3DC 5.7

The in-place options for the lathe and extrude tools look great, I use those tools all the time for steam locomotives in 3DC.

Looks like you will have nothing left for v6 ?

Regards – Mike.

Does the wire-frame outline look andquot;dottedandquot; because it’s being drawn twice? Once for each face? Just curious. I have no problem with the look of it. Certainly an improvement over transparent objects in a complex scene.

(Buckaroo Banzai! Did they ever make any sequels?)

I am proposing a new true andquot;Outlineandquot; mode. Unfortunately I can’t render it exactly as I would like. So what do you think? It is a bit ugly, but I think it works.

Richard

I think it looks fine. It’s a good compromise between [b:2c25t0l1]flat[/b:2c25t0l1] and [b:2c25t0l1]flat-wireframe[/b:2c25t0l1], although you said this will be a new feature, the others will still be available, yes? This [b:2c25t0l1]outline[/b:2c25t0l1] mode will be useful in certain orthographic views.

– Andrew

Sharknose,

Actually, I had intended it to andquot;replaceandquot; the flat-wireframe mode. It would save me programming and testing effort.

Al,

The andquot;dottedandquot; look is the result of the wireframe being drawn andquot;overandquot; the previously rendered flat rendering.

Richard

In a previous release I added the andquot;Flat Wireframeandquot; mode. It works pretty well with ATI video cards, but if you have object in front of object it has some problems (as you can see).

Hi All,

It wasn’t really in the plans, but it looks like there will be a version 5.7. This will be a free upgrade for all registered users.

I am busy looking at new markets for 3DC since I may well be losing one of my markets (Microsoft Train Simulator) to a freeware product. I haven’t seen any downturn in sales, but I am trying to be andquot;readyandquot; just in case.

Anyhow…. here’s the first proposed feature that I would appreciate some feedback on. The current andquot;Flat Wireframeandquot; mode works pretty well on computers with ATI based video cards, but does have some deficiencies. I would like to make it more of a true andquot;Outlineandquot; mode.

I’ve attached a few images to show the idea.

First the standard flat mode. It works pretty well, but sometimes it is hard to see the division between faces.

Richard

All

I should be clear about something. The contents of 5.7 are already decided and there won’t be a andquot;newandquot; functions added beyond those that I feel are important for business purposes. 6.0 is the release that I have solicited user input for and I do plan to implement the features prioritized in the previous polls.

But, having said that I do want opinions. The issue that I have presented is andquot;Do you like the new outline mode. Or do you prefer the old Flat-Wireframe mode?andquot;

Al,

Sorry, but I had to andquot;moderateandquot; your posts. I want to keep this andquot;on topicandquot;.

The outline mode would be as shown above (picture 3). You would not see any andquot;linesandquot; within other objects. The intersection would be as obvious as in a standard flat shading, but not more obvious.

Richard

Okie Dokie. Seems we are unanimous on the new andquot;Solid Outlineandquot; mode.

Another new feature of 5.7 should make Alex, our long suffering Skeletal Animation user, happy. There weren’t supposed to be any Skeletal Animation enhancements until 6.1 but circumstances changed.

The first enhancement to Skeletal is that the andquot;Affect Volumeandquot; need not be centered on its bone. It can be shifted along the x, y and z axes as desired. In the picture that follows, the left image shows that in version 5.6 a bone not centered on the object required an excessively large andquot;Affect Volumeandquot; that could possibly have overlapped areas not to be affected. The image on the right shows version 5.7 where the volume has been shifted off the center of the bone. In the past I recommended that bones be centered on the area they were to influence. With 5.7 this is no longer a necessity (though still a good idea in my mind).

Richard

New mode all the way!

Often there are a point or two (or ten) that don’t quite fit in a pill or cylinder shaped volume. In the past I recommend using a andquot;sphericalandquot; bone to cover the area. Not everyone liked this idea (you know who you are <!– s:-) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:-) –>)

The second enhancement to Skeletal is that each bone can cover an andquot;Irregularandquot; volume.

The left picture is from the andquot;Ant with Skeletonandquot; that most of you have probably seen. The hand did not fit nicely into a cylindrical volume. The middle picture shows the same hand using version 5.7 with the new andquot;irregularandquot; volume covering the thumb. The third picture shows the Ant with one hand using the features of 5.7 and one not.

Richard

No problem. And on that note, I would vote for the new version.

I’d vote for the new version as well.

Kevin

Richard,
I think the new flat/wireframe method is great….

Les

Yes the New Mode ALL THE WAY