Well… sure.
The main item for 6.0 is the replacement of the renderer. This will allow me to implement new functions of Direct3D such as environment mapping, hardware shadows, cartoon rendering etc. It will also improve the deformation performance of 3DC and the speed of many of the operations. Version 6.0 is going to be very time consuming so it will not likely be available for quite a while (really!).
In the mean time, I will be avoiding major changes to 5.0, instead focusing on fixing bugs, improving the marketability, and marketing of the product.
That doesn’t mean that there won’t be new functions or improvements to existing functions. But, the improvements will be restricted as much as possible to the creation/update of Operations, Scripts and Plug-ins. These are changes that are not likely to negatively affect 5.0’s stability.
I have quite a long list of suggested enhancements. Most only make sense to implement with version 6.0.
It seems to me that the best way for me to improve 3DC’ marketability is to produce the types of exports that people want.
One thing that I have considered is the creation of an MDL/MD2/MD3 export (and perhaps import). But, it appears to me that the market for this is already pretty crowded.
I have also looked at exporting in Trainz format. Unfortunately the format won’t be available (documented) until sometime in early ’02. Also, I am very skeptical as to the demand for such a thing. I know that many current users would be interested in this, but I really have to concentrate on those items that will produce income (I have to make a living!). Maybe someone will decide to write a freeware or shareware plug-in for 3DC that will do this.
Richard
" title="Very Happy" /><!– s:D –> andnbsp;this question is generally for Richard, can you give us some ideas on what might be next for 3dc?? andnbsp; andnbsp; andnbsp; bye…