MindFormer Release Notes If users have difficulties in using or understanding the new features, please contact our technical support department at: Email: techsupport@themekit.com FAX: +44 (0)7000 790326 ******************* V2.3 3rd December 1997 ******************* (1) Triangles->Quads This new function, located in the Polygons #2 menu, allows for adjacent triangle polygons to be combined to form a quad polygon. This function can perform powerful polygon reduction when used to simplify an imported model composed of triangles. Simply select all polygons in the model and call this function! (2) Centre Rotate This new function, located in the Polygons #2 menu, allows polygons to be rotated around their centres. This can be performed interactively or parametrically using the Z component of the Orientation parameter in the Parameters Information Page. (3) Built-in support for the Dynasight Position Tracker from Origin Please contact Themekit Technical Support for configuration details. (4) Centre Rotate Polygon(s) function. This is located in the Polygons #2 menu. This function rotates polygon(s) around their centroids. (5) Join Polygon(s) function. This is located in the Polygons #2 menu. This function will join polygons which share a single continuous edge. For example, at its simplest, this function can be used to join two adjacent triangles. (6) New video modes: 800x300x2 (stereo interlaced), 1024x384x2 (stereo interlaced). These new modes allow stereoscopic images to be created and then saved as BMP bitmaps. (7) Addition of Save As Interlaced button. This button, when selected, allows stereoscopic video modes to save out to complete interlaced bitmaps when saving the screen (as opposed to left and right eye image bitmaps). This button is located in the Simulation Time Information Page. (8) Miscellaneous improvements and minor bug fixes as reported by users. ******************* V2.2 30th July 1997 ******************* (1) Improved screen saving. Stereoscopic video modes now save both left and eye video bitmaps which may then be combined by the user using utilities such as COMBINE from StereoGraphics Corp. The batch processing method, when used in stereoscopic modes, will use the fifth character of the filename as either 'L' or 'R' to indicate either the Left or Right bitmap. This limits the number of batch steps to 1000. Monoscopic batch processing can still export up to 10000 steps. (2) Improved SelA to SelB viewing. The existing method has been improved mathematically. In addition, the user may now continually view from SelA to SelB by holding down both the Alt and Shift keys when the cursor is over a 3D quad. Note that if there is a Current Vertex, the position of this will help to specify an 'Up' direction to determine the roll of the view. Note that the Current Vertex should not be the same vertex to which SelA or SelB are attached. Using this new method, the user may attach SelA and SelB to a line of sight on a surface of an animated model, with the Current Vertex on an appropriate vertex, and hence determine the viewpoint from the line of sight whilst undergoing a particular animation. An example of use would be to determine what type of view a gymnast would have when performing a particular manouevre. By attaching SelA and SelB to point along the line of sight of the head of the animated gymnast model, and selecting the current vertex toward the top of the head, the view can be 'watched' by holding down the Alt and Shift keys together whilst the animation takes place. Another example may be to determine the view from a car in a fairground ride. For best results, turn off the visibility of the selectors from the Render Options Information Page. (3) Added 'No Collision' Polygon Attribute A 'No Collision' attribute has been added to polygon and SPL information pages. Polygons with the No Collision attribute set will not cause object or navigation collision. An example for use would be for the surface of water where the polygons might be transparent (we recommend using hash tinting with the True Colour attribute set) and to allow the user to navigate through the surface of the water. (4) Added 'Invisible' Polygon Attribute This attribute, when set, will cause polygons not to be visible. This can be useful when limiting the user navigation in a world. Polygons, although invisible, can still detect collision detection, and therefore can be used as an invisible navigation boundary. Once the user sets this attribute for a polygon, the polygon will be removed from 3D displays. In order to allow the user to continue working with such polygons, the 3D Render Options information page now includes an attribute which cancels the effects of the invisibility, making all invisible polygons visible. This now allows the user to select the polygons from the 3D displays. (5) Sphere Mapping method for textures. This command has been added to the second polygons menu which may be accessed by pressing the Page Down key when in the initial polygons menu. ion 3nd poly menu. This command allows a texture to be mapped using a spherical mapping method whereby a recangular bitmap is 'wrapped' around the selected polygons in a particular orientation and with the 'seam' (where the edges of the bitmap meet) specified in a particular place. The position of the selectors (A, B and C) specify the orientation and seam position for the mapping. Selector A (red) specifies the centre of the 'sphere' projection. Selector B (green) should be placed relative to Selector A such that the direction from A to B represents the 'up' vector of the projection (or the direction of the top of the spherical projection). Selector C (yellow) should be placed relative to Selector A such that the direction from A to C indicates where the 'seam' of the projection should be (the seam is where the two opposite sides of the bitmap meet after being wrapped around). (6) Replace (relative) and Replace (absolute) texture mapping methods. These commands have been added to the second polygons menu which may be accessed by pressing the Page Down key when in the initial polygons menu. Replace (abs) causes the texture bitmap of the polygon(s) to be replaced with the new bitmap whilst retaining the same texture coordinates for the polygon's vertices. Replace (rel) causes the texture bitmap of the polygon(s) to be replaced with the new bitmap but differs from Replace (abs) in that the texture coordinates of the polygons's vertices will be modified so that the new bitmap (regardless of its dimensions) will be positioned in the same manner as the old bitmap. Note, however, that differing tiling dimensions can cause the overall appearance to change. Additionally, these mapping methods are available as options when setting polygon textures from the SPL Information Page by pressing the Texture Set button. (7) Generic Grid creation now has an option to either colour or texture map the grid polygons based on the colour/texture of the relief map. We intend to enhance this method in the next release to allow index-relief in addition to the current intensity-relief method. (8) Various small bugs reported by users have been fixed. ******************* V2.1 12th June 1997 ******************* (1) Added Face-Map texture mapping of polygons. This facility was added due to demand from game developers. This command has been added to the Polygons Menu and also to the Texture Information Page. Mainly for use with four-sided polygons, Face-Mapping is a useful tool to map the four corners of a texture bitmap to the polygon vertices. The bottom edge of the bitmap will be aligned to the current edge of the polygon. Note that this mapping method will produce texture warping unless the resultant polygon is split into triangles. For non-warping mapping, use the Auto-Map facility, also in the Polygons menu. (2) Added Centroid Scale Polygon. This facility allows for either the current polygon or the polygons of the SPL to be scaled around their centre point. The centre point is calculated as the average of the polygon vertex positions. This command has been added to the Polygons Menu. (3) Added BOOLEAN Surface Operators. This facility allows for boolean union, intersection and subtraction of object surfaces. These commands have been added to the Surfaces Menu and are described below. Boolean Union - Current This command will take the current surface and the last surface and produce a union of these surfaces. The current surface is modified to be the resulting union and the last surface is deleted. Boolean Union - Selected Surfaces This command will create a single surface from the union of the surfaces in the SSL. Boolean Intersection - Current This command will take the current surface and the last surface and produce the intersection of these surfaces. The current surface is modified to be the resulting intersection and the last surface is deleted. Boolean Intersection - Selected Surfaces This command will create a single surface from the intersection of the surfaces in the SSL. Boolean Subtraction - Current This command will subtract the LAST surface from the current surface. This will result in 'holes' in the current surface where the last surface was removed. Boolean Subtraction - Selected Surfaces - Take Current from SSL This command will subtract the current surface from the selected surfaces. The 'imprint' of the subtracted surface will retain the material from the subtracted surface. Boolean Subtraction - Selected Surfaces - Take SSL from Current This command will subtract the surfaces in the SSL from the current surface. The 'imprint' of the subtracted surfaces will retain the materials from the subtracted surfaces. Note 1: The boolean algorithms have been designed to work with surfaces which are totally enclosed volumes. However, non-enclosed surfaces may be used although the results may be unpredictable. Note 2: Boolean surface operators are very effective ways of rapidly building models. However, care must be taken when using these operators due to the increase in the number of polygons in the model. Note 3: For very complex boolean operations you may need to increase the Max BSP Tree Depth parameter in the Parameters Information Page. ***************** V2.0 1st May 1997 ***************** Released as part of the MindRender VR Explorer Kit (VREK).