June 4, 2002
at 12:00 pm /
#19431
The third enhancement to skeletal is improved point weighting. In previous versions points were equi-weighted between bones. Version 5.7 includes the option of auto-weighting points between bones.
In the picture below, the left cylinder had bones with a small overlap and the shared points are equi-weighted. This would have been the andquot;normalandquot; way to do this in version 5.6. The second cylinder has bones that have a large overlap and are equi-weighted. This was/is NOT the way to use bones in version 5.6. The right three cylinders have the identical overlap as the second cylinder. But, they are auto-weighted using decreasing weighting factors.
And that’s the set of skeletal enhancements for 5.7.
Richard
June 4, 2002
at 12:00 pm /
#19432
Great andnbsp;work Richard ,..
I cant wait to haved on my system…
June 4, 2002
at 12:00 pm /
#19433
Now that Microsoft has andquot;officiallyandquot; endorsed Microsoft Train Simulator specular highlights (hishine/loshine) in gmax, I have added similar functionality to 5.7.
LoShine is turned on when a material has a specular value of approximately 50 and HiShine is turned on when a material has a specular value of 75 or higher. Note that this is calculated on a andquot;per groupandquot; basis, so shiny object should be grouped together.
Richard
June 4, 2002
at 12:00 pm /
#19434
That’s interesting Richard. It kind of looks like there is a bulge in some of the cylinders at the bend point. You know, the bulging would be a nice idea to add to bone animations too. But there are a lot of details to work out with how the bulge would distribute in an object.
Hmmm… Dreaming of the perfect features… andnbsp;:
June 4, 2002
at 12:00 pm /
#19435
Good work Richard andnbsp;
June 5, 2002
at 12:00 pm /
#19436
andnbsp;WOW I like the New Bones stuff. These kind of effects are going to put 3DC over the top. .And the New optimize Function will also Be great ( I found deleting unused layers for me helps keep things running smooth .)
June 5, 2002
at 12:00 pm /
#19437
My brain was hurting from working on Skeletal so I decided to do something simple: The clone function will work on hierarchies in 5.7.
Richard
June 5, 2002
at 12:00 pm /
#19438
I just added a new andquot;Optimizeandquot; function that optimizes a 3DC file by removing all inactive object layers.
I had promised it for 6.0, but I figured I may as well make it available now.
Richard
June 11, 2002
at 12:00 pm /
#19439
I’ve been considering providing more support for andquot;in placeandquot; editing for the object building tools. I like the idea of in-place editing, but I also like the simplicity of the object-building tools. So, I have come up with a good compromise.
[img:2fqjkzpm]http://www.amabilis.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/Attachments/InPlaceExtrude.gif[/img:2fqjkzpm]
It is pretty much the same as in the past, except that the object is added directly to the scene (see the upper left part of the picture). I have partially implemented it for the Extrude tool and it works pretty well. I think it is a good compromise between simplicity and power.
Richard
June 12, 2002
at 12:00 pm /
#19440
New for 5.7 is support for export to Microsoft Flight Simulator format.
[img]http://www.amabilis.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/Attachments/firstplane2.gif’]
Richard
June 12, 2002
at 12:00 pm /
#19441
With a bit of luck, the 5.7 beta should be available by Friday (June 14th).
Richard
June 12, 2002
at 12:00 pm /
#19442
Attached is an example of an andquot;in-placeandquot; use of the Lathe Tool.
Richard