Conference hydra::amiga_v1

3978.0. "Pixel 3D" by SALEM::LEIMBERGER () Tue Jul 31 1990 13:58

    I have been playing with Pixel 3D for a week now. Pixel 3D will
    trace a bitmap file, and output a file compatable with Turbo Silver,
    Sculpt 3D, VideoScape 3D,and DXF Autocad files. I have used it with
    Turbo Silver but do not own the other packages. What I did was;
    	a)Scanned in the word Amiga from the cover of byte.
    	b)pulled the scan into DpaintIII,and filled the text in with the
    		background color,leaving a rectangle of white around it. 
    	c)Input this to Pixel 3D with extrude set to 30
    	d)Pulled this into turbo silver for rendering.
    The result is a block with the word amiga punched through it. I
    believe that it could have been done much better but, my knowledge
    of Turbo Silver,and rendering times limited the final result. In
    truth a friend actually did the final pic on a 3000. I am impressed
    at how well this product performs. If anyone is interested I could
    render a file for the other formats an upload them to the net. The
    files for Turbo Silver will be uploaded to 
    		Crista::amiga:Pix3D-sample.lzh today. This file contains
    the cell file for Turbo,and the ILBM output by silver for iff viewing.
    I did not retouch any of these files so you will get a good idea
    of what the program is capable of. I am looking into using the point
    reduction functions of InterFont to see if I can cut rendering times,
    and get a cleaner source file for turbo. Anybody know it this will
    help along these lines? 
    	I compared this program with the other leading tracing program
    Dig* W**** and found it to be quicker. It may not have as many features
    but it gets the job done quickly,and with less problems. The user
    interface is very simple, so much it tend to hide the power behind
    this product.
    							bill  

    Point Reduce does do a good job of removing duplicate points thus
    making the object file smaller and decreasing rendering time.xD
    
    mark

    Last night I traced a bitmap of Santa Clause. The intent was to
    see how Pixel 3D handeled the multicolor image. When I rendered
    it in silver all the colors were there. However if you select 
    color in the attributes menu you lose the benefit of the multi
    color image. I don't understand yet how turbo silver deals with
    a multicolor image. Can these colors reflect upon each other?
    Another problem I have with the traces is actually a Turbo Silver
    question. How do you move an image on the screen? most times the
    image rendered by Pixel 3D appears to be to large for the screen.
    I scale it down but cannot seem to move it so that I get the image,and
    the reflection in the picture. Do you use the Camera for this?
     Above I said appears to be too large for the screen because in reality
    I believe it is the same size as the traced bitmap. However rendering
    time on a 2000 make me unwilling to try many variations. 
    								bill

You can give individual FACES color, reflectivity, and filter attributes.  
When you select color on a multicolored object you should be in FACE
mode, or I am told, the object's faces will change to the color
selected in OBJECT or GROUP mode.  Correct me if I am wrong, guys.
I usually use face mode when I look at objects that I didn't create.

I move the camera or change its focal length to change the apparent
size of an object in a FIXED scene.  You can also resize the object if all 
you want to do is change its size.  The shorter the focal length of the 
camera, the more distortion of the scene.

mark