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   From: cht@athena.mit.edu (Chester Liu)
   Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
   Date: 20 Aug 92 01:41:57 GMT
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   Since we're taking about rendering programs, I thought it might be
   a good time to ask a few questions.

   I've been considering getting one of these programs and from what
   I read in MacUser and MacWorld reviews, I have narrowed it down
   to:  StrataVision 3d, Infini-D, and Ray Dream.

   StrataVision supposedly has the most features and beautiful output
   but is slowest at rendering and is somewhat hard to learn.

   Infini-D doesn't have real spline curves and vertex editting.

   Ray Dream's output is somewhat poor and thus requires buying 
   another program called JAG.  Also has annoying interface with lots
   of modules.


   *** Can anyone who has one or more of these programs please
   comment on how they like it and whether my suppositions are true?


   Thanks and please reply any way you like!
   Chester Liu

   cht@athena.mit.edu

I'm obviously biased here, so I won't say too much.  I will point out that
Infini-D 2.0 addresses the main complaints that reviewers had with our
previous versions (speed and output quality), while maintaining our
traditional strengths (ease of use and interactivity).  The shader in 2.0 has
been completely rewritten, producing what we believe is truly stunning
output, 2-3 times faster than the old version, and the ray tracer is up to 9
times faster in some situations, making Infini-D 2.0 one of the fastest 3D
programs on the Mac.  Infini-D is also the only mac 3D program, as far as I
know, that can do 3D morphing or allow you to model interactively in
Illustrator or FreeHand, if you wish to.

While its true that we don't provide vertex-level editing a la MacroModel, I
don't believe that StrataVision or Ray Dream do either, although I could be
wrong on that.  Infini-D 2.0 does allow you to use splines as the basis of 3D
shapes, although the splines are converted to line segments and stored as
such.  I'm told that although they provide a bezier curve tool in
Stratavision, they do the same sort of conversion to line segments that we do
in Infini-D.  Again, I have only word of mouth on this.

Both StrataVision 3D and Ray Dream Designer are excellent tools, and I
know many 3D illustrators who use all three of the products you are
considering (and a few others as well) regularly, and wouldn't give up any of
them.  Its our feeling, though (and may reviews have backed us up here), that
Infini-D is the best starting point when getting into 3D on the Mac, as well
as being a thoroughly professional-grade tool.

If you have any specific technical questions about Infini-D, I'd be happy to
answer them via e-mail.

								Sincerely,
								-Peter Lee
--
/-------------------- Peter E. Lee, Software Conductor ----------------------\
|                       Specular International, Inc.                         |
|                    lee@cs.umass.edu or (413) 256-1329                      |
\-------- Beauty is 24 bits deep, plus eight bits of alpha channel ----------/
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps