Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    what's dbrend?
    the old forms in flight was $62, but no ray-tracing. see my review
    Tom

    Public domain and shareware rendering tools:
    
    For DBW_Render, v2.0, see note 1054.  Version 1.something has appeared
    on a few users' group disks but may be hard to find.
    
    For A-render, see note 1135.  This is available online, but (my
    opinion) isn't all that good.
    
    Public domain CAD:  see note 1570.10 for mCAD v2.0.  Note 1570.*
    describes some of the tools needed to work with archived files found
    around the Easynet, and with files from the Usenet Amiga newsgroups.
    
    Using the resources of the notesfile:
    
    I guess that every so often this needs to be said.  The answers
    to some of your questions could be found by using the command
    
    	dir/title="something likely"
    
    while in this notesfile.  Substitute likely words between the quotes.
    Often it will take you a few tries, and sometimes the information
    you need is under a misleading title.  For instance, dir/title="fish"
    shows that note 1156 contains a complete listing of Fred Fish disks.
    These can be extracted, then a text editor can be used to find
    descriptions of stuff you are interested in.
    
    Don't let the above stop you, or anyone, from asking questions.  Both
    the Amiga and this notesfile can be confusing to a newcomer.  But
    the tools we have will often get you some answers very quickly.
    
    Wes Plouff
    Old-timer at 1.1 years ownership

    Re A-render:
    
    I concur with Wes' opinion.  I spend a Saturday trying to get the
    hang of it and it seems to delight in throwing roadblocks in your
    path the whole way.  I found it *very* frustrating to use.
    
    I have no experience with DBW_Render but have heard nothing but
    good.
    
    My only real experience with ray tracing is with Sculpt 3D, which
    is a commercial package.  A friend lent it to me for a few weeks
    to evaluate it, and compared to A-render, it is a dream.
    
    Gary

    
    QRT (Quick Ray Tracer) is available on PLINK, and apparently can
    render a decent image.  Sorry, I've never downloaded it, so I have
    no firsthand experience.
    
    Bear in mind that unless you can easily visualize objects in an
    XYZ coordinate system and have good spatial comprehension, the PD
    or shareware packages may be frustrating or impossible to use, since
    you are generally required to describe your geometry via a text
    file containing coordinates, textures, light and camera coordinates,
    etc.
    
    Commercial packages like Sculpt-3D allow you to 'see' your model as a
    wireframe as you create it.  Nodes are entered via the mouse in a three
    view (top, front and side) layout.  For $69 or so, you can save a
    lot of frustration.  Or you could spend the money on Valium and
    struggle with an ASCII geometry description file. :^)
                              
    Ed.

Sculpt 3D is a real nice package. Drawing in 3D is made EASY!

I just recieved a thing in the mail from Byte by Byte (Sculpt makers).

They are introducing a package called Sculpt Animate 4D (Or SA4D as they called
it). This package sounds fantastic! Many new features, rendering speed
increase, new surfaces (metal for one) etc.

Deal is ~$500.00 or ~$200.00 with Sculpt-Animate 3D trade in.


(Above from memory so may be lacking). If anyone want's more detail, let me
know and I'll bring the letter in and highlight from it.

John

    forms in flight lets you see things as you go, draw freehand, or
    specify coordinates. 
    no scripts.
    Tom