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************************************************************************* * VScape=PRender * * -------------- * * * * Version 1.02 * * * * Copyright ⌐1991,92 Legendary Design Technologies Inc. * * Program and Documentation Written by * * Syd L. Bolton * ************************************************************************* Welcome to "VScape=PRender" ... yes, it's a weird name, but it's all I could think of. Originally, this product was intended to be part of a larger commercial package called the "KWIKChange Utilities", but due to the fact that I believe Mindware International has gone under, and consequently sales of "PageRender 3D" would have diminished, I don't forsee a large market for this product, so instead of leaving it on the shelf, I touched it up and am releasing it for free distribution. WHAT THIS PROGRAM DOES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VScape=PRender will take object files from "VideoScape 3D" and will convert them to "PageRender 3D" and vice versa. Although PageRender never really received much acclaim, it is a very good product, and can create three dimensional objects with much ease compared with some other products (particularly anything mathematically oriented). I think it could be important for some people to dig out their old copies of PageRender, and the manual, and create some neat objects. Then, using this program, you can have the files in VideoScape 3D format. Once that's accomplished, you can load it into just about any other product -- including "Imagine", and yes, even the "VIDEO TOASTER". I'm sure those LightWave users could benefit from some of the interesting objects that PageRender is capable of generating. For those unfamiliar with some of the properties (and limitations) of the two file formats, a brief explanation will be given. VIDEOSCAPE 3D FORMAT (including version 2.0) -------------------------------------------- At the beginning of the file, the message "3DG1" tells VideoScape that this is an object file. Following that, a number indicates how many points there are in the entire file. These points are given as "X Y Z". Next, the number of polygons is listed, followed by how many points are in a given polygon (up to 6) and then the "point" numbers, from the table created at the beginning. Following this, a number is given to indicate the color of the polygon. This may sound hard to digest at first, but if you load up a file and take a look at it you will understand. A file called "checkmark" is included as an example. When VS=PR converts a file from PageRender, it does not optimize the points. That is, if there are two points exactly the same, it does not cancel one of them out in favour of re-using the original point. This was planned for a commercial version, but at this point in time, I do not think it's very feasible for me to spend my time on it. If someone out there really wants me to do this or to add to the program, contact me, and I'll see what we can work out. My name, address, etc. are at the end of this file. Note that VideoScape 3D uses a fixed palette. Therefore, when converting a file from PageRender 3D (which does not use a fixed palette) VS=PR tries, as best as possible, to match the colors from one file to another. I used the V2.0 palette to accomodate most users. You may have to make subtle changes to get it just right. Any of the files this program generates are easily editable with any ASCII text-editor. One thing that you will notice on the main screen under "VIDEOSCAPE OUTPUT" is a "INTERIOR POLYGON" gadget. In PageRender, a polygon is visible from no matter what side you look at it. So for example, if you created a box, and then positioned the camera inside of the closed-in box (in PageRender) you would see the walls inside the box, just like in real- life. However, in VideoScape, all would be black. Because the back of the polygons is not visible. If you turn the "INTERIOR POLYGON" gadget on before converting a file, VS=PR will create a double set of polygons so that you do not encounter this problem. Experiment with to see the differ- ence. If you never need to see the back, you will save yourself a lot of memory by leaving this option turned off. PAGERENDER 3D FORMAT -------------------- PageRender uses a text (or ASCII) format as well as VideoScape. However, you can define things like the centre of rotation, and the coordinate system used. VS=PR always assumes cartesian coordinates, and a center of 0,0,0. It writes and reads files this way. If your file does not match this model, you may have to do some rotation upon loading a converted file into VideoScape. In the actual data segment, the first three letters indicate the color of the polygon, by giving the red, green, and blue (RGB) values in hex, and then the three coordinates of each point in the polygon. This method is easy to understand but takes up more memory than the VideoScape way of doing things. A sample called "star" is included. Note that any VideoScape files that are converted to PageRender will have exact color matches, especially if using HAM mode. The values come directly from a VideoScape screen. Like the VideoScape OUTPUT, the PageRender OUTPUT has a special gadget called "SURFACE DETAIL". In VideoScape, surface details were polygons that were inside of other polygons but gave some detail to a particular surface. You can choose to ignore these extra polygons (leave the gadget the way it is) or turn it on, and the SURFACE DETAIL polygons will be treated as normal polygons. Note that you may have to play with these polygons in PageRender to be able to see them. Again, this is one of those gadgets that warrants experimentation to realize the potential of using it. GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now that you are thoroughly confused about the file formats the programs use, I'd like to tell you that using the actual program is a lot less complicated. In the upper left hand corner of the screen you will see a file requester that is always present. Here you pick the file or files that you wish to convert. When you get to the file you want, select "OK" and you will notice the name of the file will appear in the box on the right hand side. You can easily have VS=PR do batch jobs by selecting multiple files. Note also that you can pick either type of file -- VS=PR will figure out which type it is dealing with for you. Once you have all the files you wish to convert in the right window (up to a maximum of 50 at one time), there are several things you can do. SELECTING SCALING FACTORS ------------------------- In the lower portion of the screen you will see scaling factors for "X", "Y", and "Z" for each type of OUTPUT (note: these parameters are for output. If you want a file that's going from PageRender TO VideoScape scaled, modify the gadgets in the VideoScape box. Always modify the "destination" parameters). Modifying these factors can do several things to your image. If you for example change all of the "1"'s to "2"'s, the entire object will become twice as big. Likewise, if you select "0.5" (in X,Y, and Z) then the object will become twice as small. You can also stretch or shrink the object along one or two axis' only. You can even use negative numbers for some very weird effects. Again, this is something that requires experimentation to see the results. Even I don't know what's capable of being accomplished using these gadgets, I just know it will work (what confidence!). Have fun with it! CONVERTING ONLY SOME OF THE SELECTED FILES ------------------------------------------ If you have 10 files to convert, have selected all of them so that they appear in the right hand box but want to do some scaling on only 2 of the objects, you can - no problem. Select (by clicking the left mouse button) on the two files you wish convert. Set your scaling and other options in the windows at the bottom of the screen, and then click "GO". Only the two highlighted files will be converted. Then, when that is complete, the two highlighted files will disappear, and the remaining 8 will now be un-highlighted. Change your scaling parameters again, and click "GO". The 8 files will now be converted. The selected files box works on the following rules: 1) If no files are highlighted, convert them ALL. 2) If some files are highlighted, convert only those highlighted. You can use the "REMOVE" gadget to remove a file you do not wish to convert, and the "CLEAR HILITE" to remove any highlighted files, so that they are all back to the non-highlighted state. WHAT ABOUT NAMING AND DESTINATION CONVENTIONS? ---------------------------------------------- This version of the program is somewhat limited in that it can only write files to the place they originated from. That is, if you have a file to convert on a floppy disk, the new file will go to the same floppy disk. If you plan on moving a file from one place to another, you might try copying all the desired files to RAM: first, and then select them from there. That way, VS=PR will write them to RAM:, and then you can afterwards copy the files wherever you want. VS=PR will auto"magic"ally detect whether a file is VideoScape or PageRender, and will convert it accordingly. To VideoScape files, it appends ".geo". To PageRender files, it appends ".pr". The following chart should help you understand: Original Filename Original Format New Filename New Format ------------------------------------------------------------------------- checkmark VideoScape checkmark.pr PageRender star PageRender star.geo VideoScape WHAT IF I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT FILE IS WHAT? ------------------------------------------- A nifty feature that I've added to VS=PR is what I call "QuickRender". Not that it's particularly fast, but it does the job quickly enough. Simply hilite a file you wish to look at it (either format) from the right-hand select box, and click "QuickRender". A new screen will open up and a simple wire-frame representation of the object will be on your screen. You can modify the X,Y, and Z angles and move forwards and backwards to look at the object. This routine is not perfect, nor particularly flexible, but it does the job if you need to look at something and identify it. Click "EXIT" when you are done of course. Note that if two or more files are hilighted, QuickRender will always pick the first one on the list to load and display. OOPS! I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT! ------------------------------- If you find VS=PR converting some file you don't wish to convert or doing something you don't want, hit the CANCEL gadget, and the job in progress should stop. It's no simpler than that. EXITING THE PROGRAM ------------------- You can simply click the window close-gadget, or select QUIT from the menu (note: the main VS=PR window will have to be active for the menus to work. The file requester is actually a window of its own). You will also find an "ABOUT" item in the menus. I put the MENU quit in so that you can simply hit "Amiga-Q" to get out of the program for you keyboard buffs. (no, not "buffers" ... "buffs"). WHAT THIS PROGRAM MIGHT BE USEFUL FOR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anyone using the VIDEO TOASTER and LightWave 3D for animation or rendering could use this program to have access to the unique objects that PageRender is capable of generating, since it will load VideoScape objects without difficulty. Anyone still using PageRender for things could benefit from the letters and numbers that are available for VideoScape users. Although Syndesis does offer a PageRender module for INTERCHANGE, if you don't already own it, it would be a little costly to buy both INTERCHANGE, and the PAGERENDER module. Now, you can do the same thing for free. WHY THE SOURCE CODE ISN'T INCLUDED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For those of you who have seen some of my other products (Prism 1.4, StripANSI, Screen Jaeger, ScreenMOD) you are used to seeing me include source code. However, since originally this product was intended to be commercial (though never totally polished enough to really be commercial [though I have seen worse commercial software!]) it may still be released as part of a larger conversion package. If you really want the source code or more information, contact me through one of the venues listed below, and we'll work something out. TRADEMARK NOTICES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VideoScape 3D - Aegis/Oxxi Inc. PageRender 3D - Mindware International "Video Toaster" and "Lightwave 3D" - NewTek Inc. Interchange - Syndesis FINAL NOTES ABOUT PAGERENDER CONVERSIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have difficulty converting PageRender files, check to make sure no polygons have more than 6 sides. This will cause problems for VideoScape. HOW TO CONTACT US ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Syd L. Bolton President Legendary Design Technologies Inc. 25 Frontenac Avenue Brantford, Ontario CANADA N3R 3B7 (519)-753-6120 voice/answering machine (519)-754-4059 fax (519)-754-1205 BBS - (Probe, 2400, 8n1, 24hrs, Sysop: A. Antoszewski)