Belgian Amiga Club - ADF Collection/BS1 part 47.7z/BS1 part 47/Aladdin 4D v3.2 Upgrade (1994-04-13)(Adspec Programming)[update disk].7z/Aladdin 4D v3.2 Upgrade (1994-04-13)(Adspec Programming)[update disk].adf/Program.LZH/ReadMe_3.2

Text File | 1994-04-06 | 13KB | 237 lines

This software is version 3.2 of Aladdin4D.

It is being distributed free to all registered owners of version 3.0
of the program. All aspects of the user agreement of that version,
which you have agreed to when you registered it, apply to the software
that updates you to version 3.2.

Note that as of this version, we no longer test the program under
versions of Amigados prior to version 2.0. With the many changes that
the program undergoes, it may not operate properly under older versions
of Amigados. If you haven't made the move to 2.0, we strongly urge you
to do so.

There are some changes, and some new features.

What are the changes?

Several small improvements have been made, and some
minor bugs have been located and squashed:

1: Fog imperfections cleaned up.
2: Accidental hits on the tab key when a control point of a 3d spline
   no longer cause problems.
3: The permission flag for foregrounds no longer causes problems if
   no foreground is defined.
4: When a procedural texture is used on a gas, it is treated COMPLETELY
   differently than when one is used on any other object. Since the
   gas is a 3D transparent solid, the procedural texture is actually
   indexed at the 3D coords of the samples being taken. This gives
   extremely interesting textures, especially with noise textures. It
   also makes for very long rendering times. We recommend bitmap
   textures for texturing gases. If you do want to use procedurals
   for the gases, however, you can now use the procedural center to
   change the position of the procedural texture on the gas.
5: The animation routines have been completely reworked. During the
   rework, we found the order that the mechanical waves were processed
   was wrong. This was only evident when mechwaves were used during
   translation. This has been fixed.
   WARNING: the new routines are not able to tolerate a circularly linked
   path heirarchy. The old routines were forgiving for this. A circularly
   linked path heirarchy is one where the end path in the heirarchy points
   back to the first path. (This may be the same path assigned to itself.)
   This can ONLY HAPPEN when loading a drawing saved from an old version.
   Simply loading it and resaving it will not correct the error. You must
   correct the error before resaving it. If you load an old drawing and
   preview or render, and the program puts up a wait pointer that never
   goes away, you have a circularly linked path. Reboot and reload the
   drawing. Now select the paths, one by one, and select the PATHS menu
   item "Show Assigned Paths". If there is a circular link in the
   heirarchy that the selected path is part of, the program will tell
   you and attempt to repair it. You should then be able to preview and
   render the drawing. Resave the old drawing after correction.
6: If you are running a 33 mhz 040, and had problems with the procedural
   set gadgets, they are solved.
7: When working with 3D splines, moving main points, the control key
   function has been reversed. If you do not hold the key, the control
   points move with the point. Holding the key allows you to move the
   main point without moving the control points. Control key function
   has not been changed when moving the control points.
8: The pathex tool will now save any cspline names correctly.
9: Path angle execution order now works properly.
10: Cleanup of Txrlists no longer changes defined background.
11: Waitpointer has been added to extrude tool when used with LMB.
12: Waitpointer has been added to sweep tool when used with LMB.
13: Path definition window now depresses wave and/or instance gadgets
    if these are in effect for the path being edited.
14: The Scallops 2D procedural texture is now used (instead of the
    Waves 2D) when chosen.
15: We now prevent mode promotion of the render screen if you are using
    OpalVision for the display.
16: It is now possible to change the random value in the explode tool.
17: Slant and Stretch tool now update the editor view correctly.
18: Spline editor now allows non constant splines if x's OR y's are
    different.
19: Some default directorys are now initialized in the file requester.
    For instance, the default drawing directory is set
    to Aladdin4d:drawings, and the default texture load (bitmap) directory
    is set to Aladdin4d:textures. These are TOOLTYPES. You can change
    them to any device/directory you want by selecting the icon for the
    program and editing the tool types. Note that the attribute and
    texture list directorys are updated by their loaders/savers so do
    not appear. They always go back to the last place that was active,
    even if it was from a file load.
20: The logical device Aladdin4d: has been added to the file requester's
    device list. This makes it easier to get to the normally used
    directory no matter where you have placed it.
21: If the number of files in a directory is greater than can be displayed,
    (150 files) you are now told of this and notified that you can
    still type in a name if it is not displayed.
22: An obscur bug could crash the system if a gas was changing the number
    of samples over time. It has been fixed.
23: Behavior of adding members to lists has been made the same for
    all lists. (Gas was different if last member didn't extend to 1.0)
24: VLab users that do not have a retina, but have retina.lib in their
    libs: directorys will no longer get the alert telling them their is
    no retina. We have checked with the manufacturers of VLab and they
    tell us that even though retina.lib is placed in the libs: directory
    for VLab users, it is not necessary unless you have the retina card.
25: The Overscan types in the screen definition NO LONGER CHANGE the
    screen size shown in the screen width/height gadgets. They now ONLY
    affect the left and upward displacement of the screen.
    HIRES/LACE flags, if on, still affect the screen size.
    If you have HIRES on, the screen will be 640 or the width, whichever
    is largest. If you have LACE on, the screen will be 400 or the
    height, whichever is largest.
    If you are in STANDARD mode, when you press the overscan2 gadget, the
    suggested size of the screen that appears has been changed from
    768 wide to 736 wide in hires, and half these values when not in hires.
26: When in render screens, the cursor keys no longer reposition the screen.
    The F1 toggle also has been eliminated.
    You can now scroll oversized screens using mouse scrolling. Note that
    this is only available under Amigados 2.0 or greater.
    The F1 toggle is no longer necessary as the entire view structure is
    no longer offset.
27: Render screen positioning now references your text overscan settings
    in preferences. The render screen will be centered (as close as
    possible) to your text overscan preference.
    NOTE that for overscan render screens, you must have your MENU SNAP
    selected in your preferences. This is now handled by intuition, not
    by Aladdin 4D.
28: Mode promotion flags are now honored by all standard rendering
    screens if you have this selected in your preferences.
29: Highlight Size range has been extended. It is now possible to make
    them much smaller. The default has been changed from 40 to 200.
    A setting of 0 gives you the smallest possible highlight size.
    A setting of 255 gives you complete coverage of highlight anywhere
    the object receives light. Typical useful range is 0 to 254.
    When loading your old drawings, you will want to increase your
    highlight size if you were using highlights on an object.
30: The problem that caused splines to load improperly occasionally has
    been fixed. (This sometimes happened when deleting a point in a spline,
   then saving it.)



What's new?


FOUNTAINS!

We have included a revolutionary type of particle system in this
version. We call it Fountain. NOBODY else has it, on ANY platform.
You're gonna love it, and you got it for FREE!

An example drawing or two are on the upgrade disk.
This feature is NEW. The docs for the fountains are not finalized
or printed yet. They are also on the upgrade disk. You may use them
in a reader, or you may print them for reference. When we release the
next major upgrade (fall 94?), there will be a rewritten manual with
the finalized docs.



GLOW FLARES

You will find a new gadget on the flare object definition window called
ZBUF. Normal operation for a flare is to suddenly dissapear when a poly
comes between it and the camera. If this is on, the flare image is treated
not as a lens flare source, but as a continous source, so the occluding
object can obscur only part of the flare. This allows you to place flares
behind objects, or even inside them.

Note that the same option exists for the fountains, but SHOULD BE USED
ONLY WITH CAUTION! The option requires separate transparency buffers to
be used for each image on each pixel on each scanline. This can cause
a heavy memory demand when a lot of particles are in use. It can also
cause a heavy memory demand and lengthen rendering time when a moderate
number of particles are all in the same, or nearly the same place on
the screen.


TEXTURE STRMOD TYPE

A user in France asked for this and we thought it was such a great idea
that we put it in for this free release. If you click on the texture type
gadget in the texture definition window, along with the normal, opacity,
genlock, etc. you will find a new one, STRMOD. This stands for strength
modification. It is exactly like an alpha channel used in some display
hardware. If a texture member is this type, it modifies the strength of
the next member based on the luma value at that pixel. This means you can
cookie cut the next texture member, and even use animated cookie cuts!
As with other "non-normal" types, the color slider is interpreted in this
type to mean "add color" and is set to 0.0 if you do not want to see the
texture, just have it affect the next member.
Note that this type will not work with bump/reflection/genlock maps (yet).
It is so new, we simply haven't had the time to put it in. We'll try to
get it done for the fall release.
Also note that this type is not engaged for foregrounds since foregrounds
are an on/off type. It does, however, work with backgrounds and overlays.
It's use with overlays is particularly useful.
There are getting to be too many types for the texture lists. We will
change the rotating selector to a list type in the next release if we
can find the time.


TOOL POSITIONAL LOCK

We have found that some tools we are always using, while others are only
used once in a while. Wouldn't it be nice if the tools we used all the
time could stay in the tool box while we scrolled for the others?
If you move your mouse pointer over a tool, but ALL THE WAY to the right
side of the screen, then click the RIGHT mouse button, the tool will now
jump to a "permanent" position at the top of the list of scrollable tools.
It is marked with a double less than sign (what is that thing really
called?) so you can tell that it is locked. If you now scroll the tools,
this one will not change. Lock a couple more, and you will see that the
locked tools are also put in alphabetical order. To unlock the tool,
just use the same procedure of using a right mouse button at the far
right of the screen.
One more note. When you quit Aladdin4D, it remembers the state of the
locks and uses the same state for your next session. This is relative to
your work sessions, not any particular drawing.


DEFAULT PATH TOOLTYPES

You can now edit the tooltypes in the program's icon for the default
paths the program will look to for drawings, bitmap textures, csplines,
convolves and 4Dfonts. Note that texture and attribute lists are still
saved from the loaders themselves, and will always go back to the last
directory you loaded or saved to (even after shutting off the computer).


DO YOU GET THE NEWSLETTER?

If you get the newsletter, you have been using the new tools all along.
If you are one of the few users that don't get the newsletter (why not?)
you will be pleasantly surprised to see a few new tools in your tools
directory. These tools were released with docs in the newsletter. We have
not duplicated the full docs. They will become a part of the new manual
to be printed in the fall. You can use the about gadgets to get
information about them and their use.
If you do get the newsletter, wait till you see the new poly cutter tool
we are going to release (probably in the July issue). It's a new
"Line of Sight" cutter, and, well, you'll see!