Hi All,

3D Canvas 6.6 is underway. This will be a pretty boring release for most of you. There is only one change planned for this release and that is a new renderer.

The main benefit of this new renderer is that there should be fewer problems with drivers since the new renderer uses more common Direct3D functions than the old renderer.

The other obvious benefit of the new renderer is that the outline mode will work better (see the attached image). You will also see some performance improvements. Windows 9x/Me should see larger peformance improvements.

I have the basics of the new renderer complete. Work still needs to be done on lighting and shading. Unfortunately 3D Canvas itself isn't up and running yet, but should be soon.

I expect 3D Canvas 6.6 will be released in late January, 2004.

Richard

NewRenderer.gif (17 Kb, 1070 downloads) New Renderer

I had my first successful render in 3DC today. Not much to look at but it is a start.

Richard

3DCWithNewRenderer.gif (25 Kb, 1035 downloads)

A better view. (Note that everything is rendering in outline mode right now.)

Richard

3DCMultipleViews.gif (36 Kb, 1029 downloads)

Another benefit of 6.6 is that it will be much easier to select heavily deformed faces.

Richard

I've made some progress on lighting, materials and stability.

I came across something annoying while working on textures. Apparently textures in DirectX8 (and higher?) are associated with a specific Direct3D device and cannot be rendered by another device even if the other device has identical settings. Each of my views uses its own device so currently I have to load each texture for each view. Obviously not a good solution. The way around this is rather convoluted IMO. If anyone has a solution other then "swap chains" or the Present method's "DestWindowOverride" let me know.

Richard

3DCMaterials.gif (49 Kb, 943 downloads)

Tranclucency is almost working. I still have to depth sort the translucent objects, but that is pretty straight forward.

Richard

3DCRendererTranslucency.gif (53 Kb, 912 downloads)

I completely re-wrote the texture loading functions. A side benefit of this is that users of Windows 9x/Me should find reduced resource usage (I think).

Richard

About the multi-device problem,

in another modeler I have, the user can set a maximum texture resolution for each view. The textures that are beyond the maximum resolution are sampled down. This method allows the user to keep a main view with hi-res textures and some secondary views with draft textures. This saves both texture-ram and GDI resources. You could do the same or something similar.


hope this helps, Alex

just keep easy things easy and share the knowledge

So how's it going?

For a while I was working madly on the release because of a critical problem with ATI drivers. Now that ATI has resolved that problem I feel like I can put the release out more leisurely and take greater care in ensuring that I get it right.

I would expect that means a beta in April.

Richard

I am now expecting the beta to be out in June.

Richard

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

A quick progress update. Version 6.6 is coming along well now. There were some difficult bits but they have now mostly been resolved.

I am planning to release an Alpha of 3D Canvas 6.6 on Saturday July 3rd.

This release includes a new renderer for 3D Canvas but no other new features.

Richard