From: menzies@CAM.ORG (Stephen Menzies)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics
Subject: Re: Latest 3D packages, how do they fair?
Date: 18 Nov 92 18:42:12 GMT
Organization: Communications Accessibles Montreal, Quebec Canada

dyer@nrlvx1.nrl.navy.mil (Doug Dyer) writes:

>With the latest in 3D wars, has anyone compared or reviewed these?:
>Caligari24
>Aladdin 4D (er, 3D?)
>Real 3D

>I use Imagine2.0, but hate the interface.  Im looking for an EASY 3D package
>since I will not be the only one using it (maybe comparable to lightwave) but
>with lotsa power.  Does Caligari24 actually ray-trace?  I have heard wonderful
>things about this, like it is the "lightwave without the dongle" answer.

>Some areas of interest that conscern me are:
>	DCTV support
>	A4000/AGA compatibliity & support                                

>Thanks for any help :),
>-- 
>Doug Dyer   *    STI   *    dyer@nrlvax.nrl.navy.mil    | "(2B) | !(2B) -> ?"
	
Caligari24, Octree's lower end product supports DCTV fo output as well as
loading DCTV images directly for texture maps. As far as the 4000's AGA,
they're working on it, though I'm not sure if it'll be in this release 
or shortly there after.
Caligari24 will be , i am told, $399USD (Caligari2 owners, $99USD) and
will ship near the end of November.
The C24 version is 32bit and supports many framebuffers including:
DCTV3&4,
Ham-E
Harlequin
IV24,
FC24,
Vista, Targa and possibly others.
The resolution will be framebuffer dependent.
It will directly import DCTV, IFF24, and Rendition image files for textures.
Other features (that I can think of right now):
Read Imagine/Geo/Lwave/ and DXF object files,
Free-Form Deformation lattices in Modeller (heirarchical),
Heirarchical animation,
Visible curve/linear spline paths with key points marked on spline,
Object motion saving/reloading (into animations),
A fully interactive graphical animation time-editor with:
	-keyframe shifting
	-heirarchical manager,
	-zoom/scroll (it's supposed to make it)
	-channel expansion/contraction (in the works)
	-(de)acelleration between keys for all transforms
	-renderer key frames
	-channel deletion
	-cycle, repetition 
	-tracking
	  
-scene display: invisible/b-box/heirarchical b-box/ wireframe
..there's more , but later......

It's still not ready for release but I have permission from Octree
to say what I want about the soft at this time. In fact , I just gave
a demo of Broadcast3.0 at CARS (a montreal amiga users club).
	
You might want to know more about Broadcast3.0 ver C24. The only
features that I can think of that Broadcast has over C24 is:
AFFD's (animated heirarchical free-form deformation lattices),
It's faster (fp and 040 versions),
Slide resolutions upto 8000x8000
Transport controller support.
I don't know the price of Broadcast3.0 at this time. When I do, I'll
post it.
	
Octree is now on the internet and can be contacted directly:
Caligari@well.sf.ca.us
	
or:1955 Landings Dr,
Mountain View, CA
USA 94043
tel# 415-390-9600
    `
And I forgot, it's not a raytracer, it's a scanliner with shadow volumns.
I creates reflections by rendering cubic environment maps from the 
position of an object either once, or for each frame. No refraction...

-stephen
-- 
Stephen Menzies
#Internet: menzies@CAM.ORG
#Fidonet : Stephen Menzies @ 1:167/265
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics