Hi All,

3D Canvas 6.6 Beta 2 is now available:

Download 3D Canvas 6.6

What's New in 3D Canvas 6.6

o) New 3D Renderer

The 3D Canvas render has been completely re-written so as to allow for the new rendering features of today's 3D graphics cards


o) Real-time True Shadows

The 3D Canvas renderer now can render true shadows in real time.


o) Bump mapping

The new 3D Canvas renderer supports Dot Product 3 bump mapping.


o) Cartoon Rendering

Cartoon Rendering is supported by the new 3D Canvas renderer.


o) Anisotropic Filtering

Anisotropic texture filtering is now supported.


o) Improved support for Targa and PNG textures

3D Canvas now loads Targa and PNG textures more quickly.


o) Improved point and face selection

The selection of points and faces on heavily deformed objects is now more accurate.


o) Improved Outline Rendering Mode

Outline mode now renders lines more clearly.


o) Hardware Anti-aliasing of rendered snapshots and videos (3D Canvas Pro only)

3D Canvas Pro can now render snapshots and videos using hardware anti-aliasing.


Note that if you have an older computer some features may not be supported by your video card.

3D Canvas 6.6 can be installed alongside 3D Canvas 6.5. There should be no conflicts. It should be possible to open models created in version 6.6 with version 6.5.

One important note: Some 3DC/3DO files created prior to version 6.0 may not load properly. This will be the case in the final version also since there were some older versions of operations that couldn't realistically be implemented with the new renderer. Odds are this will not happen or when it does the problems will be small.

Also note that only Windows XP/2000 are supported with this version of 3D Canvas. There is no longer support for Windows 9x/Me. As many of you know Microsoft dropped support for Windows Me last December and Windows 9x a while back. That being said, you may find that 3D Canvas works just fine with Window 9x/Me, but it isn't "officially" supported.

This is the largest change in 3D Canvas since 3D Canvas 3.0. As a result there are likely many issues.

Known problems in this Beta Release
------------------------------------

o) Bumpmapping does not work properly on first generation Radeon based video cards.

o) Cartoon rendering does not work properly on some NVIDIA GeForce FX based video cards.

Plug-ins created for release 6.5.0.6 will NOT work with this release.

Richard

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Amabilis Support,

A few more things:

I'm not entirely happy with the new outline mode. I think it works better than in version 6.5, but it does not work as well as I had anticipated or as well as I had it working earlier in the 3D Canvas development. I know it can be done better. If anyone has any specific suggestions let me know.

The two problems I have found are odd. It almost seems as though they are driver bugs. I was hoping updating the renderer would result in fewer "issues".

Real time shadows work well, but the back side of objects does not look very good. I've seen the same rendering issues in other real time implementations and it is usually hidden by clever lighting (linear or quadratic attenuation is a good choice) or fog. If anyone has any suggestion on how to improve them I'd like to know.

I've now tested this on NVIDIA TNT, NVIDIA GeForce FX, ATI Radeon and ATI Radeon 9800 Pro based computers. They all work pretty well it seems with the exceptions mentioned above.

During development I tested everything at least once, but I haven't tested everything recently so some things could definitely be broken. Also, I haven't done any real "modelling" yet. I'll be interested to see how this version holds up to true modelling sessions. Note that if you begin a model in version 6.6 you will be able to open it in version 6.5 if you find 6.6 has too many problems.

Richard

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Amabilis Support,

One more thing. Loading older models to see how they look in 6.6 would be a good test.

Richard

Plugins for 6.6 beta are now at:

http://www31.brinkster.com/decapod

However, due to display driver problems, I have not been able to test them yet - the recompilation worked OK though.

Hello Richard,

unfortunately the new version has some problems to coexist alongside with 6.5.05 After install the existing 6.5.05 professional is downgraded and both version appear as freeware versions. After entering the lic code in 6.6, both versions now appear as professional versions. So there seems some unwanted interaction between both versions.
Btw I have installed in different drives, and different named directories.

Roman

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Roman,

I probably should have mentioned that the two releases share registry entries so if you have something set for one it is set for the other. Hopefully there won't be any resulting problems. I don't think there will be except for the requirement to re-enter your license code.

Richard

First I failed to find my stored lic-number, second I did a typo, but in the end everything works fine.
Overall only user related problems as usual.
It seems as if the shared reg-entries affects also the startup after system-failure?

Roman

Paul,

It's odd that it work on my TNT2 and not yours, but I think I have found a solution. I think it may have something to do with my "test" renders being hidden from view.

All,

I've removed Beta 1 and replaced it with Beta 2 which I hope will resolve the problem that Paul had. It also corrects a rendering problem that can sometimes occur.

The plug-ins that Paul provided for 6.6 Beta 1 should work with Beta 2.

Richard

I should have mentioned that you can download Beta 2 here: http://www.3d-canvas.com/downloads/3DCanvas6600Beta2.zip

Richard

Beta 2 has got me working...

my original 6.6 plugins and operations didn't work.

This has been fixed and a new version is being uploaded now to the website above.

Good to hear it is up and running for you Paul.

I could have sworn that the plug-ins would work.

Richard

I forgot to say that bugs found with this release should be posted on this thread. Thanks.

Richard

I wish I had an "embarrassed" smiley available to me right now.

I figured out why cartoon rendering was working on my TNT2 but not on my GeForce FX (and no one else's computers either). I neglected to include the shaders and textures required for cartoon rendering in the install.

I'll be adding the shaders and textures to the next beta. In the mean time you should be able to get cartoon rendering working by creating a "Shaders" folder in your "3D Canvas" folder (in Program Files) and add these two files:

Silhouette.vsh

CellShading.vsh

Also you'll need to add these two files to your "3D Canvas\System" folder:

CellShadingBandNarrow.bmp

CellShadingBandWide.bmp

Richard

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Amabilis Support,

Thanks for that Richard - I had put it down to my bottom of the range card just not being good enough.
Is there any way to increase the bump fx - I've only tried a few tests with a grey base colour with full white and full black line drawn on to it - can these be bumped any further ? Also the fx jumps from "out" to "in" as I move the camera around.
There might be a bug if you try to use the cartoon render on auto smoothed objects - not to sure but I think you only get the cage and not the smooth. (not really a problem for me as 99.9% of the time I use the outline mode)

I seem to be able to run the 'freeware' version OK but when I install the 'Pro version' and then run the 3DC.exe, the program won't get past the initial splash screen. Here is the error log created;

26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Begin 3D Canvas Log
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Basic Install Valid
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Special Offer Displayed
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Single 3D Canvas Instance Running
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | 3D Canvas Scene Graph Created
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Registry Entries Created
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | File System Object Initialized
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Capicom validated
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | My Documents Folder Found: "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\3D Canvas 6.6"
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Drive Selected
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Short File Name of My Documents Found
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Installation Check #2 Succeeded
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | 3D Canvas Folder in My Documents Created
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | 3D Canvas\Media Folder in My Documents Created
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | 3D Canvas\Media\Textures Folder in My Documents Created
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | 3D Canvas\Media\Objects Folder in My Documents Created
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Folder Copying Complete
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | File Copying Complete
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Folders Created
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Version Determined
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Help File Set
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | File Recovery Attempted
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | System Is Valid
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Splash Screen Shown
26/07/2004 | 9:48:18 AM | Direct3D Initialized

The system specs on my work PC are:
P4 1.8Ghz, 512 RAM, Windows 2000 Pro with Svc Pack 4,
and all it has is an onboard Intel 82845G graphics controller.
All previous versions work fine 6.5.0.1 and also 6.5.0.5 with no problems.

Any ideas as to what may be happening here Richard ?

Alan,

I don't believe there is any way to increase the bump fx (short of using vertex shaders) but I could be wrong. It may make a difference if you have large differences at edges - say a transition from white to black (or the reverse).

The camera moving issue may actually be an "issue". So far it appears to occur only when the "main" light point light of the sceen gets significantly outside of the camera view, but I am not sure exactly why.

I had never intended to have auto-smoothing work with cartoon rendering and figured nobody would ever try it. But I guess I was wrong. I have now "fixed" this and it will be in the upcoming beta 3.

Vulcan,

I just tried Beta 3 on an Intel 82865G and it worked fine. I'm not sure what it could be. It could be that I fixed something between beta 2 and beta 3 but I don't think so. I assume when you said "run the 3dc.exe" you actually were running 3D Canvas from the start menu by picking "3D Canvas 6.6"? I would try uninstalling/reinstalling the Pro Upgrade and 3D Canvas and see if that helps. When re-installing try running 3D Canvas before installing the Pro upgrade to see if the Pro upgrade is indeed causing the problem.

Richard

I am curious to know how many people have tried the beta and if anyone has done any "real" modelling with it yet.

Richard

quote:

---

Originally posted by Amabilis Support:
Vulcan,

I just tried Beta 3 on an Intel 82865G and it worked fine. I'm not sure what it could be. It could be that I fixed something between beta 2 and beta 3 but I don't think so. I assume when you said "run the 3dc.exe" you actually were running 3D Canvas from the start menu by picking "3D Canvas 6.6"? I would try uninstalling/reinstalling the Pro Upgrade and 3D Canvas and see if that helps. When re-installing try running 3D Canvas before installing the Pro upgrade to see if the Pro upgrade is indeed causing the problem.

Richard

---

All seems to be OK now. I really don't know what was causing the problem so I started afresh with a clear registry etc and it fixed the problem, whatever it was.

Don't know if you would call it real modelling but my last two or three models dino head 2 , remote and monster head have all been done in the betas (in fact I have uninstalled the 6.5xx version )

edit

sorry - I quoted rather than edited my post and didn't check - all better now

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Alan,

I downloaded the files for correcting the cartoon rendering, but it still doesn't appear to be working. When I try to move the camera nothing happens. It looks as though that when the pane gets paint messages it's not drawing anything. If I drag a window over it, it is not redrawing the invalidated areas except for filling it with black. I also did this with the HEL.