rronkko@csc.fi (09/12/90)
Because people have lately been asking questions about Real3D, I decided to
phone RealSoft and asked, if they could post a description of their program.
Unfortunately they do not currently have access to internet, so I promised
to post the notice for them. Here it is:
(Please NO E-mail to me! I do not work for them, just spreading info!)
****************************************************************************
Real 3D FEATURES
----------------
Real 3D is design and animation program for producing high quality,
realistic pictures of three dimensional objects. It provides an impressive
set of advanced features including:
Ray Tracing A ray tracing of Real 3D is strongly based on the
physical reality of the real world. Real 3D
produces pictures by simulating the laws of physics,
and consiquently they represent reality with
astonishing accuracy.
Speed Innovative methods and new ray tracing algorithms
make Real 3D really fast. When using fastest ray tracing
mode, rendering time is typically from 1 to 15 minutes.
Hierarchical With Real 3D you can create hierarchical objects.
Object This means that objects you create can be made of
Oriented subobjects, and these subobjects may have their
Construction own substructure and so on. This kind of a tree
of Objects structure is well known in the context of disk
operating systems, in which you can create directories
inside directories. In Real 3D counterparts of these
directories are used to collect objects into logical
groups.
This kind of approach makes for example object
modifications extremely easy, because it is possible
to perform operations to logical entities. If you
want to copy a DOS directory, you don't have to
take care of the files and directories inside it.
In the same manner, you can stretch a complex object in
Real 3D as easily as one part of it.
True Solid Real 3D includes a true solid modeler. Solid model is the
Model most sophisticated way to represent three dimensional
objects. This modeling technique requires much computing
power and therefore it has earlier been used only in
enviroments, which are many times faster than Amiga.
Now it is possible to Amiga owners to reach all the
advantages of solid model, thanks to ultimate
optimizations carried out when developing Real 3D.
Smoothly Curved In addition to plane surfaces, Real 3D includes several
Surfaces curved surfaces, such as ball, cylinder, cone and
hyperboloid. This means that no matter how much you
enlarge a ball created by Real 3D, you don't find
any edges or corners on its surface. Furthermore,
this makes the program much faster. And what is most
important, the produced pictures look really good.
Boolean Solid model allows Boolean operations between objects.
Operations It is possible, for example, to split an object into
two pieces and move the pieces apart so that the inner
structure of the object is revealed.
Operations can also be done so that the properties of
the material of the target object are changed. By using
a brilliant cylinder one can drill a brilliant hole into
a matt object. Operations are a powerful way to create
and modify objects. Especially in modeling technical
objects these Boolean operations are indispensable.
Properties of A user of Real 3D is not restricted to use some basic
Surfaces surface brilliancies such as matt or shiny. Instead,
the light reflection properties can be freely adjusted
from absolute matt to totally mirrorlike, precisely
to the desired level.
Properties of Due to solid model, it is possible to create objects
Materials from different materials, which have suitable physical
properties. Just as surface brilliancy, also transparency
of a material can be adjusted without any restrictions.
Even light refraction properties are freely adjustable
so that it is possible to create optical devices from
glass lenses. These devices act precisely as their
real counterparts: a magnifying glass in Real 3D world
really magnifies!
Texture Mapping The texture mapping properties of Real 3D are not
restricted to a typical chequered pattern: Any IFF
picture can be used to paint objects. You can create
pictures with your favorite painting program as well
as with a video digitizer or a scanner. For example, by
digitizing a wood filament pattern, it is easy to create
wooden objects looking very realistic.
Pictures can be located precisely to desired places,
with desired sizes and directions.
Real 3D offers as many as seven texture mapping methods,
including parallel, cylinder, ball and spiral projections.
Light Sources Unlimited number of light sources of desired color and
brightness. The only restriction is amount of memory.
Animation As well as you can create sigle pictures, you can
Support create series of pictures, animations. Real 3D includes
also sofware for representing these animations
interactively. Animation representation can be directed
by a script language from ascii files or even from
keyboard. Instead of looping animations you can define
infinitely many ways to represent your pictures. Therefore
you can create animations from a small number of pictures
by displaying them various ways.
Rendering Real 3D includes several different rendering tecniques:
Techniques a real time wireframe model, a hidden line wireframe model,
a high speed one light source ray tracing model,
a non-shadow-casting ray tracing model and a perfect ray
tracing model. You can select either a HAM display mode
with 4096 colors or a grey scale display mode offering
higher resolution. Also version with 16 million color
rendering (24 bits output) will become available during
November 1990.
Availability When writing this document (6.9.1990), marketing of
Real 3D is already started in Europe with a little
lower price than that of Sculpt 4D. The distribution
in the USA is not yet arranged. For further information
of Real 3D, please contact:
REALSOFT KY
KP 9, SF-35700 VILPPULA
FINLAND
Tel. +358-34-48390
****************************************************************************