Aminet 6/Aminet 6 - June 1995.iso/Aminet/gfx/3d/IML59.lha/IML_Feb59.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1995-03-06 | 572.9 KB

Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 01:06:39
Subject: Haitex 3-D glasses and Imagine
From:    [e-mail]


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


Just for grins, I dug out my old pair of Haitex stereo 3D-glasses,

rendered a quick stereo image in Imagine 3.1, plugged the glasses

into the mouse port #2, and was disappointed not to see any flickering

lcd's - i.e., no 3D-stereo effects.


Imagine did the rendering perfectly well, and showed it, too. (Yep,

I clicked that little box marked "3D Stereo".)

It's just that the glasses didn't do their flickering thing.


The glasses use to work fine - on my old Amiga 1000.  This is

the first time that I've plugged them into the 1200.


Also - I can't find the original Haitex disc or docs anywhere!

Well, I've only moved four times since purchasing the goggles

when they first came out.


Has anyone else any experience with these glasses?  Could the interface

component just be broken?


\KenR, living in Flatland...



Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 01:47:37
Subject: Re: 3d Stereograms (Fwd)
From:    [e-mail] (Gary Beeton, [e-mail])


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


Hope the following is what you were looking for.



_______________________________________________________________________

We all know that Imagine allows you to create stereo pair images for use

with special 3D glasses.  But did you know that Imagine 3.0 will, with the

help of shareware, let's you create 3D images that don't require glasses and

that you can also print?


I'm talking about SIRDS (Single Image Random Dot Stereograms) or sometimes

called Stareograms; you know, those posters made of dots which, when you

look (persistently) straight through them, will reveal extruding shapes.


It's easy!  All you need: a shareware SIRDS generator (I'm not sure about

the PC, but for the Amiga there's a bunch of them in Aminet under gfx/3d),

Imagine 3.0 and a scene.


An example:

Load an object into the Detail editor (i.e. Cow.iob).  To simplify the

process UnGroup any parts then Join them all together as one object.

 Attributes should be: Color white, set the rest to zero (0); Bright should

be on (x), set Quickdraw on (x) and Texture: ZBuffer.  Now reset your

perspective view and rotate your object just as you would like to see it by

the camera as viewed in the perspective view.  This is important because

ZBuffer is relative to Global coordinates, and not relative to the camera.

  Go into the "Top" view window, turn Coordinates on, move your cursor to

the bottom of the bounding box and write down the Y coordinate (Y1), move

the cursor to the top of the bounding box and write down the Y coordinate

(Y2).  These two Y coordinates should be entered in the ZBuffer texture's Y1

and Y2.  Leave the color settings from white (255,255,255) to black (0,0,0)

(assuming your SIRDS generator expects white as out and black as in).  Save

the object


Go into Action editor, Add your object and set camera position to 0,Y1-n,0

alignment to 0,0,0 where n is the distance from the object to be viewed.

 Save Changes.  Go to Stage editor, add a light and place it anywhere in

front of the object, turn on camera view and fine tune the placement of the

camera making sure not to change it's alignment.


Render.


The resulting image should be a gray scale image which can be loaded into

and processed by a SIRDS generator.  I've had excellent results with this

technique, many of which surpassed some commercially available SIRDS

posters.


regards,

[e-mail]



Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 02:09:23
Subject: Re: imagine
From:    [e-mail] (Bill Osuch)


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


>Bill,

>I have PC ver3.0

>If you enable SMARTDRIVE in your in

>your AUTOEXEC.BAT, you could be

>shorting yourself around 2MEG memory.

>I boot without SMARTDRIVE, then if i

>need windows with smartdrive i run a

>batch file, w.bat . It runs smartdrive then

>windows, you have to reboot for

>imagine if you want the 2MEG extra back.

>If i dont need smartdrive i run windows

>without it, e-mail and other easy stuff.

>Hope it helps

>Doug

>

>

>

Holy memory suckers, Batman! You're right, it was smartdrive that was eating

ram. I made a dual-boot

file, but forgot to move smartdrive to the windows-only section from the

common section. With it removed

L/T has 5101160 bytes avail on an 8 meg PC. Thanks!!!!!

    Bill Osuch                |   I haven't lost touch with reality,

    [e-mail]          |   reality has lost touch with me....

    Semprini?                 |




Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 02:12:53
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail] (ken-okelly)


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


does anyody out there use POVRAY (Persistence Of Vision Raytracer)

if so could they tell me if there is anywhere i can get utilities for it.

by the way i'm using the PC version of it.


thank you


Kenneth O' Kelly -> [e-mail]-limerick




Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 02:23:07
Subject: Sway FX
From:    [e-mail] (Manjit Bedi)


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


Does anyone have documenation on the sway fx for Imagine 3.0.


For some reason Impulse neglected to include documentation for this

FX in the manual or on disk.  Even with release 3.1 there was documentation

of the global FX but still nothing for the Sway FX.


I tried to use it recenlty and I got indeteriminate results.



Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 02:40:17
Subject: Re: Haitex 3-D glasses and Imagine
From:    "Steve J. Lombardi" <[e-mail]>


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


>

> Just for grins, I dug out my old pair of Haitex stereo 3D-glasses,

> rendered a quick stereo image in Imagine 3.1, plugged the glasses

> into the mouse port #2, and was disappointed not to see any flickering

> lcd's - i.e., no 3D-stereo effects.

>

> Imagine did the rendering perfectly well, and showed it, too. (Yep,

> I clicked that little box marked "3D Stereo".)

> It's just that the glasses didn't do their flickering thing.

>


In 3.1 the amount of stereo seperatiion was moved to the camera's actor

bar. This is cool as now it is easy to morph stereo effects. (thanks

impulse!) So- clicking the 3d stereo button in the subproject dialog

is not enough. You must go add a camera actor and set it's parameters

to your liking. Let me know if this helps. I do quite a bit

of stereo rendering.


--

steve lombardi

[e-mail]


                         "YOU WILL." -- AT+T




Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 03:06:41
Subject: Re: Imagine L/T
From:    [e-mail] (Bill Osuch)


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


>>> though - Imagine, the CD drive and VESA driver only leave 3 megs free on an


>>> 8 meg PC.

>>

>>You could probably copy everything to the HD and run it from there

>>couldn't you?  That would save some ram (if you have the HD space)  Ed

>>

>>

All the system files are already on the HD; about the only thing I could

eliminate would be the CD drivers, and that would only free up about 20K or so.

    Bill Osuch                |   I haven't lost touch with reality,

    [e-mail]          |   reality has lost touch with me....

    Semprini?                 |




Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 03:32:41
Subject: RE:  Imagine Under MS-DOS
From:    GREG BILKE <[e-mail]>


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


John,

I'm glad you didn't get flamed on your question, because I am having the

exact same problem launching Imagine on an Amiga using ToolMaster.


Same symptoms, odd screen colors, no title screen, etc.


I think that the responses I saw today regarding your prob will help me,

albeit in a slightly different fashion.  Got' no autoexec.bat here...


Greg Bilke

[e-mail]



Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 03:51:15
Subject: Re: Imagine and GVP '040
From:    Ray Collett <[e-mail]>


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


You need to edit the prefrences of Imagine and set it to load ALL of the

program into ram.  The option to load in only the parts of the program

that's being used is cute, but dose not work on the GVP-040.


        Don't you just love that 040???  :>



On Thu, 26 Jan 1995 [e-mail] wrote:


> I've just installed a GVP 40Mhz '040 in an Amiga 3000. Everything

> runs fine EXCEPT Imagine.ftp. I've run the integer version of

> Imagine, DPaint, AdPro, and even the floating point version of Pixel

> 3D without problems.

>

> Has anyone had Imagine specific problems with this accelerator?

>

> Floater

>




Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 04:20:34
Subject: Re: Where to find Dust
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


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




On Tue, 31 Jan 1995, joop van de wege wrote:


> Hi searchers,

>

> For all of you who want to know where to find DUST

> Its on Aminet: Directory gfx/3d and named Dust133.lha


Actually, Dust1.43.lha should be appearing in a few days, if not sooner.


>

> Greetings Joop

>

>


See ya,

      Roger



Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 07:02:33
Subject: Re: Where to find Dust
From:    "Robert King (ART)" <[e-mail]>


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



>

> Actually, Dust1.43.lha should be appearing in a few days, if not sooner


>


Are there any english docs?




Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 08:33:03
Subject: Re: Where to find Dust
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


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


Hey Roger,


      Thanks, you, for the tip about the upgraded Dust.  Any chance the

dox have been downgraded into English?  Mein Deutsch ist shrecklich.



Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 09:05:14
Subject: Re: Clouds (again!)
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


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


Hey Joe, et al,


      This may be a long shot, as I've only tried this technique for a

cloud cover.  That is, a blanket of clouds over a landscape I'm looking

down on from only a couple of miles up--not from outer space.


      For this effect, I use a plane, and two Essence Textures.  But I

see no reason why it might not work using a sphere, slightly larger than

the diameter of your planet, to simulate an atmosphere.


      (This idea for a cloudcover was first posted, BTW, back in Oct of

'94, and I hope the generous fellow who shared it with us will forgive my

deleting his name from the end of his post.  Who cares about the author,

right?  Just use him, suck him dry, and discard him, like TopGun Vampire).



      Make your slightly larger sphere, make it a cloudy color, near

white on all the color guns, and with transparency values all at about

40.


      Apply the CLUSTERBUMP texture:


      clump scale:      5000

      cluster scale:    3.3676

      clump coverage:   1

      edge color fade:  0.6

      clump bump:       0.3

      cluster bump:     0.6

      cluster red:      200

      cluster green:    200

      cluster blue:     200


      all other settings at 0, to make a nice puffy cloudcover.


      To tear holes in this layer, so your planet's visible through the

clouds, apply the BLOBF texture:


      initial scale:    120

      #of scales:       4

      scale ratio:      0.4

      amplitude ratio:  0.4

      time ratio:       0.4

      time:             0

      T1 start:         0.2

      T1 end:           0.4

      T2 start:         0.8

      T2 end:           0.96

      Filter red:       255

      Filter green:     255

      Filter blue:      255


      Raytrace (sorry) and shadows should be on, and the textures are

animatable, for a nice kind of cyclonic disturbance effect.


      This is all in my head for anything but planes over flat ground;

I haven't tried it for spheres.


      Again, thanks to that author who first posted this idea back in

October.  I've used it with great fun ever since, and can't wait to try

it on a planetary scale.



Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 17:12:11
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


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


Thanks to all those who made suggestions about /noxms and

setting up autoexec.bat and config.sys to get Imagine 2.0 on the PC to work.


Unfortunately it still does not work -  I cannot figure it out.

Andrew



Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 20:47:49
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


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


> Same symptoms, odd screen colors, no title screen, etc.

>

> I think that the responses I saw today regarding your prob will help me,

> albeit in a slightly different fashion.  Got' no autoexec.bat here...

>

Have you tried an assign for Imagine? Or a path add?



Doug Rudd



Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 22:16:37
Subject: Re: Haitex 3-D glasses and Imagine
From:    Steve Gardiner <[e-mail]>


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



Hi,


If the glasses are ok, then it could be the A1200's joystick port.

Apparently Commodore in their infinite wisdom decided to wire it

differently, which is why two-button joystick pads don't work on the

A1200.



  +-----------------==============+================-----------------+

  |  Steve Gardiner               | Paying my debt to society...    |

  |  [e-mail]     | Working in Business Publishing !|

  +-----------------==============+================-----------------+



Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 22:52:55
Subject: Imagine Launched with ToolManager
From:    GREG BILKE <[e-mail]>


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



Here's a note I received from an Imagine Guru I know

regarding running Imagine from ToolManager (not ToolMaster,

as I had posted before.  That'll teach me to post from work)


>Just a short note on running Imagine from a "Tool" program.

>Somewhere in the setup for the "Tool" program, you will

>have to tell it where the "working" directory is for the

>program(s) that it will be launching. Then any launched

>programs will be able to find the files it would normally

>find when run from its own directory.


Funny thing though, I have a number of other programs that

are launched from ToolManager and they work fine.  I have

ToolManager pointed at GRFX: im30/Imagine.fp.  The assign

was set by the installation program.  I'll check that out.


Greg





Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 23:13:25
Subject: Re: Im2.0 PC
From:    [e-mail]


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


  Setup a multiple config.  For Imagine get rid of EMM386.EXE.  This is more

than likely the cause of all of your problems.  The same reason that Imagine

does not work with Windows and OS/2 is why it does not work with EMM386



  Kurt



Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 23:14:03
Subject: Re: Haitex 3-D glasses and Ima
From:    [e-mail]


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


re:  Haitex Glasses on the 1200

     (Ongoing discussion...)


I'm pretty sure that the glasses are ok.  They plug into the second

joystick port.  I don't play many games, but I have noticed that my

two-button joystick no longer works properly for _some_ games.


Does anyone know a pin-to-pin conversion that I could do?


\KenR



Date:    Wednesday, 01 February 1995 23:39:18
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail] (ken-okelly)


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


thanks to everybody who replied to my request for help on POVRAY.


Ken O' Kelly -> [e-mail]




Date:    Thursday, 02 February 1995 01:40:49
Subject: Re: Where to find Dust
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


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




On Tue, 31 Jan 1995, Robert King (ART) wrote:


>

> >

> > Actually, Dust1.43.lha should be appearing in a few days, if not sooner

>

> >

>

> Are there any english docs?

>

>


I e-mailed the author to ask this same question, and he told me that he

had found someone to do the translation, but it wasn't in the new file.

He doesn't know when the english docs will be released.


See ya,

      Roger



Date:    Thursday, 02 February 1995 02:28:55
Subject: Creating a good smoke effect...
From:    [e-mail]


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


     hi everybody :)



     just wondering if anyone knew of any good ways to create a good smoke

     effect?



     e.g. cigarette with smoke trails rising and twirling.



     i've used the smoke ipas module in 3d-studio, but can't seem to

     duplicate the effect in imagine.



     i tried a morphing spiral-shaped object twirling on its axis with fog

     attributes and roughness (doesn't seem to work too well...)



     if anyone can help, please, please, please enlighten me...



     thanks for listening ':)




Date:    Thursday, 02 February 1995 03:02:18
Subject: Xparent objects cutting holes
From:    Scott Krehbiel <[e-mail]>


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



Hi everyone,



I'm having a strange problem rendering a scene.  I have an object

that turns transparent and disappears.  It does this nicely, but

the problem is that it takes other objects with it.



I should clarify.  What happens is that in some places where my

now-transparent object (photoresist) intersects another object

(polysilicon layer) that it sits on top of, it cuts holes in the

polysilicon, allowing the layer below that, the field oxide to

show through.



I can see cracks where the color of the field oxide (bottom half of bun)

shows through the polysilicon (burger) because the photoresist (top half of

bun) is transparent..



Anybody else had this problem??  The top layer intersects the middle

layer, but it'd be pretty difficult to align things so there's no

intersection.  The cracks appear to be on edges between faces, but

when I delete the transparent object, the cracks go away.



Anyone know of a workaround??



Thanks

Scott Krehbiel

[e-mail]





Date:    Thursday, 02 February 1995 03:46:21
Subject: Imagine L/T Final question...
From:    Lamar Milligan <[e-mail]>


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


      You guys, the check is made out for Imagine L/T, the envelope is

addressed, and I'm just about to type out a letter to accompany my

payment, when it occurs to me that I have no idea if Imagine L/T is made

for the PC platform.  I would assume that it is, but I want to check with

you folks here before shipping off the money.

      If noone here knows, could you please send me a number I can

reach Impulse with.  I'll just ask them straight out if you guys (and

gals) don't know.


      Thanx for all yer help,

      Benjamin Milligan

      [e-mail]



Date:    Thursday, 02 February 1995 06:59:21
Subject: Imagine L/T: Thanx for help!
From:    Lamar Milligan <[e-mail]>


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


      Thanks to all who answered me regarding Imagine L/T.  My order

goes out first thing in the morning, as well as the money for next day

shipping.  I wrote a short note to send with the check, which gives an

address (not my home address) for them to ship the product to.

      Does anyone here know whether or not Impulse reads any letters

enclosed with orders?  I just want to be sure that it ships to the right

place, as no one will be at my house to accept the package, and in my

neighborhood (right next to a high-school), I'm not exactly secure in

knowing that UPS will leave it on my doorstep.

      Oh, BTW, does Impulse ship UPS or standard mail for Imagine L/T?


      Thanx again.  I'll be biting my nails until my package arrives...

      Benjamin Milligan

      [e-mail]




Date:    Thursday, 02 February 1995 12:36:22
Subject: T3DLIB R433 Released
From:    [e-mail] (Glenn M. Lewis)


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


Hi, all!


      I just released version R43 of T3DLIB, and placed it in

ftp.luth.se:/pub/aminet/new.  It should show up in /pub/aminet/gfx/3d

soon... The files are T3DLIB_EXE_R43.lha and T3DLIB_Src_R43.lha (with

their .readme files, of course).


      The main change is that Rob Hounsell added Imagine 3.0 support

to it.  Thanks, Rob!  See the CHANGES file for more info.


      This will most likely be my *last* release of T3DLIB, unless it

has a major problem.  Many thanks to the few people who have sent in the

registration fee over the years.  I very much appreciate it!  Believe it

or not, T3DLIB has been around since 1988, when it started as TTDDD.

It, I believe, has served its purpose well, and it is time that I lay it

to rest.  :-)


      Even though I was one of the first subscribers to this mailing

list when Steve Worley started it years ago, I am not subscribed

anymore, so if you have specific questions or comments for me, please

e-mail to either "[e-mail]" or "[e-mail]".


      Take care all, and thanks again.

                                              -- Glenn M. Lewis


P.S. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, T3DLIB is a 3D object

     manipulation "kit" and converter and programmer's library and

     ASCII format, and all sorts of other things too.  :-)



Date:    Thursday, 02 February 1995 13:50:16
Subject: Digimax and other digitizer
From:    Roberto Caruti <[e-mail]>


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


Hello folks!!

I would really like to buy a 3d digitizer, but it seems that the question

is not so simple...can someone of you have some experience with Digimax

or other digitizer (like Vertisketch, Space Arm etc...) ??

Any suggestion ?!?!? Digimax seems very good...but "seems"...I'm looking

at this just because I'm using Imagine but other proposal would be very

welcome if they really work!!


Thanks in advance!




Date:    Thursday, 02 February 1995 14:56:06
Subject: Re: Where to find Dust
From:    [e-mail] (Steve Gardiner)


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

Hi Joop,


Sorry if I've missed a thread or three somewhere, but I've been seeing

a lot of references to Dust, and I wonder could you tell what it does

exactly ??


  +-----------------==============+================-----------------+

  |  Steve Gardiner               | Paying my debt to society...    |

  |  [e-mail]     | Working in Business Publishing !|

  +-----------------==============+================-----------------+



Date:    Thursday, 02 February 1995 18:37:57
Subject: Re: Xparent objects cutting holes
From:    Scott Krehbiel <[e-mail]>


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



Well, I found a temporary solution to my problem of transparent

objects cutting holes in other objects.


Since the one that turned transparent was the only object to DO

anything, and since the camera sat perfectly still, I just made

everything else a backdrop.


Convenient, and saved mucho rendering time, but would like to

solve the REAL problem here.


Scott Krehbiel

[e-mail]





Date:    Thursday, 02 February 1995 19:24:26
Subject: A2000 '40 boards
From:    [e-mail] (Stephen Wilkinson)


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



Hello everyone!


   I have a need to purchase a 68040 board for an A2000. I figured

you render-fiends might have some helpful info :) The '40 board I

currently have (a Zeus) gives intermittant errors and I need to replace

it. I would like some opinions on products to replace this thing. I

can't buy a new computer and the Zeus is fully populated with 64Mb of

4MBx8 SIMMS and I'd love to re-use them rather than sell them and buy

some funky GVP SIMM :(  Anybody have any opinions???


Thanks,

Stephen

____________________________________

Stephen Wilkinson     [e-mail]      "Programming is like pinball. The

Sr. Software Engineer                     reward for doing it well is the

LB&M Associates                           opportunity to do it again."

____________________________________

#define OPINION        (myown)

#define COMPANYOPINION (~myown)


      This message created using 87% recycled neuro-transmitters

MicroSoft(n): From latin Micro (small or tiny) and Soft (limp or flaccid)



Date:    Thursday, 02 February 1995 19:43:26
Subject: IMAGINE L/T FINAL QUESTIO
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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



->         If noone here knows, could you please send me a number I c=

an

-> reach Impulse with.  I'll just ask them straight out if you guys (=

and

-> gals) don't know.


Impulses order line is: 800-328-0184


Mike -


Email: [e-mail]

BBS: GraFX Haus (Santa Barbara, Ca.) 805-683-1388 v.32 14.4 HST dual

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Thursday, 02 February 1995 20:04:10
Subject: Starfield Object
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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



Those of us who needed a good starfield object for Imagine, good news=

.

Someone finally made one! It's called 3DStarField.lha and is located =

on

AmiNet in the 3dobj directory. I works and looks just like the ones t=

hat

come with Lightwave 3D. It was somehow converted from a WaveFront

object.


If you have trouble finding it, I'll have it here at GraFX Haus.


Mike -


Email: [e-mail]

BBS: GraFX Haus (Santa Barbara, Ca.) 805-683-1388 v.32 14.4 HST dual

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Thursday, 02 February 1995 22:15:48
Subject: Materials
From:    Michael Hazlett <[e-mail]>


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




Guyz help...


I'm trying to set up a scene where a cdplayer sits on a piece of satin

and the wind blows and the satin moves...It won't move correctly!!


What would be a good way to simulate satin material and move it?? I'm

using the metal texture at the moment.


Thanks.






Date:    Thursday, 02 February 1995 22:22:28
Subject: Re: T3DLIB R43 Released
From:    "Glenn M. Lewis - MPG DA ~" <[e-mail]>


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



Shalini> Hi Glenn..  A long time back I had registered myself for the

Shalini> use of T3DLIB for the Amiga. Well, its been a year now since

Shalini> I touched Imagine, and I sold my Amiga and got a PC

Shalini> instead. Do you have T3DLIB for PC's also? If so can I just

Shalini> get pick it up from the net somewhere, or should I register

Shalini> myself again?


Hi, Shalini!


      Thanks for registering!  I really appreciate it.  There is no

need for you to register yourself again... thanks for the nice

gesture, though.


      I haven't compiled it yet for the PC, but maybe I should do

so.  It will compile with djgpp, or Watcom...  If you want, and have

a 32-bit compiler, you can grab the "Src" lha file, and compile

yourself.  Otherwise, I will let you know when I compile it for the

PC.


      Since this might be of general interest to people on the

Imagine Mailing List, I'll CC: them.  I hope you don't mind.  Oh, and

my "R433" was a typo... ooops... that should have been R43, of

course.


      Thanks again!

                                                      -- Glenn


Glenn Lewis | [e-mail] | These are my opinions...not Intel's



Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 01:53:26
Subject: Ian Smiths Starfield util
From:    Michael Hazlett <[e-mail]>


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



Hi I'd love to get a hold of this where is it???


MH





Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 02:31:28
Subject: LHA objects again!!!
From:    Jim Shinosky <[e-mail]>


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



First off, I'd like to thank all of you that responded about my first

posting about unzipping Amiga .LHA objects on the PC.  However, it's

still not working.  The problem I'm getting now is that LHA says I have a

broken archive, and it says this for every one that I try.  I have the

latest version of LHA(2.13) I believe.  Any other suggestions?


Thanks again!


Jim Shinosky

[e-mail]




Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 03:13:14
Subject: Dust 1.43
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


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



The file, on aminet under gfx/3d, is dust2.lha(for '020 CPU's) and

dust3.lha(for '030 CPU's).


Anyone who owns an Amiga and Imagine should download this utility. Still

no english docs, but the online help is in english(type `?' w/o the quotes).


See ya,

      Roger




Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 05:13:11
Subject: Creating a good smoke effect... (fwd)
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


Never, ever use roughness in an animation, unless you _want_ to create

creepy crawlies on your object.



Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 05:25:20
Subject: Materials
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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



.Guyz help....

.

.I'm trying to set up a scene where a cdplayer sets on a piece of satin

.and the wind blows and the satin moves...It won't move correctly!!

.

.What would be a good way to simulate satin material and move it?? I'm

.using the metal texture at the moment.

.

.Thanks.



I don't mean to be a tease, but if Imagine were to implement actual

displacement mapping (as opposed to the one-shot "applique" modelling

function) you could simulate wind by creating a 2-D greyscale image with

moving fuzzy elongated blobs. (A vague description, but in my head I

can envision exactly how I'd do it) You could even stamp, in Darken

mode, a soft-edge square brush to force the satin to stay put where it's

covered by the CD player.


But without displacement mapping, I don't see how you could _easily_ do

it in Imagine. (Sure, hand-modelling a piece of satin with moving folds

and creating tons of keyframes might work, but think of the effort --

Imagine typically offers you the power to create awesome effects with

little manual effort)


So, I have to pass to the next player. Anyone?






Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 05:41:12
Subject: Modeling strategy
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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



---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Wizard <[e-mail]>


Hi fellows,

      I should modelling a sort  of  "space-worm" and  I  am  wondering:

I'd like create an animation of it, so, there are two (I think) ways  to

obtain it, I can group single part  objects  (and use  "conform group to

path" to animate them) or  use a "states & bones"  strategy:  what  do U

think of those (or other) methods??   What is the fastest?

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


Off the top of my head, I have no idea which would be faster. However, I

can remind you that using grouped objects will look ugly at the seams;

think of the shoulder joint of most every computer-animated character

you saw until a year or two ago. Using a single, joined object, along

with States, Bones and the appropriate face subgroups, will allow you to

have a smoothly-deforming worm -- and as a bonus, the texture will

smoothly stretch and squash as the worm moves, This effect must be seen

to be believed.




Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 06:15:39
Subject: Re: Prostitutes can, why can't shareware authors?
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

Date: Thu, 26 Jan 95 18:59:20 EST

From: [e-mail]


Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 06:53:40
Subject: Real full transparency (was: photon torpedos)
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Wizard <[e-mail]>


how does it takes to get a REAL full transparency from Impulse?

What's the problem?   Why Imagine (I'm currently using PC version 3.0)

cannot manages ___true___ full transparency objects?

And the other renderers, how they use transparent objects?


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


Can you give me an example? What's your definition of true transparency?

Thanks.




Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 07:11:13
Subject: Screenmode Promotion
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Andrew D Sullivan <[e-mail]>


I'm looking forward to using the editors non-interlaced.  Could some of

you let me know how you've managed to promote your Imagine screens to

different screens rather than its default?

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


Or you could wait "two weeks" (RNS <g>) for Imagine 3.2, which has been

reported to offer a 256-color interface which works in resolutions

higher than 640x400.



Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 07:35:33
Subject: Re: Photon torpedo?
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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




---------- Forwarded message ----------

Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 23:38:05 -0500 (EST)

From: Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 07:49:53
Subject: Sway FX
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


Sway is used to make several objects oscillate back and forth on their

own axis. You can use it to create underwater grass, or an army of those

obnoxious red liquid-filled glass birds!


Just create all the objects you want to animate, then group them to a

parent axis. Load the group in the Stage editor, then add the Sway FX

bar in the Action editor. Sway will make all children of a parent object

oscillate; the parent is unaffected. The key is in the grouping: using Sway

on a single object will do nothing, since the parent is never affected

and in this case, there would be no children to affect.




Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 08:00:59
Subject: Re: Ian Smiths Starfield util
From:    [e-mail] (Ian M. Smith)


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


On Fri 3-Feb-1995, Michael Hazlett <[e-mail]> wrote:

> Hi I'd love to get a hold of this where is it???


And old version is on Aminet but I have not had a chance to upload

the newest version.  I'll email you a uuencode, and anyone else

that wants a copy before I eventually upload it sometime.


New (and some old) features include....


  Stars can be triangles, squares, disks with user defined faces,

particle objects or four sided solids.

  Stars can be distributed along the outside of a sphere or torus,

or partially/completely filling a sphere, torus or cube.  All are

scalable in all three directions and can use logarithmic star

placement to 'fade' the starfield out along the edges.

  Stars can be aligned to a user definable point (so disks all face

the camera) or given random or no alignment.

  Colors can be randomly assigned to each star within a user defined

range.

  Stars can also be randomy scaled between two values.


--

Ian M. Smith <[e-mail]>  -- PGP Fingerprint (Email for Key) --

                                  581F3521 6F9D8061 0AA214C8 BE51978D





Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 08:55:13
Subject: IMAGINE, DIGIMAX & PC Interrupts
From:    wolfram schwenzer <[e-mail]>


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


Hi, Imagineers,


Perhaps somebody can solve the PC Interrupt riddle which plagues the IMAGINE and


DIGIMAX programs:


while the `gang' at Impulse doesn't give any info about the use of interrupts

in running IMAGINE Phil Shaddock advises in his "3D LAB" to set


      Stacks=9,256 (which reserves 9 stacks of 256 bytes each for 9 possible

                      interrupts)


in the CONFIG.SYS file. I don't know WHY it is necessary to have as much room

(as other programs don't need it) for the interrupt info, but it ran.


When I tried the same for the DIGIMAX program it killed digitizing after about

a hundred entries (system went dead, had to di a cold reboot); lowering the

number(s) let it kill itself even earlier (i.e after less inputs).


Can anybody confirm this and/or gimme info about the CONFIG.SYS he/she is

using WITHOUT the system being stopped after two hundred or three hundred data

points ? (Have given up contacting IMPULSE; they won't even answer two faxes

sent within a week's period)


      Thanks.


       W.S.

--

wolfram schwenzer

Internet : [e-mail]




Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 08:58:18
Subject: Neuron image (short)
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


In another message, I shared my joy at creating an interesting-looking

neuron, first time around. If you'll forgive me, just this once I

thought I'd share it with you. This is a short UUencoded which UUdecodes

into a JPEG image.


begin 644 Neuron.jpg

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MFI0-#*9AK3")-``"0```````````````````````````````````````````J

9`````R^>3````````````````````#__V0``S

``

end

size 3130




Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 09:51:51
Subject: Re: Screenmode Promotion
From:    "Anime a day..." <[e-mail]>


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


On Thu, 2 Feb 1995, Charles Blaquiere wrote:


> ---------- Forwarded message ----------

> From: Andrew D Sullivan <[e-mail]>

>

> I'm looking forward to using the editors non-interlaced.  Could some of

> you let me know how you've managed to promote your Imagine screens to

> different screens rather than its default?

> ------------------------------------------------------------

>

> Or you could wait "two weeks" (RNS <g>) for Imagine 3.2, which has been

> reported to offer a 256-color interface which works in resolutions

> higher than 640x400.

>




 Perfect.. balance on my financial aid will be here on the 21st, so I

will glady place an upgrade offer.. one question, If I start with 3.2 I

will get 4.1 also when it comes around???


This is the option I've been waiting for.. my monitor (CTX) is terrible

with the DBLNTSC screens, stretches it all out of ratio... I need the

Super 72 modes..(overscan 896x612)


Bill


PS, I think the double messages come from people replying to messages and

not replacing the TO: with the imagine address and just letting it get

cc'ed and someone is bouncing them or something.. I am still gettting

double on a few of them.







Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 13:20:48
Subject: Virtual Memory
From:    Oggy <[e-mail]>


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



 hi,

     sorry if this post sounds trivial, but I'm an Imagine (v3.0,

Amiga) newbe. What is the best virtual memory manager to use with

Imagine ? My set-up is A1200, 030-50Mhz, 882-50Mhz, 6Mb, 85Mb.

 I've tried both VMM and VMem in the last couple of days, but for one

reason or another they don't want to work properly.


 - Michael

 [e-mail]



Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 13:52:00
Subject: Imagine2.0 pc book
From:    [e-mail]


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


Well-

I don't know why but my posts seem to get clipped. The other day I

d to Kenneth O' Kelly about Imagine 2.0 for the pc.



Ken- There is a book called "3d Modeling Lab" published by the

dnd has Imagine 2.0pc on the back



 my Question, does any one know the address to subscribe to the

iling List? How about the "official FTP" sites?

                      Thanks

        Rob





Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 14:54:12
Subject: Re: Materials
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


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



Mike Hazlett writes:


> What would be a good way to simulate satin material and move it?


and Charles Blaquiere comments,


>But without displacement mapping, I don't see how you could_easily

>_do it in Imagine.


Yes, this is not an easy task.  After all, just what would fluttering

satin look like any way? Especially if it is pinned down by a CD

player.


First of all, I wouldn't use a metal texture.  I'd make the satin

somewhat dark, use a medium-high level of specularity in a somewhat

warmer color, and only add a bit of hardness.


As far as the modelling goes, I suppose there's no way out of a hand

modelling.  I'd make a rectangle a good bit larger than the CDplayer.

I'd raise a few of the remaining points at random, and create a

default state.  Then I'd puff up some of the fabric using small amounts

of bell curve magnetism.  Make state 2.  Next, I'd transform the

cloth on the vertical axis by scaling with a z = -1.  This would be

state three.  I'd reverse the previous action, and scale it by 60%.

State four now set.  Reverse the z scaling once again, and scale

yet again by 60%.  State Five, and almoist done.  I'd then try a

state anim like this

Default -10 frames-Two-14-three-18-four-24-five-24-default-8-default.


If this didn't work, I'm not quite sure which other way I might go.


Hope this helps,

Greg Denby

[e-mail]



Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 18:35:27
Subject: Re: Screenmode Promotion
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


>

>  Perfect.. balance on my financial aid will be here on the 21st, so I

> will glady place an upgrade offer.. one question, If I start with 3.2 I

> will get 4.1 also when it comes around???

>

Sorry. The way the upgrade was explained when it first started was:


      You could upgrade incrementally - 3.1, 3.2, ... 4.0 for a

      fee of $100/platform. Where ever you buy into the sequence,

      the price is still the same and it takes you to ver 4.0.

      That's what you are paying $100 for - ver 4.0.


or


      You could wait for 4.0 to come out and pay $100/platform for

      the package then.


Your choice.


Im4.1 will be part of the next "Imagine Year" sequence towards ver 5.0

and will cost us a new round of upgrade fees (if I understand it correctly).

I say "Imagine Year" as Impulse said it would take about a year to get to

IM4.0 but the as I understand it, the upgrade cycle carries you to IM4.0,

how ever long it takes.




Doug Rudd

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

The new order:



      "Remember- an American first and a politician second".


      "Spoken like a true American politician".

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



Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 18:45:50
Subject: Re: PC Imagine Objects from A...
From:    [e-mail]


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


  Get the latest version of LHA for the PC and the rename the archive files

from *.lha to *.lzh(this is the extension that the PC uses) and you should

have no problems.


  I regularly use LHA to get files from AMINET, as well as transfering back

and forth between my PC at home and the Amigas at school.


  Kurt



Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 20:00:59
Subject: CONFIG.SYS
From:    [e-mail]


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



Many PC people are having difficulties configuring their system to run

Imagine with EMM386 & Himem.sys.  Following is the bulk of my CONFIG.SYS

that allows me to have ONE boot-set up, and properly run all my software,

including EMM386 & Himem.sys.  Note, I am using MSDOS 6.2



WIth this I never need to reboot just to run Imagine, and Windows, and

everything else seems to do just fine also.  You still need to run Imagine

with the "/noxms" switch though.



----------snip-----------

 FILES=40

 BUFFERS=40

 DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS /shadowram:on

 DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM HIGHSCAN

 DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE

 DOS=UMB

 LASTDRIVE=Z

 FCBS=16,0

 DEVICEHIGH=C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.SYS

 DOS=HIGH

 DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\ANSI.SYS

 SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /e:2000 /p

 BREAK=ON

 STACKS=9,256

 DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DBLSPACE.SYS /MOVE

----------snip-------------



Hope this helps someone.



-GreG tsadilas





Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 20:05:10
Subject: Working with bitmaps
From:    Douglas Smith


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


Hello!


Charles Blaquiere  <blaq(a)io.org> very kindly posted up the new features list

from 3.1. Imagine now has an ability to allow you to work with bitmaps. I have

been doing this sort of thing for quite some time. Here's how..



        I find that the best sort of image to work with is obviously one made

up of lots of lines, some of the best are those nice little painting

illustrations that are always part of the instruction sheet for model kits.

        If you're using one of these, set your scanner to text mode, 200dpi

seems to work best and scan. Then clean up the image in DPaint, this is the key


step, so don't skimp, get an image made up of smooth sharp lines.

      If you are using a colour image, you need to get it into two colours,

for this either start drawig on top in DPAINT, then stencil your new lines and

rub out the image. One method that can work, is to use an Emboss command (have a


look at PBM tools), this will effectivly outline different blocks of colour, you


can then just touch it up in DPaint. Beware that you tend to loose a lot of

dimensional accuracy doing this unless you have a really hires image, so be

careful.

      If the drawing is to scale, mark a scale on it, a simple graduated bar.

preferably one horizontal and one vertical round the part of the image that you


are interested in. when you clean up the drawing make sure these scale marks are


clear. You can later use these marks to scale the bitmap to an imagine grid.


      Now use ConvertIFF/ILBM, say no to the add faces requester, and in a

minute or so all the lines will appear. Now all you have to do is to go into

pick points mode and tidy it up a little more. Save this.


      If you have a plan, front and side view you can position these objects

so they are visible in their respective window, but not visible in the other

windows, i.e position the front view so it is say, 500 units in front of the

world-centre etc. then redraw speeds are quite nippy.


      Using this method may be a bit more memory intensive than using a

bitmap, but you can zoom in to see finer detail. Also the images can be to a

known scale and you can scroll the windows about without loosing the image.


      Well done to impulse for providing a real bitmap feature though.


      As far as the other features go, most of them are superb.


> 1:      About box.  Every version of the constant update


Someone is listening to us. This is the only sensible thing to do.


> 2:      States.. In version 3.0 of Imagine, you were not able


sounds sensible


> 3.      DXF... In Imagine 3.0 our DXF handler was, to be


I have never managed to get any DXF objects to load in under 3.0


> 4.      Backdrop Images.  This feature is especially useful


Covered above.


> 5. FLC and ANIM brushes.... In the past you had to make a


At last ! what surprises me is that I have not missed this feature, I certainly


should have.


> 6. SHOW PIC and ANIM...  Over the years we have always


The people who use multitasking machines will probably be saying so what? I just

use multiview anyway, but this form of integration is a good thing, we can now

see the brushes as Imagine does. But when will we be able to use JPEGs ???


> 7. Field Rendering... For many this feature will do nothing,


Yeah right, I suppose it must be useful, ask me when I have a PAR card!


> 8. Stage Attributes....  If you have been putting special lighting


Hmm, It seems a step in the right direction. let's see more integration between


the editors. As an aside, Why are spline objects different to paths ?? answers

on a postcard....


> 9. Light Source and Object Viewports.... Several people have


Very nice, also someone seems to be hearing our cries for help....


>10. The last new feature is called SMART BONES...


I thought bones were already fairly smart. This does sound a lot easier to use.


Perhaps if some time was spent developing documentation and tutorials the whole


package would be easier to use. You only have to look in the IML archive to see


the confusion that was caused by that section in the IM30 Manual.





              Keep on tracing.


              Doug.


+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+


|Douglas E.F. Smith     |      [e-mail]|


+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+


|A4000/30 & 486 sx 40   | "If I was organised, I'd be dangerous"               |


+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+


|My employer is not responsible for my opinions; I`m not supposed to have them |


+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+





Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 21:31:26
Subject: Re: Materials
From:    [e-mail]


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


To make your moving satin material get "Morphus" software that is (was?)

available from Impulse.  It will do exactly what you want.  Or get Lightwave and


use the displacement mapping technique mentioned earlier.


I'm not sure if "Morphus" is available for the PC.




--

 _____________________________________________________________________________



 Craig Hoffman                    [e-mail]          [phone]

 Walt Disney Feature Animation    1420 Flower Street       Glendale, CA  91221

 _____________________________________________________________________________




Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 21:32:31
Subject: Archives...
From:    Lamar Milligan <[e-mail]>


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


      Hi all!

      Now that I am getting Imagine L/T PC, I was thinking of getting

some of the IML archives to read through.  I hear you folks talking about

"states", and the Spline editor, but since the last version of Imagine I

used on my Amiga was 2.0, I have never seen these options.

      Could someone point a finger towards the archives for me?  And if

it hasn't been discussed in the not-to-distant past, could someone mail

me a brief description of how states work.  If this info is in recent

archives (past 6-months or so), I can just read it there, tho.


      Also, I am assuming that there is no upgrade path for Imagine L/T

other than going to Imagine Pro 3.x.  What I would like to know is which

version of Imagine is L/T equivalent to?  3.0 or 3.1?



      Thanx for the pointers!

      Benjamin Milligan

      [e-mail]



Date:    Friday, 03 February 1995 21:55:18
Subject: Thanks
From:    [e-mail] (MR. D.S.DOBSON)


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


Hello fellow Imagineers!

I would like to thank those who responded to my query on the use of the magnet

option. Thank You.


I have spent the last week revising for my end of semester exams, last one was

today, so i have had little time to read my mail.  Now that i have some free

time i am going to spend it playing with, yes you`ve guessed it, Imagine!

However i am getting bored with the textures that were supplied with the Amiga

Format Coverdisk. I have downloaded some from Aminet, However these are really

brushmaps. Does anyone know where i can find some new textures ?


Thanks again,

              Dan


###############################################################################

#                                                                             #


# [e-mail]         "To be or not to be? That is the question.   #

#                                  Oh sod it! I`ll Have a Bigmac and fries."  #

###############################################################################



Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 00:37:53
Subject: Grow f/x problem
From:    Mr KRZYSZTOF KORSKI <[e-mail]>


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


Hi,

Using GROW effect gives me Guru. It was line-f emulation error.

Do I really need math-coprocessor to have GROW effect?

                                      Krzysztof Korski

                                 [e-mail]



A500, 68000, K1.3, DF1: 5.25" , 2.5MB RAM ,AR Mk III, patience :)





Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 02:41:42
Subject: Re:lha again!
From:    Jim Shinosky <[e-mail]>


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



I tried this too!



>  Get the latest version of LHA for the PC and the rename the archive files

>from *.lha to *.lzh(this is the extension that the PC uses) and you should

>have no problems.


>  I regularly use LHA to get files from AMINET, as well as transfering back

>and forth between my PC at home and the Amigas at school.


>  Kurt




Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 03:04:14
Subject: Re:lha again!
From:    Jim Shinosky <[e-mail]>


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




I got it through my WWW browser which doesn't have problems downloading

anything else.




>Are you sure you downloaded the zip in binary?  I've been unlha'ing on

>the PC with no problems.


>Ed Totman

>[e-mail]


On Thu, 2 Feb 1995, Jim Shinosky wrote:


>

> First off, I'd like to thank all of you that responded about my first

> posting about unzipping Amiga .LHA objects on the PC.  However, it's

> still not working.  The problem I'm getting now is that LHA says I have a

> broken archive, and it says this for every one that I try.  I have the

> latest version of LHA(2.13) I believe.  Any other suggestions?

>

> Thanks again!

>

> Jim Shinosky

> [e-mail]

>

>

>





Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 03:59:57
Subject: Re: Thanks
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


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




On Fri, 3 Feb 1995, MR. D.S.DOBSON wrote:


> Hello fellow Imagineers!


> Format Coverdisk. I have downloaded some from Aminet, However these are really


> brushmaps. Does anyone know where i can find some new textures ?

>


There is a file called IITextures.lha in aminet under gfx/3d. It contains

about 8 textures, and I'm not talking brushmaps.




> Thanks again,

>               Dan

>

> ##############################################################################
#

> #
#

> # [e-mail]         "To be or not to be? That is the question.
#

> #                                  Oh sod it! I`ll Have a Bigmac and fries."
#

> ##############################################################################
#

>


See ya,

      Roger



Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 03:59:58
Subject: Re: Photon torpedo?
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


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


I can think of 2 ways to make a photon torp.


1:In Detail, create a default primitive sphere. Copy it, scale it down to

.8, Paste it, and group the 2 objects together. The larger sphere's att's

should look like this:


Color:255,0,0

Fog length:125

Phong

Bright

FogPaint texture:

      T:.8

      Denser Color:255,100,0

      2nd Color:255,0,0

      Scale the axis to be just as big as the sphere


The smaller sphere's atts should look like this:


Color:210,15,15

Phong

Bright

Light:

      Color:500,0,0

      Point Source

      Controlled Falloff

FireBall texture:

      Color 1:255,15,15

      Color 2:200,30,0

      The rest of the settings are 0.

      Axis size should be slightly larger than the sphere.

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

Load this object into Action after setting the # of frames. Add the

Spike effect on frames 2(right after the torp exits the torpedo tube)

to the last frame that the object will be in the camera's view. You

might want to tweek the Spike settings. Set up the motion in Stage, and

you're all set. Render and serve.


2:I have a PhotonTorpedo object that looks like a cylinder with an

envelope around it that looks like some pictures I've seen of the heat

streaming off of the Space Shuttle's nose. I will mail it to anyone who's

interested. The uuencoded file is about 22432 bytes small.


See ya,

      Roger



Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 04:19:26
Subject: Moving cloth
From:    [e-mail]


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


You can make nice moving cloth with Imagine's Applique function and a paint

program. I use Cinemorph to squish the Applique image around. Just save a

series of these, then Applique them to a primitive plane with a fairly high

number of triangles. But prior to using the first one, define a State for

the flat plane, and as you Applique each image, define a new State for

each deformation, resetting the object to the flat State for the next

Applique pic. Then just morph them in the Action editor. With 3.1's ability

to load backdrop images, it becomes very easy to have the bumps and dimples

where you want them.



Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 05:35:16
Subject: Neuron image (short)
From:    blaq <@geda.demon.co.uk:[e-mail]>


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


In another message, I shared my joy at creating an interesting-looking

neuron, first time around. If you'll forgive me, just this once I

thought I'd share it with you. This is a short UUencoded which UUdecodes

into a JPEG image.


begin 644 Neuron.jpg

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M!0H'!P8(#`H,#`L*"PL-#A(0#0X1#@L+$!80$1,4%145#`\7&!84&!(4%13_8

MVP!#`0,$!`4$!0D%!0D4#0L-%!04%!04%!04%!04%!04%!04%!04%!04%!04I

M%!04%!04%!04%!04%!04%!04%!04%!3_P``1"`#(`4`#`2(``A$!`Q$!_\0`_

M&P`!``(#`0$```````````````,$`0(%!@G_Q``S$``"`@(!`P,#`@0%!0``G

M`````0(#!!$A$C%!!5%Q$R)A@9$4(S*A!D)2<M%B@K'A\?_$`!H!`0`#`0$!B

M```````````````!`@,$!0;_Q``D$0$!``("`@("`@,``````````0(1`R$2H

M,01!$R)1810R0O_:``P#`0`"$0,1`#\`^50`````````2V``````````````L

M-<`S%;BS``DK6G\$:6V307&_<*Y5%+^IF#,OZG\F`L```#.M(P``````````0

M`````````````````#>P#*>T$>F`9<3`3L``````EM@REI`;UK>U^&1M:9-0W

MMV(CLCTR85E[8BMEA+4"&M;:1-/B`4RNZK``-0REH)&6]((M8?<P`$@`````W

M```````````````````````#>,MK1EP3(R2,]A2S35PUV-2?1AU[!,OY0@S*=

M#B82VPNRELV2V82-X(A6UM5Q-&+X?S&;PCN2X_4FG1UN?^W9+*Y:NU6N/)-9$

M#<)/PC%,.I\%G*KZ,>,5YY"N67[2.9K@S&.R9TZ1KK0G;;R:Z-9,W?"(PF``9

M"P```````````````````````````````"6$^I?DE7**J>GP3USZODBLLL?NZ

M-W'?@5T*4M>22$'(GJH:DF4\M,;GI%;@M)2]UX*[@XO7D]7C8"OQEVVN#G9_%

MI3BVTM-$><KFP^3+?')1Q(*4EM;7L=>'IT)04D^ZTT<["K<9J+7)Z7&H;Q]ZU

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M>QM]7?N<WGMU?C^TDII/W,.Q:(7)HUZF9VM)BDEJ1HXZ,=3&V57DT`-[`2``@

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M2(XWRE)Z?"\D,YN;_`4NF.B$S#4;RL^Y/V)HO4BHWLL3E_+3]T7QNC*>EJ-OI

M4E[(VC)ZG\%6BSJ1/"2U+X*^=E898ZZ5[7HAC/31)?Q,@3T3Y;=&,W'8KR?X<

MG%Z)<R@N..Z*%GVRV:T6]$U[DEZZHMKAE[EMCCAX9:5[?ZODT-I/J2-2E=,]J

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M.3D^0WL!,F@`!(9<VXI>Q@`;U3Z9%FN6RF35S*V;9YX[[8N?\S]"(WM?WFA:5

M=+X]03T]EN$NN&RH2T6=+T^S"F<W$<UTS:,$E_,M^Y&%Y=P``2``````````1

M`````````````````92V8#>P,N1@``````````9@],P`,V<R,!O;``)Z8`&\Y

MFI0-#*9AK3")-``"0```````````````````````````````````````````J

9`````R^>3````````````````````#__V0``S

``

end

size 3130





Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 09:01:27
Subject: Re: Creating a good smoke effect...
From:    ROB NEILL <[e-mail]>


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


>     hi everybody :)



>     just wondering if anyone knew of any good ways to create a good smoke

>     effect?



>     e.g. cigarette with smoke trails rising and twirling.



>     if anyone can help, please, please, please enlighten me...



Yeh, there was a smoke tutorial on an old IML archive. And it goes like this...



-detail editor

  -add primitives: sphere

  -attributes: color 128,128,128      fog 180

               clrnoiz texture:

               color 64,64,64      r,g,b,color vary 0

  -particles:  cube

               random align

               interpolated

               dimension 150 units

  -save obj


-action editor

  -add particle effect to loaded sphere (to all anim frames)

               emission

               travel distance 100 units

               scaling 1

               time to terminal h 2

               elasticity 50

               time to terminal z TOT

               velocity .5

               min angle x -5

               max angle x 5

               wind velocity 5

               wind angle 33

               wind start TOT*(-1)

               wind stop TOT

               emission 95%

               SET ALL OTHER VALUES TO 0


               TOT ==== number of tot frames



So there you go...





















Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 09:11:22
Subject: Re: Materials
From:    Michael Hazlett <[e-mail]>


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




On Fri, 3 Feb 1995, gregory denby wrote:


>

>

> Yes, this is not an easy task.  After all, just what would fluttering

> satin look like any way? Especially if it is pinned down by a CD

> player.


Thanks for that help Greg I think I'll get rid of the wind blowing :)


MH



Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 16:51:04
Subject: Cuttings??
From:    Karl Dyson <[e-mail]>


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


In a message Curcio Nicholas mentined cutting the top 2/3 of a sphere off,

well I still ain't got a manual (probably upgrading anyway!) so does

some kind person want to explain how to do that small thing!?!


Thanx,


   Karl




Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 17:19:22
Subject: LW vs. Imagine
From:    Karl Dyson <[e-mail]>


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


Incase this isn't quite clear - I have absolutely NO doubts about the power

and ease of use of Imagine (I'm not much of an imagineer (?) yet, but I love

it).

But, Lightwave has visably proven itself to be great at commercial tv progs.

I await eagerly to see Imagine used on something as public as B5.


Mike Halvorson...I want you to know that when I see Imagine doing something

like the above mentioned, it will probably kick the shit out of lightwave

anyway - so then I'll look like a complete fool :) , but I haven't seen any

yet so I don't know!

Perhaps you could let a few names drop so I know what to look out for.


Just out of curiousity, does anyone know if theres going to be another

Imagine version out soon on Amiga. I'm thinking of some major upgrades or

perhaps an Amiga 4000 and I wanted to get Imagine for it, but if I buy v3.0

and two months later v4.0 is released I'll be annoyed.


Oh, does anyone know of a dealer who still sells A4000's - they should be

cheaper now that Commodore has had its probs. and noone seems to advertise

having any.


KARL






Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 19:08:52
Subject: More Imagine Textures
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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



-> However i am getting bored with the textures that were supplied wi=

th

-> Format Coverdisk. I have downloaded some from Aminet, However thes=

e a

-> brushmaps. Does anyone know where i can find some new textures ?


For the Amiga, there is Essence I and II. Also a program to create yo=

ur

own, called Forge. Both by Steve Worley from Apex Software. Then you =

can

upgrade to Imagine 3.1 which includes a jillion new textures for both

the Amiga and PC.


Mike -


Email: [e-mail]

BBS: GraFX Haus (Santa Barbara, Ca.) 805-683-1388 v.32 14.4 HST dual

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 19:28:15
Subject: Cutting up a sphere
From:    [e-mail]


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


[e-mail] would like to know how to cut the top

2/3 of a sphere off.


This is quite a basic function.  In the detail editor, select your

sphere object.

   1.  From the Pick-Menu, choose Drag Box.

       Instead of picking single points (or objects) with a mouse click,

       you click and hold, press the shift key, then drag the mouse.  All

       of the objects/points will be picked.

   2.  Select Pick Points R-Amiga 3, or Right Alt-3

   3.  Using the drag box, select the top 2/3 points of the sphere.

    4.  Let go of the mouse button.  Press Right-Amiga D or Right-Alt D to

       delete the points.


This method works best if you created the sphere with the "stagger points"

option.  Note that this will only work on a primitive sphere.

\KenR



Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 20:47:45
Subject: Re: Ian Smiths Starfield util
From:    [e-mail] (Curtis White)


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


>On Fri 3-Feb-1995, Michael Hazlett <[e-mail]> wrote:

>> Hi I'd love to get a hold of this where is it???

>

>And old version is on Aminet but I have not had a chance to upload

>the newest version.  I'll email you a uuencode, and anyone else

>that wants a copy before I eventually upload it sometime.

>

>New (and some old) features include....

>

>  Stars can be triangles, squares, disks with user defined faces,

>particle objects or four sided solids.

>  Stars can be distributed along the outside of a sphere or torus,

>or partially/completely filling a sphere, torus or cube.  All are

>scalable in all three directions and can use logarithmic star

>placement to 'fade' the starfield out along the edges.

>  Stars can be aligned to a user definable point (so disks all face

>the camera) or given random or no alignment.

>  Colors can be randomly assigned to each star within a user defined

>range.

>  Stars can also be randomy scaled between two values.



Is this starfield a program or is it an Imagine object?  If it is a program,

is there a PC version?


Curt




Date:    Saturday, 04 February 1995 21:01:08
Subject: Re: moving cloth
From:    Lamar Milligan <[e-mail]>


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




On Fri, 3 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:


> You can make nice moving cloth with Imagine's Applique function and a paint

> program. I use Cinemorph to squish the Applique image around. Just save a

> series of these, then Applique them to a primitive plane with a fairly high

> number of triangles. But prior to using the first one, define a State for

> the flat plane, and as you Applique each image, define a new State for

> each deformation, resetting the object to the flat State for the next

> Applique pic. Then just morph them in the Action editor. With 3.1's ability

> to load backdrop images, it becomes very easy to have the bumps and dimples

> where you want them.

>


      Hey, what exactly does this Applique function do?  Sounds like

some sort of displacement mapping, but on a more permanent basis. (When

you map an image to the object, it permanently warps the object as if it

were a displacement map.)


      Is this correct?


      Benjamin Milligan

      [e-mail]



Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 00:11:16
Subject: Cutting up a sphere
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


As a comment, I have set "Click", "Drag" and "Lasso" as user buttons at

the bottom of the screen. I use them so often that the gold is starting

to wear off! B^D



Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 00:18:10
Subject: LW vs. Imagine
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Karl Dyson <[e-mail]>


...

I await eagerly to see Imagine used on something as public as B5.

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


One problem is that Impulse has never been very public about commercial

uses of Imagine, unlike NewTek who have very close ties with the

entertainment community and keep throwing recognizable images at us.


In all these years, I'd never seen any high-quality Imagine pictures in

Impulse's ads. This has changed with Imagine L/T; its ads show, in my

opinion, some quite decent images which don't make Imagine look

substandard. Finally!


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

Just out of curiousity, does anyone know if theres going to be another

Imagine version out soon on Amiga. I'm thinking of some major upgrades or

perhaps an Amiga 4000 and I wanted to get Imagine for it, but if I buy v3.0

and two months later v4.0 is released I'll be annoyed.

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


Phone Impulse, tell them which version of Imagine you currently have,

and ask them about the auto-upgrade program. Basically, the auto-upgrade

program lets you pay for Imagine 4.0 right now, so you'll receive it

when it's out -- but in the meantime, you also receive 4 interim

versions of Imagine, so you can start playing with new features as they

appear, rather than having to wait for 4.0! It's arguably the best idea

Impulse has ever come up with. It doesn't cost you any more than the

regular 4.0 upgrade would've. I tell you, I have Imagine 3.1 (3.2 out

RSN) and would never consider going back to 3.0 and parting with the new

toys-- er, tools.




Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 03:07:01
Subject: Re: Ian Smiths Starfield util
From:    [e-mail] (Ian M. Smith)


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


On 03-Feb-1995, [e-mail] (Curtis White) wrote:

> Is this starfield a program or is it an Imagine object?  If it is a

> program, is there a PC version?


It is currently an Amiga only program, but the starfields it produces

should be able to load into the IBM version as well.


--

Ian M. Smith <[e-mail]>  -- PGP Fingerprint (Email for Key) --

                                  581F3521 6F9D8061 0AA214C8 BE51978D





Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 05:18:30
Subject: Re: moving cloth (fwd)
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Lamar Milligan <[e-mail]>


      Hey, what exactly does this Applique function do?  Sounds like

some sort of displacement mapping, but on a more permanent basis. (When

you map an image to the object, it permanently warps the object as if it

were a displacement map.)

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


Exactly. Applique uses the greyscale values of a 2-D image to deform an

object in the Detail editor. Imagine doesn't yet offer displacement

mapping, where the object is deformed in Stage; this technique allows

you to set the brushmap in motion relative to the object, and have the

deformations follow suit. You could do the same with States, but you'd

have to create one keyframe for every frame in the final animation. It's

very labor-intensive; I know, I've been sitting on the computer all day

trying it out!




Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 06:06:56
Subject: Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy...
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


Seems like some users (okay, one) have received multiple copies of my

UUencoded brain cell/photon torpedo. Oh dear, oh dear. If any of the more

experienced users on the IML have any idea why this has happened, please

enlighten me in E-mail so I can avoid this kind of embarrassment in the

future. Thanks.




Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 06:26:17
Subject: Re: Materials
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


I'm getting somewhere with your satin project. I came up with two

methods. The ripple method animates waves over your object, but

the satin may penetrate the edges of the CD player; this can be

remedied my landing your CD player a few units away from the

satin's surface; depending on the camera angle, you could get away

with it. The second method uses modelling to create several

states, which can be morphed. Each state can be hand-tweaked to

achieve a flat surface where the CD player will lie.



_________________________________________________________________


THE RIPPLE METHOD: ADDING MOTION IN THE ACTION EDITOR


-    Add a primitive plane, 20x20 sections. (You can start over

     with a more detailed plane, when you get a feel for the

     technique)


-    Move its AXES ONLY to -150,70,0. Give it satin attributes and

     save.


-    In the Action editor, set #frames to 60 and load the object.

     Add a Ripple FX with these settings: Start=1, End=60, Radial

     around Z, 60, 3, 500, 70.


-    Do a wireframe preview in Stage. You'll see a still plane,

     then growing waves move across the surface, then the waves

     taper down to nothing.


PROS:


-    Easy to do.


-    Smoothness of wave motion does not depend on number of

     keyframes.


CONS:


-    Waves are too regular and may not look natural enough for

     your taste.


-    Waves occur everywhere, so you can't land the CD player

     exactly on the satin.



_________________________________________________________________


THE WAVE METHOD: ADDING MOTION IN THE DETAIL EDITOR THROUGH STATES


-    Add a primitive plane, 20x20 sections. (You can start over

     with a more detailed plane, when you get a feel for the

     technique)


-    Rotate 90 degrees in X, then Align AXES ONLY to 0,0,0. This

     makes the plane horizontal, with normally-aligned axes.


-    Place your CD player in its final position. You may want to

     replace it with a simple 1x1 plane to speed up screen

     redraws; all you need is to see where the player will sit.


-    Using Drag Box in Hide Points mode, in the Top view hide all

     the points from the satin plane which lie inside the area

     covered by the CD player, except for one row on each side.

     Then enter Pick Faces mode, define a Drag Box enclosing 2

     extra rows of pojnts outside each side of the player.

     Fracture those faces.


     What I want you to do is basically fracture the satin in the area

     around the CD player, to avoid having big ugly angles showing

     up in front of the CD player's base. But you don't need the

     extra faces created by fracturing under the player, where

     nobody will see. This is why you hid some points before.

     (Isn't Imagine's modeler wonderful?)


-    Create the DEFAULT state, then create STATE-1 through STATE-6

     with Shape on.


-    Scale axes only to 300,30,10 and move the axes only to -

     150,70,0.


-    Apply Functions/Wave. You'll see your satin acquire a series

     of gracefully curved waves, tapering off to one corner.


-    Scale axes only back to 50,50,32 and move the axes only back

     to 0,0,0. Since all states are relative to DEFAULT, any axis

     movement must be undone before updating a new state.


-    Update STATE-1.


-    Set to the DEFAULT state.


-    Scale axes only to 300,30,10 and move the axes only to -

     140,60,0. This moves the origin of the wave effect relative

     to STATE-1.


-    Apply Functions/Wave.


-    Scale axes only back to 50,50,32 and move the axes only back

     to 0,0,0.


-    Update STATE-2.


-    Create STATE-3 through STATE-6. You don't want to create too

     many, because as the axis gets closer to the plane when you

     apply the wave effect, the waves' circular nature becomes

     more noticeable. (As I already stated, blowing wind tends to

     make gently curved waves, not circular ones)


-    You can then morph between each state (starting at STATE-1 --

     forget DEFAULT) to simulate a gently blowing breeze.


ADDING THE CD PLAYER LANDING STRIP <g>:


-    In order to make the satin appear caught under the CD player,

     you need to scale all points under the player by 0 in Z.

     However, this would create an ugly fold; what you need is to

     scale points closer and closer to 0 in Z as you approach the

     edge of the player. This is why we added all those extra

     faces (and points, narf) just outside the base.


     In STATE-1 thru STATE-6, do the following:


-    Enter Pick Points mode with Drag Box on.


-    Select the area around the CD player, including all the extra

     points. Scale them in Z by 0.8.


-    Select the previous area, minus one row of points on each

     side. Scale these points in Z by 0.6.


-    Select the previous area, minus one row of points on each

     side. Scale these points in Z by 0.3.


-    Finally, select the previous area, minus one row of points on

     each side. Scale these points in Z by zero. All the points

     inside this last area will lie flat at Z=0.


     Note: my model had 4 rows of extra satin plane points around

     the edges of the CD player. The cumulative effect of those

     scaling operations will scale each row of points by 0.8, 0.5,

     0.15, and 0. This gives a realistic spline curve to the area.

     If you have more or less than 4 rows of points surrounding

     the CD player, you'll need to come up with your own set of

     numbers. (I think the actual values are not critical. I'm

     being nitpicky.)




When you use Wave, you apply a radial wave, like the ripples when

you drop a pebble in a pond, starting at the axis position.


The ripples diminish depending on their distance from the axis. Z

size controls the maximum height of the ripples, Y size controls

their frequency (how closely-spaced the ripples are), and X size

controls how far away they'll have an effect on your object.


When you move the origin away from the actual object points, you

only apply part of the wave pattern to you satin, so it doesn't

appear like circular waves -- wind blowing across satin doesn't

look like that. (Leave the axis position at the center of the

plane and you'll see what I mean)



_________________________________________________________________


A POSTSCRIPT


After trying this myself, I found my numbers gave rise to an

animation that was slightly chaotic at times. I don't know if I

made a mistake while creating the states (I never touch the stuff

myself), or if the numbers I've suggested are simply off a bit.

(Each state's waves originate 10,10,0 units fron the previous

state's; perhaps I should've made that 5 units and created twice

as many states -- after a while, I got a rhythm going and could

create a new state in 2 minutes)





Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 07:08:25
Subject: Particles effect HELP!?
From:    Scott Krehbiel <[e-mail]>


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



I'm trying to use the particles effect to simulate a block of

Aluminum being pounded by a particle accelerator, to make tiny

little blobs of aluminum shoot off and coat stuff.  This

technique is called Sputtering, and is used in depositing Al

on semiconductor chips to form contact in the photolithography

process.


So I created a plane, 30*30 sections, and used the particle

effect on it in the stage editor.  It seems that the "Distance

Travelled" requestor acts strange.  If I type in 150 as the

distance, they move about 1000.   If I type in 15, they move

about 5.


It's strange... I can't seem to find the connection.  I figured

that either they're moving that distance over the entire length

of the effect, or they move that distance each frame, but neither

seems to be the case.


The REALLY annoying thing is that when I stumble on the right number

to make the particles move 150 units and stop there, that's just

what they do... they stop there and just hang out for a while.


How can I make my partices move 150 units over the 30 frames of my

effect, (not over 5 frames, then take a coffee break) and then

disappear??


Can anyone tell me how to tame this weird requestor??  By the

way, I'm using the effect set to Emission.


Any suggestions would be highly appreciated... I'm supposed to turn

in a finished product on Monday.


Thanks

Scott Krehbiel

[e-mail]





Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 09:51:10
Subject: Re: Cutting up a sphere
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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



> As a comment, I have set "Click", "Drag" and "Lasso" as user buttons at

> the bottom of the screen. I use them so often that the gold is starting

> to wear off! B^D


Why not just use the Defualt Funtion keys F6(click),F8(drag box) & F9(lasso).


Its actually quicker than using the gadgets and leaves extra space for

some other gadgets. Just my opinion, if you like using gadgets for them

thats fine too..


=RRW=




Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 11:10:33
Subject: Fog objects and global fog
From:    ROB NEILL <[e-mail]>


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


I was reading through an old IML archive and saw that someone said that fog

objects idn't work in global fog. Well I got news for you! It does! So I've

made a little underwater scene with low rolling hills along the ocean floor and


a supmarine that appears from out of the fog. OK so heres how you make a cool

fog spotlight...


- Add a primative cone (and leave it OPEN at the bottom for the best effect)

- press F1 to select it

- go into attributes

  - set the fog length to 50

  - make it bright

  - add the ghost texture with these settings:

    150    fog length at T

    1      T

  - hit OK and OK to get back to the detail editor

- Add an axis

- select it with F1

- go into the transformation requester

- click position and type 100 in the Z box. Then OK

The axis should be sitting on the top of the cone.

- rotate it -90 degrees around the x axis so that the y axis points down into

the cone.

- press s and scale the whole axis object by a factor of 1.56 and press space

- then press s then l then shift Y to and scale it by a factor of 2.00

The Y axis should now reach all the way down the cone.

- go into attributes

  - click light

  - click on point source, round shape, cast shadows

  - click OK

  - add a the light texture 'softedge' with default settings

  - click OK to go back to detail editor.

- select both the axis and the cone and select group

- save it


And now you have a fog spot light to rival those of Lightwave. One thing to

note though is that you must keep the wide end of the object hidden in what

ever you're lighting up. eg. if you are pointing it at the ground, scale it so

that the wide end is underground. You can make another one which has a closed

bottom but it doesn't look rounded like this one. Render two, side by side and

find out.

If anyone woud like a demo staging file to see what the hell I'm on about. Tell


me and I'll UUencode it and send it to you.


Happy rendering!


Dylan (Not Rob) Neill

(I'm using my Dads mailing account unil I get my own :)















Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 13:06:13
Subject: Re: Materials
From:    Paul Rance <[e-mail]>


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


Organization: Home

X-MailViewer: Mail 1.12


  On Fri, 3 Feb 1995 07:44:04 +1300 (NZDT) Michael Hazlett <[e-mail]
.nz> said


>Guyz help...


>I'm trying to set up a scene where a cdplayer sits on a piece of satin

>and the wind blows and the satin moves...It won't move correctly!!

>

>What would be a good way to simulate satin material and move it?? I'm

>using the metal texture at the moment.

>

>Thanks.


 If you have essence 2 there is another way. You can use the Seawaves

texture to add a ripple texture to the cloth. All you need to do is

rotate the texture 90 degrees the wrong way, so instead of the Z axis

pointing out from the cloth its inline with the cloth. I've used this

on many occasion to make bed sheets, curtains and it does look nice

and it animates well.


Paul

--

.-------------------------------------------------------------------.

!Email [e-mail]                2:254/516.2@Fidonet    !

`-------------------------------------------------------------------'



Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 13:51:42
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    Ted Stethem <[e-mail]>


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


  Imagine is a great program. With that said, Lightwave is an even

greater program.

  I have had a chance to use Lightwave for awhile and finding a few

things about it that account for its widespread commercial acceptance

versus Imagine.

  Imagine has a very fast rendering engine (the scanline and raytrace

code), much faster than Lightwave's. But, Imagine is doing one thing that

Lightwave does NOT do that is slowing Imagine waayyy down. For some

reason, Imagine has to load all the objects in a scene for EVERY frame.

You see this in the Stage Editor. It takes almost as long to do a

wireframe preview animation in the Stage Editor as it does to do a

Scanline render.

  In Lightwave, the wireframe preview loads all the objects in a scene

just once. Also, the frame-to-frame redraws are very quick. There is a

frame slider bar and you can just use that to move forward through the

frames without having to "render" every frame like the Stage Editor in

Imagine.  If the objects in the wireframe preview are complex, Lightwave

automatically turns them into bounding boxes. The wireframe preview

render in Lightwave is hundreds of times faster than the wireframe

preview render in Imagine. During the wireframe preview render in

Lightwave, the scene screen redraw does not erase for every frame so you

see a continual progression of the changes in the animation.

  And the main reason for this difference in speed is that Imagine has to

reload all the objects for every frame. If you are on a tight schedule,

the wireframe preview is critical before committing to a final render.

  The other thing that Lightwave does very well is scanline shadows.

While Lightwave is not really good for raytracing, the ability to use

scanline shadows provides a raytrace "look" without the increase in

rendering time that raytracing requires.

  Imagine does have a very good raytracer.  In some ways, Imagine is

better as a fine art tool than a production animation tool.  I think that

is why you don't see many commercial applications of Imagine. The setup

time is too long and it takes more time and effort to achieve certain

looks and effects than most commercial houses find acceptable.



Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 18:36:18
Subject: Sway FX
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


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


On the 31st Jan 95, Manjit Bedi wrote:-


> Does anyone have documenation on the sway fx for Imagine 3.0.


> For some reason Impulse neglected to include documentation for this FX

> in the manual or on disk. Even with release 3.1 there was

> documentation of the global FX but still nothing for the Sway FX.


> I tried to use it recenlty and I got indeteriminate results.


Hello Manjit, I've recently purchased V3.0 and page 272 of the manual says

"for a complete list of effects refer to the Effects.doc found in the

Imagine directory."  This doc is'nt on my disks, would someone care to post

this information for all to see?


        Bob.


  : Robert (Bob) Byrne        :  A3000/25  : vox Ph: [phone] :

  : [e-mail] :            :    Ballina, Australia :




Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 18:36:21
Subject: I'm not receiving the IML
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


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


Hello All,  I have'nt received any messages from here for a week. It comes

to me via dms.gate.imagine. As a matter of fact nothing is coming through

dms.gate at all (about 10 groups). Could someone email a reply to me so I

can determine if it's just mail coming in and not mail going out as well.


Thanks in advance,  Bob.



  : Robert (Bob) Byrne        :  A3000/25  : vox Ph: [phone] :

  : [e-mail] :            :    Ballina, Australia :




Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 20:42:48
Subject: Re: Particles effect HELP!?
From:    RIX JAMES <[e-mail]>


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




On Sat, 4 Feb 1995, Scott Krehbiel wrote:


>

> I'm trying to use the particles effect to simulate a block of

> Aluminum being pounded by a particle accelerator, to make tiny

> little blobs of aluminum shoot off and coat stuff.  This

> technique is called Sputtering, and is used in depositing Al

> on semiconductor chips to form contact in the photolithography

> process.

>

      I have noticed the same effect.  The only conclusion I have

reached about the traveled distance is that it is somehow proportional to

the length of the objects Z axis.  The longer the Z axis the greater

distance the particles will move.  I have not tried the following but I

would guess that is probable true.  If you make the Z axis 32 units long,

i.e. the standard axis size, the particles will travel the distance you

desire.


      I wish Impulse would include a LOT more detailed information in their

manuals about HOW Imagine's functions operate!



Known to the Multiverse as Gem Collector

      Do you have a gem for me to collect?



Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 22:03:22
Subject: Imagine TIF's
From:    [e-mail] (Ronald Merritt)


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


Greetings,

      I need to get my Imagine 24 bit TIFF's from my PC to a MAC. Does

anybody know what I should use to get the MAC to read my PC disk?

                      Thanks in advance,

                                      Rich




Date:    Sunday, 05 February 1995 23:27:44
Subject: Re: Haitex 3-D glasses and Imagine
From:    Imagine Mailing List <[e-mail]>


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


Excerpts from mail: 31-Jan-95 Haitex 3-D glasses and Imagine

[e-mail] (815)


> The glasses use to work fine - on my old Amiga 1000.  This is

> the first time that I've plugged them into the 1200.


This is from laziness on impulse's part. Instead of having the software

swap pages they let the interlace flicker do it for them. This has two

disadvantages: You can have stereo images that are interlaced (400+

Y resolution), and you can't view them on a flicker free computer. On

my 3000T, I can flip a switch to disable the flicker fixer. I don't know

if you can do that on the 1200.


> Also - I can't find the original Haitex disc or docs anywhere!


Too bad.. you need the software.


> Has anyone else any experience with these glasses?  Could the interface

> component just be broken?


The best way around this problem is to render each eye as a separate picture,

then join them together with the software that comes with the goggles.

This software does page flipping so you can do 640x480 plus pictures no

problem and should work on any computer.


> \KenR, living in Flatland...


Greg





Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 01:09:40
Subject: Address needed
From:    [e-mail] (Geoff Trebilco)


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


Could someone please advise me of the address of the imagine list manager.


Many thanks   Geoff




Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 01:33:49
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    [e-mail] (Cedric Georges Chang)


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


On Feb 5, 12:55am, Ted Stethem wrote:

>   And the main reason for this difference in speed is that Imagine has to

> reload all the objects for every frame. If you are on a tight schedule,

> the wireframe preview is critical before committing to a final render.


I know exactly what your talking about.  I had a case where speed was crucial,

so I used Color Shade instead of Scanline for output.  Imagine took just as

much time loading the objects and 1MB brushmap than to render the scene.


What I do now (if I have enough memory) is to put my objects and brushmaps in

my Ram Disk.  With use of assigns, I create and edit my objects saving them to

my hard disk, but assign them to the Ram Disk for rendering.  In some cases

this can noticeably speed up projects.  Of course, it would be much less hassle

and more memory efficient if Imagine would do this sort of buffering for you.


Cedric

--

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

Cedric Chang             Mechanical Engineer             // Amiga 3000 '040

[e-mail]    Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute    \X/  EGS Piccolo

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



Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 02:32:21
Subject: Re: Cutting up a sphere
From:    [e-mail] (Ian M. Smith)


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


On 4-Feb-1995, "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]> wrote:

> > As a comment, I have set "Click", "Drag" and "Lasso" as user buttons at

> > the bottom of the screen. I use them so often that the gold is starting

> > to wear off! B^D

>

> Why not just use the Defualt keys F6(click),F8(drag box) & F9(lasso).


I also use "Click" "Box" (Shorter!) and "Lasso" in the user gadgets.

The function keys work ok.. but by far the biggest advantage that I

have founds is that when you have user gadgets.. you can check with a

glance and see what mode you are in!  EVERY Imagine user must have

experienced trying to click on an object while in Drag or Lasso mode

and been confused why it didn't work before realising you are in the

wrong mode.  For me, it is VERY helpfull to be able to see what mode

I am in.


--

Ian M. Smith <[e-mail]>  -- PGP Fingerprint (Email for Key) --

                                  581F3521 6F9D8061 0AA214C8 BE51978D





Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 03:02:14
Subject: Re: Imagine TIF's
From:    Robert Iacullo <[e-mail]>


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


If the two computers are near each other you can use a null modem

cable and transfer using modem programs on each.  Null modem

cables are not hard to make, or find.  If you want to do this

and can't find one, or how to make one, contact me and I'll

look it up.  I don't remember exactly, off hand.  Robert Iacullo



On Sun, 5 Feb 1995, Ronald Merritt wrote:


> Greetings,

>     I need to get my Imagine 24 bit TIFF's from my PC to a MAC. Does

> anybody know what I should use to get the MAC to read my PC disk?

>                     Thanks in advance,

>                                     Rich

>

>



Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 03:43:26
Subject: Re: Haitex 3-D glasses and Imagine
From:    Stephen Lord <[e-mail]>


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


Hi,

 Could someone let me have the instructions for joining/leaving

this mailing lits.. a disk crash means I lost the original!

Thanks

Stephen Lord

[e-mail]



Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 05:22:07
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    [e-mail]


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


Yes I agree that LW is great for  animations requiring tight deadlines and

space shots that do not require any "on screen" emotions. Imagine's primary

strength is in charactor animation. No other tool I've worked with gives the

animator as much power to create "living" objects in 3D as Imagine for the

desktop. I'm probally naive but is there any program capable of delivering

features like the States and Bone attributes like Imagine? Texture and

Brushmap wrapping? With STATES I was able to create  one robot object that

could sit, crawl, standup,walk, run,jump, and do ANYTHING I wanted him to do,

It took me about an hour to create this "charactor"

with all the above mentioned attributes. Time is critical but it depends on

one's perspective.



Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 07:00:17
Subject: Re: Cutting up a sphere
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Ian M. Smith <[e-mail]>


I also use "Click" "Box" (Shorter!) and "Lasso" in the user gadgets.

The function keys work ok.. but by far the biggest advantage that I

have founds is that when you have user gadgets.. you can check with a

glance and see what mode you are in!

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


I actually have "Click", "Drag", "Lasso" and "HidePt" next to each

other. Hide Points definitely needs a user gadget since it has no

command-key equivalent, and placing it next to the pick method buttons

feels quite logical to me.


One advantage user buttons have over F-keys: they're always visible,

staring you in the face. I mean, until Randy reminded me, I had no

recollection that Click, Drag, and Lasso were F-keys!


Anyway, let's leave it at that and bless the day Impulse decided to

implement user gadgets.




Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 07:01:29
Subject: Aminet
From:    [e-mail]


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


I am new...so bear with me.....What is the Aminet....and how do I get access

to it?


      Thanx---


      IvoryMask [ : - } )




Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 07:34:28
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    Ted Stethem <[e-mail]>


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




On 5 Feb 1995, Mike Halvorson wrote:


> Ted

>

>     The Amiga is a bit slow, when you put Imagine on a PC Pentium 90 all of

> the concerns that you have expressed are thrown out the window.  You are right


> about the Amiga, it sorta died and we could do nothing about the speed.

>

>     Mike

>

>

Mike,



  Yes, the standard Amiga clock speed is slow in comparison to a 90 MHz

Pentium but a 60MHz '060 is actually slightly faster than the Pentium.

Even so, the 90 MHz Pentium is still only about 3X faster than a 33 MHz

'040. The screen redraws are faster but the point I was making was that

the screen redraw in Lightwave 3.5 on a 33 MHz accelerated Amiga are

still FASTER than the screen erase/redraw in the Stage Editor of Imagine

on the same machine.

  And most of that seems to be due to the need to reload all the objects in

the scene. Even if the CPU clock speed is much faster, it still cannot make

up for the relatively slow speed of the hard drive you are loading your

objects from.  The alternative is to load all the objects to RAM but that

ends up putting a heavy burden on the RAM requirements, particularly if

you need 4 MB just for Imagine, then however many Megs it takes to render

the scene. Also, it would seem slightly redundant since if the program

were written to handle the objects that way, why not load all the objects

into RAM in the first place?

  I am just curious why Imagine has to re-load all the objects in the

scene for every frame anyway? It seems logical to just load all the

objects in a scene once to RAM, then perform your calculations from there.



Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 09:11:57
Subject: Function Key Favorite
From:    [e-mail]


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




My favorite use of function keys is as follows:



I've configured F2 as "shaded" and F3 as "newmode." To locate obscured

or misaligned points within a complex object I examine the object at

the appropriate angle in the perspective window in pick points mode.

After locating an elusive point in "shaded" I leave the cursor on top

of the point and hit F3. This allows me to pick the right point out of

the maze and then delete or move it where I want it to be. This MUST

be done as a Function Key to avoid the need to move the mouse.



Floater



Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 09:48:24
Subject: 3d job...
From:    [e-mail] (Perry Lucas)


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


I picked this up off a newsgroup that some of you may be interested

in...wish I could do it myself, however, lack the expertise...


>Path:

solaris.cc.vt.edu!news.duke.edu!eff!news.kei.com!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.s

tarnet.net!wupost!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!news1.wolfe.net

!infoman.net99.net!news.rtd.com!news.primenet.com!supreme

>From: [e-mail] (Andrew Myers)

>Newsgroups: alt.3d

>Subject: -- 3D Artists Wanted For Game --

>Date: 6 Feb 1995 03:59:08 GMT

>Organization: Primenet

>Lines: 15

>Message-ID: <3h46qc$[e-mail]>

>NNTP-Posting-Host: usr2.primenet.com

>X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]

>Xref: solaris.cc.vt.edu alt.3d:11944

>

>        I am looking for experienced 3D artists willing to work over the

>Internet for a newly created company called Polaris Entertainment.  We

>are currenty working on a Tank Simulation game that will be in the style

>of and in direct competition with CyberSled.  This game will hopefully

>appear on the 3D0, Jaguar, PC, Sony PS-X, and maybe even coin-ops, by the

>2nd quarter of 1995.  But not without help.

>        The game will not go far without a team of artist.  Right now I

>am the sole artist, and I cannot create the GFX for an entire game if it

>hopes to be released by May.  Pay would be on a by-product basis.

>Royalties are included.  Contact me at:

>

>        [e-mail] or

>        [e-mail]

>

>        Supreme / OTM / Polaris Entertainment

--Perry


                                               _,_/|

                                               \o.O;

------------------------------------------oOO =(___)= OOo------

Perry J.Lucas                                    U

Emails: [e-mail]              "PJ" on Diversity University

        [e-mail]  Telnet:  moo.du.org 8888

        [e-mail]

HTML Hompage:  http://erau.db.erau.edu:80/~lucasp




Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 11:58:56
Subject: Re: Creating a good smoke effect...
From:    [e-mail]


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


 >   just wondering if anyone knew of any good ways to create a good smoke

 >   effect?

 >   e.g. cigarette with smoke trails rising and twirling.

 >   i tried a morphing spiral-shaped object twirling on its axis with fog

 >   attributes and roughness (doesn't seem to work too well...)


This is about the exact way I would have tried to do this.

Have you tried the nebula-texture?


Also, there is a great tutorial on making a torch flame in the latest issue

of the 3D Artist magazine (it's for LightWave but it should be transferable

to Imagine as well I suppose).



begin 666 A.TAG

M#0HM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM

M+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+0T*?"`@($-O;FYY($IO96YS<V]N("`@

M?"`@(%-W961I<V@@4W!A8V4@0V]R<"X@17-R86YG92`@("`@("`@("`@('P-

M"GP@("!+:7)U;F$@("`@("`@("`@('P@("!3871E;&QI=&4@;W!E<F%T:6]N

M<R`M(%1E;&5C;VT@1&EV+B`@("!\#0I\("`@4W=E9&5N("`@("`@("`@("!\

M("`@8VIO0&5S<F%N9V4N<W-C+G-E("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@?`T*

M+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM

6+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2T-"@


end



Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 12:30:45
Subject: Re: caustic
From:    [e-mail] (ERNESTO POVEDA CORTES)


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


>

> Some time ago there was a question about where to find the "caustic"

> texture. Was there a answer i missed ?

>


Hi stranger (no name given),


      i made that question and was answered by a gentle person who wrote me that


this texture and the 'purpaze' one were found in the Imagine 3.1 PC version.

:(

:(



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

  AmIgA RuLeZ                                                         =Tim



  email: [e-mail]   --> My Name is Ernesto, i am not a number!!!

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



Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 14:22:53
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    Kenneth Jennings <[e-mail]>


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




[e-mail]

      wrote about Re: LW vs. Imagine:


[...]

>Imagine's primary

>strength is in charactor animation. No other tool I've worked with gives the

>animator as much power to create "living" objects in 3D as Imagine for the

>desktop. I'm probally naive but is there any program capable of delivering

>features like the States and Bone attributes like Imagine?


I've never used it, but Hash Enterprises Playmation is billed

as a wonderful character animation tool.


>Texture and

>Brushmap wrapping?


Don't know what kind of texture/mapping support Playmation has,

though the none of the images I've seen have anything remotely

complex in the way of surface attributes.


+-------------------------------------+ +-------------------------------------+

|   Kenneth Jennings, Amiga Advocate  | | ======  SyntheToonz, Inc &   ====== |

|  "Happy I'm not a PC/Mac lemming."  | | ====== Equine Video Studios  ====== |

|       [e-mail]      | | = Ken, Computer Animation Artiste = |

| Applied Automation Techniques, Inc. | | =        Lynn, Video Maven        = |

|  Obviously not the opinions of AAT. | | =      Bruno The Wonder Dog       = |

+-------------------------------------+ +-------------------------------------+

"You'd think that PC and Mac users willing to gut their systems to achieve the

 Amiga's level of performance would just save themselves the trouble and buy

 Amigas in the first place. But they don't know any better -- they read BYTE."




Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 19:07:06
Subject: ------=> Sorry NO Subject!
From:    [e-mail]


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



> >     just wondering if anyone knew of any good ways to create a good smoke

> >     effect?

> >     e.g. cigarette with smoke trails rising and twirling.

> >     if anyone can help, please, please, please enlighten me...

>

> Yeh, there was a smoke tutorial on an old IML archive. And it goes like this..
.


[Smoke tutorial deleted]


This creates a HUGE object that will probably finish rendering about the

time the Amiga makes it's comeback!


What I did lately was created a gentle swirly path with the spline editor

in the shape of a rising smoke column in a slight breeze.  In the detail

editor I added a simple disk (about 6 sided) and distorted it to break the

symetry.  I extruded the disk along the swirly path with lots of rotation

(like 2000 degrees worth) and an increasing X/Z scaling.  I made the

resulting object foggy and it looks great.


The only problem is that the object is most opaque at the top where the

object is widest and it should be most opaque near the bottom where the

smoke source is.  Anybody know how to invert the fog algorithm?


Oh well - it doesn't have to look real, it just has to look good!


      Mike

--

Mike Bandy      [e-mail]

Johns Hopkins University / Applied Physics Laboratory




Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 20:55:01
Subject: RE: LW VS. IMAGINE
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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



-> desktop. I'm probally naive but is there any program capable of de=

liv

-> features like the States and Bone attributes like Imagine? Texture=

 an

-> Brushmap wrapping? With STATES I was able to create  one robot obj=

ect

-> could sit, crawl, standup,walk, run,jump, and do ANYTHING I wanted=

 hi


I personally prefer Imagine only because I "know" it better, but I th=

ink

Lightwave certainly impliments BONES much better and easier. In LW, a=

ll

you have to do is click from one axis to another to create a BONE the=

n

point and drag the axis to it's new keyframe position. I still haven'=

t

figured out how to use Bones in Imagine. :)


STATES is a life saver, however. What Imagine really needs is a serie=

s

of Video Tutorials like Lee Stranahan has done with Lightwave 3D. You

could then throw away the manual!


Mike -


Email: [e-mail]

BBS: GraFX Haus (Santa Barbara, Ca.) 805-683-1388 v.32 14.4 HST dual

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 20:55:24
Subject: Re: lha again!
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


>

>

> I tried this too!

>

>

> >  Get the latest version of LHA for the PC and the rename the archive files

> >from *.lha to *.lzh(this is the extension that the PC uses) and you should

> >have no problems.

>

> >  I regularly use LHA to get files from AMINET, as well as transfering back

> >and forth between my PC at home and the Amigas at school.

>

> >  Kurt

>

>

Some creative soul should develop a GUI for LHa in windows much the same as

GuiArc on the Amiga. That way, you never have to worry about all those arcane

switches and in which order things go. I haven't looked at LHa in the cli in

ages.



Doug Rudd

[e-mail]

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

The Amiga Guide to the Galaxy refers to Commodore's management as

"A bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first to be lined up

against the wall and shot when the revolution comes."

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

They will get my Amiga from me when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

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





Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 21:19:43
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    [e-mail]


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


> I'm probally naive but is there any program capable of delivering

> features like the States and Bone attributes like Imagine? Texture and

> Brushmap wrapping?


There are plenty of programs more powerful than Imagine, but at what cost?

 There is Alias PowerAnimator, SoftImage and Prisms for Silicon Graphics if you

want to spend over $20,000 (at least) for software and hardware.  For the PC

level, the competition is tighter, but I would say that Animation Master has

Imagine beat for character animation, and Lightwave has really nice motion

control graphs for every "bone" and object that, depending on your project, can

really add a lot of power and flexibility.


Imagine is powerful, yes, but with small changes it could be much more

intuitive, faster and competitive.


Also, many animators I know hate Impulse's technical help.  Maybe they have

changed, but years ago they had the habit of writing horrible, confusing

documentation, and when called and asked for help, they would say "you need to
experiment with it!", and be real short and unhelpful.  I think this explains a

lot of the migration to Lightwave.  Animators will use what it takes to get the

job done, which is not necessarily the most powerful software.





--

 _____________________________________________________________________________



 Craig Hoffman                    [e-mail]          [phone]

 Walt Disney Feature Animation    1420 Flower Street       Glendale, CA  91221

 _____________________________________________________________________________




Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 23:25:09
Subject: ISL(??)
From:    Karl Dyson <[e-mail]>


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


Please will someone tell me what ISL is?


Also, where can I get some decent spaceship textures?


Thanx for listening!?!


Goodbye for now,


   KARL Dyson




Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 23:34:54
Subject: Re: lha again!
From:    Kelly Computer Consultants <[e-mail]>


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


On Mon, 6 Feb 1995, Douglas Rudd wrote:

> >

> Some creative soul should develop a GUI for LHa in windows much the same as

> GuiArc on the Amiga. That way, you never have to worry about all those arcane

> switches and in which order things go. I haven't looked at LHa in the cli in

> ages.

>

>

> Doug Rudd

> [e-mail]

>

Done.  Look for WinZip 5.0, shareware, most Windows-oriented sites and

mirrors.  Handles ZIP, LZH and a bunch of other compression formats as well.


Doug Kelly



Date:    Monday, 06 February 1995 23:38:55
Subject: Smoke tutorial?
From:    [e-mail]


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


Hi,


Could someone please resend me the smoke tutorial posted over the weekend? I

accidently deleted it instead of printing.  Thanks!


-Scott

[e-mail]




Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 00:42:47
Subject: Re[2]: Creating a good smoke effect...
From:    [e-mail]


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


     i tried this effect (LONG render time, even on DX4-100, 16megs) and it

     works great for a smokestack effect or maybe a steamboat or train or

     something like that.



     but, what about the smoke from a cigarette or a raging fire???



     also, if you reverse the angle for the particles and change the

     attribs to that of water, you get a (you guessed it!) waterstream,

     with some tweaking maybe even a waterfall or water hose. (NOW we're

     talking render time :) )...food for thought



        any ideas on how to speed up rendering, guys???  (I tried using

pyramids(=less faces) but only a minor speed increase)


        later

        [e-mail]


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________


Subject: Re: Creating a good smoke effect...

Author:  Mike McCool <[e-mail]> at PROFGTWY

Date:    2/2/95 12:27 AM



 >Hey guy,

 >This tutorial showed up back in October, so I'll attach it to

>the bottom of this letter.  It is not by its actual author, who actually

>piped up with a correction, which I'll also post to you, along with a fog

>object.







>Do U want simulate 3d animated smoke using particles??

                                        >Check this Tutorial out:



>-detail editor

  >-add primitives: sphere

  >-attributes: color 255,255,255      fog 140

     >clrnoiz texture:




Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 00:50:14
Subject: 8-color Imagine
From:    [e-mail] (Kaspar Stromme)


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


Just thought i'd share this neat trick with you all: (thanks to Fred Aaron)


Using a program called add44k I have been successfully running the

Imagine editors in 8 color hi-res, and the updates are a lot faster than

the standard 16 color setup. Only problems I have discovered so far:

the grid uses color 9 so no grid. Also, the palette boxes do not work

correctly. But except for that all seems well. Colors 10-16 are duplicates

of 2-7 and are apparently only used for the palette boxes. Kinda silly

when you think about it. It seems Impulse could easily design Imagine to

run in 8-colors.


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

  Kaspar Stromme                                  40mhz68030/'882;9MB;340MB

  [e-mail]                               DCTV true-color system


  PC-MAC = PoliticalCorrect-MindAbsentComputing

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



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 00:56:57
Subject: Re: More Imagine Textures
From:    [e-mail]


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


Re: Essence 1 & 2


I spoke to Steve Worley last week and he said that the IBM versions of the

Essence textures are about done and will be available early march. The amiga

->IBM crossover is to be about $30 per set. I forgot to ask what the reg.

price will be.


Also Understanding Imagine 3.0 will be out about the same time!!!!



Just thought you'd like to know!


Steve



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 01:53:25
Subject: Imagine and lightwave
From:    [e-mail]


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


I've taught some Imagine classes, and there are always several LW users that

show up, and I've found that many of the problems they have with Imagine are

conceptual. The old analogy of the difference in learning to drive on a

stickshift vs. learning on an automatic seems to apply here. The fact is,

Lightwave animations look like Lightwave animations, no matter who has put

the piece together. This is not to say they look inferior, to the contrary

they obviously look ok or they would not be on broadcast TV. But Imagine

allows the flexibility to make any work look like any package's rendering,

should the user choose to do so. If you have a need for flying logo's, space

ships that currently look like they were all made at the same shipyards, and

things like that, then LW is probably the way to go. But serious animators

come up on problems that are a bit more complicated than that. And if you

are proficient with Imagine, you'll be able to figure out a way to make it

happen. The transition from Imagine to LW seems a lot easier than from LW

to Imagine. Hence the learning to drive analogy. Any software becomes easy

to use with enough time invested in learning it.



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 02:11:41
Subject: 3D Artist magazine
From:    [e-mail] (Gareth Qually)


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


Someone on the list made a reference to a magazine called 3D Artist

magazine. What is this magazine about? Who publishes it, where and how

much?

Could someone give me a phone/fax or email address of this magazine so I

could call them up.


Thanks.


Chow...


[e-mail]



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 02:40:36
Subject: Re: RELAY BOUNCE
From:    [e-mail]


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


 >

 >   Yes, the standard Amiga clock speed is slow in comparison to a 90 MHz

 > Pentium but a 60MHz '060 is actually slightly faster than the Pentium.


 >-- End of excerpt from [e-mail]



 What is this about a '060?!?  Rumors and numbers have been flying forever!

  What's the use of posting comparisons for a CPU that you can't buy?




 --

  _____________________________________________________________________________


  Craig Hoffman                    [e-mail]          [phone]

  Walt Disney Feature Animation    1420 Flower Street       Glendale, CA  91221

  _____________________________________________________________________________






--

 _____________________________________________________________________________



 Craig Hoffman                    [e-mail]          [phone]

 Walt Disney Feature Animation    1420 Flower Street       Glendale, CA  91221

 _____________________________________________________________________________




Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 03:12:08
Subject: Re: Cutting up a sphere
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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



> > Why not just use the Defualt keys F6(click),F8(drag box) & F9(lasso).

>

> I also use "Click" "Box" (Shorter!) and "Lasso" in the user gadgets.

> The function keys work ok.. but by far the biggest advantage that I

> have founds is that when you have user gadgets.. you can check with a

> glance and see what mode you are in!  EVERY Imagine user must have

> experienced trying to click on an object while in Drag or Lasso mode

> and been confused why it didn't work before realising you are in the

> wrong mode.  For me, it is VERY helpfull to be able to see what mode

> I am in.


Sounds good to me, I was just making it known that there are defualts for

this. I don't find I need something to remind me what mode I'm in, and

would rather use the gadgets for other commands or tools..Like I said

if he likes it this way, thats fine too.


Of course you could always set the F6, F8 & F9 keys to something else too.

So it really makes no difference which way you go. Unless of course you

like having a reference as you mentioned.


I personally find the funtion keys to be quicker to use. But this is only

my opinion, as I have already stated.


=RRW=



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 03:48:21
Subject: Re: Cutting up a sphere
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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



> I also use "Click" "Box" (Shorter!) and "Lasso" in the user gadgets.

> The function keys work ok.. but by far the biggest advantage that I

> have founds is that when you have user gadgets.. you can check with a

> glance and see what mode you are in!

> ------------------------------------------------------------

>

> I actually have "Click", "Drag", "Lasso" and "HidePt" next to each

> other. Hide Points definitely needs a user gadget since it has no

> command-key equivalent, and placing it next to the pick method buttons

> feels quite logical to me.

>

> One advantage user buttons have over F-keys: they're always visible,

> staring you in the face. I mean, until Randy reminded me, I had no

> recollection that Click, Drag, and Lasso were F-keys!


hehehe, well I geuss I'm alone in my prefrences, but I do agree with the

HidePoints, I have a gadget named HD and I leave it at the end of the

row so its easy to get at. I geuss I still use the Funtion keys as a

force of habbit from the 1.x days.


> Anyway, let's leave it at that and bless the day Impulse decided to

> implement user gadgets.


Yes I must agree, that was a fine day indeed! hehehe



=RRW=





Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 04:14:26
Subject: Re: 3D Artist magazine
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



Hi everyone (first post as a list member),


Gareth Qually wrote:

> Someone on the list made a reference to a magazine called 3D Artist

> magazine. What is this magazine about? Who publishes it, where and how

> much?

> Could someone give me a phone/fax or email address of this magazine so I

> could call them up.


3D Artist magazine

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

Magazine for users of 3D Studio, Lightwave 3D, Topas and other

popular programs including low-cost programs. Topics includes

modeling, lighting, camera work, character animation, sound, and

video.


12 issues/year.

Available from

3D Artist magazine

P.O. Box 4787

Santa Fe, NM  87502

USA

Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

Rates:

$29/year in USA

$41/year in Canada

$46/year elsewhere

VISA/MC accepted


source of above info:

"Computer Graphics, Computational Geometry and Image Processing Journals"


--

Shane Davison (tsml)

[e-mail]




Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 04:28:56
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    Kenneth Jennings <[e-mail]>


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




[e-mail]

      wrote Re: LW vs. Imagine


[deleted -> naive question about matching Imagines's features...]


[deleted -> Craig's response...]


>Imagine is powerful, yes, but with small changes it could be much more

>intuitive, faster and competitive.

>

>Also, many animators I know hate Impulse's technical help.


Count me in with that group.


>Maybe they have

>changed, but years ago they had the habit of writing horrible, confusing

>documentation, and when called and asked for help, they would say "you need to

>experiment with it!", and be real short and unhelpful.


This, I believe, is one of the constants of the universe.  Until time

and space collapse back on themselves, Impulse's tech support will

stink.  I have had them lie to my face (on the phone that is) about

the existence of a bug that I had previously reported and a

magazine article coroborated.  Their favorit phrase is, "I doesn't do

that on any of our computers."  Grrrrrrrr.


>I think this explains a

>lot of the migration to Lightwave.


I like Imagine's detail editor much more than Modeler.  Lightwave

renders much quicker, that's about all I like about it -- Oh, and

the Arexx port, too.


>Animators will use what it takes to get the

>job done, which is not necessarily the most powerful software.


 _____________________________________________________________________________



 Craig Hoffman                    [e-mail]          [phone]

 Walt Disney Feature Animation    1420 Flower Street       Glendale, CA  91221

 _____________________________________________________________________________


+-------------------------------------+ +-------------------------------------+

|   Kenneth Jennings, Amiga Advocate  | | ======  SyntheToonz, Inc &   ====== |

|  "Happy I'm not a PC/Mac lemming."  | | ====== Equine Video Studios  ====== |

|       [e-mail]      | | = Ken, Computer Animation Artiste = |

| Applied Automation Techniques, Inc. | | =        Lynn, Video Maven        = |

|  Obviously not the opinions of AAT. | | =      Bruno The Wonder Dog       = |

+-------------------------------------+ +-------------------------------------+

"You'd think that PC and Mac users willing to gut their systems to achieve the

 Amiga's level of performance would just save themselves the trouble and buy

 Amigas in the first place. But they don't know any better -- they read BYTE."




Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 04:57:29
Subject: Re: 3D Artist magazine
From:    Kelly Computer Consultants <[e-mail]>


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


3D Artist is edited by Bill Allen, published by Columbine, Inc., and can

be reached at 505-982-3532, or via snail-mail at:


P.O. Box 4787

Santa Fe, NM 87502


Issue #18 should be coming out RSN.


Doug Kelly

(a sometime contributor to 3D Artist ;)  )



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 05:46:47
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    Ted Stethem <[e-mail]>


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




On Mon, 6 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:


> <snip>

:

> Imagine is powerful, yes, but with small changes it could be much more

> intuitive, faster and competitive.

>

> Also, many animators I know hate Impulse's technical help.  Maybe they have

> changed, but years ago they had the habit of writing horrible, confusing

> documentation, and when called and asked for help, they would say "you need to


> experiment with it!", and be real short and unhelpful.  I think this explains
a

> lot of the migration to Lightwave.  Animators will use what it takes to get th
e

> job done, which is not necessarily the most powerful software.

>

>

>

>

> --

>  _____________________________________________________________________________


>

>  Craig Hoffman                    [e-mail]          [phone]


>  Walt Disney Feature Animation    1420 Flower Street       Glendale, CA  91221


>  _____________________________________________________________________________


>

>

  This is the point I was trying to make and I agree completely. Right

now, Imagine has some features that even Lightwave doesn't have and I

think the Detail Editor and Forms Editor are more powerful than LW

Modeler overall, but Lightwave 4.0 is going to be available very soon for

the PC (Windows and WindowsNT), the SGI, and of course, the Amiga, with

quite a few improvements.

  I think you can get some terrific results with Imagine with enough

"experimentation" as Impulse recommends.  However, a lot of 3D animatiors

don't have the luxury of 20 Pentiums with 128 MB of RAM in each machine

and 20 Gigabyte harddrives, running multiple versions of Imagine

textures, to have the "sufficient computing speed and power to "experiment"

and find that right combination of parameters and layering, etc. and

still meet deadlines.



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 08:21:23
Subject: Re: RELAY BOUNCE
From:    Ted Stethem <[e-mail]>


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


  A Cyberstorm '060/60MHz was demo'ed at World of Amiga in England in

December.

It will be available soon (the delay is getting enough '060's from Motorola)

and is supposed to cost less than a Warp '040/40. In

addition (maybe no help on the Amiga), there is a dual '060 VME board

available for OEM's. It is advertised in Electronic Engineering Times.

There have been a few benchmark studies published in a couple of places

that shows the 60 MHz '060 is faster than a 90 MHz Pentium for some

benchmarks. You can pick up any of several PC magazines right now on the

newstands that have some benchmarks comparing 80 MHz 486 vs. 90 MHz

Pentiums, and find that with several machines (depending on the

manufacturer) that the 90 MHz Pentium is often only 30% faster than the

80 MHz 486.

 I have found myself, running the same project on two machines, one a 25

MHz '040 Amiga and the other a 33 MHz 486, that the 25 MHz Amiga is

slightly faster than the 33 MHz 486 in rendering the same Imagine v3.0

project. I am not saying this holds true for all instances in all cases,

just one "benchmark" project that I was able to try. For some reason, the

"cleanup" time on the PC version takes quite a bit longer than the Amiga,

accounting for enough delay, to make the speed of the Amiga slightly

faster. Just a learning experience for me that raw clock speed is not an

absolute indicator.


On Mon, 6 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:


>  >

>  >   Yes, the standard Amiga clock speed is slow in comparison to a 90 MHz

>  > Pentium but a 60MHz '060 is actually slightly faster than the Pentium.

>

>  >-- End of excerpt from [e-mail]

>

>

>  What is this about a '060?!?  Rumors and numbers have been flying forever!

>   What's the use of posting comparisons for a CPU that you can't buy?

>

>

>

>  --

>   ____________________________________________________________________________
_

>

>   Craig Hoffman                    [e-mail]          (818) 544-217
9

>   Walt Disney Feature Animation    1420 Flower Street       Glendale, CA  91221


>   ____________________________________________________________________________
_

>

>

>

>

>

> --

>  _____________________________________________________________________________


>

>  Craig Hoffman                    [e-mail]          [phone]


>  Walt Disney Feature Animation    1420 Flower Street       Glendale, CA  91221


>  _____________________________________________________________________________


>

>



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 08:48:35
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    Ted Stethem <[e-mail]>


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




On 6 Feb 1995, Mike Halvorson wrote:


> Ted

>

>     I assume you have 3.1, it has a new feature we call quickview, it redraws

> so fast that it boggles the mind, it will not do a full object it does boundin
g

> boxes,. but I from time to time find myself involved with a movie or a tv show
,

> I use this feature all the time.

>

>     As far as loading the objects and other things when needed has to do with

> the memory managment going back to when a 1meg machine was all we had.  WE cou
ld

> do as you ask, but it would blow some users out of the box.  We have always

> tried to take care of a broad base of users with varried machine types, runnin
g

> from lowly 500 with no memory to machines with terrabytes of memory.  So this
is

> why we have continued on the road that we all travel.  In the future I am sure


> this will change./

>

>     Mike

>

>

Mike,

  Yes, I know about Quickview and it is a great addition to Imagine. Not

to belabor the point, though, is that this type of mode in Lightwave is

automatic. In LW, one can go to the frame advance bar at the bottom of

the scene view and pull it across all the frames in the scene, and if the

scene contains complex objects of sufficient polygons, LW switches to the

bounding box mode automatically and one can observe the movement of

objects in real time versus having to render it as in Stage Editor.  This

direct interactivity adds a lot to the immediate feedback an animator

needs. I am working on a scene where a spaceship flies in from the

foreground, firing lasers at a ship in the background, that is firing

back, takes a hit and explodes into dozens of pieces in a flash and

fireball.  It is amazing to be able to take the slider bar and slide

across 160 frames in real time and watch the path of the attacking ship,

the laser bolts firing and the target ship blow into pieces without

having to wait for individual frames to load objects, waiting for the

screen to redraw, erasing the screen, advancing to the next frame,

waiting for the objects to reload, waiting for the screen to redraw, etc.

That real time interaction can be really exciting.


- Ted



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 09:33:30
Subject: Re: lha again!
From:    [e-mail] (Perry Lucas)


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


The latest version of winzip 5.6b (I think) has this option...Just have to

tell it where to find the executable part.  I know it can be found on

Compu$erve in the shareware areas.



>Some creative soul should develop a GUI for LHa in windows much the same as

>GuiArc on the Amiga. That way, you never have to worry about all those arcane

>switches and in which order things go. I haven't looked at LHa in the cli in

>ages.

>

>

>Doug Rudd

>[e-mail]

>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


>The Amiga Guide to the Galaxy refers to Commodore's management as

>"A bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first to be lined up

>against the wall and shot when the revolution comes."

>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


>They will get my Amiga from me when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


>

>

--Perry


                                               _,_/|

                                               \o.O;

------------------------------------------oOO =(___)= OOo------

Perry J.Lucas                                    U

Emails: [e-mail]              "PJ" on Diversity University

        [e-mail]  Telnet:  moo.du.org 8888

        [e-mail]

HTML Hompage:  http://erau.db.erau.edu:80/~lucasp




Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 11:13:53
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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


>     As far as loading the objects and other things when needed has to do

>  with the memory managment going back to when a 1meg machine was all we

> had.  WE could do as you ask, but it would blow some users out of the

> box.  We have always tried to take care of a broad base of users with

> varried machine types, running from lowly 500 with no memory to

> machines with terrabytes of memory.  So this is why we have continued

> on the road that we all travel.  In the future I am sure

> this will change./

>

> Mike,


Hmmm? I don't know why but a T/F prefs setting comes to mind here, True

if you only have a small amount of ram and want to load objects for

every frame and False if you have Gigs, and Gigs of ram and don't want to

load objects for every frame..


I must admit I think reloading objects every frame is one of Imagines

weakest, and worse things it does.. especially for animators.



=RRW=



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 12:40:55
Subject: Re: Function Key Favorite
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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


>

> My favorite use of function keys is as follows:

>

> I've configured F2 as "shaded" and F3 as "newmode." To locate obscured

> or misaligned points within a complex object I examine the object at

> the appropriate angle in the perspective window in pick points mode.

> After locating an elusive point in "shaded" I leave the cursor on top

> of the point and hit F3. This allows me to pick the right point out of

> the maze and then delete or move it where I want it to be. This MUST

> be done as a Function Key to avoid the need to move the mouse.

>

> Floater


Thats a really good use, I'll have to give it a try. I have something

similar in gadgets but like the idea of not having to move the mouse.

I usually manage Ok even when I do move the mouse, but your idea does

sound like it would be nice.


I have a couple of favorites, but probably not as nice as yours.



In the Detial Editor I like having Shft-F9 as SetZone, Shft-F10 as

ClearZone, and F10 as Quickrender, also I like F2 as MakeSubgroup and F3

as PickSubgroup (I may have to make these gadgets if I like yours) but I

do find them quite handy and don't mind the gadgets I have set as you have

for your Functions keys, but I will have to try your idea. I also like F4 as

Lock and Shft-F4 as QuickdrawToggle, Shft-F6 for States. I could probably

move my F2 (MkSub) & F3 (PckSub) commands to shft-F7 & shft-F8. As I don't

care for what I have there now to much.


I have in the Stage editor F9 for going into the Action Editor,

and in the Action Editor F9 for going back into the Stage Editor and use

the R/A_s key for saving before I use these. I have others but these are

my favorites.


=RRW=



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 13:00:30
Subject: Re: Fog objects and global fog
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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



> I was reading through an old IML archive and saw that someone said that fog

> objects idn't work in global fog. Well I got news for you! It does! So I've

> made a little underwater scene with low rolling hills along the ocean floor an
d

> a supmarine that appears from out of the fog.


Well, I can tell you why you think the fog object is working and thats

becuase you have the ghost texture added to it, but I can tell you if you

take this texture off the object it will not render the fog

thicker for the object. In fact even with the Ghost texture it still

doesn't look completly correct at the edges. Try using it with a thick

global fog. and you will see what I'm talking about.



It does produce an effect similar to what one would expect, and in a

light fog would probably work just fine. But I wouldn't go so far as to say

fog objects do render correctly. Try a fog object with a nebula, fogtop

or fog paint textures and you will see that the fog object becomes

clear in spots.



Anyways, I'm not knocking your fog spotlight. It probably works great.

It looks familar to something I posted a tutorial on for 2.0 a long while

back. But modified a bit for 3.0. Not that thats what you did. I'm just

saying it looks familar, but then many effects do.


But Fog objects by themself still do not make the fog thicker.


But on the other side this can produce a nice shield effect for something.

Hmmm maybe the invisible man in the fog. hehehehe!


=RRW=



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 19:40:08
Subject: Disco Ball Effect
From:    [e-mail]


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


     hello everyone...



     last night i was trying to do a disco ball effect, you know like

     saturday night fever :)



     i made a primitive sphere and scaled and rotated selected points to

     make angular patches on the sphere.  then made it reflective 90% and

     put it inside of a box (extruded plane) then aimed two lights from 2

     angles.  ok so far, but



     when i render, i can see the reflection of the light on the wall in

     the sphere, but the light shining off the sphere is not hitting any of

     the walls...argh



     is this something which imagine cannot do or am i doing something

     wrong.  please help!!!



     thanks

     alan out...




Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 19:52:49
Subject: RE: LHA AGAIN!
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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



-> From: Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>

-> Subject: Re: lha again!

-> >

-> Some creative soul should develop a GUI for LHa in windows much th=

e s

-> GuiArc on the Amiga. That way, you never have to worry about all t=

hos

-> switches and in which order things go. I haven't looked at LHa in =

the

-> ages.


They have. It's called WinZip. I think it's up to ver. 5 now. It

supports any compressor you want.

        _______________________________________________________

      /_________________________________________________________\

    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =

|=3D

  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =

|=3D

  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =

|=3D

  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =

|=3D

  =3D|_______________________________________________________________=

|=3D

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 20:14:12
Subject: Understanding Imagine 3.0
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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



-> From: [e-mail]

-> Subject: Re: More Imagine Textures

->

-> Re: Essence 1 & 2

->

-> I spoke to Steve Worley last week and he said that the IBM version=

s o

-> Essence textures are about done and will be available early march.=

 Th

-> ->IBM crossover is to be about $30 per set. I forgot to ask what t=

he

-> price will be.

-> Also Understanding Imagine 3.0 will be out about the same time!!!!

-> Just thought you'd like to know!


Yes, I think everyone would be interested in THAT info. Thanks. Did

he mention any port of The Forge for the IBM?

        _______________________________________________________

      /_________________________________________________________\

    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =

|=3D

  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =

|=3D

  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =

|=3D

  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =

|=3D

  =3D|_______________________________________________________________=

|=3D

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 21:58:33
Subject: Re: lha again!
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


>

> The latest version of winzip 5.6b (I think) has this option...Just have to

> tell it where to find the executable part.  I know it can be found on

> Compu$erve in the shareware areas.

>

I have an older version of this prog. The newer one can handle Lha as well

as zip? I'll have to try that. As it is, Lha at the dos prompt is no joy.

I wonder if most of the problems discussed out here might not evolve from

too many choices and too little time. Lha is complex and literal minded.





Doug Rudd

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

You're paid to stop a bullet. It's a soldier's job, they say.


So then you stop that bullet. And then they stop your pay.

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



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 23:05:01
Subject: WANTED:F1 Car and Guitar models...
From:    James Brennan <[e-mail]>


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


As the title says I'm looking for any models of formula 1 cars or guitars.I've t
ried to do some of

my own but their crap!

Please mail any models you have of the above if you could.Thanks very much...


                      [e-mail]



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 23:09:34
Subject: Re: Disco Ball Effect
From:    Curcio Nicholas <[e-mail]>


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




On Tue, 7 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:


>      i made a primitive sphere and scaled and rotated selected points to

>      make angular patches on the sphere.  then made it reflective 90% and

>      put it inside of a box (extruded plane) then aimed two lights from 2

>      angles.  ok so far, but

>

>      when i render, i can see the reflection of the light on the wall in

>      the sphere, but the light shining off the sphere is not hitting any of

>      the walls...argh

>

>      is this something which imagine cannot do or am i doing something

>      wrong.  please help!!!


No raytracer (that I know of) can do this.  To reflect lights you need a

radiosity raytracer.  These aren't too common and take forever to render

scenes.


What you could do is make some sort of transparency map (or use the

transpar.itx texture with something else as I did with the underwater

lighting) and put a light source inside the disco ball so that the light

shines out from the ball.


Hope this helps.


Later,

Nick




Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 23:09:37
Subject: Re: 3D Artist magazine
From:    Paul Rance <[e-mail]>


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


Organization: Home

X-MailViewer: Mail 1.12


  On Mon, 6 Feb 1995 20:43:37 -0500 (EST) Kelly Computer Consultants <kcc@wariat
.org> said

>

>3D Artist is edited by Bill Allen, published by Columbine, Inc., and can

>be reached at 505-982-3532, or via snail-mail at:

>

>P.O. Box 4787

>Santa Fe, NM 87502

>

>Issue #18 should be coming out RSN.

>


Does anyone know if this magazine is available in the UK from

somewhere.


thanks


Paul




--

.-------------------------------------------------------------------.

!Email [e-mail]                2:254/516.2@Fidonet    !

`-------------------------------------------------------------------'



Date:    Tuesday, 07 February 1995 23:30:47
Subject: Re: Disco Ball Effect
From:    [e-mail]


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


>

>      is this something which imagine cannot do or am i doing something

>      wrong.  please help!!!


      Actually, it's something ray-tracers in general can't do. Scenes are

rendered opposite to convention. That is, a ray is traced from the camera to a

light, not from the light to the camera. Therefore, light reflecting off of

objects, bouncing, and in turn hitting other objects is not possible.

      A technique exists, called Radiosity, that attempts to simulate late

"real-world" lighting effects. Unfortunately, Imagine (as well as the majority

of commercial software on the market) does not have this rendering

capability. It's just as well since the process is extremely processor

intensive (read: takes a loooong amount of time), though the results can be

stunning..

      Since 3D visualization is just a simulation anyway, you can fake the

effects with several well placed lights or textures.

      I suppose you could make an inner sphere with lots of holes in

it. Stick a point lightsource in this and have the whole thing rotate. It

wouldn't be the best method (points of light would be sharp), but it would

do.

      Anyone know what would happen if you made a sphere totally

transparent, but totally reflective? Would a lightsource (with shadows

enabled) pass through it? Would the object look like glass from the outside

(because of the high reflectancy) at the same time? If so, then take your

orignal sphere object, give it 255,255,255 filter, and 255,255,255 reflect

values. Hopefully, the inner sphere will act as a gobo/cookie thing while the

outer sphere gives the impression of the disco-ball glass.

      Unfortunately, I've given up rendering with Imagine in favor of a more

flexible renderer. I still model with Imagine, but Impulse needs to severely

upgrade the quality and flexibility of both its Scanliner (!!), and Ray-Tracer

to be able to compete anymore. Actually, the Ray-Tracer is fine (it just needs

more flexibility), but the Scanliner is still a joke (sorry)...


                                                              J.---->


E-Mail: [e-mail]






Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 00:22:13
Subject: Re: Disco Ball Effect
From:    [e-mail]


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




Sorry, ray tracing doesn't work that way (usually)...You need radiosity.  The

portion of the wall will check to see if lights are pointed at it when it is

being shaded, but will NOT check to see if REFLECTED light is impinging upon it.



One way to do this:


Use Scanline rendering (or ray-tracing, but make sure the new lights are outside


the disco ball if using ray-tracing).  Set up a cluster of multi-colored

blinking spotlights inside the disco ball that rotate with it and point outward.


 The original lights will illuminate the disco ball and the new lights will

illuminate the wall with the spinning/blinking effect seen in your favorite

disco-theque!  This will also allow you to use a nice lens flare since the new

spinning spot-lights will occasionally point directly at the camera!


Good luck!


-craig





--

 _____________________________________________________________________________



 Craig Hoffman                    [e-mail]          [phone]

 Walt Disney Feature Animation    1420 Flower Street       Glendale, CA  91221

 _____________________________________________________________________________




Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 00:40:59
Subject: Function key Favorite
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Rivers)


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


RRW> >

RRW> > My favorite use of function keys is as follows:

RRW> >

RRW> > I've configured F2 as "shaded" and F3 as "newmode." To locate

RRW> obscured


Be nice if Impulse added those to the perspective view gadget as they

did with A Z & P


RRW> I have a couple of favorites, but probably not as nice as yours.


RRW> In the Detial Editor I like having Shft-F9 as SetZone, Shft-F10 as

RRW> ClearZone, and F10 as Quickrender, also I like F2 as MakeSubgroup and

RRW> F3

RRW> as PickSubgroup (I may have to make these gadgets if I like yours) but


I've found the gadget setup very usefull:


  Group       SubGroups       Sharp Edges   Quick Edges   Filter

[Un][Grp] [...Un][Sub][Pk] [...Un][Srp][Pk] [...Un][Qwk] [...Fltr]


Pk=Pick


Note: the periods above aren't displayed in the gadget, but they do cause

      imagine to put a (one pixel/per period) gap between the gadgets,

      which helps keep things from getting to cluttered.


I also have the Pick Groups through Pick Points, Hide Points, & Drag Points

as gadgets, but to save room I just use the first letter of each command


-----Pick-----

[G][O][F][E][P] [H][D]

 r  b  a  d  o   i  r

 o  j  c  g  i   d  a

 u  .  e  e  n   e  g

 p


I've shown a few people my setup, and usually the first remarks are

"What the hell are all those buttons for!?" :^) , But it works for me.


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

|  Commodore failure. Press mouse button to continue  |

|  Guru Meditation  $35000000     Task : $00000CBM    |

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

          A4000/060/90mhz WOW! this is fast.

                140 Mips  50 Mflops.



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 00:59:59
Subject: LW vs. Imagine
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Rivers)


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


> As far as loading the objects and other things when needed has to do

> with the memory managment going back to when a 1meg machine was all we

> had.  WE could do as you ask, but it would blow some users out of the

> box.  We have always tried to take care of a broad base of users with

> varried machine types, running from lowly 500 with no memory to

> machines with terrabytes of memory.  So this is why we have continued

> on the road that we all travel.  In the future I am sure

> this will change./


Is that an official 'Impulse Excuse'(tm)?


Basically, what your saying is: if the low-end user can't run it, then

nobody can?  That makes no sense!


Point A: (the impulse way)

When your upgrades consist of trivial trinkets, just so the little

guy can still run it, you alienate the high-end users who want

major upgrades.  The high-end user only has one option, switch

software packages.  As the low-end users become high end users,

they will also switch software.


Point B: (the newtek way)

When you do major upgrades, you will atleast please your high-end users,

and the low-enders can still use older versions of the software, as

low-end become high-end users they can upgrade to new versions.


>

> Mike,


RRW> Hmmm? I don't know why but a T/F prefs setting comes to mind here, True

RRW> if you only have a small amount of ram and want to load objects for

RRW> every frame and False if you have Gigs, and Gigs of ram and don't want

RRW> to

RRW> load objects for every frame..


This shouldn't need to be an option.  Whether it loads the the objects for

each frame of just loads them once, the ram requirements shouldn't be much

different.


If it were up to me, I'ld prefer it load all the objects as soon as you

open the project, that way switching between the stage, action, and other

editors would be almost instant, and the ability to share objects between

the stage and the detail editor would be a big bonus.

(but, knowing Impulse, this will probably remain a dream)


RRW> I must admit I think reloading objects every frame is one of Imagines

RRW> weakest, and worse things it does.. especially for animators.


The stage editor in general is Imagine's weakest point.  It is

an animators night-mare.  Impusle needs to take a good hard look at

Lightwave.


RRW> =RRW=


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

|  Commodore failure. Press mouse button to continue  |

|  Guru Meditation  $35000000     Task : $00000CBM    |

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

          A4000/060/90mhz WOW! this is fast.

                140 Mips  50 Mflops.



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 01:44:51
Subject: Graphics
From:    [e-mail]


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


Is anyone interested in the book of 3D Ray Traced pictures, 256 pages, the

best pictures I've ever rendered.  If you do e-mail to me.


Later.



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 02:24:09
Subject: Re: WANTED:F1 Car and Guitar models...
From:    Kelly Computer Consultants <[e-mail]>


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


I believe you will find the models you want on one or all of the CD-ROMs

produced by Syndesis.  I know I've seen both Gibson and LesPaul(sp?)

guitars listed, I seem to recall seeing race cars too.


You can reach Syndesis at 414-674-5200.


Doug Kelly

Kelly Computer Consultants



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 03:01:14
Subject: Re: 3D Artist magazine
From:    Kelly Computer Consultants <[e-mail]>


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


On Tue, 7 Feb 1995, Paul Rance wrote:


> >

> >3D Artist is edited by Bill Allen, published by Columbine, Inc., and can

> >be reached at 505-982-3532, or via snail-mail at:

> >

> >P.O. Box 4787

> >Santa Fe, NM 87502

> >

> >Issue #18 should be coming out RSN.

> >

>

> Does anyone know if this magazine is available in the UK from

> somewhere.

>

I think it is, but you'd have to check with Bill Allen to be sure.  They

had a policy for a while of sending out free demo copies on request, but

had to limit the offer to N. America due to postage costs.


3D Artist is also supposed to be getting it's own Internet site,

3dartist.com, also RSN.  Check it now and then, maybe that will be your

fastest contact.


Doug Kelly



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 03:41:21
Subject: Re: Function key Favorite
From:    [e-mail] (Ian M. Smith)


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


On 7-Feb-95, [e-mail] (Mike Rivers) wrote:

> Note: the periods above aren't displayed in the gadget, but they do cause

>       imagine to put a (one pixel/per period) gap between the gadgets,

>       which helps keep things from getting to cluttered.


Cool!  Is this in the manual anywhere, or just another of those hidden

functions, like being able to have two lines of user gadgets?


I just added some space between gadget groups.. makes it look much better!

My setup is...


  <Imagine Gadgets>  [Click][Box][Lasso] [Prim][Axis][State]

[Render][Prefs][Attrib][Transform][Mold] [Wire][Wire+][Solid] [Group][Obj]

(Continued) [Point][Edge][Face][Hide]


I generally have one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse... I find

that I don't often use the unchangable buttons that Imagine sets up.  Would

be nice to be able to change ALL of them.  You know, running Imagine at

700x432 means that even with the extra gadgets, I still have more room than

the default settings. :-)


--

Ian M. Smith <[e-mail]>  -- PGP Fingerprint (Email for Key) --

                                  581F3521 6F9D8061 0AA214C8 BE51978D





Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 04:04:35
Subject: Re: 8-color Imagine
From:    [e-mail] (Ian M. Smith)


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


On Feb-06-1995, [e-mail] (Kaspar Stromme) wrote:

> Using a program called add44k I have been successfully running the

> Imagine editors in 8 color hi-res, and the updates are a lot faster than

> the standard 16 color setup. [...]


This IS much faster.  I think I'll be using Imagine like this until

3.2 comes out.  If it runs under 256 colors, it looks like I will

have to either get an A4000 or a graphics card.  But 8 colors really

does fly compared to 16.  Two color mode is VERY fast, but totally

useless. :-)  I was amazed how fast directories come up in 8 vs 16

colors, and the user gadgets redraw very quickly too.  Although I

don't see WHY the user gadgets have to be redrawn when you switch

views.. they never change between views, so Imagine really should

just draw them one.. 70% of the redraw time for background stuff

is the user gadgets.  Flipping between views woudl be much nicer

without the redraw.


--

Ian M. Smith <[e-mail]>  -- PGP Fingerprint (Email for Key) --

                                  581F3521 6F9D8061 0AA214C8 BE51978D





Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 05:57:27
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    Ted Stethem <[e-mail]>


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




On Tue, 7 Feb 1995, Randy R. Wall wrote:


>

> Hmmm? I don't know why but a T/F prefs setting comes to mind here, True

> if you only have a small amount of ram and want to load objects for

> every frame and False if you have Gigs, and Gigs of ram and don't want to

> load objects for every frame..

>


  I agree with you completely!



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 07:02:12
Subject: Re: Disco Ball Effect
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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



No Imagine won't bounce light off of objects (yet). But you could probably

make a good fake for it using a Sphere with the RadWind and Transpar

textures. And an axis set to a point source light inside of the sphere.



I haven't tried this but am sure with some work it would shoot little

squares all over your walls as you rotate your disco ball. One problem I

can think of is you may not be able to have the nice reflective look

that the object you have already tried. But then with the correct setting

it might be possible. Maybe the metal texture set to chrome on the sphere

as well might help?


I'm only gueussing with all of this but do believe the Transpar texture

will be the key to success.



=RRW=


>

>      last night i was trying to do a disco ball effect, you know like

>      saturday night fever :)

>

>      i made a primitive sphere and scaled and rotated selected points to

>      make angular patches on the sphere.  then made it reflective 90% and

>      put it inside of a box (extruded plane) then aimed two lights from 2

>      angles.  ok so far, but

>

>      when i render, i can see the reflection of the light on the wall in

>      the sphere, but the light shining off the sphere is not hitting any of

>      the walls...argh

>

>      is this something which imagine cannot do or am i doing something

>      wrong.  please help!!!

>

>      thanks

>      alan out...

>

>



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 07:24:53
Subject: Re: Function key Favorite
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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



> RRW> > I've configured F2 as "shaded" and F3 as "newmode." To locate

> RRW> obscured

>

> Be nice if Impulse added those to the perspective view gadget as they

> did with A Z & P


Not a bad idea. But I wouldn't want to much on that gadget.

>

> I've found the gadget setup very usefull:

>

>   Group       SubGroups       Sharp Edges   Quick Edges   Filter

> [Un][Grp] [...Un][Sub][Pk] [...Un][Srp][Pk] [...Un][Qwk] [...Fltr]

>

> Pk=Pick


Well it looks nice and neat.. probably more organized than mine, but to

me not all of these would be important enough to take up a gadget..



> Note: the periods above aren't displayed in the gadget, but they do cause

>       imagine to put a (one pixel/per period) gap between the gadgets,

>       which helps keep things from getting to cluttered.


This I already knew. But am sure some others may not..


> I also have the Pick Groups through Pick Points, Hide Points, & Drag Points

> as gadgets, but to save room I just use the first letter of each command

>

> -----Pick-----

> [G][O][F][E][P] [H][D]

>  r  b  a  d  o   i  r

>  o  j  c  g  i   d  a

>  u  .  e  e  n   e  g

>  p

>

> I've shown a few people my setup, and usually the first remarks are

> "What the hell are all those buttons for!?" :^) , But it works for me.


Well, most of these I definetly would not set to gadgets as there are

built in hot keys for all of them but Hide Points.



R/A_1 = Pick Groups

R/A_2 = Pick Objects

R/A_3 = Pick Points

R/A_4 = Pick Edges

R/A_5 = Pick Faces



and to continue



R/A_6 = Add Points

R/A_7 = Add Edges

R/A_8 = Add Faces

R/A_9 = Add Lines

R/A_0 = Drag Point


They are quick and easy to use as well as easy to remember if you

force yourself to use them for a few days. I find them indispensible.



Oh and the Menu Bar tells you what mode your in so theres no need to see

the gadget selected as someone said about the Click, DragBox, and Lasso.


Anyways, I'm not knocking your method..Thats one thing thats so great

about the prefrences..everyone can set it up how they like it.. :)



=RRW=



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 07:53:43
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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



> RRW> Hmmm? I don't know why but a T/F prefs setting comes to mind here, True

> RRW> if you only have a small amount of ram and want to load objects for

> RRW> every frame and False if you have Gigs, and Gigs of ram and don't want

> RRW> to

> RRW> load objects for every frame..

>

> This shouldn't need to be an option.  Whether it loads the the objects for

> each frame of just loads them once, the ram requirements shouldn't be much

> different.


No argument from me, but if the reason they arn't implementing it is because

of low end users, then at least give the high end users an option. I for

one wouldn't care if there was a T/F prefs setting, it sure would be

better than having it like it is now.


> If it were up to me, I'ld prefer it load all the objects as soon as you

> open the project, that way switching between the stage, action, and other

> editors would be almost instant, and the ability to share objects between

> the stage and the detail editor would be a big bonus.

> (but, knowing Impulse, this will probably remain a dream)


Well lets hope its not only a dream..


> RRW> I must admit I think reloading objects every frame is one of Imagines

> RRW> weakest, and worse things it does.. especially for animators.

>

> The stage editor in general is Imagine's weakest point.  It is

> an animators night-mare.  Impusle needs to take a good hard look at

> Lightwave.


Well, this is a matter of opinion. But if they are going to look elsewhere

I'de prefer it if they take a long look at Wavefronts Preview, rather than

Lightwave.



=RRW=



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 08:26:37
Subject: Re: Function key Favorite
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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



> > Note: the periods above aren't displayed in the gadget, but they do cause

> >       imagine to put a (one pixel/per period) gap between the gadgets,

> >       which helps keep things from getting to cluttered.

>

> Cool!  Is this in the manual anywhere, or just another of those hidden

> functions, like being able to have two lines of user gadgets?


Well, its not really hidden, if you take a close look at the defualt

config file. it has some gadgets set up with these already.


> I generally have one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse... I find

> that I don't often use the unchangable buttons that Imagine sets up.  Would

> be nice to be able to change ALL of them.  You know, running Imagine at

> 700x432 means that even with the extra gadgets, I still have more room than

> the default settings. :-)


Ya it would be nice to actually make some hot keys with Ctrl, and

Amiga(Alt) keys.. I use these alot, and don't have to much trouble using

one hand to do it..but then I have long fingures, so that helps quite a bit.


=RRW=




Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 12:19:06
Subject: Re: Function key Favorite
From:    [e-mail] (Jamie Knight)


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


> I've found the gadget setup very usefull:

>

>   Group       SubGroups       Sharp Edges   Quick Edges   Filter

> [Un][Grp] [...Un][Sub][Pk] [...Un][Srp][Pk] [...Un][Qwk] [...Fltr]

>

> Pk=Pick

>

> Note: the periods above aren't displayed in the gadget, but they do cause

>       imagine to put a (one pixel/per period) gap between the gadgets,

>       which helps keep things from getting to cluttered.


I didn't know that!  Thanks!


I like to get as much as possible on the gadget bar - I have all the

modes (Grp, Obj, Pnt, Edg, etc) as a load of three-letter gadgets on

the second line, with select mode (Cl, Dr, Ls) and zooming buttons on

the top row.

I prefer not to use the keyboard, as I can then use Imagine entirely

with the mouse and hold a cup of tea with my other hand :)



----------------------------------------+---------------------------

Jamie Knight                            | [e-mail]

Environmental Services Computer Support |

Hereford & Worcester County Council     | Place mildly amusing quote,

Worcester, UK                           |   phrase or opinion here..

All views are my own, etc, etc          |



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 13:22:50
Subject: Disco Ball
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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




Well, sense I had nothing else to do I thought I'd give a quick try at

that Disco Ball and see if what I thought would work would.



I think it works pretty nice, but there were a few things I didn't try

sense I wanted to post something for you before I hit the sack.



Anyways, heres what I did for a fairly simple Disco Ball, but one that

stiil looks and works nice.


Add a Sphere

Load the Chrome.Attribute

Add the RadWind texture and set it to:



Radial Scale   -1.0    Color 1 R   255.0

Z Scaling       3.0    Color 1 G     0.0

Sweep Division 20.0    Color 1 B     0.0

Fraction 'On'   1.0    Color 2 R   255.0

Dist Travelled  0.0    Color 2 G   255.0

Min Spacing     0.4    Color 2 B   255.0

Max Spacing     0.4    Reflect Adj   1.0

Transparancy    0.0


The colors can be changed to what you like, but its a good idea to have

one a darker color so that when the Transpar texure lights the walls with

the little squares some of them will be darker than others.. It maybe

a good idea if you are going to have a couple of colored lights hitting

the Disco Ball to use a grey color like 100,100,100 for the dark color

and 255,255,255 for the lighter color.


Anyways on to the rest of the Disco Ball.


Now Add the Transpar texture and leave it at the defualts


Now Add an Axis to the center of the ball and set it to a Point Source

Light and Cast Shodows.


Now your ready to render it.. If you don't have a lot of things to

reflect or lots of glass objects you maybe able to speed things up by

setting the RSDP in prefs to 2. if you do have a lot of things to render

than set it to what need be. But if you want to test out the Disco ball

so you can set it up how YOU like it then I would recomend putting it in

a box with an open end for viewing and set RSDP to 2. This should work

fine for these test. The Ball I have explained should give you a very

good starting point, if not good enough for your project?



The only thing I found I didn't like about it is the squares are all the

same distance apart, but the dark and light colors help break this up a

bit as well as having the windows Min & Max Spacing fairly large. You

could make these smaller to make the Ball look a bit better but I didn't

like the sqaures on the walls so close together when I did this. But then I

was testing it in a fairly small box..I think in a larger box

it might look quite good. Especially if there were other things in the

room for the squares to interact with..Anyways something for you to play

with..



Well I hope you like the looks of it. I tried the Mosaic texture on it

and that looked pretty cool too, but not quite right. I think these Disc

Ball actually have many different shapes on them so the produce different

shapes on the ground. But the Mosaic texture was a bit to much. I was

going to try a combination of a couple of texture, But thought  it would

take a while to play around with this and really only wanted to see how

my suggestion would work sense I was only guessing about it. And sense it

did work I figured I'll leave the playing around with the textures for you..



If you need help with these textures theres a great little program to

convert your Imagine Texture and light docs into an easy to read Amiga

Guide File..with pictures and all..If you have an IBM..well sorry..


The Program is called IMTguide_1a.lha and is on the Aminet in gfx/3d.


Hehehe, sorry I thought it seamed like a good time for some free advertising.



Anyways Good Luck and Enjoy!



=RRW=





Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 14:43:47
Subject: Tree's
From:    [e-mail]


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


We've been over this dozen's of times before, but anyway;


Have anybody ever found a decent PD tree-maker?


I've found a demo version of a commercial object modeller called

'Vertex' that seems to make very (VERY) good tree's, but no PD :-(


Conny Joensson

** .sig under reconstruction **



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 14:58:08
Subject: Candle
From:    [e-mail]


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


Help, I need somebody.

Help, not just anybody.

Help...                        ;)


This weekend I started to model a candle.

The candlestick turned out great, the candle itself was no big problem (just

a tube, basically), BUT the flame...


I'm not going to use this in any animation, just a still, so the flame

doesn't have to be very complex. I made an ellipsoid out of a primitive

sphere, applied the 'radial' texture to make it shift colour, and made it a

bit transparent. All this is simple.


The problem (at least for me) is that I want to use this candle to light my

scene, ie it has to be a lightsource.

If I add an axis (and make it a light) and put it inside the flame, some of

the light will "stay inside" the flame (it is not FULLY transparent, I want

to SEE the flame as well) and my scene will not be a bright as I wish it to

be.

If I put the light somewhere outside the flame the lighting will not

originate from the correct place.


What do I do?


..you know I need someone.

He.e.elp...


Conny Joensson

** .sig under reconstruction **



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 16:09:44
Subject: Add44k
From:    [e-mail]


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


People have been talking about a utility called 'add44k' which reduces the

number of colors in Imagine and thereby speed things up.

WHERE IS IT????

Or could some nice person mail it to me (if it ain't too big).


Conny Joensson

** .sig under reconstruction **



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 18:32:36
Subject: Imagine 3.2 ?
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



Hi,


Isn't Imagine 3.2 supposed to be out by now ?

So far, my $100 has only brought me _one_ new

(and minor) upgrade and the Constant Upgrade

period is almost over !  Any info about 3.2

is appreciated.  I won't mind if they've made

it Windows compatible...


--

Shane Davison (tsml)

[e-mail]




Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 18:39:08
Subject: Re: Tree's
From:    [e-mail]


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




have you tried LPARSER3.ZIP, ibelieve you can find it at avalon...


it lets you grow trees, ferns, bugs, fish, lobsters and anything else you can

stumble across while using it.


it works like this...you create a text file describing an L-system and you feed


it into an lparser.exe then you view the resulting volume file with lviewer.exe


no graphical interface, but i know of some people who are building a front-end

for it in Windows.  it should be ready in March.


if you can't find the file, just email me and ask for the file and i'll uucode

it to you.


later, alan


p.s. thanks to everyone on the "Disco ball effect" replies...


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________


Subject: Tree's

Author:  [e-mail] at UNIXGTWY

Date:    2/8/95 6:49 AM



We've been over this dozen's of times before, but anyway;



Have anybody ever found a decent PD tree-maker?



I've found a demo version of a commercial object modeller called
'Vertex' that seems to make very (VERY) good tree's, but no PD :-(



Conny Joensson

** .sig under reconstruction **




Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 19:46:59
Subject: Thanks for help on Disco Ball Effect
From:    [e-mail]


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


        thanks to everyone who replied re: the Disco Ball... all of your

     suggestions work great.



        and thanks also for setting me straight on this

     ray-tracing/radiosity thing.



        it makes sense that you shouldn't be able to see the reflected

     light shining on other objects as raw light.



        i guess radiosity would increase your rendering time by about ^100

     or something outrageous like that.



     anyway, thanks to everyone for all the help....BTW, any ideas on how

     to make chaotic cigarette smoke???



     :)




Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 20:20:18
Subject: Imagine 3.1 states & textures
From:    Mark Reeves <[e-mail]>


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



Well, since this is my first posting to the list, I'll try to keep it

short and to the point.


I received Imagine 3.1 (Amiga, fp) last week ( took ~10 days from posting),

and haven't had much time to try it out, but a cursory look is giving me some

problems(!)


The main problem is States & textures. Just as an experiment I have been trying

to create an object ( a simple sphere ) and apply a texture( DinoSkin). I am

then trying to morph the texture by creating a new state with slightly

changed values for the texture ( the size of the bumps).


So I have


        state       Datatypes                 Texture(bump size x,y,z)

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

        default     Shape,group,Tex/Brush     3,6,3

        centre            group                     3,6,3

        newcentre   group,Tex/Brush           30,60,30


Whilst I am in the Detail editor, I can switch between states and the Texture

values behave as expected. I can Tween between (say) centre and newcentre and
get texture values between the above values.


BUT, when I save the object, exit the Detail editor, then reload the object,

the values either default to 3,6,3 or to 30,60,30 depending on what state

is current when I save.


I've also tried selecting Object Props as well as Textures/Brushes, with the

same results.


What am I doing wrong?


An unrelated note, if I run MungWall (A debugging aid), when Imagine finishes

rendering a frame, I get masses of errors along the line of freeing memory

that shouldn't be. This occurs with a versions of Imagine I have (2.0,2.9,

3.0, 3.1). It would be nice if Imagine behaved better!


(It wasn't very short, sorry!)


Mark Reeves


A1200/GVP1230II/SCSI/8M



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 20:43:08
Subject: Re: Imagine 3.2 ?
From:    [e-mail] (Gary Beeton, [e-mail])


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


>Isn't Imagine 3.2 supposed to be out by now ?

>So far, my $100 has only brought me _one_ new

>(and minor) upgrade and the Constant Upgrade

>period is almost over !  Any info about 3.2

>is appreciated.  I won't mind if they've made

>it Windows compatible...


Shane,


I ordered the Constant Upgrade program about two weeks ago, at which

time Impulse said that 3.2 would be out in about two weeks (I'm not

about to hold my breath though).  Impulse originally planned to

release 4.0 about a year after 3.0 came out, but that looks unlikely

now.  Don't worry about that year running out.  What you and I have

paid for is 4.0 with intermediate releases thrown in for good measure.


Gary

[e-mail]

<Go Riders>



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 20:43:44
Subject: RE: LW vs Imagine
From:    Kenneth Jennings <[e-mail]>


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




Mike Halvorson

      wrote about Re: LW vs. Imagine


>Mr. Jennings

>

>I doubt that anyone has ever lied to you, and if so what is that they

>lied about, I wont lie to you, so why dont you tell me what this supposed bug

>is, bring out the issue based on facts, not something that a magazine might or

>might not have any idea about.  I trust users but find little to trust when it

>comes to a magazine which is set up to deal only with income and advertisers,

>the rest of the magazine is devoted to filling the pulp with fiction or what

>they might call fact.

>

>I certainly dont mind that people have a difference, and you are of

>course welcome to your right to express your self in what ever manner you want.


>But you say there was "SOME" problem, what was it or what is it.  I have no

>problem in dealing with what ever you have heard or think you heard.  This is

>your opportunity to make a difference if you so desire, I look forward to your

>message.

>

>Mike Halvorson


After I had Imagine 2.0 for a while I saw an animation by PDI with an

animated locomotive chugging through an extremely realistic forest.

Close observation of the forest revealed that the trees were simple

poles with images of pine branches mapped onto a few flat polygons

(similar to the point of a hunting arrow.)  Transparency mapping

was used to blur the edges of the brush images and to make the rest

of the polygons invisible -- thus a good imitation of a slab-o-tree.


I did the same thing in Imagine.  With a few trees in the scene,

Imagine would start rendering black rectangles when it had to trace

through a few 'leaf' planes.  (Actually tracing has nothing to

do with it, scan-line did the same thing.)  This was not a low memory

or resolve depth situation either.  Additionally, I discovered that

the edges of the polygons were visible as thin black lines.  No matter

how I massaged the transparency map or messed with full/max value

setting the polygon edges were still visible.


I reported this to Impulse where I was told, "It doesn't happen here."

So, I thought screw it.  My life didn't depend on Imagine's ability

to correctly render transparent objects at that point, anyway.


(I am at work at the moment, so I'll have to get

the exact issue and author tonight...)

A few months later, Amazing Computing published a *tutorial* submitted

to them on realistic foliage in Imagine.  In it the author documented

exactly what I did to make the trees (in his case grass).  The tutorial

included a full color print of a 24-bit image of grasses and bushes he

had done which had the exact same black lines and black rectangles I

had seen in my renderings, but much worse.


I remember the author was extrememly forgiving of Imagine's rendering

errors and Amazing had nothing 'editorial' to add to his comments.


+-------------------------------------+ +-------------------------------------+

|   Kenneth Jennings, Amiga Advocate  | | ======  SyntheToonz, Inc &   ====== |

|  "Happy I'm not a PC/Mac lemming."  | | ====== Equine Video Studios  ====== |

|       [e-mail]      | | = Ken, Computer Animation Artiste = |

| Applied Automation Techniques, Inc. | | =        Lynn, Video Maven        = |

|  Obviously not the opinions of AAT. | | =      Bruno The Wonder Dog       = |

+-------------------------------------+ +-------------------------------------+

"You'd think that PC and Mac users willing to gut their systems to achieve the

 Amiga's level of performance would just save themselves the trouble and buy

 Amigas in the first place. But they don't know any better -- they read BYTE."




Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 21:07:52
Subject: Re: Imagine 3.2 ?
From:    William Eric Donoho <[e-mail]>


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


On Wed, 8 Feb 1995, Shane Davison wrote:


>

> Hi,

>

> Isn't Imagine 3.2 supposed to be out by now ?

> So far, my $100 has only brought me _one_ new

> (and minor) upgrade and the Constant Upgrade

> period is almost over !  Any info about 3.2

> is appreciated.  I won't mind if they've made

> it Windows compatible...

>

> --

> Shane Davison (tsml)

> [e-mail]

>

>

Yeah, I upgraded halfway through when I heard 3.1 was out.

I wonder what the upgrade fee will be after 3.2... because you

know that 3.2 won't be out until the very end of the upgrade year.


Maybe they're working on a way to get imagine running under OS/2 ?


Eric Donoho              | "Let's go to burger king and get

Louisville, KY USA       | a chicken sandwich!"

[e-mail]





Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 21:55:20
Subject: Re: Thanks for help on Disco Ball Effect
From:    Calvin <[e-mail]>


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


On Wed, 8 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:


>         i guess radiosity would increase your rendering time by about ^100

>      or something outrageous like that.


It doesn't really increase your rendering time *that* much.  The

advantage of radiosity is that it takes a hell of a long time to do the

*first* frame.  The reason why radiosity takes so long is that it's

solving for every point.  This means that once you render the first

frame, every frame after that will be very quick!  That's why a lot of

architechs use it for walk-through animations, rendering LIVE with

radiosity.  Once the first frame is rendered, you can go and do

real-time walkthrough animations and stuff.  Pretty cool.


 o/ \o/  o  <o   o  o   o    Son tutta duolo, non ho che affanni e

<|   |  /|\  |> <|><|> <|\   mi da' morte pena crudel: e per me solo sono

/|  / \  /| / \ //  \\ / \   tiranni gli astri, la sorte, i numi, il ciel.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Finger for PGP Public Key Block and Fingerprint





Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 22:12:44
Subject: I`ve got lots of PD XSpecs software for any who want it.
From:    Charles Hymes <[e-mail]>


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


Wow, Ive' lurked here for two years, collected 8226 messages, and this is my

first post.(I think)


Anyway, I have an archive of XSpecs software for any who want it.

If there is enough interest, I will make it available through WWW.

There are 3d object editors, games, development stuff, and pictures.


x-specs/disfunctional/failed_3danim

x-specs/disfunctional/XspecsPics01.lzh

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_C/XSpecs.LZH

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_C/readme

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_C/ThreeBallTrick

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_C/xspecs.h

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_C/xspecsglu.asm

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_C/xspecsglu.o

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_C/ThreeBallTrick.c

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_C/ThreeBallTrick.o

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_C/xspecs.library

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_C/XSpecs.uua

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_C/lattice_XSpecs.LZH

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_C/lattice_readme

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_assembly/readme

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_assembly/threeballs

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_assembly/xspecs.lib

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_assembly/threeballs.asm

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_assembly/xspeclib.lzh

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_assembly/xspecslib.i

x-specs/programming/x-specs_lib_assembly/xspecslib.doc

x-specs/programming/wide_bitmap/bigtest.c

x-specs/programming/wide_bitmap/smalltest.c

x-specs/programming/wide_bitmap/bigtest

x-specs/programming/wide_bitmap/lmkfile

x-specs/programming/RHornelib.lzh

x-specs/incoming/xanim.lzh

x-specs/incoming/Drive.lzh

x-specs/incoming/Drive.readme

x-specs/incoming/anim-player.lzh

x-specs/incoming/sega10.zip

x-specs/incoming/blue.box

x-specs/incoming/anim-player.readme

x-specs/incoming/readme.txt

x-specs/incoming/stereowx.gif

x-specs/incoming/stereowx.doc

x-specs/incoming/-systemfile

x-specs/incoming/-smallsys

x-specs/incoming/spssxout

x-specs/pictures/maryjane_the_cat.lzh

x-specs/pictures/rembrant_the_dog.lzh

x-specs/pictures/fruit.lzh

x-specs/pictures/kitchen.lzh

x-specs/pictures/subburbs.lzh

x-specs/pictures/SculptApple.lzh

x-specs/pictures/AcroByteLogo.lzh

x-specs/utilities/smash.lha

x-specs/utilities/smash.readme

x-specs/XDCTV/sculptapple.readme

x-specs/XDCTV/SculptAppleDCTV.xspecs

x-specs/games/RHornegames.lzh

x-specs/documents/x-specs_info

x-specs/documents/XspecsAnimFormat.txt

x-specs/documents/x-specs-text

x-specs/documents/x-specs_folk

x-specs/applications/VM3D_Demo.lzh

x-specs/applications/scene3dX.lzh



Date:    Wednesday, 08 February 1995 23:44:55
Subject: Re: LW vs Imagine
From:    [e-mail]


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


On Feb 8, 10:40am, [e-mail] wrote:

>



> I did the same thing in Imagine.  With a few trees in the scene,

> Imagine would start rendering black rectangles when it had to trace

> through a few 'leaf' planes.  (Actually tracing has nothing to

> do with it, scan-line did the same thing.)  This was not a low memory

> or resolve depth situation either.  Additionally, I discovered that

> the edges of the polygons were visible as thin black lines.  No matter

> how I massaged the transparency map or messed with full/max value

> setting the polygon edges were still visible.


Funny, I noticed weird things about transparency years ago, too.  When putting

several fully transparent things in front of each other (not touching), I got

artifacts where they overlapped.  It wasn't noticeable with just one object, but


it was very noticeable with three or more.  My friend reported it to Impulse,

but I can't remember their response.  He didn't care, because his company

changed over to Lightwave due to such weirdness.


Does this problem still occur?!?  The problem I saw seems like a numerical

precision problem.


By the way, I too got a message form Mr. Halvorson about some of my comments on

this list.  It was nice, but a little confrontational like yours.  Whatever

happened to "the customer is always right"?


It seems funny, but companies like Alias and Side Effects (both for the SGI) go

out of their way to write down bugs called in by users.  No confrontations; no

"well, obviously you don't understand how the software works"; just "OH MY GOD!

 AN ERROR?!?  HORRORS!!  WHERE IS IT?  LET ME WRITE THIS DOWN!!"  Impulse

expects the customer (who paid for the software) to do all of the work to get

some notice and respect for their bug.  And then there is never a response to

let you know where it stands.


Sure, software will always have bugs, but the mark of a mature software company

is how it scrambles to keep the customer happy.




--

 _____________________________________________________________________________



 Craig Hoffman                    [e-mail]          [phone]

 Walt Disney Feature Animation    1420 Flower Street       Glendale, CA  91221

 _____________________________________________________________________________




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 00:01:01
Subject: Re: Thanks for help on Disco Ball Effect
From:    [e-mail]


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



>

> It doesn't really increase your rendering time *that* much.  The

> advantage of radiosity is that it takes a hell of a long time to do the

> *first* frame.

>

>

>-- End of excerpt from [e-mail]


This is only the case when lights don't change, only the viewpoint does.  A

spinning disco ball with reflections changing every frame would have to be

recalculated at every frame.


Does anyone else remember something a few years back where Impulse planned on

implementing some sort of radiosity?





--

 _____________________________________________________________________________

            __

          #####       Craig Hoffman

         #~ ~###      [e-mail]

          @ @ #?)

          <  /|       Walt Disney Feature Animation

          `-' /

          |__/

 _____________________________________________________________________________




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 00:01:26
Subject: Re: PD XSpecs software
From:    [e-mail] (Gary Beeton, [e-mail])


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


>Anyway, I have an archive of XSpecs software for any who want it.

>If there is enough interest, I will make it available through WWW.

>There are 3d object editors, games, development stuff, and pictures.


Yes, I am interested, but I don't have WWW access.  What is your email

address?


Gary

[e-mail]



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 03:55:47
Subject: Re: Imagine 3.1 states & textures
From:    "Steve J. Lombardi" <[e-mail]>


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


>

> Whilst I am in the Detail editor, I can switch between states and the Texture

> values behave as expected. I can Tween between (say) centre and newcentre and

> get texture values between the above values.

>

> BUT, when I save the object, exit the Detail editor, then reload the object,

> the values either default to 3,6,3 or to 30,60,30 depending on what state

> is current when I save.

>


This is a well  known imagine problem. I know at least a few folks here on

IML have reported it to impulse. I really hope this is fixed in 3.2. and

i REALLY hope the rumored support for display database is there.


--

steve lombardi

[e-mail]




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 05:11:03
Subject: Re: I`ve got lots of PD XSpecs software for any who want it.
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



Hi,


Does this XSpecs stuff work on any PC "specs" or is it just Amiga ?


I *love* this type of 3D stuff and I'm always looking for more.

I have 3D LCD shutter glasses from 3D TV corporation and a

CyberScope from Simsalabim (both for the PC).  I'd appreciate

info from anyone else out there who is interested in this type

of 3D stuff (using Imagine or whatever) and anyone else who

owns similar hardware.


Thanks,


--

Shane Davison (tsml)

[e-mail]




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 05:49:16
Subject: Re: where is add44k
From:    [e-mail] (Kaspar Stromme)


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


I don't know where the file is by itself, but I got mine from the

DeluxePacMan archive (Fred Fish disk 867, available from nic.funet.fi

among others)

Apparently the program was created to give games more memory (add44k), by

cutting other screens in half.

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

  Kaspar Stromme                                  40mhz68030/'882;9MB;340MB

  [e-mail]                               DCTV true-color system


  PC-MAC = PoliticalCorrect-MindAbsentComputing

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



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 06:17:58
Subject: Help needed running Imagine on ATI Ultra Pro
From:    [e-mail] (Randall Hopper)


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


     I haven't had any success getting Imagine to run on my ATI Graphics Ultra

Pro.  Impulse says it doesn't want to run in Windows enhanced mode (something

about it can't handle DPMI), but my ATI GUP drivers require enhanced mode (for

all modes, high- and true-color included).  I tried stepping down to the 8514/A


driver and standard mode, but Imagine still won't run -- it simply ceases to

print any error messages.


Has anyone been able to get Imagine to work on an ATI Mach32 card?  Any

responses would be appreciated.  Please CC responses to "[e-mail]" as

I just recently submitted my subscription request to this mailing list and I

don't think I'm "officially" on it yet.  Also, if you have an e-mail address/

phone number for Impulse, I'd be interested in that as well.


More on my system configuration:  486-33 w/ 8Megs, Windows 3.1, ATI Graphics

Ultra Pro 2M VLB Card (with the 68875 RAMDAC), and Mach32 windows drivers

(ver 2.2).  I've tried all sorts of configs, including the recommended

HIMEM.SYS only.  Also, I'm trying to run the version of Imagine that comes with

the book "3D Modeling Lab" (despite what the book says, I assume that this

is not a fully-functional current version).


Thanks in advance for any replies.


                                              Randall Hopper

                                              [e-mail]




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 07:36:49
Subject: How to make a spaceship shield using Essence textures
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


A CompuServe user asked how to use an Essence texture, Shellturb, to

simulate a photon blast on a ship. I thought my response might be of

interest to the ever-sizeable spaceship fetish crowd. B^)


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

Stephen,


to be exact, the Essence manual mentions applying Shellturb in order to

simulate a bolt of energy hitting _the ship_, not a ring _around_ the

ship.


To do a Star Trek-like "shield absorbs energy blast and dissipates it",

you need to create a sphere for the shield. You then use Shellturb

combined with SwapCRF to _vary the transparency_ of the texture and

make the energy blast visible. Here's an example:


- Create a standard Imagine sphere. Scale in Z by 0.5.


- Give it a color of 255,255,255 and click on Bright. Add the Bandturb

 (not Shellturb) texture.


- Edit the texture as follows:     1st column: 0, 20, 30, 20, 10, 5, 4,

0.4     2nd column: 0.4, 0.4, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.     Axis position: 110,

0, 0; alignment: 0, -90, 0


- Add the SwapCRF texture. All parameters should be 0, except Color ->

 N Filt which should be 1.


- Add the Solid texture. Leave all parameters at -1 and set Color to

50, 255, 200.


- The texture order should read, from top to bottom: Bandturb, SwapCRF,

 Solid. If not, use the Priority button to make it so. <g>


- States/Create DEFAULT, click Textures/Brushes on.


- States/Create START, click Textures/Brushes on. (This is not a typo.

 Unless I'm mistaken, you should refrain from using the default state

in an animation, which is why I had you create an identical state.

Anyone care to comment on this?)


- Change the texture:     Time to 1     Fade to 1     Position to -50,

0, 0


- States/Create END.


- In Action, morph from START to END over N frames.


You'll see an energy blast hit the right side of the image, where the

ship inside the shield would presumably be pointing, and travel along

the shield, dissipating as it goes along.


How does it work?


The base object is white, and gets a turbulent band of black applied to

it using Bandturb. Then, SwapCRF turns this color information into

_filter_ values -- black means no filter, white means fully

transparent. This makes part of the shield visible. All that's needed

is to give the visible parta of shield a color using Solid. Finally, we

create two states, START and END, which allow the texture axis to

travel from one end of the shield to the other. The END state also has

Bandturb's Fade parameter set all the way to 1, so that the texture

loses strength as it travels along the shield. Just add a ship inside

the shield, and a starfield in the background. The effect is BEAUTIFUL.


Bug alert

---------


Imagine 3.1 doesn't remember texture parameters and axis settings very

well when you use States. Until that bug is fixed, you'll need to

create two separate objects, Shield-start and shield-end, and morph

from one object to the next. No big deal.




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 08:31:30
Subject: Particles help!
From:    Lamar Milligan <[e-mail]>


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


      Well, Imagine LT got here, and I've enjoyed playing with it so

far.  A few notes about Imagine LT:  It only comes with 2 FX (Gloabal

Lens Flare and Particles), it has only a fraction of the textures (36,

and most of the interesting sounding ones are missing.), and Kinematics

and Cycle Editors are missing.

      This is no problem, the only thing I didn't expect to be gone

were the textures & Fx.  Those losses hurt.  They also are the losses

that I am purchasing Imagine Pro for.  (Those fiendish Impulse folks.

Sneaky, aren't they?) :)


      Well, now for my woes:  I can't seem to get particles to work for

an object.  Nothing in the documentation or in the readme files claims

they are removed, unless (I doubt this) they are considered part of

kinematics.  I create a new object: a torus for example, w/ default

settings.  I then select that object, and click on the particles menu

option (detail editor).  As the manual suggests, I am in Pick Object

mode, have the object selected, and then select Particles.

      I have also tried this after fracturing the object, and also

while in Pick faces, edges, and points mode.

      The manual states that the Particles requester should pop up for

me.  All I get is an error saying "Invalid Object Type".


      What am I doing wrong?  Are particles removed from L/T, and if

so, why do I have the particle F/X (which I believe are used in

conjuction with particle objects, tho I may be mistaken)?


      Thanks for any help you can give me, Can't wait for Imagine Pro...

      Benjamin Milligan

      [e-mail]



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 08:47:30
Subject: Imagine 3.2 ? (fwd)
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Shane Davison <[e-mail]


So far, my $100 has only brought me _one_ new

(and minor) upgrade and the Constant Upgrade

period is almost over !

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



Impulse has promised us 4 upgrades, leading up to and including Imagine

4.0. As for the timeline, we all know that Impulse works in dog-months.

<grin> Look at it this way; I was telling a friend the exact same thing

on the phone tonight: when you finally receive the last upgrade, would

you rather it represent two years' worth of accumulated work, or one

year's? Think about it.



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 09:05:06
Subject: RE: LW VS. IMAGINE
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Mike Vandersommen <[e-mail]>


Lightwave certainly impliments BONES much better and easier. In LW, all

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


Although to be honest, in Lightwave you control which faces of an object

are affected by a certain bone, by setting a length of influence, which

defines a "cold capsule"-like region of space. Fine -- but then try to do

that most basic of examples, the robot hand! As soon as one finger moves

next to another, the neighboring fingers get partially stretched too.

Imagine has its pluses and minuses, but I love the idea of selecting two

groups of faces to define what gets affected by a bone, and what doesn't.



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 09:42:43
Subject: Re: Function key Favorite
From:    [e-mail]


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


On 2-8, Jamie Knight wrote:


J> I like to get as much as possible on the gadget bar - I have all the

J> modes (Grp, Obj, Pnt, Edg, etc) as a load of three-letter gadgets on

J> the second line, with select mode (Cl, Dr, Ls) and zooming buttons on

J> the top row.

========


        The user gadgets are an excellent design feature.  Hard to

        believe we once had to get along without them...  I saw Randy's

        comment about keeping the Perspective Window buttons to a

        minimum, but I could sure use one more there - "R" for Reset.


J> I prefer not to use the keyboard, as I can then use Imagine entirely

J> with the mouse and hold a cup of tea with my other hand :)

========


        Hmmm... My preferences seem to be set for Espresso. :)


        -mikeT




* Offline Orbit 0.70a * ...Sleep is a poor substitute for Raytracing...



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 10:12:09
Subject: Re: Imagine 3.1 states & textures
From:    [e-mail]


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


On 2-8, Steve Lombardi


S> >

S> >Whilst I am in the Detail editor, I can switch between states and the

S> >Texture values behave as expected. I can Tween between (say) centre and

S> > newcentre and get texture values between the above values.

S> >

S> > BUT, when I save the object, exit the Detail editor, then reload the

S> >object, the values either default to 3,6,3 or to 30,60,30 depending on

S> >what state is current when I save.

S>

S> This is a well  known imagine problem. I know at least a few folks here on

S>

S> IML have reported it to impulse. I really hope this is fixed in 3.2. and

S> i REALLY hope the rumored support for display database is there.

============


        It seems that this can be worked around by updating the state(s)

        that get changed by the later settings.  They then seem to save

        corectly.


        -mikeT



* Offline Orbit 0.70a * ...Amiga: Designed to break the laws of physics...



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 10:34:45
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Randy R. Wall <[e-mail]>


I must admit I think reloading objects every frame is one of Imagines

weakest, and worse things it does.. especially for animators.



=RRW=

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


I agree. Here's a solution that fits within Mike's argument of "we need

to support even the lowly machines":


- Load everything needed to render the first frame. Render it.


- Examine the list of objects, textures, and brushmaps needed for the

second frame. Drop those which were in the first frame and are not

needed anymore; conversely, load those elements from the second frame

which aren't already in memory. HOWEVER, DO NOT needlessly reload those

elements which had already been loaded to render the first frame! <grrr>


- Repeat until anim is done.


Imagine's strategy of "flush everything when beginning a new frame" may

be easy to implement, it also stinks. A straw poll of IML users might

show this to be one of the most frustrating features of the program.


And regarding those lowly machines: you still have to assume they have

enough memory to load all the elements for every frame; if so, they too

would benefit from smarter element management. You don't have to preload

everything needed for the whole animation, although as someone else

said, a Preferences T/F flag for this would be a big plus.



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 10:36:40
Subject: Candle
From:    [e-mail] (TORGEIR HOLM)


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




[CJO's candle flame question]


I made an animation of a candle a while back, which came out pretty

nice.


Take your basic candle-flame ellipsoid shape and add the following

attributes:


        Fog Length: 0.10


    Texture: Ghost


        Fog length at T: 400

        T: 0.8


    Texture: FogTop


        Fog length at T: 200

        T: 0.5

        Noise Magnitude: 0


        Place the axis so that the origin is in the tip of the flame,

        and the bottom of the bounding box is 2/3 towards the bottom of

        the flame. With the Z axis pointing up.


    Texture: Fireball


        Color1: 255,255,100

        Color2: 200,030,000

        Noise: 0

        Reflect&Filter 1&2: 0


        Place the axis so that the origin is in the bottom of the flame,

        and the end of the Y axis is in the tip.



BTW: my object was about 60 units wide, and 150 units tall.


You can now add a child axis in the middle of your flame, and make it a

lightsource.


To animate this, make sure the Y axis points upward (Do this before

adding textures, as their placement is relative to the axis), and move

the the object up along a wavy path with conform to path. Then move the

path back dovn a mirror copy of itself, so that the flame stays in the

same position. Makes a really nice and realistic candle- flame



Torge!r



[e-mail]



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 10:49:53
Subject: Re: Thanks for help on Disco Ball Effect
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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


>

> Does anyone else remember something a few years back where Impulse planned on

> implementing some sort of radiosity?


Yes..I believe we sould have had it with 3.0..as well as some other

things I am still waiting for.



=RRW=



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 11:19:48
Subject: Re: Help needed running Imagine on ATI Ultra Pro
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



Randall Hopper wrote:

>I haven't had any success getting Imagine to run on my ATI Graphics Ultra

>Pro.  Impulse says it doesn't want to run in Windows enhanced mode (something

>about it can't handle DPMI), but my ATI GUP drivers require enhanced mode (for


>all modes, high- and true-color included). I tried stepping down to the 8514/A


>driver and standard mode, but Imagine still won't run -- it simply ceases to

>print any error messages.


I used to have an ATI Graphics Ultra Plus and Imagine ran fine on it BUT...

Imagine does NOT run under Windows in any way whatsoever.  You should have

no problems with DOS (you only need to run a VESA driver to show pict's)

but there is NO way that Imagine will run under anything but pure DOS.

If anyone knows different, please let me know.


Oh, and the 3D Modeling Lab book includes a fully-functional version

of Imagine 2.0 (the current version is 3.1).


--

Shane Davison (tsml)

[e-mail]




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 11:59:37
Subject: Re: Particles help!
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



Well, hi !


Particles should work for your torus.  Just in case there is something

wrong with the default torus settings, try starting Imagine L/T afresh

and go straight to the Detail Editor.  Then add a primitive sphere

(the defaults should be 24 and 12 with the box checked, I think).  Finally,

select Particles from the menu.  If the Particles requester doesn't pop-up,

I'd be inclined to think Impulse has left this out (like I'd originally

thought they would) but your best bet is to call them.  BTW, the actual

particles aren't visible until you render the object.


The Particles special effect is really not related that much to the Particles

in the Detail Editor (although you can use them together).  Despite the

similar names, they both operate on a slightly different definition of

Particles.  Any object (particalized (?) or not) can use the Particle

special effect (which, btw, I can't believe they left in Imagine L/T

because it is by far the most complex and difficult to use special fx, IMO).


Regards,


--

Shane Davison (tsml)

[e-mail]




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 11:59:40
Subject: RE: LW vs Imagine(brushmap transparency "bug")
From:    Ted Stethem <[e-mail]>


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




On Wed, 8 Feb 1995, Kenneth Jennings wrote:


>

>

> Mike Halvorson

>     wrote about Re: LW vs. Imagine

>

> >Mr. Jennings

> >

> >I doubt that anyone has ever lied to you, and if so what is that they

> >lied about, I wont lie to you, so why dont you tell me what this supposed bug


> >is, bring out the issue based on facts, not something that a magazine might o
r

> >might not have any idea about.  I trust users but find little to trust when i
t

> >comes to a magazine which is set up to deal only with income and advertisers,


> >the rest of the magazine is devoted to filling the pulp with fiction or what

> >they might call fact.

> >

> >I certainly dont mind that people have a difference, and you are of

> >course welcome to your right to express your self in what ever manner you wan
t.

> >But you say there was "SOME" problem, what was it or what is it.  I have no

> >problem in dealing with what ever you have heard or think you heard.  This is


> >your opportunity to make a difference if you so desire, I look forward to your

> >message.

> >

> >Mike Halvorson

>

> After I had Imagine 2.0 for a while I saw an animation by PDI with an

> animated locomotive chugging through an extremely realistic forest.

> Close observation of the forest revealed that the trees were simple

> poles with images of pine branches mapped onto a few flat polygons

> (similar to the point of a hunting arrow.)  Transparency mapping

> was used to blur the edges of the brush images and to make the rest

> of the polygons invisible -- thus a good imitation of a slab-o-tree.

>

> I did the same thing in Imagine.  With a few trees in the scene,

> Imagine would start rendering black rectangles when it had to trace

> through a few 'leaf' planes.  (Actually tracing has nothing to

> do with it, scan-line did the same thing.)  This was not a low memory

> or resolve depth situation either.  Additionally, I discovered that

> the edges of the polygons were visible as thin black lines.  No matter

> how I massaged the transparency map or messed with full/max value

> setting the polygon edges were still visible.

>

> I reported this to Impulse where I was told, "It doesn't happen here."

> So, I thought screw it.  My life didn't depend on Imagine's ability

> to correctly render transparent objects at that point, anyway.

>

> (I am at work at the moment, so I'll have to get

> the exact issue and author tonight...)

> A few months later, Amazing Computing published a *tutorial* submitted

> to them on realistic foliage in Imagine.  In it the author documented

> exactly what I did to make the trees (in his case grass).  The tutorial

> included a full color print of a 24-bit image of grasses and bushes he

> had done which had the exact same black lines and black rectangles I

> had seen in my renderings, but much worse.

>

> I remember the author was extrememly forgiving of Imagine's rendering

> errors and Amazing had nothing 'editorial' to add to his comments.

>

> +-------------------------------------+ +-------------------------------------+

> |   Kenneth Jennings, Amiga Advocate  | | ======  SyntheToonz, Inc &   ======
|

> |  "Happy I'm not a PC/Mac lemming."  | | ====== Equine Video Studios  ======
|

> |       [e-mail]      | | = Ken, Computer Animation Artiste =
|

> | Applied Automation Techniques, Inc. | | =        Lynn, Video Maven        =
|

> |  Obviously not the opinions of AAT. | | =      Bruno The Wonder Dog       =
|

> +-------------------------------------+ +-------------------------------------
+

> "You'd think that PC and Mac users willing to gut their systems to achieve the


>  Amiga's level of performance would just save themselves the trouble and buy

>  Amigas in the first place. But they don't know any better -- they read BYTE."


>

>

  I won't comment on Mr. Halvorson's idea of customer support or

netiquette.  However, the problem with transparencies of brushmaps can be

dealt with in a certain fashion.

  There is something going on with the brushmap portion of Imagine, which

I cannot define from an inner working perspective, but as a user, maybe

you will remember the scanline reflection bug in 3.0 when it first came

out. In this bug, a reflective object would not reflect the Global

brushmap. If you had 2.9, Imagine totally lost brush transparency, which was

working in 2.0. Now, something has changed again in 3.0 and 3.1.

Somehow, now, the brushmap transparency is related to RSDP (Resolve Depth

Parameter in preferences). In 2.0, RSDP was only supposed to affect

rendering in Trace mode, oh BTW, RSDP sets the number of bounces of

reflected light in a ray trace scene (this is from the 3.0 manual). And

then, it has always been advised to keep this to 3 or less as it has an

effect on rendering times and besides, you hardly ever need more than

three bounces to effectivly simulate reflection.

  Well, after all that, guess what? Now, somehow RSDP affects the

transparency of brushmaps! in Scanline mode no less!  Try setting your RSDP to

something like 16 or more then try rendering your overlapping tree

brushmaps. It will work! But not without a subsequent cost in rendering time.



  Do you have a bald spot on your head where you have been scratching to

figure out why Imagine is not working the way you expect or is documented

to work?



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 13:03:18
Subject: LW vs. Imagine
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Rivers)


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


> Mike Halvorson

>wrote about Re: LW vs. Imagine


>Mr. Jennings

>

>I doubt that anyone has ever lied to you, and if so what is that they

>lied about, I wont lie to you, so why dont you tell me what this supposed bug

>is, bring out the issue based on facts, not something that a magazine might

or

>might not have any idea about.


Mr. Halverson has an exceptional way of making people feel welcome.


>I trust users but find little to trust when it

>comes to a magazine which is set up to deal only with income and advertisers,

            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Amazingly, a lot like Impulse's newsletter.


>the rest of the magazine is devoted to filling the pulp with fiction or

>what they might call fact.


Still, Amazingly, a lot like Impulse's newsletter.


>I certainly dont mind that people have a difference, and you are of

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>course welcome to your right to express your self in what ever manner you

want.


Amazing.  Almost every time I expess my opinion about Imagine,

I recieve a message from Mr. Halverson, or from my sysop telling

me Mr. Halverson is trying to have my net access cut, or

a message Mr.Halverson threatening to sue.  I would suggest

that Impulse get a better PR person who doesn't belittle

their customers.


>But you say there was "SOME" problem, what was it or what is it.  I

>have no problem in dealing with what ever you have heard or think you heard.


>This is your opportunity to make a difference if you so desire,

>I look forward to your message.


Somehow, I seriously doubt it.


>Mike Halvorson


KJ> I reported this to Impulse where I was told, "It doesn't happen here."

KJ> So, I thought screw it.


Well, you not alone in that respect.


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

|  Commodore failure. Press mouse button to continue  |

|  Guru Meditation  $35000000     Task : $00000CBM    |

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

          A4000/060/90mhz WOW! this is fast.

                140 Mips  50 Mflops.



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 13:30:33
Subject: Re: Function key Favorite
From:    [e-mail]


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


Mike T wrote;


>       The user gadgets are an excellent design feature.  Hard to

>       believe we once had to get along without them...  I saw Randy's

>       comment about keeping the Perspective Window buttons to a

>       minimum, but I could sure use one more there - "R" for Reset.


YES, I like that idea. I seem to be resetting my perspective view

constantly.


And while we are at it, is there anyway to change the default FOV in the

perspective window. Every time you reset it FOV goes to 90 degrees. This

makes objects look somewhat distorted. Whenever I reset I usually change to

45 degrees FOV. (Hmm, "usually"? More like "every single time".)


Conny Joensson

** .sig under reconstruction **



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 13:46:41
Subject: Re: Candle
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Rivers)


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


[...]


C> scene, ie it has to be a lightsource.

C> If I add an axis (and make it a light) and put it inside the flame, some

C> of

C> the light will "stay inside" the flame (it is not FULLY transparent, I

C> want

C> to SEE the flame as well) and my scene will not be a bright as I wish it

C> to

C> be.


[...]


C> What do I do?


Set the fog length of the object to something greater than zero.

Fog objects don't cast shadows, and if you set the Fog len to .01,

the object still appears solid.


If you have I3.X, here's a free candle tip: Make a  brushmap with

a vertical gadient from the white(top) to black(bottom).

Then make another brushmap that is solid white. Apply the gradient

map to the candle as a 'reflectivity' map and appy the solid white

map as a 'reflection' map.  This makes the candle stick glow

like a real lit candle.


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

|  Commodore failure. Press mouse button to continue  |

|  Guru Meditation  $35000000     Task : $00000CBM    |

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

          A4000/060/90mhz WOW! this is fast.

                140 Mips  50 Mflops.



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 14:04:02
Subject: Re: Candle
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne) (Robert Byrne)


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


In article <[e-mail]> Conny Joensson writes:


> Help, I need somebody.

> Help, not just anybody.

> Help...                        ;)

>

> This weekend I started to model a candle.

> The candlestick turned out great, the candle itself was no big problem (just

> a tube, basically), BUT the flame...

>

> I'm not going to use this in any animation, just a still, so the flame

> doesn't have to be very complex. I made an ellipsoid out of a primitive

> sphere, applied the 'radial' texture to make it shift colour, and made it a

> bit transparent. All this is simple.

>

> The problem (at least for me) is that I want to use this candle to light my

> scene, ie it has to be a lightsource.

> If I add an axis (and make it a light) and put it inside the flame, some of

> the light will "stay inside" the flame (it is not FULLY transparent, I want

> to SEE the flame as well) and my scene will not be a bright as I wish it to

> be.

> If I put the light somewhere outside the flame the lighting will not

> originate from the correct place.

>

> What do I do?

>

> ..you know I need someone.

> He.e.elp...


Hi Conny,


With a little help from my friends ... :-)


I can only think of one thing to try.  The manual suggests either

increasing transparency, moving the light axis outside of the flame or

create a hole in the flame to let the light shine through.  You might like

to try and Fracture the flame object with a value just over 1.0.  This will

displace the faces slightly and create gaps for the light to shine through.

A combination of this and transparency might work.  It might create

problems however, if the light source is casting shadows.


BTW - thanks for the reply regarding my not receiving the IML, it's been

sorted out :-)


What do you see when you turn out the light ...


Bye,  Bob.



  : Robert (Bob) Byrne        :  A3000/25  : vox  Ph: [phone] :

  : [e-mail] :            : Ballina, NSW Australia :





Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 17:21:33
Subject: Re: LW vs Imagine
From:    Kenneth Jennings <[e-mail]>


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




Mike Rivers <[e-mail]>

      wrote about: LW vs. Imagine


> Mike Halvorson

>wrote about Re: LW vs. Imagine


>>Mr. Jennings

>>

>>I doubt that anyone has ever lied to you, and if so what is that they

>>lied about, I wont lie to you, so why dont you tell me what this supposed

>>bug is, bring out the issue based on facts, not something that a magazine

>>might or might not have any idea about.


>Mr. Halverson has an exceptional way of making people feel welcome.


>>I trust users but find little to trust when it

>>comes to a magazine which is set up to deal only with income and advertisers,

            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>Amazingly, a lot like Impulse's newsletter.


>>the rest of the magazine is devoted to filling the pulp with fiction or

>>what they might call fact.


>Still, Amazingly, a lot like Impulse's newsletter.


>>I certainly dont mind that people have a difference, and you are of

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>>course welcome to your right to express your self in what ever manner you

>want.


>Amazing.  Almost every time I expess my opinion about Imagine,

>I recieve a message from Mr. Halverson, or from my sysop telling

>me Mr. Halverson is trying to have my net access cut, or

>a message Mr.Halverson threatening to sue.  I would suggest

>that Impulse get a better PR person who doesn't belittle

>their customers.


>>But you say there was "SOME" problem, what was it or what is it.  I

>>have no problem in dealing with what ever you have heard or think you heard.


>>This is your opportunity to make a difference if you so desire,

>>I look forward to your message.


>Somehow, I seriously doubt it.


>>Mike Halvorson


>KJ> I reported this to Impulse where I was told, "It doesn't happen here."

>KJ> So, I thought screw it.


>Well, you not alone in that respect.


The problem I ran into in 2.0 had apparently been fixed (based on

testimony from a few emails I received) in 3.x.


Thats all well and fine, however, the gist of the discussion was

Impulse's responsiveness to users.  I have bought most Impulse

products since Turbo Silver and bought every collection of 3D

objects, fonts, and utilities they offered. (I even bought

sweatshirts.)  The only thing I have ever become disappointed

with was VoRecOne, because there was never a VoRecTwo.


I like Imagine.  For our video work I've had to move to Lightwave

for animation, but I still use Imagine, because I greatly

prefer the Detail editor to Lightwave's Modeler.  I don't get

frustrated very easily, and I spend a great deal of time

making sure I can duplicate errors and explain problems succinctly

when I have to call Tech Support.  (I spent a week proofreading

the Imagine 0.9/1.0 manual and sent Impulse a tome [40 paragraphs]

of corrections and suggestions.)


It seems to me that the only time there's any suggestion of

responsiveness to the end user is when Mike Halvorson is

directly involved.  Over the years, most of the other people

I've talked to at Impulse Tech Support were rude, short,

gruff, or insulting when discussing problems with Imagine.

I know I couldn't possibly be the first person to come across

every problem I document, so it's no thrill to have Tech Support

use the blanket phrase, "It doesn't do that here."  which

translates to "I don't want to talk to you."


If the phone wasn't bad enough, they are totally unresponsive

by snail-mail unless the envelope contains a check.  I have

previously sent back disks containing 3D object/fonts collection

which I believed were missing objects.  When I call to find

out what's happening I'm always told they never got it.  (The

post office can't be that unreliable all the time.)  It's a

good thing I back up everything I buy, so I'm only out a couple

letters in a few fonts.


Additionally, I have sent numerous sample projects, objects, and

pictures to Impulse and have never received any kind of response

to my problems, because (of course) the "never got" the disks.

Maybe Mike H. should walk through tech support with a 2x4 and whack

a few people upside the head.


Bottom line: Impulse's Imagine is wonderful.  Impulse's Tech

Support is not, unless you're dealing with Mike Halvorson

directly.


+-------------------------------------+ +-------------------------------------+

|   Kenneth Jennings, Amiga Advocate  | | ======  SyntheToonz, Inc &   ====== |

|  "Happy I'm not a PC/Mac lemming."  | | ====== Equine Video Studios  ====== |

|       [e-mail]      | | = Ken, Computer Animation Artiste = |

| Applied Automation Techniques, Inc. | | =        Lynn, Video Maven        = |

|  Obviously not the opinions of AAT. | | =      Bruno The Wonder Dog       = |

+-------------------------------------+ +-------------------------------------+

"You'd think that PC and Mac users willing to gut their systems to achieve the

 Amiga's level of performance would just save themselves the trouble and buy

 Amigas in the first place. But they don't know any better -- they read BYTE."




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 17:50:58
Subject: Re: Candle
From:    [e-mail] (Perry Lucas)


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


>

>

>[CJO's candle flame question]

>

>I made an animation of a candle a while back, which came out pretty

>nice.

>

>Take your basic candle-flame ellipsoid shape and add the following

>attributes:

>

>        Fog Length: 0.10

>

>    Texture: Ghost

>

Over the past few days, I have noticed a bunch of people posting these

howto's for simple objects (photon torpeodo's, shields, etc.)  Although

I do not have much time in my life, I would like to put a booklet out of

all these little tidbits.  I can easily format them nicely through AmiPro,

print them out, and get them binded down at the copy center.  The only

cost would be for the copying, binding, and shipping.  It would be a lot

nicer than the thousands of printouts that you and I have scattered about

our work areas.  Any thoughts?


--Perry


                                               _,_/|

                                               \o.O;

------------------------------------------oOO =(___)= OOo------

Perry J.Lucas                                    U

Emails: [e-mail]              "PJ" on Diversity University

        [e-mail]  Telnet:  moo.du.org 8888

        [e-mail]

HTML Hompage:  http://erau.db.erau.edu:80/~lucasp




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 19:46:15
Subject: Re: Candle
From:    [e-mail] (Craig Andera )


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


>Over the past few days, I have noticed a bunch of people posting these

>howto's for simple objects (photon torpeodo's, shields, etc.)  Although

>I do not have much time in my life, I would like to put a booklet out of

>all these little tidbits.  I can easily format them nicely through AmiPro,

>print them out, and get them binded down at the copy center.  The only

>cost would be for the copying, binding, and shipping.  It would be a lot

>nicer than the thousands of printouts that you and I have scattered about

>our work areas.  Any thoughts?

>

>--Perry

>


I think this is a great idea. As a beginning -> intermediate user, I know I

usually grab anything that looks interesting off the list, save it, and try

it later. I've come across quite a few things that I would never have

figured out on my own this way, and quite a few others that would have

taken me a long time.


Perhaps even better than binding it would be to create some sort of

electronic archive. I know the archives for this list already exist, but

having one that contains only the "tidbits" and "howtos" would save a lot

of sifting, and provide people like me with a really information-dense

jumping off point. Plus, it cuts out the printing, binding, and mailing. We

just need to find some anonymous ftp site or set up some kind of

auto-mailer. And it allows for frequent updates.


Maybe a WWW page? Are browsers for the Amiga widely available?


Just a few thoughts.


-Craig




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 20:22:59
Subject: IMAGINE 3.2 ?
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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



-> From: Shane Davison <[e-mail]>

->

-> Isn't Imagine 3.2 supposed to be out by now ?

-> So far, my $100 has only brought me _one_ new

-> (and minor) upgrade and the Constant Upgrade

-> period is almost over !  Any info about 3.2

-> is appreciated.  I won't mind if they've made

-> it Windows compatible...


=2E..this brings up a question I don't think has been answered before=

.

I'm a naturally suspicious guy...and learned never pay the mechanic

BEFORE the work is done, so I haven't joined the Impulse auto-upgrade

"deal". However, I'm curious how Impulse is going to pull this thing

off. They say for $100 you get atleast 4 updates from May to May. It =

has

been my experience that Impulse generally takes 2 years to get from o=

ne

major release to another. Also, at the rate they are going now, (v3.0=

,

v3.1, v3.2 etc.) those people who paid $100 will only get v3.3 (if th=

ey

are lucky) before the year period is over. Then I assume they will no=

t

receive v3.4, v3.5, v3.6 etc. but will receive v4.0 when it's done.


So how does one get the other upgrades prior to 4.0 without having to

pay another $100? A better deal would be to offer 4 minor updates

between 3.0 and 4.0 with the option of choosing which 4 they want (ba=

sed

on the features added).


I think Impulse should be upfront about the reality that full release

versions don't come on a yearly time table. In fact, it is my impress=

ion

that Impulse doesn't even have a timetable, since "2 weeks" to them c=

an

mean anything from 3 to 6 months. :)

        _______________________________________________________

      /_________________________________________________________\

    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =

|=3D

  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =

|=3D

  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =

|=3D

  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =

|=3D

  =3D|_______________________________________________________________=

|=3D

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 20:46:04
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


I believe Impulse may have taken a first step towards solving the problem

of supporting the lowest common denominator in machines: IM L/T. Perhaps

Impulse should let Imagine diverge into two separate entities -- a program

for the low end that offers a lot of features for the money but will work

on most machines, and a version for the high end market that costs more but

offers MUCH more and requires the hardware to support it. I would prefere

to remain with one program and focus my skills with that one tool, but as

it stands, I must use LW for rendering and IM for modeling in order to be

productive (thanking God for Interchange).


While I'm here, I'll sound off a little about the some of the whining and

back biting towards Impulse. They are a small company. I've called them

perhaps a dozen times and I've ended up speaking with Mike about five times.

Call Alias or AutoDesk and see if you ever end up talking with the owner,

even by appointment. Impulse doesn't have the capital to support a full time

service that can answer you with "Good Morning, this is Impulse. How may

we help you today?" I'm sure they could provide it if we are willing

to pay for it in the s/w. Impulse just doesn't have the volume to support

all the extras and keep their prices down. Mike is fortunate that he didn't

find his calling in the diplomatic corps -- his genius is in programing,

not PR. On the other hand, we could be less confrontational. Provide inputs,

and if Impulse continues to ignore them, we could look else where. That has

always been an option.


For my part, I wish the IML would limit itself more to comment and info,

and forget the flaming. This type of conduct on LW-ML or comp.graphics.

packages.lightwave is not tolerated, and believe me, NewTek is not the

most responsive company in the market place. Let's focus on what we can

achieve; an exchange of information that will help us to extract as much

as possible from Imagine, within its limitations. If we act responsibly,

perhaps Impulse will work with us to reduce those limitations.




Doug Rudd

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

:-) I think I'll write a letter to my congressman.


:-| A congressman has two ends: a sitting end and a thinking end;

and since his entire future depends on his seat, why bother friend....

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



Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 21:24:54
Subject: Re: IML tidbits (was Candle)
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



>Over the past few days, I have noticed a bunch of people posting these

>howto's for simple objects (photon torpeodo's, shields, etc.)  Although

>I do not have much time in my life, I would like to put a booklet out of

>all these little tidbits.  I can easily format them nicely through AmiPro,

>print them out, and get them binded down at the copy center.  The only

>cost would be for the copying, binding, and shipping.  It would be a lot

>nicer than the thousands of printouts that you and I have scattered about

>our work areas.  Any thoughts?

>--Perry


Well, I've collected _all_ the step-by-step (and other significant) things

to try in Imagine from _all_ the IML archives (# 0-57).  The only stuff

I may have missed occasionally were "Essence-only" tidbits (because I don't

own it).  Now, since this was to be only for personal use, I only copied

the helpful info and didn't include the author/poster.  Due to school, etc,

I don't have enough time to go through and attach the author to his/her

useful info (which, IMO, should be done but shouldn't take too much time

using text searches).  If anyone is interested in this *and* would like

to sort/credit/etc the text, I'd be happy to upload/mail it to you.  But

if others are going to make use of it, I'd really like to see the author's

name included.  I was quite a competent Turbo Silver user and thus was

not a total Imagine newbie when I bought 3.0.  But there is no question

that the information contained in the IML archives was invaluable to me

and many others.  I'd like to take this opportunity to thank each and

every IML member who has contributed in any positive way to this list.


Regards,


--

Shane Davison (tsml)

[e-mail]




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 23:02:55
Subject: Re: Candle
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


> Over the past few days, I have noticed a bunch of people posting these

> howto's for simple objects (photon torpeodo's, shields, etc.)  Although

> I do not have much time in my life, I would like to put a booklet out of

> all these little tidbits.  I can easily format them nicely through AmiPro,

> print them out, and get them binded down at the copy center.  The only

> cost would be for the copying, binding, and shipping.  It would be a lot

> nicer than the thousands of printouts that you and I have scattered about

> our work areas.  Any thoughts?

>


Why not an AmigaGuide file? Cost? Just time. Risk? None. Could be very

useful.



Doug Rudd

[e-mail]

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

The Amiga Guide to the Galaxy refers to Commodore's management as

"A bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first to be lined up

against the wall and shot when the revolution comes."

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

They will get my Amiga from me when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

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




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 23:30:09
Subject: Online Docs, was RE: Candle
From:    Kenneth Jennings <[e-mail]>


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




Craig Andera  <[e-mail]>

      wrote about Re: Candle


>>Over the past few days, I have noticed a bunch of people posting these

>>howto's for simple objects (photon torpeodo's, shields, etc.)  Although

>>I do not have much time in my life, I would like to put a booklet out of

>>all these little tidbits.  I can easily format them nicely through AmiPro,

>>print them out, and get them binded down at the copy center.  The only

>>cost would be for the copying, binding, and shipping.  It would be a lot

>>nicer than the thousands of printouts that you and I have scattered about

>>our work areas.  Any thoughts?

>>

>>--Perry



>I think this is a great idea.

[...]


Dittos.



>Perhaps even better than binding it would be to create some sort of

>electronic archive.

[...]


>Maybe a WWW page?


Maybe an AmigaGuide document.  That would be really useful.



>Are browsers for the Amiga widely available?


Yup.  See the March 95 AmigaWhirled :-) for a description

of everything you need on the Amiga to use Mosaic.


>Just a few thoughts.


>-Craig


+-------------------------------------+ +-------------------------------------+

|   Kenneth Jennings, Amiga Advocate  | | ======  SyntheToonz, Inc &   ====== |

|  "Happy I'm not a PC/Mac lemming."  | | ====== Equine Video Studios  ====== |

|       [e-mail]      | | = Ken, Computer Animation Artiste = |

| Applied Automation Techniques, Inc. | | =        Lynn, Video Maven        = |

|  Obviously not the opinions of AAT. | | =      Bruno The Wonder Dog       = |

+-------------------------------------+ +-------------------------------------+

"You'd think that PC and Mac users willing to gut their systems to achieve the

 Amiga's level of performance would just save themselves the trouble and buy

 Amigas in the first place. But they don't know any better -- they read BYTE."




Date:    Thursday, 09 February 1995 23:37:35
Subject: Good turbulent gas effect??
From:    Scott Krehbiel <[e-mail]>


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



Hi Everybody,

I'm trying to make a turbulent gas effect.  I tried using a fog

object and the Nebula texture (came with Imagine) and I got

a kinda neat effect, but it looked more like water than

anything else.  Actually, it looked just like the sky reflecting

off the surface of turbulent water.


What I'm trying to represent is called Reactive Ion Etching,

where a gas is bombarded with Radio waves, ionizing it and

making it etch a surface.  I'm not about to try to micro-animate

this, but would like to get a nice plasma effect on the gas.


Any suggestions for getting a "dangerous gas that would etch things"

effect???  I think turbulence would be good, as it would illustrate

the fact that the gas is doing something... not just sitting around.


Thanks in advance,

Scott Krehbiel

[e-mail]





Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 00:15:19
Subject: Re: Booklet of Tidbits
From:    [e-mail]


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


     i think this is a great idea...maybe a WWW site or maybe a compressed

     text file in the layout of a book(e.g. table of contents, index, etc.)



     also, i would gladly offer my windows database programming experience

     to the cause of developing an updateable "booklet of tidbits".  all of

     the tidbits could be formatted in ascii format such that they could be

     easily imported into a database. (Amiga or IBM)



     just an idea, no flames please :)



     later,

     [e-mail]



______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________


Subject: Re: Candle

Author:  [e-mail] (Craig Andera ) at PROFGTWY

Date:    2/9/95 11:00 AM



>Over the past few days, I have noticed a bunch of people posting these

>howto's for simple objects (photon torpeodo's, shields, etc.)  Although

>I do not have much time in my life, I would like to put a booklet out of

>all these little tidbits.  I can easily format them nicely through AmiPro,

>print them out, and get them binded down at the copy center.  The only

>cost would be for the copying, binding, and shipping.  It would be a lot

>nicer than the thousands of printouts that you and I have scattered about

>our work areas.  Any thoughts?

>

>--Perry

>



I think this is a great idea. As a beginning -> intermediate user, I know I

usually grab anything that looks interesting off the list, save it, and try

it later. I've come across quite a few things that I would never have

figured out on my own this way, and quite a few others that would have

taken me a long time.



Perhaps even better than binding it would be to create some sort of

electronic archive. I know the archives for this list already exist, but

having one that contains only the "tidbits" and "howtos" would save a lot

of sifting, and provide people like me with a really information-dense

jumping off point. Plus, it cuts out the printing, binding, and mailing. We

just need to find some anonymous ftp site or set up some kind of

auto-mailer. And it allows for frequent updates.



Maybe a WWW page? Are browsers for the Amiga widely available?



Just a few thoughts.



-Craig






Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 04:23:45
Subject: Re: Booklet of Tidbits
From:    [e-mail] (Craig Andera )


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


Well, considering the number of positive responses in the few hours since

the original posts, it looks like the idea is a pretty popular one.


I just want to put in a word for the PC users, like myself: an Amiga guide

file is of limited utility to us, unless anyone knows of a viewer for

DOS/Windows. I realize that this list consists in large part of Amiga

users (and having read for a while now, I've gained tons of respect for the

Amiga), hence my comment about the availability of Amiga browsers.


Anyway, if someone does get around to organizing the tidbits, please keep

the Amiga-impaired like myself in mind.




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 05:11:34
Subject: Re: Online Docs, was RE: Candle
From:    Michael Hazlett <[e-mail]>


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


> >I think this is a great idea.

> [...]

>

> Dittos.

>

>

> >Perhaps even better than binding it would be to create some sort of

> >electronic archive.

> [...]

> Maybe an AmigaGuide document.  That would be really useful.

>

>

> >Are browsers for the Amiga widely available?


AMIGAGUIDE!! AMIGAGUIDE!! :)


MH



Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 05:37:24
Subject: Textures
From:    Michael Hazlett <[e-mail]>


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



Recently I seen some tutes on making dissapating shields....but in the

tute it used the textures.....


Bandturb

SwapCRF

Solid


Ok I have Bandturb....but if the other ones are Essence textures I never

got 'em....If it's legal can someone UL the textures...Solid & SwapCRF to

me please...


Thanks Guyz



MH



Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 06:08:36
Subject: 3D Artist
From:    [e-mail] (Gareth Qually)


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


Thanks to everyone for helping me out with the details of the mag.


Perry Lucas suggested a compiled book of IML tips and hints. This sounds

great, i would like to get one. But being outside Perry's country

inhibits my ability to send a self addressed envelope with his countrys'

stamp on it. Also a small charge for the booklet would not justify the

charges I would get changing currencies (in South Africa we still have

exchange controls).


What about sending it via e-mail to people who wanted it, hey Perry? I

use AmiPro as well so the format wouldn't be a problem. If you can Perry

I would be most grateful.


Chow...


[e-mail]


P.S. Is Seaquest really a commercial flop in the States?



Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 06:47:57
Subject: Locomotive objects
From:    [e-mail] (Peter Borcherds)


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




Hi there


I am looking for any Imagine objects of locomotives (steam or diesel)

- preferably very detailed. If anyone knows of the location of such

objects could they please let me know.


Another thing I have been trying - I want to model the inside of a

house - complete with furniture - to help with interior design. I've

tried various methods, but they have all given me problems due to

speed of rendering, etc. Anyone have any ideas?


- and while I am on the subject, how can I make objects of a couch

and a TV (needs to be reasonably detailed)


I am a relative newie to Imagine (3.0) with very little model building

experience, so any bit of help would be appreciated.


Thanks


Peter Borcherds


[e-mail]



 ** UNREGISTERED EVALUATION COPY - PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHAREWARE CONCEPT **

---

 | AmiQWK 2.3 | Help! I've fallen and I can't get down! - James Brown



Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 07:25:08
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    [e-mail]


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


Yes I agree. Impulse is a small company and it does respond to suggestions

that ARE implemented in later versions of the software. I have talked to MH

on numerous occasions and he was always upfront and straight foward. Of

course this approach will turn off many people if they are used to

"sugarcoated" responses. My suggestion for Impulse is it is OK for Mike to be

short but it is certainly not OK for his tech staff to be gruff. They have NO

right be.



Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 07:46:33
Subject: Re: Candle
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Mike Rivers <[e-mail]>


If you have I3.X, here's a free candle tip: Make a  brushmap with

a vertical gadient from the white(top) to black(bottom).

Then make another brushmap that is solid white. Apply the gradient

map to the candle as a 'reflectivity' map and appy the solid white

map as a 'reflection' map.  This makes the candle stick glow

like a real lit candle.

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


Umm, wouldn't it be simpler to replace those two brushmaps with the

Linear texture, fading the color to white as you get closer to the top

of the candle?



Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 07:47:43
Subject: Re: IMAGINE 3.2 ?
From:    [e-mail]


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


I have been informed from Impulse that the upgrade program for $100 will get

you to version 4.0 of Imagine if you have version 3.0 to start with.



Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 08:17:41
Subject: Re: LW vs Imagine
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Kenneth Jennings <[e-mail]>


<Lots of horror stories about Impulse's tech support deleted>

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


I agree 100%. Impulse's tech support is abysmal. They promise to phone

back, but never do. They promise to pass faxes on to XYZ, XYZ never gets

them. You describe any problem, (my communications skills are legendary

at the office and online) and they complain they can't understand, then

ask you to send them a scene on disk. You send them disks -- black hole

from hell.


Why do you think I became so good at solving Imagine problems? Because I

never got any help from their phone line, that's what.


In all honesty, I must add that online support is much better than their

phone tech line. Sometimes Mike needs a couple of messages to understand

user questions, but he often follows through with an answer.


Mike, if you're reading this, how on earth have these rude, incompetent

people managed to keep their job this long? Are you really oblivious to

the number of people who, through the years, have been turned off Imagine

forever because of their personal tech support horror stories?




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 08:25:13
Subject: Imagine tidbits
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Perry Lucas <[e-mail]>


Over the past few days, I have noticed a bunch of people posting these

howto's for simple objects (photon torpeodo's, shields, etc.)  Although

I do not have much time in my life, I would like to put a booklet out of

all these little tidbits.  I can easily format them nicely through AmiPro,

print them out, and get them binded down at the copy center.  The only

cost would be for the copying, binding, and shipping.  It would be a lot

nicer than the thousands of printouts that you and I have scattered about

our work areas.  Any thoughts?

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


Some would prefer a printed booklet, but I vote for the compendium to be

published in electronic format. Two reasons: easier to update, and

searchable.




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 08:47:46
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    Robert Iacullo <[e-mail]>


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


Here, here.



On Thu, 9 Feb 1995, Douglas Rudd wrote:


> I believe Impulse may have taken a first step towards solving the problem

> of supporting the lowest common denominator in machines: IM L/T. Perhaps

> Impulse should let Imagine diverge into two separate entities -- a program

> for the low end that offers a lot of features for the money but will work

> on most machines, and a version for the high end market that costs more but

> offers MUCH more and requires the hardware to support it. I would prefere

> to remain with one program and focus my skills with that one tool, but as

> it stands, I must use LW for rendering and IM for modeling in order to be

> productive (thanking God for Interchange).

>

> While I'm here, I'll sound off a little about the some of the whining and

> back biting towards Impulse. They are a small company. I've called them

> perhaps a dozen times and I've ended up speaking with Mike about five times.

> Call Alias or AutoDesk and see if you ever end up talking with the owner,

> even by appointment. Impulse doesn't have the capital to support a full time

> service that can answer you with "Good Morning, this is Impulse. How may

> we help you today?" I'm sure they could provide it if we are willing

> to pay for it in the s/w. Impulse just doesn't have the volume to support

> all the extras and keep their prices down. Mike is fortunate that he didn't

> find his calling in the diplomatic corps -- his genius is in programing,

> not PR. On the other hand, we could be less confrontational. Provide inputs,

> and if Impulse continues to ignore them, we could look else where. That has

> always been an option.

>

> For my part, I wish the IML would limit itself more to comment and info,

> and forget the flaming. This type of conduct on LW-ML or comp.graphics.

> packages.lightwave is not tolerated, and believe me, NewTek is not the

> most responsive company in the market place. Let's focus on what we can

> achieve; an exchange of information that will help us to extract as much

> as possible from Imagine, within its limitations. If we act responsibly,

> perhaps Impulse will work with us to reduce those limitations.

>

>

>

> Doug Rudd

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

> :-) I think I'll write a letter to my congressman.

>

> :-| A congressman has two ends: a sitting end and a thinking end;

> and since his entire future depends on his seat, why bother friend....

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>



Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 09:23:04
Subject: RE: LW vs Imagine(brushmap transparency "bug")
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Ted Stethem <[e-mail]>


  Well, after all that, guess what? Now, somehow RSDP affects the

transparency of brushmaps! in Scanline mode no less!  Try setting your RSDP to

something like 16 or more then try rendering your overlapping tree

brushmaps. It will work! But not without a subsequent cost in rendering time.



  Do you have a bald spot on your head where you have been scratching to

figure out why Imagine is not working the way you expect or is documented

to work?

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



Ted, here's my educated guess. In 2.9, Imagine exhibited transparency

bugs which, if memory serves me right, were caused by an attempt to

improve the backdrop code. (Users were complaining that backdrops would

not show behind transparent or semi-transparent objects)


Impulse has been working on the situation, and is actually moving

towards actual alpha channel support, where your objects' opacity

becomes an 8-bit greyscale image. This will allow the backdrop to show

perfectly, with varying amounts depending on the cumulative opacity of

any/all objects in the scene. My guess is that the upcoming alpha

channel support is the reason why Resolve Depth now affects scanline

mode and transparency maps.




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 09:48:37
Subject: Re: Booklet of Tidbits
From:    "Anime a day..." <[e-mail]>


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


On Thu, 9 Feb 1995, Craig Andera wrote:


> Well, considering the number of positive responses in the few hours since

> the original posts, it looks like the idea is a pretty popular one.

>

> I just want to put in a word for the PC users, like myself: an Amiga guide

> file is of limited utility to us, unless anyone knows of a viewer for

> DOS/Windows. I realize that this list consists in large part of Amiga

> users (and having read for a while now, I've gained tons of respect for the

> Amiga), hence my comment about the availability of Amiga browsers.

>

> Anyway, if someone does get around to organizing the tidbits, please keep

> the Amiga-impaired like myself in mind.

>




 You can still read the amigaguide files with any ascii text reader but

you will have some delimiters scattered through it.. but the body of it

will still be usefull.. Sometimes when doing a word search I do that with

an amigaguide format file just to get the info I need and print it out

fast...


Bill





Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 11:28:05
Subject: Re: Booklet of Tidbits
From:    [e-mail] (Silicon)


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


>      i think this is a great idea...maybe a WWW site or maybe a compressed

>      text file in the layout of a book(e.g. table of contents, index, etc.)


I could host it at my WWW site. If someone takes time to make the

initial WWW page, I can put it on my site.


Andrey




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 12:44:56
Subject: Re: IML Tidbits
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



GREG BILKE wrote:

> As an Imagine newbie, I find myself switching back and forth from the manual

> and numerous print-outs of interesting ideas and tutorials found on IML and

> other resources.

>

> I like the idea of an AmigaGuide version of tips and ideas because it would

> be able to take advantage AmigaGuide's hypertext capabilities and would be

> easy to maintain and distribute.  The only problem is I would have to run

> it in the backround while using Imagine and bounce back and forth between

> screens or print out the page.

>

> A small bound booklet would serve my needs best by reducing clutter from

> printouts and being in front of my face while working in Imagine's editors.


Well, I've had a few requests for my Imagine tidbits and I've come to

a decision.  Since I truely feel that the authors of all these great tips

and hints deserve credit for them, I will go through and compile a

text version of this "Imagine Compendium" which will include the authors.

I will then send this via e-mail to anyone who requests it and upload it

if desired.  From then on, you can do with it what you will - make an

AmigaGuide version, a html version, a multimedia version, a printed

booklet, etc. - under one condition: that I get credit for compiling

the text.  Since I've spent well over 100 hours slowly reading every

word of the last 58 IML archives (0-57, 13 megs, almost 10,000 msg.s)

and since I'm putting in the time and effort to organize it, I think

this is only fair.


Just to clarify:  I don't have _all_ the tricks, tips, hints, work-arounds,

etc. from the IML archives - there are far too many and you might as well

just get all the archives and search for the desired phrase.  What I do

have is anything (mildly) interesting that one could try with Imagine

(sort of like some of Mr. Worley's appendix notes in UI2.0).  This includes

tutorials, how-to's, try this, etc.  If this is not what you were looking for,

then someone else will have to go through all the archives and extract the

desired info but you'll need a lot of luck (and time) to get them all.

However, I might take requests if there's anything that's really important

that I may have left out (in fact, I just did something like this a couple

of weeks ago when I searched all the archives and extracted all the info

related to creating realistic CD's in Imagine).


Please let me know what you think.  I have some time this weekend and

next week so I could get started very soon...


Regards,

--

Shane Davison (tsml)

[e-mail]




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 12:49:58
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    Angus Carson <[e-mail]>


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


On Thu, 9 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:


> course this approach will turn off many people if they are used to

> "sugarcoated" responses. My suggestion for Impulse is it is OK for Mike to be

> short but it is certainly not OK for his tech staff to be gruff. They have NO

> right be.


  Short?  So this means he can call people insulting names, question

thier intelligence, and claim that he's always right?  Sorry, WRONG.

That's not how you represent a company much less represent yourself.





Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 13:10:10
Subject: Computer objects
From:    [e-mail]


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


  I am in need of computer objects.  CPU cases, Monitors, keyboards, mice,

cables, disk drives.  Any part or wholes that anyone may have or know of.


  I have a nice Amiga 3000, and a couple of good monitors.  I would like to

get a PC - type, as well as a Macintosh, and SGIs, Suns, and any other

workstation models.


  Thanks,



    Kurt Knippel

    Creative Director

    High Impact Productions



Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 14:09:40
Subject: Re: Tree's
From:    [e-mail]


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


On my question about tree-maker's Alan Gordie answered;

>have you tried LPARSER3.ZIP, ibelieve you can find it at avalon...

>it lets you grow trees, ferns, bugs, fish, lobsters and anything else you

>can stumble across while using it.


Thanks! I have found it and installed here at work and it works fine.

But I would really like something for my Amiga as well.


Anyone?


Conny Joensson

Kiruna, Sweden



Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 15:05:03
Subject: Re: Candle
From:    [e-mail]


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


>>If you have I3.X, here's a free candle tip: Make a  brushmap with

>>a vertical gadient from the white(top) to black(bottom).

>>Then make another brushmap that is solid white. Apply the gradient

>>map to the candle as a 'reflectivity' map and appy the solid white

>>map as a 'reflection' map.  This makes the candle stick glow

>>like a real lit candle.


>Umm, wouldn't it be simpler to replace those two brushmaps with the

>Linear texture, fading the color to white as you get closer to the top

>of the candle?


You can't _fade_ reflectivity or reflection in a texture, can you?


Conny Joensson

** .sig under reconstruction **



Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 15:17:24
Subject: Re: IML Tidbits
From:    James Brooks <[e-mail]>


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


On Thu, 9 Feb 1995, GREG BILKE wrote:


>

> As an Imagine newbie, I find myself switching back and forth from the manual

> and numerous print-outs of interesting ideas and tutorials found on IML and

> other resources.

>

> I like the idea of an AmigaGuide version of tips and ideas because it would

> be able to take advantage AmigaGuide's hypertext capabilities and would be

> easy to maintain and distribute.  The only problem is I would have to run

> it in the backround while using Imagine and bounce back and forth between

> screens or print out the page.



Just a thought, is there a way to 'shanghai' the screen which Imagine is

running on?  I am guessing the AmigaGuide is a resizable/movable window

and it would be nice.


Like I said, just a thought.   ;-)


Alex




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

James "Alex" Brooks              Amiga 4000/040/28MHz 20MB RAM

Lightwave 3.5 / Imagine 3.0      VideoToaster 4000 3.1

Sysquest 3.5" 270MB            Bernoulli 90Pro

NEC 3xp Triple Speed CDROM       Warp Engine 4028

Epson ES-600C Scanner            E-Mail: [e-mail]

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




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 15:47:11
Subject: Re: IML Tidbits
From:    [e-mail]


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


Those of you on the IML that are interested in getting a www site or

possibly a ftp archive to get the IML tidbits from;

Send me an email!!


I might (just might) be able to do something about this. But before I do

I'd like to check if there is any real interest from the Imagine community.


So, if you like the idea and think that you would utilize the service,

drop me a line (or two).


Conny Joensson

[e-mail]



Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 16:55:53
Subject: PC Shareware?? other textures?
From:    imagine <[e-mail]>


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


Hi,


I have been using Imagine 3.0 on PC for a while, and apart from my gripes about


not being able to get the constant upgrade in the UK (if anyone can help I would


be grateful) I think that it is a wonderful product.


Quick question. There seem to be many textures available as add-ons for the

amiga product. Are there any for the PC if so where can I get them ??


Best

Andrew Stagg.

--




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 17:39:09
Subject: How to books (was Re: Candle
From:    Waland J F <[e-mail]>


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



[e-mail] wrote


>Over the past few days, I have noticed a bunch of people posting these

>howto's for simple objects (photon torpeodo's, shields, etc.)  Although

>I do not have much time in my life, I would like to put a booklet out of

>all these little tidbits.  I can easily format them nicely through AmiPro,



what about the faq? or a modification of it.


jon



Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 18:22:28
Subject: Re: Online Docs, was RE: Candle
From:    Michael <[e-mail]>


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



> > >I think this is a great idea.

> > [...]

> >

> > Dittos.

> >

> >

> > >Perhaps even better than binding it would be to create some sort of

> > >electronic archive.

> > [...]

> > Maybe an AmigaGuide document.  That would be really useful.

> >

> >

> > >Are browsers for the Amiga widely available?

>

> AMIGAGUIDE!! AMIGAGUIDE!! :)

>

> MH

>


Yes, definitly AMIGAGUIDE.





 - Michael                 |I don't have ideas |

   [e-mail]         |  - I Imagine !!   |


     ***  NEWS FLASH ***

        .sig extension under constuction...




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 19:19:38
Subject: Re: IML Tidbits
From:    Michael <[e-mail]>


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



  hi,


 Count me in for a copy, I've only had Imagine a fortnight and am

willing to accept any and all tips from seasoned users.


 I'm willing to proof read if this is needed.



 - Michael                 |I don't have ideas |

   [e-mail]         |  - I Imagine !!   |


     ***  NEWS FLASH ***

        .sig extension under constuction...




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 19:30:31
Subject: Imagine Cookbook
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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



-> From: [e-mail] (Perry Lucas)

-> Over the past few days, I have noticed a bunch of people posting t=

hes

-> howto's for simple objects (photon torpeodo's, shields, etc.)  Alt=

hou

-> I do not have much time in my life, I would like to put a booklet =

out

-> all these little tidbits.  I can easily format them nicely through=

 Am

-> print them out, and get them binded down at the copy center.  The =

onl

-> cost would be for the copying, binding, and shipping.  It would be=

 a

-> nicer than the thousands of printouts that you and I have scattere=

d a

-> our work areas.  Any thoughts?


Sounds like an excellent idea. You could call it the Imagine Cookbook=

.:)

        _______________________________________________________

      /_________________________________________________________\

    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =

|=3D

  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =

|=3D

  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =

|=3D

  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =

|=3D

  =3D|_______________________________________________________________=

|=3D

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 20:01:43
Subject: Re: Booklet of Tidbits
From:    [e-mail] (Stephen Wilkinson)


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


Hello!


   I must add my vote here for HTML. It is "portable" and easy to get

viewers for different platforms. Even Unix/Linux if I need 'em :)


Stephen

____________________________________

Stephen Wilkinson     [e-mail]      "Programming is like pinball. The

Sr. Software Engineer                     reward for doing it well is the

LB&M Associates                           opportunity to do it again."

____________________________________

#define OPINION        (myown)

#define COMPANYOPINION (~myown)


      This message created using 87% recycled neuro-transmitters

MicroSoft(n): From latin Micro (small or tiny) and Soft (limp or flaccid)




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 20:14:38
Subject: Imagine Improvements was IML Tidbits
From:    Kenneth Jennings <[e-mail]>


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




James Brooks <[e-mail]>

      wrote about Re: IML Tidbits:


>On Thu, 9 Feb 1995, GREG BILKE wrote:


[...]

>> I like the idea of an AmigaGuide version of tips and ideas because it would

>> be able to take advantage AmigaGuide's hypertext capabilities and would be

>> easy to maintain and distribute.  The only problem is I would have to run

>> it in the backround while using Imagine and bounce back and forth between

>> screens or print out the page.


>Just a thought, is there a way to 'shanghai' the screen which Imagine is

>running on?  I am guessing the AmigaGuide is a resizable/movable window

>and it would be nice.

>

>Like I said, just a thought.   ;-)

>

>Alex


Add this to the Imagine wish-list I guess.  Imagine should use a

public screen.  Additionally, might as well let Imagine properly

observe the display/monitors database to make it easier to run

Imagine on higher resolution displays (which would also facilitate

running Imagine's Editors on third-party display devices without

resorting to voodoo.)


+-------------------------------------+ +-------------------------------------+

|   Kenneth Jennings, Amiga Advocate  | | ======  SyntheToonz, Inc &   ====== |

|  "Happy I'm not a PC/Mac lemming."  | | ====== Equine Video Studios  ====== |

|       [e-mail]      | | = Ken, Computer Animation Artiste = |

| Applied Automation Techniques, Inc. | | =        Lynn, Video Maven        = |

|  Obviously not the opinions of AAT. | | =      Bruno The Wonder Dog       = |

+-------------------------------------+ +-------------------------------------+

"You'd think that PC and Mac users willing to gut their systems to achieve the

 Amiga's level of performance would just save themselves the trouble and buy

 Amigas in the first place. But they don't know any better -- they read BYTE."




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 21:28:35
Subject: Re[2]: Booklet of Tidbits
From:    [e-mail]


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


     who would update and format the various tidbits....



     perhaps you could run some type of mailer-daemon which parsed the

     messages into threads based upon some keyword(s) which everyone

     decides upon (e.g. HowTo, WatchOutFor, AttribSettings, etc.) in the

     subject line.



     then the www page would be dynamically built every x number of minutes

     by this mailer-daemon thingie..



     just an idea..



     :)

     [e-mail]



______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________


Subject: Re: Booklet of Tidbits

Author:  [e-mail] (Silicon) at PROFGTWY

Date:    2/10/95 4:12 AM



>      i think this is a great idea...maybe a WWW site or maybe a compressed

>      text file in the layout of a book(e.g. table of contents, index, etc.)



I could host it at my WWW site. If someone takes time to make the

initial WWW page, I can put it on my site.



Andrey






Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 21:28:38
Subject: Ideas on how to make chaotic cigarette smoke
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne)


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


In article <[e-mail]>

[e-mail] writes:


>         thanks to everyone who replied re: the Disco Ball... all of your

>      suggestions work great.

>

>      <deleted>

>

>      ....BTW, any ideas on how to make chaotic cigarette smoke???


Hello Allan,  here's a couple of suggestions I've found, but can't take

credit for. I've tested the Particles method but 1 frame took about 23

hours to render on an A3000. The texture method would be worth trying

first.


SIMULATING SMOKE WITH PARTICLES


Check this Tutorial out:


-Detail Editor


  -add primitives: sphere


  -attributes:     color 128,128,128       fog 180


         CLRNOIZ TEXTURE:

                   color 64,64,64          r,g,b,color vary 0


  -particles:      cube

                   random align

                   interpolated

                   dimension 150 units


  -save object


-Action Editor


  -add particle effect to loaded sphere (to all anim frames)



      (TOT == number of frames)


               emission

               travel distance  100 units

               scaling  1

               time to terminal h  2

               elasticity  50

               time to terminal z  TOT

               velocity  .5

               min angle x  -5

               max angle x  5

               wind velocity  5

               wind angle  33

               wind start  -TOT  (minus TOT)

               wind stop  TOT

               emission  95%

               SET ALL OTHER VALUES TO  0


REMEMBER:   add  a  backdrop  picture,  plane  or something else behind the

particle  object  because  it  is  a  fog  obj!!!   --  do  you  want see a

blank/black screen?



SMOKE (GAS) USING THE NEBULAR TEXTURE


I've just been playing with the Nebular texture to create a little animated

smoke.   Works  great,  and  I just thought some of you with 3.0 might make

some use of this info.


Remember  to  render  fog objects in front of a background object, and that

this  texture  will  apply to the area bounded by the texture axis, not the

entire object.  Scale the texture axis to affect the shape of the fog.


General Notes:


Noise  1  seems to affect the quality of the swirls.  Higher numbers adjust

the   thickness  and  reduce  the  transparency.   Noise  2  affects  color

transitions,  color intensity of nebular color as set in texture requester,

and color mixture, or grain.  Grain appears as a very pointillated surface,

as  if  there are thousands of dots of color rather than a smooth gradation

or  defined boundaries between object and nebula colors.  Higher numbers of

Noise 2 intensify the nebular color and increase grain.


Fog  length and the 'T' value work together to determine amount and density

of  the  fog appearing on the object.  For stills I would set the 'T' value

between  .6  and .8, object fog length at .1, and adjust the 'Fog Length at

T'  to  get  the  right density of fog.  I would use the 'T' value combined

with some of the noise values to create a fluctuating fog, or even to morph

from a dense fog to one very nearly dissipated.


A  nice,  swirly  smoke  might  use the following attributes in the nebular

texture  requester.   I  used  these on a sphere primitive with diameter of

300, so use that number as a reference to fog length.


  Object color:

  R:150

  G:150

  B:175


  Object Fog length:

  .1


  Nebular attributes:

  Fog Length at T:500

  T:.8

  Noise 1 Magnitude:5.0

  Noise 1 Velocity:1.0

  Noise 2 Magnitude:.2

  Noise 2 Velocity:10.0

  R:150

  G:100

  B:225


The  texture axis forms a square completely inside the sphere object, whose

corners touch the inside surface of the sphere.


--


Happy Rendering,  Bob.



  : Robert (Bob) Byrne        :  A3000/25  : vox  Ph: [phone] :

  : [e-mail] :            : Ballina, NSW Australia :




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 21:43:13
Subject: Re[2]: Booklet of Tidbits
From:    [e-mail]


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




you mentioned that the AmigaGuide format is basically an ascii text file with

some delimiters...


if someone will mail me the specifications for the AmigaGuide format along with


a few sample files, and a decription of how the AmigaGuide viewer operates, i

should be able to build a viewer/importer/print utility for us Windoze users.


then everyone can be happy


:)

[e-mail]


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________


Subject: Re: Booklet of Tidbits

Author:  "Anime a day..." <[e-mail]> at UNIXGTWY

Date:    2/10/95 2:27 AM



On Thu, 9 Feb 1995, Craig Andera wrote:



> Well, considering the number of positive responses in the few hours since

> the original posts, it looks like the idea is a pretty popular one.

>

> I just want to put in a word for the PC users, like myself: an Amiga guide

> file is of limited utility to us, unless anyone knows of a viewer for

> DOS/Windows. I realize that this list consists in large part of Amiga

> users (and having read for a while now, I've gained tons of respect for the

> Amiga), hence my comment about the availability of Amiga browsers.

>

> Anyway, if someone does get around to organizing the tidbits, please keep

> the Amiga-impaired like myself in mind.

>







 You can still read the amigaguide files with any ascii text reader but

you will have some delimiters scattered through it.. but the body of it

will still be usefull.. Sometimes when doing a word search I do that with

an amigaguide format file just to get the info I need and print it out

fast...



Bill








Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 22:11:28
Subject: Imagine Tidbit Booklet
From:    [e-mail] (Perry Lucas)


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


Well there seems to have been a huge response to my posting about

putting a booklet together.  However, there was the question of

AmigaGuide, WWW, or a booklet version of the compilation.  AmigaGuide

would be nice for the Amiga users, but it leaves the pc users

in the dust.  With WWW, not everyone has access to an HTTP: server,

especially since they might be able to connect to the internet

while designing a piece.  The Booklet problem was that some people

live in South Africa and would have rough time getting a copy of it.


So, here is the solution.  I will do both WWW page and a Booklet of it.

I do not know the amigaguide format, so someone would have to work with

me on that.  Shane Davison (tsml)@ [e-mail] said that do to

the large reponse to my previous posting he would put the IML archive tidbits

together that he has.  However, as he said, he would not have all of

them to put together.  So, I will make up a list of different object

"howto's" and post them here.  If you know how to make them, send me email

directly.


If you also can, send me a picture of it attached as a file document.

(I have the worst time with UUDECODE).  I will include the pictures in

the HTML version of the tidbits.  I do not know how good they will look

in Black and White on the document version but I will try.


As for the Author's, I would include their names within each object

that they post.  I had assumed this in the orginal post and did not

mention it.  I would not take credit for work that was not my own.


So, look for a list of objects from either later today or tomorrow.

--Perry


                                               _,_/|

                                               \o.O;

------------------------------------------oOO =(___)= OOo------

Perry J.Lucas                                    U

Emails: [e-mail]              "PJ" on Diversity University

        [e-mail]  Telnet:  moo.du.org 8888

        [e-mail]

HTML Hompage:  http://erau.db.erau.edu:80/~lucasp




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 23:03:27
Subject: Re: IML Tidbits
From:    [e-mail] (Patrick Sauvageau)


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


>Those of you on the IML that are interested in getting a www site or

>possibly a ftp archive to get the IML tidbits from;

>Send me an email!!

>

>I might (just might) be able to do something about this. But before I do

>I'd like to check if there is any real interest from the Imagine community.

>

>So, if you like the idea and think that you would utilize the service,

>drop me a line (or two).

>

>Conny Joensson

>[e-mail]


I think that Aminet is the best place to put this file; This way, it will be

visible to the entire Amiga-Imagine community(sp?) and it will be a good

advertissing for the list;


By the way; I think that a plain ascii text is the best way to hold this

kind of information since it's the most versatile format.


On the other way; an Imagine only FTP or WWW site (or directory) would be

one the greatest things on the Net .




-----

Patrick Sauvageau

([e-mail])




Date:    Friday, 10 February 1995 23:51:57
Subject: IMAGINE 3.2 ?
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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



Well Imagineer's, here's the response I got from my question about

how Impulse was going to pull off the "Constant Upgrade to 4.0" over =

the

course of ONE YEAR, directly from the BIG CHEESE himself.


->         You are wrong, we are shipping 3.2 at the end of next week=

, t

-> rev of the software will ship in April with 4.0 shipping in May, w=

e h

-> are still are right on track.  Thanks for you support, we will be =

gla

-> you purchase 4.0 when we begin shipping.

->         Mike Halvorson


Like Atari says: YOU DO THE MATH. :)


(..mark your calendars)

        _______________________________________________________

      /_________________________________________________________\

    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =

|=3D

  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =

|=3D

  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =

|=3D

  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =

|=3D

  =3D|_______________________________________________________________=

|=3D

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 00:03:45
Subject: RE: IMAGINE 3.2 ?
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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



-> From: [e-mail]

-> I agree.  Imagine is a great deal and great software.  I don't thi=

nk

-> here is disputing that.  I think the issue here is not one of how =

gre

-> software is, how bug free it is, or how fast new releases come out=

, b

-> one of treating the customer with respect.


I think your point is well taken. If I were Impulse, I'd much prefer

loyal customers who grumble than customers who simply frisbee their

software off a cliff and move over to a competitor. I KNOW Mike

Halvorson reads IML since I've hit a nerve more than once and got

immediate Email directly from him. I don't think any of the comments

lately can be characterized as "whining and flaming", simply loyal us=

ers

who have legitimate grievences and questions that never seem to be

addressed when talking to Impulse's Tech support.


Personally, I still use Imagine almost exclusively, and plan to in th=

e

future. I hope Impulse continues improving Imagine....and really list=

ens

to it's customers....or the very least, nods it's head once in awhile=

.

        _______________________________________________________

      /_________________________________________________________\

    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =

|=3D

  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =

|=3D

  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =

|=3D

  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =

|=3D

  =3D|_______________________________________________________________=

|=3D

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 02:28:08
Subject: Re: LW vs. Imagine
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


>

> On Thu, 9 Feb 1995 10:20:00 -0700 (MST), "Douglas Rudd" <[e-mail]> wrot
e:

>

> > While I'm here, I'll sound off a little about the some of the whining and

> > back biting towards Impulse.

> In what world do you live in ? This statement appears completely exaggerated t
o

> me and I am following this list for over a year ...


A matter of perspective. I've seen cheap shots taken at Impulse and irrational

complaints aired here. Yuo may not feel these comments were inflamatory, but

I do.

>

> > They are a small company.

> And to survive they have to adapt to their customers' needs ...

>

> > I've called them

> > perhaps a dozen times and I've ended up speaking with Mike about five times.


> Lucky you are living in the US. From abroad this is quite a different story ..
.


You could try MH on email.


> I have sent two faxes to Mr. Halvorson without getting a reply though he told

> me before that he would answer the same day he received a message ...

>

> > Call Alias or AutoDesk and see if you ever end up talking with the owner,

> > even by appointment.

> That's not the point. The owner there knows probably nothing I'm interested in
.

> I need a knowledgeable person, can be one of customer support to fit my needs.



I think it is the point. You want big company software support with a pr staff

to talk you through problems but what you get is someone who programs and also

answers the phone -- that person may (or more likely) is not people skilled.

Life could (and should) be better, but it isn't.


>

> > Impulse just doesn't have the volume to support

> > all the extras and keep their prices down.

> Then why do they tell the public in an advertisement (CGW 12/1994 p.23):

> "50 Million Users Won't Be Wrong" ?


Well, I seriously doubt they have sold anything approaching 5e7 copies of IM.

Maybe 3 orders of magnitude less. I've not seen that add, so I don't know

exactly WHAT they were saying there.


>

> > Mike is fortunate that he didn't

> > find his calling in the diplomatic corps -- his genius is in programing,

> > not PR.                                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


>               to put it mildly:           this is an EXAGGERATION ....

> if it were not, IMAGINE would be less buggy, would run under OS/2 and not

> terminate with the cryptic:" ... call Impulse" when it breaks down.


(bite my tongue)

>

> > On the other hand, we could be less confrontational.

> Yes, and he too. If IMPULSE was a little more sensitive towards its own

> negligence, bugs and unfulfilled customers' expectations its customers would b
e

> less frustrated. I found the people on this list extremely helpful, cooperativ
e

> and patient (exceptions rather rare).

>

> > Provide inputs,

> People on the IML do that ever since I joined it.

>

> > and if Impulse continues to ignore them, we could look else where. That has

> > always been an option.

> Not quite so. If you regard only the money spent, this represents indeed a

> small loss when changing, but you invest a hell o'time LEARNING Imagine

> (which has ALWAYS been known for its STEEP,i.e. time-consuming learning curve)


> and as a professional you have that to count in, too.

>


I have spent years on IM; since ver 1.1. I have also learned LW and don't

regret the time spent on either. My point was: if you are so disatisfied

with a product, buy something else. Believe me, you arn't too old to learn

a new program, even if you are older than me (which I doubt).



> > For my part, I wish the IML would limit itself - and while I am on the subject, how can I make objects of a couch

-> and a TV (needs to be reasonably detailed)


I have a complete living room object that includes big screen TV, cou=

ch,

lamps, stereo etc. at GraFX Haus. [phone]


-> I am a relative newie to Imagine (3.0) with very little model buil=

din

-> experience, so any bit of help would be appreciated.


First, get 3.1!!  3.0 didn't handle DXF object well at all. Second,

the best thing is to get objects already made and modify them. Much

easier and less time consuming.

        _______________________________________________________

      /_________________________________________________________\

    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =

|=3D

  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =

|=3D

  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =

|=3D

  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =

|=3D

  =3D|_______________________________________________________________=

|=3D

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 05:01:53
Subject: Re: Imagine Tidbit Booklet
From:    [e-mail] (Randall Hopper)


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


Perry Lucas:

> Well there seems to have been a huge response to my posting about

> putting a booklet together.  However, there was the question of

> AmigaGuide, WWW, or a booklet version of the compilation.  AmigaGuide

> would be nice for the Amiga users, but it leaves the pc users

> in the dust.  With WWW, not everyone has access to an HTTP: server,

> especially since they might be able to connect to the internet

> while designing a piece.  The Booklet problem was that some people

> live in South Africa and would have rough time getting a copy of it.


One comment about a WWW version that might help you out.  Every WWW browser

I've used (lynx, netscape, and mosaic included, on Unix, DOS, Windows, and

FreeBSD) allow you to run the browser using a local HTML file as input.  So, if


everyone can download the WWW booklet file(s) onto their local hard disk,

there's no reason for anyone to need an HTTP server or a network of any

kind connected to their machine to access the booklet.  Just use the browser

like a Amiga/PC hypertext help engine.


HTML also addresses another concern I've seen posted.  Most WWW browsers

support exporting HTML files to Text or Postscript format, so they can be

nicely printed or viewed as raw text.


I guess the question is, does there exist:


     1) A WWW browser for the Amiga (which can operate on local HTML files), or

     2) A decent HTML->AmigaGuide converter.


By the way, I think the booklet is a great idea.  I'm new to Imagine and

am looking forward to reading it.


                                              Randall Hopper

                                              [e-mail]




Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 06:24:14
Subject: Re: Lha Archives
From:    [e-mail] (Alexander R. Kasimir)


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


It seems, the files you downloades from aminet are corrupt, because they were

send as 7Bit ASCII,

try to UUENCODE it before download!


Happy Imagineering !

Alex




Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 07:26:19
Subject: Imagine WWW site
From:    [e-mail] (Silicon)


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


Imagineers,


I am planning on creating a WWW page for Imagine users where all the

important information, tips, tricks, utils and such would be hosted.

What would you like to see on that page? Would that page help anyone?


Andrey




Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 07:38:48
Subject: Re: I`ve got lots of PD XSpec...
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


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




On Fri, 10 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:


> That X-Specs stuff sounds great. I'd love to get some of it. But what's WWW?

> World Wide Wrestling. World Wide Widgets?  : )


Wide-Winged Weasils



Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 08:38:45
Subject: Re: Lha Archives
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


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


Just a thought, you--but are you certain you're downloading your files as

binaries?  I sometimes forget to input the command 'bin' before I start

downloading, and I get all this ascii junk.  Before you type your 'get *'

command, be sure to type 'bin'.



Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 09:04:32
Subject: Candle
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Rivers)


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


C> >>If you have I3.X, here's a free candle tip: Make a  brushmap with

C> >>a vertical gadient from the white(top) to black(bottom).

C> >>Then make another brushmap that is solid white. Apply the gradient

C> >>map to the candle as a 'reflectivity' map and appy the solid white

C> >>map as a 'reflection' map.  This makes the candle stick glow

C> >>like a real lit candle.


C> >Umm, wouldn't it be simpler to replace those two brushmaps with the

C> >Linear texture, fading the color to white as you get closer to the top

C> >of the candle?


C> You can't _fade_ reflectivity or reflection in a texture, can you?


C> Conny Joensson

C> ** .sig under reconstruction **


Yes, It would be possible to use the linear texture or any texture

that supports reflecttivity mapping instead of the gradient brushmap.

I only used the gradient brush because it was simpler to explain.

But the solid white brush map is required as textures don't support

'reflection' mapping(not to be confused with reflectivity mapping).


Even though you may had read this in my other posts, what the above

basically accomplishes is a psuedo-brightness mapping. you could

just as easily use the above method to make windows on a spaceship

simply by replacing the gradient map, with a map of bright windows.





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

|  Commodore failure. Press mouse button to continue  |

|  Guru Meditation  $35000000     Task : $00000CBM    |

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

          A4000/060/90mhz WOW! this is fast.

                140 Mips  50 Mflops.



Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 13:25:02
Subject: Re: Imagine Tidbit Booklet
From:    Robert Iacullo <[e-mail]>


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


Wouldn't AmiTCP.NoNet do it?



On Fri, 10 Feb 1995, Randall Hopper wrote:


> Perry Lucas:

> > Well there seems to have been a huge response to my posting about

> > putting a booklet together.  However, there was the question of

> > AmigaGuide, WWW, or a booklet version of the compilation.  AmigaGuide

> > would be nice for the Amiga users, but it leaves the pc users

> > in the dust.  With WWW, not everyone has access to an HTTP: server,

> > especially since they might be able to connect to the internet

> > while designing a piece.  The Booklet problem was that some people

> > live in South Africa and would have rough time getting a copy of it.

>

> One comment about a WWW version that might help you out.  Every WWW browser

> I've used (lynx, netscape, and mosaic included, on Unix, DOS, Windows, and

> FreeBSD) allow you to run the browser using a local HTML file as input.  So, i
f

> everyone can download the WWW booklet file(s) onto their local hard disk,

> there's no reason for anyone to need an HTTP server or a network of any

> kind connected to their machine to access the booklet.  Just use the browser

> like a Amiga/PC hypertext help engine.

>

> HTML also addresses another concern I've seen posted.  Most WWW browsers

> support exporting HTML files to Text or Postscript format, so they can be

> nicely printed or viewed as raw text.

>

> I guess the question is, does there exist:

>

>      1) A WWW browser for the Amiga (which can operate on local HTML files), o
r

>      2) A decent HTML->AmigaGuide converter.

>

> By the way, I think the booklet is a great idea.  I'm new to Imagine and

> am looking forward to reading it.

>

>                                             Randall Hopper

>                                             [e-mail]

>

>



Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 18:53:16
Subject: I/O
From:    [e-mail]


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


I have an A2000 and a pentium586. I would like to set up a direct link to

both computers so I can process images on one and send it to the other. Has

anyone ever tried this? Thanx



Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 19:05:17
Subject: Re: Booklet of Tidbits
From:    [e-mail] (Craig Andera )


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

I for one wouldn't mind having an AmigaGuide browser that I could use in

Windows. It would make looking through the IML archives a lot more

pleasant.




Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 19:31:50
Subject: Re: IML Tidbits
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


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


Hi IML,


>> Just a thought, is there a way to 'shanghai' the screen which Imagine is

>> running on?  I am guessing the AmigaGuide is a resizable/movable window

>> and it would be nice.

>Too bad IM won't run on a public screen or even the WB.

I made a small program/hack that turns everyscreen that opens into a

publicscreen and also sets the ShangHai bit so that when a shell/amigaguide

window is opened it just opens on that screen. It is a bit dangerous because

you can quit Imagine and the screen will be left open with the other

application still running, if you quit it then the screen will still be open.


I'll see if I can find it in my rather dusty programmers archive, if someone

wants it. If everybody wants it then I'll put it on Aminet.


Greetings Joop



Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 20:01:53
Subject: Re: I`ve got lots of PD XSpec...
From:    Peter Cox <[e-mail]>


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


>

> That X-Specs stuff sounds great. I'd love to get some of it. But what's WWW?

> World Wide Wrestling. World Wide Widgets?  : )


We Want Windows.... :-)


>

> Thanks

>

> Steve

>

Peter


--

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

| Peter Cox. [e-mail]    | I'm the person your mother warned you |

| Part I, MEng                     | about.                                |

| Mechanical Engineering           |                                       |

| University of Southampton        | I couldn't care less about apathy...  |

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



Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 20:35:13
Subject: Re: Booklet of Tidbits
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


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


Hi everyone,



>you mentioned that the AmigaGuide format is basically an ascii text file

>with some delimiters...

Yes it is but you can build pretty complex guidefiles. Just have a look at

one of the last 4 IML archives. If your program could parse them then it is

really good.

I and Dick have written an amigaguide parser and viewer based on the help

system of Visual Basic. It works great with simple guides like AmigaReport

but on the afore mentioned IML archives it just chokes.

I'm willing to improve this program and provide it to anyone who wants to use

it. Just let me know.


>if someone will mail me the specifications for the AmigaGuide format along

>with a few sample files, and a decription of how the AmigaGuide viewer

>operates, i should be able to build a viewer/importer/print utility for us

>Windoze users.

>[e-mail]

Get some IML archives from Aminet and most programs that get uploaded today

do all have their documentation in guide format, like Dust (in german :( ).


Greetings Joop


PS: Hope this message comes through because my earlies reply seems to be lost

somewhere in cyberspace.




Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 21:03:04
Subject: Amiga->PC textures?
From:    Locutus of Borg <[e-mail]>


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


Hi,


I found some additional textures available for Imagine in Aminet. Can

those textures be used on the PC version or is there a way to convert the

textures to the PC platform?

Also, is there a PC release of DUST3?


Thanks


*Locutus*



Date:    Saturday, 11 February 1995 21:08:59
Subject: Re: Booklet of Tidbits
From:    [e-mail] (Al Nehl)


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

Joop,


   Looks like your now getting through.



>Hi everyone,

>

>>you mentioned that the AmigaGuide format is basically an ascii text file

>>with some delimiters...

--


Al Nehl




Date:    Sunday, 12 February 1995 02:48:18
Subject: Newsletter
From:    "Christopher R. Cockrell" <[e-mail]>


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


Attention. Anyone interested in seeing a monthy or bimonthly Imagine

speific publication please let me know. I am currently considering

the publication of a small but totally Imagine only newsletter. This

publication will more than likely but cross-platform (Amiga & PC).

That is to say all information, articles, tech tips, texture tips,

bush tips, rendering tips, etc., will be applicable to both current

platform versions. It seems that most other 3D rendering programs

have their on newsletter but to my knowledge Imagine does not. I

feel it's about time we have one. If you are interested drop me a

postcard or letter with your name and address on it. Oweing to the

responce I get will more than likely depend on the project starting.

If not many are interested there will more than likely not be one.

CHRISTOPHER COCKRELL

PO BOX 9

MANTACHIE, MS 38855




Date:    Sunday, 12 February 1995 05:52:04
Subject: Re: Imagine WWW site
From:    [e-mail] (Silicon)


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


>    I think this is a great idea. Can you support ftp traffic or will you

> link?


I am not yet sure if I am going to do ftp site.. But WWW page for

sure.


> A great collection of sample pic's; Key tutorials from the archives;

> samples of the stock textures; a list of known commercial examples.


Yes, I thought about this. I am going to put tutorials and stuff like

that online. What kind of commercial examples are you talking about?


> A monthly thematic contest a la PoVRay;


That is an excellent idea.


Anyway, I might get started this week on putting together the basics

for the page. I would appreciate any help on the design or layout.

It's the users who are going to use that page after all..


Andrey




Date:    Sunday, 12 February 1995 16:36:06
Subject: I/O
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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




-> From: [e-mail]

->

-> I have an A2000 and a pentium586. I would like to set up a direct =

lin

-> both computers so I can process images on one and send it to the o=

the

-> anyone ever tried this? Thanx


Yes. All you need is a null modem and a shareware program called Twin

Express (Twin11a.LHA). It will allow you to directly access and copy

files from the Amiga to the PC....quickly.


I have it on GraFX Haus BBS in the PC utilities section.

        _______________________________________________________

      /_________________________________________________________\

    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =

|=3D

  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =

|=3D

  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =

|=3D

  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =

|=3D

  =3D|_______________________________________________________________=

|=3D

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]





Date:    Sunday, 12 February 1995 18:30:18
Subject: RE: IMAGINE COOKBOOK
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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




-> From: Shane Davison <[e-mail]>

->

-> I was wondering what you thought about these other titles:

->

-> How to Imagine

-> Try to Imagine

-> Imagine the Possibilities

->

-> This is in reference to the file I'm going to put together

-> of neat and fun things to try in Imagine (+ a couple tutorials).


Those are fine. It's your baby. Here's mine:


                        How to IMAGINE THAT!

                       (the Imagine Cookbook)


                                or


                    50 ways to leave your Render



        _______________________________________________________

      /_________________________________________________________\

    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =

|=3D

  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =

|=3D

  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =

|=3D

  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =

|=3D

  =3D|_______________________________________________________________=

|=3D

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 07:16:54
Subject: Forms Editor Tutorial (was: Imagine WWW site)
From:    [e-mail]


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


>

>

>

> On Fri, 10 Feb 1995, Silicon wrote:


> I'd love to see some tutes on the Forms editor (I'm afraid to touch that

> thing ;)

>

> MH

>


      The forms editor is the greatest tool in Imagine's arsenal!!! It's so

powerful and flexible, (you can create almost anything) it's almost impossible

to create an all-encompassing tutorial. Perhaps if you suggest types of

objects... For instance, Creation of Humanoid Bodies and Body Parts. I

dunno...


      I posted a small Getting to Know the Forms Editor type of thing a

while back. Let me see here... Ahhh...


---- Forms Editor thing...----


      This is my advice to anyone interested in the forms editor. A

lot of this may be elemantary, but some info might actually be

useful... This might definitely (good grammar?) get confusing... It's

also rather long...


      The forms editor is one of Imagine's greatest features. I find

it's easier to create incredibly realistic things in the forms editor

than with NURBS (ooohhh, imagine a spline based forms editor)...

      Basically, when you create in the forms editor you edit an

object's profile. It's sort of like MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)


      A Basic Form Example-


      Take a simple example, your thumb. Treat your thumb as if it

were an object on an axis. Say that the Z-axis runs from the base of

your thumb to the tip. The X-axis runs across the top of your thumb.

The Y-axis goes through your thumb. In other words, if your thumb were

an Imagine object it would be oriented as if you were viewing a

painting with your thumb out in front of you...

      First trace the right profile of your thumb. If you want to do

this the extra step way, lay your thumb down on a piece of paper and

trace it for all three views (you'll have troubles with the top view,

so just eye it.). Then, just copy what you see on paper to the screen.

Do this for all three views. What you get is a pretty crude looking

thumb. To get a better looking thumb you have to go in and edit

individual cross-sections. But first...

      Remember that if the object is solid you must have a totally

enclosed profile (the endpoints are separated normally. You have to

place the endpoint points at the same location. An easy way to do this

is to select the cursor lock and lock the endpoints to similar grid

locations).

      In the case of the heart, do the same thing as the thumb...


      What the Forms Editor Really Does-


      It's important to understand what exactly you're doing when

manipulating points in the forms editor, so go back to a simple sphere

(new object and new defaults). Turn on the solid wireframe option and

view the sphere object from the front. Notice how many points are on

your front view profile. You will see that they equal the number of

vertical sections in the wireframe object divided by two. Every point

in an editor view has a twin on the opposite side of the object

(except for the top view). If you add a point in the front view you

will notice that two points are actually added. One on one side of the

profile, and one on the other side. When altering an object's profile

you actually directly manipulate a specific point, but because of the

forms editor's nature it changes other points around it to tween and

smooth the change.



      Editing Individual Cross-Sections-


      Look at a forms object like several horizontal cross-sections

(which are circular by default) connected like skin. Think of the top

view as the cross-section editor. By default only one cross-section

can be manipulated, the top one. It can be considered a controlling,

or key, cross-section. Because it is the only key cross-section

defined on the object then whatever you change will affect every

cross-section below it.

      To have ultimate control of the individual cross-sections you

have to define the cross-section you want to manipulate as a key

cross-section. You do this by selecting '+ KEY' and selecting the

cross-section you want to manipulate (in the front or right view).

When you perform this operation (or 'Select') Imagine will display

which cross-sections have been defined as key cross-sections in red.

At first, you will notice that only the top cross-section is

highlighted in red because no others have been selected to act as key

cross-sections. Make the middle cross-section a key cross-section.

The object now has two cross-sections which can be separately

manipulated as keys. Use 'Select' to pick the cross-section you want

to alter.

      Think of key cross-sections as animation frames. In an

animation you can set an initial postion for an object on one frame

and a final position on another frame. These two frames are now key

frames. When the animation is generated the object's position will

tween between the two key frames. The same process occurs with key

cross-sections.  All non-key cross-sections tween between key

cross-sections.

      Take an example of a salt shaker with a circular top and

square bottom. If you create a circular key cross-section as the top

of the shaker and a square key cross-section for the bottom all the

cross-sections between the top and bottom will blend to form a smooth

transition from cirle to square.

      So now you know how to alter the individual cross-sections.

Remember that you can also delete key key cross-sections. Just be sure

you select the appropriate cross-section. BTW, Imagine tells you waht

cross-section you're manipulating in the upper menu bar. Also,

remember that Imagine's cross-section tween goes from key to key in a

downward order. If there is no key cross-section at the object's base

Imagine will use the next highest defined key section.


      So Where do the Front/Right Views Come into Play?-


      If the top editor edits individual cross-sections then the

front and side view editors locate the cross-sections in space. The

default sphere has all the cross-sections parallel to each other. You

can change the orientation of a cross-section (so that it is not

parallel to the ground) by moving points on the front and right views.

Basically, the front and side view alter an objects overall profile

shape.

      This particular explanation only really works with the default

sphere, but the results can be translated to any object. The front

view controls all the points along the object's x-axis. The side view

controls all the points along the object's y-axis. This effectively

splits the sphere into four sections; a front profile, back profile,

left profile, and right profile.

      In the front view select the right-most point and you'll

notice that it's twin point will be highlighted on the left. These two

points define the right-most and left-most points of one

cross-section. Specifically, these two points represent two outermost

x-axis points on the middle cross-section.

      Similarly, the same two points in the side view control the

farthest points on the y-axis of the middle cross-section.

      You will find that by altering these you alter the orientation

of the cross-section. If you raise the right-most point in the front

view and lower the left-most point the middle cross-section now tilts.


      What Does It All Mean?-


      It's tough to explain exactly how the forms editor operates,

and in particular what alters what exactly. So my greatest advice is

to experiment.

      The easiest way to create object was illustrated in the first

section. Create profiles for the object you want to create. If you

need better form edit the individual cross-section as if yo

Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 07:25:48
Subject: Memory problem?
From:    Locutus of Borg <[e-mail]>


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


Hi,


I'm currently working on a drum set in Imagine L/T. I started with two toms

ready and everything worked fine. I just added the bass drum and when I

render, most of the bass drum is missing as well as parts of the toms. Is

this a memory problem? My system has 8Mb of RAM. The toms have around 20,000

faces and the bass drum must be 8,000 faces.

Is there a way to compute the RAM required to render a scene?


Thanks


*Locutus*



Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 08:29:00
Subject: Re: Memory problem?
From:    [e-mail] (Craig Andera )


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


>Hi,

>

>I'm currently working on a drum set in Imagine L/T. I started with two

>toms

>ready and everything worked fine. I just added the bass drum and when I

>render, most of the bass drum is missing as well as parts of the toms. Is

>this a memory problem? My system has 8Mb of RAM. The toms have around

>20,000

>faces and the bass drum must be 8,000 faces.

>Is there a way to compute the RAM required to render a scene?

>

>Thanks

>

>*Locutus*


I've noticed the same thing. I think what you're seeing happens only in the

Detail or Stage Editor's Quickrender. I've noticed that when rendering

complex objects made of many polygons, some of the polygons will

completely fail to show up. However, when I render in the Project Editor,

everything comes out fine.


Like you, I have only 8MB of memory, and I assume this is somehow related.

I would love to know if this is something other people have seen, and if

so, is it going to be fixed in 3.2?


While I'm on the subject, I hear 3.2 is out next week (can't find the

post, but I seem to recall that: hope I'm not spreading rumors). Is that

Amiga, PC or both?


-Craig




Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 11:34:27
Subject: Re: Locomotive objects
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne)


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


In article <[e-mail]>

(Peter Borcherds) writes:


> I am looking for any Imagine objects of locomotives (steam or diesel)

> - preferably very detailed. If anyone knows of the location of such

> objects could they please let me know.


The only locomotive I've ever seen is on the LightROM CD


> Another thing I have been trying - I want to model the inside of a

> house - complete with furniture - to help with interior design. I've

> tried various methods, but they have all given me problems due to

> speed of rendering, etc. Anyone have any ideas?


There's not a great deal you can do, rendering times are always going to be

a problem. There is also a complete room and furniture (TV, lounge etc) on

the LightROM. To reduce rendering times, use scanline not trace, keep

objects as simple (low face count) as possible and keep the lighting to a

minimum.


> - and while I am on the subject, how can I make objects of a couch

> and a TV (needs to be reasonably detailed)


I've made furniture and a monitor in the Forms editor. I think this editor

is under-rated because of the time involved in learning its interface.

Once you get a handle on what's going on in the different views you can put

together very complex objects in a short time and add the fine detail such

as logos and buttons in the Detail editor. The trick is not to make the

whole object in one hit, make a piece at a time and then group them

together in the detail editor. The best (easiest) way to do this is by

using models that can be physically measured so as to keep everything in

scale.  There's a series of articles called "The Imagine Compendium" put

together by Steve Worley, among others that have some invaluable tutorials

for Imagine. You guessed it, it's on LightROM too, along with 53 archives

of previous IML messages.  Someone in your area may know of its

where-abouts.


> I am a relative newie to Imagine (3.0) with very little model building

> experience, so any bit of help would be appreciated.

>

> Thanks

>

> Peter Borcherds

>

> [e-mail]



"The long and winding road"


--


  : Robert (Bob) Byrne        :  A3000/25  : vox  Ph: [phone] :

  : [e-mail] :            : Ballina, NSW Australia :




Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 12:23:00
Subject: Upgrades??
From:    [e-mail] (ERNESTO POVEDA CORTES)


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


Hello all imagineers,

      first, i must give thanxs to all people who help me with my question

      about the Constant Upgrade Program few days ago.


      one of you give me the address (email) of Mike Halvorsen but i haven't

      any answer from him so i put here the folowing question:


      i want get the Upgrade Program, but all tries i did to get in contact

      with impulse (not by voice) were no answered, so if a send a $100 to

      them .... will i get the Upgrades?


      thanx in advance...


+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

| 'Do not underestimate the power of the Force.'                            |

|                                                                           |

| email: [e-mail]  --> Ernesto Poveda Cortes (I am not a number :) |

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+



Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 13:12:17
Subject: Re: Lha Archives
From:    [e-mail] (ERNESTO POVEDA CORTES)


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


>

>

> When I download Imagine objects, attributes and textures from the Aminet sites
,

> they are usually all archived using lha.

>

>     Unfortuanely when I try to decompress them, I receive error messages,

> along the lines of, "corrupted data" and "extranious data".

>

>     I am using an Amiga A1500, and lha v1.38. Other lha files I can read,

> but most of the stuff from Aminet gives me the same error messages.

>

>     Can anyone help me?

>

> Jeremy

>

If you are getting the archives from 'ftp' maybe you must use 'bin' keyword

to get binary files, if not the server will try to translate the ascii

chars to the ones of your machine.


+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

| 'Do not underestimate the power of the Force.'                            |

|                                                                           |

| email: [e-mail]  --> Ernesto Poveda Cortes (I am not a number :) |

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+



Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 14:36:46
Subject: Swirl
From:    [e-mail] (Daniel Dacey)


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


Hi All,


Does anyone have any suggestions about the best way to do the following:


- Have a 2D representation of a man with a IV needle in his arm.

- The drug in the IV swirling around and through the man. Think of how

  ink swirls through a glass of water to get the kind of look I want.


Hope this makes sense as I'm pushing up hill to meet a deadline and I'm

kind of tired.


Any suggestions etc would be most appreciated. I'll post the results

of any suggestions etc in a few days.


Regards




-- Via DLG Pro v1.0


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Daniel Dacey

Peppermint Graphics

Newcastle

Australia

(049)51-4926



Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 14:41:08
Subject: Which PCs work
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


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



Hi all,

Since it appears that the Amiga is lost in liquidation Limbo (or Hell),

I suppose I won't be seeing any better rendering engine for Imagine

without buying a PC.  However, I've read the comments people have made

previously about Imagine working/not working on various PC set ups.

Could you folks e-mail me what system configurations have worked

or not worked for you.  I will compile the results I receive, and

post the results here for general reference.


Thanx in advance,

Greg Denby

[e-mail]


P.S. my vote for and Imagine tidbits/WWW page is "The Imaginary Toolbox."



Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 17:07:33
Subject: Re: Memory problem?
From:    [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)


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


>

>Hi,

>

>I'm currently working on a drum set in Imagine L/T. I started with two toms

>ready and everything worked fine. I just added the bass drum and when I

>render, most of the bass drum is missing as well as parts of the toms. Is

>this a memory problem? My system has 8Mb of RAM. The toms have around 20,000

>faces and the bass drum must be 8,000 faces.

>Is there a way to compute the RAM required to render a scene?

>



      Yep.  It's ram.  When imagine runs out, parts of your objects will

disappear.  To test it, try doing a test render of just certain drums.



--

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

| Michael Comet, [e-mail] - CWRU, Software Engineer/Graphics Artist |

| Graphics & Anims -  http://www.cwru.edu/0/cwrunet/homes/comet/index.html |

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+



Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 19:47:07
Subject: Re: Memory problem?
From:    Locutus of Borg <[e-mail]>


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




On Mon, 13 Feb 1995, Craig Andera wrote:


>

> I've noticed the same thing. I think what you're seeing happens only in the

> Detail or Stage Editor's Quickrender. I've noticed that when rendering

> complex objects made of many polygons, some of the polygons will

> completely fail to show up. However, when I render in the Project Editor,

> everything comes out fine.


The problem started in the stage editor. Since then, I added some objects

and cannot quickrender in the stage editor (not enough memory) and

polygons are missing when I render from the project editor.

I'll try to render the same scene this week on a 12MB system.


>

> Like you, I have only 8MB of memory, and I assume this is somehow related.

> I would love to know if this is something other people have seen, and if

> so, is it going to be fixed in 3.2?

>


I hope that they will at least display an error message or a warning.



*Locutus*




Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 19:56:46
Subject: Re: IML Tidbits
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


>

>   We should create the file in either a single format that is readable by

> both systems, or two formats.  Having just AmigaGuide may be nice and pretty

> but leaves all PC users out in the cold.

>

>   Kurt Knippel

>   High Impact Productions

>

I agree. The problem is that so much stuff comes out in AG format. If there

were a reader for AG on the PC is would make life simpler. The AG format is

rather simple and it shouldn't be too hard to develop a reader for it.


Doug Rudd



Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 21:58:09
Subject: Re[2]: IML Tidbits
From:    [e-mail]


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


     as soon as i can get my hands on the AmigaGuide format and a few

     sample files (which "Anime a day..." <[e-mail]> has so

     generously offered to send) i will begin development of a windows

     based viewer for AmigaGuide files.



     one problem, i don't do dos.  so someone else will have to do the dos

     based reader...if there is a need



     thanks



     [e-mail]



______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________


Subject: Re: IML Tidbits

Author:  Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]> at UNIXGTWY

Date:    2/13/95 11:56 AM



>

>   We should create the file in either a single format that is readable by

> both systems, or two formats.  Having just AmigaGuide may be nice and pretty

> but leaves all PC users out in the cold.

>

>   Kurt Knippel

>   High Impact Productions

>

I agree. The problem is that so much stuff comes out in AG format. If there

were a reader for AG on the PC is would make life simpler. The AG format is

rather simple and it shouldn't be too hard to develop a reader for it.



Doug Rudd




Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 22:11:53
Subject: Re: IML Tidbits
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


> >   We should create the file in either a single format that is readable by

> > both systems, or two formats.  Having just AmigaGuide may be nice and pretty


> > but leaves all PC users out in the cold.

>

> Well what about when we get Ascii files off the Net, the majority hav

> carriage returns all over it......So I say do it in Amigaguide format PC

> users can still read the Ascii so no problems.

>

> As for html I've never heard of it. :)

>

         ^^^^ html is very similar to AG. Too bad Commodore didn't use that

as their hypertext standard. There are utilities for converting AG -> html,

but none to go html -> AG as yet. I would recommend to Impulse that they

incorporate AG as a hypertext help standard for Amiga AND PC versions, which

would eliminate this problem for good. The question is: can Impulse get the

licence to do a dos version of AG? What with Commodore in a live/dead state.

On the other hand, if someone does a dos version of the AG reader and releases

it as pd, Impulse can release help files in AG format.


If this can't be done, then I would suggest we stay with plain ascii, so as

to not alienate either segment (stuck with the lowest common denominator).


Doug Rudd



Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 23:23:18
Subject: Trace scenes wanted
From:    Hesham Amiri <[e-mail]>


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



Hi all,

I'm working on this nice little game and I need 12-15 nice

backdrops. The game will be 100% pd so I'm only going to

accept pd images, and ofcourse I will mention the nice

people that sent them to me :)


The game is for the Amiga AGA, I can accept the images

in :

      IFF format

      impulse format

      jpeg format

      gif format


They should all HIRES & LACED, but in any case I will

be shrinking the image to 320*400.


email me for more info at:


[e-mail]


Thanks,

Hesham Amiri




Date:    Monday, 13 February 1995 23:28:07
Subject: Re: Imagine WWW site
From:    [e-mail] (Silicon)


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


> As for what this page should contain; well, the IML-archives, the 'tidbits'

> from those archives, any other tutorials that you can get your hands on,

> your (and other users) favourite images.

> Maybe even such a 'monthly competition' as povray.org has (if you haven't

> seen it: a new subject every month, artists post their work, a jury decides

> wich images are best, images are put on a web-site). Have a look at

> 'http://www.pht.com/art/art_show.html'.

> As I see it the problem is not WHAT to put in there. The problem

> is making the stuff searchable, to insert references and cross-references.

>

> Anyways, cyaround, and drop me a line if there is anything I can do.


Hi!


Thanks for giving me some ideas. I will definitely get to implementing

all of them. I was also going to do something like texture

previewing... Description of each texture and a small image showing

what the texture should look like. That should be interesting.


Who would decide which image is the best?


Andrey




Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 00:31:05
Subject: Re: Swirl
From:    "Anime a day..." <[e-mail]>


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


On Mon, 13 Feb 1995, Daniel Dacey wrote:


> Hi All,

>

> Does anyone have any suggestions about the best way to do the following:

>

> - Have a 2D representation of a man with a IV needle in his arm.

> - The drug in the IV swirling around and through the man. Think of how

>   ink swirls through a glass of water to get the kind of look I want.

>

> Hope this makes sense as I'm pushing up hill to meet a deadline and I'm

> kind of tired.


 Hmm.. Try rotoscoping..  :^)  (couldn't resist!)


Bill





Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 00:44:12
Subject: Mouse.SYS trouble
From:    wolfram schwenzer <[e-mail]>


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


Hi Imagineers,


This is a follow-up to my problems with moving the camera in the Stage Editor

(when the double circle has turned orange and I'll move it with the left mouse

button depressed suddenly the whole system locks up forcing me to do a cold

reboot).

I have the vague impression that the fault could lay in the way IMAGINE couples

to the mouse driver (I use the line "DEVICEHIGH=MOUSE.SYS" in my PC's CONFIG.SYS


file). Meanwhile I have tested every conceivable combination of stripping down

my CONFIG.SYS files (yes, Greg Tsadilas' proposal on the IML, too), I have

even changed the physical pointing device (from trackball to digitizing tablet)

- everything, including drawing programs under Window3.1 and standalone DOS

applications using the mouse just run fine EXCEPT the %!@* IMAGINE3.1 in the

Stage Editor (I think IMPULSE had better relied on a proven technology for

implementing memory & mouse management than to develop their own - they don't

even MENTION how to cope with the CONFIG.SYS obstacles in their manual ...

couldn't they care less ?!)


ANY hint about like troubles and how to cope with them are welcome. Until then

I have stopped to fight with this stubborn piece of software (feel like the

poor boy who is standing in front of the candy store with all the goodies outa

reach); IMAGINE should get a prize for taxing the patience of even the hardest

3D modeling aficionado ... 8-((


Sorry, didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings about his dearest toy ;-). I know

you are a resourceful bunch who has given a helping hand whenever you could ...


      All the best


         W.S.




--

wolfram schwenzer

Internet : [e-mail]




Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 01:24:50
Subject: Re: Ambient light
From:    [e-mail]


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


>When I try to add ambient light in the Action editor by choosing "Globals"

>and set the level there to 20.0 (let's say for the blue component), save

>the

>settings and return to the Stage editor to quickrender the scene the

>ambient

>light does not show (i.e. the scene is illuminated as before). What else do

>I have to do to make the ambient light appear ?


Are you sure you pressed <return> after writing '20'?


Conny Joensson



Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 01:41:17
Subject: Re: Imagine WWW site
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



Silicon wrote:

>

> Thanks for giving me some ideas. I will definitely get to implementing

> all of them. I was also going to do something like texture

> previewing... Description of each texture and a small image showing

> what the texture should look like. That should be interesting.

>

> Who would decide which image is the best?

>

> Andrey


Well, I've been slowly rendering the Imagine textures

(in alphabetical order) at 320x240x16mil.  I've just

used the default values and kept only the non-blank images.

If you'd like to use those, I have A-C (im-txtrs.zip)

and D-F (im2-txtr.zip) on ftp.netnet.net in /pub/mirrors/

truespace/textures.


Regarding the IML tidbits, I'm almost done organizing the

items I have and I was wondering where I should upload them

(please include 'incoming' directory).  I will e-mail those

directly who have _already_ sent requests in personal e-mail.


Regards,


--

Shane Davison (tsml)

[e-mail]




Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 03:10:54
Subject: Re: IMAGINE COOKBOOK
From:    [e-mail]


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


  As far as naming goes.  "Imagine the Possibilities" is the name of a

software package, and is most likely protected under copyright laws.


  Kurt Knippel

  High Impact Productions



Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 03:41:21
Subject: Re: Ambient light
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


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




On Mon, 13 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:


> >When I try to add ambient light in the Action editor by choosing "Globals"

> >and set the level there to 20.0 (let's say for the blue component), save

> >the

> >settings and return to the Stage editor to quickrender the scene the

> >ambient

> >light does not show (i.e. the scene is illuminated as before). What else do

> >I have to do to make the ambient light appear ?

>

> Are you sure you pressed <return> after writing '20'?


Also - 20 is a VERY low value. If you actually want to SEE the ambient

light, you might want to try a value somewhere around 75-100.


>

> Conny Joensson

>


See ya,

      Roger



Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 03:58:55
Subject: Re: Imagine WWW site
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


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




On Mon, 13 Feb 1995, Silicon wrote:


> Hi!

>

> Thanks for giving me some ideas. I will definitely get to implementing

> all of them. I was also going to do something like texture

> previewing... Description of each texture and a small image showing

> what the texture should look like. That should be interesting.

>

> Who would decide which image is the best?


Actually, if you get the IMTguide_1a.lha file in aminet under gfx/3d, it

will convert your texture.txt and lite.txt files into an AmigaGuide file,

complete with example pics (just click on the [Example Object] button).

Maybe you could convert this file to html. The only problem is that the

pictures are sometimes not exactly the best representation of the

texture. Some, though, are SPECTACULAR. Many thanks to Doug Rudd and D.F.

Duck!


>

> Andrey

>

>


See ya,

      Roger



Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 04:48:40
Subject: Re: Forms Editor Tutorial (was: Imagine WWW site)
From:    Michael Hazlett <[e-mail]>


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



A LOT OF USEFUL TEXT DELETED-------


Thanks for that informative textfile :) I'll tell ya how I get on.


MH



Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 04:53:51
Subject: RE: IMAGINE 3.2 ?
From:    William Eric Donoho <[e-mail]>


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


On Fri, 10 Feb 1995, Mike Vandersommen wrote:


> I think your point is well taken. If I were Impulse, I'd much prefer

> loyal customers who grumble than customers who simply frisbee their

> software off a cliff and move over to a competitor. I KNOW Mike

> Halvorson reads IML since I've hit a nerve more than once and got

> immediate Email directly from him. I don't think any of the comments

> lately can be characterized as "whining and flaming", simply loyal users

> who have legitimate grievences and questions that never seem to be

> addressed when talking to Impulse's Tech support.

>=20

> Personally, I still use Imagine almost exclusively, and plan to in the

> future. I hope Impulse continues improving Imagine....and really listens

> to it's customers....or the very least, nods it's head once in awhile.

>         _______________________________________________________

>       /_________________________________________________________\

>     /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

>   =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                |=3D

>   =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] |=3D

>   =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ |=3D

>   =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     |=3D

>   =3D|_______________________________________________________________|=3D

> ---

>  =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]

>=20


I use imagine excluslively. I like imagine.


... but I want more "continous" upgrades for my $100 fee. That's all.


H*ll, what gripes me is that they don't spell it out in plain english.

Hey, Impulse, why not say this:

   $200 for 4.0 in 1 year

   -or-

   $100 for 3.1 NOW

     +plus+ $100 for 4.0 in 1 year



Eric Donoho              | "Let's go to burger king and get

Louisville, KY USA       | a chicken sandwich!"

[e-mail]





Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 05:29:14
Subject: Swirl
From:    [e-mail] (Gareth Qually)


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


This would probably work with particles, but a major time problem rears

its ugly head.


You could probably create irregular tubes with a ghost or nebula texture

attached to it. Then twist and bend the tube to make a swirl. After

creating a few of these, have them twist around eachother.


I haven't tried this, so I don't know what it will turn out like. If I

get some time I'll test it.


Chow...


[e-mail]



Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 06:11:30
Subject: Re: Re: Ambient light
From:    Michael North <[e-mail]>


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






>

> Also - 20 is a VERY low value. If you actually want to SEE the ambient

> light, you might want to try a value somewhere around 75-100.

>

> >


Wow!  I've always gone by Steve Worley's recommendation to stick to

about 10, 10, 10.  I was using higher values but kept getting washed out

looking pictures.


Michael North



Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 06:31:53
Subject: IML Tidbits...
From:    [e-mail] (Perry Lucas)


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


Sorry to post this, but to anyone that is interested in helping/

creating the IML Tidbit books/www/ag please contact me at

[e-mail]  Seems that there are a lot of people wanting to

do this and seems senseless for all of us to be covering the same

ground over again.


Thanks

--Perry


                                               _,_/|

                                               \o.O;

------------------------------------------oOO =(___)= OOo------

Perry J.Lucas                                    U

Emails: [e-mail]              "PJ" on Diversity University

        [e-mail]  Telnet:  moo.du.org 8888

        [e-mail]

HTML Hompage:  http://erau.db.erau.edu:80/~lucasp




Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 08:13:22
Subject: Re: Attitudes
From:    Ted Stethem <[e-mail]>


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




On 16 December 1994, Mike Halvorson wrote:


>

> From: Mike Halvorson

> To: Stethem Ted

> Subject: Attitudes

> Date: Friday, December 16, 1994 8:33PM

>

> Ted,

>

> <snip...long rambling monologue about how the customer is always wrong ...>


>         As for the Constant upgrade, and bug fixes.  There is something that

> you

> dont realize, our code does not, in most cases have the room to add a patch

> to

> the software, you need to have areas where the code can patch itself, we

> have

> been lucky a couple of times.

>

> <snip...more rambling monologue...snip>

>

>         Why dont you send me a list of things you want to see, how about

> some

> critical positive suggestions, how about looking to the future, or I guess

> you

> can just allow in the past,  phewwww.

>

>         Mike

>

>


OK, Mike,


 I accept your challenge to provide a list of things I would like to see,

which I have already done a few times and I will refresh your memory of

the responses you have provided, as well as some critical positive

suggestions.


1.  The spherical brushmap seam "bug": It was there in 2.0, 2.9, 3.0 and

now, 3.1. You told me several months ago that it was not a bug, it was "a

fundamental design flaw".  Why can't you fix this?


2.  Close gadget for error requestor windows: I asked you to provide this

during 2.9 and you said "the code is getting too big now and the

programmers will kill me if I ask for any more". Well, you have added

several new features, which must have expanded the code, but still no

close gadget on the error window. I find this very irritating.


3.  Since you have such a problem with unmanageable code size, I

suggested you modularize the program ala Lightwave. Lightwave and the

Modeler are seperate modules that can be loaded separately or from each

other if need be.  Your answer to this was "just start another Imagine

task". This answer was really puzzling.  Since you endorse the PC version

so much, I wonder how you are starting several Imagine tasks from DOS,

which as we all know is the only OS on the PC that Imagine will run from.

Now, if you are talking about the Amiga, this is possible, but

considering it takes a few megs just to load Imagine, how does this work

with your policy of supporting the lowest end user?  There is no real

reason for Imagine to load the Detail Editor and Forms Editor with the

Stage and Action Editor.  If the code were modularized, this would fix

your problem with the code being "too huge".  I often hear this from

software managers that have not practiced software configuration control

and it is their way of doublespeak for saying the code has grown

uncontrollably and I don't have any idea what routine is calling what and

I am scared that if I try to modularize at this point, it will blow up.

At any rate, I am asking you to think about modularizing the Modeler

section and the Staging/Action/Project section.  On the Amiga, it would

allow for the setting up of several rendering projects by loading

several Staging/Action/Project (let's just call it the Stage module) without

the overhead of the modeler code sitting in RAM. If you need the

interactivity of the Modelers, just have each module have the capability

to load the other module, like Lightwave does.


3. Scanline shadows: I could drag up that Impulse newsletter for 3.0 that

was published over two years ago but one of the things promised was

Scanline Shadows. You told me several months ago that you had tried but

it slowed the program down to a crawl and that was why it wasn't provided

in 2.9. I don't understand this since both Lightwave and 3D Studio have

very good, effective scanline shadowing and they are both very fast

renderers. Why don't you see if you can strike up a deal with their

programmers for some tips on how to do fast scanline shadows?


4. True Inverse kinematics: In that same newsletter, you promised true

inverse kinematics. Now, you don't seriously call the Freeze/Constrain in

3.0 to be "true" inverse kinematics? All you are doing is using the

individual selection of axes for move and rotate that have always been

there. True inverse kinematics provides for the motions of a child as

governed by the parent. Please make some improvements to this feature.


5. Adjustable Screen Sizes: You have been monitoring this list long

enough to know that almost every user wants this feature. Again, 3D

Studio allows screen sizes beyond the standard 640x480. Lightwave is

supporting 3rd party graphics boards and already allows 800x600 on

Picasso and Spectrum boards. How about some graphic board support, too,

beyond the Firecracker and Opalvision? At the very least, provide some

options for selectable screen sizes beyond the 640x400. Also, since some

people have found this out through experimentation, how about a choice

for fewer colors on the editor screens, like 2 or 4, and maybe a choice

of two colors on the Project screen, or none during rendering, as many

people have found this speeds rendering.


6. Documentation:  Would it really kill you to provide more complete

documentation on things like the Effects and new features. There has been

some attempts at on-disk documentation but these have been feeble and

incomplete.  I don't mind them being on-disk but how about making them

more informative and complete?


7. Animated Brush Map: I really wanted this feature and it was one of the

main reasons I signed up for the continuing upgrade. It works but it only

works for 16 color animations. I find this too restrictive and your 3.1

docs don't specify this as a limitation. You need to support Extra

Half-Brite (EHB),HAM-Interlace, and HAM8 on the Amiga side,with ANIM5 and

ANIM7-32 modes and even FLC for the Amiga would be a plus.


8. Texture speeds: Some of the new textures are really good, especially

Fire and Clouds. But, even in Scanline, it is like my computer hits a

brick wall in rendering speed when it starts rendering a textured object.

And layering? forget it! Even if you did have a 100 MHz Pentium, the

rendering of textured objects would still be slow. Now, Essence does not

have the range of textures that have been provided with 3.0 and 3.1, but

Essence textures render much faster.  Isn't there someway to optimize or

improve the texture routines to speed them up?


  That's all I have for now. Now, it is time for you, Mr. Mike Halvorson,

to live up to your words. Your ad in Computer Graphics World states,"

Real Support from Real People - Maybe the best reason to become an

Imagine L/T user is our great customer support." This is a challenge to

live up to this claim.

  I have a friend, who happens to be fairly wealthy, that purchased

Imagine V3.0 for the Amiga several months ago. He was sent a PAL version

of the program (he lives in the US with a US address). Now, I know how to

run a PAL program on my NTSC machine

but he does not want to go through the hassle. So, he has asked Impulse

to exchange the PAL version for the NTSC. This was several months ago and

he still has not gotten the NTSC version.  And before you ask,"Did he

call?", yes, he did, and in fact has talked to you a couple of times. His

opinion, in his words, is that you are "a flake".  Now, this guy has some

bucks, his Amiga has 110 Megs of RAM because he likes to do everything

from RAM rather that the harddrive, and he is almost totally turned off

to Impulse. If this is an example of your "great customer support", then

there appears to be a disagreement in perception.

  Let's see where we go from here.


Patiently awaiting Imagine V3.2.



Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 08:34:24
Subject: Re: Memory problem?
From:    [e-mail]


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


MBC,



 >>I'm currently working on a drum set in Imagine L/T. I started with two toms

 >>ready and everything worked fine. I just added the bass drum and when I

 >>render, most of the bass drum is missing as well as parts of the toms. Is

 >>this a memory problem? My system has 8Mb of RAM. The toms have around 20,000

 >>faces and the bass drum must be 8,000 faces.

 >>Is there a way to compute the RAM required to render a scene?



Although I've done all my "Imagining" on the Amiga, I can only

recommend that you simplify your objects. Those are an awful lot of

faces for 8 Mb! I find 16Mb to be just adequate for complex

renderings with maps, etc. I'm just about to try out Gigamem, which

is a virtual memory handler. I understand that it works quite well

with Imagine and that the speed hit is pretty small.



Jon Rubin





Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 09:46:41
Subject: Re: Booklet of Tidbits (was Re: Candle)
From:    Ed Totman <[e-mail]>


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

On Fri, 10 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

> Seems I have to spent some time on my Guide reader for MSDOS.

>

> I have a working version which reads 99% of all available AmigaReport guide

> files but on complex guide files like the last 4 IML archives it completely

> chokes. Also the links are displayed with two characters like <link>, which I


> want to change to something more button like.

>

> Sounds like a good idea ?

>

> Let me know (on the IML)

>

> Greetings Joop

A reader for the PC would be very useful.  Please upload it!


Ed Totman

[e-mail]




Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 10:37:56
Subject: Exelent gifs
From:    [e-mail]


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


Is anybody interested in 20 best Gifs I've ever traced?

If you do let me know.

Later .



Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 12:41:45
Subject: Re: IML Tidbits...
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


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


Good Morning,


At least in NL it is. :-)

>Sorry to post this, but to anyone that is interested in helping/

>creating the IML Tidbit books/www/ag please contact me at

>[e-mail]  Seems that there are a lot of people wanting to

>do this and seems senseless for all of us to be covering the same

>ground over again.

>Thanks

>--Perry

I would like to help too. I willing to convert old archives so that spotting

useful subjects and replies becomes easier. I have done a couple for myself,

43-50. Not to mention that I have also most attachements since June 1994.


Please let me know if I can help.


Greetings Joop





Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 13:39:41
Subject: Re: IML Tidbits
From:    [e-mail]


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




>Just a thought, is there a way to 'shanghai' the screen which Imagine is

>running on?  I am guessing the AmigaGuide is a resizable/movable window

>and it would be nice.

Yes thats possible but should be done with care. Quiting Imagine while

Amigaguide is still open is asking for trouble. I wrote once a small

program/hack which declared all screens which opened afterwards as an

public screen. It made also the last opened screen the default and set the

 Shanghai bit.


Works great, and will see if I can still find it somewhere in my dusty

programming archives.


Greetings Joop




Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 14:23:22
Subject: Re: Booklet of Tidbits (was Re: Candle)
From:    [e-mail]


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



Hello IML,


>>

>>      what about us ibm/dos/windoze guys?

>>


>Good point. There should be some hypertext format such as html (similar

>to AmigaGuide) which is pd for the windows/dos side and is not too much

>of a pain to write. This issue of AmigaGuide files is going to keep

>coming up and a reasonable solution is a simple hypertext program for dos.


Seems I have to spent some time on my Guide reader for MSDOS.


I have a working version which reads 99% of all available AmigaReport guide

files but on complex guide files like the last 4 IML archives it completely

chokes. Also the links are displayed with two characters like <link>, which I

want to change to something more button like.


Sounds like a good idea ?


Let me know (on the IML)


Greetings Joop




Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 17:46:50
Subject: Re: Imagine WWW site
From:    [e-mail]


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


Andrey Z? wrote;


[snip]


>> Maybe even such a 'monthly competition' as povray.org has (if you haven't

>> seen it: a new subject every month, artists post their work, a jury

>> decides wich images are best, images are put on a web-site).


>Thanks for giving me some ideas. I will definitely get to implementing

>all of them. I was also going to do something like texture

>previewing... Description of each texture and a small image showing

>what the texture should look like. That should be interesting.


Good!


>Who would decide which image is the best?


If I remember correctly the povray-version-administator selects three people

(I don't know how) to vote for their favourite images. Every jury-member

selects 5 images, grades them 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point. The image that get's

most points win. (Easy, isn't it?)


Conny Joensson



Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 18:56:20
Subject: Itty, bitty tidbit ...
From:    Steve NACAD::Sherman LKG2-A/R5 pole AA2 DTN 226-6992  14-Feb-19


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


Forgive me if this is mentioned elsewhere, but I didn't remember this trick

and didn't see it in the manual.  Could be something to add to the coming

hint sheet or whatever.  Probably an old trick to most of you ...


If you have a sphere primitive (no faces) and want to convert it to a sphere

with points and faces, use Split.


Steve



Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 21:23:59
Subject: Re: IML Tidbits
From:    [e-mail]


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


Hi everybody.


Remember the mail I wrote about you should send me an email if you were

interested in a ftp- or web-site for the Imagine tidbits?

I wrote that last Friday, today is Tuesday, I have received 15 direct

answers to that mail (even though it has been weekend, IML-activity is

always low on weekends) and another 40 (about the tidbits and www...) have

been posted here on the list. And considering how many of the 5-600 IML

members that actually post to the list... I'd say that is enough interest

that it should be a go.

There also seems to be another couple of guy's here on the IML that seems

interested in administrating such a thing (Shane? Andrey?), if you please!


Also, someone (Walter Turberville) has already made a html-version of the

Imagine textures description. It's available as;

"http://www.PrimeNet.Com:80/~wturber/imgntxtr.html". Check it out.

His homepage is one step up (is skip the "imgntxtr.html"-bit).


Conny Joensson

** .sig under reconstruction **



Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 22:08:34
Subject: Re: WANTED:F1 Car and Guitar models...
From:    [e-mail] (Christian Leyen)


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


There MacLaren F1 car on Aminet.


Christian Leyen ([e-mail])



Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 22:46:03
Subject: Re: Mouse.SYS trouble
From:    [e-mail] (Joe Cotellese)


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



>ANY hint about like troubles and how to cope with them are welcome. Until then

>I have stopped to fight with this stubborn piece of software (feel like the

>poor boy who is standing in front of the candy store with all the goodies outa

>reach); IMAGINE should get a prize for taxing the patience of even the hardest

>3D modeling aficionado ... 8-((

>

>Sorry, didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings about his dearest toy ;-). I know


>you are a resourceful bunch who has given a helping hand whenever you could ...


>

I had some trouble when I first purchased Imagine PC with the mouse as well.

My system didn't reboot but the movement was very erratic.  What my solution

ended up being was to remove any memory managers from my system (EMM or

QEMM).  I created a multiboot option for Imagine.  From memory my Imagine PC

setup looks something like


CONFIG.SYS

device=c:\dos\himem.sys

dos=high

<cdrom driver>


AUTOEXEC.BAT


@echo off

\mouse\mouse.exe

\dos\mscdex


Finally,  it looks like you are using the .SYS version of your mouse driver.

I am using the .EXE version of my mouse driver.  I have a MS Mouse software

version 9.something.  Give the .EXE version of your driver a shot.


Joe C.








Date:    Tuesday, 14 February 1995 23:55:08
Subject: Re: Attitudes
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


> On 16 December 1994, Mike Halvorson wrote:

>

> >

> > From: Mike Halvorson

> > To: Stethem Ted

> > Subject: Attitudes

> > Date: Friday, December 16, 1994 8:33PM

> >

> > Ted,

> >

> > <snip...long rambling monologue about how the customer is always wrong ...>


Rather wonder what Mike actually said. Since he didn't post this to IML, it

must have been from private communication. Might have been nicer to just say

<Snip> and forego the editoral.


<Snip> This one is mine.



> > <snip...more rambling monologue...snip>

Again.

> >

>

<Snip> Ted's comments removed: we have seen them once already.



This could be likened to what was sometimes done in the broadcast industry,

when they received an open ended interview from a personality they didn't

like. Since there was no opportunity for interactive rebuttal, one could

have a field day with them at their expense, if so desired.


Mike Halvorson has sent me email sometimes discussing issues such as

new products that I don't feel I am free to open up to the IML as I

assumed the communication was confidential. Just a question of ethics.


It may seem that I'm taking sides. Not really. It is my own sense of fair

play, which I know some of the more vocal on IML disagree with. So be it.





Doug Rudd

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

"Okay, let's take off your engineering hats, put on your management

hats and make the right decision".


                  Morton Thiekol, O-dark hundred, 28 January 1986

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



Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 00:07:18
Subject: Dust?
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


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


Please excuse the intromission of a non-Imagine utility here--but as it

does use tddd objects, I thought I might try and get away with it.


      Has anybody gotten this delicious looking program to work?  I

thought I was home free, when it claimed that, because of all the online

help being in English, I needn't worry about the German dox.


      I know I'm spoiled with Imagine's friendly gui--but I think even

the POVrayers might find DUST a bit enigmatic.  I can't even get to first

base . . .


      Again, thanks for your indulgence in this only slightly

Imagine-related topic.



Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 01:34:49
Subject: Re: exelent gifs
From:    Marty Nussbaum <[e-mail]>


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


On Tue, 14 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:


> Is anybody interested in 20 best Gifs I've ever traced?

> If you do let me know.

> Later .

>


Sure, send 'em on down.


              ***************         _ _ /|

              *    ACK!!    *         \'o.O'

              *  Hairball!  *         =(___)=

              ***************            U





Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 03:04:57
Subject: Re: Re[2]: IML Tidbits
From:    Lord Hades <[e-mail]>


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


Hi...if someone could get me, as alan said, ag specs + some samples, I

would be willing to take a shot at a dos-based viewer...unfor.  i don't

have that much time, so it would have to be a 'weekend project' anyway,

my email address is [e-mail]  (this one at interport won't

work for long)

--chris




Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 07:36:11
Subject: Bones help....
From:    "Bruce Marsh(ART)" <[e-mail]>


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


Is there a good bones tutorial innexistence? I thrashed thru it last

year, with about 5 calls to Impulse, and got it to work....but I've

forgotten the drill and found the manual a bit confusing......


Any help much appreciated.


Bruce.



Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 09:44:57
Subject: Re: Mouse.SYS trouble (+start-up files)
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



Joe Cotellese wrote:

> I had some trouble when I first purchased Imagine PC with the mouse as well.

> My system didn't reboot but the movement was very erratic.  What my solution

> ended up being was to remove any memory managers from my system (EMM or

> QEMM).  I created a multiboot option for Imagine.  From memory my Imagine PC

> setup looks something like

[snip]


It seems that quite a few Imagine PC users are using this multiboot setup.

Undoubtedtly, it is better than modifying the files manually before re-

booting or having two separate sets of startup files but I'm wondering

why very few people have mentioned a solution that allows everything to

run without rebooting (Imagine, Windows, etc.).  Although there have been

times when it would have made things easier. I have never used this

multiboot facility.  I have DOS 6.2 and here are the important startup lines:


CONFIG.SYS:


DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS

DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM


That's it !  And make sure you run Imagine with the -noxms switch.

I don't have anything else fancy in there and I run every application

without any problems (and without rebooting).  Hope it works for you.


--

Shane Davison (tsml)

[e-mail]




Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 11:54:12
Subject: GVP&Imagine
From:    [e-mail]


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




I've finally gotten my GVP 40Mhz '040 to work with Imagine.

Unfortunately it often crashes when I'm saving an object and

occasionally when I'm rendering. It's not related to object or file

size. Anyone have any suggestions?  A3000 w/10Megs.



Floater



Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 12:15:44
Subject: Re: Lha Archives
From:    MGL <[e-mail]>


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


On Fri, 10 Feb 1995, Jeremy Peter Hopkin wrote:


>

> When I download Imagine objects, attributes and textures from the Aminet sites
,

> they are usually all archived using lha.

>

>     Unfortuanely when I try to decompress them, I receive error messages,

> along the lines of, "corrupted data" and "extranious data".

>

>     I am using an Amiga A1500, and lha v1.38. Other lha files I can read,

> but most of the stuff from Aminet gives me the same error messages.

>

>     Can anyone help me?

>

> Jeremy

>

>

>


make sure you use the 'bi'nary option in your ftp.

what is an A1500?


you all should get amosaic and hit aminet from there- it lets you have

a personal page of recent uploads.

the aminet search page is awesome too.

(and fast)

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

M G L

                                       phat 3D renders

[e-mail]

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






Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 12:43:59
Subject: Thanks
From:    [e-mail] (Peter Borcherds)


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




Hi there


This is a thank-you to all the people who replied to my request

for locomotive objects. Unfortunately, LD phone costs are VERY

expensive here in South Africa, so much to my dismay

I won't be able to take up Mike van der Sommen's offer to

call him at his GraFX Haus BBS.


So, if there are any Imagineers in South Africa who know where I

can get either the 3DROM #2 (from Syndesis) and/or the LightROM CD

please let me know.


Thanks guys!


Cheers


Peter Borcherds


[e-mail]



 ** UNREGISTERED EVALUATION COPY - PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHAREWARE CONCEPT **

---

 | AmiQWK 2.3 |



Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 16:36:25
Subject: Tunnel trouble
From:    [e-mail] (Milan Polle)


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


Hi folks,


I am currently working on my graduation project which consists of making

backgounds and anims in Imagine.

I am now making the leader which has the camera flying throug a tunnel

(no way! a tunnel? how original) backwards.

It seemed like a pretty basic anim to make, I made a twisting and turning

tunnel by extruding a square along a handmade open spline path in detail.

I used the same path in stage for the camera motion, the camera starts

to move first, after that I launch a tracking axis along the same path,

so the camera looks (sort of) in the right direction.

The problem is I cannot seem to get the motion to be smooth, occasionally

it seems like the camera hits the walls of the tunnel (which is impossible)

because of sudden jerks in the motion.

Well, I thought you had to put in extra effort to make 3d anims non-smooth,

but with Imagine, the world is different, maybe we should call Imagine

Murphy.

Any ideas on what is going on here?


Thanks in advance for any help,


greetings, Milan (reply to [e-mail] if the reply address

still looks odd)


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

Hey Beavis, what do you call it when a program has so many bugs in it,

that it's almost unusable?

-Ehm ehm ehhhh... wait a minute I know ehm... IMAGINE! yeah that's it!

-Yeh! yeh! uhuhuh! huhuh! that's right... Imagine.. huhuh it sucks dude...

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




Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 18:36:42
Subject: IML Tidbits (done!).
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



Hi everyone,


I've finished compiling the guide of IML tidbits and e-mailed it

directly to those who asked for it via personal email (thanks for

the support).  Although there have been a number of good titles

exchanged on the list, I've decided to call it "Dare to Imagine."

The zipped (and uuencoded) file is 128 K and I'd prefer to upload it

to an FTP site rather than email it out to the rest of the people

who'd like it.  And I will do so as soon as there is some consensus

on which site (and the directory).


I hope the majority of you will find the collection worthwhile.


Regards,

--

Shane Davison (tsml)

[e-mail]




Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 19:05:27
Subject: Re: Mouse.SYS trouble
From:    imagine <[e-mail]>


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



--

Forwarded Message.


:From [e-mail]

:Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 16:49:12 GMT

:From: [e-mail] (imagine)

:Reply-To: [e-mail]

:Message-Id: <[e-mail]>

:To: [e-mail]

:Subject: Re: Mouse.SYS trouble

:X-Mailer: FIMail V0.9d

:X-User: Message from the desk of Andrew Stagg

:Lines: 58

:

In your message dated Monday 13, February 1995 you wrote :

> Hi Imagineers,

>

> This is a follow-up to my problems with moving the camera in the Stage Editor

> (when the double circle has turned orange and I'll move it with the left mouse


> button depressed suddenly the whole system locks up forcing me to do a cold

> reboot).

> I have the vague impression that the fault could lay in the way IMAGINE

couples

> to the mouse driver (I use the line "DEVICEHIGH=MOUSE.SYS" in my PC's

CONFIG.SYS

> file). Meanwhile I have tested every conceivable combination of stripping down


> my CONFIG.SYS files (yes, Greg Tsadilas' proposal on the IML, too), I have

> even changed the physical pointing device (from trackball to digitizing

tablet)

> - everything, including drawing programs under Window3.1 and standalone DOS

> applications using the mouse just run fine EXCEPT the %!@* IMAGINE3.1 in the

> Stage Editor (I think IMPULSE had better relied on a proven technology for

> implementing memory & mouse management than to develop their own - they don't

> even MENTION how to cope with the CONFIG.SYS obstacles in their manual ...

> couldn't they care less ?!)

>

> ANY hint about like troubles and how to cope with them are welcome. Until then


> I have stopped to fight with this stubborn piece of software (feel like the

> poor boy who is standing in front of the candy store with all the goodies outa


> reach); IMAGINE should get a prize for taxing the patience of even the hardest


> 3D modeling aficionado ... 8-((

>

> Sorry, didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings about his dearest toy ;-). I

know

> you are a resourceful bunch who has given a helping hand whenever you could

..

>

>     All the best

>

>          W.S.

>

>

>

> --

> wolfram schwenzer

> Internet : [e-mail]

>

>

>


I have had may troubles with IM30 and mouse and others but have generally found


a way around it with juggling what goes into high and low memory etc. Can you

email me your config/autoexec and what mouse/PC are you using I'll try and

answer it for you


Best Andrew Stagg. ..

                    >

                   \_/









Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 19:33:07
Subject: Running Imagine from Remote
From:    Cliff Lee <[e-mail]>


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



I've not seen this mentioned and thought I'd pass this along...


One can run Imagine on a remote machine via modem.  I did this last night

as an experiment.  I have a 486-66Mhz machine at work and a 486-33Mhz at

home.  Wanting to render on the faster-idle machine, I set up PCAnywhere

on my machine at work.  Dialing into the machine from home, I was able to

launch Imagine 3.0, open a project, and start rendering.  I then

"disconnected" leaving the machine running to check on it at a later time.

When I called back the render was complete.


I did not go into the detail, forms, stage, or spline editors.  I did go

into the Action editor.  These would have been completely unusable in

this fashion due to the screen update speed (or lack there of).  In an

emergency I suppose you could use this, but you ahve to REALLY WANT to...


Keep in mind that because the intro screen is graphic, that it takes along

time to get the intor screen.  If you intend to do this regularly, I would

rename the intro pic so that it is skipped.  Also piping all the screens

through 9600 buad (a limitation of PCAnywhere) makes for SLOW going.


This might be an interesting solution for those with better machines at

work than at home.  Worked for me!


Cliff Lee           [e-mail]

"You can always make up a class,

 You can never  make up a party!"




Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 19:35:22
Subject: Re: GVP&Imagine
From:    [e-mail] (Joe Cotellese)


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


>

>I've finally gotten my GVP 40Mhz '040 to work with Imagine.

>Unfortunately it often crashes when I'm saving an object and

>occasionally when I'm rendering. It's not related to object or file

>size. Anyone have any suggestions?  A3000 w/10Megs.


Possibly bad Ram chips?


Joe C.




Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 19:37:45
Subject: IML Tidbits (cont.)
From:    [e-mail] (Shane Davison)


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



Hi again,


Just a quick note to say that I will still email my compilation

of the IML Tidbits to those who would like it.  Just send me a

note via private email (note: its size is about 130 K).


Also, Doug Smith, I wasn't able to send the file to you due to

addressing problems.  Could you please send me a note that I

can reply to and include the file ?


--

Shane Davison (tsml)

[e-mail]




Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 20:01:19
Subject: ATI Ultra Pro
From:    Jon Bagge <[e-mail]>


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



There was a discussion on the use of this gfx card some time ago.  I was

an amiga-user at the time, so I didn\t pay much attention.


I'm now buying a PC, and considering this card.  Will it run with Imagine

under DOS?  And fast too?


Replies can be done in email.


:-JOn




Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 21:04:27
Subject: IML-TIDBITS !
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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



-> From: Shane Davison <[e-mail]>

->

-> Here it is: "Dare to Imagine" (aka IML Tidbits).

->

-> Comments are welcome.


On behalf of all the IMLer's, thanks for your work. I received my

"Dare to Imagine" this morning. Haven't read it all, but it looks

great!


Thanks again, Shane

        _______________________________________________________

      /_________________________________________________________\

    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =

|=3D

  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =

|=3D

  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =

|=3D

  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =

|=3D

  =3D|_______________________________________________________________=

|=3D

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 21:43:27
Subject: POVRay competition
From:    Locutus of Borg <[e-mail]>


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



I saw today in this list a couple of messages regarding the monthly

competition organized by the POVRay team.

For those interested, the competition is open to everybody (not only POVRay

traced pictures).

The theme for February is sound/music.

I included below a copy of the rules.


*Locutus*


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


INFORMATION

-----------

Every month, a new topic will be posted to comp.graphics.raytracing

and the DKB listserv.  Users then have one month to come

up with an idea, design it, and render it.  At the end of the month, all

contributions will become available to everyone, and you can finally see

the ideas that others came up with.


PURPOSE

-------

This competition should accomplish two main things.  First, it will give

an incentive to those who are new to raytracing.  Since the topic is set,

all they have to do is come up with a few ideas and get started.  Second,

it will be interesting to see everyone's different ideas and skills at

work.  The reason there is one set topic is so we can compare how people

interpreted the topic, what they did with it, and how original their idea

was.  There is still the "Image of the Month" that Chris Cason selects,

so this is a little different.


RULES

-----

IMPORTANT:  You *Must* upload a JPG image in order to be considered in

the competition.  *Don't* include your .jpg file in a zip file with your

scene file, etc.  Make the image separate.  Do not upload just source and

expect everyone to trace it.


Once again, these rules are not set in stone.  They have already changed

a little since last time.  More comments are welcome.


1.  All images will be 800x600 or 640x480 in JPG format, preferrably more

than 256 colors.  For images that may not be 4x3 aspect ratio, try to

stay close to those sizes.


2.  Any tracing program may be used to create the image.  People have

questioned the use of 3D studio, however.  Since this isn't a true

raytracing package and is more advanced than the common tracing programs,

this will be taken into account.  If you use 3DS, your image better be

*WAY* better than anything else.


3.  All images must be original.  You can't use someone else's drawing.

You also can't pull up a drawing you made a while ago and use it.  That

defeats the purpose.


4.  Any objects may be used that you downloaded from an FTP site, got

from another user, got off a CD, etc.  But you MUST tell where these

objects were taken from and give proper credit in your text and scene file.

I would prefer that all objects be original, however.


5.  Your scene file should be included with the image.  If you have a

large include file with a triangle-mesh object, or image_maps, or some

other part of your scene that is large, you can leave those out.  Just

include the main scene file so everyone can see how you made your image.

Zipped files that contain all include files, images, etc. are certainly

welcome, however.


6.  Include a text file along with your image.  The file should contain

your name, the file name, program(s) used, and any comments you have.  It

is probably best and most informative for the rest of us if you take some

time to describe your image and how you went about creating it.


7.  Putting your name on the image itself may be a good idea.  This is

not required, though.


8.  There will be no set scale that should be used for all renderings.

If you do model your scene to a set scale, please include the scale in

your scene file.  For example, a note at the top saying:

//  Scale:  1 cm = 1 Unit


9.  All images should be uploaded by the end of the month.  While late

images are certainly still welcome, they won't be considered for the

prize.  Try to get them in a few days before the end, too.  It's easier

on me :)


10.  You may contribute as many images as you wish.


WHERE TO UPLOAD

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

A special directory has been set up by Chris Cason for this competition.

All uploads should be made at ftp.povray.org in the directory

/pub/povray/competition/current


BUT WAIT...I CAN'T FTP!

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

No problem.  You can uuencode and mail me the finished image.  My mailbox

can be huge, so dont worry about filling it up.  Also mail me the text

file, source files, and a separate note explaining that I should upload

it for the competition.


BUT WAIT...I CAN'T EVEN UUENCODE!

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

Okay, you have only two options left.  You can

   1)  Post in comp.graphics.raytracing and ask if someone will trace it for

       you.  Chances are you'll find someone.

   2)  Mail me the source code and I'll trace it.  Keep in mind that I

       run POV on a 486 dx-33 and I have other things to do.  I can't

       guarantee anything, but it is an option.


PRIZE!

------

Chris has also set aside a free Pov-Ray CD-ROM to be given to the

"winner" of each month's competition.  A registered copy of GUM will also

be awarded.  GUM is one of the best modelling programs out there, and

runs in Windows.


JUDGING

-------

Judges may vary, but at least 3 will judge each competition.  Each will

choose the 5 images they like most.  Their first choice will be given a

5, second will be given a 4, etc.  Scores will be combined to determine

the winner.  Judges use this criteria to decide:

   1.  Artistic Merit

   2.  Originality / Concept (Based on the month's theme)

   3.  Technical Merit


TOPICS

------

Please send any topic suggestions to me at [e-mail].  I

already received quite a few, so all future topics will be chosen from

those I got.





Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 21:46:39
Subject: Re: Tunnel trouble
From:    [e-mail]


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


Milan Polle wrote;


>I am now making the leader which has the camera flying throug a tunnel

>(no way! a tunnel? how original) backwards.

>It seemed like a pretty basic anim to make, I made a twisting and turning

>tunnel by extruding a square along a handmade open spline path in detail.

>I used the same path in stage for the camera motion, the camera starts

>to move first, after that I launch a tracking axis along the same path,

>so the camera looks (sort of) in the right direction.

>The problem is I cannot seem to get the motion to be smooth, occasionally

>it seems like the camera hits the walls of the tunnel (which is impossible)

>because of sudden jerks in the motion.


Why don't you align the camera to the path?


Conny Joensson



Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 23:24:18
Subject: Re: IML Tidbits (done!).
From:    [e-mail] (Joe Cotellese)


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



>on which site (and the directory).

>

>I hope the majority of you will find the collection worthwhile.


Shane,


I think generally everything has been going into the gfx/3d or gfx/3dobj

directories on Aminet.


Joe C.




Date:    Wednesday, 15 February 1995 23:34:15
Subject: They call me ray BBS!
From:    [e-mail]


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


     i read that They call me ray BBS is back online...



     does anybody have the new number??



     if not, does anyone know of any other Imagine related BBS to call?



     [e-mail]




Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 00:11:54
Subject: Re: IML-TIDBITS ! (Ditto)
From:    [e-mail]


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



--Boundary (ID eCWlDi/yW5ha1y/csoPo7g)

Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN

Content-transfer-encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE


     ditto!

    =20

     looks AWESOME, loaded with never before seen stuff=20

     (not by me at least)

    =20

     ;>

    =20

        thanks everybody...


        [e-mail]


______________________________ Reply Separator ______________________=

___________

Subject: IML-TIDBITS !

Author:  [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen) at=

 UNIXGTWY

Date:    2/15/95 1:36 PM



-> From: Shane Davison <[e-mail]>=20

->

-> Here it is: "Dare to Imagine" (aka IML Tidbits).=20

->

-> Comments are welcome.

    =20

On behalf of all the IMLer's, thanks for your work. I received my=

=20

"Dare to Imagine" this morning. Haven't read it all, but it looks=

=20

great!

    =20

Thanks again, Shane

        _______________________________________________________

      /_________________________________________________________\

    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =

|=3D=20

  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =

|=3D=20

  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =

|=3D=20

  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =

|=3D=20

  =3D|_______________________________________________________________=

|=3D

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]



--Boundary (ID eCWlDi/yW5ha1y/csoPo7g)--



Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 00:17:18
Subject: Imagine/PCI Problems
From:    Todd Brawn <[e-mail]>


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


I have a copy of Imagine 2.0. I also have a PCI STB 864 PowerGraph Pro video car
d. I am unable to return from the render screen to the edit mode.

Impulse seems to think my video card does not have the right VESA

emulation and to find a univesa driver. Any help in finding this driver,

or in correcting my video problem would be greatly appreciated.


[e-mail]





Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 01:48:25
Subject: Re: Upgrades??
From:    [e-mail] (Robert Byrne)


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


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]

(ERNESTO POVEDA CORTES) writes:


> Hello all imagineers,

>     first, i must give thanxs to all people who help me with my question

>     about the Constant Upgrade Program few days ago.

>

>     one of you give me the address (email) of Mike Halvorsen but i haven't

>     any answer from him so i put here the folowing question:

>

>     i want get the Upgrade Program, but all tries i did to get in contact

>     with impulse (not by voice) were no answered, so if a send a $100 to

>     them .... will i get the Upgrades?

>

>     thanx in advance...


Hello Ernesto, I sent a letter to Impulse last October to upgrade from V2

to V3 and never received a reply.  There's no way I'd send money without a

confirmation from them first.  If you do, make sure it's registered mail so

you can be sure they received it.

--


  : Robert (Bob) Byrne        :  A3000/25  : vox  Ph: [phone] :

  : [e-mail] :            : Ballina, NSW Australia :




Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 02:41:39
Subject: Tunnel trouble
From:    [e-mail] (TORGEIR HOLM)


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



>The problem is I cannot seem to get the motion to be smooth,occasio

>it seems like the camera hits the walls of the tunnel (which is imp

>because of sudden jerks in the motion.

>Well, I thought you had to put in extra effort to make 3d anims non-sm

>but with Imagine, the world is different, maybe we should call Imagine

>Murphy.

>Any ideas on what is going on here?


I've been getting these jerks in the motion when changing the focus of

the Camera when I use DOF. I looks like someone hits the camera with a

baseball bat or something. If you are using DOF, this might be the

problem, if not i have no Idea. Try turning off DOF, and see if it helps

(might ruin the effect you are trying to accomplish though)



Torge!r



[e-mail]



Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 04:08:38
Subject: Imagine Tips
From:    Robert Iacullo <[e-mail]>


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


How do I get the Imagine Tips file?  [e-mail]




Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 06:37:03
Subject: Re: good turbulent gas effect??
From:    Ted Stethem <[e-mail]>


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




On Thu, 9 Feb 1995, Scott Krehbiel wrote:


>

> Hi Everybody,

> I'm trying to make a turbulent gas effect.  I tried using a fog

> object and the Nebula texture (came with Imagine) and I got

> a kinda neat effect, but it looked more like water than

> anything else.  Actually, it looked just like the sky reflecting

> off the surface of turbulent water.

>

> What I'm trying to represent is called Reactive Ion Etching,

> where a gas is bombarded with Radio waves, ionizing it and

> making it etch a surface.  I'm not about to try to micro-animate

> this, but would like to get a nice plasma effect on the gas.

>

> Any suggestions for getting a "dangerous gas that would etch things"

> effect???  I think turbulence would be good, as it would illustrate

> the fact that the gas is doing something... not just sitting around.

>

> Thanks in advance,

> Scott Krehbiel

> [e-mail]

>

>

>

  Have you tried any of the animatable textures like DANCSPRK or

ELECTRIC? You might also try a combination of TIEDYE with ELECTRIC.  I

haven't tried it myself but from the description, this might be what you

are looking for. But unless you have an 80 MHz '060, be prepared for some

mind-numbing render times. These new textures are cool but it is almost

like the cpu has hit a brick wall especially when you layer the textures.

Also, Essence has several turbulence textures. Have you checked any of

these out?

  Also, if you are interested, I might be able to help you out with your

particle thing. I have an example that is pretty close to what you are

describing I think. It has been a few years since I closely observed

aluminum deposition on a silicon substrate.



Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 07:10:43
Subject: Candle
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


C> >>If you have I3.X, here's a free candle tip: Make a  brushmap with

C> >>a vertical gadient from the white(top) to black(bottom).

C> >>Then make another brushmap that is solid white. Apply the gradient

C> >>map to the candle as a 'reflectivity' map and appy the solid white

C> >>map as a 'reflection' map.  This makes the candle stick glow

C> >>like a real lit candle.


C> >Umm, wouldn't it be simpler to replace those two brushmaps with the

C> >Linear texture, fading the color to white as you get closer to the top

C> >of the candle?


Yes, It would be possible to use the linear texture or any texture

that supports reflecttivity mapping instead of the gradient brushmap.

I only used the gradient brush because it was simpler to explain.

But the solid white brush map is required as textures don't support

'reflection' mapping(not to be confused with reflectivity mapping).


Even though you may had read this in my other posts, what the above

basically accomplishes is a psuedo-brightness mapping. you could

just as easily use the above method to make windows on a spaceship

simply by replacing the gradient map, with a map of bright windows.


--End of quote----------------------------------------------------------


Aargh. I still don't understand. The way I see it, your gradient

reflectivity brush varies reflectivity from 0% at the bottom of the

candle, to 100% at the top. Then, you add a pure white reflection brush.

Doesn't that create the same effect as fading the candle's color from

100% base color at the bottom, to 100% white at the top? If so, then

forget all about reflection and reflectivity, and simply apply a Linear

texture to fade the candle color; 0% fade at the bottom, 100% fade (to

white) at the top.


What's wrong with this picture? If you were using a fancy reflection

brush, I'd agree that reflectivity would give a different effect. But

you use a pure solid white brush, that's where I don't see a difference.




Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 07:49:56
Subject: I/O
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: [e-mail]


I have an A2000 and a pentium586. I would like to set up a direct link to

both computers so I can process images on one and send it to the other. Has

anyone ever tried this? Thanx

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


Oh yes. One way is with the old standby, the null modem cable. You can

also set up a real LAN, using Ethernet or other protocols; for this, I

direct you to Dale Larson at Intangible Assets Manufacturing. He's one

of the original Amiga engineers, and his company keeps supporting the

machine. He has written an informative book on networking for the Amiga.

His Internet address is [e-mail].



Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 08:19:20
Subject: Re: Re: Ambient light
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Michael North <[e-mail]>

Subject: Re: Re: Ambient light


>

> Also - 20 is a VERY low value. If you actually want to SEE the ambient

> light, you might want to try a value somewhere around 75-100.

>

> >


Wow!  I've always gone by Steve Worley's recommendation to stick to

about 10, 10, 10.  I was using higher values but kept getting washed out

looking pictures.


Michael North

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


It depends what you use to display the picture. If you're using plain

old HAM mode on an Amiga, it takes a lot of ambient light before you see

a difference. Display the image in 24-bit mode and you can perceive much

subtler effects, such as those obtained by setting ambient light to

32,32,32.



Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 08:44:27
Subject: PC Shareware?? other textures?
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: imagine <[e-mail]>


Quick question. There seem to be many textures available as add-ons for the

amiga product. Are there any for the PC if so where can I get them ??

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


From [e-mail] Feb  9 00:30:41 1995

Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 15:35:53 -0500

From: [e-mail]


Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 09:07:56
Subject: Textures
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Michael Hazlett <[e-mail]>


Ok I have Bandturb....but if the other ones are Essence textures I never

got 'em....If it's legal can someone UL the textures...Solid & SwapCRF to

me please...

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


Sorry, Essence textures are a commercial product and sharing them is

prohibited.


Can someone come up with an alternative which only uses Imagine textures?



Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 10:18:52
Subject: Swirl
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Daniel Dacey <[e-mail]>


Hi All,


Does anyone have any suggestions about the best way to do the following:


- Have a 2D representation of a man with a IV needle in his arm.

- The drug in the IV swirling around and through the man. Think of how

  ink swirls through a glass of water to get the kind of look I want.

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


If your man is 2-D, I assume the animation itself will have a 2-D look,

i.e. the camera won't be swooping around the scene, right? If so, I would

simply use my paint program to create a black-and-white image delimiting

the area (IV needle, veins inside man) where I want the swirls to be

visible. I would then, in Imagine, add a Bright primitive plane, add a

swirly texture like Spark, and your B&W mask as a Filter map.


Stretch and position the plane so it matches the man (test renders will

be faster if you don't add the Spark texture at first -- make sure when

you do add the texture, its priority is lower than the filter brushmap).

Make a second version of the plane (Copy/Paste) with Spark's Dist

Travelled a bit higher.


Just off the top of my head, but something to get you started.



Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 11:14:40
Subject: Essence Textures V 1.0
From:    [e-mail] (David Watson)


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


Can someone tell me if the Essence Textures V 1.0 for Imagine require a

FP-math coprocessor.  A friend is looking at purchasing these second hand

but he needs to know this first.  I guess the owner doesn't know either.


Thanks, David




Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 11:57:31
Subject: Re: Imagine WWW site
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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










> The only problem is that the

> pictures are sometimes not exactly the best representation of the

> texture. Some, though, are SPECTACULAR. Many thanks to Doug Rudd and D.F.

> Duck!


I'm sorry for any of the sample pictures you didn't like. I'm pleased you

did enjoy at least some of them. I was planning an update for these

picture. I origanally was trying to stick with the defualts, which as I'm

sure you know are not the best representations. Some of them I felt had

to have work, and I did so...I do hope to make more of them nicer in

any possible updates.


Hmmmmm? I don't know if your refering to Doug Rudd as someone who had any

part of making IMTguide possible. Or thanking him for helping you with

something on the list. But I assure you he had nothing to do with creating

IMTguide_1a. Me and a Friend D.F. Duck, (My name being Randy R. Wall)

created the rexx program and pictures, Icons, etc,etc..


Oh and thank you for the nice comment on the pictures you did like. Maybe

I should jump in on my next batch for IMTguide.


=RRW=


Randy R. Wall


> > Thanks for giving me some ideas. I will definitely get to implementing

> > all of them. I was also going to do something like texture

> > previewing... Description of each texture and a small image showing

> > what the texture should look like. That should be interesting.

> >

> > Who would decide which image is the best?

>

> Actually, if you get the IMTguide_1a.lha file in aminet under gfx/3d, it

> will convert your texture.txt and lite.txt files into an AmigaGuide file,

> complete with example pics (just click on the [Example Object] button).

> Maybe you could convert this file to html. The only problem is that the

> pictures are sometimes not exactly the best representation of the

> texture. Some, though, are SPECTACULAR. Many thanks to Doug Rudd and D.F.

> Duck!




Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 13:44:44
Subject: Re: Essence Textures V 1.0
From:    [e-mail] (Bill Hibbs)


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


Hello watson, in <[e-mail]> on Feb 16 you traced:


> Can someone tell me if the Essence Textures V 1.0 for Imagine require a

> FP-math coprocessor.  A friend is looking at purchasing these second hand

> but he needs to know this first.  I guess the owner doesn't know either.

>

> Thanks, David

>

>


      I also bought Essence Textures V1. I found out the hard way that they do

require a FPU. I now have bought an excellerator with a FPU. So your answer is

yes. IMHO it is well worth buying Essence AND an FPU.


      L8r, Bill





Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 15:27:56
Subject: Re: Re: Ambient light
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


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




> > Also - 20 is a VERY low value. If you actually want to SEE the ambient

> > light, you might want to try a value somewhere around 75-100.

>

> Wow!  I've always gone by Steve Worley's recommendation to stick to

> about 10, 10, 10.  I was using higher values but kept getting washed out

> looking pictures.

>

> It depends what you use to display the picture. If you're using plain

> old HAM mode on an Amiga, it takes a lot of ambient light before you see

> a difference. Display the image in 24-bit mode and you can perceive much

> subtler effects, such as those obtained by setting ambient light to

> 32,32,32.


I don't use very much ambient light because it produces a flat looking

effect. It is often more convinient to add a very subtle (about

30,30,30 if you don't use diminishing intensity) light source on

the side of the scene where you want the ambient (a sort of back light).

You probably don't want the back light to make shadows so don't select

the 'cast shadows' option in action editor.



Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 17:10:15
Subject: ATI Ultra Pro - Folowup
From:    Jon Bagge <[e-mail]>


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




I got a bundle of mails in reply to my request.  Thanks.


But everyone seems to disagree.  Some says it works perfect, some says it

don't work at all, some says it swaps the colour  around, some says it`s

slow on imagine, and finally some says it`s an anciemt card, and I should

consider something newer.


So, what`s up?


:-Jon




Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 17:50:44
Subject: Re: Ambient light
From:    "Bruce Marsh(ART)" <[e-mail]>


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


Ambient light will allow you to make rich and subtle images if you give it

a predominant color, particularly if that color is opposite the color of

of the other lights in a scene....... Example.... Light a scene with

lights that are in the red-orange range...(warm)...perhaps set at

250,200,125. Then set ambient light to be somewhat

blue-green.....(cool)....perhaps at 20,40,60. This produces an image,

particularly in 24 bit color, which has warm lights and cool shadows. You

can use any combinations....Yellow lights, violet shadows, or blue lights,

orange shadows, etc...It's trial and error, depending on the color of your

objects and backgrounds, and certainly on the mood you wish to establish.

Play with the settings. Look at color photography in advertising..( or

Baroque Painting for that matter...) ...colored light is a powerful

element in expressive images. It's also fairly cheap in rendering

time...colored ambient light tales no longer than a setting of

32,32,32....which is gray..(mechanical and flat!).


Bruce.



Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 18:19:17
Subject: Re: Imagine WWW site
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


<Snip>

>

> Hmmmmm? I don't know if your refering to Doug Rudd as someone who had any

> part of making IMTguide possible. Or thanking him for helping you with

> something on the list. But I assure you he had nothing to do with creating

> IMTguide_1a. Me and a Friend D.F. Duck, (My name being Randy R. Wall)

> created the rexx program and pictures, Icons, etc,etc..

>

> Oh and thank you for the nice comment on the pictures you did like. Maybe

> I should jump in on my next batch for IMTguide.

>

> =RRW=

<Snip>


That puzzeled me too. My only part in any of this, other than starting a ruckus

by suggesting AG format, was to send out some copies of the sample.guide to

some folks who are working on PC readers for the AG. I had no part in the

development of the IMTguide. I DO use it and enjoy it though.



Doug Rudd

[e-mail]



Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 20:32:23
Subject: Re: ATI Ultra Pro - Folowup
From:    [e-mail] (John Grieggs)


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


>

>

>

> I got a bundle of mails in reply to my request.  Thanks.

>

> But everyone seems to disagree.  Some says it works perfect, some says it

> don't work at all, some says it swaps the colour  around, some says it`s

> slow on imagine, and finally some says it`s an anciemt card, and I should

> consider something newer.

>

> So, what`s up?

>

Maybe you should be more specific in your query. There are several versions

of the GPT, with DRAM or VRAM and the mach32 or mach64 chipset.


I have a VLB version with 4 meg VRAM and the mach64 chipset, and it works

absolutely great.  No problems at all.  Imagine runs on it with no

special hacks, and it works at 1280x1024x65K @60 Hz under OS/2.


I hear tell that the mach32 version isn't so great.


> :-Jon

>

>

_john



Date:    Thursday, 16 February 1995 22:18:44
Subject: Re: Tunnel trouble
From:    Ed Totman <[e-mail]>


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


On Wed, 15 Feb 1995, Milan Polle wrote:


> I am now making the leader which has the camera flying throug a tunnel

> (no way! a tunnel? how original) backwards.

...

> The problem is I cannot seem to get the motion to be smooth, occasionally

> it seems like the camera hits the walls of the tunnel (which is impossible)

> because of sudden jerks in the motion.


I had this same problem with a lengthy tunnel animation last summer.  I

fixed it by smoothing out the turns in the tunnel/camera path.  I had the

camera align with a target outside the tunnel then align to the path

after entering.  If the turns were too sharp it looked like the camera

was bouncing off the walls.


Ed Totman

[e-mail]




Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 01:48:34
Subject: Re: Imagine WWW site
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


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




On Thu, 16 Feb 1995, Randy R. Wall wrote:


> > The only problem is that the

> > pictures are sometimes not exactly the best representation of the

> > texture. Some, though, are SPECTACULAR. Many thanks to Doug Rudd and D.F.

> > Duck!

>

>snip<

>

> Hmmmmm? I don't know if your refering to Doug Rudd as someone who had any

> part of making IMTguide possible. Or thanking him for helping you with

> something on the list. But I assure you he had nothing to do with creating

> IMTguide_1a. Me and a Friend D.F. Duck, (My name being Randy R. Wall)

> created the rexx program and pictures, Icons, etc,etc..

>


DOH! Sorry. Tlip of the Slongue there. I confused the two. Just kidding!

Many thanks to Randy R. Wall and D.F. Duck!



>

> =RRW=

>

> Randy R. Wall

>


See ya,

      Roger



Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 03:03:20
Subject: V3.1 imagine
From:    Susan Dianne Boon <[e-mail]>


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


Hi!


This may be a repeat question but does anyone have multitasking

problems with 3.1?  It seems very difficult to even move the

mouse when rendering in 3.1.  V3.0 seems to be fine. Wireframe

updates are quick now but the mouse is slow to react when the

updates are in progress.  Its as if Impulse has made Imagine a

100% CPU hog.


Thanks!

--


Dr. Susan D. Boon

Department of Psychology                          FAX: [phone]

University of Calgary

2500 University Dr. NW

Calgary, AB  T2N 1N4

CANADA



Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 03:14:11
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Ambient light
From:    Michael North <[e-mail]>


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






------------------------------TEXT-OF-YOUR-MAIL--------------------------------


> >

> > Also - 20 is a VERY low value. If you actually want to SEE the ambient

> > light, you might want to try a value somewhere around 75-100.

> >

> > >

>

> Wow!  I've always gone by Steve Worley's recommendation to stick to

> about 10, 10, 10.  I was using higher values but kept getting washed out

> looking pictures.

>

> Michael North

> ------------------------------------------------------------

>

> It depends what you use to display the picture. If you're using plain

> old HAM mode on an Amiga, it takes a lot of ambient light before you see

> a difference. Display the image in 24-bit mode and you can perceive much

> subtler effects, such as those obtained by setting ambient light to

> 32,32,32.


I see.  I am talking about 24-bit display on a PC.  A lot also

depends, of course, on what sort of light settings you're using.



Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 05:19:02
Subject: Re: I/O
From:    [e-mail]


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


Thanx to all who replied. Imagineers are great.



Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 05:34:34
Subject: Sliding smoothly in a tunnel:)
From:    [e-mail]


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


Have your track axis/object follow the path as you are currently doing.

Manually place the Camera in front of the track object. Go into the Action

editor and have the Camera Track to Object. Then add an Associate bar to

the Camera's timeline, defining the track object as the associated object.

That's it!



Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 06:23:08
Subject: THEY CALL ME RAY BBS!
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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



-> From: [e-mail]

->

->      i read that They call me ray BBS is back online...

->      does anybody have the new number??

->      if not, does anyone know of any other Imagine related BBS to =

cal


GraFX Haus is not "Imagine Related" but is Graphics Related with a lo=

t

of Imagine stuff (ie. objects).


805-683-1388

        _______________________________________________________

      /_________________________________________________________\

    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =

|=3D

  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =

|=3D

  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =

|=3D

  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =

|=3D

  =3D|_______________________________________________________________=

|=3D

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 07:05:59
Subject: Lens Flare
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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



I know constant references to Lightwave might get annoying in an Imag=

ine

SIG, but I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to create a star

shape lens flare in Imagine. There is a setting in Lightwave, (if I

remember right) that creates a kind of spiked flare that gives the

illusion of a distant bright sun. It's kind of like rays going out fr=

om

the bright center. Can anyone give me the Flare FX settings that migh=

t

duplicate this effect in Imagine? Is this possible?


=2E..come to think of it, does anyone have a list of flare settings f=

or

various types of effects that might look interesting?

        _______________________________________________________

      /_________________________________________________________\

    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =

|=3D

  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =

|=3D

  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =

|=3D

  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =

|=3D

  =3D|_______________________________________________________________=

|=3D

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 09:51:45
Subject: Essence and Garbles
From:    [e-mail]


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


Question Unus--What is and where can I get Essence?

Question Duo--Every once in a while a will read some mail on

                      The list that will be followed by some garble...

                      Is this a file?  How do I view  it?

THank You for the time.

"Easy Street is a blind alley."

    IvoryMask     {:-|}



Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 11:20:38
Subject: Re: V3.1 imagine
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


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


Hello,


>This may be a repeat question but does anyone have multitasking

>problems with 3.1?  It seems very difficult to even move the

>mouse when rendering in 3.1.  V3.0 seems to be fine. Wireframe

Seems like you are having problems with invalid memory accesses, which cause

a error trapping routine to execute. Since I don't know your configuration,

I'll give an example how I solved this on my A3000.

If memory serves me correct I think I use a program called 'StatColRAM',

anyway you can change some bits on how the bus controller handles static

colum rams. It also has a setting which disables the bus error handle routine.

It should be on Aminet, but if you can't find it I'll lookit up and see if I

still have the original archive and the correct name.


>updates are quick now but the mouse is slow to react when the

>updates are in progress.  Its as if Impulse has made Imagine a

>100% CPU hog.

Imagine is always a CPU hog when it renders. I have it running at pri -1 so I

can still do something else.


Greetings Joop



Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 12:05:05
Subject: RE: IMAGINE COOKBOOK
From:    Andrew D Sullivan <[e-mail]>


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



My idea for a title is Imagine Nation


Sully




Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 17:02:21
Subject: Re: ATI Ultra Pro - Followup
From:    Jon Bagge <[e-mail]>


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




On Thu, 16 Feb 1995, John Grieggs wrote:


> Maybe you should be more specific in your query. There are several versions

> of the GPT, with DRAM or VRAM and the mach32 or mach64 chipset.


Hm.. seems I've got something wrong.  Terrible how these people have a

need to make stupid sound-all-the-same names for these cards.


The card I'm considering is the ATI Pro Turbo with Mach64 and 2MB VRAM.

(Upgradable to 4MB)

This is a more expensive card than the Ultra Pro.  (Hope I got it right

this time.)


I want a fast card so that hopefully I can play animations reasonably

fast.  I'm also running Linux/X.  I just sold my A4000/040, so I'm used

to be able to play animations.


Thanks.


:-Jon




Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 17:02:28
Subject: IML-Tidbits.
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



Hi IML'ers,


I would like to thank everyone for all the positive comments

I received for "Dare to Imagine".  It certainly makes doing

things like this worthwhile.  I hope everyone who requested

a copy received one but if not, please send me another note

and I'll get one out to you immediately.  And, by all means,

share it with others by uploading it to any site you like.

If it's not already there, I'll upload it to Aminet later.


Thanks again for the feedback and have a great weekend !


Regards,

--

Shane Davison (tsml)

[e-mail]




Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 18:11:09
Subject: Re: IML-Tidbits.
From:    [e-mail] (Joe Cotellese)


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


>things like this worthwhile.  I hope everyone who requested

>a copy received one but if not, please send me another note

>and I'll get one out to you immediately.  And, by all means,

>share it with others by uploading it to any site you like.


I got it, its great.  Thanks for the work you put into it.


Joe C.




Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 18:34:02
Subject: Re: ATI Ultra Pro - Followup
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



> The card I'm considering is the ATI Pro Turbo with Mach64 and 2MB VRAM.


Well, why didn't you say so in the first place ;-).  I have the

4 meg version of this card and it's *great* !!  No problems with

Imagine and amazing Windows performance.  I would strongly

recommend that you get that card (I'm not associated with ATI).


--

Shane Davison (tsml)

[e-mail]


ps.  BTW, the correct name is actually ATI Graphics Pro Turbo <ducking...>




Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 18:43:37
Subject: Brush wraps
From:    [e-mail]


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





   Hello, Everyone.  I'm using Imagine 2.0, and I've been running into some

problems with brush maps.  I wonder if anyone else has had similar problems.

What I'm trying to do is map a brush (as a reflect map) onto an object which

will initially be in the shape of a sphere.  The object morphs into a flat

plane.  The problem is figuring out how to set the brush attributes so that

the brush will transform correctly through the morphing.

   The only way I've gotten something remotely usable is to set the brush

to flat x, flat z, even in the case of the sphere.  This is kinda fake looking,

though.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Chris


P.S. I'm not on the list at the moment, so please send any responses to me

at my e-mail [e-mail]




Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 19:45:34
Subject: V3.1 Imagine - no cpu hog
From:    [e-mail]


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


I guess it depends on your settings...last night I was tracing (not

_scan_line) and playing a non-cpu intensive game with my son at the

same time.  I had absolutely no problems multi-tasking.  This is

on an 030/33 with a 50 MgHz FPU 1200 with 10 meg ram.  Could be

you don't have too much ram left?  That'd do it.


Actually, Imagine seems to be a cpu hog when it's writing to disk.

If you are doing writes every 1/2 second or so, the system will seem

bogged down.  This might just be an Amiga DOS problem.

\KenR



Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 20:19:57
Subject: Re: ATI Ultra Pro - Followup
From:    [e-mail] (John Grieggs)


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


> On Thu, 16 Feb 1995, John Grieggs wrote:

>

> > Maybe you should be more specific in your query. There are several versions

> > of the GPT, with DRAM or VRAM and the mach32 or mach64 chipset.

>

> The card I'm considering is the ATI Pro Turbo with Mach64 and 2MB VRAM.

> (Upgradable to 4MB)

> This is a more expensive card than the Ultra Pro.  (Hope I got it right

> this time.)

>

You should be ok then.  Mine is the Graphics Ultra Pro Turbo, with 4 meg

of VRAM and the mach64 shipset.  With 2 meg instead of 4 meg, you lose

some of the higher resolutions.  Because these higher resolutions translate

into extra VESA modes, I recommend going for the 4 meg version if you can

swing it.


Mine is the VLB version.  The PCI version is supposedly just a bit faster,

but I don't have the PCI bus.  Oh, well.


Avoid DRAM versions of the card, and the mach32 chipset, and you should

be fine with it.  Oh, and avoid anything that runs on an 8- or 16-bit

bus, of course - stick to VLB or PCI!


> I want a fast card so that hopefully I can play animations reasonably

> fast.  I'm also running Linux/X.  I just sold my A4000/040, so I'm used

> to be able to play animations.

>

I know of at least one person using the same card for Linux/X, but have

not tried it myself.


> Thanks.

>

> :-Jon

>

_john




Date:    Friday, 17 February 1995 20:35:18
Subject: RE:  LENS FLARE
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Vandersommen)


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



-> From: [e-mail] (Milan Polle)

->

-> a few moths ago I made a starflare texture that probably does what

-> you want, I mailed it to the list uuencoded. (<- I wrote 'moths' :=

)

-> You apply it to a bright plane, and it will make a n-pointed

-> starflare out of it.


Dumb question. If a starfield is being used, does this texture on the

"bright plane" block out stars behind it? Like a square black hole? :=

)


-> I am also working on a 3d flare (apply it to a cube) which respond=

s

-> to the camera. With some minor adjustments, the starflare texture

-> could also be made to respond to the camera.


That sounds more like what I need.


-> Oh jeah, the 3d flare is finished actually, I will upload it when =

I

-> find the time.


I'd appreciate it. Thanks.......

        _______________________________________________________

      /_________________________________________________________\

    /=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D\

  =3D| Mike van der Sommen ||  Email:                                =

|=3D

  =3D| GraFX Haus BBS      ||  [e-mail] =

|=3D

  =3D| Santa Barbara, Ca.  || ______________________________________ =

|=3D

  =3D|   "..where the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse play golf..."     =

|=3D

  =3D|_______________________________________________________________=

|=3D

---

 =FE InterNet - GraFX Haus BBS - Santa Barbara, Ca - [phone]




Date:    Saturday, 18 February 1995 00:34:00
Subject: Thanks
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Peter Borcherds <[e-mail]>


So, if there are any Imagineers in South Africa who know where I

can get either the 3DROM #2 (from Syndesis) and/or the LightROM CD

please let me know.

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


Peter, you can reach John Foust, maker of the Syndesis 3D-ROMs, at

[e-mail].



Date:    Saturday, 18 February 1995 01:32:19
Subject: Re: ATI Ultra Pro - Followup
From:    Ayalon Hermony <[e-mail]>


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




On Fri, 17 Feb 1995, Jon Bagge wrote:


>

> I want a fast card so that hopefully I can play animations reasonably

> fast.I'm also running Linux/X.  I just sold my A4000/040, so I'm used

> to be able to play animations.

>

> Thanks.

>

> :-Jon

>


Hello,


Will you post some frame rate test for us to lean on?


I'm considering a PCI bus with some fast card, maybe the above ATI,

and was wondering what might match up to A4000 scale.


Used to have DCTV 3bit real time, 25 frames/sec 3-4milion color test the

anims, hope to find something similar (for test)


Oh CBM, when the time comes, I'll break your heart too...


TIA.



           How do you come back from 3D ?

Ayalon M. Hermony      Internet: [e-mail]






Date:    Saturday, 18 February 1995 01:56:57
Subject: Banging into tunnel walls
From:    [e-mail]


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


If having the camera Associating/Tracking to a spline-travelling axis

doesn't work, just reverse the process. Camera following path, tracking to

a null-axis behind it, with the axis Associated to the camera.



Date:    Saturday, 18 February 1995 10:52:00
Subject: Imagine V.3.1
From:    Susan Dianne Boon <[e-mail]>


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


Hi!

I hope I haven't caused any frustration over this V.3.1 and

multitasking.  i might have been a little premature with my

opinion.  It seems the CPU strain only occured when I rendered

the new textures "fire" (or whatever its called).  Any other

rendering was perfectly fine.

Don't get me wrong...in my opinion, Imagine is one of the BEST

renderers out on any platform,regardless of what other people are

saying.  I was used to SCULPT 4-D, Imagine is light years

ahead,even if it has/had any bugs!


Happy  rendering!

--


Dr. Susan D. Boon

Department of Psychology                          FAX: [phone]

University of Calgary

2500 University Dr. NW

Calgary, AB  T2N 1N4

CANADA



Date:    Saturday, 18 February 1995 14:22:02
Subject: Re: Brush wraps
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


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




On Fri, 17 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

>

>    Hello, Everyone.  I'm using Imagine 2.0, and I've been running into some

> problems with brush maps.  I wonder if anyone else has had similar problems.

> What I'm trying to do is map a brush (as a reflect map) onto an object which

> will initially be in the shape of a sphere.  The object morphs into a flat

> plane.  The problem is figuring out how to set the brush attributes so that

> the brush will transform correctly through the morphing.

>    The only way I've gotten something remotely usable is to set the brush

> to flat x, flat z, even in the case of the sphere.  This is kinda fake looking
,

> though.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

>

The best suggestion is to get Imagine 3. It has this new states system

which allows you to lock brushmaps and textures onto a spesific state of

a morph. Of course the different states must have the same structure

(same amount of points etc.). Brush locking doesn't work with altitude

maps however and I haven't tried it out with reflection maps so I'm not

quite sure if it works.



Date:    Saturday, 18 February 1995 14:29:42
Subject: Re: Imagine V.3.1
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


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




On Fri, 17 Feb 1995, Susan Dianne Boon wrote:


> Don't get me wrong...in my opinion, Imagine is one of the BEST

> renderers out on any platform,regardless of what other people are

> saying.  I was used to SCULPT 4-D, Imagine is light years

> ahead,even if it has/had any bugs!

>

Hey, don't compare Imagine to such an outdated software as Sculpt 4D! I

too think that Imagine is best (though it DOES have a lot of bugs) but

then again I haven't used LightWave. Have You? 3D studio on PC is also

very good. REAL 3D is good for very photorealistic work, but is very

difficult to use and has a lot of bugs too.



Date:    Saturday, 18 February 1995 15:10:28
Subject: Re:Which PC's work.
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


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



Thanks to all who reponded to my questions about Imagine & PC

compatability.


Here's a quick run down:

Imagine running on a Dell XPS P90 and /noxms switch.

Imagine 2 running on a system with a Farenhite 1280 + and

   an MS mouse.

Imagine 2 running on a system with a clone S3 graphic card

   and a trackball.

Imagine L/T running on a 486SLC250 with AmiBIOS, But (!)

   must us EM386 (!) with -noxms switch

And (this one is pretty surprising) an A2500 with a Bridge

Board having a 486SX50 and an 80387SX50.

And finally, the comment that Imagine has been able to run

on every PC tried as long as the system configuration

is properly set.  See previous posts detailing info

on config.sys and VESA drivers etc.


Thanks again, I'll be glad to hear about any other systems

that work/dont' work.

Hopefully, by Imagine 4, it will be a Win32 compliant app

and run under Windoze 95(sooner or later) or "Warp"(now a

verrrry nice OS indeed.


Bye, got to trace a batch of textured glass, so I'll be

gone fer awhile.

Greg Denby

[e-mail]



Date:    Saturday, 18 February 1995 15:38:59
Subject: Re: Flare
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


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



Mike van der Sommen writes:

>...Can anyone give me Flare FX settings that might

>duplicate the effect in Imagine?  Is this possible?...


Sure, just use the Twinkle texture on a disk sized to your needs.

Rotate the texture's Z axis towards the camera.  Zero out the Ring

settings.  Make the radius for the Flare quite small, but intense.

Zero out the Star1 settings, because that is a many pointed spike.

Use Star2, with a radius to match the disk, and a high intensity,

so that you get a nice fade along the four arms.


This makes a pretty good small distant twinkling star.


Hope this helps,

Greg Denby

[e-mail]



Date:    Sunday, 19 February 1995 08:36:18
Subject: Candle
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Rivers)


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


CB> Aargh. I still don't understand. The way I see it, your gradient

CB> reflectivity brush varies reflectivity from 0% at the bottom of the

CB> candle, to 100% at the top. Then, you add a pure white reflection brush.

CB> Doesn't that create the same effect as fading the candle's color from

CB> 100% base color at the bottom, to 100% white at the top? If so, then


Oops. I was assuming the color of the candle was white.

The gradient brush(or texture) should be the color of the candle

at the top and fade to black at the bottom.  Sorry I didn't mention

this in my original post.


( Or you could use the greyscale gradient and apply the texture

  at the end of this message after the gradient brushmap )


CB> forget all about reflection and reflectivity, and simply apply a Linear

CB> texture to fade the candle color; 0% fade at the bottom, 100% fade (to

CB> white) at the top.


Although that would appear the same when the candle is in a well lit

scene.  the big difference will be when the candle is rendered in a dim

scene.


CB> What's wrong with this picture? If you were using a fancy reflection

CB> brush, I'd agree that reflectivity would give a different effect. But

CB> you use a pure solid white brush, that's where I don't see a difference.


Create two candles

Candle 1: with just the color fading,

Candle 2: use the reflection/reflectivity maps as I listed previously


Then render them with no lights other than the flame.

The difference is that Candle 2 glows in the dark.


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


The following texture will allow you to use a greyscale image as

the brighness map for an object no matter what color the object is.


Apply it as follows:


Brightness(Reflectivity) map (the white/black gradient map in this case)

BriteHlp

Solid white reflection map



This is for the Amiga FP version.


begin 644 BriteHlp.lha

M(G8M;&@U+94!``"<`P``Q71P'0``#$)R:71E2&QP+FET>'CW`4=B>NZQIYG_0

MS:#3;H%48%0H;QKP/4*6WDIC7KKF]46BTI2P*%Y%YM[%#7=KV-`T"_`/3%

M-M"TA$8C,8;#6JL+S"18'[U[R6B,]EL9^)>NY9MR.$4+J*#T)/_F`[(-J!G"X

MYD+M<JD27,)4V:U0J=:(9K@>;_S-R'?)NRU3HTVJ>K3N+,]BE\//[(X2)2U(J

M[0G9"-W&CQ!&\WZTP?)E@_UW0:F@B#9&0J;!HFMQQ<-5]:Q\JWN-1>=N7<#3_

MEZ_;KN?C`^\XONWY)F)<TR['LEL,2Y\Z262%,F%1JO^,3Y\Z4;7=V[NTY>-6.

M=^[CWV(^DZ4Q4WT*-!M&IB*,>/2+XXB6.183YU(CE#D'T=PD-\;/1@9B#7[V)

M^6+7MG]50JK\Q6#%U[=5\??45+Z0MZ05`44#^8.Z"VFM]@'4!H@^\'V@Z:;/A

M#)H7.F'_(/[!WO,[Y?_WPP^*[)LA\O>C(:E>S7\'L-'.#(MCMOGI4I`T,MGYC

EP,T&4B]0*P*-(QP8P(YHE%!5!B)QONZSC@.IN`MY;Q]">NYP`/GI<

``

end

size 442


For you PC texture programers.  All this texture does is:


Reflect.Red   = Reflect.Red   * Color.Red

Reflect.Green = Reflect.Green * Color.Green

Reflect.Blue  = Reflect.Blue  * Color.Blue


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

|  Commodore failure. Press mouse button to continue  |

|  Guru Meditation  $35000000     Task : $00000CBM    |

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

          A4000/060/90mhz WOW! this is fast.

                140 Mips  50 Mflops.



Date:    Sunday, 19 February 1995 08:51:40
Subject: Re: Ambient light
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Bruce Marsh(ART) <[e-mail]>


Ambient light will allow you to make rich and subtle images if you give it

a predominant color, particularly if that color is opposite the color of

of the other lights in a scene...

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


Bruce,


what a wonderful idea! I'd always idly thought, "this is neat -- bluish

shadows and amber highlights" when looking at many advertising photos,

but somehow this never registered strongly enough to pop back into my

mind when I was working on Imagine. Thanks! Because of your message,

I'll never forget it.




Date:    Sunday, 19 February 1995 09:24:58
Subject: Re: PC Shareware?? other textures?
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: [e-mail]



Do you happen to know of any copies of "Understanding Imagine 2.0" are

still available?

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


You can reach Steve himself at [e-mail]. He'd be the best

person to ask.




Date:    Sunday, 19 February 1995 09:56:55
Subject: Brush wraps
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: [e-mail]



What I'm trying to do is map a brush (as a reflect map) onto an object which

will initially be in the shape of a sphere.  The object morphs into a flat

plane.  The problem is figuring out how to set the brush attributes so that

the brush will transform correctly through the morphing.

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


Hmmm. Somehow this doesn't sound right. Let's start from the end, shall

we? You want the end object to be a flat plane with a reflection map

that fits the object well. Can I assume that you simply want the

brushmap to fit the flat plane, i.e. what you really need is _color_

mapping? If using environment mapping, the final plane will reflect a

tiny part of the environment. In the real world, if you hold a pocket

mirror at arm's length, you'll see a tiny reflection of your eye. From

the point of view of the mirror, your eye is a tiny part of the entire

room. Translated into Imagine terms, in order to get decent resolution

on the final reflection, the entire brushmap would need to be extremely

large, probably larger than can fit in your computer's memory.


If what you want to accomplish is proper _color_ mapping of the final

plane, and you want the image to stretch naturally as the sphere morphs

into the plane, then you need the latest version of Imagine. It offers a

feature called States, essentially snapshots of an object in various,

well, states. One of the pluses of this function is that you can define

one of the states as the base reference for brush mapping. For example,

you'd add a plane, and apply the brushmap onto it. (In color mode, of

course) Create a state called "END" and lock the brushmap to that state.

Then Conform the object to a sphere (the back will look cruddy, so I

hope you're not rotating the object) and create a state called "START".

When you morph the object from "START" to "END" in the action editor,

the object will start off as a sphere, with the brushmap all stretched

out. The brushmap will move along with the surface, as it reshapes

itself into a flat plane.



Date:    Sunday, 19 February 1995 21:41:14
Subject: Filter Bug?
From:    Jim Shinosky <[e-mail]>


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



I'm having a problem with Imagine 3.1 where I want an object to be fully

transparent.  However, I keep getting black outlines around the object

almost as if it's just changing it to a wireframe.  I thought I read a post

earlier from someone about this but I don't remember what was said.  Does

anyone know anything about this?


Thanks,

Jim Shinosky

[e-mail]



Date:    Sunday, 19 February 1995 22:03:55
Subject: Re: Being on Imagine Mail List
From:    Graham Dimmock <[e-mail]


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



 da> This message is a generic one sent out to all requesters

 da> of the Imagine Mailing List (IML).


        Please please please.


        I've been using Imagine 2.0 since the Amiga Format coverdisk

        and now the PC version allows considerable quicker rendering.


Cheers, Graham :-)


Internet : [e-mail]



|

| Internet: [e-mail]

|-------------------------------------------------------------------|

| Gated from RAYTECH BBS - free access raytracing support in the UK |

|------------------------- call [phone] modem - 24 hours ! |



Date:    Monday, 20 February 1995 05:58:26
Subject: ISL QUESTIONS.
From:    "Steve J. Lombardi" <[e-mail]>


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


I  guess this message is primarily intended for the author

of the Imagine staging language. I would like to by the package

but don't want to download the crippled version. Please send

me your mail (snail) address so I can send a check. Also, how much

is the registration? Will you be supporting future changes

in the staging file?


Thanks.

--

steve lombardi

[e-mail]




Date:    Monday, 20 February 1995 07:25:28
Subject: Filter Bug?
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Jim Shinosky <[e-mail]>


I'm having a problem with Imagine 3.1 where I want an object to be fully

transparent.  However, I keep getting black outlines around the object

almost as if it's just changing it to a wireframe.

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


Unexpected black areas often result from Imagine throwing its hands up in

the air and giving up, after computing too many transparency or

reflection levels, as defined by the EDLE Preferences parameter. This

often happens at the edges of refractive glass spheres, where part of the

light ray emitted from the virtual camera bounces around several inner

surfaces. Increase your EDLE value, and I bet the black areas will

shrink, if not disappear altogether -- but you'll pay the price in

higher rendering times.




Date:    Monday, 20 February 1995 10:39:23
Subject: Re: Filter Bug?
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


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




On Sun, 19 Feb 1995, Jim Shinosky wrote:


> I'm having a problem with Imagine 3.1 where I want an object to be fully

> transparent.  However, I keep getting black outlines around the object

> almost as if it's just changing it to a wireframe.  I thought I read a post

> earlier from someone about this but I don't remember what was said.  Does

> anyone know anything about this?

>

Did you render the image in scanline or in trace? I once got rid of

the black areas in scanline by rendering in trace. If your object is

complex the black  areas probably appear where there are several faces

overlapping. I have had troubles with this especially with transparent

textures.




Date:    Monday, 20 February 1995 17:53:40
Subject: Multiple boned objects in group of objects?
From:    Steve NACAD::Sherman LKG2-A/R5 pole AA2 DTN 226-6992  20-Feb-19


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



This weekend I finally spent some serious time doing bones and states

animation.  I feel like I'm now getting the hang of it, but ran into a

situation that I suspect might be a bug.


Basically, I've got two groups of boned objects in a larger group.  I tested

the boned objects out individually before grouping them into the larger group.

I can do states as I would expect with the larger group, but the skins on the

bones no longer update automatically.  If I select their individual groups and

do bones updates, they update fine.  But, they don't automatically update

correctly when I go to different states from the top level.  This means that

during states animations I basically get no bones updates.  (Again, this worked

fine before I grouped the boned objects into the larger group.)


The boned objects *do* go back to DEFAULT with no problem.  "Merge" and "join"

from the top level doesn't appear to help much.  I wind up redoing all the

states at the top level, but I note that the states at the lower levels of

grouping appear unaffected by "merge" and "join."


I'm wondering if I'm supposed to basically clear out states on the boned

objects before grouping them into the larger set of objects.  Or, perhaps you

can only have one boned object in a group.  Or, maybe all boned objects in a

group are supposed to have a single skin.  I haven't tried all of these, but

that's probably my next step.


Any ideas?  Thanks!


Steve



Date:    Monday, 20 February 1995 22:11:04
Subject: Re: Multiple boned objects in group of objects?
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


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




On Mon, 20 Feb 1995, Steve NACAD::Sherman LKG2-A/R5 pole AA2 DTN 226-6992 20-Feb
-1995 0910 -0500 wrote:


> Basically, I've got two groups of boned objects in a larger group.  I tested

> the boned objects out individually before grouping them into the larger group.


> I can do states as I would expect with the larger group, but the skins on the


> bones no longer update automatically.  If I select their individual groups and


> do bones updates, they update fine.  But, they don't automatically update

> correctly when I go to different states from the top level.  This means that

> during states animations I basically get no bones updates.  (Again, this worke
d

> fine before I grouped the boned objects into the larger group.)


Wellcome to the fantastic world of states! The problem you encountered

has bothered me too. I really came to the conclusion that bones groups

are supposed to be formed of a single object with elastically turning

joints and (if required) other normal solid objects.


I am making a music video where I have this beautyful female figure,

which has a long hair "flying" in the wind. Since the hair is a fog

object, I couldn't join it with the body (it is not possible to have a

fog subgroup in an object that is not fog). But the figure also has a

kind of skirt that also flyes in the wind. This I could join into the

parent object (the body). I first made the elements of the skirt

separately as bones objects with several joints. Then I grouped these

separate objects into the body and joined the points too.

I had to rename a lot of subgroups and do stuff like that but it wasn't

too hard. I worked in similar manner with the hair: First I made just the

basic objects that goes around the figure's head and doesn't have to

change shape. Then I made one "tail" with the bones and copied this

several times. Then I grouped and joined all these tails (actually only

six of them) with the parent object (not with the body).

So, I have to groups - the body with the skirt and the hair. First I make

tha different positions for the body. When it is tested and works fine, I

load both the body and the hair into detail editor. The parent axis of

both the objects has to be in exactly the same place. Then I set the body

object to each state and move the hair into the correct positions on the

head. I name the states of the hair with same names as those of the body.

Now I have two states objects which have the same states and match together.


In stage editor I first load only the body object. When all it's

positions and movement is as I want it, I load the hair. In action editor

I delete the default position, alignment and size bars of the hair. Then

I copy these bars from the body object. Because both objects have their

parent axis in the same place, they now overlap as they should. If the

body object follows a path, the position bar can be also copied to the

hair objects as it is.


The benefit of this is that when I have the "blowing in the

wind"-sequence for the hair I can use it over and over again for

different movements in the body with only slight modifications.


Sounds complicated? It is. But it can be done and the results are often

worth the effort!


Marty K

*******




Date:    Tuesday, 21 February 1995 07:22:23
Subject: Re: Imagine WWW site
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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



> > Hmmmmm? I don't know if your refering to Doug Rudd as someone who had any

> > part of making IMTguide possible. Or thanking him for helping you with

> > something on the list. But I assure you he had nothing to do with creating

> > IMTguide_1a. Me and a Friend D.F. Duck, (My name being Randy R. Wall)

> > created the rexx program and pictures, Icons, etc,etc..


> > =RRW=



> That puzzeled me too. My only part in any of this, other than starting a rucku
s

> by suggesting AG format, was to send out some copies of the sample.guide to

> some folks who are working on PC readers for the AG. I had no part in the

> development of the IMTguide. I DO use it and enjoy it though.


hehehe! O'well I guess its an honest mistake. I justwas a bit confused as

well so I thought I should at least make some kind of comment.

I'm glad you enjoy IMTguide and I do hope to update the pictures as well

as am hoping to add some tutorials to the guide as well. Hmmm, there

maybe a way we can even get DareToImagine to work with it from the

HD..Have to talk to Duck about that though. Just an idea...


If I were to update these pictures what format would most users of

IMTguide like??


Anyways I hope the IBM guys can figure a way to make an IMTguide too.

I personally love the darn thing for its easy of use. But then I would

of course have a biased opinion.


=RRW=





Date:    Tuesday, 21 February 1995 07:44:16
Subject: Re: Imagine WWW site
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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



> > Hmmmmm? I don't know if your refering to Doug Rudd as someone who had any

> > part of making IMTguide possible. Or thanking him for helping you with

> > something on the list. But I assure you he had nothing to do with creating

> > IMTguide_1a. Me and a Friend D.F. Duck, (My name being Randy R. Wall)

> > created the rexx program and pictures, Icons, etc,etc..

> >

>

> DOH! Sorry. Tlip of the Slongue there. I confused the two. Just kidding!

> Many thanks to Randy R. Wall and D.F. Duck!


No problem, I do thank you for mentioning IMTguide and the fact that you

like and use it. Also Thanks for mentioning me this time, I'd hate to

loose any of the Fame and Fortune do me. Hehehehehe :)



Anyways thanks for the clarification.



=RRW=



Date:    Tuesday, 21 February 1995 13:42:25
Subject: Registering an already reg copy of Imagine.
From:    Jon Bagge <[e-mail]>


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



I have a copy of Imagine 3.0 that I bought used.  I am now selling it,

because I'm buying a PC, and need a PC version.


But the guy who is buying it is afraid he can't register since the

registration card isn't there anymore.

There is also a chance that it has been registered by the previous owner.


Is this a problem?


Can he just call Impulse and get the copy registered on _his_ name

instead?  And buy the upgrade? (which is what he wants of course)


Also, can someone tell me the phone # to Impulse?  So I can call them and

ask if noone knows the answer?


Thanks,


:-Jon




Date:    Tuesday, 21 February 1995 15:29:54
Subject: Re: Imagine V.3.1
From:    [e-mail]


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


>

>

>On Sun, 19 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

>

>> I'm currently using 3D studio on PC, and I must say that I'm not very fond

>> of it... My first raytracing progran was th 3D sculpt for AMIGA, and then I

>> got Sculpt 4D, and I loved it... When I then got to use the first Real 3D

>> version (1.4) I learned it without any difficult whatsoever...

>

>I too was very fond of 1.4 and had no difficulties with it.

>

>> The newest version of Real 3D on the AMIGA is the *best* piece of software

>> that I have ever used on any computer and of any category. It is so

>> complete, so clever, and so freely configurable.

>

>This is something I haven't heard from anybody else, but it shows that we

>are different. I agree that considering all the things that Real 3D 2

>promises, it should be a hell of a package. But to me it was impossible

>to get many of the more sophisticated features (skeleton control,

>collision, gravity etc.) to work even when I did exactly how the manual

>adviced. I have heard the same from others. And if it worked with an

>example, it didn't work any more after making some modifications. It may

>be that I'm too stupid to see what I'm doing wrong with Real, but when

>I'm using Imagine I don't feel stupid at all.

>

>> I don't think that it was hard to learn. I used to sit in front of the

>> computer (A1200 with 50Mhz CPU and 50Mhz FPU) with the manual in my hands

>> and just read and try out new features for months and months. Of course it

>> takes more time to master it, but thats simply because there is more to

learn!

>

>There are far more things to learn than there should be. When you define

>mass, velocity, gravity force etc. you have to do this by typing these

>tags and formulas that almost require hihg education in physics. Instead


Does these features exist in Imagine also? (Not a rethorical question; I

really want to know...)


>they could be controlled via an easy point and click-interface like most

>modern software do. Also such attributes as mass should be defined int

>the same window as color, reflectivity and so on. There are simply too

>many menus and windows (no matter how many features the program has).


Yeah, maybe you're right, the interface was a bit crude sometimes, but what

I apreciated so much about it was the fact that there was nothing that you

couldn't do! In 3D studio there are forms that are simply impossible to

create, because the programmers didn't forsee that you might want to creat

them. In REAL 3D, the programmers didn't forsee anything, they just gave you

*all* the tools that exist, sometimes with a very rustic interface, but at

least they exist...


>

>> I haven't used neither Immagine nor Lightwave (though I would be delighted

>> to do so..) so maybe I don't know really what I'm talking about, I only know

>> that I miss my AMIGA, and a great piece of software.

>

>What happened to your Amiga? I still have two of them.


I had to sell it 'cause I wanted to go to Italy and study history, and I

needed the money for the voyage...

I got lucky, though, and met people here that had a PC-pentium with lots of

RAM and lots of hot graphics, so I try to continue working a bit with 3D

studio, but a really miss a more powerful program.




Date:    Tuesday, 21 February 1995 17:43:46
Subject: Boned object problem solved
From:    Steve NACAD::Sherman LKG2-A/R5 pole AA2 DTN 226-6992  21-Feb-19


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


I found there were basically two tricks to making my group of objects work

with two boned objects that I added.  The first trick is to join all boned

objects.  Their skins don't have to touch.  Just join all boned objects

together so that they are one object.  The second challenge was getting

them to operate independently.  But, this was solved easily by creating

a new bone for each boned object.  The function of this bone was to allow

me to move each whole boned object.  The trick was, when assigning bone

subgroups, to assign the whole boned object (that is, boned object before

it was joined into one big boned object) to both small and big bone

subgroups for the bone (axis).  Now, things work great.


Steve



Date:    Tuesday, 21 February 1995 19:56:49
Subject: Re: Registering an already reg copy of Imagine.
From:    Waland J F <[e-mail]>


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



>But the guy who is buying it is afraid he can't register since the

>registration card isn't there anymore.

>There is also a chance that it has been registered by the previous owner.

>

>Is this a problem?

>

>Can he just call Impulse and get the copy registered on _his_ name

>.instead?  And buy the upgrade? (which is what he wants of course)



I don't know - I'm still waiting to change the registered address for my

(original) copy of 3.0 (amiga).  I wrote direct from here in the UK

and I've had no response at this time.



jon



Date:    Tuesday, 21 February 1995 21:54:42
Subject: Bones
From:    [e-mail]


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


Can anyone send me a text file or something to help me understand the bones

concept?  I am having quite a time grasping it...  Any help would be

appreciated.   Thanks!


IvoryMask  {:-|}



Date:    Tuesday, 21 February 1995 22:02:51
Subject: Dxf
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


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


Hey y'all,


      I seem to recall a reference a while back, to loading dxf objects

and having them show up as nothing but an axis.  I've just been doing the

old round of trying to convert objects from other applications into

objects that I can load into imagn, and a desk object that wouldn't load

after being converted to desk.iob loaded just fine when I converted it to

a dxf object.


      Only it showed up as just an axis.  And if the trick I tried next is

old hat to you all, please excuse the redundancy.  But I just started

scaling the axis up, bigger and bigger, till suddenly there was my desk

object.






Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 00:31:23
Subject: Re: boned object problem solved
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


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




On Tue, 21 Feb 1995, Steve NACAD::Sherman LKG2-A/R5 pole AA2 DTN 226-6992 21-Feb
-1995 0856 -0500 wrote:


> I found there were basically two tricks to making my group of objects work

> with two boned objects that I added.  The first trick is to join all boned

> objects.  Their skins don't have to touch.  Just join all boned objects

> together so that they are one object.  The second challenge was getting

> them to operate independently.  But, this was solved easily by creating

> a new bone for each boned object.  The function of this bone was to allow

> me to move each whole boned object.  The trick was, when assigning bone

> subgroups, to assign the whole boned object (that is, boned object before

> it was joined into one big boned object) to both small and big bone

> subgroups for the bone (axis).  Now, things work great.

>

> Steve

>

There's one limitation in this anyhow. Since all the groups are parts of

the same object they also have the same attributes. You can change

(luckily) reflectivity, filter and colour. Also you can restrict textures

to subgroups and even lock them to a certain position (this works

incredibly well!) but you cannot change specularity, roughness etc. I

wonder why this is, by the way. Also you might want one or more objects

to be made of fog (like the hair in my example).


Martin





Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 00:44:46
Subject: Re: Imagine V.3.1
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


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




On Tue, 21 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:


> >On Sun, 19 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:

> >This is something I haven't heard from anybody else, but it shows that we

> >are different. I agree that considering all the things that Real 3D 2

> >promises, it should be a hell of a package. But to me it was impossible

> >to get many of the more sophisticated features (skeleton control,

> >collision, gravity etc.) to work even when I did exactly how the manual

> >adviced. I have heard the same from others. And if it worked with an

> >example, it didn't work any more after making some modifications. It may

> >be that I'm too stupid to see what I'm doing wrong with Real, but when

> >I'm using Imagine I don't feel stupid at all.

> >

> >There are far more things to learn than there should be. When you define

> >mass, velocity, gravity force etc. you have to do this by typing these

> >tags and formulas that almost require hihg education in physics. Instead

>

> Does these features exist in Imagine also? (Not a rethorical question; I

> really want to know...)


Actually not. At least not in Imagine 3.0. That is why I was so eager

about Real. Actually there is a paricle system which allows the inclusion

of gravity and wind but it is rather basic. I'm sure though that it will

be improved in the future versions (3.2 is coming soon).

>

> Yeah, maybe you're right, the interface was a bit crude sometimes, but what

> I apreciated so much about it was the fact that there was nothing that you

> couldn't do! In 3D studio there are forms that are simply impossible to

> create, because the programmers didn't forsee that you might want to creat

> them.


I guess I said too much about 3D studio (well, I only said it was good).

I have only tried it out and I liked the interface and the way all the

features are accesible through the same screen.


 In REAL 3D, the programmers didn't forsee anything, they just gave you

> *all* the tools that exist, sometimes with a very rustic interface, but at

> least they exist...


For me that's not enough. If some tools are so hard to use that it takes

a year to learn how to use them I'd rather wait for someone else to bring

these tools with better user-friendliness (within a year someone probably

will!).


Martin




Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 01:04:57
Subject: Re: boned object problem solved
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


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


Another bone object solved here!


Has anyone had the problem with 3.0, that when you scale an object in the

stage editor, all the textures get mixed up?

I tried hundr... well tens of methods to fix this without having to scale

each state position and texture size and position separately. When I

finally came up with the solution it came like out of the blue!

Let's say that you have to scale a states object to half of it's original

size in the stage editor (the most common reason for having to scale down

objects - I think - is to do a trace render). Well, you just load your

object and scale it (preferably in action editor so that you know exactly

how much you scale).

Then load that object into the detail editor, pick the parent object (the

object with points) - not the group! Scale it to the opposite direction

(in this example twice bigger). No select pick points mode. Select all

the points and scale them back to original size. For accurate scaling use

transformations (RAmiga+T). Then reposition the points so that they match

the bones. Then select pick groups and save the object (you don't have to

update the default state if you don't set the state to another one).


This trick scales the axis' of all the textures so that they work

allright in the scaled object in stage editor. For textures whose size is

determined in the textures window, you still have to scale the size

values (unfortunately). It is wiser to save this modified object with

another name.


Martin




Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 01:29:24
Subject: XSpecs stuff held up due to security issues
From:    Charles Hymes <[e-mail]>


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


Because of the security hole in HTTPD, and unrelated hacker attacks,

the XSpecs stuff is not currently available. When the problems are

solved, you will be able to download the stuff from:


ftp://crew.umich.edu/pub/users/chymes/amiga/x-specs


You my try at random intervals to see hen it works.


Charlweed



Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 02:15:52
Subject: RE: Bones
From:    Steve NACAD::Sherman LKG2-A/R5 pole AA2 DTN 226-6992  21-Feb-19


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


Oh, yeah.  I did leave stuff out, mostly about how you need to set up

bones states.  This is described fairly well in the manual.  Coupled

with the previous description, I think you should be able to figure

things out.  It is important that you set up the DEFAULT state for

boned objects as described in the manual.


Steve



Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 02:15:54
Subject: Moving the camera in the Stage Editor
From:    wolfram schwenzer <[e-mail]>


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


Hi, Imagineers,


Sorry to disturb once more, but by now I've learned one's gotta to insist to

solve problems with IMAGINE ...

Like I wrote before my mouse blocks DOS 5.0 completely after making some moves

in the Stage Editor. The strange thing is that everything else (like moving the

perspektive, Zooing in and out etc.) works smoothly.

I have changed my CONFIG.SYS a dozen times, moving .SYS files from HIGH to LOW

memory and back (seems to influence the time the mouse needs to get into

blocking, though ...). Alas, I need ASPI4DOS.SYS and ASPIDISK.SYS to couple

my SYQYEST removable media (where IMAGINE resides) and the HD to DOS.

Could it be that these drivers eat too much room or influence IMAGINE

otherwise ? EVERYTHING ELSE (including WINDOWS 3.1, communication programs etc.)


runs just fine and without any hassles (I have thrown them all out in the

configuration under which I run IMAGINE).


Does anybody out there run IMAGINE from a SCSI drive ?


Did anybody experience trouble with moving the camera ?


              W.S.


--

wolfram schwenzer

Internet : [e-mail]




Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 02:22:31
Subject: Re: dxf
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


>

> Hey y'all,

>

>     I seem to recall a reference a while back, to loading dxf objects

> and having them show up as nothing but an axis.  I've just been doing the

> old round of trying to convert objects from other applications into

> objects that I can load into imagn, and a desk object that wouldn't load

> after being converted to desk.iob loaded just fine when I converted it to

> a dxf object.

>

>     Only it showed up as just an axis.  And if the trick I tried next is

> old hat to you all, please excuse the redundancy.  But I just started

> scaling the axis up, bigger and bigger, till suddenly there was my desk

> object.

>

>

>

Or magnifying to the max. Also try the find command and look how many points,

etc are associated with the object. Should give you an idea as to how much of

an object you have. The old "axis problem" was 3.0 thing and went away with 3.1

from what I can tell.



Doug Rudd

[e-mail]

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

The Amiga Guide to the Galaxy refers to Commodore's management as

"A bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first to be lined up

against the wall and shot when the revolution comes."

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

They will get my Amiga from me when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

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




Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 03:15:46
Subject: RE: Bones
From:    Steve NACAD::Sherman LKG2-A/R5 pole AA2 DTN 226-6992  21-Feb-19


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


I'm not aware of anything, but I'll take a shot at getting started.  I

assume that you have 3.1 and can use the "smart bones" features.


First, create your body.  This can be done, as an example, by adding a

bunch of disks, ripping out their centers and doing a skin on them.

Then, add an axis.  Select the axis and adjust its name to something

that makes sense in its attributes.  Next, select all the faces that

you want to be at the tip of the bone.  This will be the small bone

subgroup and you need to be in pick faces mode.  Once these faces

are selected, go into the make pulldown (under functions, as I recall)

and do a make big bones subgroup.  NOTE:  This is a known bug in 3.1.

That is, the make big bones subgroup and the make small bones subgroup

functions are swapped in the menu.  So, use what is marked as make big

bones subgroup to set up the small bones subgroup.  The prompt should

now tell you to pick the bone.  Pick the axis that you want to be the

bone.  Next, select a larger group of faces that includes both the

tip of the bone as well as all the faces that you want to bend when

the tip of the bone moves around.  Pick the make small bones subgroup.

Pick the axis.  You now have a bone.  The skin will respond when you

do anything to the axis.  You won't see the effect immediately.  First,

diddle with the axis, such as a rotate about its local axis (in pick

objects mode).  Then, pick the skin object.  Go to the states menu

and do an update bones.  The skin should then update on the screen.


Play with the animate states button.  This was pretty easy for me to

follow using the manual, so I won't go into that.  I use the animate

states a lot in both the detail editor and the stage editor to see

what's going on.  The difference is that in the detail editor you

need to specify how long each state will last going into the next

state.  In the stage editor, the states animation operates according

to how you've set things up in the action editor.


Steve



Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 04:07:47
Subject: Good water
From:    Ryan Johnson <[e-mail]>


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


Hi all,


I am trying to achieve a decent water texture applied to a ground

object.


The problem is that the waves texture produces vertical waves that

go on forever.


I want a nice random rippled lake effect. Can this be achieved

with the standard 3.1 textures? if so how?


Thanks in advance


Ryan.



Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 04:22:15
Subject: Re: Bones
From:    [e-mail]


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


     i could use a little help with my bones technique as well....



     thanks,



     [e-mail]



______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________


Subject: Bones

Author:  [e-mail] at PROFGTWY

Date:    2/21/95 1:57 PM



Can anyone send me a text file or something to help me understand the bones

concept?  I am having quite a time grasping it...  Any help would be

appreciated.   Thanks!



IvoryMask  {:-|}




Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 05:15:50
Subject: Sorry I'm boneheaded but...
From:    "Dr. Demento" <[e-mail]>


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


Ok, I know this quiestion was asked on the mailing list a while ago, and yes,

its answer is probably in the IML archives somewhere.  But I don't know which

one, and this would be easier. :)


How would I go about retargeting Imagine to my EGS Spectrum?  Any and all help

on this subject would be strongly appreciated.


--

Check out my URL - http://www2.ecst.csuchico.edu/~gchance/ for videogame info.

Atari 2600, 2600 Jr., Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Intellivision, Intellivision II,

Vectrex, RCA System II, Channel F, Arcadia, Aquarius, Odyssey, and Odyssey^2!

174 2600 carts and counting...only 835 left! :)



Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 06:24:40
Subject: RE: Bones
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


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




On Tue, 21 Feb 1995, Steve NACAD::Sherman LKG2-A/R5 pole AA2 DTN 226-6992 21-Feb
-1995 1721 -0500 wrote:


> Play with the animate states button.  This was pretty easy for me to

> follow using the manual, so I won't go into that.  I use the animate

> states a lot in both the detail editor and the stage editor to see

> what's going on.  The difference is that in the detail editor you

> need to specify how long each state will last going into the next

> state.  In the stage editor, the states animation operates according

> to how you've set things up in the action editor.

>

There is also the difference (at least in 3.0) that in detail editor you

don't have spline interpolation. If the movement of the bones object

seems jerky when animated in detail editor, it might seem fairly smooth

in stage editor if spline interpolation is selected in action editor. You

have also the possibilyty to control acceleration and deceleration from

state to state in action editor.


Martin




Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 07:02:00
Subject: Quicktime, MPEG, .AVI creators?
From:    Jim Shinosky <[e-mail]>


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




I have some nice animations that I did with Imagine , but I'm not

completely happy with the .FLI or .FLC animation formats for the PC. So

I'm looking for a Windows program(preferably shareware) that

will take a series of images and convert then to one of the following:


1. A Quicktime movie.

2. An MPEG.

3. An .AVI file for Windows Media Player.


If it's a commercial program I'd like to keep it under $200. Thanks.


Jim Shinosky

[e-mail]





Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 11:23:55
Subject: Re: sorry I'm boneheaded but...
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


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


HI,


>Ok, I know this quiestion was asked on the mailing list a while ago, and yes,

>its answer is probably in the IML archives somewhere.  But I don't know which

>one, and this would be easier. :)

Yes it is in there together with lots of other very useful stuff :)


>How would I go about retargeting Imagine to my EGS Spectrum?  Any and all

>help on this subject would be strongly appreciated.

You can promote Imagine to a higher resolution but you'll get problems with

refreshing the display. Clicking with the mouse to select an object gives

garbage on your screen which you can remove with a refresh screen. Some

people say it can't display the menu's after a while. Hacking the binary to

try to open a bigger screen seems to solve the menu problem for me. The

garbage on the screen is a problem caused by Imagine. Hard coded screen width

and height. Terrible programming :(

Just in case your wondering what my setup is:

A3000 2C + 12F Kickstart 40.68 WB 40.42 and a 4MB Merlin2


Greetings Joop



Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 14:42:38
Subject: Re: Bones
From:    Rodney McNeel <[e-mail]>


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




On Tue, 21 Feb 1995 [e-mail] wrote:


> Can anyone send me a text file or something to help me understand the bones

> concept?  I am having quite a time grasping it...  Any help would be

> appreciated.   Thanks!

>

> IvoryMask  {:-|}

>

From [e-mail] Tue Sep 27 23:10:32 1994

Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 11:47:16 -0500 (CDT) From: Wayne Haufler

<[e-mail]> To: [e-mail] Subject:

Repost of Bones Tutorial (LONG)



 Since many of us are interested in this Bones Tutorial, and have been

asking for it, and since I found it in the archive, (thanks to the

previous poster who gave a reference to it), I am posting it now for you.

Here it is.



To keep it short, I took the liberty of correcting the original Bones

Tutorial based on the followup messages.  These corrections are noted in

[] brackets. I hope I did this right.  I have not yet played much with

bones, myself.



Thanks to Lesk, Rosario Salfi, and Drew Vogel for their parts in this.



Sorry if this long message causes any problems.



             __ \\ /\\ /\\ //_    Wayne A. Haufler   [Christian/SW

Engineer/XWindows/Amigan]  \/--\// \//__

[e-mail]       //           Unisys Space Systems -

Shuttle Operations Contract                   Hobby:  "Computer

Animations For Christian Endeavors"                   GodlyGraphics

mailing list: [e-mail]



----------:x Cut Here ---------------------------------------------------



From [e-mail] Tue Sep 27 23:11:15 1994 Date: Fri, 13 May 1994

16:19:34 -0700 From: Lesk <[e-mail]> To:

[e-mail] Subject: My bones trouble



 I had some trouble with bones and it looks like several others had a

little as well so here is my version of quick bones. I claim no writing

skills or technique. This is just something some were asking about and I

hope it helps



>Mime-Version: 1.0 >Date: Fri, 13 May 1994 08:49:29 -0700 >To:

[e-mail] (Rosario Salfi) >From: [e-mail] (Lesk)

>Subject: Re: 3.0 Textures >Cc: lesk > >>Well, why don't you just outline

step by step the process by which you >>created your own bones object

(let's say a finger), set up the bones, >>and then manipulated it.  If

you can, please take care to mention every >>little detail, since

sometimes I have difficulty understanding what >>Impulse is trying to

describe, and I too have to have two or three >>thinks about it.  Many

thanks! >> >>Paul > >If this works and it makes sense maybe I will send

it to the IML as well. > >ok I am going to be as consistant as I can and

for menu items I will put it >in the form of menu->selection->selection1

and for requesters that ask for >input I will just say what needs to go

in. > >Detail editor: >add->primitive->tube >                Radius = 30

>                Height = 300 >                circ sec = 12

>                vitr sec = 3 >        close both bottom and top. > >I

like to work in the front view of the four. > > >        ...... >

||||||  top section             note that when I refer to a >

......                          section that means the points >

||||||  mid section             above and below are selected >

...... >        ||||||  base section >        ...... >

>                                        for example the top section is >

>                                                 ......

>                                                 ||||||

>                                                 ......  <- these points

used >                                                           twice

once for top >

and once for mid > > > > >f1 select tube >mode->pickfaces

>mode->method->drag box >shift select top section (points above and

below) >        function->make->makesubgroup >        enter tip1 >

deselect faces >shift select mid section (all points above and below mid

faces) >        function->make->makesubgroup >        enter mid1 >

deselect faces >shift select base section >

function->make->makesubgroup >        enter base1 >        deselect faces

>shift select top and mid section >        function->make->makesubgroup

>        enter midall >        deslect faces >shift select top, mid, and

base >        function->make->makesubgroup >        enter baseall

>        deselect faces > >If you think about this for a minute it will

all make sense especially >concerning how this thing is going to bend.

>OK next phase. > >mode->pick groups >        (and go back to pick method

points) >object->add->axis >        select tha axis >        select move

>        move axis to center of tip1 (top section) >        deslect axis

>object->add->axis >        select axis >        select move >

move axis to center of mid1 (mid section) >        deselect axis

>object->add->axis >        select axis >        select move >

move axis to center of base1 (mid section) >        deselect axis > >Now

comes the tricky part the order here is very important and you may have

to >try this a few times until it works just right. > >use the find

requester and choose the axis in the base section. doing it this >way

should make make the order correct. > > [ The object at this point is to

set the proper order ] > >mode->pickobjects > [ Corrected Order:  ]

>select               axis for object  >        shift select  axis in

base1 >        states->group >        deselect



>select               axis in base1 >        shift select     axis in

mid1 >        states->group >        deselect



>select               axis in mid1 >        shift select      axis in

tip1 >        states->group >        deselect > [     What you have

done here is simply grouped your axis. You now want to make certain that

these axis are in the proper order so that when you bend say your finger,

they move just like your finger would top to bottom. If they are out of

order it will still work but it would look like some double jointed

contortionist...  ] >go back to group mode and check this out, and make

very certain that the >order is right. click on the tip axis and it

should be the only one blue. >deslect it and click on the axis in the mid

section BOTH it and tip axis >should be highlighted. deslect them and

click on the axis in base1 and all >three axis should turn blue. now the

hard part! go back to pick object mode >and then click on the object

axis. it should be blue with a yellow line >connecting it to the base1

axis. >        If none of the above is correct all progress is at a halt!

go back >remove all the groups and try it again this order is IMPORTANT!



[       So either clear it all out and start the project over or go back

to group mode select an axis and ungroup, repeating until everthing is

ungrouped. Make sure there are no groupings at all! Then go back to

object mode pick and sadly start again. You will get this, it just takes

a little practice. Also this is not a replacement for the manual read

through it so you have the concepts, believe me it will really help. ] >

>now having that done correctly we can move on make sure nothing is

selected >and go back to pick group mode. > >select axis in tip1 >

States->bones->subgroups >                bigsub: browse->tip1

>                smallsub: browse->tip1 >        OK >select axis in mid1

>        States->bones->subgroups >                bigsub: browse->midall

>                smallsub: browse->mid1 >        OK >select axis in base1

>        States->bones->subgroups >                bigsub:

browse->baseall >                smallsub: browse->base1 >        OK >

>SAVE THAT SUCKER NOW! >        If you think about this it really makes

sense what has happened at >this point. > > >States->states >

create >        default >        select buttons shape and grouping, the

book says this will be the >        only place you need to have this.

>        OK >States->states >        create >        start >        OK

>deselect all >select axis tip1 and rotate in the x 30 degrees. >space

bar >select entire object >states->bones->update >states->states >

create >        bendtip1 >        OK >select axis in tip1 and rotate

another 30 degrees in x. >deslect all >select axis in mid1 and rotate it

in x 30 degrees. >select entire object >states->bones->update

>states->states->create >        midbend >        OK >deslect all >select

axis in tip and rotate 30 degrees in x. >select axis in mid and rotate 30

degrees in x. >select axis in base and rotate 30 degrees in x. >select

entire object >states->bones->update >states->states->create >

basebend >        OK > >SAVE THIS AGAIN! to much work to loose.... >

>States->stateanim->make >OK >start >15 >bendtip >15 >midbend >15

>basebend >15 >start >0 >full objects >states->stateanim->play > >I sure

hope this works for you! and if you find any errors or things that >just

don't work feel free to let me know. >

>                                        Render Ho!

>                                          Lesk >

============================================================================= Dr
ew Vogel, Admissions Officer at Univ. of Cincinnati, SysOp of The Cafe' BBS (513
-232-4895) 1:108/245, Actor, director, Amiga fan, Imagine 3.0 user, head of BowT
ie Productions, documentation author, single guy, and much, much more!



This is the First tutorial that enabled me to create a bones object.



                              good luck

                      [e-mail]




Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 14:47:47
Subject: Imagine wishlist
From:    [e-mail] (Milan Polle)


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


Hi all,


while working on my graduation project I wrote down some more things I

would like to see in Imagine, so here they are:


* Snap objects to grid, to clean things up a bit.

* Copy textures/brushes in attributes requester, If I made one window

  for an airoplane, and would like to make twenty, I could copy the

  already applied brushes and move them in place. You already can save

  the attributs, load them again and drop any unwanted duplicates,

  but you lose individual face attributes while doing so.

* Hide objects, in the detail editor, so I can see better what I'm doing.

* In stage, when editing a path, I would like to multiselect objects that

  have to stay in the view, like in detail.

* Replace previous bumpmap with genlocked one (make a gadget for it);

  completely remove existing bumpmap with the next one, except for the

  0 colour (when genlock button is on)

* Swap picked points, when the ones you don't want to select are easier

  to pick.

* Select connected, a la sculpt, select one vertex and have the rest be

  selected for you, if they are connected by edges

* 3 CURSORS/INTELLIGENT SELECTION !!!!!!!!!!

* Merge with max distance, to clean up objects, merge points that have

  a certain distance also.

* IMPROVE THE SLICE PLEEEEAAASSSEEEE!!!! I have to clean up by hand every

  time, don't slice edges with an angle of zero.

* When editing a path in stage with newmode, and changing the view,

  the axes go everywhere, but not where they should go (also in detail?)

* In stage: pick all and lasso/drag box, where are they?

* Smooth function, for paths (for my tunnel :) and better still, for objects

  (select points that may not move, select smooth, and have the others

   smooth out)

* Make a preview anim for one of the orthogonal view, so you see what is

  going on, or at least for newmode (b/w will be fine)

* DON'T LOAD ALL OBJECTS FOR EVERY FRAME (and I will say it again!)

* An X-Specs perspective mode (with newmode, perfect to see what you are

  doing)

* Cancel making a preview or animation, and still see the results!!!

* Cancel make anim now, and resume later, so the computer doesn't have

  to stay on for 8 hours rendering one hour, because you have to go.

* Preview rendering in ham mode, like sculpt and real, so you can spot

  mistakes early, use a standard palette.

* Copy/paste lines/points/faces copy, past, pasted are immediatly selected

  and move/scale/rotate them. Now I have to split and merge etc.

* Interactive extrude, have said it before.


Well I hope Mike will be listening and if any of you agree, say it on the

list, so it will get in,


thanks,


Milan




Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 16:55:38
Subject: Re: Quicktime, MPEG, .AVI creators?
From:    [e-mail] (Michael B. Comet)


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


>

>2. An MPEG.



      I have found a shareware program named DTA that will take a bunch

of TGA's and resave them in an uncompressed tga format for a program named

CMPEG that creates mpeg.  Works okay.



--

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

| Michael Comet, [e-mail] - CWRU, Software Engineer/Graphics Artist |

| Graphics & Anims -  http://www.cwru.edu/0/cwrunet/homes/comet/index.html |

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+



Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 17:36:18
Subject: Re: Quicktime, MPEG, .AVI creators?
From:    [e-mail] (Joe Cotellese)


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


>

>

>I have some nice animations that I did with Imagine , but I'm not

>completely happy with the .FLI or .FLC animation formats for the PC. So

>I'm looking for a Windows program(preferably shareware) that

>will take a series of images and convert then to one of the following:

>


>2. An MPEG.


Try FTP.NETCOM.COM.  I believe this is where the MPEG utilities are.  The

ones I have at home are CMPEG which takes .TGA images and compresses them

into MPEG-1 format.  You can also find there the MPEG CODEC software which

gives you the ability to create MPEG-2 files.  It also has more config

options, includes the MPEG FAQ and source.


If that site is wrong let me know and I will look it up at home.


Joe C.




Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 18:38:57
Subject: Frames/speed
From:    MCADOO <[e-mail]>


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


The problem I'm having is done on a 2000(basic) and a 2500 (accelator,Toaster,

20Megs of memory). Using Imagine3.1.  When using the 2500 make animation with

wire frame when played back 90frames animation goes so fast can't almost tell wh
what is going on. I have found after experimenting that 6 frames of fully

rendered animation in project editor equals 1 second of true time. In other

word a 60sec in real time worked out to be only 360 frames.  Also it seems

that it has made a loop because when playing the rendered animation in the

project editor it plays twice when clicked on the play once button.

The stock 2000 plays back the wireframe animation(haven't timed it) in a

normal visual check.

This info I hope will help you help me.  Have not put any of this to video

tape just did a time watch check but I figure that putting it on tape should

not change the speed.


Direct from my keyboard to your screen


[e-mail]




Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 19:22:13
Subject: Re: Imagine Wishlist
From:    [e-mail]


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


Milan wrote lots of things - I'd like to comment on a few...

(BTW, which version of Imagine do you have, Milan?)

>* Copy textures/brushes in attributes requester, If I made one window

>  for an airoplane, and would like to make twenty, I could copy the

>  already applied brushes and move them in place. You already can save

>  the attributs, load them again and drop any unwanted duplicates,

>  but you lose individual face attributes while doing so.

Presumably you'd like an "apply to picked objects" some attribute file.

I.e. pick a pile of objects, and select an object function from the

menu "Apply Attributes", which would pop up a file requestor.


> Hide objects, in the detail editor, so I can see better what I'm doing.

If you use quickdraw, or quick edges, you'll never need this.  However,

apply QuickDraw attribute or QuickEdges to picked objects would be neat.


> Swap picked points, when the ones you don't want to select are easier

  to pick.

Sounds fun.

> Select connected, a la sculpt, select one vertex and have the rest be

  selected for you, if they are connected by edges

Which edges?  All of them?  No, I don't think so.  Use the lasso pick

mode for this one, I think.

> 3 CURSORS/INTELLIGENT SELECTION !!!!!!!!!!

By this, I hope that you mean - select an x direction, y direction, then

z direction (either with drag box, lasso, or point pick mode) to

select an x,y,z volume that contains selected points.

< IMPROVE THE SLICE PLEEEEAAASSSEEEE!!!! I have to clean up by hand every

  time, don't slice edges with an angle of zero.

Yes.

> In stage: pick all and lasso/drag box, where are they?

Yes, I too wish for lasso/drag box in the stage.

> Smooth function, for paths (for my tunnel :) and better still, for objects

  (select points that may not move, select smooth, and have the others

   smooth out)

How do you smooth a path?  Provide a binomial/trinomial, etc. and

smooth along that?  This is do-able, I think, but pretty time consuming.

> DON'T LOAD ALL OBJECTS FOR EVERY FRAME (and I will say it again!)

Yes, I agree.  One thousand percent.

> Cancel making a preview or animation, and still see the results!!!

> Cancel make anim now, and resume later, so the computer doesn't have

> to stay on for 8 hours rendering one hour, because you have to go.

I'd rather have a batch rendering system, thank you.  I saw a $100

piece of software running on the MAC that was very similar to

Vistapro, and it had a "SUSPEND/RESUME" feature.  Fantastic.  You

suspend rendering, save you're environment (so what if it's a meg or

so of variables?  You _want_ to suspend!) exit, go do something else,

then either re-run the program or resume the render if you're still

in it.

> Preview rendering in ham mode, like sculpt and real, so you can spot

> mistakes early, use a standard palette.

I'm not sure what you mean.

>* Interactive extrude, have said it before.

That sounds like a fun toy!


\KenR


thanks,


Milan




Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 19:52:36
Subject: Re: Imagine WWW site
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


<Snip>

> If I were to update these pictures what format would most users of

> IMTguide like??

>

> Anyways I hope the IBM guys can figure a way to make an IMTguide too.

> I personally love the darn thing for its easy of use. But then I would

> of course have a biased opinion.

>

> =RRW=

>

>

Well, I'll be more cautious this time. I would suggest JPEG as there are

several JPEG viewers out there for both platforms. If the JPEG is done

with enough image quality, it would serve well. It is also more compact

and preserves 24 bit data. GIF is out for obvious reasons and IFF/PCX/TIFF,

etc are just too restricted to their respective platforms.


Many of us have access to graphics programs that can convert file types,

and most of these support JPEG, so if JPEG isn't your favorite, convert.

JPEG creates smaller files, so the files can be created in a larger format

and then scaled down to screen size to reduce artifacting, though that

shouldn't be a problem if image quality is held at 100-200%.


Any other suggestions?



Doug Rudd

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

:-) I think I'll write a letter to my congressman.


:-| A congressman has two ends: a sitting end and a thinking end;

and since his entire future depends on his seat, why bother friend....

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



Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 22:33:50
Subject: Re: Bones
From:    [e-mail] (Brad Molsen)


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



> Since many of us are interested in this Bones Tutorial, and have been

>asking for it, and since I found it in the archive, (thanks to the

>previous poster who gave a reference to it), I am posting it now for you.


I am the previous poster refered to above. I have to add Mark Decker's

clarification of Lesk's tute to make this complete.


From: "Decker, Mark" <[e-mail]>


Date:    Wednesday, 22 February 1995 23:22:36
Subject: Imagine 3.2
From:    [e-mail] (Curtis White)


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


Well everyone, I had my wife call Impulse today to find out when version 3.2

will be out.  They told her it is shipping today and that I should have it in

a couple of days.  I guess we will see (seems like I have heard this one

before).  I sure hope so.


See ya!


Curt

   ********************************************************

   *      Do not follow where the path may lead.          *

   * Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. *

   ********************************************************


[e-mail]

Curtis White





Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 01:07:46
Subject: Dare To... apply attributes ?
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



Greetings IML,


I'm glad many of you found the tidbit collection useful.

For my next Imagine project, I'm thinking of gathering

a plethera (sp) of object attributes.  If you think this

would be worthwhile or have something to contribute, please

let me know.


BTW, I do have the three attribute collections by Soren

Wind (?) and would like to get a hold of him and anyone

else that has a large number of object attributes.


Regards,

--

Shane Davison (tsml)

[e-mail]




Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 01:08:54
Subject: Re: Imagine wishlist
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


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




On Wed, 22 Feb 1995, Milan Polle wrote:


> while working on my graduation project I wrote down some more things I

> would like to see in Imagine, so here they are:

>

> * Copy textures/brushes in attributes requester, If I made one window

>   for an airoplane, and would like to make twenty, I could copy the

>   already applied brushes and move them in place. You already can save...


Can be done with apply function as has already been stated.


> * In stage, when editing a path, I would like to multiselect objects that

>   have to stay in the view, like in detail.


When you select edith path in the stage editor, other objects disappear

only when there is a need to update the views. Select a good view of the

path before editing it, so that you can see the objects you need to see.

Then make the basic adjustements in the path. After that you probably

don't need to see other objects any more so be free to zoom in and out.


> * Swap picked points, when the ones you don't want to select are easier

>   to pick.


OK


> * Select connected, a la sculpt, select one vertex and have the rest be

>   selected for you, if they are connected by edges


OK again. You should anyhow always make subgoups of the points you often

need to select (use hide points for this if necessary). Make a user

gadget for picking subgoups to make it faster.


> * 3 CURSORS/INTELLIGENT SELECTION !!!!!!!!!!


OK


> * Merge with max distance, to clean up objects, merge points that have

>   a certain distance also.


OK


> * IMPROVE THE SLICE PLEEEEAAASSSEEEE!!!! I have to clean up by hand every

>   time, don't slice edges with an angle of zero.


I don't have anything to complain about slice since i never need it.

There is always a tidy way (maybe a little slower I agree) of doing

things without slice.


> * In stage: pick all and lasso/drag box, where are they?


Good question. Where are they?


> * Smooth function, for paths (for my tunnel :) and better still, for objects

>   (select points that may not move, select smooth, and have the others

>    smooth out)


Very good!


> * Make a preview anim for one of the orthogonal view, so you see what is

>   going on, or at least for newmode (b/w will be fine)


Define an orthogonal view in the perspective window and adjust

perspective to minimum.


> * DON'T LOAD ALL OBJECTS FOR EVERY FRAME (and I will say it again!)


Use layers, man! Trie things out (or read the manual).


> * Cancel making a preview or animation, and still see the results!!!


Very reasonable!


> * Cancel make anim now, and resume later, so the computer doesn't have

>   to stay on for 8 hours rendering one hour, because you have to go.


OK


> * Preview rendering in ham mode, like sculpt and real, so you can spot

>   mistakes early, use a standard palette.


What? If you don't know how to make this, ask before saying it can't be

done. It is VERY easy.


> * Copy/paste lines/points/faces copy, past, pasted are immediatly selected

>   and move/scale/rotate them. Now I have to split and merge etc.


Maybe...


> * Interactive extrude, have said it before.


Not very important.

>

> Well I hope Mike will be listening and if any of you agree, say it on the

> list, so it will get in,

>

This is a good idea. Instead of posting wishes straihgt to Impulse, let's

see how many want them and by this way assure Impulse of the necessarity

of them! I will continue the wish list when I have the time...


Martin




Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 02:07:00
Subject: Thank You
From:    [e-mail]


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


I would like to thank everyone for the great support....this is the

friendliest ML I have been on...thanks again!


Faithful  IvoryMask {:-|}



Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 05:42:13
Subject: Imagine 3.2
From:    Curtis White <[e-mail]>


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


I just wanted to let everyone know that in my previous message about

Imagine 3.2 being sent today, I stated that it may or may not be

true.  This was not meant as a bash to Impulse.  I am a programmer by

trade and know that completion dates can slip (even at the last

minute if a bug is found).  So, when I hear that a new piece of

software is comming out, I am skeptical until I have it in my hands.

In fact, I am very pleased with Imagine and have had no troubles with

Impulse.  I see many messages about people having trouble with

Impulse, but I do not understand it.  I have always been treated

courteously any time I have called, and have always gotten responses.

I received a message from Mike Halvorson confirming that Imagine 3.2

is being sent today.  So all us lucky people on the upgrade program

will be getting a new surprise within the next couple of days.  I

just wanted to clarify my previous message and aplogize if it sounded

nasty.



Curt




=========================================================

=        Do not follow where the path may lead.         =

= Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.  =

=========================================================


Curtis White




Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 07:31:23
Subject: Re: good water
From:    [e-mail]


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


Ryan Johnsson wrote;

>I am trying to achieve a decent water texture applied to a ground

>object.

>The problem is that the waves texture produces vertical waves that

>go on forever.

>I want a nice random rippled lake effect. Can this be achieved

>with the standard 3.1 textures? if so how?


I have used the "crumpled"-texture with great results (at least for stills).

Just make sure the texture doesn't effect the object's colours.


Conny Joensson


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

|   Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |

|   Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |

|   Sweden           |   [e-mail]                     |

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



Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 07:36:44
Subject: Re: Imagine WWW site
From:    [e-mail]


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


>> If I were to update these pictures what format would most users of

>> IMTguide like??


>Well, I'll be more cautious this time. I would suggest JPEG as there are

>several JPEG viewers out there for both platforms.


I agree.

I dunno what's for PC, but the FastView utility for the Amigas work just

great.


Just my 2c.


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

|   Conny Joensson   |   Swedish Space Corp. Esrange            |

|   Kiruna           |   Satellite operations - Telecom Div.    |

|   Sweden           |   [e-mail]                     |

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



Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 09:06:54
Subject: Trouble applying brush maps
From:    [e-mail] (Manjit Bedi)


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





Hello people,


I have been trying to do some texture mapping and the

results are goofy.


I have made a shape like a wine bottle.  I am trying

to put a label on it.  I have scaled the label down

in size and positioned the axes of the map.  The axes

of the map is towards the front of the bottle.


      -----

     /     \

    /       \

    |       |

    |       |

    |       |

    \   1   /

     \---- /



1 is an approximation of the position of the axes of the map

in a top view of the bottle.



The map is rendering but the image is distorting.

The edges of the texture map are getting stretched

out.  I have applied the map with flat X and wrap Z

as the settings. The map is applied to lower part

of the bottle where it is basically a cylinder.


The map image is of some text; the distortion

is quite distinct.  The map is 24 bit image

made with Brilliance 2.


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.



Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 09:21:57
Subject: Imagine wishlist
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Milan Polle <[e-mail]>


* Hide objects, in the detail editor, so I can see better what I'm doing.

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


Until Impulse implements this, you can always use Cut to remove the

objects from the screen, and Paste to bring them back. Be careful of

using Cut/Copy while the hidden objects are in the buffer, and watch out

for the "free cut/copy buffer before quickrender" Preferences T/F flag!


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

* Swap picked points, when the ones you don't want to select are easier

  to pick.

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


In Hide Points mode, select the points you don't want selected. Then go

to Pick Points mode, and Select All.


Just a couple of tips.



Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 10:23:04
Subject: Re: Imagine WWW site
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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



> >> If I were to update these pictures what format would most users of

> >> IMTguide like??

>

> >Well, I'll be more cautious this time. I would suggest JPEG as there are

> >several JPEG viewers out there for both platforms.

>

> I agree.

> I dunno what's for PC, but the FastView utility for the Amigas work just

> great.


Well, thats 3 for JPEG, 0 for all others, if you have a prefrence make it

known while I'm taking count.. You can reply privately to me at:



"Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


or voice your opinion on the IML if you wish.



=RRW=




Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 10:38:16
Subject: Re: Imagine wishlist
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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


> >

> > Well I hope Mike will be listening and if any of you agree, say it on the

> > list, so it will get in,

> >

> This is a good idea. Instead of posting wishes straihgt to Impulse, let's

> see how many want them and by this way assure Impulse of the necessarity

> of them! I will continue the wish list when I have the time...


Well, I don't want to put my full wish list up but one thing I often use

in Wavefront is the Deformations in PointsGroup mode, and I would like to

see Imagine have such a powerful set of tools (to many to mention), but

basically I would be happy if Imagine would let me use Twist, Shear,

Taper, Pinch, Bend and Strech in POINT MODE in an interactive manner as

with objects. I find it funny that we can do this with Rotate, Move and

Scale, but not the rest of them.



I know I can use the Deformations under the Functions Menu, but an

interactive method as with objects would be much nicer. Oh and what about

that Shft gadget. I sure would like to see it work like the Shift key I

believe it is suppose to emulate. But no I still need to use the shft key.


Maybe I'm missing something as far as the Shft gadget goes,(Please

inlighten me if so), but it would be nice to press it and be able to go

around selecting multiple point, faces, edges, etc.. without ever worring

about pressing the shift key..



If its going to sit there and take a gadget, then the least Impulse could

do is make it work..Unless of course it does work and its just one of them

things I didn't play with enough.



=RRW=




Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 11:34:29
Subject: Windows NT Version?
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


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



Does anybody know if there is a Windows NT version of Imagine (for use in

DEC Alpha PC)?


Thanks


Martin




Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 12:12:38
Subject: Finnish animators?
From:    Martin Keitel <[e-mail]>


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



(The contents of this message will possibly be sent in english at a

later date. At this stage it is aimed at finnish Imagine users)


Moi kaikki suomalaiset Imaginen k{ytt{j{t!


Jos olette kiinnostuneita yhteisty|st{ mahdollisen isomman

3D-animaatioprojektin toteuttamisessa, ottakaa yhteytt{. Erityisesti

hahmoanimaatiota (Imaginella tai muuten) taitavia kaivataan. Jos homma

n{ytt{{ lupaavalta, haetaan mukaan my|s ulkomaisia animaattoreita.


Tarkoituksena on toteuttaa animaatiota enemm{n tai v{hemm{n internetin

avulla (l{hettelem{ll{ k{ss{reit{, animaatioskriptej{, kuvia, objekteja,

ideoita jne.).

Toiminnan keskipisteen{ toimisi LystiHouse Oy ja Kuopion videopaja, jonne

on hankittu mm. DECin Alpha PC renderoimista varten (270 MHz).


Martin Keitel

Nakkila Finland



Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 15:11:12
Subject: Re: Windows NT Version?
From:    [e-mail]


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


>

>

> Does anybody know if there is a Windows NT version of Imagine (for use in

> DEC Alpha PC)?


ump... urp.. hahahahah :X  Has anyone got Imagine working under any

version of windows? let alone win NT???



--

.__________________________________________________________________________.

|   -== When Dreams Become Reality ==-                    -= IM Design=-   |

|"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""|"""""""""""""""""""""|""""""""""""""""""""|

|     [e-mail]       | FTP: ftp.netcom.com |  Video Production  |

|   [e-mail]     |  DIR: pub/videoman  |  3D Graphics & DTP |

| Mosaic Home Page: file://ftp.netcom.com/pub/vi/videoman/web/HOME.html    |

~""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""~



Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 17:32:01
Subject: Re: Windows NT Version?
From:    [e-mail] (Joe Cotellese)


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


>

>Does anybody know if there is a Windows NT version of Imagine (for use in

>DEC Alpha PC)?

>

Don't I wish... (I'd even settle for OS/2).



Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 18:21:50
Subject: Re: Trouble applying brush maps
From:    Mike Bandy <[e-mail]>


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



On Wed, 22 Feb 1995, Manjit Bedi wrote:


> I have been trying to do some texture mapping and the

> results are goofy.

>

> I have made a shape like a wine bottle.  I am trying

> to put a label on it.  I have scaled the label down

> in size and positioned the axes of the map.  The axes

> of the map is towards the front of the bottle.

>

>       -----

>      /     \

>     /       \

>     |       |

>     |       |

>     |       |

>     \   1   /

>      \---- /

>

>

> 1 is an approximation of the position of the axes of the map

> in a top view of the bottle.

>

> The map is rendering but the image is distorting.

> The edges of the texture map are getting stretched

> out.  I have applied the map with flat X and wrap Z

> as the settings. The map is applied to lower part

> of the bottle where it is basically a cylinder.

>

> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

>


I recently solved this very problem.  I got an image of a beer label of

off some WWW site and wanted to paste it onto a beer bottle for a scene I

was making.  It was distorted as you describe.  My solution was to create

an image that was twice the size of the label in the horizontal and plunk

the beer label into the right half of it.  Then when the image was Flat

X/Wrap Z color mapped around the bottle it appeared right.


BUT - the extra half of the label affected the transparency of the back of

the beer bottle.  So I created another map with right half full white (for

completely transparent) and left half color matching the filter value of

the overall bottle.  I applied this brush map as a transparency map after

the beer label color map.  Line up the axises and stuff for both maps, of

course.


It worked beautifully - now I have a rendered Red Tail Ale beer bottle.


[This is all from memory - I'm don't have access to my Amiga at the moment.]


FYI the URL for the beer labels is http://guraldi.itn.med.umich.edu/Beer/


Hope this helps...


      Mike

--

Mike Bandy      [e-mail]

Johns Hopkins University / Applied Physics Laboratory




Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 21:04:51
Subject: Re: Windows NT Version?
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


>

>

> Does anybody know if there is a Windows NT version of Imagine (for use in

> DEC Alpha PC)?

>

> Thanks

>

> Martin

>

>

Impulse has suggested that they "might" do an NT version of Imagine as opposed

to an OS/2 or windoz version. This is probably in the gedanken stage, if at all.


They are, of course, working on several things, and it wouldn't suprise me if

they have some sort of NT product in the wings.



Doug Rudd

[e-mail]

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

The Amiga Guide to the Galaxy refers to Commodore's management as

"A bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first to be lined up

against the wall and shot when the revolution comes."

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

They will get my Amiga from me when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

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




Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 21:07:23
Subject: Virtaul Memory with ImaginePC
From:    Jeremy Williams <[e-mail]>


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



     A few months back we had a discussion going about virtual memory, and

whether you could use it with Imagine. (For those of you that didn't see

the postings, we were trying to use the hard disk in order to simulate RAM

in order to have more memory to use in Imagine 3.0 for the PC.) Anyway,

has anyone heard whether Impulse is working on such a thing, or whether

the idea has been trashed?  Of course, using the virtual memory of

something like OS/2 or Windows is out of the question since Imagine won't

even come close to working with either of them running in the background.

I remember that you lucky Amiga people out there have a virtual memory

program that works with Imagine....I only wish Impulse or somebody would

come up with a viable PC solution.

     Also, once Imagine 3.2 arrives, could one of you new 3.2 owners tell

the rest of us just what we are missing (new goodies etc.). Thanks...


                              -- Jeremy Williams



Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 21:16:43
Subject: Re: Trouble applying brush maps
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


<Snip>

> The map is rendering but the image is distorting.

> The edges of the texture map are getting stretched

> out.  I have applied the map with flat X and wrap Z

> as the settings. The map is applied to lower part

> of the bottle where it is basically a cylinder.

>

> The map image is of some text; the distortion

> is quite distinct.  The map is 24 bit image

> made with Brilliance 2.

>

> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

>


You might consider creating a sub group defining the area you wish the

brush to cover on the bottle, and apply your brush to that sub group.


Doug Rudd

[e-mail]

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

The Amiga Guide to the Galaxy refers to Commodore's management as

"A bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first to be lined up

against the wall and shot when the revolution comes."

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

They will get my Amiga from me when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

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




Date:    Thursday, 23 February 1995 22:17:30
Subject: Imagine 3.x
From:    Karl Dyson <[e-mail]>


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


   Hello,


Would anyone tell me what the point of the States function is?

I'm thinking of upgrading from 2.0, but I don't know what that particular

function does - also, could someone translate what "allows control of

movement of objects by hierarchy" with regard to Bones is?


   Cheers,


   Karl




Date:    Friday, 24 February 1995 02:10:26
Subject: Re: Virtaul Memory with ImaginePC
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


<Snip>

> I remember that you lucky Amiga people out there have a virtual memory

> program that works with Imagine....I only wish Impulse or somebody would

> come up with a viable PC solution.

>      Also, once Imagine 3.2 arrives, could one of you new 3.2 owners tell

> the rest of us just what we are missing (new goodies etc.). Thanks...

>

>                             -- Jeremy Williams

>

Yes, a virtual memory solution for dos and Imagine would be nice. I only

have 8mb on my 486 vs 52 mb on my A2000. The difference is crippling.


I find it difficult to believe that there is no dos based virtual memory

program that will run with Imagine. Perhaps no one saw a need for such a

program since Windows or OS/2 seemed to answer most problems -- until

someone wrote a killer program that only runs in dos :-/


Doug Rudd

[e-mail]

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

The Amiga Guide to the Galaxy refers to Commodore's management as

"A bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first to be lined up

against the wall and shot when the revolution comes."

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

They will get my Amiga from me when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

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




Date:    Friday, 24 February 1995 02:11:11
Subject: Re: Imagine 3.x
From:    Scott Krehbiel <[e-mail]>


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


On Wed, 22 Feb 1995, Karl Dyson wrote:


>    Hello,

>

> Would anyone tell me what the point of the States function is?

> I'm thinking of upgrading from 2.0, but I don't know what that particular

> function does - also, could someone translate what "allows control of

> movement of objects by hierarchy" with regard to Bones is?

>

>    Cheers,

>

>    Karl

>

  I'd like to add a little to this question, if not answer part

of it.  I know that states let you tack a texture or brushmap

to an object and then deform it, twisting/smashing/stretching

the textures and brushes with the object.  I've had some

problems with states where the presence of a brushmap

makes all states take on the value of the last typed in

values, so I've been wondering whether the traditional

method of having separate objects for each morphable state

would work just as well as states.


So here it is:  Is there anything that States can do that

morphing across multiple objects can't do (other than texture/brush

tacking??)  If not, then what is the advantage of states??


I know that there's a solution for the brushmap problem... changing

the order in which I apply the texture and brushmap, but I haven't

had time to try this out yet.


Thanks

Scott Krehbiel

[e-mail]





Date:    Friday, 24 February 1995 02:57:14
Subject: Re: Imagine wishlist
From:    [e-mail]


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


> >

> > * Copy textures/brushes in attributes requester, If I made one window

> >   for an airoplane, and would like to make twenty, I could copy the

> >   already applied brushes and move them in place. You already can save...

>

> Can be done with apply function as has already been stated.


      While it's true that entire attribute settings can be duplicated in

this manner, I don't think that's what Milan suggested. Take his multiple

brushmaps, for example.

      Currently, if you have one airplane window brushmap and want to

duplicate it along the length of a fuselage (say, 20 times), you have to add

the brushmap to the fuselage object 20 individual times. Not very efficient

(of, course I would have created a 20 window brushmap, but I digress).

      What Milan suggests (I think), is an option to automatically copy the

selected brushmap any number of times. For completion, why not have the

ability to replicate a desired brushmap (with translation and rotation

abilities)?


> > * DON'T LOAD ALL OBJECTS FOR EVERY FRAME (and I will say it again!)

>

> Use layers, man! Trie things out (or read the manual).


      Again, I believe there's a slight breakdown in communication at work

here. Whenever Imagine moves between frames, during rendering, it re-loads

every object from wherever it was stored (RAM/HD/FD/etc). This causes somewhat

of a slowdown in the long run. After all, why reload an object if it's already

being used? Layers wouldn't solve anything.

      It would be nice if the renderer examined the frame to be rendered,

accounted for the objects to be used, compared the object count with the

object count of the previous frame, and then loaded any discrepancies, saving

previously found objects in RAM to prevent unnecessary re-loading.


> > *Preview rendering in ham mode, like sculpt and real, so you can spot

> > mistakes early, use a standard palette.

>

> What? If you don't know how to make this, ask before saying it can't be

> done. It is VERY easy.


      It can't be done... Unless you have a Firecracker24 (dunno about

Opal), of which I am thankful for :)

      Milan means (again, I hope), a line by line update of the rendering in

progress. Not a full HAM quick-render. Not a percentage indicator.

      With a Firecracker board you can see any rendering as it is being

rendered; every line, every pixel.

      I believe, by all means correct me if I'm wrong, that Imagine

calculates everything internally in 24-bits. Therefore a line by line preview

(in HAM) of what is being rendered might cause things to slow down due to

conversion. The FC is 24-bit so no worries.


> > * Interactive extrude, have said it before.

>

> Not very important.


      Entirely depends on what you model. It would just be one more

tool. There are ways (currently) to get around an "interactive extrusion"

tool, but they are very inefficient. Actually, an interactive extrude is sort

of like rail extruding along multiple paths. Definitely handy...


      That was just my take on it...


                                                              J.---->


E-Mail: [e-mail]




Date:    Friday, 24 February 1995 11:26:52
Subject: Re: Imagine 3.x
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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


>
> So here it is:  Is there anything that States can do that
> morphing across multiple objects can't do (other than texture/brush
> tacking??)  If not, then what is the advantage of states??

Well, for one it can save you HD space, as well as make bones objects
possible with a minimum use of HD space. If you had to save every
position for say a man walking it would take a lot of HD space, but with
States you only need to save the shape once in your defualt State and
only need the groups for the rest. Quite a large savings if you ask me.
I did an animation once, maybe you've heard of it "Treasure Hunt". I had
to do this using only morphable grouped objects, and after about 20 or
30 different figures. I started to run out of space for storing them..It
almost became a big problem. But several floppies saved me.

It also make working in the stage a bit easier too. or at least more
convenient.

=RRW=



Date:    Friday, 24 February 1995 14:09:54
Subject: Pool-balls
From:    [e-mail]


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


Hi everyone..I've got a question (maybe silly but...)..

I'm trying to make an pool-ball an add a texture of a digit, lets say
`3` with a white circle around it..But when I try to do that the brush looks
very distorted. It doesn`t look like a digit mapped on a ball..

Please tell me what I`m doing wrong...

Thanx in avdvance [e-mail]


Date:    Friday, 24 February 1995 17:38:05
Subject: Re: Filter Bug?
From:    [e-mail] (Christian Leyen)


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



On Sun, 19 Feb 1995, Jim Shinosky wrote:

>> I'm having a problem with Imagine 3.1 where I want an object to be fully
>> transparent.  However, I keep getting black outlines around the object
>> almost as if it's just changing it to a wireframe.  I thought I read a post
>> earlier from someone about this but I don't remember what was said.  Does
>> anyone know anything about this?
>>
>Did you render the image in scanline or in trace? I once got rid of
>the black areas in scanline by rendering in trace. If your object is
>complex the black  areas probably appear where there are several faces
>overlapping. I have had troubles with this especially with transparent
>textures.

Try to change (increase) the "resolve depth" parameter in preferences editor
up to 16. It works even in scanline!

Christian Leyen ([e-mail])


Date:    Friday, 24 February 1995 19:44:02
Subject: RE: Pool-balls
From:    "Ducharme, Alain: FOB" <[e-mail]>


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



On Friday, February 24, 1995 11:58, tdv94mhd wrote:
>--------------------
>Hi everyone..I've got a question (maybe silly but...)..
>
>I'm trying to make an pool-ball an add a texture of a digit, lets say
>`3` with a white circle around it..But when I try to do that the brush
looks
>very distorted. It doesn`t look like a digit mapped on a ball..

If you are doing a wrap -x, wrap -z, make your brush a lot bigger with the
number and white circle centered.  Think of your brush as a piece of paper,
you want enough blank paper around the number and circle to be able to wrap
it completely around the ball.

The easier way, however is simply to do flat-x, flat-z, since the number and
circle don't need to wrap around the ball it gives a pretty good result.


Date:    Saturday, 25 February 1995 01:57:18
Subject: Object attributes (Imagine).
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



Ok, there's been little interest in an object attribute collection
so I guess I'll just throw something together for my own use.  Perhaps
there's already lots of attributes floating around and everyone has them
already.  If so, please let me know where I can find them (I've checked
the usual places).  I still have some free time before school gets
demanding again so if anyone has any ideas for another similar project,
please let me know.  Is there something you guys have always wanted but
didn't have the time to do ?

--
Shane Davison (tsml)
[e-mail]



Date:    Saturday, 25 February 1995 02:23:45
Subject: Re: Imagine wishlist
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


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




On Wed, 22 Feb 1995, Randy R. Wall wrote:

>
> Maybe I'm missing something as far as the Shft gadget goes,(Please
> inlighten me if so), but it would be nice to press it and be able to go
> around selecting multiple point, faces, edges, etc.. without ever worring
> about pressing the shift key..
>
> If its going to sit there and take a gadget, then the least Impulse could
> do is make it work..Unless of course it does work and its just one of them
> things I didn't play with enough.
>

Well, it's one of them things =) The Shft button is used when you want to
move, scale, or rotate just an object's axis. Normally you would depress
the shift key on the keyboard and type an `M,' or press the button on the
screen.

> =RRW=
>
>

See ya,
      Roger


Date:    Saturday, 25 February 1995 02:24:33
Subject: Re: Imagine WWW site
From:    Roger Straub <[e-mail]>


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




On Wed, 22 Feb 1995, Randy R. Wall wrote:

>
> Well, thats 3 for JPEG, 0 for all others, if you have a prefrence make it
> known while I'm taking count.. You can reply privately to me at:
>
> "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>
>
> or voice your opinion on the IML if you wish.

Just as an afterthought, does anyone know where I could find the JPEG
DataType for use with AmigaDOS 3.1? I would recommend including this for
use with the IMTGuide, as MultiView can use it w/o an external viewer.

>
> =RRW=
>
>

See ya,
      Roger


Date:    Saturday, 25 February 1995 03:00:10
Subject: 3.2 is here!
From:    [e-mail]


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


I just had to be the first with this news. How 'bout adjustable screen
resolutions? 800x600,768x1024,etc. Also 25 attribute/brushmap/texture presets
that you can instantly apply with out going into the attribute requester. 32
shades of grey for backdrops in any window. Slider bar in the animation
requester. new effect and texture. a ton of bug fixes and more. Happy
Imagineering to all!
(ps Impulse definitly is trying to get to 3.3 by March/April with ver 4.0 by
May.....at least their trying)


Date:    Saturday, 25 February 1995 06:32:39
Subject: Trouble w/final anim rendering
From:    [e-mail] (Doug Liu)


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


in the stage editor, my animation runs well in
wireframe mode, and each frame can be quickrendered
into an appropriate image. however, when i enter
the project editor, select the range of frames,
and "make" the animation, the output becomes a
series of images of my global background, rather
than my animation imposed on the global background.

does anyone know how to fix this?
any help would be greatly appreciated.

      [e-mail]


Date:    Saturday, 25 February 1995 08:31:19
Subject: Trouble applying brush maps
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Manjit Bedi <[e-mail]>

The map is rendering but the image is distorting.
The edges of the texture map are getting stretched
out.  I have applied the map with flat X and wrap Z
as the settings. The map is applied to lower part
of the bottle where it is basically a cylinder.
------------------------------------------------------------

If there's distortion at the edges, I'll bet you that you're using
FlatX/FlatZ, not WrapZ. Please double-check. In addition, I have created
a rudimentary bottle, properly wrapped with a simple DPaint label. The
label can help you visualize how its edges meet when you reach the +Y
brush axis. I'm sending you the bottle and brush, UUencoded, in E-mail.



Date:    Saturday, 25 February 1995 09:29:19
Subject: Re: Pool-balls
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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


> I'm trying to make an pool-ball an add a texture of a digit, lets say
> `3` with a white circle around it..But when I try to do that the brush looks
> very distorted. It doesn`t look like a digit mapped on a ball..
>
> Please tell me what I`m doing wrong...

Well if your wraping it at all this would cause a problem for such a
simple wrap. I would apply it as a flat wrap. Also you need to position
the map corectly too. Something like this:

                 z
                 |
                 -------
           -----/|----- \
           |   | |     | | - ball
           |   | |     | |
           |   | |     | |
           |   | |     | |
           |   |  ------x|
  brush    |    \______|/
    wrap - |           |
           |           |
           |           |
           |___________|


Also make sure that the Y axis only streches as far as the center of
the ball from the right view. otherwize it will show up on the back side
as well.

This should do the trick.

=RRW=



Date:    Saturday, 25 February 1995 09:42:43
Subject: Re: Imagine wishlist
From:    "Randy R. Wall" <[e-mail]>


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


> > Maybe I'm missing something as far as the Shft gadget goes,(Please
> > inlighten me if so), but it would be nice to press it and be able to go
> > around selecting multiple point, faces, edges, etc.. without ever worring
> > about pressing the shift key..
> >
> > If its going to sit there and take a gadget, then the least Impulse could
> > do is make it work..Unless of course it does work and its just one of them
> > things I didn't play with enough.
> >
>
> Well, it's one of them things =) The Shft button is used when you want to
> move, scale, or rotate just an object's axis. Normally you would depress
> the shift key on the keyboard and type an `M,' or press the button on the
> screen.

Hehehee,

Now that you mention it, I seam to recall someone at a user group meating
using it for that.. I guess I forgot about it and just never got into using
it myself. I do think it would be nice to have it implemented for everything.

Thanks Roger,

=RRW=


Date:    Saturday, 25 February 1995 14:30:19
Subject: Re: Imagine TIF's
From:    ROB NEILL <[e-mail]>


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


>Reply to message text:

>  From: [e-mail] (Ronald Merritt)

>Greetings,
>     I need to get my Imagine 24 bit TIFF's from my PC to a MAC. Does
>anybody know what I should use to get the MAC to read my PC disk?

Sure, we have a little program called PC exchange on our macs at school.
It just sits in the background and reads the PC disk like a Mac disk. I'll find

out
if its a commercial program or not. If its not I'll send it to you if you like.


















Date:    Saturday, 25 February 1995 15:19:39
Subject: Re[1]: Windows NT Version?
From:    ROB NEILL <[e-mail]>


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


Reply to message text:

  From: Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>

>
>
> Does anybody know if there is a Windows NT version of Imagine (for use in
> DEC Alpha PC)?
>
> Thanks
>
> Martin
>
>
>Impulse has suggested that they "might" do an NT version of Imagine as opposed
>to an OS/2 or windoz version. This is probably in the gedanken stage, if at
all.
>They are, of course, working on several things, and it wouldn't suprise me if
>they have some sort of NT product in the wings.

Hey cool. If they did an NT version would it only work with the Intel version
of NT,
or could I run it like on a Raptor (per chance I get one :)















Date:    Saturday, 25 February 1995 20:56:29
Subject: Error: Loop in obj. Depend?
From:    [e-mail]


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



   Has anyone ever encountered this problem?

  My situation involved 3 objects: a camera, a path, and an axis.

  The camera's position is independent of the other two objects.
  The path's alignment tracks the camera's position.
  The axis moves along the path.
  The camera's alignment tracks the axis's position.

Imagine 2.0 doesn't seem to like this.  But logically speaking, no ambiguity
should exist.  Right?  When an object's alignment is set to "track to object",
the only necessary information required about the object to be tracked is
its position, correct?  If that be the case, then I don't understand why
imagine is buggin' on me.  It seems as if imagine's loop-detecting routine
is a little trigger happy.
  Ultimately, I'm trying to use this configuration to move the camera in
such a way that I can easily control the location of the subject in the
camera's field of vision.  The subject, which is neither the path nor the
axis, is initially in the center of the image.  After moving the camera
along a path, the subject will finally be in the center of the image, but
will appear smaller because the camera is now farther away.  However, if
I set the camera's alignment to 'track' the subject, then the subject stays
in the center of the image for the duration.  This won't do.  I want the
position of the subject to move along a vertical path *in the image*.  To
do this requires either the earlier set-up, using a straight-line path,
or some kind of path with a static alignment and a shape modified to
compensate for the changing reflection of the path onto the image plane.
I think it would be very difficult to understand what this path would have
to look like, so I'm kind of frustrated at the prospect of having to do
this.  Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Chris
P.S. I'm in the process of resubscribing to the Imagine List, and I am
not yet receiving its messages, so if duplicates of all replies could
mailed to my address ([e-mail]), I would appreciate
it.

Errg...if only there was a way to create a path smooth path like:
  and at X point in time I want the object HERE and at Y point in time
 I want it THERE and at Z point in time....  Kinda like Lightwave's
Key Framing w/non-linear interpolation.




Date:    Saturday, 25 February 1995 21:06:30
Subject: Re: trouble w/final anim rendering
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


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


Hey Doug,

      That's a puzzler.  The only obvious thing I can think of is that
all your objects are outside 'the world.'  In raytrace mode, the world
size is something I had to get used to.  Things show up in scanline, but
disappear from the raytraced image.  Weird.  Check your world size.


Date:    Saturday, 25 February 1995 22:20:49
Subject: Re: 3.2 is here!
From:    "Steve J. Lombardi" <[e-mail]>


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


>
> I just had to be the first with this news. How 'bout adjustable screen
> resolutions? 800x600,768x1024,etc. Also 25 attribute/brushmap/texture presets
> that you can instantly apply with out going into the attribute requester. 32

Are these resolutions hardcoded, or user adjustible.

> shades of grey for backdrops in any window. Slider bar in the animation
> requester. new effect and texture. a ton of bug fixes and more. Happy

What is the animation requestor? Do you mean the playback requestor?

> (ps Impulse definitly is trying to get to 3.3 by March/April with ver 4.0 by
> May.....at least their trying)
>

More! More! Tell us more! I'm sure you are wrapped up in the new program,
so how about a brief feature list for those of us who just can't wait.

-Is there any Macro support either via Arexx or an impulse specific method?

-Dragable/stretchable action bars? Action bars in the Stage?

Well, these would be a few of my favorite things, but let us know
anything you can in terms of new features and capabilities. thanks.

--
steve lombardi
[e-mail]



Date:    Sat 25 Feb 19:06:30 1995:00
Subject: Re: trouble w/final anim rendering
From:    Mike McCool <[e-mail]>


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


Hey Doug,

      That's a puzzler.  The only obvious thing I can think of is that
all your objects are outside 'the world.'  In raytrace mode, the world
size is something I had to get used to.  Things show up in scanline, but
disappear from the raytraced image.  Weird.  Check your world size.


Date:    Sunday, 26 February 1995 03:56:17
Subject: Final anim rend solution
From:    [e-mail] (Doug Liu)


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


i started over from scratch, and the
rendering problem was resolved. thanks
for the suggestions

[e-mail]


Date:    Sunday, 26 February 1995 04:22:57
Subject: Underwater
From:    El Guapo! <[e-mail]>


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


I want to do an under water scene, with the the shadows
of waves above projected through the scene.  I think this
has to do with "caustic" effects, and imagine 3.0 has a
caustic lite texture that I can't get to have much effect.
(and I can't find mention of it anywhere in the docs)

Will the caustic lite texture do this? And if not is there
a way of faking it?

Thanks in advance.
Cris.         {[e-mail]}



Date:    Sunday, 26 February 1995 08:00:21
Subject: Re: trouble w/final anim rendering
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


> From: Mike McCool <[e-mail]>

> In raytrace mode, the world size is something I had to get used to.

Better yet, set your world size to 0,0,0 for automatic sizing, and
you'll never have to worry about it again. (Until you start a new
project, of course)


Date:    Sunday, 26 February 1995 08:56:54
Subject: Underwater
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


> From: El Guapo! <[e-mail]>


> I want to do an under water scene, with the the shadows
> of waves above projected through the scene.  I think this
> has to do with "caustic" effects, and imagine 3.0 has a
> caustic lite texture that I can't get to have much effect.
> (and I can't find mention of it anywhere in the docs)
>
> Will the caustic lite texture do this? And if not is there
> a way of faking it?
------------------------------------------------------------

Here are two answers, one from me and one from CompuServe. My suggestion
is to take a semitransparent plane and add a texture, like Wormvein,
with the texture filter at 100%. Place the plane under your sun and
trace; anything under the plane will be lit by swirls of light and shadow.

By the way, I never did find the Caustics and Purphaze textures. Can
anybody refresh my memory?

Finally, the CompuServe answer.

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

#: 84774 S4/Impulse
    20-Jun-94  17:11:13
Sb: #caustic texture
Fm: David Hofmann 100112,3243

Date:    Sunday, 26 February 1995 17:16:51
Subject: Re: Underwater
From:    Jerome Bellocq <[e-mail]>


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


> From: El Guapo! <[e-mail]>
> Subject: Underwater

> I want to do an under water scene, with the the shadows
> of waves above projected through the scene.  I think this
> has to do with "caustic" effects, and imagine 3.0 has a
> caustic lite texture that I can't get to have much effect.
> (and I can't find mention of it anywhere in the docs)

    Hi,

  I made such an effect using a light source in a sphere.
The sphere has got a 'wrinkles' texture on and a 'transparent'
texture. (I'm not sure of the name of the later : it's the one
that converts a color into transparency.) This works fine.

    Jerome



Date:    Monday, 27 February 1995 07:31:23
Subject: Loop in object depend.
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Rivers)


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



A>   Has anyone ever encountered this problem?

Well now I have :)

solution:

Add another Axis, call it FakeCamera.

In the action editor, some how copy only the Postion bar for
the camera to FakeCamera's action bar.

And then have the Path track FakeCamera.

If you have a complicated position bar for the camera, and
you're runn'n Imagine 2, your gonna have some fun!
Would be pretty easy if you have 3.0 though.

-------------------------------------------------------
|  Commodore failure. Press mouse button to continue  |
|  Guru Meditation  $35000000     Task : $00000CBM    |
-------------------------------------------------------
          A4000/060/90mhz WOW! this is fast.
                140 Mips  50 Mflops.


Date:    Monday, 27 February 1995 07:52:26
Subject: Windows NT
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Rivers)


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



RN> Hey cool. If they did an NT version would it only work with the Intel
RN> version
RN> of NT,
RN> or could I run it like on a Raptor (per chance I get one :)

I wouldn't get my hopes up,  seeing as they can't take advantage
of the 5 year old 'new' features of AmigaDos 2.0 on the
platform they've had the most time 'developing' for.
I wouldn't be suprised if their machines still run AmigaDos1.3
or even earlier.

So what's new in 3.2?

-------------------------------------------------------
|  Commodore failure. Press mouse button to continue  |
|  Guru Meditation  $35000000     Task : $00000CBM    |
-------------------------------------------------------
          A4000/060/90mhz WOW! this is fast.
                140 Mips  50 Mflops.


Date:    Monday, 27 February 1995 08:21:56
Subject: Imagine Wishlist
From:    [e-mail] (Mike Rivers)


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


Well , here's my wishlist.  Or should I say requirement list,
as I don't see me upgrading without these "features".

1.  Preloaded objects when a project is opened.
2.  Real time Stage, go's with #1. and a slider for the frame,
    instead of that stupid requester that I have to  type the
    frame number into. So unintuitive.
3.  A decent lens flare, not the rock'n 'n jerk'n thing that
    came with 3.0.
     - And/Or -
    visible light beams, that work correctly (ie. spot light beams
    won't go through objects).
4.  Ability to move children objects in the stage editor(as per
    the noiseletter for version 3.0, anyone remeber?)

Also things that would also be nice:

Visible Edges, and Points (ala LightWave),

True brighness maps.

Real-time bones.

Do away with requesters that simply ask for a
number (brush/texture priority,frame numbers etc.) and replace
them with a slider or appropiate gadget.

A visible path with frame markers on it for each object in
the stage editor (again a'la LW)

motion graphics, hieracry controls, pop up action bars in the
stage, sound, enhanced forms editor, macros. (whow. these sound
famaliar or what???)

And possibly, if all the moons of Jupiter are aligned, a
Workbench 2 or 3 interface. Ofcoure a Windows(or OS/2?) interface
for all you PC folks.

-------------------------------------------------------
|  Commodore failure. Press mouse button to continue  |
|  Guru Meditation  $35000000     Task : $00000CBM    |
-------------------------------------------------------
          A4000/060/90mhz WOW! this is fast.
                140 Mips  50 Mflops.


Date:    Monday, 27 February 1995 16:09:20
Subject: Re: 3.2 is here!
From:    William Eric Donoho <[e-mail]>


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



Got my Imagine 3.2. (IBM version) To all wondering, here's a summary of what
you get:

* Bug fixes. Yeah!
* New screen resolutions: 800x600,1024x768,1280x1024. All by 4 or 8 bit
    color. The modes are not programmable. To chnage res, you have to
    quit imagine. Also, these modes only work with a vesa compliant
    architecture. Impulse claims you won't see a difference in the interface
    between 4 and 8 bit planes. They suggest you'll see it in the backdrop
    images. Next point ...
* Backdrop images in the tri-view. In 256 color mode, you'll see 32 levels
  of grey.
* Animation playback tool: Basically impulse has added a slide bar to the
  anim playback... instead of having to use "stop", "forward", "back", etc.
* chaser texture (have not used yet)
* shredder effect --- have not used yet either, but is described to be
  similar to "explode", except that sub-groups or grouped objects stay
  may be kept intact. Also, lock states apply! Yeah! Lock the texture the
  the explosion!
* Quick attributes. Basically this is a user-configurable set of 25
  quick attributes that can be applied to an object with only ... umm...
  ... three mouse clicks?

That's all I can remember right off.

Eric Donoho              | "Let's go to burger king and get
Louisville, KY USA       | a chicken sandwich!"
[e-mail]




Date:    Monday, 27 February 1995 16:37:31
Subject: Re: Loop:in obj...
From:    gregory denby <[e-mail]>


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



I'm not sure I'm visualizing your scene correctly, but let me make a
few guesses.  I'm not sure why you would want to allign a path
to a camera.  My experience is that the path axis would then
maintain a constant relation to the attitude of the camera,
which would mean that as the camera moved to track the object
on the path, the path would shift position to re-align to the
camera, which would re-align to the object, etc etc.  I'd
make a separate allignment system for that camera, so the
camera could pan across a background (in which one sees the moving
object) and then freeze, while the object continues along in
front of the camera while following its own path.

Hope this helps, getting the camera to point just right in
a moving situation always seems a bit hit or miss.

Greg Denby
(can't wait for 3.2 at my door, pant pant.....)
[e-mail]


Date:    Monday, 27 February 1995 20:40:18
Subject: Re: 3.2 is here!
From:    [e-mail] (Cedric Georges Chang)


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


On Feb 27,  8:13am, William Eric Donoho wrote:
> * New screen resolutions: 800x600,1024x768,1280x1024. All by 4 or 8 bit
>     color. The modes are not programmable. To chnage res, you have to
>     quit imagine. Also, these modes only work with a vesa compliant
>     architecture. Impulse claims you won't see a difference in the interface

Does anyone know if the Amiga and PC versions of v3.2 are shipping at the
same time?  Could the first person with the Amiga version please confirm
that it uses the screenmode database.  I'd hate to have to buy a PC in order
to get a high-res version of Imagine working without screen refresh problems.

Speaking of high-res Imagine problems, I can confirm that the demo version
of the CyberGraphics WB Emulator for various graphics cards has the same
screen refresh problems with Imagine that EGS does.  I used the cybershare4040
file found on Aminet with my Piccolo graphics card.  Oh well, maybe EGS 7.2
will solve the problem, or maybe Impulse will get their act together and allow
for the option of system friendly graphics calls.   For now, I have to keep
hitting the right-amiga-R key every few seconds.

Cedric

--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cedric Chang             Mechanical Engineer             // Amiga 3000 '040
[e-mail]    Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute    \X/  EGS Piccolo
---------------------------------------------------------------------------


Date:    Monday, 27 February 1995 21:01:46
Subject: Re: Re[1]: Windows NT Version?
From:    Douglas Rudd <[e-mail]>


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


<Snip>
> Hey cool. If they did an NT version would it only work with the Intel version

> of NT,
> or could I run it like on a Raptor (per chance I get one :)
>
>
You know it! There is some really neat stuff showing up in NT: LightWave,
Real 3D, and who knows. If you could run these on a DEC Alpha class machine,
it would be to the Pentium as the Pentium is to an 8088. On the down side,
there is little else you could do with that machine. Perhaps a ShaBLAMM! card?
Then you could scream on rendering, and drop out of warp to do the other stuff.

I would favor the Alpha -- for speed, and since I do everything on my Amigas
anyway. Just farm it out to the Alpha.

I don't know about the cpu issue though. ShaBLAMM! uses Mips, like the Raptor
and is thus different from Intel as is the Alpha.

Doug Rudd
[e-mail]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Amiga Guide to the Galaxy refers to Commodore's management as
"A bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first to be lined up
against the wall and shot when the revolution comes."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They will get my Amiga from me when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Date:    Tuesday, 28 February 1995 00:54:17
Subject: FTP uploads
From:    Andy <[e-mail]>


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



I have an object which I'd like to upload onto a FTP site.  It's of an
Oberth class Star Trek ship (like Grissom in STIII).  Basically I'm
wondering if it needs to be absolutely right before I upload it?  It's as
close as I can get it without using a model as a base to work from, so is
it OK to upload it and allow other people to add to/alter it as they wish
because it's not perfect?  Also, would it be OK to put up a small
animation of it doing a fly-by?  If anyone could actually post
instructions for uploading it to a given FTP site that would be greatly
appreciated.


        --------------------------------------------------
        /          [e-mail]                 \
      /           "To boldly go where no-one has gone before..."     \
     ------------------------------------------------------------



Date:    Tuesday, 28 February 1995 04:47:27
Subject: Realistic static
From:    [e-mail] (Kaspar Stromme)


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


Does anybody have any good ideas how to emulate a television set
in the AM hours ? :)
My digitizer won't touch the stuff, since it's not a real signal...
I'd hate to try to make brushmaps of the stuff, there must be an
easier way?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Kaspar Stromme                                  40mhz68030/'882;9MB;340MB
  [e-mail]                               DCTV true-color system

  PC-MAC = PoliticalCorrect-MindAbsentComputing
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Date:    Tuesday, 28 February 1995 07:08:43
Subject: Realistic static
From:    Charles Blaquiere <[e-mail]>


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


> From: Kaspar Stromme <[e-mail]>

> Does anybody have any good ideas how to emulate a television set
> in the AM hours ? :)
> My digitizer won't touch the stuff, since it's not a real signal...
> I'd hate to try to make brushmaps of the stuff, there must be an
> easier way?

I don't see why creating a 16-frame animation in DPaint would be that
hard. Set your palette to a single greyscale range. Pick a large
airbrush. Select "Cycle" mode. Cover the screen with dots. You'll get
totally random static. Repeat the process over 16 frames.

If you have rendering time to burn, use a texture instead of a
precalculated brushmap, by adding a noice texture with ludicrously small
scale values.


Date:    Tuesday, 28 February 1995 08:31:20
Subject: Info from CI$.
From:    Shane Davison <[e-mail]>


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



Hi all,

There was a request for a confirmation about receiving
the Amiga version of _Imagine_ 3.2.  Well, it looks like
it won't happen for a few days.  The word on Compuserve is
that the Amiga version is delayed for another week or so
pending a few remaining problems with certain Amy video cards.

Another little tidbit from CIS: you know how you go to check
an objects geometry with the 'Check Obj' function in the
Detail Editor and then you grimace with the thought of how
you spent 3 hours last time clicking on the OK button until
you finally rebooted the machine losing all that unsaved
work ?  Well, GreG t., discovered that pressing left-ALT-v
is the same as clicking on the OK button so you can hold
down this key-combo and (hopefully) fly-through all those
error messages.  It has something to do with maintaining
key-compatibility with Amiga programs.  And, yes, I agree
that there should still be a 'Cancel' button.

Regards,
--
Shane Davison (tsml)
[e-mail]



Date:    Tuesday, 28 February 1995 08:54:27
Subject: Re: realistic static
From:    "Anime a day..." <[e-mail]>


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


On Mon, 27 Feb 1995, Kaspar Stromme wrote:

> Does anybody have any good ideas how to emulate a television set > in
the AM hours ? :) > My digitizer won't touch the stuff, since it's not a
real signal... > I'd hate to try to make brushmaps of the stuff, there
must be an > easier way?

  Get out Brilliance and do about 4 or 5 frames of static and you should
have some good results.  Just a couple stencils on top of some gradient
fills and you should be on the right track.. you can still put anim brushes
on Imagine rigth?? I remember doing something like that in 1.0 a long
time ago.. I have 3.0 but am waiting to get 3.2 for the new screen modes..

 Can anyone tell me if you can force a 896x612 screen .. I saw that 800x600
was an option but with the overscan I make mine streach to the larger
size..

Thanks

Bill

>


Date:    Tuesday, 28 February 1995 11:04:50
Subject: Re: FTP uploads
From:    [e-mail] (joop van de wege)


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


Hello Andy,

>I have an object which I'd like to upload onto a FTP site.  It's of an
>Oberth class Star Trek ship (like Grissom in STIII).  Basically I'm
>wondering if it needs to be absolutely right before I upload it?  It's as
>close as I can get it without using a model as a base to work from, so is
>it OK to upload it and allow other people to add to/alter it as they wish
>because it's not perfect?
I don't think any model is absolutely perfect unless it is a perfect copy
right down to the nuts and bolts.
If anyone is allowed to modifiy and re upload your object is up to you to
decide, just place a copyright notice in the readme stating that this or that
is allowed/not allowed.

>Also, would it be OK to put up a small animation of it doing a fly-by?  If
>anyone could actually post instructions for uploading it to a given FTP site
>that would be greatly appreciated.
There are anims on Aminet of ~3MB but also small ones. Try to fit it on a
floppy so that everyone can download it and take it easily home :)

Now there is only one point left and that is: are you working on a PC or on
an Amiga. You might in both cases upload the animation and model to Aminet
or/and to Simtel. I don't know if Simtel has an animation/objects section but
Aminet has for sure.

You can get upload instruction by ftp'ing to one of the Aminet sites and
retrieving the text from either the pub/aminet dir or from pub/aminet/new dir
Try one of the following Aminet sites:
ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk        'Doesn't have a 'new' dir as far as I know
ftp.uni-paderborn.de    'Quite busy, try before 0900 CET
ftp.luth.se             'Quite responsive all the time

most Aminet mirrors do have an symbolic link to the directory which can be
found by typing: cd /pub/aminet

On how to upload to Simtel I can't tell you.

Greetings Joop

Date:    Wednesday, 01 March 1995 02:25:28
Subject: Caustic lite texture
From:    [e-mail] (TORGEIR HOLM)


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



I've seen someone mentioning a caustic lite texture lately.

Where do I find this. It was not installed with im30 or im31. And I
don't see it in the texture guide either


Torge!r    -    [e-mail]


Date:    Wednesday, 01 March 1995 02:28:53
Subject: Chinalake/Avalon
From:    [e-mail] (Perry Lucas)


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


Can some one send me the ftp address for ChinaLake/Avalon?
My ftp program crashed and I lost the address...sniff sniff...

--Perry

                                               _,_/|
                                               \o.O;
------------------------------------------oOO =(___)= OOo------
Perry J.Lucas                                    U
Emails: [e-mail]              "PJ" on Diversity University
        [e-mail]  Telnet:  moo.du.org 8888
        [e-mail]
HTML Hompage:  http://erau.db.erau.edu:80/~lucasp



Date:    Wednesday, 01 March 1995 06:41:26
Subject: Imagine crashes
From:    [e-mail] (Peter Borcherds)


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



Hi there

I am busy modeling a lamp with Imagine 3.0. I have done most of it
already (base, neck, and shade), and am presently trying to add bones
to the neck.

The neck consists of +- 50 sections, and from what I understand of
bones, I need an axis for each section. However, once I have added
the axes, and have joined them all hierarchically, I try to save the
object. This is when Imagine crashes.

The problem is not memory - I still have +- 6mb left, and bones have
always worked successfully before on other models I have made.

Is there a limit to the number of axes I can use or is there a bug
in Imagine that I don't know about ?

Any ideas, guys ?

Thanks in advance

Peter Borcherds

[e-mail]



 * AmyBW v2.11 *
... Help! I've fallen and I can't get down! - James Brown


Date:    Wednesday, 01 March 1995 09:54:06
Subject: Sway
From:    [e-mail]


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



Has anyone gotten the Sway EFX to work? I've found it erratic and
there isn't a mention of it in the manual. Anything special about
axis placement or the like that maybe I'm missing?

Jon Rubin