Background music is Copyright © 1996, 1997 by Michael D. Walthius. All Rights Reserved.
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the manual discusses rendering. trueSpace allows the user to render
an object, a scene or render a scene to a file. The render object and
render scene features render to the screen and can not be saved in
any of the typical image formats such as .bmp, .tga, etc. 
Objects
can, of course, be saved in 3D formats. Scenes can be saved in
Caligari's .scn format and in the VRML format .wrl. When the render
scene to file is selected, the adjacent dialog box opens. Image
formats supported are .bmp, .tga or .jpg. Animation format supported
are .avi and .flc. There is also a .tim option. Resolution may be up
to 8,192 X 8,192. There are several fixed options available for both
NTSC and PAL outputs. Letterbox is supported as is MPEG1 and MPEG2.
Field rendering is available via the radio button at the bottom left.
This could prove useful for TV output since 2 different frames will
be rendered where only one frame would normally be rendered. One
frame will be the even numbered scan lines and the next will be the
odd numbered ones. Frame range may be specified or just a still
image. The manual states that trueSpace uses 30 fps internally for
animation but if a frame rate of 15 fps is selected then trueSpace
will skip every other frame. The resulting animation will still play
at the correct speed however. Pixel aspect ratio may be specified.
Various blurring controls are available as are depth of field
controls. A right click on the render icon will launch the render
options dialog box. Many of the controls on the render options dialog
box control various raytracing and image/animation quality issues.
Raytracing and reflections may be keyed on and off during an
animation. This procedure is covered later. Raytracing must be used
when the user desires realistic shadows, refractions and reflections. 
The
reflect setting interacts with an object's shininess value. If the
shininess value is less than the setting in this box then no
reflections will occur. The draft radio box, when checked, will cause
the rendering to occur at one fourth the usual resolution. It will
still be full size though. This allows quicker testing operations.
The ray depth limiting control varies from 0 to 1. A setting of 0
provides maximum raytracing and maximum CPU usage. A setting of 1
allows minimum usage of the CPU and just important reflections to be
displayed. Max ray depth varies from 0 to 15. This setting controls
the maximum number of rays that will be created for any single pixel.
Anti alias has settings of 2X, 3X and 4X. The higher the number, the
smoother the edges, the longer the rendering time. Fog is available
here and its color may be specified. The dark gray fog button can be
clicked and the RGB swatch panel is launched where the fog color may
be specified by sliding the sliders or by entering numerical values.
Various other fog settings are available and they are described in
the manual. The background may be set to a specific color if the user
desires. A click on the gray background button will launch an RGB
panel identical to the fog color panel and allow the user to specify
a background color. A background image may also be used. In addition
to the usual .bmp, .tga and .jpg backgrounds, .avi animations as well
as RPlus textures .txr and .tim files may be used. If the animate
radio box is checked then the animation background will display a
frame for each frame of the trueSpace animation. The background will
loop if it has fewer frames than the trueSpace animation. The manual
states that sequentially numbered files may also be used as
backgrounds. A global environment color or image or animation may be
used in the same fashion as that specified for the background. The
global environment stuff doesn't show up except in reflections. Many
of these afore mentioned items such as back ground, fog, etc. may be
animated the procedures for which are specified later.
rueSpace
has a view select icon that allows the user to make the main view
window a top, side or front view instead of the default perspective
view. The manual inaccurately claims that objects can not be rotated
in the front, top and left views. I had no trouble rotating objects
in any of these three views. trueSpace also allows the view to be
from any selected object such as a light, camera, etc. trueSpace has
the capability to display 4 total windows. 
The user may launch new views via the new window icon. The window may then be changed to any of the afore mentioned types. trueSpace also has features to dock all the icon panels, close all the panels, reset the view and look at an object. The next item mentioned in the manual is unlike anything I have ever seen before and I wish it was a capability ever application everywhere had. I refer to the 3D tool guide. First the user clicks on the icon at the upper right of the interface then clicks on almost any icon and a demo of that icon's function plays out. It is sort of like a Lotus ScreenCam movie. This means that nearly every icon or tool's function, purpose and capability can be demonstrated by trueSpace. I think this feature is absolutely awesome!
hapter
4 discusses navigation. A right click on the object tool launches
the object info dialog box. Here any selected object has information
displayed regarding its location, rotation, size, name, etc. All of
the white windows may also be manually edited so that specific
information regarding the object may be entered. Formulas may also be
employed. This feature allows the user to have precise control of all
of an object's parameters such as location, size, etc. The dynaunits
feature provides for object parameters based on the either the unit
system assigned to the object when the radio box is checked or on the
world's unit system when it is not checked. There are 9 choices for
both the object and the world as far as units are concerned. The
choice is made by clicking then holding the mouse button down on the
unit readout. Millimeters, centimeters, meters, kilometers, inches,
feet, yards, miles and points are all available. The LOD and inlined
pertain to VRML and will be discussed later. The invisible radio box
will make any selected object invisible. After an object is made
invisible and another object selected, it can not be reselected so as
to make it visible again. According to the manual, the animation
window must be used.
The animation window is not discussed until chapter 9. Next the
object navigation tools are discussed. When the move icon is clicked
an object may be moved in the X and Y directions with the left mouse
button and in the Z direction with the right button. A right click on
the move icon launches the coords icon panel. Here the user may
specify if the movement is to be performed using the object
coordinates, world coordinates or screen coordinates. Movement in a
particular direction may be constrained. For example, if the X icon
is clicked thus deselecting it then the object can only be moved in
the Y and Z directions. The rotate and scale icons also have a coords
icon panel associated with them that function in a similar fashion.
The functions of the coord icon panel are duplicated by the icons at
the right upper area of the interface.
hapter
5 deals with modeling tools. Point edit tools are discussed first.
These tools allow for the selection of points, edges, vertexes and
faces of objects. 
After
selection these object parts may be scaled, rotated, deleted,
sliced, moved, etc. The cursor pointer will have the letter P on it
to show that the point edit mode is active. The tools are accessed
via a fly down icon set.
When clicked a small icon panel is launched. The icon fly down panel
also has a delete face icon. The adjacent image at the left shows the
effect of the delete face icon. I just clicked on the icon then
clicked on the face of the brick cube. The other adjacent images
below show what happens when an edge is moved, scaled and rotated. 
The next image shows what happens when an object's face is sliced away.
New edges and vertexes may be created on an object by selecting
appropriate icon then shift clicking on an object. This allows a wide
variety of distortion effects.
In the next image I just created a vertex across the middle of the
face then moved it.
In
the next two images I selected an entire face then scaled them, one
went up and the other went down in size. 
Multiple
faces, vertexes, etc. may be selected by holding the shift or
control keys down. This activity can lead to some bizarre looking objects.
A
point may also be selected then moved. Rotating a single point or
scaling it doesn't do anything. trueSpace's slice function is
different from the separate feature. Frankly I had some problems with
the slice feature. I just couldn't seem to get it to perform
consistently and some times couldn't get it to do what the manual led
me to believe it was supposed to do. The theory is that the user
selects an edge or plane then drags it through the object and cuts it
as if a cut would be made by a knife. 
Every
time I tried it much of the rest of the object dragged along with it
and the object became greatly distorted but remained unsliced. After
playing around with it for several minutes, trueSpace crashed. I
relaunched trueSpace and tried the previously discussed 3D tool guide
feature only to discover that it was unavailable for point edit
feature! ROAR!! 
The
separate feature on the other hand was very easy. Simply select
edges or faces and click on the separate icon and the selected face
or edge will be separated. The manual has a picture of a sphere with
the top half separated from the bottom half. I followed the
directions in the manual precisely and managed to accomplish the
separation. A click of the right mouse button will launch the point
edit properties panel, illustrated near by. This panel controls
various automatic features in trueSpace that occur when objects are edited.
All pages copyright© Roger A. Moncrief, Indepth Reviews, 1996, 1997, 1998
Thanks to Judy Gefter, !LuM! and Charles Blaquiere for their advice and counsel, some I heeded and some I didn't.