Amiga Tools 3/Amiga Tools 3.iso/grafik/raytracing/imagine/tips/arc17.txt

Text File | 1993-03-12 | 120.2 KB | 3,126 lines

IMAGINE archive: collected off of [e-mail]

ARCHIVE XVII
Dec. 12 '91 - Jan. 8 '92

If you have questions or problems with this file, email Marvin Landis
at [e-mail]

note: each message seperated by a '##'

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Subject: Re: animation trouble
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 91 15:57:01 PST
From: "Jim Lange" <[e-mail]>

Yury German <WRPYR:mit-eddie!jpradley.jpr.com!bknight!yury> writes:

>:> I am trying to make a simple animation but the outputed pictures have
>:> different palletes.  I don't know why its happening to me, I have tried
>:> low res and ham and I get different pallete for pictures.  I remember
>:> once imagine asked me if I wanted to lock the pallete, but it never
>:> asked me that again.

>Well the easiest way is to render as is... then bring it into Art
>Departement Pro and lock the pallette there once you compute it. Then any
>picture you bring in will have a locked pallete. This will also work with
>most other programs including a few shareware programs.

Here are some other choices:

o Select RGBN as the still file format, then IFF as the anim format.  When
  you select Make animation, Imagine will ask you if you want to lock the
  pallette.  This is the standard way to lock the palette in Imagine. (Note:
  this does seem to work for HAM animations, but I had trouble when I tried to
  create a 640x400 16 color anim.)

o Save IFF stills, then load them into DPaint ONE AT A TIME, choosing Restore
  Palette followed by Remap for each picture.  This may be acceptable depending
  on how different the individual frames are.

o If you dont have ADPro, use another package like Digiview, Pixmate, or
  Butcher to convert each frame to a common palette.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Lange                [e-mail]
Oracle Corporation            {uunet,apple,hplabs}!oracle!jlange
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

##

Subject: Non-rendering fonts
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 91 18:50:02 EST
From: [e-mail]

I haven't used the fonts on hubcap (I use Glenn Lewis' TSTeX to output
3D text, works great!) but the biggest check is to make sure there
are faces in your object. You could, for some bizarre reason, only
have points and edges (which would look great in a wireframe) but
no faces. In Detail, pick your letter and go into "pick faces" mode.
Use "select next" (rt-amiga-n) a few hundred times.. you should see the
faces highlight in orange in order. If you don't see the faces highlight,
there are no faces in the object and that's the reason its dying.

Actually, you could just use the "find requester" and look at the statistics
to see the # of faces.

Anyway, as you said, its the simple things that make things break. If
there are faces, and they aren't transparent, and they aren't rendering
in scanline mode when you have enough RAM, it looks like an Imagine
bug. If so, tell me and I'll D/L the objects and check.

-Steve

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Worley                                        [e-mail]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

##

Subject: Imagine with an '040
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 91 19:23:54 MST
From: Steve Koren <[e-mail]>

Imagine with an '040: its a bit of a disappointment, actually.

Yesterday I got a Fusion 40 from Progressive.  In general, its quite fast.
It does some benchmarks up to 4X as fast as my old 28 mhz '030.  The '040
does not have some of the transcendental math functions on-chip, so they
are emulated externally at some performance penalty.

Rendering times in Imagine with the '040 may be a bit faster than they
were with the '030.  However, the performance of the user interface
becomes *dog slow*.  There are a few major problems:

  * The perspective window used to update fairly quickly.  Now it takes
    _forever_.  It draws fairly fast, but it just takes eons to start
    redrawing after you make a change.

  * During the time when the perspective window is "thinking", the system
    used to be otherwise usable with my '030.  Now, it grinds to a halt.
    The cursor only moves once per second in huge jumps, and lots of other
    things slow down.

  * Draging the observer or lightsources around in the stage editor is
    ungodly slow.  It used to zip right along, but now it only updates
    around once per second or less.  You have to move the cursor, wait for
    it to appear, move it again, etc.

  * Rendering progress at an OK pace.  Certainly not 4X what it was
    before.  Maybe 1.5X.  However, I used to be able to render in Imagine
    with a low priority, and the rest of the system ran just normally.
    Now, I can't move the cursor except in huge jumps, menus become
    impossible to use, text doesn't scroll smoothly any more, etc.

I have a theory about why this is true.  Since the emulation of the math
trans functions is probably done via instruction traps + calls to
emulation code, I suspect this code runs in a protected state and is
masked from being interrupted by exec.  Therefor, no task switches take
place when those calls are being executed.  This type of problem only
takes place with floating point intensive code.  Integer intensive code
behaves quite normally.  VistaPro, which is also floating point intensive,
has roughly the same trouble as Imagine.

I haven't had a chance to contact Progressive tech support yet to find out
what's up.  Maybe they have some simple solution for it.  In the meantime
its quite frustrating though, because I can't render and do any useful
work at the same time.  Now I know what MS-DOS users must feel like! :-)
Actually, if I can't figure this out, I may return the card (if they let
me), because it is not, IMHO, performing acceptably.  Straight-line speed
in a single process is all well and good, but if the rest of my system
comes to a near halt, I'd rather have a 50 mhz '030 instead.

  - steve "not amused" k

##

Subject: Re: Imagine with an '040
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 91 08:44:55 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)


Steve K. writes:
>
>
>Imagine with an '040: its a bit of a disappointment, actually.
>
>Yesterday I got a Fusion 40 from Progressive.  In general, its quite fast.
>It does some benchmarks up to 4X as fast as my old 28 mhz '030.  The '040
>does not have some of the transcendental math functions on-chip, so they
>are emulated externally at some performance penalty.
>
>Rendering times in Imagine with the '040 may be a bit faster than they
>were with the '030.  However, the performance of the user interface
>becomes *dog slow*.  There are a few major problems:
>

    and so on...............

    Wow that's too bad.  I was thinking about getiing one for my
3000 also, but I sure won't now.  I hope this kind of thing can get
straightened out in the future.  Maybe I'll just buy the extra RAM card
for my 3000 (when i get the money :) ).


            Thanks for the info!

                    Mike C.
                    [e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: Imagine with an '040
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 91 10:08:17 EST
From: [e-mail] (John Rosner)

Michael B. Comet writes about Steve K. writing:

>Wow that's too bad.  I was thinking about getiing one for my
>3000 also, but I sure won't now.

I don't think Steve was using a 3000, sounds like an accelerated 2000.
There could be subtle differences like memory speed, bus width, etc.

Later,

John Rosner

##

Subject: Re: Imagine with an '040
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 91 8:59:19 MST
From: Steve Koren <[e-mail]>

John Rosner writes:

> >Wow that's too bad.  I was thinking about getiing one for my
> >3000 also, but I sure won't now.
>
> I don't think Steve was using a 3000, sounds like an accelerated 2000.
> There could be subtle differences like memory speed, bus width, etc.

Yes, John is right, I'm using a 2000.

I don't know if what I'm seeing will happen on the 3000 also.  You just
might want to check it out before buying one.  Unless I can find a
workaround, I consider the Imagine UI to be nearly unusable now.

  - steve

##

Subject: 040 with Imagine
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 91 11:17:17 -0500
From: Joe Kiniry <[e-mail]>

I have used Imagine with the RCS 040 board and I think the performance
difference is marked.  I can run two copies simultaneously rendering
large DCTV images with lots of 24bit bitmaps and stuff at about 7min
per frame.  I'll give you more details if you wish...

---joseph

##

Subject: more on Imagine with '040s
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 91 9:23:42 MST
From: Steve Koren <[e-mail]>

I just got off the phone with PP&S about the '040 problem I mentioned
yesterday.

The fellow I spoke to was aware of the problem.  He said it was a problem
in the 040 floating point emulation code which they got from C=.  They
will have a patch available within a week to correct the problem.

This is very good news.  This problem is the only thing which stops me
from being very happy with the card.  If they fix it, it'll be a great CPU
for doing Imagine rendering.

(PP&S does seem to have a good tech support department.  It seems to be
composed basically of one guy, but he's been able to answer all the
questions I've had).

   - steve

##

Subject: PP&S '040
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 91 13:34:59 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

    Oops, i must have read it wrong when i said 030.  (I woke up
early this morning!).  Okay.  Well, assuming you get the fix, is it
worth it?  Also, will it work correctly without a fiz in a 3000 since
the 3000 has the math coprocessor?  I think I've seen two different 040
boards out, one for the 2000 and one for the 3000 (that could make a
difference).  Thanks.

                Mike C.
                [e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: Imagine with an '040
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1991 18:34:51 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Stephen Menzies)

Steve Koren <[e-mail]> writes:


>Imagine with an '040: its a bit of a disappointment, actually.

>Yesterday I got a Fusion 40 from Progressive.  In general, its quite fast.
>It does some benchmarks up to 4X as fast as my old 28 mhz '030.  The '040
>does not have some of the transcendental math functions on-chip, so they
>are emulated externally at some performance penalty.

>[stuff deleted]

>  - steve "not amused" k

Could you be more clear about which 040 board you are speaking of. Is it
the Progressive 040 board or the RCS Fusion 40?

-stephen

--
Stephen Menzies
#Internet: [e-mail]
#Fidonet : Stephen Menzies @ 1:167/265

##

Subject: WrapX WrapZ
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 91 22:23:10 MST
From: Steve Koren <[e-mail]>

Has anyone had any luck with this type of wrap?

I'm trying a very simple thing.  I have a sphere, which is the only object
in my scene.  I have a brush mapped to it as Wrap-X Wrap-Z.  The axes are
positioned in the same manner as indicated in Steve Worley's tutorial.
Ie, the axis position is below and centered on the sphere, the brushmap Z
axis extends slightly above the sphere, and the brushmap X axis extends
slightly to the right when seen from the front.

What happens is that Imagine seem seems to be ignoring my brushmap
altogether.  Instead, the entire object is rendered in the object's
surface color.

I've also tried various other combinations of axes positions, such as
making the X axis the full width of the object instead of half.  No luck
there either.  Oh, and yes, I am aware that the "bounding box" Imagine
lets you move around actually stretches from -X to +X, etc, so you only
get to use one quadrant of it.  That's not the problem I'm having.

Any ideas?  I can get flat maps to work like a charm.  Not these though.

  - steve

##

Subject: Re: WrapX WrapZ
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 91 12:03:06 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

>
>
>
>Has anyone had any luck with this type of wrap?
>
>I'm trying a very simple thing.  I have a sphere, which is the only object
>in my scene.  I have a brush mapped to it as Wrap-X Wrap-Z.  The axes are
>positioned in the same manner as indicated in Steve Worley's tutorial.
>Ie, the axis position is below and centered on the sphere, the brushmap Z
>axis extends slightly above the sphere, and the brushmap X axis extends
>slightly to the right when seen from the front.
>
>  - steve
>
>
    I missed the tutorial, but for Wrap-X AND Wrap-Z on a sphere the
brush maps axis should NOT be moved.  Then the +X axis should extend a
little past the right of the object (an therefore the -X a little past
the left) and the Upper half of the Z axis a little above, and the other
a little below.  Also the Y axis for ALL WRAP brush maps MUST Be about
=1.  If the Y axis is greater than around One, the map WILL NOT WORK.
Don't ask me why, I dont know.  This might be the first thing to check.
    So anyways, for a sphere with WRAP X and WRAP Z, put the axis in
the center, and makeit so the + Quadrant of the Brushmap (upper right)
fully covers the upper right half of the sphere, and ALSO make sure the
Y axis is about 1 (the transformation requestor does a nice job here).


                Hope this helps,

                    Mike C.
                    [e-mail]

##

Subject: Raytracers rejoice!! Memory prices down!!!
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 91 12:20:05 PST
From: [e-mail]

As of last week memory prices on ZIPS dropped by 50%!!!!!
1x4 ZIPS 80 n.s. are now $21 per chip. So for all of the
Amiga 3000 owners who don't have enough memory to do their
renders, now is the time to buy. Fill that machine with RAM :-).

The price should be pretty much the same all over, but we
bought at this price some from Megatronics. There is also
an ad in Amiga World for this same price from Memory World.

So do we all know what to do with our Christmas money?

Disclaimer: I do not work for any of these companies, I just
like their prices.


=========================================================================
Sean Schur                        INTERNET: [e-mail]
Assistant Director Amiga/Media Lab        Compuserve: 70731,1102
Character Animation Department            Plink: OSS259
California Institute of the Arts
=========================================================================

##

Subject: modelling faces like clay
Date: 14 Dec 91 17:44 -0800
From: Andrew Niemann <[e-mail]>

A while back someone mentioned wanting to model faces like working
with clay. I also want to do exactly this, haven't done it yet though but
it's getting to be next on the list.
The cheapest solution for me is to use VistaPro and Terraform and
Scapemaker. Really you only need Terraform and Scapemaker but you need
VistaPro to build the Imagine object. Using Scapemaker (around $50 I
can't remember exactly anymore) you convert a photo or xerox of a face
into a Vista scape. Then with TerraForm (also around $60) you can build
it up and push it in as your heart desires by just running the
"raise/lower tool" over the area you want to work with. What you are
working on is not a bunch of points and edges but rather a 16 color
version of your face viewed from directly above. The different colors
represent different heights. At the side of the screen you have a sort of
3D view of your working area to help you figure out how your object is
shaping up. It works quite nicely once you get it figured out. You then
take your finished manipulated scape into Vista and render it. At this
point you can now save it as a Turbo object.
I talked a friend of mine into trying it out since I didn't have
the time then and he had moderate success in a short time. The trick
according to him is controlling the heights Scapemaker makes and doing
some preliminary art work to get some colors into the correct range. For
instance the eyes - the eye balls are white, so being the brightest color
they come up as the highest point of the face. Not quite natural,
sometimes. Also don't use dithering when digitizing the original image
for the same reason. The lighting on the face is important - it should
ideally come form the center of the lens of the camera. That's why a
xerox might be good or a ringflash. Also the face should be monochrome
- no dark red lips etc.(paint it white)
Of course you could just start from scratch right in Terraform and
just literally draw your face in. One drawback is you can't do overhangs
like a really hooked nose or curled lip.
andy

##

Subject: Modeling faces
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 91 19:21:00 PDT
From: [e-mail] (Aaron Tucker)

    I have a friend who modeled a stonehenge (sp?) face from Easter
Island. He used the Forms Editor to do it. He said it is incredibly easy
to model faces in the Forms Editor. Unfortunately, I have hardly no
experience with the Forms Editor and he does not have net access. I'll see
if I can persuade him to release the object into PD or Freeware. Maybe I
can even persuade him to write a small tutorial on modeling faces.


Juan Trevino
[e-mail]
"Wake up. Time to die."  -Leon from BladeRunner

##

Subject: Bricks on a Cylendar.
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 91 20:49:26 PST
From: [e-mail]

I have been trying to model a lighthouse for one of my animations.  I want
to detail it with bricks that wrap around the lighthouse like real bricks
on a tower.  First I tried the bricks texture, but along the sides, it go
choppy, not like real bricks laid in a circle, but more like a solid block
of bricks that was sliced into a can shape.  Then I built some super detailed
bricks in DPaint to be wrapped and stacked together. I forget the term for
this in Imagine. But the idea was to have a picture next to a picture, etc
so that thbey would wrap around the can shape (cant spell cylendar, never c
spell well) and look like bricks. Using Wrap Z (flat X) I got one many layers
and down the can, but my one brushmap was wrapped around the perimeter of the
lighthouse. The brush axis was centered in the can and all initial settings
were left as is.  Exending the X axis of the brush did nothing. Is there
any way to achieve my desired result?
    Shadowmar...
    [e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: Modeling faces and other stuff...
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 91 00:39:27 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

    Interesting Idea using the VistaPro support programs to make 3-d
objects other than Terrains, but from what I have heard the FORMS editor
is truly the tool.

    I too have had problems with its usage, but I just just got my
Imagine Gazette, and it looks like the new FORMS editor will be even
more powerful, and the manual will (its about time) actually explain its
use.  Should be neat.

    Anyways, what kind of other objects has your friend been able to
create using this method, it seems a little pricy in relation to just
using imagine.

                    mike c.
                    [e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: VCR for DCTV editing
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 91 12:37:35 GMT
From: mit-eddie!bknight.jpr.com!yury (Yury German)

:I'm looking for a good VCR to "string together" DCTV animations. The idea
:is to play as much as I can fit in memory, then edit them out to tap
:In other words, I'd like to be frame-accurate on editing, but don't need
:a single-frame record.
:Frank Branham
     Frank well if you want frame accurate its not going to be that
easy to get something that cheap. One way to go is to get yourself the
AG1960 SVHS by panasonic. It will give you descent resolution in SVHS and
if you get 2 of them and the TC1000 PRO controler with timecode generator
you can go as low as +-1 frame with those VTR's. Well at least thats my
suggestion. But even those things are a little too much of an overkill.
For just doing DCTV animation what you need is a regular VTR and all you
do is record the ending of animation a little longer then needed (about 2
seconds) that way even if you do not edit it correctly it will still look
good.

   -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   ! Yury German                  NET-MAIL:  [e-mail]        !
   ! Blue-Knight Productions      GENIE EMAIL: Blue-Knight               !
   ! [phone]                (Graphic Design and Video Productions) !
   ! [phone]          P.O. Box 985, Queens, New York, 11354  !
   !_____________________________________________________________________!

##

Subject: Accelearators vs 3000
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 91 17:48:18 MST
From: HURTT CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL <[e-mail]>

    I was wondering if the people that own accelerators or 3000s
could give me an idea of exaclty how much speed up in renders you get. I'm
contemplating buying an accelerator or possibly a 3000. I'm just worried
that maybe the speed increase isn't worth the over $1000. If a picture that
normally takes 12 hours only takes < 1 hour I could handle it. But if the
speed up is only say down to 4 hours, maybe not.
    So, if you possibly have upgraded yourself and have pics from before
that you've re-rendered could you tell me the increase? I plan to go to a
dealer tommorrow with Imagine and some objects and do some rendering but I'd
like to hear all of your opinions too. Also, what does everyone think the
lowest worthwhile "speed" is and still be able to do animations? 22Mhz? 25Mhz?
33Mhz? 50Mhz?
    Thanks for your help.

    Chris Hurtt

##

Subject: re: rendering fonts
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 91 17:50:50 EST
From: [e-mail] (Dan Drake)

>
>If this is stupid question, I apologize in advance, but have you checked
>the ATTRIBUTES of the letter to make sure transparency isn't turned all
>the way up?  Also, is the letter within your world in the stage editor.
>Stage defaults to a 1024x1024x1024 world size, and if your object(s) fall
>outside that range, they will not render in trace mode.

>Again, I apologize if these things have already been taken into consideration.

>-John

Yes, I actually tried several of the attributes that Steve W. uploaded
to Hubcap.  And they are about 250x250 so I don't thibk they are out
of range.  This happened to me before, and I got around it by twidling
around.  I just have no idea what I did to make it work.

Thanks for the suggestions though.  Most mistakes are of the obvious
variety.

dan.

##

Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1991 15:56:33 -0700
From: HURTT CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL <[e-mail]>

    I'm looking for a pic or two of Jupiter that I can use for a map
of course! If anyone could direct me to an ftp site that has one I'd be
grateful. In fact, what does everyone think of making some sort of catalog
of ftp sites that are good sources of textures and maps. I've got a few and
Steve and Mark have posted some in the past. Whadda think?

    Chris Hurtt

##

Subject: DCTV animations
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 91 19:08:58 CST
From: [e-mail] (Thomas E. Smith [LORAL])

I have rendered some animations as 24-bit iff framed, and converted then to
dctv pictures. When I view them with the dctv, It fills my screen, and I'd like
to animate it that way. I used Deluxe paint III to animate it, but it won't
accept anything larger than 640x400. The animations looks great, but it doesn't
compare to the full screen version.

Does anyone know how to animate full screen overscan images and still get
24-30 frames per sec?

I allready tried using my vtr to record frame by frame, but it doesn't quite
hack it. It flickers between frames. I think it would be ok though if I could
make animation clips and piece them together.

                        thanks for any suggestions
                                tom

##

Subject: ftp sites
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 91 20:18:09 EST
From: [e-mail] (John J Humpal)

Chris Hurtt writes:
>
>     I'm looking for a pic or two of Jupiter that I can use for a map
> of course! If anyone could direct me to an ftp site that has one I'd be
> grateful. In fact, what does everyone think of making some sort of catalog
> of ftp sites that are good sources of textures and maps. I've got a few and
> Steve and Mark have posted some in the past. Whadda think?

    Take a look at wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) in the /gif
directory.  There is an enormous number of pics at this site.  Also, try
subscribing to alt.binaries.pictures and alt.binaries.pictures.fractals.

I have a list of ftp sites which are supposed to be sources of graphics,
but I haven't checked them all out.  If you like, I'll e-mail it to you,
or if there is any demand, I'll post it to the list.

-John

John J. Humpal -- [e-mail] -- short .sig, std. disclaimer

##

Subject: Rays of light?
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 91 1:11:20 PST
From: Daryl T. Bartley <[e-mail]>

I don't know how to explian this, but what the heck, I'll try. I'm trying to
get the effect of light rays/beams/whatever, you know the kind when an object
is directly in between the camera and the light, and you see a silhouette, and
light...know-what-I-mean? Is there any way to do this without actually building
the 'beams' as objects or something? Maybe Imagine 2.0 with fog?

On a semi-related note, have there been any way-cool pics done with Imagine 2.0,perhaps that use the new effects/etc.? If so, any chance of seeing them?



thanks in advance,


Daryl Bartley
[e-mail]

##

Subject: new release?
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 91 12:31:31 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Johan Henselmans)

I just subscribed to this service and the first message I get is a story
about a version 2.0 with possible new features. Is this allready available?

>> Maybe Imagine 2.0 with fog?

(from Daryl T. Bartley <[e-mail]>

Johan

##

Subject: Re: new release?
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 91 07:16:26 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Edward Chadez)

Here's Mr. Worley's release information on Imagine 2.0.  I called Impulse,
and they said 'this week' it would be mailed out to those who paid the
[gasp] $100 upgrade fee.  But after reading this list, I'll let YOU be the
judge.  For the rest of you, this is just a repost.

On Nov 6, 10:13am, Steve Worley wrote:
} Subject: The scoop on Imagine 2.0
}
} Last night I demonstrated Imagine 2.0 to members of FAUG- presenting to
} an audience containing both Allen Hastings and Jay Miner makes a person
} quite nervous... but it went really well. I met 8 list members at the
} meeting as well.
}
} Well, anyway, here is a quick summary of the features of Imagine 2.0.
} This is not an complete list, but covers maybe 80% of the new
} features. (These are the features I personally saw in my late beta
} copy of 2.0) Please do -NOT- ask me "Will XXXX make it in?" because I
} don't want to promise features that I haven't seen myself, and I don't
} even know for sure what will be added in the next week.
}
} Anyway, Imagine 2.0 should be released on November 15, (nine days!),
} barring any calamity. Impulse will send out a newsletter to all
} registered users, at which time you can send away for the upgrade. The
} upgrade fee is a hefty $100, but includes all new software and a new
} manual. Do NOT send in your money now; Impulse will return any checks
} you send in before the official release. So wait for your newsletter
} and/or more definative posts on the list before you send in your
} money.
}
} Again, a complete article explaining these changes will appear in this
} month's AVID magazine, which should be at newsstands and computer
} stores by Saturday.  I'll post AVID's phone number and address for
} those who want to call them directly. (I heartily suggest you
} subscribe! Imagine articles every month!)
}
}
} -------------
}
} A quick summary of the new features in Imagine 2.0 over Imagine 1.1:
}
} I General
}
}     2.0 interface look
}     User defined gadgets in each editor for often used commands
}     Preferences Editor added for editing config file and user gadgets
}     Action Editor now independent from Stage
}     ESC-escape picture viewing bug fixed (finally!)
}     Infinite planes visible in preview windows
}     All-new manual by Mike Halvorson ( > 200 pages )
}
} II Renderer
}
}    ``Quick Render'' option - scanline render whatever is shown in the
}         preview window in any editor at any time
}     Altitude mapping bug fixed: dramatic quality increase
}     Direct DCTV support
}     (No major rendering speed or RAM requirement changes either way)
}
} III Detail Editor
}
}     Brushmap axes default to span object
}     Picked points can be interactively scaled, rotated, and moved
}     New invert and genlock options on brushmaps
}     ``Subgroups'' of an object define collections of faces for easy
}        attribute definition; textures and brushmaps can be limited to only
}        certain subgroups
}     Phong shading selectable for independent edges
}     Spline paths (editable in Detail) used for extrusion and for conforming
}         objects
}     Objects have a fog attribute- not just ``transparent edges'' but true
}         light-absorbing volumes. Clouds, smoke, and fire are a snap, as well
}         as spotlight beams and glowing warp drives.
}     ``Cycle Transform'' command allows rotating cycle links around the ENDS
}         of their axis
}     Attribute loading now loads brushmaps and textures as well.
}
} IV Forms Editor
}
}     Major change: any number of key horizontal cross sections may be defined.
}          ``Skin'' is now completely outclassed.
}     Different options for radial cross sections: ``spacer view'' for
}          simple skinned cross sections, or a two or four ``former view'' as
}          in Imagine 1.1
}     Symmetry in horizontal cross sections
}     Automatic sealing of top and bottom points
}
} V Stage & Action
}
}     Camera tracking controllable from Stage
}     Quickdraw of objects completely definable from Stage
}     Multiple F/X applied to an object simultaneously
}     Global fog (with altitude ranges)
}     Backdrop pictures supported (animatable)
}     World reflection map animatable
}
} ---------------------
}
} Some of these features are really understated; The user gadgets are
} terrific time savers, the fog attribute is absolutely incredible, and
} the utility of interactive point manipulation is amazing. And Forms
} just increased its abilities by an order of magnitude!
}
} Most of the new toys are in the Forms and Detail editor, so you
} modellers should have a field day!
}
} -Steve
}
} --------------------------------------------------------------------------
} Steve Worley                                       [e-mail]
} --------------------------------------------------------------------------
}
}
}-- End of excerpt from Steve Worley


--
  //                                                               ()__()
\X/ [e-mail]/Edward Chadez     CARL Systems(303)861-5319    (  )
                                                                    M.M.

##

Subject: silhouette effect
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 91 19:09:49 GMT-0500
From: Scott Matthew Krehbiel <[e-mail]>

One thing you might want to try for your silhouette ( if you have a
genlock ) is to render the object in imagine, then display it in the
middle of a black screen.  Then have a video camera aimed at the
screen, with the signal going into the genlock, then out into the
composite side of your Amiga monitor.  This creates a video feedback
loop, and depending on the amount of your zoom, you can create
truly amazing effects to look like the object is flying through space
at warp speed.  To describe why this works would take too much space,
but play with it and you'll figure it out.

Oh, and by the way, you'll have to play with your iris settings to
get the right effect ( set it to be rather closed )

Scott Krehbiel
[e-mail]

##

Subject: Grow?
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 91 23:48:02 PST
From: Daryl T. Bartley <[e-mail]>

I haven't heard much mention of the Grow F/X, so I was wondering, is it pretty
much not worth the time? Is it so easy to use that everyone knows? Am I the
only clueless one? At any rate, I _am_ having trouble with it. Am I missing
something so inanely simple that I'm going to kick myself for it? HELP!

I am using a path, probably incorrectly, but anyway all I get are 'improper
path' messages, and it won't do Grow. While I'm on the subject of F/X problems,
is there a bug in Rotate? It seems to go nutso on me at times.

Thanks in advance for any replies/help/etc.

Daryl Bartley
[e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: Grow?
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 91 09:50:48 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

    Daryl Bartley says:
>
>I haven't heard much mention of the Grow F/X, so I was wondering, is it pretty
>much not worth the time? Is it so easy to use that everyone knows? Am I the
>only clueless one? At any rate, I _am_ having trouble with it. Am I missing
>something so inanely simple that I'm going to kick myself for it? HELP!
>
>I am using a path, probably incorrectly, but anyway all I get are 'improper
>path' messages, and it won't do Grow. While I'm on the subject of F/X problems,
>is there a bug in Rotate? It seems to go nutso on me at times.
>
>Thanks in advance for any replies/help/etc.
>
>Daryl Bartley
>[e-mail]
>

    The GROW effect is a little more complicated than the rest, but
some of the things you can do with it are really neat.

    First, you must make a path in the DETAIL editor by adding ONE
axis and then adding points (or lines) in the order and direction you
wish the object to grow in.  (Note this is the same kind of path used
for extruding).

    Now add your FLAT object.  Make it whatever, adding a primitve
plane or disk is fine.

    Now this is probably where the trouble is.  You MUST pick the
PATH object FIRST.  This is how imagine knows which is which.  (I did
the object first by accident, and got those same path error messages as
you).  Okay, now select GROUP.  Then save the group (remember path is
selected first) as some name you'll remember.

    Finally, go into the STAGE editor.  Then into the Action editor,
set up the number of frames you want.  Add your grow object (flat
object plus path groupoed together) for the number of frames you want.

    Okay, now its time to add the GROW effect.  Use the ADD command
in the ACTION editor to add an effect timeline to your object group.
Select the GROW effect when requested.  NOTE!!!: The grow takes place
RIGHT AWAY.....this means that if you want to see your flat object first
AS A FLAT OBJECT, you should add the grow effect from frame 2 to
whatever, not from frame one.

    When this is done, the default can be left as is, and you should
be able to adjust your camera and object so you can see everything, and
then make the animation.

    Things such as Rotate and translate should be fairly obvious.
The reverse effect (shrink) button simply starts the object sa the
extruded object and then un-extrudes it.  The best way to figure this
stuff out is to get it to work as desribed above, and then to try to
adjust or set one other additon at a time.

    You can do some neat things with this, such as makeing a flat
star extrude over the animation for a logo.  Another things I have seen
(i think it used the GROW effect) is to take a star or anything, and set
its attributes to be transparent but a color.  Then make a path whih
starts and ends off the camera view. Finally have the object GROW for
half and then SHRINK for the other half.  This gives the look like light
beams are shooting and or bending around as seen by NBC and ABC and such
for their logos and animation.

    Have fun!

                Mike C.
                [e-mail]

##

Subject: Amiga 1000 Object on Hubcap
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 91 16:46:55 -0500
From: [e-mail]

I've just uploaded the Amiga 1000 object to hubcap's .../imagine/OBJECTS
directory.  It's not mine, but a readme in the archive explains ownership.
It's quite detailed and very nicely done.  A bit large, though, and all the
pieces are separate.  It's in Turbo Silver format (compatible with
Imagine).

Enjoy!

 ._.  Udo Schuermann     "So you cut all the tall trees down/and poisoned the
 ( )  [e-mail]  sky and the sea/You've taken what's good from the
 Seeking virtual memory   ground/and left precious little for me." Midnight Oil
     This .signature is guaranteed to be virus-free, or your money back!

##

Subject: Re : Previous Tutorial on GROW
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 91 18:36:12 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

    I should have mentioned something else with the GROW command and
regards to that shrinking growing feature with lights and stuff:

    First, the AXIS of the object and path should have the same
Y-direction.  Another thing i just found out, is that in trying to make
the beam or whatever, grow and then shrink, is that that it (for me)
grew from right ti left, and then shrunk from left to right.

    I was talking about having it shrink the same way however to
make it look like the beam was moving and curling around.  To do this
simply ROTATE the axis for the object for the shrink frames. Depending
on your object however, you may need to go onto the detail editor, and
rotate the object back to make it look the same, and then save that as a
seperate object.

                mike c.
                [e-mail]

##

Subject: Wow! Thanks!
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 91 18:19:35 PST
From: Daryl T. Bartley <[e-mail]>

Exactly what I needed! Yeah, I was using the paths from the stage editor...no
wonder! Cool. And the idea for the light beams! I'm gonna go play around and
see what I can get out of that.

Thanks for the help!

Daryl Bartley
[e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: DCTV animations
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 91 23:18:34 CST
From: [e-mail] (Thomas E. Smith [LORAL])

<<Infinite K>> writes:
>Second, the Amiga, even a 3000, can't page flip that fast in hires, much
>less overscan. Best you can expect is about 4-5 FPS for realtime playback.
>This is for DCTV pics...

I've heard about this myth myself several times. But I just created a 200 fram
DCTV animation that is 640x400 with a depth of 3 that runs in about 9 seconds.
This comes out to a whopping 22 FPS! And it's slightly smaller than a 100 frame
version of the same animation that was done in 4096 color ham. Ain't it great?

                        Tom the Smith

##

Subject: Re: DCTV animationsK
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 91 17:26:58 EST
From: [e-mail] (Dan Drake)

> <<Infinite K>> writes:
> >Second, the Amiga, even a 3000, can't page flip that fast in hires, much
> >less overscan. Best you can expect is about 4-5 FPS for realtime playback.
> >This is for DCTV pics...
>
>I've heard about this myth myself several times. But I just created a 200 fram
>DCTV animation that is 640x400 with a depth of 3 that runs in about 9 seconds.
>This comes out to a whopping 22 FPS! And it's slightly smaller than a 100frame
>version of the same animation that was done in 4096 color ham. Ain't it great?
>
>                         Tom the Smith
I have run 4 bitplane dctv animations at 15 frames per second on my 3000/25.
It wasn't even close to maxing out either.  I probably could do about 20 fps
with a 4 bitplane anim, though I don't have the disk space to do it in :-)

dan.

##

Subject: Re: your mail
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 91 7:22:07 MST
From: [e-mail] (Steve Koren)

> >Second, the Amiga, even a 3000, can't page flip that fast in hires, much
> >less overscan. Best you can expect is about 4-5 FPS for realtime playback.
> >This is for DCTV pics...
>
> I've heard about this myth myself several times. But I just created a 200 frame
> DCTV animation that is 640x400 with a depth of 3 that runs in about 9 seconds.
> This comes out to a whopping 22 FPS! And it's slightly smaller than a 100 frame
> version of the same animation that was done in 4096 color ham. Ain't it great?

I bet you can get those rates because you are using 3 planes instead of
4.

I have a HAM-E unit, which displays fairly nice images (for the price
anyway)[1].  I can't get more than around 4 to 5 fps out of it, because
it encodes the pictures as 4 bitplane hi-res.  (And this is on a
68040 too).  For some reason, there seems to be a huge difference
between animation rates at 3 planes and the rates at 4 planes.
I've noticed this:  6 plane 320x400 goes fast, 3 plane 640x400 goes
fast, 4 plane 640x400 goes very slow.

  - steve

[1] - I'm convinced that having lots of colors available is the
only way to get good looking mirrors.  It seems that regular HAM
mode doesn't have a big enough palette to do a very nice job on
mirrored or reflective objects.  Even cheap external gadgets like
HAM-E or DCTV help alot here.

##

Subject: DCTV animations
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 91 08:30:28 EST
From: [e-mail] (Bob Lindabury, SysAdm)

rutgers!gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov!tes (Thomas E. Smith [LORAL]) writes:

> I have rendered some animations as 24-bit iff framed, and converted then to
> dctv pictures. When I view them with the dctv, It fills my screen, and I'd li
> to animate it that way. I used Deluxe paint III to animate it, but it won't
> accept anything larger than 640x400. The animations looks great, but it doesn
> compare to the full screen version.

Ah...Dpaint III will animate with a res of 704x480 and Dpaint IV will
animate with a res of 736x482.  I suggest you try Dpaint again.

> Does anyone know how to animate full screen overscan images and still get
> 24-30 frames per sec?

I don't think you are going to get anywhere near 30 fps with any
hi-res severly overscanned 16 color animation.  I've been running a
25mhz 030 and I don't come close to 30 fps in that mode.  You will
have to single frame it I believe.

> I allready tried using my vtr to record frame by frame, but it doesn't quite
> hack it. It flickers between frames. I think it would be ok though if I could
> make animation clips and piece them together.

Well, you need a single frame controller and a deck with a flying
erase head.

-- Bob

 The Graphics BBS  908/469-0049  "It's better than a sharp stick in the eye!"
 ============================================================================
  InterNet: [e-mail]                | Raven Enterprises
      UUCP: ...rutgers!bobsbox!graphics!bobl      | 25 Raven Avenue
    BitNet: bobl%graphics.rent.com@pucc           | Piscataway, NJ 08854
    Home #: 908/560-7353                          | 908/271-8878

##

Subject: 2.0 Texture maps??
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 91 08:38:16 EST
From: [e-mail] (Bob Lindabury, SysAdm)

Will the 2.0 texture maps such as radial scale with the objects now?

I certainly hope so.  My starburst looks awefully stupid as it
animates and scales while the radial texture doesn't. <grin>

-- Bob

 The Graphics BBS  908/469-0049  "It's better than a sharp stick in the eye!"
 ============================================================================
  InterNet: [e-mail]                | Raven Enterprises
      UUCP: ...rutgers!bobsbox!graphics!bobl      | 25 Raven Avenue
    BitNet: bobl%graphics.rent.com@pucc           | Piscataway, NJ 08854
    Home #: 908/560-7353                          | 908/271-8878

##

Subject: Ham-E
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 91 08:14:08 PST
From: [e-mail] (Rob Borsari)

When the Ham-E first came out Dr. Gandalf got one and found for some
reason you can't lock the pallet when converting pics to that format.
This results in huge diffs between frames and slow animations.  I am
not sure if this was because of software or the way the Ham-E works.
At the time he was told by Black Belt that there was no fix for that problem.
  The DCTV in 3 bitplanes can do 30fps on a GVP 030, and nearly that fast
in 4 bitplanes. Steve, check the diff size on the slower mode and the faster
ones and see if tat is the problem.  I havent heard of a remedy but maybe Black
belt has come up with somthing.  -R-

[e-mail]  Rob Borsari  "Bourne to be Wild"

##

Subject: Re : Imagine 2.0 and Scaling Textures
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 91 12:23:20 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

    According to the Imagine Gazette, 2.0 should scale the textures
for you just like brush maps when in any editor.  Plus, there will be
new textures and effects with 2.0.

                mike c.
                [e-mail]

##

Subject: Bitplanes
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 91 15:33:02 MST
From: [e-mail] (Ben Scott)

Well, I've seen the refutations, but not sure where they're coming from -
On the 3000UX we're using (with 425 megs HD space so no problems there), wit
a *4* bitplane animation, and using HIRES OVERSCAN (the first guy was talking
about 3 biplanes and the other didn't mention whether he was using hires or
overscan), we can't manage that high a frame rate with DCTV animations.  And
yes, I know how to work the software; in fact, optmizing animations is starting
to become a specialty of mine... I'm working on a 900+ frame animation in DP IV,
and I spent 75% of the time I've been at it in trying to reduce the size.
Dropped almost 3 megs off it so far, without giving up anything significant.

Trouble is, DCTV animations are encoded so the entropy is much higher -
non-mathematically speaking, there's less 'headroom' to compress the data,
since there are fewer savings to be had, and furthermore even a simple object
moving around will cause fairly major pixel changes in the unencoded Amiga
display.  So there's almost no way to get away from maxing out your bus when
going all-out with a DCTV animation, on any Amiga built so far.  My
old unaccelerated A-500 doesn't do too much worse than this 25 Mhz 3000UX.

.                       <<<<Infinite K>>>>

--
.---------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|Ben Scott, professional goof-off and consultant at The Raster Image, Denver|
|Internet [e-mail], or call the Arvada 68K BBS at [phone]|
|--------------------------------------..-----------------------------------|
|"My brothers and sisters all hated me,||The Raster Image IS responsible for|
|'cause I was an only child!"--Weird Al||everything I say!  ** Amiga Power**|
`--------------------------------------'`-----------------------------------'

##

Subject: Re: Bitplanes
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 91 15:30:08 PST
From: [e-mail] (Eric Keisler)

>
> Well, I've seen the refutations, but not sure where they're coming from -
> On the 3000UX we're using (with 425 megs HD space so no problems there), wit
> a *4* bitplane animation, and using HIRES OVERSCAN (the first guy was talking
> about 3 biplanes and the other didn't mention whether he was using hires or
> overscan), we can't manage that high a frame rate with DCTV animations.
> ... I'm working on a 900+ frame animation in DP IV,
                                               ^^^^^
                                               This is part of your problem!

> --
> .---------------------------------------------------------------------------.
> |Ben Scott, professional goof-off and consultant at The Raster Image, Denver|
> |Internet [e-mail], or call the Arvada 68K BBS at [phone]|
I use the Director version 2 for all my DCTV anim playbacks.  It's much
faster than DPaint - even for 4 plane overscanned high-res DCTV anims.  I can't
give precise frame rate data since, as you well know, it is highly dependant
on the nature of the anim.  However as an example, I created a 4 plane high-res
overscanned anim (120 frames) via LightWave and DAAM.  The anim consisted
of a large sphere (2/3 the size of the 'view') bouncing on a plane.  A very
complex 24bit image was texture mapped to the sphere.  I also mapped 24bit
images to the plane and background.  I achieved 20fps.  Converting the
anim to 3 planes gave me 27fps.  Going to 736x241 at 3 planes gave me 30.  I
never tried testing the anim at 736x241 at 4 planes (although this is the mode
I use the most now).

---
Eric Keisler
[e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: Ham-E
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 91 18:34:19 PST
From: [e-mail]

There is a ShareWare program called Rend24 (The file may be called
rend101.lzh i think) that is good for converting 24 bit files to
displayable formats like Ham-E. It also allows you to convert a series of
24 bit images into an animation with the pallet LOCKED. This is a great help
with Ham-E animations.

##

Subject: Re: DCTV Animations
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 91 17:17:15 EST
From: [e-mail] (Bob Lindabury, SysAdm)

>> <<Infinite K>> writes:
>> >Second, the Amiga, even a 3000, can't page flip that fast in hires, much
>> >less overscan. Best you can expect is about 4-5 FPS for realtime playback.
>> >This is for DCTV pics...
>>
>>I've heard about this myth myself several times. But I just created a 200 fram
>>DCTV animation that is 640x400 with a depth of 3 that runs in about 9 seconds.
>>This comes out to a whopping 22 FPS! And it's slightly smaller than a 100frame
>>version of the same animation that was done in 4096 color ham. Ain't it great?
>>
>>                                               Tom the Smith
>I have run 4 bitplane dctv animations at 15 frames per second on my 3000/25.
>It wasn't even close to maxing out either.  I probably could do about 20 fps
>with a 4 bitplane anim, though I don't have the disk space to do it in :-)
>
>dan.

C'mon guys.  The person said *overscan*.  That does NOT mean 640x400.

There is one heck of alot more information in a severly overscanned
animation and that's what is required if you are going to video.  I
can't see you getting 20fps with a fully overscanned animation
without some special hardware.

-- Bob


 The Graphics BBS  908/469-0049  "It's better than a sharp stick in the eye!"
 ============================================================================
  InterNet: [e-mail]                | Raven Enterprises
      UUCP: ...rutgers!bobsbox!graphics!bobl      | 25 Raven Avenue
    BitNet: bobl%graphics.rent.com@pucc           | Piscataway, NJ 08854
    Home #: 908/560-7353                          | 908/271-8878

##

Subject: New Mailing List
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 91 20:59:29 CST
From: Wayne Haufler 283-4160 <[e-mail]>

ANNOUNCING A NEW MAILING LIST!

Steve Brailsford and Wayne Haufler have started a new mailing list for
those interested in  ( warning: a FEW of you MAY be offended; too bad :)

`godlygraphics', Christian Uses of Computer Graphics and Animations,

especially using the Amiga computer, and for related trading of
ideas, objects, images, and even joint projects.

Examples of topics are:
   2D and 3D animations for youth groups with a message,
   Future church building modeling for animated 'walk-throughs',
   Multimedia Information Kiosk applications (in CanDo)
    for visitors learning about a church,
   Church event videotape titling,
   Potential Christian computer games and 'demos'.

The possibilities for innovative uses of computer graphics, animations,
multimedia, and video productions in support of various Christian
ministries and other endeavors are WIDE OPEN.  What better use of your
technical skills and creative minds than to serve the One who gave them to you?

So this is an invitation for those of you fellow Christians who are
interested in this topic.  This announcement will be posted to
newsgroups:
   comp.sys.amiga.graphics, comp.graphics,  and soc.religion.christian,
and mailing lists:
   imagine (where godlygraphics started) and christian.


INSTRUCTIONS:
To request to be added to the list, send to
    [e-mail]
To then post to the list, send to
        [e-mail]
NOTE: If you want to volunteer an anonymous ftp site to be a host,
for this list let us know.


         __         Wayne A. Haufler [Christian/SW Engineer/XWindows/Amigan]
\\ /\\ /\\ //_       [e-mail]          MDSSC - Houston
 \/--\// \//__       Hobby:"Exploring the Use of Computer Graphics and
     //                     Animations To Support Christian Endeavors"


P.S. Have a Merry Christmas!

##

Subject: StarTrek Objects needed
Date:    Mon, 23 Dec 1991 8:52:14 CST
From: [e-mail] (David Potter )

Hello Everyone in Imagine World,

Need some help, I  just saw an awesome demo that had some cool Star-Trek ships
that where rendered. I am looking for any and all Star-Trek Objects in any
format. if you can upload them to Hubcap that would be great or send me mail
at [e-mail].


Thanx in Advance
David...

-----------------------------------
 David Potter
 [e-mail]
 [e-mail]
 [e-mail]
-----------------------------------

##

Subject: StarTrek Objects
Date:    Mon, 23 Dec 1991 10:37:25 CST
From: [e-mail] (David Potter ACP Farms Systems Ext 3937)

    David>     Hello Everyone in Imagine World,

    Hi!  :-)

David>     Need some help, I just saw an awesome demo that had some cool
David> Star-Trek ships that where     rendered. I am looking for any
David> and all Star-Trek Objects in any format. if you can upload them
David> to Hubcap     that would be great or send me mail at
David> [e-mail].

Glenn> Do you have the NCC-1701a ?

Glenn>    Someone mailed it to me on a disk, but said that it was on an
Glenn>      archive site somewhere (he didn't say where).
Glenn>
                            -- Glenn Lewis
Hi Glenn,

I have the NCC-1701a object, the one I really want is the Klingon Battle
Cruiser.  I think that there is also a bird of prey and a star-base object out
there some where.


David...

-----------------------------------
 David Potter
 [e-mail]
 [e-mail]
 [e-mail]
-----------------------------------

##

Subject: StarTrek Objects
Date:    Mon, 23 Dec 1991 14:08:34 CST
From: [e-mail] (David Potter)

    David>     Hello Everyone in Imagine World,

    Hi!  :-)

David>     Need some help, I just saw an awesome demo that had some cool
David> Star-Trek ships that where     rendered. I am looking for any
David> and all Star-Trek Objects in any format. if you can upload them
David> to Hubcap     that would be great or send me mail at
David> [e-mail].

Glenn> Do you have the NCC-1701a ?

Glenn>    Someone mailed it to me on a disk, but said that it was on an
Glenn>      archive site somewhere (he didn't say where).
Glenn>
                            -- Glenn Lewis
David> Hi Glenn,
David>
David>    I have the NCC-1701a object, the one I really want is the Klingon Battle
David>  Cruiser.  I think that there is also a bird of prey and a star-base
David>  object out there some where.

David>       David Potter

Chris>    Lets see I've got in the way of Star Trek objects:
Chris>
Chris>    NCC-1701 (Steve Worley's)
Chris>     2 NCC-1701As (My own and the one I posted to Hubcap)
Chris>     2 NCC-1701Ds (The one recently posted to c.s.a.graphics & Bob McGees)
Chris>    Romulan Warbird (No idea what series, by Mr. McGee also)
Chris>
Chris>    I'm currently finishing up my 1701A from ST VI, I might distribute
Chris>     a non-brushmapped one. I've also bought a Klingon Cruiser from ST VI
Chris>     so I may upload one of them in the future.
Chris>    I'll try to have the one's mentioned above up on hubcap before
Chris>     Christmas. Anyone got some Klingons already made? Also I'd like a
Chris>     Reliant, I now there's one out there.....
Chris>
Chris>    Chris Hurtt


    Hi Chris,

I know there are some good StarTrek Objects out there I have seen some awesome
anims, I have see some Great Klingon D-7 Battle Cruiser anims. I hope to see
your objects uploaded to Hubcap as soon as you can.  The Objects do not even
have to be in Imagine format, I am sure I can convert them. What sort of things
are you doing with your 1701 objects?

Thanx...
David Potter

-----------------------------------
 David Potter
 [e-mail]
 [e-mail]
 [e-mail]
-----------------------------------

##

Subject: Real Problem with Objects!
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1991 14:24:22 -0700
From: HURTT CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL <[e-mail]>

    Ok. I thought I had an extra Romulan object. Actaully I had a pic of
a Romulan ship in with my Star Trek objects. Just hadn't realized it. I'll
try removing it and sending up the real object - "Warbird.lzh". Sorry about
that.

    Chris Hurtt

##

Subject: Re: StarTrek Objects
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 91 14:20:29 MST
From: HURTT CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL <[e-mail]>

    Seems I made a slight mistake on the list of objects. I have a
Romulan and a Warbird. Probably two objects of the same thing I should guess.
I've already put most of them up, I need to put either the Warbird or the
Romulan. Maybe a sub-dir for Star Trek objects is in order? That makes 6 so far.


> What sort of things are you doing with your 1701 objects?
    Well I made an anim with the 1701A object of it strechting out going
into warp. I'll redo it when I complete my own. Something wrong with me I guess,
I like collecting objects, but if I ever make anything I like to use stuff I've
created anyways. I want to do some battle scenes from ST II between Kahn and
Kirk.
    This brings me to a question for everyone. What sort of rights do we
have on objects that are trademarks? If I want to copyright my renderings
or animations do I need to speak to Paramount about using them? Or how about
entering contests? Are we just treading all over the laws whenever we
digitize Kirk saying "Beam me up Scotty", or make a Starbase?

    Chris Hurtt

##

Subject: ASDG wants your STUFF
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 91 10:45:07 PST
From: [e-mail]

[This is cross-posted from the ASDG Vendor Support area of the
Amiga Zone on The Portal System]
-----
We need several quality animations (5 to 10 seconds in length @ 30 frames
per second) to appear in a  project we are working on. We need the actual
24 bit frames used to create the anim not an Amiga displayable version.

We will pay for the ones we  use.   Cyclical anims (loops) are especially
desired.

To be considered, send  us  an  Amiga displayable   version (ie something
displayable with  showanim for instance) as a teaser.  We will select the
ones we want and contract for the actual 24 bit-plane version.

Anims can be of any subject, show us your best stuff!

For more information, contact me at 608 273 6585 or electronically.

pk <----- pk is Perry Kivolowitz, Pres. of ASDG Inc.
You can reach him electronically as "[e-mail]"

##

Subject: Star Trek objects
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 91 07:02:20 EST
From: heimat!rehab1!amisys![e-mail] (Mike Koch)

I'm very interested in acquiring the Star Trek objects recently mentioned here
on the list.  Unfortunately, we can't ftp from this site, so I'd *really*
appreciate it if someone could either send them to me at any of the addresses
listed below, or post them to CompuServe for a wider distribution.  Thanks!

    -> Mike <-

 =========================================================================
 E-Mail: {uunet,allegra,rutgers}!cbmvax!rehab1!amisys!mkoch
 BerksAmiga BBS: 215/921-1016  12/2400  100+ megs of PD software
 CompuServe: 70017,2677  Work: 215/768-7150  Home: 215/689-4204
 USPS: Mike Koch, RD#2 Box 297, Boyertown, PA 19512

##

Subject: Some Cool Object Tutorials...
Date: Wed, 25 Dec 91 10:04:07 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

     Hello, I was messing around in the detail editor with
some extruding and stuff, and found some neat-o things that
you can make pretty easily with this and some other functions
simply by adding primitives.  These include: A braid, a
handle, a ring, a tear drop and a 6 pointed star.  If you do
not want to read these tutorials, you may wish to quit now
since this message is about 120 lines.

============== Braid ========================================

    The first one is basically a braid.  You can use this to
create bread, or rope and perhaps even columns for a Persian
like design.

     To start with, go into the DETAIL editor and a PRIMITIVE
DISK.  Select, 20 for the 20 for the radius and then OK.  Now
comes the part which makes the braid work.

     Rotate the AXIS (axis only- SHIFT-R) around the Z-Axis
so that the Y-Axis of the object is facing left from the top
view.  ie: You are rotating counter clockwise.  This can also
be done from the TRANSFORMATION requestor and making the
ALIGNMENT of the Z-AXIS = 90, then clicking on TRANSFORM AXIS
ONLY, and then on PERFORM.

     Now select EXTRUDE from the MOLD requester and then
change the following in the EXTRUDE requestor.  Make
Sections=25 and Y Rotation=720.  You may also wish to turn on
Mirror Ends.  Click on perform and the braid is done.  Nice
thing is, phong shading works properly.

============= Handle =======================================

     Another object created similarly is a ring.  Once again
add a PRIMITIVE DISK and select 20 for the radius.  Next
rotate the Z-Axis to +90.  Then once again get into the
EXTRUDE requestor and set Section=25 and Y Rotation=720 and
click on Mirror Ends.  But also set BOTH the X Translate and
Z Translate = 100.  Click on Perform, and an instant bicycle
handle appears.  (At least that's what it looks like to me -
maybe you can thing of other uses for it).

============= RING ==========================================

     This next object is basically a ring (the kind you
wear), but it is detailed with indentations in almost a
honeycomb fashion.  First, add a PRIMITIVE DISK as before and
select OK to accept the defaults.  Now rotate the X-AXIS
(SHIFT-R and then X) or use the transformation requestor so
that the AXIS (AXIS ONLY!) is set to 45.

     Now select the MOLD requestor, and then SWEEP.  Then
finally click on PERFORM to accept the defaults (note: you
can raise or lower the # of Sections to change the number of
'facets' on the ring).  You can then set the alignment back
to zero to make your ring in a normal position.  NOTE: Before
you render it you should turn OFF PHONG shading.  If you do
not, the phong shader will simply smooth out the detail.

==================== Tear Drop =============================

     The next object is a very nice Tear Drop.  Actually
rather simple to make, without using magnetism and dragging
points.  First, add a PRIMITIVE SPHERE and accept the
defaults by clicking on OK.  Then scale the OBJECT so that
its Z-LENGTH is 30.  This is most efficiently done by using
the TRANSFORMATION requestor, and then clicking on size, and
then setting Z=30.  Then click on PERFORM.  You should now
have a 3-D ellipse.

     Now, click on CONFORM TO SPHERE from the MOLD requestor
and accept the defaults which should be 50 for the Sphere
radius, and 160 for the Object radius.  Click on Perform.
Selecting higher Object radii will result in a more elongated
tear drop.

==================== Star ==================================

    The Star is basically made up of 2 TORUS's with the
proper angle between them.  Add a PRIMITIVE TORUS and change
the Ring Sections to 3 and Tube Sections to 6.  Also turn OFF
stagger points.  Click on okay, and one (beveled) triangle is
made.

    Select it and then make a copy (RightAmiga-C).  then
Paste the copy down (RightAmiga-P).  Then select the copy
(pick select or F1 depending on whether or not you've changed
your preferences file).

    Now select the TRANSFORMATION requestor and then
ALIGNMENT.  Enter 60 for Z, then click on perform.  Now you
may wish to redraw using the RightAmiga-R option.

    Finally select pick all (RightAmiga-A).  Then Join (Right
Amiga-J).  This will give you 1 complete object.

     Assuming that you picked the axis which was at 60
degrees first before you joined, your star will be lying down
and the axis is 60 degrees from the standard Y axis.  To
correct both problems first go into the TRANSFORMATION
requestor and select ALIGNMENT, then 30 for Z.  Also click on
TRANSFORM AXIS ONLY.  Then click on PERFORM.  Then go into
the TRANSFORMATION requestor one more time and select
ALIGNMENT.  Then set X=90 and Z=0 and click on perform.
Finally if you wish your axis to be oriented the same as the
WORLD axis, go into the TRANSFORMATION requestor once again,
click on TRANSFORM AXIS ONLY.  Next, click on ALIGNMENT and
set X=0.  Then click on SIZE and set Y=50 and Z=150.  Click
on perform.  That should create one star object, with its
axis in perfect alignment with the WORLD axis, and facing
front.  This looks pretty cool in both phong or facet mode.

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

    You can do some neat anims with falling raindrops simply
by scaling them.  Also creating a braid as above, and then
another not braided braid you can make a neat morph.

    Well, that's all I'll add for now, if you have problems,
or questions send E-mail to me or the mailing list.  If you
would like more tutorials send me personal E-mail.

                                  Mike C.
                         E-mail:  [e-mail]

##

Subject: error2 Splitting Faces!?
Date: Wed, 25 Dec 91 23:52:51 CST
From: [e-mail] (Michael Linton)

Can someone please tell me what the hell error 2 splitting faces means?
I know it has something to do with the fact that 2 objects can't be
sliced properly, as I have found out for the past hour and a half, but
what can I do to get it to work?  I have tryed scaling the objects, and
rotating them, and moving them etc. etc. etc., but it is still saying the
same thing.  ARGGHHH!!!  Sigh....Thanks.

--- (Michael Linton) a user of sys6626, running waffle 1.64
E-mail: [e-mail]
system 6626: 63 point west drive, winnipeg manitoba canada R3T 5G8

##

Subject: Re: Slice
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 11:23:17 MST
From: HURTT CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL <[e-mail]>

    I've encountered the same problem. Sometimes shifting one of the objects
around helps, but not always. I still have a couple of objects that are just
grouped since I can't get them to slice either. Hopefully Slice is improved
under 2.0?
    I have a question related to Slicing. Whenever you do slice the
resulting object is far more complex than it needs to be, ie: there are two or
more face in the same plane where fewer would suffice. Now merge won't fix this
but I was wondering if LightWave would. Is there a merge like feature under
lightwave? Correct me if I'm wrong but LW uses multiple sided polygons and not
just triangles like Imagine. My thinking is this: if I converted an Imagine
object to LW (via Pixel, and Pixel itself will not do what I wish I think) then
loaded it into LW and performed a 'merge' like function, saved it out and
converted it back I should have the same object, just more optimized.
    Even if this does work, it may seem a bit much to go thru, but I've got
some objects where I've sliced everything to make it totaly seemless. I'd sure
like to better optimize it. Any thoughts on this?

    Chris Hurtt

##

Subject: object --> sphere
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 11:40:59 PST
From: [e-mail] (Geoff F. Potts)

I have a store-bought human skull object. What I want to do is do a morph
from a sphere to the skull. What I need is a sphere with the same # of points
as the skull object. Does anyone know how I can either transform the skull
object into a spere or get the # of points in the skull object (other than
counting by hand) so I can create a sphere with that many points?

Thanks.

--geoff

[e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: Slice
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 17:22:22 CST
From: [e-mail] (Michael Linton)

HURTT CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL <[e-mail]> writes:

>     I've encountered the same problem. Sometimes shifting one of the objects
> around helps, but not always. I still have a couple of objects that are just
> grouped since I can't get them to slice either. Hopefully Slice is improved
> under 2.0?
>     I have a question related to Slicing. Whenever you do slice the
> resulting object is far more complex than it needs to be, ie: there are two o
> more face in the same plane where fewer would suffice. Now merge won't fix th
> but I was wondering if LightWave would. Is there a merge like feature under
> lightwave? Correct me if I'm wrong but LW uses multiple sided polygons and no
> just triangles like Imagine. My thinking is this: if I converted an Imagine
> object to LW (via Pixel, and Pixel itself will not do what I wish I think) th
> loaded it into LW and performed a 'merge' like function, saved it out and
> converted it back I should have the same object, just more optimized.
>     Even if this does work, it may seem a bit much to go thru, but I've got
> some objects where I've sliced everything to make it totaly seemless. I'd sur
> like to better optimize it. Any thoughts on this?
>
>     Chris Hurtt
>

Well I can't really help you, as I have never used Lightwave, but I'm
sure there is someone on here who has.  I know what you mean, about there
being more points than necessary.  What I usually do is if the objects
sliced are rather simple, I'll go in and remove excess points etc., and
then merge them.  But if they are really complex, I'll just leave 'em.  I
sure hope that the sliceing has improved under 2.0.  Maybe in a couple of
days, when I SHOULD get 2.0, I'll post a message and let everyone know.
One thing I sure hope that they put into 2.0, or in the next version, is
some kind of gadget that will allow you to see how long it will take to
slice, or it tells you percentage done.  This would be REALLY nice.  I
spent 2.5 hours waiting for something to slice last night, only to find
out that Imagine had locked up.  Anyway sorry I can't be of more help.

--- (Michael Linton) a user of sys6626, running waffle 1.64
E-mail: [e-mail]
system 6626: 63 point west drive, winnipeg manitoba canada R3T 5G8

##

Subject: Re: error2 Splitting Faces!?
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 17:11:38 CST
From: [e-mail] (Michael Linton)

[e-mail] (Edward Chadez) writes:

> Mike,
>
> The times _I_ have seen the 'error 2' message are when I don't have both
> objects grouped properly.  I believe that you 1) need to select both
> objects and 2) group them and THEN 3) select slice.
>
> -Edward Chadez
>

Thanks, I'll give that a try.  But I have done quite a bit of slicing and
have never had to group the objects first.  It usually does it for me
after it has been sliced.  But I'll try it anyway.

--- (Michael Linton) a user of sys6626, running waffle 1.64
E-mail: [e-mail]
system 6626: 63 point west drive, winnipeg manitoba canada R3T 5G8

##

Subject: Re: object --> sphere
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 17:26:56 CST
From: [e-mail] (Michael Linton)

[e-mail] (Geoff F. Potts) writes:

>
> I have a store-bought human skull object. What I want to do is do a morph
> from a sphere to the skull. What I need is a sphere with the same # of points
> as the skull object. Does anyone know how I can either transform the skull
> object into a spere or get the # of points in the skull object (other than
> counting by hand) so I can create a sphere with that many points?
>
> Thanks.
>
> --geoff
>
> [e-mail]
>

Well you could go to the detail editor and select the skull and then
select find by requestor.  It tells you the number of points, faces, and
edges for all the objects in the scene.  Then make the sphere.
BTW:I guess the skull would not be PD?  But does anyone have a skull
object that they could UUencode to me?  I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks.

--- (Michael Linton) a user of sys6626, running waffle 1.64
E-mail: [e-mail]
system 6626: 63 point west drive, winnipeg manitoba canada R3T 5G8

##

Subject: Irfrared Tracing
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 20:42:52 PST
From: [e-mail]

   I have been wondering about the possibility of rendering an animation so
that it would appear to be in InfraRed.  Not true IR, of course, as this is
invisible to the human eye, but the familiar pseduo colors that represent
varying levels of heat.  This type of rendering was used on the KGS intro
anim and pictures of this sort, with colors ranging from white, through red,
yellow, blue and purple, ranging from hottest to coldest respectively, are
commonplace in Science and Science Fiction (Predator for example).
   But how to make Infrared in 3-D, specifically Imagine?  I have though of
a possibility but have not tested it.  Perhaps by making objects with
varying levels of transparency, and allowing only certain colors to pass
through (Red for the hot parts, etc...  and all with an Index of Refraction
of air), you could create IR looking objects.  Then by placing the light
sources inside the objects, they would appear to have that IR glow.
Perhaps.  Some problems arise, at least in theory.  How, for instance, to
gain that IR fade from hot to cold through the representative colors?
Perhaps these colors could be changed later in a paint program?  Or maybe
image or texture maps would prove more efficient?
   Anyway, these are just a few thoughts.  If anyone has actually done
these, Or knows how the gang at Psygnosis did it, drop me a line. Thanx.

   Paul J. Furio
   Shadowmar
   [e-mail]

##

Subject: ftp graphics sites
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 9:27:48 EST
From: [e-mail] (John J Humpal)

I've gotten a number of requests for a list of anonymous ftp sites with
graphics related material (gifs, jpeg'ed 24-bit, 3D objects in various
formats), so I thought I'd post the list to this group.  Please note: I
got this list from the bongo site, and I have not tried to ftp each of the
sites on the list.  I am not sure how up to date the list actually is, but
bongo's admin claims to update it fairly regularly.

Enjoy!

-John

John J. Humpal -- [e-mail] -- short .sig, std. disclaimer



+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
 REMINDER: Anonymous FTP is a privilege, not a right.  The site administrators
 for the sites listed below have made their systems available out of the good-
 ness  of  their hearts.  Please respect their wishes and restrict your FTPing
 to non-prime hours (1900 - 0600 hours local time  for  the  site).   This  is
 especially true for sites not in your country.  Please keep that in mind when
 you are FTPing.  None of us want to see sites start to close down  because  a
 few are being inconsiderate.
                    user name: anonymous
                    password: <your mail address>

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
 Site Name                 I.P. Address    Description
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
a.cs.uiuc.edu              128.174.252.1   GIF, amiga
ab20.larc.nasa.gov         ???             amiga, PBMPlus
ads.com                    128.229.30.16   info-graphics
albanycs.albany.edu        128.204.1.4     best of comp.graphics
ames.arc.nasa.gov          128.102.18.3    space archives
arisia.xerox.com           13.1.100.206    mac
arthur.cs.purdue.edu       128.10.2.1      mac32
bach.berkeley.edu          128.32.135.1    amiga (ray-tracing)
bongo.cc.utexas.edu        128.83.186.13   viewing, picture posting/unposting
 bongo.cc.utexas.edu                       software
brownvm.brown.edu          128.148.128.40  mac
cc.sfu.ca                  128.189.32.250  msdos, mac
ccb.ucsf.edu               128.218.1.13    comp.sources
charon.mit.edu             18.80.0.13      world map data
cheops.cis.ohio-state.edu  128.146.8.62    alt.sources, unix-pc
cica.cica.indiana.edu      129.79.20.22    misc unix, pc, NeXT updates
clvax1.cl.msu.edu          35.8.2.1        MS Windows
cs.orst.edu                128.193.32.1    NeXT
cs.toronto.edu             128.100.1.65    X applications
cs.ubc.ca                  128.189.97.5    raster files, ASCII-Postscript filter
cs.utah.edu                128.110.4.21    amiga, utah raster
cs.wm.edu                  128.239.1.30    raster images
cse.ogc.edu                129.95.40.2     suntools graphics tools
doc.cso.uiuc.edu           128.174.73.30   msdos (pcsig), mac
dsl.cis.upenn.edu          130.91.6.12     GIF, ibm
dsrgsun.ces.cwru.edu       129.22.16.2     TOS atari st
expo.lcs.mit.edu           18.30.0.212     X, portable bitmaps
export.lcs.mit.edu         18.24.0.12      viewer/converter software
f.ms.uky.edu               128.163.128.6   mac, msdos, unix-pc
fnord.umiacs.umd.edu       128.8.120.3     misc DECstation stuff
funet.fi                   128.214.1.1     msdos, minix, amiga (Fish)
ftp.ee.lbl.gov             128.3.112.20    PBMPlus software
garbo.uwasa.fi             ???             unix unzip
gmuvax2.gmu.edu            129.174.1.8     hp28 software
grape.ecs.clarkson.edu     128.153.13.196  msdos, graphics
hcfdemo.hcf.jhu.edu        128.220.2.15    unix-pc
hotel.cis.ksu.edu          129.130.10.12   msdos, unix-pc
husc6.harvard.edu          128.103.1.56    appleII
hydra.helsinki.fi          128.214.4.29    comp.sources.misc,
 hydra.helsinki.fi                         comp.sources.sun, comp.sources.unix,
 hydra.helsinki.fi                         comp.bugs.4bsd.ucb-fixes,
 hydra.helsinki.fi                         comp.binaries.ibm.pc
isy.liu.se                 130.236.1.3     TIFF library
ix1.cc.utexas.edu          128.83.1.21     amiga
ix2.cc.utexas.edu          128.83.1.29     amiga
j.cc.purdue.edu            128.210.9.2     comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.x,
 j.cc.purdue.edu                           comp.sources.amiga, NeXT,
 j.cc.purdue.edu                           comp.binaries.amiga,
 j.cc.purdue.edu                           comp.sources.sun
jyu.fi                     128.214.7.5     unix, atari, amiga, mac
louie.udel.edu             128.175.1.3     minix, amiga
 louie.udel.edu                            amiga
lut.fi                     128.214.25.8    GIF, PD sources modified for hp-ux
mac.archive.umich.edu      141.211.164.153 mac archives
merlin.cs.purdue.edu       128.10.2.3      mac, GIF
mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu       128.174.73.105  amiga
mtsg.ubc.ca                128.189.103.1   msdos, unix, amiga
net1.ucsd.edu              128.54.16.10    mac archives
nic.funet.fi               ???             JPEG encoder/decoder source
nyssa.cs.orst.edu          128.193.32.17   GIF
pawl.rpi.edu               128.113.10.2    sun rasters
pilot.njin.net             128.6.7.38      anonymous FTP site listing
plains.nodak.edu           134.129.111.64  apple, msdos, mac, amiga, ascii pics
procyon.cis.ksu.edu        129.130.10.80   JPEG encoder/decoder executables
radio.astro.utoronto.ca    128.100.75.4    msdos, iris
rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de129.69.1.12     atari, amiga, msdos
rascal.cc.utexas.edu       ???             mac archives
sauna.hut.fi               130.233.251.253 amiga, some FTP dirs from US
schizo.samsung.com         134.228.1.2     alt.sources,
 schizo.samsung.com                        comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.sun,
 schizo.samsung.com                        comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.x
sics.se                    192.16.123.90   Poskanzer bitmaps
sol.cs.ruu.nl              131.211.80.5    atari, hp-ux
squid.cs.ucla.edu          131.179.96.44   GIF
ssyx.ucsc.edu              128.114.133.1   mac-hyperunix, some unix
stolaf.edu                 130.71.192.1    bitmaps
sumex-aim.stanford.edu     36.44.0.6       mac archives
sunic.sunet.se             192.36.125.2    comp.sources.unix,
 sunic.sunet.se                            comp.sources.misc, alt.sources
surya.waterloo.edu         129.97.129.72   tiff format, gif2ras
sutcase.case.syr.edu       128.230.32.2    zoo
sutro.sfsu.edu             130.212.15.230  mostly NeXT-related files
tank.uchicago.edu          128.135.4.27    mac
tau.sm.luth.se             130.240.0.3     comp.binaries.ibm.pc
terminator.cc.umich.edu    35.1.33.8       msdos, atari
tolsun.oulu.fi             128.214.5.6     amiga, atari, c64, msdos, mac, irc
topaz.rutgers.edu          128.6.4.194     amiga, others, too much to list
trwind.trw.com             129.4.16.70     ibmpc, mac
tumtum.cs.umd.edu          128.8.128.49    NeWS pd software
uicbert.eecs.uic.edu       128.248.166.25  unix-pc
uihub.cs.uiuc.edu          128.174.252.27  amiga
ummts.cc.umich.edu         35.1.1.43       atari st (cd PC7:)
umn-cs.cs.umn.edu          128.101.224.1   mac, unix-pc, atari, apple II, GIF
utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp      133.11.7.250    msdos, mac
uunet.uu.net               137.39.1.2      usenet archives, much more
uunet.uu.net               192.48.96.2     usenet archives, much more
uwasa.fi                   128.214.12.3    mac, pc
uxa.cso.uiuc.edu           128.174.2.1     mac, msdos (pcsig)
uxc.cso.uiuc.edu           128.174.5.50    GIF
uxe.cso.uiuc.edu           128.174.5.54    amiga (Fish)
valeria.cs.ucla.edu        131.179.64.36   unix info-zip, zip 1.0
vega.hut.fi                130.233.200.42  msdos, mac
vmd.cso.uiuc.edu           128.174.5.98    Hurricane Hugo GIF pictures
wpi.wpi.edu                130.215.24.1    mac, misc X applications
wsmr-simtel20.army.mil     26.2.0.74       msdos, unix, cpm, mac (tenex)
wsmr-simtel20.army.mil     192.88.110.20   msdos, unix, cpm, mac (tenex)
wuarchive.wustl.edu        128.252.135.4   GIF, info-mac,
 wuarchive.wustl.edu                       comp.binaries.amiga,
 wuarchive.wustl.edu                       comp.binaries.apple2,
 wuarchive.wustl.edu                       comp.binaries.atari.st,
 wuarchive.wustl.edu                       comp.binaries.ibm.pc,
 wuarchive.wustl.edu                       comp.sources.amiga,
 wuarchive.wustl.edu                       comp.sources.atari.st,
 wuarchive.wustl.edu                       comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.sun,
 wuarchive.wustl.edu                       comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.x,
 wuarchive.wustl.edu                       msdos, simtel20 (24 hours/day)
xanth.cs.odu.edu           128.82.8.1      comp.sources.x, comp.sources.unix,
 xanth.cs.odu.edu                          comp.sources.misc,
 xanth.cs.odu.edu                          comp.sources.amiga, X, amiga

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

##

Subject: Re:  Irfrared Tracing
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 15:28:52 AST
From: Darren Reid <[e-mail]>

    Try using AdPro's Colorize operator to get the infra-red effect. Just
use an appropriate color range - I've done it, and though that's not the exact
effect I was trying to create, that's what the result resembled. I have a CanDo
program that I wrote to do batchfile AdPro operations on dirs and ranges in
dirs of Imagine pic files....just leave a msg if you want it. I use it to
fix the headers of my Imagine 24Bit pics so that ToasterPaint will load them.

Shockwave Surfer
[e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: Imagine 2.0
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 92 16:08:52 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

    Yes, well I got the newsletter a couple of weeks ago, and
ordered 2.0.  Still hasn't come yet.  It was SUPPOSED to ship allready,
but I haven't called to check on it's status.  Should be out soon
though.  Haven't recieved anything on the Toaster upgrade either.

                Mike Comet
                [e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: Anybody have Imagine 2.0 yet?
Date: Wed, 01 Jan 92 17:22:51 CST
From: [e-mail] (Michael Linton)

Michael Gibson <[e-mail]> writes:

>
> I was just curious as to whether anybody had received 2.0 yet. I'm still
> scraping up my money for it, but I'm curious as to whether it's out yet.
>
>                 Michael

Well I don't have it yet, but it should be arriving sometime in the next
couple of days.  You can order it now, obviously, and the price is as
discussed, $ 100.00 US.  I don't know if it is available in stores, or
just for upgrade.  I don't think it is available in stores, but I could
be wrong.  Anyway, enough rambling.

--- (Michael Linton) a user of sys6626, running waffle 1.64
E-mail: [e-mail]
system 6626: 63 point west drive, winnipeg manitoba canada R3T 5G8

##

Subject: update on Imagine + 68040
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 92 9:17:56 MST
From: [e-mail] (Steve Koren)

About a month ago I sent a message to this mailing list about using
Imagine with a PP&S 68040 card.  At that time I had reported that
there were serious usability and performance problems with this setup.

The problems turned out to be a bug in one of the 68040 support
libraries.  I fixed it by upgrading to AmigaDos 2.04 (a 1.3 patch is
also available from PP&S).  After this fix, I am glad to say that all
my previous problems are fixed and the 68040 card performs exceedingly
well for Imagine (and also Scenery Animator or any other numbercrunching
application).  I can recommend it to anyone who needs the extra
performance for rendering.

  - steve

##

Date: Thu, 2 Jan 92 10:36:18 CST
From: [e-mail] (Dave Wickard)

Wonderful wonderful news.

Tuesday saw the arrival of Imagine 2.0 in my mailbox.

That means that you folks across the country will be gettings
yours either today or tomorrow I would think.

Steve Gilmore (of Impulse) told me that the units had shipped
as of Friday. I am local to them...but it still took until
Tuesday...so perhaps the holiday is still slowing the mails
somewhat.

I haven't installed it yet...but will be doing so shortly.

Get ready. It's he-e-e-e-e-re!   :-)

David G. Wickard
[phone]                           Coming to you LIVE from Unisys
[e-mail]                  Where our motto is:
                                         Nobody gets outta here alive!

##

Subject: Imagine 2.0 is HERE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Date: Fri, 3 Jan 92 12:14:02 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

    I receieved my version of Imagine 2.0 yesterday.

    Very nice.  The manual is much larger.  The interface has that
new '2.0' beveled 3-D look.  Probably the neatest thing I have learned
so far is the prefernece editor and Quick Render.  The prefrences editor
is very nice, you can actually use the pull down menus to select the
number such as 340 so that you don't have to figure it all out as in the
old one.  The other neat-o thing are the user defined gadgets.

    I haven't read to much of the manual yet.  The forms editor has
almost totally been redone as far as power goes.  Interactive scaling,
moving and rotating points is really neat.  Also, in the detali editor,
you can see the ground in the Perspective window.

    I have however ran into a small problem.  If anyone else out
there has Imagine 2.0, perhaps you could try this and let me know what
happens. (I have allready called Impulse, but they said they can't check
it out until this weekend).

    Anyways, Add a sphere, leave it white, set red specularity, and
any level of hardness, and tell me if you get a white sphere with a red
hotspot.  You should, but I have tried both the Floating Point and
Integer version of Imagine 2.0 and the specular setting doesn't seem to
work at least for red.  I don't know why, should work, (worked in 1.0).
It may be my disks, or just something I'm doing wrong.  Please if you
have or get 2.0, please try this and let me know.

        Thanks,

                Mike C.
                [e-mail]

##

Subject: Imagine 2.0 is HERE and Textures and Effects
Date: Fri, 3 Jan 92 12:17:27 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

    forgot to say, besides the old textures and effects, the
following have been added:

    Effects:
    ----------

    Fireworks
    Flash
    Tumble
    Boing

    Textures:
    ----------

    Pastella
    Spots
    Radial
    Waves

    There is also a disk full of example objects including
Beethoven's head, a P-51 mustang, a Porshe and Camero, a cow, and some
other things.

                mike c.
                [e-mail]

##

Subject: A neat Imagine feature
Date: Fri, 3 Jan 92 13:04:01 EST
From: [e-mail] (Steve Brailsford)

Has anyone heard if Imagine will possibly have particle system
graphics in a future version?  Particle systems are nice for doing
things like making fire look real.  A good example was the
Star Trek III movie in the Genesis Project movie.  As the planet
formed, a wave of fire swept across the surface of the planet, this
was done using particle systems.

Particle systems, to give a brief overview, are basically colored
points in the world space that can be given paths to follow, and
random perterbations.  There are thousands, if not millions, of then
and they have a certain random lifetime.  The fireworks display from
Imagine 2.0 might be something like this.  The ideas are similar.

--
    Steve Brailsford ([e-mail])   _____
    Usenet:  uupsi!vitro!sparc!fsb         \/itro Corporation
    Voice:  [phone]                  14000 Georgia Ave.
    Fax:    [phone]                  Silver Spring, MD 20906

##

Subject: A neat Imagine feature
Date: Fri, 03 Jan 92 20:14:30 EST
From: [e-mail] (Bob Lindabury, SysAdm)

rutgers!sparc.vitro.com!fsb (Steve Brailsford) writes:

> Has anyone heard if Imagine will possibly have particle system
> graphics in a future version?  Particle systems are nice for doing
> things like making fire look real.  A good example was the
> Star Trek III movie in the Genesis Project movie.  As the planet
> formed, a wave of fire swept across the surface of the planet, this
> was done using particle systems.

Well, according to the newsletter the FOG feature will allow us to
"simulate particles".  I'm not sure if this is what you are refering
to but I think it's time to test it out!  Of course this feature is
new in the 2.0 version of Imagine only.

-- Bob

 The Graphics BBS  908/469-0049  "It's better than a sharp stick in the eye!"
 ============================================================================
  InterNet: [e-mail]                | Raven Enterprises
      UUCP: ...rutgers!bobsbox!graphics!bobl      | 25 Raven Avenue
    BitNet: bobl%graphics.rent.com@pucc           | Piscataway, NJ 08854
    Home #: 908/560-7353                          | 908/271-8878

##

Subject: Hubcap a ghost town?
Date: Sat, 4 Jan 92 1:24:12 PST
From: Daryl T. Bartley <[e-mail]>

What gives? No new nifty traces? Or just no time to upload them? Maybe it's
just vacation. Oh well. Hrm. I would try uploadin' some stuff myself, but due
to the inane limitations of me system, anything I do would seem crude by
comparison. I might have a bit of access at least to a 25mhz 6meg 3000, so I
might try doing some of the projects I have waiting in the wings. Oh well.

Oh, while I'm "here", Another question: Is it just me, or do the CSG spheres
in Imagine take up a hell of a lot of RAM? I tried a scene with 6 spheres, and
it gagged. Is it because of all the faces? Help!

As always, thanks in advance for any replies/help/etc.


Daryl Bartley
[e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: Particle System
Date: Sat, 4 Jan 92 08:54:09 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

    Yes, I have seen some neat animations which have all use
particlr systems for control.  Maybe next time I'll right them a letter
I'll ask for it, you never know what 3.0 will have!

    Doesn't seem to far from all of the effects, where one effect,
has about the same control on each face.

    Oh well, goes on my 'wish' list.

            mike c.
            [e-mail]

##

Subject: Help With TSTeX objects.
Date: Sat Jan  4 09:40:51 1992
From: [e-mail] (Victor Martinez)

I'm having problems rendering the 3-D fonts found on hubcap. The font
is the roman like font created with TSTeX. Of the few that I have
tried to render in scanline and ray trace, none would show in the picture.
But they do show in the quadview.

Thanks
Victor Martinez

##

Subject: Re: Hubcap a ghost town?
Date: Sat, 4 Jan 92 18:39:25 MST
From: HURTT CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL <[e-mail]>

>
> What gives? No new nifty traces? Or just no time to upload them? Maybe it's
     Ok. Check out Plate.LHA in PICTURES. This shows the power of brushmaps.
The entire picture contains only 2 faces in it! If anyone wants the original
IFF24, I'll upload it.
    On a different note- has the LightWave list been formed yet? I'd like
to be subscribed to it if/when.

    Chris Hurtt - [e-mail]

##

Subject: Imagine 2.0
Date: Sat, 4 Jan 92 21:03:05 CST
From: [e-mail] (Steve W Davis)

I just got Imagine 2.0 in the mail.  I am very depressed about the quality
of the manual, for one thing... the Index is only two sheets of paper,
difficult to read, and DIFFICULT TO FIND.  The "Pick Sharp" pull-down
is not mentioned anywhere in the manual, for example.

I am also somewhat depressed about the quality of the program.  Because
of the way the FOG effect works it is difficult to do such objects as
beams of light (which are very easy to do in Light Wave).  The convert
IFF function is buggy and produces shoddy results... the convert FONT
OBJECT does NOT WORK AT ALL on my system.

This appears, at least on my Amiga 3000, to be just another program released
before it was finished.

Stratocaster

##

Subject: New user questions
Date: Sat, 04 Jan 92 23:05:36 EST
From: [e-mail]

I finally got Imagine (1, not 2).  The READ_ME file says it is the latest as
of Feb 21, 1991.  One thing I'd like to know is how stable do people find
the program.  I've found that the program freezes (but no guru) periodically,
although I can't do it reproducibly.  The freezing seems to happen most often
when trying to pull down menus (and I think it may be aggrivated by recent
disk activity.  My system consists of a 500 with a Trumcard harddrive, .5 meg
of fast RAM and .5 meg chip RAM.  To conserve memory (which I suspect may
be contributing to the problem) I am using a non-interlace screen and LOAD in
the config file is False.  My question is:  what is going on and can I fix it?
I've gone for long periods of editing and rendering w/o any problems but
sometimes it freezes repeatedly (even immediatly after rebooting)--very
frustrating.  I've not yet tried to contact Impulse about it since I figure
I should have a better idea about what is going on.

Now, another question is about editing objects.  It seems that the interactive
scaling, rotating, and moving can only be applied to whole objects.  I think
it would be nice to be able to do the same things to portions of objects.  For
example:  let's say you want to make a candle which has been slashed diagonally
by the blade of Zorro.  I'd like to be able to select one end of a cylinder
and rotate it and scale it--is that possible?  If not I suppose I'll have to
learn the proper object building and modifying methodologies.  My experience
is with Sculpt 3D which allows the sort of thing I described.

Thanks in advance for any help and special thanks to Sandy Antunes for putting
together the Imagine Compendium (as well as everyone that contributed to it).

-Craig Zupke          [e-mail]

##

Subject: Using Dpaint with Imagine
Date:     Sun, 5 Jan 1992 01:52:20 -0500
From: Yee Tom <[e-mail]>

Hi everyone!

My question is, has anyone ever tried (successfully) editing an Imagine-rendered
animation in Deluxe Paint 4?  I created this small animation of an android
exploding using Imagine's explode F/X and wanted to precede the explosion with
a laser being fired at the android.  However, I discovered, when I loaded the
anim into Dpaint that the program only uses the palette from the first frame of
the anim thus screwing up the colors of every other frame.  Is there a way to
either force Imagine to render everything using a single palette, or get
Dpaint to accept multiple palettes?  Alternatively, is there a paint program
out there that edits anims with multiple palettes?

One of the things that I want to include in my Imagine animations are realistic
explosions alongside the exploding triangles.  My plan is to create a fireball
type of explosion as an animbrush and transpose that with the Imagine animation.
It should look pretty nice.  Please give me your opinions or even better, if
you know of a PD program that generates fractal animations which might resemble
an explosion.  I'm no artist so creating an animbrush obillowing fire that
looks realistic is a big job for me.

I'd appreciate any advice being posted to this mailing list.  Thanks!

                                                           Tom.

##

Subject: License Plate
Date: Sat, 4 Jan 92 23:32:15 PST
From: Daryl T. Bartley <[e-mail]>

Cool pic! Silly question time...would something similar (or as they say out
here, simular) be possible for me to do? Brushmaps takin' up a lot of mem and
all I would think not, but maybe since it's only 2 faces...exactly how did you
do it to get the depth right and all? I know all the principles of it, but I
can never quite get it to come out *just* right. Y'know?

Thanks in advance

Daryl Bartley
[e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: New user questions
Date: Sun, 5 Jan 92 12:41:10 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

>
>Now, another question is about editing objects.  It seems that the interactive
>scaling, rotating, and moving can only be applied to whole objects.  I think
>it would be nice to be able to do the same things to portions of objects.  For
>example:  let's say you want to make a candle which has been slashed diagonally
>by the blade of Zorro.  I'd like to be able to select one end of a cylinder
>and rotate it and scale it--is that possible?  If not I suppose I'll have to
>learn the proper object building and modifying methodologies.  My experience
>is with Sculpt 3D which allows the sort of thing I described.
>
>-Craig Zupke          [e-mail]
>
>
    Interactive scaling of points, faces and edges is now available
with Imagine 2.0.  It is not with 1.0 or 1.1, therefore you must pick
the points or faces, and then use the transformation requestor to enter
the values of rotations and such.

            Mike C.
            [e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: Imagine 2.0
Date: Sun, 5 Jan 92 12:48:27 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

>
>I just got Imagine 2.0 in the mail.  I am very depressed about the quality
>of the manual, for one thing... the Index is only two sheets of paper,
>difficult to read, and DIFFICULT TO FIND.

    The manual does seem to be somewhat confusing, and the index is
definitely poor.  It seems as though the manual tries to take up more
room in order to make things clearer, but to me it is as if they are
just not getting straight to the point.

> The "Pick Sharp" pull-down
>is not mentioned anywhere in the manual, for example.
>

    Look and read the bottom of page 148 to the top of page 149 for
the explanation of make sharp.  I would assume that they feel that if
you understand how Pick Subgroup work, you would understand Pick Sharp.

>I am also somewhat depressed about the quality of the program.  Because
>of the way the FOG effect works it is difficult to do such objects as
>beams of light (which are very easy to do in Light Wave).  The convert
>IFF function is buggy and produces shoddy results... the convert FONT
>OBJECT does NOT WORK AT ALL on my system.
>
>This appears, at least on my Amiga 3000, to be just another program released
>before it was finished.
>
>Stratocaster
>
    The font converter works fine on my A3000.  However, I have had
problems with the following:

    Createing a white phonged object (such as a sphere) and giving
it red specualrity?  (could you try this please and let me know what
happens on your system?)

    Also, Unpick subgroup and other unpick functions do not seem to
work at all.

    At this point I would definitely say that there are bugs un the
current release of 2.0.

    I have tried experimenting with fog a little, and it seems that
it is supposed to be dithered, but as you said, it comes out nothing
like what you would expect for headlights.  Another bug?

                Mike C.
                [e-mail]

##

Subject: Imagine 2.0 thoughts
Date: Sun, 5 Jan 92 14:07:07 -0500
From: [e-mail] (BRANHAM,JOSEPH FRANKLIN)

A friend and I have been playing with his newly-arrived Imagine 2.0.

Fireworks is a WONDERFUL extension to explosion.

Pastella is a very neat texture, but I still don't understand how it works
exactly.

The Quick Render option may be worth the cost of the package alone in time
saved while creating objects.

My REAL beef is that I can't seem to use direct render to generate DCTV
3 bit pictures and animations. Either I totally overlooked this in the
manual--or it ain't there.

In which case, when do we get Imagine 2.1?

Frank Branham

##

Subject: Re: License Plate
Date: Sun, 5 Jan 92 15:40:08 MST
From: HURTT CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL <[e-mail]>

>
> Cool pic! Silly question time...would something similar (or as they say out
> here, simular) be possible for me to do? Brushmaps takin' up a lot of mem and
> all I would think not, but maybe since it's only 2 faces...exactly how did you
> do it to get the depth right and all? I know all the principles of it, but I
> can never quite get it to come out *just* right. Y'know?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Daryl Bartley
> [e-mail]
>
>
    One slight plus was that I did it with Imagine2.0 Therefor I didn't need
to rescale or move the maps at all, except for the Y axis of the bump map. As
for memory needed you should be able to do this, the total for the HiRes color,
filter, and bump map is only 45K. I just guesstimated on the bump map (I guess
I should call its real name Altitude). One trick that may help you that helps me
out with making maps is to make the object first. The do a screen shot of it in
the detail editor and use that as a starting point in DPaint. That way you are
assurred the right ratio of Z to X.
    Good luck! It might be fun if everyone made one for the state they are
from and then a anim was put together with the plates words making a sentence.
Be a neat ad for the Amiga & 3-D on it!

    Chris Hurtt

##

Subject: Re: Imagine 2.0
Date: Sun, 05 Jan 92 16:26:19 EST
From: [e-mail] (Bob Lindabury, SysAdm)

rutgers!po.cwru.edu!mbc (Michael B. Comet) writes:

> problems with the following:
>
>     Createing a white phonged object (such as a sphere) and giving
> it red specualrity?  (could you try this please and let me know what
> happens on your system?)

I have the same problem.  No red highlight.  Just a white sphere.

>     Also, Unpick subgroup and other unpick functions do not seem to
> work at all.

Hmm...will have to try these.  One thing I noticed in previous
versions was that the manual was so cryptic that you would try to do
something as the manual said to do it and it wouldn't work so you
would assume it to be a bug.  However, you later found that either A)
the manual was wrong or B) since you didn't understand how to do it,
it didn't work right.  Try playing with the feature every which way
you can and see what happens.  I will see what I come up with also.

-- Bob

 The Graphics BBS  908/469-0049  "It's better than a sharp stick in the eye!"
 ============================================================================
  InterNet: [e-mail]                | Raven Enterprises
      UUCP: ...rutgers!bobsbox!graphics!bobl      | 25 Raven Avenue
    BitNet: bobl%graphics.rent.com@pucc           | Piscataway, NJ 08854
    Home #: 908/560-7353                          | 908/271-8878

##

Subject: Re: New user questions
Date: Sun, 5 Jan 92 9:58:00 EST
From: [e-mail] (John J Humpal)

Craig Zupke writes:
>
> I've found that the program freezes (but no guru) periodically,
> although I can't do it reproducibly.  The freezing seems to happen most often
> when trying to pull down menus (and I think it may be aggrivated by recent
> disk activity.

    I have found Imagine to be very stable, considering its complexity.
In my experience, though, Imagine gets confused when too much happens too
fast -- i.e., clicking on gadgets at high speed, especially during a disk-
change.  It's not reproducible, but the only time Imagine locks up on me is
when I'm moving and clicking the mouse rapidly, possibly clicking on gadgets
during a RefreshGadgets() call or something.

> My system consists of a 500 with a Trumcard harddrive, .5 meg
> of fast RAM and .5 meg chip RAM.  To conserve memory (which I suspect may
> be contributing to the problem) I am using a non-interlace screen and LOAD in
> the config file is False.

    That's good.  But if I were you, I'd get more RAM.  It's cheap right
now, and with Imagine, the  more memory the better.  I think Imagine 2.0
*requires* 2 MB on a 500 or 1000.

>
> Now, another question is about editing objects.  It seems that the interactive
> scaling, rotating, and moving can only be applied to whole objects.  I think
> it would be nice to be able to do the same things to portions of objects.
>
    I thought Imagine 1.1 could rotate and scale faces, but not points.
But I might be wrong.  Imagine 2.0 *does* allow interactive scale, rotation,
and move of points, which is a big improvement.  Get more RAM, and get the Imagine 2.0 upgrade!

-John

John J. Humpal -- [e-mail] -- short .sig, std. disclaimer

##

Subject: boing
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 11:11:20 EST
From: [e-mail] (John Rosner)

Hello, has anyone used the effect boing?  I have not been able to get
it to work and even though I have not been all the way through the
manual I wonder if there is a trick.  All I've done is make a 10 frame
anim of a ball bouncing (5 down, 5 up).  I used the makeanim from Stage
editor, rather than render everything in Project, but I see no hint of
an effect.

Thanks in advance,

John Rosner

##

Subject: Re: Imagine 2.0
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 11:44:13 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

    Thanks for trying the sphere with the red highlight.  I have no
problems making colored objects with white higlights, this is definitely
a bug.

    Also, I have just tried making Function Keys for the Action
Editor.   Try it, doesn't seem to work!  You can define them, just as in
any other editor, but when you go back to use them, nothing seems to
happen!

    Finally, I got fog to work.  It DOES do what you expect for a
spotlight.  Try making a tube, (no top or bottom), flaring out on side
and setting ONLY the fog length to about 100-200.  The larger your
object, the larger you'll want the fog length to be so that it doesn't
go to pure white.  Also, I read for global fog, you MUST have a sky
color (ie +/- Zenith and such) set for it to work.

                Mike C.
                [e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: boing
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 11:46:50 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

>
>Hello, has anyone used the effect boing?  I have not been able to get
>it to work and even though I have not been all the way through the
>manual I wonder if there is a trick.  All I've done is make a 10 frame
>anim of a ball bouncing (5 down, 5 up).  I used the makeanim from Stage
>editor, rather than render everything in Project, but I see no hint of
>an effect.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>John Rosner
>
>

    Oh yes, I forgot, I tried this effect and couldn't get it to
work either!  (Impulse also didn't send me the explode effect on my disk
either - those little buggers).   I don't know what the problem with
this one is, seems pretty straight forward.

    I am about to call impulse to find out what is going on with all
of these problems as soon as i logg off, so I'll let you all know what
they say.

                Mike C.
                [e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: Using Dpaint with Imagine
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 08:48:58 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Edward Chadez)

On Jan 5,  9:47am, Bob Lindabury, SysAdm wrote:
} Subject: Using Dpaint with Imagine
}
}
} You will have to render the anim with a locked palette in Imagine

How do you lock the pallet in Imagine??

}
}-- End of excerpt from Bob Lindabury, SysAdm


-Edward Chadez

--
  //                                                               ()__()
\X/ [e-mail]/Edward Chadez     CARL Systems(303)861-5319    (  )

##

Subject: Re: Impulse and Imagine 2.0
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 12:05:56 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

    Okay I just got off the phone and here is what they said:

    1] Posting messages about bugs on networks "piss us off" since
usually its us doing something wrong.

        Okay - understandable.

    2] Haven't been able to offer anything about my white sphere
with red specularity other than "it should work".  They recommended
moving my light source farther away   -  didn't help.  Also, I am going
to try to type in a LARGE number (since the sliders only go up to 255)
for the red specular which he said should work.

    3] THERE IS A BUG WITH THE BOING FUNCTION.  They said that
rather than mailing everyone new disks, they are going to be posting it
on all the networks.  Looks like it's time for UUENCODING or Hubcap.

    4] If you didn't get explode on your disks, copy it from 1.1.


        Well, that's it.

                    Mike C.
                    [e-mail]

##

Subject: Altitude mapping in Imagine 2.0
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 13:48:03 -0500
From: [e-mail] (BRANHAM,JOSEPH FRANKLIN)

I still have a problem with my tombstone. I am trying to use an altitude map
created in Deluxe Paint III to enscribe my name onto a tombstone.

I am currently using the default brush size and positioning, but with the
Y-axis shrunk to about 1/4 of the total thickness of the tombstone. The brush
is flat mapped onto the surface normally when I use the same positioning
with color mapping, but fails to show up at all when altitude mapped.

My IFF picture is 2 colors, black text on a white background.

Any ideas?

I've actually mapped altitude brushes to a plain with no problem, but this
one is difficult.

QUESTION Number 2:
In the Manual for 2.0, there is a cryptic reference to some of the best fog
effects you'll see are when you combine fog with Pastella. The only results
I've gotten so far are splotchy fog, using a pastella palette made of grays.

I am still trying to come up with a good way of making mist tendrils in the
fog. Anyone have any luck playing with transparency maps?

Moo
Frank Branham

##

Subject: Altitude mapping in Imagine 2.0
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 13:48:03 -0500
From: [e-mail] (BRANHAM,JOSEPH FRANKLIN)

I still have a problem with my tombstone. I am trying to use an altitude map
created in Deluxe Paint III to enscribe my name onto a tombstone.

I am currently using the default brush size and positioning, but with the
Y-axis shrunk to about 1/4 of the total thickness of the tombstone. The brush
is flat mapped onto the surface normally when I use the same positioning
with color mapping, but fails to show up at all when altitude mapped.

My IFF picture is 2 colors, black text on a white background.

Any ideas?

I've actually mapped altitude brushes to a plain with no problem, but this
one is difficult.

QUESTION Number 2:
In the Manual for 2.0, there is a cryptic reference to some of the best fog
effects you'll see are when you combine fog with Pastella. The only results
I've gotten so far are splotchy fog, using a pastella palette made of grays.

I am still trying to come up with a good way of making mist tendrils in the
fog. Anyone have any luck playing with transparency maps?

Moo
Frank Branham

##

Subject: Re: Re: Impulse and Imagine 2.0
Date:    Mon, 06 Jan 92 13:18 PST
From: Peter Daniels                        <[e-mail]>

I haven't plumbed the depths of the new manual thoroughly yet -- is there
supposed to be anything in the Pictures directory on the Demo disk or were
they just being thoughtful & saving us some typing?  Some of the objects are
great -- I love that cow -- but some traces would be nice.  Are we missing
something?

Peter Daniels
-------------------------TEXT-OF-FORWARDED-MAIL--------------------------------
    Okay I just got off the phone and here is what they said:

    1] Posting messages about bugs on networks "piss us off" since
usually its us doing something wrong.

                    Mike C.
                    [e-mail]

           ^^Pretty funny!  When I called asking if I should send in the
             original program disk, the man said "No, we're not into that
             crypto-fascist police state business".  Nice to deal with
             a straight talker for once.

##

Subject: Stupid comment--please ignore
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 17:06:13 -0500
From: [e-mail] (BRANHAM,JOSEPH FRANKLIN)

I WAS glad for once that they included SOMETHING on the Movie file format.

I've been giving a few people around here copies of that section from my
Turbo Silver SV manual.

And the silly comment is --

Ok admit it--how many people have already blown up the cow with the new
fireworks--its great how the pieces rain down on the ground.

Moo
Frank Branham

##

Subject: DCTV meets Haitex-3D
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 09:28:32 -0500
From: [e-mail] (BRANHAM,JOSEPH FRANKLIN)

On a whim, I selected both toggles to render a 2.0 image, AND IT WORKED!

I had always wondered if DCTV would still keep up with the sync of a
X-specs image.

Moo
Frank Branham

##

Subject: Re: Using Dpaint with Imagine
Date: Tue, 07 Jan 92 15:09:49 EST
From: [e-mail] (Bob Lindabury, SysAdm)

rutgers!carl.org!echadez (Edward Chadez) writes:

> On Jan 5,  9:47am, Bob Lindabury, SysAdm wrote:
> } Subject: Using Dpaint with Imagine
> }
> }
> } You will have to render the anim with a locked palette in Imagine
>
> How do you lock the pallet in Imagine??

Ok..I *rarely* use this option as it ONLY works when creating IMAGINE
format animations.  It is a requestor that pops up from the PROJECTS
menu when you MAKE an animation.   Once again, you MUST have an
animation type of IMAGINE set in your rendering sub-project and you
MUST render 24-bit files (I think).  Once you pick your range of
files and then select MAKE a requestor will come up asking if you
want to delete frames after using them, then another asks if you want
to make a looping anim  and then the third (I believe they are in
this order) will come up asking if you wish to lock the palette.

Like I said, I rarely use this format.  I usually just use ADPro and
an ARexx file to batch the process to a normal Anim format.

-- Bob

 The Graphics BBS  908/469-0049  "It's better than a sharp stick in the eye!"
 ============================================================================
  InterNet: [e-mail]                | Raven Enterprises
      UUCP: ...rutgers!bobsbox!graphics!bobl      | 25 Raven Avenue
    BitNet: bobl%graphics.rent.com@pucc           | Piscataway, NJ 08854
    Home #: 908/560-7353                          | 908/271-8878

##

Subject: Re: Impulse and Imagine 2.0
Date: Tue, 07 Jan 92 15:16:36 EST
From: [e-mail] (Bob Lindabury, SysAdm)

rutgers!po.cwru.edu!mbc (Michael B. Comet) writes:

>
>     Okay I just got off the phone and here is what they said:
>
>     1] Posting messages about bugs on networks "piss us off" since
> usually its us doing something wrong.
>
>         Okay - understandable.

Huh?  It's not that understandable to me.  If they have bugs they
have bugs.  They should just acknowledge the fact and proceed to
remidy the situation.  Getting pissed off isn't going to solve
anything.

Shouldn't people know what they are getting into?  As long as there
is going to be a *free* update that squashes the bugs, then I don't
see the problem.  Some people will probably hold off before getting
2.0 due to a couple of bugs but I believe most will not if they know
they will get fixes in the mail for free.  After all, alot of the
features of 2.0 warrant an upgrade.

The Text Objects and the interactive Scaling, Moving and Rotating of
points is worth the admission!

Ah, about Text Objects.  It seems you MUST have a large font for
conversion to an object.  If you use anything smaller than about 60
then you are going to get something that doesn't look that good as an
object.  You will then have to work at making it a usuable object.

I would suggest using any fonts that are 75> in size as they produce
the most pleasing results.  Has anyone figured out how to create
beveled fonts easily in Imagine yet?  Or are we stuck with using
Pixel3D on bitmaps??

-- Bob

 The Graphics BBS  908/469-0049  "It's better than a sharp stick in the eye!"
 ============================================================================
  InterNet: [e-mail]                | Raven Enterprises
      UUCP: ...rutgers!bobsbox!graphics!bobl      | 25 Raven Avenue
    BitNet: bobl%graphics.rent.com@pucc           | Piscataway, NJ 08854
    Home #: 908/560-7353                          | 908/271-8878

##

Subject: Re: Using Dpaint with Imagine (locking palette)
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 16:48:43 PST
From: "Jim Lange" <[e-mail]>

Bob Lindabury, SysAdm <WRPYR:[e-mail]> writes:

> rutgers!carl.org!echadez (Edward Chadez) writes:
>
> > On Jan 5,  9:47am, Bob Lindabury, SysAdm wrote:
> > } Subject: Using Dpaint with Imagine
> > }
> > } You will have to render the anim with a locked palette in Imagine
> >
> > How do you lock the pallet in Imagine??
>
> Ok..I *rarely* use this option as it ONLY works when creating IMAGINE
> format animations.  It is a requestor that pops up from the PROJECTS
> menu when you MAKE an animation.   Once again, you MUST have an
> animation type of IMAGINE set in your rendering sub-project and you
> MUST render 24-bit files (I think).
>

Actually, you CAN lock the palette for IFF animations.  The lock palette
requestor will appear whenever the Stills file format contains more information
than the Amiga Display modes settings can show.  This is true for RGBN, RGB8,
and IFF24.  Only when the stills file format is IFF will the lock palette
requester not appear when you Make an animation, because, by definition, an IFF
file contains only the bitplanes that are used for display (6 bits for HAM
whereas RGBN stores 12 bits per pixel).

In my experience, however, when the display mode is not HAM (i.e. 16 or 32
colors), even though the Lock Palette? requestor appears, the anim file is not
generated properly and neither DPaint nor any anim player I have tried will
display it properly (on my unaccelerated A1000).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Lange                [e-mail]
Oracle Corporation            {uunet,apple,hplabs}!oracle!jlange
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

##

Subject: Re: Imagine 2.0
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 23:53:38 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)

    Okay after having not logged on for a few days, I've seen (after
reading through all those annoying Mailer Daemon messages) that my
letter has somewhat started a small Imagine bashing campaign over 2.0.

    To sum up:

    Imagine 2.0 is definitely worth the upgrade, even though there
are obviously some slight problems.

    It is totally understandable that UNWARRANTED posting about bugs
would bother them.  I should have added (my fault) that he said THEY
(impulse) actually had to call someone who was posting on a network to
correct that person in what he thought was a bug.  Apparently, the
person was claiming vehemently there was some bug, and in reality it was
the fact he was using the software wrong.

    I'm not saying that that is going on here.  Quite the contrary,
but I wanted you all to know that it's not that I hate Impulse or
something like that.

    Also, there is ONE thing that does bother however with relation
to Impulse, and that is that they said we will have to get the BOING
effect (and it sounds to me like all of the fixes for the bugs) via
modem.  This is not to say that this is true.  Imagine 1.1 was a free
upgrade to fix bugs, and I assume there will similarily be Version 2.1.
But for right now, this doesn't sound like the support I am used to.

    The Explode effect from 1.1 WILL work in 2.0, as that is exactly
what I did.  There were no apparent problems.

    Anyways, I still stand behind Impulse, and in a program this
complex, bugs are to be expected.  (Not saying that I like them)

    In closing, I would also like to point out that I have not been
able to get the function keys to work in the ACTION editor.  Anyone else
having this problem?  Plus, if anyone out there has found some neat-o
things to do with 2.0, post them!

    I can't beleive how simple it is to brush map or texture map
with the automatic AXIS placement.  Also, I have done an Altitude map in
2.0 (Remember to get this to work, you need a GREY scale picture not
black and white, with the detail fading smoothly to the background
color), and it worked great.  Unbelievable.


                Mike Comet
                [e-mail]

PS: If you are having problems with FOG objects, try RAISING the value
to make it less concentrated.

##

Subject: 2.0
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 22:01:43 PST
From: [e-mail] (Kevin Kodama)

well, just got 2.0 via ups (at 6:30 in the evening !)
initial thoughts...
quick render is very nice-though when i first tried it i thought it was
incredibly slow...turns out it was churning out a firecracker rez pic.
i have it set now to 320x400much quicker !

interactive scaling rotation of points is also a nice feature.
the general appearance (i.e. interface ) is also improved, with 2.0 look.

some strange stuff ? one of the gadgets in the detail editor, shift, is
not explained. it does NOT replace the shift key accept, at least in my
version.

in the globals requestors, i can't see a cursor-ican type in values, but
can't tell which box i am in . Any one else notice this ?

the manual...well, i personally would have prefered a more indepth REFERENCE
type manual, ala lightwave, but...i'll just order STEVE WORLEYS new manual,
as advertised in AVID. is it  out yet, Steve ? :)

kevin kodama
[e-mail]

##

Subject: Re: ftp mail handlers
Date: Wed, 08 Jan 92 10:07:12 PST
From: Louis D'Ambrosio <[e-mail]>



>  Hi there, Imaginites...
>
>   My node doesn't have ftp access, and I recently tried the mail handler
>   [e-mail]. I got a reply that that handler no longer provid
>   es service to nodes not directly on EARN or BITNET.
>
>   Does anyone know of another mail handler through which I can gain ftp abili
>   ty?
>


I have been looking for a way to get access to all of those
files on hubcap for some time now.  As I do not have ftp
capabilitiy and I've had no success in trying to get a
uucppublic setup.  I am sure many of us would love to find a
better way to get files than uuencode so if anyone finds out
how to do so   PLEASE  let us know!


Thanks!

P.S.  Does anyone know if Imagine 2.0 is out at the stores
      yet and the $$?

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Name:    Louis D'ambrosio                   E-Mail: [e-mail]
 Company: Data Management Resources                  uunet!dmrinc!lou
 Address: 20725 S. Western Ave #100          Phone#: [phone]
          Torrance, CA 90813                 FAX#:   [phone]
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------