Hi All,

I have begun work on 3D Canvas 7.0. I'll be using this topic to report my progress.

First, I thought I should let you all know what I have in mind for 7.0.

It appears that 3D Canvas will run on Windows Vista with little or no changes. I had planned in 7.0 to do some major changes to make sure that 3D Canvas would have no problems with Vista. Since that's no longer an issue, I've decided to make 7.0 a "function" release and save the big changes for a later date.

I spent around a year re-writing between 6.6.1 and 6.6.5. I'd like to make the work on 7.0 a little easier for me, and not break 6.6.5's improving stability.

I haven't decided exactly what will be in 7.0, but I have had quite a few suggestions and I'll be looking at them in detail.

Since I'm not doing any complicated re-writing, I expect 7.0 to be available sometime in the next few months.

Richard

I should mention that everyone is welcome to comment on progress in this topic.

The price of 3D Canvas Pro will remain unchanged with 7.0 at $69.95. The version upgrade will cost $34.95.

Anyone who purchased either 3D Canvas Pro, 3D Canvas Plus, or a version upgrade March 19th, 2005 (the release date of 6.6.1.0) or later will receive a free upgrade to version 7.0.

This upgrade will be a bit complicated since existing license codes will not work with 7.0. I will likely have to re-issue license codes to those eligible for a free upgrade.

The first new feature of 3D Canvas 7.0 is support for Direct3D DDS textures.

The background image function now supports additional image formats. All image formats that can be used for textures can now be used as background images as well.

I've modified the freeware version to support the same texture formats that the Pro/Plus versions support.

quote:

Originally posted by Amabilis Support:
I have begun work on 3D Canvas 7.0. I'll be using this topic to report my progress.
Richard

Richard, eventually, are you using .NET 2.0?

quote:

Originally posted by Amabilis Support:
Anyone who purchased either 3D Canvas Pro, 3D Canvas Plus, or a version upgrade March 19th, 2005 (the release date of 6.6.1.0) or later will receive a free upgrade to version 7.0.

I don't quite understand the sentence. The free upgrade is for those with licence bought after March 19th, 2005?

quote:

Originally posted by Amabilis Support:
The first new feature of 3D Canvas 7.0 is support for Direct3D DDS textures.

The Microsoft DirectDraw Surface (.dds) file format stores textures and cubic environment maps, with or without mipmaps. It was introduced with DirectX 7.0.

What DDS version is compatible with 3DC 7.0? (volume texture?)

I opened a subject on DDS as I have questions on this matter.
http://amabilis.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8846020084/m/57310727731

As of right now, 3D Canvas will just support plain-old DDS textures. Think of them as an alternative to TGA except they can't be automatically converted to MSTS format.

Yes, everyone who purchased March 19th, 2005 or later will receive a free upgrade to 3D Canvas 7.x.

.NET will happen eventually, but there doesn't seem to be any hurry anymore now that Vista won't be a problem. There really isn't that much of a benefit to it anyhow, in my opinion.

Today I added the ability to get nearer to objects in perspective view.

This is 6.6



This is 7.0



From my perspective (no pun intended) this is a big improvement. I tried to get this to work a few years ago, but couldn't figure it out. It was quite simple to do, but I was pretty inexperienced when I tried to do it last time.

quote:

Originally posted by Amabilis Support:
The first new feature of 3D Canvas 7.0 is support for Direct3D DDS textures.

Btw, will dds be the preferred texture format for KRS?

quote:

Originally posted by Amabilis Support:
Today I added the ability to get nearer to objects in perspective view.

... which is good to see some details.

I hope the 6.x mode will still be available (useful to check the profile of a shape. For example, looking at the cross-section and moving along a train engine length, checking a complex roof, checking how faces come together).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DOM107,

It will still be possible to see through an object as in 6.x. You just need to get closer for it to happen. You probably won't see much difference that way.

I managed to get Solid Outline rendering working better. You may have to look closely at the picture, but it is better. Really! (The left picture is 6.6.5)

It's always nice to have more screen space when modelling so I've added the ability to hide 3D Canvas' title bar.

I've added the ability to define custom fields for objects (and materials - more on that later).

You set the new field names on the Properties form:



And then every object has the new field(s):



These fields can be used for anything you want.

Hi Richard,

Do you know what you are going to implement in 7.0? Or, to start with, some likely features?

Nope, not a clue.

Well, actually I have some ideas, but nothing firm.

The Object Properties window now displays a list of materials used on the selected object.



Right now, this material list is static. I haven't decided what else to do with it in this release. Eventually I'd like it to be a material editor of sorts.

I decided to go all out and make the material attributes editable.



I still have a lot of work to do on this feature.

The changes I'm making to materials (this one and several others) probably will be the major feature of 7.0.

Of course there will be other enhancements. I'm just not sure which enhancements are a priority and which ones can realistically be implemented in this release.

Today I "prototyped" (for lack of a better word) the 3D Canvas 7.0 Object Properties window. This is how I expect it will be (more or less) in 7.0.



If you look carefully, you'll see a few new, not yet announced, features. I should have some sort of prize for the person who guesses the new unannounced featues based on this window. (Hint: there are 3, plus one other briefly mentioned above.)

I've determined, in theory, how I'm going to implement these features so I'm pretty sure they will be in 7.0. But there are no guarantees. If I hit a roadblock I may have to pull some of them out of the release.

So, I guess this is a preview, of sorts, of some of the new features I'm expecting to be in 7.0.