer is not compatible with this renderer. If you enable any G-Buffer channels, they will be created but they will be empty. COMPATIBLE 3D HARDWARE ------------------------- The following 3D hardware products are known to be compatible with Ray Dream 3D: ATI 3D XPression+ PC2TV ATI 3D Pro Turbo PC2TV Creative Labs 3D Blaster PCI Matrox Millenium Matrox Millenium II Matrox Mystique Diamond Fire GL 1000 (Textures appear excessively bright) A NOTE ON ADAPTIVE RENDERING VS. RAYTRACING --------------------------------------------- There have been many questions regarding the speed of the new adaptive renderer and the raytracer. It is difficult to say exactly when to use one renderer over another due to the large number of factors influencing speed: polygon count, shaders, additional features enabled (e.g., soft shadows, lighting through transparency). However, because of the way the adaptive renderer handles polygons, rendering scenes with large amounts of small polygons (e.g., a complex but small model) will most likely be slower than rendering the same scene with the raytracer. IVRML SPHERICAL CAMERAS AND THE REALSPACE VIEWER -------------------------------------------------- We have included a new version of the RealSpace Viewer on the CD. Please note that .ivr files created with Ray Dream 5.0.2 will NOT work with older versions of the RealSpace (formerly RealVR) viewer. You will need to install the included viewer to use any new files from 5.0.2. IMPORTANT ERRATA --------------------------------- There are erroneous references to the mesh form modeler in the help file and in the manual (both paper and on-line). The mesh form modeler is available ONLY in Ray Dream Studio and NOT in Ray Dream 3D. We apologize for any inconvenience.