Re: Furry 3D

[P3D Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

There are a lot of people using ray tracing software to make 3D. It's a
freeware program but requires lots of learning, reading books, etc. Once
it's learned, it is still very tedious to create the objects and scenes with
it. Some of my friends who use Ray Tracing recently switched to Caligari
TrueSpace 2 which is not free but is the best 3D for low cost available. It
is much easier to use than Ray Tracing and offers more tools and control. It
does take a bit of learning though like most complex software.

They have an SE vesion for around $100 and a low cost upgrade to the full
program. It is recommended to get the SE and then upgrade, both for the
reduced cost and for the additional software that is part of the packages.
Creating stereo images of an object is easy since you simply duplicate the
one object and place it some distance horizontally and save it as a stereo
pair. You have complete control of camera placement, lighting and even
animation. I have played with a demo of the program and have learned only
portions of the whole program, enough to tell me this is a good program to
get. Following is a quote from a friend who has it.


>TrueSpace/SE is version 1 and so lacks some of the features 
>of version 2 but it still is great...
>
>Inside the package is a coupon to upgrade to TrueSpace 2 for $299.00...
>
>Buying version 1 and then upgrading to version 2 would give you 
>TrueSapce 2 for around $400.00......a savings of around $150.00 off of 
>the Egghead price of TrueSpace 2.
>
>There are several texture map libraries in version 1 that version 2 doesn't 
>have...
>
>The one feature that version 1 lacks that 2 has is Boolean Object 
>Subtraction......
>
>Oh well......for $100.00 it is great!!!
>

Another program to consider, which I have heard good things about is Ray
Dream Designer 3. It is also inexpensive and full of features. I haven't
used it so can't offer any comparisons.


>these extraorinary freeview images blew him away and he'd love to make
>some himself, would anyone be kind enough to mail him and let him know
>which software etc he needs, and let the rest of us know via the mailing
>list. :)
Larry Berlin

Email: lberlin@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.sonic.net/~lberlin/


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