Merciful 2/Merciful - Disc 2.iso/software/a/alliancedoc's03.dms/alliancedoc's03.adf/real.doc.pp/real.doc

Text File | 1992-02-22 | 281KB | 6,136 lines

                         Real 3D Version 1.4 Docs
                         ------------------------

                  By: SNUSKBUSKE (DIRTYBUSH) / DUAL CREW

CONTENTS
========

PRESENTATION  ............................................ 1
PREFACE  ................................................. 2
HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL ................................... 3
FEATURES ................................................. 4
    Ray Tracing .......................................... 4
    Speed ................................................ 4
    Program Modules ...................................... 4
    Hierarchical
    Object Oriented Construction ......................... 4
    True solid Modeling .................................. 4
    Smoothly Curved Surfaces ............................. 4
    Boolean Operations ................................... 5
    Free form modeling ................................... 5
    Point editing ........................................ 5
    Properties of surfaces ............................... 5
    Properties of materials .............................. 5
    Fog effects .......................................... 5
    Texture mapping ...................................... 5
    Animated textures .................................... 6
    Bump mapping ......................................... 6
    Clip mapping ......................................... 6
    Special mapping ...................................... 6
    Light Sources ........................................ 6
    Animation support .................................... 6
    Rendering techniques ................................. 6
    Display modes ........................................ 7
    Anti-aliasing ........................................ 7
    Dithering ............................................ 7
    Fast rendering ....................................... 7
    Macro function ....................................... 7
1 GETTING STARTED ........................................ 8
    Introduction ......................................... 8
    Hardware requirements ................................ 8
    Installation of the software ......................... 8
    Starting the program ................................. 9
    The Windows ......................................... 10
2 USING THE PROGRAM ..................................... 13
    The mouse ........................................... 13
    Creating and modifying objects ...................... 15
    Modify .............................................. 20
    Primitives .......................................... 24
    Modifying objects by their properies ................ 24
    Saving and loading objects .......................... 27
    Macro ............................................... 28
    Special Tools ....................................... 30
    Lathe ............................................... 30
    Tube tools .......................................... 31
    Fence tool .......................................... 32
    Polygon tool ........................................ 32
    Polyhedron tool ..................................... 32
    Conical tube tool ................................... 33
    Lathe 2 ............................................. 33
    Pixel tools ......................................... 34
    Light sources ....................................... 35
    The brightness of light sources ..................... 36
    Colors .............................................. 37
    The screen .......................................... 37
    Interlace ........................................... 37
    NTSC ................................................ 38
    Screen depth ........................................ 38
    Aspect ratio ........................................ 38
    Window size ......................................... 38
3 WIREFRAME MODEL ....................................... 41
    Aimpoint ............................................ 41
    Position ............................................ 41
    Position gadget ..................................... 41
    Distance ............................................ 42
    Screen .............................................. 42
    AR .................................................. 42
    << .................................................. 42
    >> .................................................. 42
    Record .............................................. 42
    Save ................................................ 43
    Rbox ................................................ 43
    Clear ............................................... 43
    Play ................................................ 43
    Frame ............................................... 43
    Editor .............................................. 43
    Solid ............................................... 43
4 SOLID MODEL ........................................... 45
    Frame ............................................... 46
    Name ................................................ 46
    Box off ............................................. 46
    Baselight ........................................... 46
    Background .......................................... 46
    Brightness .......................................... 46
    Overlight ........................................... 47
    Anti-aliasing ....................................... 47
    Resolution .......................................... 47
    Width and Height .................................... 47
    Recursion depth ..................................... 47
    Fast mode ........................................... 48
    Normal mode ......................................... 48
    Shadowless mode ..................................... 48
    Lampless mode ....................................... 48
    Outline mode ........................................ 49
    Single option ....................................... 49
    Autolight option .................................... 49
    Interlace option .................................... 49
    Overscan option ..................................... 49
    Greyscale option .................................... 49
    Dither option ....................................... 49
    Savemem option ...................................... 50
    HI-shade option ..................................... 50
    Targa option ........................................ 50
    Iff-24 option ....................................... 51
    Frame command ....................................... 51
    Aspect ratio ........................................ 51
    Render .............................................. 51
    Editor .............................................. 51
    Wire ................................................ 51
    Frame buffer support ................................ 51
5 MATERIALS ............................................. 54
    Reflection .......................................... 54
    Name ................................................ 55
    Brilliancy .......................................... 55
    Transparency ........................................ 56
    Speed of Light ...................................... 56
    Turbidity ........................................... 56
    Specularity ......................................... 56
    Specular brightness ................................. 56
    Bump height ......................................... 56
    Picture ............................................. 57
    Select .............................................. 57
    Show ................................................ 57
    Texture index ....................................... 57
    Mapping ............................................. 57
    No 0-col ............................................ 58
    Clip ................................................ 58
    Bump ................................................ 59
    Special ............................................. 59
    Color ............................................... 59
    Gradient ............................................ 59
    Tile ................................................ 59
    Flip ................................................ 59
    Angle ............................................... 60
    Unshaded............................................. 60
    Smooth .............................................. 60
    Ok .................................................. 60
    Cancel .............................................. 60
    Mapping Textures .................................... 62
    Other Material Functions ............................ 62
6 LOGICAL OPERATIONS .................................... 65
    And (ab) ............................................ 65
    And not (ab) ........................................ 65
    Eor (ab+ab) ......................................... 66
    Divide (ab+ab) ...................................... 66
    Obscure-function .................................... 70
7 FREE FORM MODELING AND POINT
    EDITING ............................................. 75
    Creating Curves ..................................... 75
    Selecting Points .................................... 76
    Building Free Form Objects .......................... 77
    Coplanar sweep ...................................... 78
    Orhagonal sweep ..................................... 78
    Swinging ............................................ 79
    Join function ....................................... 80
    Modifying Curves and Meshes ......................... 82
    Bending functions ................................... 85
    Bend & move ......................................... 86
    Bend & size ......................................... 86
    Bending examples .................................... 87
8 ANIMATION ............................................. 88
    Introduction ........................................ 88
    << (X) >> ........................................... 88
    Rewind .............................................. 88
    Expose .............................................. 88
    Wind ................................................ 88
    The first animation ................................. 89
    Animating objects with the orbit function ........... 90
    The Rotate function ................................. 91
    The Direction function .............................. 92
    Exposing and De-exposing ............................ 92
    Other Animation functions ........................... 94
    Animating with macros ............................... 96
    Animating the Observer .............................. 97
    Animating the Aim Point ............................. 97
    Creating Big Animations ............................. 97
9 PRACTICAL INTEGRATED FUNCTIONS......................... 99
    The Display ......................................... 99
    Display Redrawing Modes ............................ 100
    The Visible Range of the Object .................... 100
    Measuring Methods .................................. 101
    The Grid ........................................... 101
    Info ............................................... 102
    Standard Limits .................................... 104
    Attributes ......................................... 107
    Calculating Object's Prices ........................ 107
    Memory Management Functions ........................ 108
    The Undo Function .................................. 109
10 ADDITIONAL INTEGRATED SOFTWARE ...................... 110
    Display ............................................ 110
    Deltaconvert ....................................... 110
    Deltaplay .......................................... 111
    Command Explanation ................................ 112
    Deltaplay Control File ............................. 112
    CLI script ......................................... 113
    Delta To IFF ....................................... 114
    Realplay ........................................... 114
    Blon and Bloff ..................................... 116
    Sculpt to Real ..................................... 116
11 MENU DESCRIPTION .................................... 117
PROJECT .......................................... 117 / 119
OBJECTS ................................................ 117
    Create ............................................. 117
    Create root ........................................ 117
    Load ............................................... 117
    Save ............................................... 117
ANIMATION ........................................ 117 / 118
    Size ............................................... 117
    Delete ............................................. 117
    Insert ............................................. 117
    Remove ............................................. 118
    De-expose .......................................... 118
    Load ............................................... 118
    Save ............................................... 118
    Orbit .............................................. 118
    Rotation ........................................... 118
    Direction .......................................... 118
    Goto frame ......................................... 118
    Play ............................................... 118
MATERIALS ........................................ 118 / 119
    Create ............................................. 118
    Modify ............................................. 118
    Load ............................................... 118
    Delete ............................................. 118
    Load ............................................... 119
    Save ............................................... 119
MACRO .................................................. 119
    Define ............................................. 119
    End ................................................ 119
    Execute ............................................ 119
SCREEN ................................................. 119
EXIT ................................................... 119
CREATION ......................................... 119 / 120
PRIMITIVES ............................................. 119
TOOLS ............................................ 119 / 120
    Circular tube ...................................... 119
    Conical Tube ....................................... 120
    Fence .............................................. 120
    Lathe .............................................. 120
    Lathe 2 ............................................ 120
    Pixeltool .......................................... 120
    Pixeltool 2 ........................................ 120
    Polygon ............................................ 120
    Polyhedron ......................................... 120
    Rectangular tube ................................... 120
LAMP ................................................... 120
OBSERVER ............................................... 120
AIM POINT .............................................. 120
FREE FORM ........................................ 121 / 123
CREATE CURVE ........................................... 121
    Circular curve ..................................... 121
    Spiral ............................................. 121
    Parallel ........................................... 121
MODIFY ................................................. 121
    Show spline ........................................ 121
    Remap .............................................. 121
    Smoothen ........................................... 121
    Close .............................................. 121
    Break .............................................. 121
    Concatenate ........................................ 121
    Remove points ...................................... 121
    Subdivide .......................................... 121
BUILD .................................................. 122
    Coplanar sweep ..................................... 122
    Join ............................................... 122
    Orthogonal sweep ................................... 122
    Rotation ........................................... 122
    Swing .............................................. 122
BENDING MODES .......................................... 122
    Bend & Move ........................................ 122
    Bend & Size ........................................ 122
    Radial ............................................. 122
    2D ................................................. 122
    3D ................................................. 122
BEND ................................................... 123
    Local .............................................. 123
    Global ............................................. 123
    End point .......................................... 123
    Linear ............................................. 123
POINT EDITING .......................................... 123
SELECT ................................................. 123
SELECT NEW ............................................. 123
DESELECT ............................................... 123
DESELECT ALL ........................................... 123
SHOW POINTS ............................................ 123
MODIFY ........................................... 123 / 126
HIERARCHY ........................................ 123 / 124
    Move ............................................... 123
    Move to ............................................ 123
    Stretch ............................................ 123
    Size ............................................... 124
    Rotate ............................................. 124
    Mirror ............................................. 124
    Extend ............................................. 124
    Explode ............................................ 124
    Copy ............................................... 124
    Rename ............................................. 124
    Locate ............................................. 124
    Delete ............................................. 124
    Color .............................................. 124
    Material ........................................... 124
    Painting ........................................... 124
WILDCARD ............................................... 125
    Replace ............................................ 125
    Color .............................................. 125
    Delete ............................................. 125
    Macro .............................................. 125
OPERATIONS ....................................... 125 / 126
    AND ................................................ 125
    EOR ................................................ 125
    AND NOT ............................................ 126
    AND with paint ..................................... 126
    AND NOT with paint ................................. 126
DIVIDE ................................................. 126
COLOR .................................................. 126
SETTINGS ......................................... 126 / 128
DISPLAY ................................................ 126
    Scale in ........................................... 126
    Scale out .......................................... 126
    Pan ................................................ 126
    Autofocus .......................................... 127
    Reset .............................................. 127
DRAWMODE ............................................... 127
    Normal ............................................. 127
    None ............................................... 127
DRAWLEVEL .............................................. 127
    All ................................................ 127
    Parent ............................................. 127
    Current ............................................ 127
COORDINATES ............................................ 127
    Absolute ........................................... 127
    Relative ........................................... 128
    Abs & Rel .......................................... 128
    None ............................................... 128
ATTRIBUTES ............................................. 128
ALIGNMENT .............................................. 128
GRID ................................................... 128
EXTRAS ................................................. 129
REDRAW ................................................. 129
INFO ................................................... 129
COSTS .................................................. 129
    Set price .......................................... 129
    Look price ......................................... 129
AVAIL MEM .............................................. 129
GET MEMORY ............................................. 129
REPRESENTATION ................................... 129 / 130
    Add wire ........................................... 129
    Delete wire ........................................ 129
    Obscure ............................................ 130
    Draw wire .......................................... 130
    Rethink ............................................ 130
    Offset ............................................. 130
CLOSE WBENCH ........................................... 130
OPEN WBENCH ............................................ 130
NO ICONS ............................................... 130
UNDO ON ................................................ 130
UNDO ................................................... 130
MODES .................................................. 125
WIREFRAME .............................................. 125
SOLID .................................................. 125
CONTROL MENU OF THE RENDERING SCREEN ................... 131
CANCEL ................................................. 131
EXIT ................................................... 131
SCREEN TO BACK ......................................... 131
SAVE ................................................... 131
PRINT .................................................. 131
SET BOX ................................................ 131
BOX OFF ................................................ 131
FILL BOX ............................................... 131
KEYBOARD SUPPORT ....................................... 132
GLOSSARY ......................................... 134 - 137
    Alignment .......................................... 134
    Animation .......................................... 134
    Brilliancy ......................................... 134
    Bump mapping ....................................... 134
    Delta animation .................................... 134
    Dithering .......................................... 134
    Expose ............................................. 134
    Frame .............................................. 134
    HL shade ........................................... 134
    Macro .............................................. 134
    Mapping ............................................ 134
    Material ........................................... 135
    Model .............................................. 135
    Object ............................................. 135
    Object Hierarchy ................................... 135
    Offset point ....................................... 135
    Operations (Boolean, Logical) ...................... 135
    Overscan ........................................... 135
    Picture ............................................ 135
    Pixel graphics ..................................... 135
    Point editing ...................................... 136
    Polygon representation ............................. 136
    Primitive .......................................... 136
    Projection ......................................... 136
    Ray tracing ........................................ 136
    Rendering .......................................... 136
    Solid model ........................................ 136
    Spline ............................................. 136
    Texture ............................................ 136
    Transparency ....................................... 136
    Turbidity .......................................... 136
    Vector ............................................. 136
    Vector graphics .................................... 137
    Wireframe model .................................... 137
INDEX .................................................. 132


PRESENTATION
------------

Real 3D is the brainchild of two Finnish brothers, Juha and Vesa Meskanen,
which brings together their interests in engineering, theoretical
mathematics and programming the AMIGA. Here is some background in their
own words:

Juha;
About the time I started my studies at the Technical Institute in Lahti,
Finland, my brother and I bought an AMIGA 1000. We wanted to get familiar
with computers and programming to complement our studies. My particular
interests resulted in me starting to build the editor part of Real 3D.
This became my degree project - the result of 4 years of intensive
studies. My programming work was very dependent on the help I got from my
brother Vesa. After taking my degree our programming work continued and
intensified. It's great to see that our work has resulted in a finished
product.
Juha Meskanen

Vesa:
After college I decided to study mathematics, which I did for a few years
at the University in Helsinki, Finland, and continued with research into
theoretical mathematics. My brother and I divided the programming work.
I did the calculations for the solid modeling part and my brother was
responsible for the editor part. Together we were able to make the program
into an effective and fast tool for making three dimensional graphics. For
my own part I have found programming so interesting that I have suspended
my work at the University so I can concentrate on developing our creation
- Real 3D
Vesa Meskanen

                                - PAGE 1 -

PREFACE
-------

The development of Real 3D started in spring 1986, when the advanced Amiga
1000 computer was released in Finland. The Amiga was the first reasonably
low cost micro powerful enough and with the graphic capabilities required
for development of three dimensional, solid modeling CAD software. After a
three year development project, we were able to present the first
commercial version of Real 3D. Software development has been quite
expensive after the first version and we have been able to release new
updates of the software regularly. This manual describes the current
version 1.4 of Real 3D.

The name, Real 3D, was chosen to illustrate the basic principle of the
program, which is the simulation of the real world. Pictures produced by
the solid modeler of the program are extremely realistic. This principle
also means that Real 3D is easier to use: most of us are not experienced
3D modelers, but everybody has experience of the real world!

During our development work on this program we have had very valuable help
from Heikki Luhtala, one of the foremost figures in computer graphics, and
a well known artist in Finland. Heikki Luhtala's help was particularly
valuable in providing us with new ideas, testing the program and
exchanging views. Warm thankx to Heikki. We'd also like to thank Esko and
Kerstin Hamalainen for their help with making Real 3D a marketable
product. Also many thanks to the guys at Activa International, whose
headfast belief in our software has encouraged us tremendously during
the development work.

Juha and Vesa Meskanen
Realsoft Ky

                                - PAGE 2 -

HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL
----------------------

The contents of this manual are divided into the following chapters to
give you the best possible overview of Real 3D that will allow you to get
going quickly, creating attractive pictures and animating them. At the
beginning you will find:

Introduction, Features and Getting Started which provide brief information
about the background of Real 3D, its most important features and how to
install and start the program.

Chapters 2 - 8 which are the actual tutorial chapters about the main parts
of the program:
solid modelling, rendering, animation etc. You thought to study these
chapters carefully as they contain many important elements of a successful
animation.

Chapters 9 - 10 contain additional functions which you will find very
practial and useful. These functions will help you to get a good final
result.

Chapter 11 is a list of all the functions of the program, which you can
use for reference. There is a concise explenation of the use of the menus.

The Appendix contains the necessary explanations of the keyboard functions
and terms which are used in the program.

The Index at the end shows you where in the manual you will find the most
important features.

NOTE: The user is kindly requested to check the README FILE on the program
disk for possible instructions not described in the manual, if needed.

                                - PAGE 3 -

FEATURES
--------

Real 3D is a design and animation progra, for producing high quality,
realistic pictures of three dimensioanl objects. It provides an impressive
set of advanced features including:

RAY TRACING
The ray tracing of Real 3D is strongly based on the physical reality of
the real world. Real 3D produce pictures by simulating the laws of
physics, and consiquently it can represent reality with astonishing
accuracy.

SPEED
Innovative methods and new ray tracing algorithms make Real 3D really
fast. When using the fastest ray tracing mode, rendering time is typically
from 1 to 15 minutes.

PROGRAM MODULES
Real 3D consists of three main sections. The first one is the tri-view
editor. The second is the wireframe mode in which the user can move around
the object in real time, change the distance to it, scale the size of the
image or preview an animation. The third section is the solid model
renderer, in which the actual colored images are produced.

HIERARCHICAL OBJECT ORIENTED CONSTRUCTION OF OBJECTS
With Real 3D you can create hierarchical objects. This means that objects
you create can be made of subobjects, and these subobjects may have their
own substructure and so on.
This kind of tree structure is well known in the context of disk operating
systems, in which you can create directories inside directories. Real 3D
imitiates this and 'directories' we used to collect objects into logical
groups. This kind of approach makes 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 stretching any one part of it.

TRUE SOLID MODELING
Real 3D includes a true solid modeler. Solid modeling is the most
sophisticated way to present three dimensional objects. This modeling
technique requires a lot of computing power and therefore it has earlier
been used only in environments, which are many times faster than Amiga.
Now it is possible for Amiga owbers to have all the advantages of solid
modeling. This is thanks to extensive optimization carried out in the
development of Real.

SMOOTHLY CURVED SURFACES
In addition to plane surfaces. Real 3D includes several 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 the surface. Furthermore, this

                                - PAGE 4 -

makes the program much faster. And what is most important, the pictures
it produces look really good.

BOOLEAN OPERATIONS
Solid modeling allows Boolean operations to be used between objects. It is
possible, for example, to split an object into two pieces and move the
pieces aport 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. These operations are a powerful way to
create and modify objects. Especially when modeling technical objects,
Boolean operations are indispensable.

FREE FORM MODELING AND POINT EDITING
Real 3D contains a large collection of free form tools. With these tools
it is easy to produce irregular objects. Furthermore, these objects can be
freely edited using the point editing support functions of Real 3D. And
finally, there are as many as 24 different ways available to bend and
twist free form objects.

PROPERTIES OF SURFACES
Users of Real 3D are not restricted to using basic surface properties such
as matt or shiny. Instead, the light reflection properties of a surface
can be freely adjusted from absolutely matt or totally mirrored -
precisely to the desired level.

PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS
Due to Real 3D's solid modeling, it is possible to create objects from
different materials having suitable physical properties. Just as with the
surface's brilliancy, the 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 as their equivalents in the real world: a
magnifying glass in Real 3D's world realy magnifies!

FOG EFFECTS
The precise material control of Real 3D enables succesful simulation of
atmospheric phenomena. For example, it is possible to create fog of any
desired color and density.

TEXTURE MAPPING
The texture mapping properties of Real 3D are not restricted to the
typical chequered pattern - any IFF picture can be used to paint objects.
You can create pictures with your favourite painting program as wall as
with a video digitizer or a scanner. For example, by digitizing a wood
grain pattern, it is easy to create wooden objects that look very
realistic.

                                - PAGE 5 -

pictures can be located precisely in the desired place, with the desired
size and direction. Real 3D offers many texture mapping methods, including
projections such as parallel, cylinder, ball and spiral. There are also
many other handy options available, such as tiling, mapping and color
gradients - which are especially useful when rendering 24 bit images.

ANIMATED TEXTURES
It is possible to use a series of changing textures in an animation. The
program automatically loads relevant textures for each frame during the
rendering.

BUMP MAPPING
The different texture mapping methods can be used to modify the shape of
a surface. Using the texture animation feature in combination with the
bump mapping, it is quite easy to animate a wavy water surface.

CLIP MAPPING
With this technique you can remove desired parts of a surface. The shape
of the result can be defined using any IFF format image.

SPECIAL MAPPING
This mapping technique maps the surface brilliancy and transparancy
properties from an IFF image. For example, you can write transparent text
on a matt surface.

LIGHT SOURCES
A unlimited number of light sources of desired color and brightness are
available.

ANIMATION SUPPORT
As well as single frame pictures, you can create a series of pictures to
produce animations. Real 3D includes software for playing these animations
interactively. Animations can be controlled by a script language from
ASCII files or even direct from the keyboard. Instead of looping
animations you can define an infinite number of ways to present your
pictures. This allows you to create animations from a small number of
frames by displaying them in various combinations.

RENDERING TECHNIQUES
Real 3D includes six different rendering techniques: a real time wireframe
mode, a hidden line wireframe mode, a high speed ray traced mode using one
automatically positioned light source, a lampless ray traced mode, a
shadowless ray traced mode and a complete raytraced mode.

                                - PAGE 6 -

DISPLAY MODES
You can select either a HAM display mode with 4096 colors, a gray scale
display mode offering higher resolution or a 24 bit mode offering over 16
million different colors. Both IFF ILBM and Targa formats are supported.
The image size is freely adjustable.

ANTI-ALIASING
Real 3D includes adjustable anti-aliasing. There are 9 different degrees
of anti-aliasing, from which the user can select a suitable level. The
most accurate level uses 256*256 adaptive supersampling, which is
undoubtedly enough for any application!

DITHERING
Real 3D contains three different rendering methods with precise dithering
scale adjustment.

FAST RENDERING
It is possible to render with lower resolutions to produce images faster.
Another very useful facility is the so called box function, which allows
the user to define a rectangular area on the rendering screen. This area
can then be rendered at the desired resolution, anti-aliasing level etc.

MACRO FUNCTION
It is possible to combine several Real 3D functions to form macros. With
macros the user can easily create complex, symmetrical form or animation
effects.

                                - PAGE 7 -

GETTING STARTED
---------------

INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this chapter is to give an introduction to the basic
features of Real 3D. For clarity, all the examples presented are quite
detailed and simple. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the
basic concepts of the Amiga's graphical user interface such as menus and
windows. If you are not familiar with these basic features of the Amiga,
please consult your Amiga User's Guide.

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
Real 3D can be used on any Amiga computer having at least 1024 kilobytes
of main memory. No additional disk drives are required. With this minimum
configuration you can create a model including anything up to 100 basic
objects, such as cones and spheres. For professional users we recommend a
configuration including at least 3 megabytes of main memory and at least
10 megabytes of hard disk space reserved for the
Real 3D environment. Three megabytes main memory is enough for about
1000 - 2000 basic objects.
If your Amiga has only 512K of chip memory (as on the A1000), some display
mode combinations of the program may not be accessable. For example, the
interlaced 16 color PAL display with overlapping windows will require too
much chip memory.
When rendering, Real 3D tries to speed up the calculations by using any
available memory. This may mean that it will take several times longer to
render a picture on a one megabyte Amiga than on a three megabyte Amiga.
The Real 3D Pro/Turbo software package contains two versions of the
program. The standard version 'Real' does not take any advantage of a math
co-processor. Instead, a fast floating point format and integers are used
to obtain high rendering speed on a standard Amiga. The turbo version
'Turboreal' is optimized for faster machines, and it requires a Motorola
68020/30/40 processor with a math co-processor.

INSTALLATION OF THE SOFTWARE
Before you use your Real 3D disks, create working copies of them by using
either the workbench duplicate operation or a copying program. This
guarantees that if your disks are corrputed accidentally you will have a
back up. If you want to install the software on a hard disk, just double
click the InstallHD icon on the first program disk and follow the
instructions. For succesfull installation, there must be about three
megabytes of space available on your hard disk. After installation, the
unnecessary one of the two program versions 'Real' or 'Turboreal' may be
deleted from the hard disk. Remember to add the "assign Real:
Partition:Real" command to your startup-sequence file, where Partition
refers to the hard disk partition you have chosen to install Real 3D on.

                                - PAGE 8 -

If you are going to use the software from a floppy disk, you should do the
following:
- Format a disk to which you want to install the Real 3D software.
- Copy the 'Real' (or 'Turboreal') program to that disk.
- Copy 'Display', 'Deltaplay', 'DeltaToIff' and 'DeltaConvert' programs to
  the disk.
- Copy the files 'realpref' and 'attributes' to the disk.
- Copy the drawers 'Textures', 'Materials' and 'Bumpmaps' to the disk.

After these steps, the disk should be quite full. You will need some
empty work disks when using the software. For example, you could use
a disk for each Real 3D project to store the animation data and the
images you create.

For your convenience, Real 3D maintains information on the DOS
directories that contain the files created by the program - namely
animation, material and object files. The default directories are the
directories found on the 'Real' disk. You can change them by selecting
a desired directory when loading/saving data, and then choosing the
Atrributes -> Save function.
The directory paths are then written to the attributes file, and when you
next run the program and try to load some data the relevant directory is
immediately displayed (if it still exists). The details of the required
actions are described in the chapters on saving and loading objects and
attributes.

STARTING THE PROGRAM
Real 3D can be activated from the Workbench interface by double clicking
the icon of the program 'Real' (or 'Turboreal') or from the command line
interpreter (CLI/SHELL) using the command 'REAL'.

To start the program from a floppy disk:
- Insert your working Real 3D disk into a floppy disk drive.
- Open the icon for the disk.
- Open the icon for the 'Real' program.

                                - PAGE 9 -

                            (Picture "PIC10")

If you are going to modify an object that you have created previously,
then you can start the program by opening the icon for that object as
described in the Amiga manuals. The same method is valid for all data
files created by the program.

NOTE: If you start the program from the CLI, make sure that the stack size
is large enough. We recommend the stack size to be at least 20,000 bytes.
You can use the CLI 'stack' command to set the proper stack size.

THE WINDOWS
When the program is started, it goes straight into the editor mode, in
which all object creation and modification functions are used. The editor
display consists of a number of different windows, which all have their
purposes. The three largest windows are called the main projection
windows. These windows show the object under construction from different
directions. The top left window shows the object in the XY plane, the top
right window in the ZY plane, and the bottom left window in the XZ plane.
In other words, if the top left window shows the object from the front,
the top left window shows it from the side, and the bottom window shows
it from above. The construction of objects can be done in any one of these
three windows using the mouse. If the windows are overlapping, you can
make the desired one visible by moving the mouse pointer on it and
clicking the left button. You can see a '+' symbol in each of the main
projection windows. This symbol is the

                                - PAGE 10 -

cursor, which, for example, defines the point to which objects are located
when they are loaded from disk. It also defines the third coordinate value
for the pints which the user defines with the mouse; a mousebutton click
defines only two coordinates at a time. You can move the cursor to a new
location by clicking in the desired place.

                            (Picture "PIC11")

The bar at the top of the screen is called the instruction window, which
shows, amongst other things, the mouse coordinates. The main purpose of
this window is to give information nd instructions to the user. For
example, if you click in one of the projection windows, the instruction
window displays the message'<0> (X) object', where <0> is the index of
the current animation frame and object is the name of the active object.
The active object defines which part of your scene will be affected when
a modification function is executed. The window in the bottom right
corner of the screen is called the selection window. This window displays
the names of the objects you have constructed, and you can activate an
object by clicking on its name. The name you clicked on will then be
displayed in the instruction window to indicate its selection. In this
manual we will sometime use the statement 'Select an object' as a
synonym for 'Activate an object'.

                                - PAGE 11 -

Some Real 3D functions, such as the logical operations, require more than
one object to be selected. In these situations the program will display
two new gadgets at the bottom of the selection window - namely the OK and
CANCEL gadgets. You can freely click the different object names in the
selection window, as the final selection will only be made when you click
on one of the main projection windows or the OK gadget.

                                - PAGE 12 -

2 USING THE PROGRAM
-------------------

THE MOUSE
When using Real 3D, the mouse is the most important input device. The
actions the user can achieved with it can be divided into two categories
in the following way:
- The right button is used for menu selection. In addition to this, in
  the editor the object creation procedures can be cancelled by clicking
  the right mouse button.
- All the other actions use the left mouse button including drawing and
  window selection. Most of the actions in Real 3D can be performed by
  menu selection, in a way that is defined by the Workbench user
  interface: To select a menu item, press the right mouse button, point
  to the menu bar, then point to the desired menu item and release the
  right button when the item is highlighted. You can experiment with this
  by selecting a new color from the 'Color' menu. The program replies by
  showing a message informing you of the new color in the instruction
  window. Multiple menu selection is also supported: To select several
  menu items at the same time, keep the right mouse button held down and
  select the required menu items with the left mouse button.

                            (Picture "PIC13")

In this manual menus are represented in the following way:
- Menu -> Item.
- Menu -> Item -> Subitem.

                                - PAGE 13 -

For example: Creation -> Primitives -> Sphere.

                           (Picture "PIC14,29")

Instead of using menus, most functions can also be activated using
keyboard equivalents or selection window icons.

When using the left mouse button, use sharp clicks instead of keeping the
button down and moving the mouse. Left mouse button dragging is reserved
for certain point selection functions. For example, when shaping a
rectangle, click on the top left corner, and then release the button.
Then you may freely move the mouse, select some other menus or even have
a cup of coffee. When you are certain of the position of the bottom right
corner of the rectangle, click a second time in the desired place.
When modeling objects with exact coordinates, it may be difficult to
obtain high enough accuracy using the moise. In such a situation you can
replace left mouse button clicks using direct coordinate request: if you
press the colon key ':', the program creates a requester into which you
can type the desired coordinates. On the other hand, if you need to
define a single value such as a the radius of a sphere, a sizing factor,
or a rotation angle, use the semicolon key ';'. This awakes a requester
into which you can enter a suitable floating point number.
Moving the mouse while keeping the left button pressed (dragging), has
some special functions in Real 3D. If you try this, you will see that a
box is shaped according to the mouse pointer movements. With this box you
can activate points for point editing as described in the Chapter 6.
If no point selection function is selected before dragging, the program
calculates an average point. By default, the average is calculated only
from two coordinates which are active on the window used (for example X
and Y on the top left window). If you want to obtain a true 3D average,
hit the '/' key before dragging. And if you want to consider only the
points of the active object instead of the whole scene hit the '=' key.
Although the averaging operation is simple, it is very useful. Using this
feature, you can easily lock the mouse coordinates to any existing point,
when modifying or creating an object; just drag the box around one single
point.
The following examples demonstrate, how the dragging feature can be used.
If you are not yet familiar with the software, skip these examples until
you know the basics of Real 3D.

                                - PAGE 14 -

To lengthen a cylinder:
- Activate the cylinder and select the Extend function.
- Drag a box around the points of one end of the cylinder.
- Drag a box around the other end.
- Extend the object.

To create a circle precisely in the middle of another circle:
- Select the circle creation function.
- Drag a box around the points of the circle this defines the middle point
  of the new circle.
- Define the radius.

To move a triangle so that its top will be in the middle of an edge of a
rectangle:
- Activate the triangle and select the Move function.
- To ensure that the opertion is done correctly in all three dimensions,
  hit '/' key.
- Drag a box around the top point of a triangle.
- Hit '/' key again.
- Drag a box around the two end points of the desired edge of the
  rectangle.

CREATING AND MODIFYING  OBJECTS
All the objects created by Real 3D consist of so called primitives. These
are the basic components and tools from which you can construct more
complex objects.

To create a 'rectangle' primitive:
- Choose the menu Creation -> Primitives -> Rectangle.
- Move the mouse pointer to the desired location for one corner and click
  the left button.
- Now you can shape the rectangle by moving the pointer.
- Click the left button and Real 3D creates a 'rectangle' primitive.

Now the instruction window displays 'Rectangle' as the active object. You
can look at the rectangle in the two other projection windows by clicking
in the desired window. The rectangle is a plane, and therefore it appears
as a line when you look at it from the side.
You can also see a peak perpendicular to the rectangle. The purpose of
this peak is explained in the section on Logical Operations.
You can see the logical structure of your object in the selection window.
Your scene 'root' consists of one single primitive called 'Rectangle'.
If you now move the pointer over the name 'root' and click the left
button, you can now see the name 'root' being displayed in the instruction
window as an indication of its selection.
You are now at the top of the object structure hierarchy, and if you click
'root' again nothing will happen. If 'root' had been a part of a larger
object, then you would have moved

                                - PAGE 15 -

one step upwards in the hierarchy, and Real 3D would have revealed all
the objects in the same hierarchy level as 'root'.
If you select the rectangle as the active object again, the only sign of
the selection is the name of the object in the instruction window. In
other words, the object 'rectangle' represents the lowest level of the
hierarchy, and there is no substructure to be displayed in the selection
window.

                        (Picture "PIC16,25,27,44")

The names 'root' and 'rectangle' are printed in different colors in the
selection window:
this indicates that they are different types of object. A well known
example of this kind of hierarchical data management is disk operating
systems:
the object 'root' corresponds to a directory in DOS, and the equivalent
of the rectangle object is an actual DOS file. Real 3D uses this analogy
of directories to collect the parts of an object into reasonable groups.
It is possible to select and modify very complex objects, without having
to deal with their substructures.
For example, if you have grouped all the parts of a robot arm under one
single object 'robot arm', then you can rotate the whole arm, and there
is no need to pay any attention to each finger etc. to obtain the desired
result.

Next, let's experiment with modifying an object.
- To move the primitive you have created to another position:
- Choose the menu Modify -> Hierarchy -> Move.
- Move the mouse pointer, for example, to the middle of the rectangle and
  click the left button.
- Move the rectangle to a new location and click.

                                - PAGE 16 -

NOTE: The right mouse button can be used to cancel the modification.

This is how easy it is to create and modify objects. You can experiment
with other modification functions, such as stretch and size, which are
used in a similar manner. Next, we will create a table which consists of
a tabletop and a base. The base consists of two and a brace. We will
create the table using cubes. You can create a tube in the same way that
you earlier created a rectangle. The following picture illustrates the
structure of the table:

                            (Picture "PIC17")

To delete the old object 'root' and to create a new one:
- Make 'root' the active object by clicking on its name in the selection
  window.
- Choose Modify -> Hierarchy -> Delete.
- Real 3D asks for the name of the new object. Type 'tablescene' and
  click OK or hit the return key.

NOTE: When you delete the whole scene (the root object), Real 3D asks for
the name of the new root. You can cancel this function by choosing CANCEL.
If you try to delete an object in a lower hierarchy level, the color of
the object is first changed to indicate the target of the deletion. At
this point, you can cancel the deletion by clicking the right mouse
button.

                            (Picture "PIC17")

Now you have an object (or scene), which so far does not consist of any
parts at all.

                                - PAGE 17 -

We start making the table by creating the hierarchy level, which contains
all the parts of the table:
- Choose Projects -> Objects -> Create.
- Choose the menu Modify -> Hierarchy -> Rename.
- Write the name 'table' and hit RETURN.

To create the cover of the table:
- Choose a nice color for the cover from the Colors menu.
- Choose Creation -> Primitives -> Cube, and shape a cube to represent
  the cover as it is seen from the side.
- 'Cube' is not a good name for the cover of the table, so we will change
  it: Choose the menu Mode -> Hierarchy -> Rename.
- Write the name 'cover' and hir RETURN.

Now you have created a table that consists of a cover.

To create an object 'base':
- Choose Projects -> Objects -> Create.
- Choose the menu Modify -> Hierarchy -> Rename.
- Write the name 'base' and hit RETURN.

Your table now consists of the cover and the base. If you look at the
instruction window, you will notice that the base is the active object.
As long as this holds, every new object or primitive you create will
become a part of the base.

                                 +-------+
                                 | Table |
                                 +-------+

                    +-------+
                    | Cover |
                    +-------+

  (The base is a hierarchy level, which so far includes no objects or
   parts.)

To create a stand for the table:
- Verify that 'base' is the active object, so that the stand will be a
  part of the base.
- Choose Creation -> Primitives -> Cube.
- Shape a cube to represent a stand.
- Rename the new cube as 'stand1' by choosing Modify -> Hierarchy ->
  Rename.

The stands of the table are identical, therefore you can create the second
stand by using the copy function:

                                - PAGE 18 -

- Choose the menu Modify -> Hierarchy -> Copy when the stand is the
  active object.
- Move the copy to the right place by choosing Modify -> Hierarchy ->
  Move.

As you have seen, Real 3D automatically gives names to primitives
according to their types. This is handy when you are making a relatively
small object, when it is easy to identify the different parts of the
object. However, it is usually wise to give a name to each part of the
object which describes its purpose.

If you don't want Real 3D to automatically give standard names to
primitives:
- Choose Settings -> Attributes.
- Turn the CUSTOM NAME gadget on by clicking on it.
- Choose OK or SAVE if you want to keep this setting permanently.

If you choose OK, this function will not be active when you start the
program next time.

                                 +-------+
                                 | Table |
                                 +-------+

                     +-------+               +------+
                     | Cover |               | Base |
                     +-------+               +------+

  (The object attributes)

Now create the cube which will represent the brace of the table. When
Real 3D asks for the name of this primitive, type 'brace'. Now the table
is ready.

                         +-------+
                         | Table |
                         +-------+

              +-------+              +------+
              | Cover |              | Base |
              +-------+              +------+

                         +-------+            +-------+
                         | Stand |            | Stand |
                         +-------+            +-------+

  (The final hierarchical structure of the table.)

You should now know how to create objects and modify them. Take a quick
look at the selection window; the last object you created was the brace,
and therefore the selection window displays the structure of the object,
part of which is the brace. When you select the object base, it will first
becomes the active object. If you select it again, the hierarchy level
above it is displayed. In this way, you can move up and down

                                - PAGE 19 -

the object hierarchy.
In the previous example, we named the objects so that the name of an
object described the purpose of it, to make the identification easier.
If your work includes several objects of the same name, you can identify
them according to the order you created them; the last object you created
is the topmost in the selection window.
If you don't remember which one you created first, there is one further
way to select an object: Position the cursor near a primitive in the
object, then press the space bar and click near one of the points of the
desired object. Now the program activates the primitive nearest that
point. If the desired object is not a primitive, move upwards in the
hierarchy by pressing the 'p' key until you reach the right level.
You can check which object is the active one by hitting the tab key. Then
the wireframe of the active object is displayed highlighted for a while.
In the next section we will modify the table in different ways so that you
can get some idea of Real 3D's powerful hierarchical, object-oriented
construction facilities.

MODIFY
You already know how to use some of the modification functions. You also
know that modifications are done on the active object. You can make any
part of the table the active object, hence you can modify any part of it
regardless of how complex the object is.

To move the brace of the table:
- Make 'brace' the active object.
- Choose the menu Modify -> Hierarchy -> Move and move the brace.

To move the whole base:
- Make 'base' the active object.
- Hit the key 'r' (repeat) which executes the last executed function and
  move the base.

To move the whole table:
- Hit the key 'p' (parent), which makes the parent hierarchy of the
  'base' the active object.
- Select Modify -> Hierarchy -> Move and move the whole table.

If the table seems to be too high:
- Select the menu Modify -> Hierarchy -> Stretch while the 'table' is
  the active object and stretch it.
In the same way you can stretch the whole table or only one single part
of it. You can also rotate it with the Rotate function, or change the
color to the current one with the Color function. The mirror function
inverts the object with respect to an axis that is defined by you.

                                - PAGE 20 -

If the result of a modification was unexpected:
- Select Extras -> Undo or hit the 'U' key. The Undo function restores the
  situation before the last action.

You can also relocate the table by choosing Modify -> Hierarchy -> Move
to. This function moves the target to a given point using the so called
offset point of the object. Every primitive you create has some default
value for this offset point. For example, the offset of a ball is its
middle point. You can redefine the offset point by using the function
Extras -> Offset.

To move a stand of the table to the bottom left corner of the window:
- Select a stand.
- Choose Modify -> Hierarchy -> Move to.
- Move the pointer to the desired place and click the left button.

Offsets are also used when objects are replaced or loaded from disk;
these functions are explained later.

Move, Rotate and Stretch are functions that affect only the physical
structure of the table. Next we turn to functions, which change the
hierarchical structure. In fact, you already know one such function,
namely Delete.
The hierarchical structure of the table created in the previous section
seems to be quite a logical one. The stands are a part of the base, but
the cover is not. If you don't agree, you can move the parts of the table
in the hierarchy tree just as you can move files and directories in DOS.

If you want to make the cover a part of the base:
- Select the cover.
- Choose Modify -> Hierarchy -> Locate.
- Real 3D prompts you to select a hierarchy level into which you want to
  move the cover. Select the base, and then click OK or one of the three
  main projection windows to confirm the selection. You will then find
  that the cover has become part of the base.

                                - PAGE 21 -

You have modified the structure of your table as follows:

                        +-------+
                        | Table |
                        +-------+

           +-------+                +------+
           | Cover |                | Base |
           +-------+                +------+

                 +-------+        +-------+      +-------+
                 | Stand |        | Brace |      | Stand |
                 +-------+        +-------+      +-------+

  (The hierarchical structure of the table after the modification)

If you don't want any part of the table to belong to the base:
- Select the cover.
- Choose Modify -> Hierarchy -> Locate.
- Choose the table as the destination of the cover.
- Repeat the steps above with all the objects in the base, so you have
  taken all the parts out of the base.

If you want to move the base now, you won't move any of the parts in the
table. Since the base is empty now, and the structure of the table is
quite peculiar, we'll mix it up a little bit more by moving the whole
table to be a part of the base:
- Select the table.
- Choose Modify -> Hierarchy -> Locate.
- Select the base and click OK.

Real 3D informs you that you can not do such an operation. That's because
you would have created a table with a hierarchical structure as difficult
to understand as the three dimensional shadows of a hypercube's fourth
dimension. In other words, the base of your table would be a part of the
table, while the table as a whole would still be a part of the base.

The following relocation operations would lead to an impossible result.
Thus Real 3D will not permit them:
- An object cannot be relocated directly downwars in the hierarchy. For
  example the table cannot be moved to a part of the base. For this
  reason, the root object cannot be moved because all objects are parts
  of the root object.
- An object cannot be moved into a primitive, because a primitive cannot
  have any substructure. For example, the cover cannot be moved into
  either of the stands.

                                - PAGE 22 -

The restrictions illustrated above will only apply when relocating objects
that consists of substructures, Since primitives do not possess any
substructure they can be moved in the hierarchy tree without any
restrictions.

Finally, you may delete the table which wasn't a very good table anyway.

To delete the table:
- Select the table.
- Choose Modify -> Hierarchy -> Delete.
- Click in one of the main projection windows to confirm the deletion.

Real 3D has another quite useful modifying operation which can be used to
produce exploded diagrams. To explode an object that consists of more than
one primitive:
- Select an object.
- Choose Modify -> Hierarchy -> Explode.
- Point to the explosion center and click the left mouse button.
- Define the direction and magnitude of the explosion by defining two
  points. With the first point you grab the object and the second point
  shows where the part which you grabbed will be moved by the force of
  the explosion. All other parts of the object will be moved the same
  ratio from the explosion center.

The primitives themselves cannot be exploded into smaller pieces: they can
only be pulled into the distance.

                                - PAGE 23 -

PRIMITIVES
The following list shows the basic construction parts, the so called
primitives, of Real 3D.

Two dimensional primitives:
- Triangle
- Rectangle
- Circle

Three dimensional primitives:
- Prism
- Pyramid
- Cube
- Sphere
- Cylinder
- Cone
- Cut cone
- Hyperboloid (Hyperbol)
- Cut hyperboloid (CutHyperbol)

In addition to the above mentioned primitives you can create many new
primitives from the basic ones by stretching. So, you could create
parallelograms, elleptical hyperboloids, elliptical cones, etc.
Most primitives are so easy to create, that you cannot possibly fail.
Only objects created with the cone tools are affected by actions taken
by the user during the creation process.
Using the cone tool you can create either a cut cone or a whole cone.
Which one is created depends on wheter or not the creation is terminated
with the mouse button after defining the first radius.
Only two dimensions can be defined in one projection window when the user
creates objects. For this reason, the third dimension is given a default
value. For example, in a kitchen furniture factory the default depth can
be set to 15mm, the thickness of chipboard. Changing the default depth
is discussed in the chapter titled 'Attributes'.

MODIFYING OBJECTS BY THEIR PROPERTIES
You have already learned how objects can be modified after they have been
selected from their position in the hierarchy. You can also select objects
on the grounds of their properties like color, material and name.

The following operations can be executed based on object properties:
- Changing color (Color)

                                - PAGE 24 -

- Replacing an object with another object (Replace)
- Deleting an object (Delete)

If you want to modify objects with some other function, you can do it by
defining a suitable macro which includes all the required modifications
and then using Modify -> Wildcard -> Macro function. Details of the macro
function can be found in the 'Macro' section.
The objects to be modified are selected by specifying a desired value for
a certain property. All objects whose property has this value are
selected.

                        (Picture "PIC16,25,27,44")

It is possible to use three different properties for object selection:
name, material and color. Foe each property, the selection device
contains two fields: the condition field and the corresponding value
field. To use a property for object selection, activate the condition
field for it and then enter the desired value in the value field. If the
'name' condition field is activated, then only objects whose name is
equal to the character string contained in the name value field are
modified. The value string can also contain unix-style pattern matching:
the '?' - character matches any character, the string 'a?*' matches any
string starting with the character 'a' etc.
If the material condition field is activated, then only objects whose
material is the same as the material value field indicates are modified.
The value string can again contain unix-style pattern matching characters.
If the color condition field is activated, then only objects whose color
is the same as displayed in the color value field are modified.

NOTE: If you don't set any of the condition fields, all objects will be
modified. Note also, that only primitives can have color and material
properties. The only property with which you can refer to objects in
higher hierarchy leverls is the name.

                                - PAGE 25 -

To change the color of all objects whose name is 'stand':
- Select the root object.
- Choose a new color for the table from the Colors menu.
- Choose Modify -> Wildcard -> Color.
- When Real 3D prompts for the object to be modified, set the name
  condition field and type 'stand' to the corresponding value field.
- Choose OK. The color of all the objects with the name 'stand' will be
  changed.

To delete all the stands in the base of the table whose color is blue:
- Define the blue color with the Colors -> Palette function, if it is not
  yet defined.
- Select base.
- Choose -> Modify -> Wildcard -> Delete.
- Define the objects to be deleted by setting the color field.
- Click the colored rectangle until it displays the blue color. In the
  information window you can see the number of the selected color (for
  example 3 refers to the third color in the palette).
- Set the name field as well; type 'stand'.
- Choose OK.

Real 3D will delete from the base all the stands that are colored blue.
If the stands had been any other color they would not have been deleted.
The replace function can be used to replace objects with another object.
The replacing object will be positioned using its offset point.

To replace all stands of the table with new stands:
- Create an object called 'newstand'.
- Select table.
- Choose -> Modify -> Wildcard -> Replace.
- Define the modifications to be executed based on the name 'stand*?'.
- When Real 3D prompts for the object to replace the stand with, select
  newstand.
- Choose OK. All the stands in the table will be replaced with the new
  stands that you created.

NOTE: If the object newstand is created under the hierarchy of the table
in the previous example, then the program will not accept the replacement
action. Certain replacements are prohibited, to prevent the user creating
infinite loops which could lead to a system crash. The rule is that the
target object cannot be a subobject of the replament object and vice
versa.

                                - PAGE 26 -

NOTE: When using the Wildcard functions Real 3D searches for the objects
to be modified only in the active object. In this way you can limit the
range of modifications to a certain part of the hierarchy tree. If you
executed a modification operation while a primitive is selected, the
properties of any other objects will not be tested because a primitive
does not have a substructure.

SAVING AND LOADING OBJECTS.
An object you have created, or any part of it, can be saved on disk to
later be recalled and used again.

For example to save the table you just created to the directory 'template'
on drive df0:
- Select 'table'
- Choose Projects -> Objects -> Save.

A device will then appear on the screen. With this file requester you
define all the names that Real 3D needs to load and save data. In the
requester you can see a listing of a DOS directory. Using the mouse you
can select any of the names by moving through the directory tree until
you reached the directory you want. Then you can type the name to save
the object with to the field in the lower part of the requester.
Naturally, you can also select an existing file. In this case the old
contents of the file will be overwritten. Similarly you can type in the
name field any name with its directory path regardless of which directory
is shown in the device.

                        (Picture "PIC16,25,27,44")

Continue saving with the following actions:
- Define the name 'df0:template/table' as described above.
- Choose OK.

                                - PAGE 27 -

In the same manner, when you want to load the table in directory
'template' of drive df0:
- Select a scene into which you want to load the table (for example
  a garden furniture set).
- Select a point in space wher you want to load the table. When loaded
  the object will be positioned so that its offset will be located at
  this point.
- Choose Projects -> Objects -> Load.
- Select ' df0:template/table' from the file requester and choose OK.

If the selected object was found, it will become part of the garden
furniture set. The table is now the active object, so you can immediately
modify it in various ways, for example, move it to an appropriate
location.

NOTE: If you save on object to an existing file name Real 3D does not
verify your operation but destroys the previous version of the file. When
you create objects it is advisable to compose objects of reasonable
subobjects, which can be saved to appropriate subdirectories. Although
this means more work in the beginning, it does allow you to create
libraries of reusable objects. You can use these ready made objects as
construction blocks for new objects and don't have to begin your work
from the beginning.


MACRO
The macro facility, an important deature of Real 3D, is very useful when
you must execute the same modifying operations to a large number of
objects. A macro is a series of modification operations that the user can
define to best suit his/her needs. Macros are kept in memory and they can
later be executed on any object.
Defining a macro is started using the Define operation. Any macro in
memory at this point are deleted. After this, all operations that are
chosen that modify the structure of the object are stored in memory.
These operations include: Move, Move to, Stretch, Size, Rotate, Mirror,
Extend, Explode, Info, wildcard modifications excluding wildcard macro,
etc. On the other hand, operations that affect animation structure, are
not stored. For example Animation -> Delete and Animation -> Size are
such operations that would not be stored.

When the macro has been fully defined the recording is stopped by the
End operation.

An example of macro definition:
- Create an object.
- Choose Projects -> Macro -> Define.
- Platten the object with Strectch function.
- Rotate the object with Rotate function.
- Move the object with Move function.
- Choose Projects -> Macro -> End.

                                - PAGE 28 -

Now you have defined a macro that consists of three modifying operations.

To execute the macro:
- Select the object to modify.
- Choose Projects -> Macro -> Execute.
- Real 3D activates a requester displaying three default values: Frames =
  1, Startcound = 1, Increment = 1. These values will do, so select OK.

Another, quick way to execute the macro is to hit the 'e' (execute), which
executes the macro once.

                           (Picture "PIC14,29")

If you want to execute the macro 20 times, set startcount = 20 before
clicking OK. This is a very powerful method for creating symmetrical
objects.

As an example, let us create a set of ball bearings:
- Create a sphere with a suitable size and place it near the top of one of
the projection windows.
- Select menu Projects -> Macro -> Define.
- Copy the sphere.
- Rotate the sphere around the center point of the window.
- Select menu Projects -> Macro -> End.
- Select menu Projects -> Macro -> Execute.
- Estimate the number of spheres needed to form the entire ball bearing
  and set startcount to this value.
- Click OK.

                                - PAGE 29 -

                          (Picture "PIC30,31,32")

The parameters 'Frames' and 'Increment' have use when creating animations.
More detailed description is given in the chapter on Animations.

SPECIAL TOOLS
Real 3D includes a set of special tools to ease creation of certain types
of objects, like objects turned in a lathe. Objects that consists of
several primities can be created fast an easily with these special tools.

LATHE
To use the late tool:
- Choose Creation -> Tools -> Lathe.
- Define the direction of the axis of the lathe by selecting two points
  with the mouse.
- Turn the object by defining its longitudinal section. When the required
  shape has been defined, turning can be terminated by pressing the menu
  or right button.

                                - PAGE 30 -

                          (Picture "PIC30,31,32")

TUBE TOOLS
With the tube tools you can create a continuous tube which has slightly
rounded turns. For example, these tools could be used for writing.

To use the circular tube tool:
- Choose Creation -> Tools -> Circular tube.
- Define the diameter of the tube.
- Draw the tube in space as long as you want it and then finish it with
  the menu button.

The tube tools use various primitives like cylinders, polyhedrons, and
spheres to create the tube you defined.

                          (Picture "PIC30,31,32")

                                - PAGE 31 -

FENCE TOOL
The fence tool can be used to create a surface consisting of a chain of
rectangles.

To use the fence tool:
- Choose Creation -> Tools -> Fence.
- Draw the fence in space and then complete it with the menu button.

                          (Picture "PIC30,31,32")

POLYGON TOOL
With the polygon tool you can create plane polygons. Use the left mouse
button to add new edge points when drawing a polygon. The right mouse
button ends the process. Note that the last two points of the polygon are
closed automatically.

POLYHEDRON TOOL
With the polyhedron tool you can create an object whose surface consists
of polygons.

Use it in the following way:
- Select the menu Creation -> Tools -> Polyhedron.
- First define the intersection shape of the object, in other words the
  shape of the bottom plane of the object. You can do this in the same
  way as with the polygon tool. Use the right mouse button to end the
  shape definition. If you only want to extrude this shape into the third
  dimension, click the right button again. Otherwise, click the left
  mouse button in the position that you want to place one

                                - PAGE 32 -

  end of the polyhedron.
- Now you can change the size of the top end by moving the mouse. When the
  size is suitable, click the left button. If you hit the right mouse
  button instead, you get a pyramid-like shape with a sharp top.

CONICAL TUBE TOOL
With this tool it is possible to create spheres connected with cones. The
result is a tube with a changing radius and rounded joints.

For example, this tool could be used for creating a robot finger:
- Select Creation -> Tools -> Conical tube.
- Shape as many circles as needed. These circles define the joints of a
  finger. End the joint definition by clicking the right mouse button.
- When the program asks for a subdivision factor type '1' and click OK.

If you define a higher subdivision factor, you get more joints and a
smoother result. Try the previous example with the subdivision factor 5
just to see the difference.

LATHE 2
This tool works in a similar was as the original lathe tool, but the tools
uses hypeboloids and ellipsoids so that it is possible to create objects
whose diameter changes smoothly in the direction of the axis. Use the tool
in the following way:
- First define the axis direction of the lathe.
- Then click on the starting point and define the direction of the surface
  at that point by drawing a line segment. Click when the direction is
  good.
- Now you can shape a curve. When the shape is suitable, click the left
  mouse button and shape the next curve.
- If you want to make a straight edge, then use the right mouse button to
  cancel the current curve shaping and then define the new direction.
- Sometimes the smooth profile curve breaks because of precision problems
  in Real 3D's calculations. This can be avoided by defining the shape in
  shorter seqments.
- It is possible to force the surface direction to the lathe axis
  direction by hitting either the 'x' key or the 'y' key: in the former
  case the length of the object is taken from the mouse pointer
  coordinates and in the latter case the pointer defines the radius of the
  object.

                                - PAGE 33 -

PIXEL TOOLS
The pixel tools are a very powerful link between two and three dimensional
computer graphics. The idea is to easily and quickly obtain complex 3D
solid objects by replacing the two dimensional pixels of an IFF picture
with some three dimensional objcets, such as spheres.
When using the pixel tool, the user can define which object replaces the
pixels. Only the pixels which have some color other than the background
color (color 0) are replaced. The colors of the objects created are the
same as the corresponding colors of the pixels in the IFF picture.

For example, you can create 3D text using standard 2D fonts. There are a
wide variety of fonts available, and furthermore, there are an infinite
number of ways to define the object with which the pixels are replaced.
For the creative user, pixeltool offers an excellent method of producing
3D pictures and animations.

To create text with the pixel tool:
- Start a paint program, choose a suitable font, then write the word
  'Real'. Define a brush containing the word and then save the brush, to
  the RAM disk.
- Now create a small sphere in Real 3D.
- Choose Creation -> Tools -> Pixeltool. Now the file requeste is
  displayed, and you can select the brush you saved to the RAM disk.
- Next, you can define the size and location of the object that will be
  created by defining a line segment in one of the main windows. This
  line corresponds to the top edge of the object being created.
- Now you can select the object which is to be used to replace the pixels.
  Select sphere and click OK. Now wait until the program has created the
  3D model of the word 'Real'. You propably don't need the original sphere
  any longer, so delete it.

                           (Picture "PIC34,37")

                                - PAGE 34 -

When using the second variation of the tool, pixeltool2, the bitmap is
taken as a height map when creating a free form net surface. The brighter
the color a pixel has, the higher the peak will be in the corresponding
point on the surface.

For example, you can create a free form ground surface for a landscape:
- Start a paint program and draw a small height map (or edit a digitized
  map image). Save this map to the RAM disk as a brush.
- Choose Creation -> Tools -> Pixeltool. The file requester will be
  displayed, and you can select the bush you saved to the RAM disk.
- Next, you must define the size and location of the object that will be
  created by defining some segments in one of the projection windows.
  Again, this line corresponds to the top edge of the brush.
- Wait until the object is created.

Note: Both the pixel tools tend to create 'heavy' objects. For example, in
a paint program a brush of 30 times 30 pixels looks very small, but it
includes 900 pixels. A brush that is just a little bigger, say 50 times
50 pixels, includes 2500 pixels. This huge number may lead to a stack
overflow or your memory might simply run out. If you are going to handle
a model of several hundred objects, we recommend that you first read the
sections that describes how to use the faster display redraw modes.

LIGHT SOURCES
A light source is a primitive that radiates light of its own color. If the
primitive is black it does not radiate light at all, while a white object
radiates all the main components (R,G,B) of light in the same amounts.
A light source is a point without dimension. According to the laws of
physics, the intensity of radiated light should be inversely proportional
to the distance squared. However, this would create contrasts which were
too high due to the limited number of colors possible on the Amiga.
Therefore, in Real 3D the effect of distance on the intensity of light
is somewhat reduced. In real life it is usually very difficult to observe
objects in lighting which has only one wavelength. There is also no
material which would reflect only one wavelength. In Real 3D all this is
possible, so you should be carefull when selecting the colors of light
sources. For example, a totally red object is not visible at all under
blue lighting, because a red object does not reflect any blue light.
A violet object looks red under yellow lighting. Usually it is advisable
to create white light sources, so that all objects will be rendered in
their 'true' colors.Although the number of light sources is not limited,
they should not be used lightly. The time taken for rendering is greatly
dependent on the number of light sources.

                                - PAGE 35 -

To create a light source:
- Select the color of the light source from the Colors menu.
- Choose Creation -> Lamp
- Move the mouse pointer to the place you want to place the light source
  and press the left mouse button.

NOTE: A light source differs greatly from other primitives in that it does
not have any valume. Thus you can not do Boolean operations with it and it
cannot have a texture. However, it is a part of the object you are
creating, just like a lamp is a part of a chandelier. You can modify
objects that include a light source without restrictions. The light
sources behaves just like any other primitive. Naturally, there is no
sense in stretching a single light source.

THE BRIGHTNESS OF LIGHT SOURCES
When you create light sources in the editor, you don't have to worry about
their brightness; the program will scale their intensities to a suitable
level and fine tuning can be done by settings of the solid model. You can
set the relative brightness of various light sources by giving them
suitable colors a lamp having lower values for RGB components has a lower
light intensity than a lamp that has higher RGB values. These differences
will be preserved in automatic scaling. The automatic scaling of light
intensities can be thought as being analogous to the automatic exposure
function if a camera, where the exposure level is based on the overall
brightness of the picture. It's worth noticing that if you position a
light source near an object there will be great differences in light level
(in other words the contrast is high). If you illuminate the object from a
distance, the light falling on the object will be much more evenly
distributed.
A good example of this phenomenom is the comparison of sunlight and lamp
light. If you place a lamp near an object to act as a spot light and
another further away to give ambient light, the latter should have much
higher density, and therefore a higher visible effect. Since light sources
are points without any volume, they don't show in the picture created with
the solid model. So, if you want there to bee reflections of the light
sources on reflecting surfaces, you must put, for example, a cover made of
matt glass around the light source. This is just like in the real world!
It could be emphasized in this context that the highlights and the
reflections are not special effects or spots created with some special
programming trickery. They are the results of calculating the laws of
physics - this is one of the main principles of Real 3D. You may find it
useful to save some suitable light sources as objects to disk so that they
can be used as and when the need arises. Nevertheless, if you want to
produce a ray traced picture of an object, you don't always have to create
light sources. The rendering section of Real 3D includes some fast ray
tracing modes, in which one light source is created automatically.
For more information, see the chapter on the Solid Model mode.

                                - PAGE 36 -

COLORS
In the solid model, Real 3D's rendering unit, all the Amiga's 4096
possible colors are used. Each color consists of three primary components:
red, green and blue. When each of these components can have one of 16
intensity levels, a total of 4096 colors can be used. The sixteen default
colors that are shown in the color menu are called register colors. They
can be changed by controlling their primary components (R, G and B).
In the objects you create, the color information is stored as RGB values.
Thus you can modify any of the sixteen colors to be the desired color.
If you later change the register color, the object will not change color.
The editor only shows the objects with the register color with which their
color was defined.

To change register colors:
- Choose Colors -> Palette.
- Choose a register color by clicking  one of the colored squares.
- Define the R, G and B values of the selected register color.
- Choose either OK or SAVE depending on whether you want the change to be
  permanent or not.

                           (Picture "PIC34,37")

THE SCREEN
Real 3D includes several different display modes for the editor display.
If you select the menu Projects -> Screen, a requester is displayed.
This controls both the editor and the wireframe model displays. The device
offers the following display alternatives:

INTERLACE
This gadget turns interlace on or off. With it on the vertical resolution
is doubled.

                                - PAGE 37 -

NTSC
When the NTSC gadget is on it selects a display height of 200 lines (400
lines when interlaced). The default value for PAL machines is 256 lines.

SCREEN DEPTH
With this field, you can select the number of colors availabale. The
minimum value 2 allows four colors, and the maximum value 4, which is
the default, allows 16 colors. The higher the depth is, the more chip
memory the display requires. in old Amigas with 512Kb of chip memory,
the depth cannot be set to 4 when interlace is on, the update of the
display gets slower as the screen depth increases.

ASPECT RATIO
In this field you can define the pixel aspect ratio.

WINDOW SIZE
This gadget defines, whether the editor windows overlap or not.
Overlapping windows offers more space, but the scene cannot be seen from
all three directions at the same time.

                          (Picture "PIC38,58,61")

These settings are brought into use if you choose OK. When you exit the
program, the last display mode selection is automatically saved to the
file realpref, and the next time you run Real 3D, you get precisely the
same display. The screen requester contains the aspect ratio field, where
you can enter the desired aspect ratio. The ratio defines the pixel height
to pixel width ratio in the HIRES-INTERLACE screen mode. On PAL machines
a good estimate is 1.0, but 1.25 is more suitable when using NTSC.

                                - PAGE 38 -

The pixel aspect ratio defined in the editor is used in the wireframe and
solid model modes as well. Note that you can replace the editor aspect
ratio using the aspect ratio option in the solid model control screen:
this aspect ratio option is used for solid model rendering only. This is
useful if you use a frame buffer with a separate monitor, using the two
options you can define suitable aspect ratios for each display.

                                - PAGE 39 -
                                - PAGE 40 -

3 WIREFRAME MODEL
-----------------

The wireframe model has two basic purposes in Real 3D:
- With the wireframe model you can view the objects in real time in three
  dimensions.
- The wireframe model defines data which is later used in solid model
  rendering.

You can enter the wireframe model using the editor menu Modes ->
Wireframe, the gadget 'WIRE' on the solid model screen or by hitting the
'w' key.

                             (Picture "PIC41")

The gadgets of the control window have the following functions:

AIMPOINT
In these fields you can type the position of the aimpoint in the frame
being displayed. Remember to hit return after entering a new value.

POSITION
With these fields you can change the position of the observer (the camera
position) accurately by typing the desired coordinate values.

POSITION GADGET
The large gadget on the right side of the 'Pos' fields can be used to
define the position of the observer. The button of the gadget defines the
direction of the motion of the observer (not the position itself).
If you move the button to the right, the observer starts to rotate

                                - PAGE 41 -

around the aim point to the right, and if you move the button upwards,
the observer moves upwards, until it reaches the position above the
aimpoint. The more you move the button from the center of the gadget
the faster the motion is.

DISTANCE
This gadget defines the distance from the observer to the aimpoint. If
you move the slider to the left, the observer moves nearer to the aim
point. Also, you can type a desired value in the field containing the
distance.

SCREEN
With the screen gadget you can adjust the size of the picture. Again, you
can define an accurate value by using the numerical field on the right
side of the 'Screen:' text.

AR
This is the automatic recording gadget. If this gadget is activated, all
changes made to the observer and the aim point positions are stored.
Furthermore, the numerical fields of the control window are updated
continuously.

<<
Rewind gadget for changing the current animation frame. A sharp click on
the gadget selects the previous frame, whereas keeping the gadget pressed
will make the frame index countdown continuously until the first frame
is reached.

>>
This is the forward wind gadget, which works as above.

REC
Records the wireframe settings which corresponds to the image currently
being displayed on the current frame. The next frame (if exists) is then
displayed. These recorded settings are used when rendering ray traced
images from the scene.

SAVE
It is possible to save wireframe animations as IFF images. To do this,
define a suitable name in the name field of the solid model rendering
control window (use a '_w' postfix,

                                - PAGE 42 -

the index will be automatically inserted), activate the SAVE gadget and
click on the PLAY field.

RBOX
With this gadget you can select the faster 'representation box' drawmode.
RECord the current situation before activating/deactivating this gadget,
if you do not want to lose it.

CLEAR
Resets the observer, the aim point and screen distance values to the
default ones in every frame of the animation.

PLAY
Starts the wireframe preview of the animation. It shows the animation
as a continuous loop. The animation can be stopped by deactivating the
gadget.

FRAME
Displays the index of the current animation frame.

EDITOR
Exits from the wireframe model to the editor.

SOLID
Exits from the wireframe model to the rendering screen (solid model).

The controls of the wireframe model can be hidden by pressing the 'f'
(full) key or the right mouse button; second press brings them back.

The following picture shows how the picture is calculated in wireframe mode.

                                - PAGE 43 -

                        (Picture "PIC16,25,27,44")

By changing the location of the screen you can either enlarge the object
or reduce it. By taking the screen closer to the observer you can decrease
the size of the picture of the object because the light rays reflecting
from the object to the eyes of the observer will intersect the screen
nearer each other. If the distance between the screen and the eyes is set
to zero, the object is seen as a single point.
The perspective can be changed by looking at the object at different
distances. If you first set a small value for screen distance, you can
then move the observer very near to the object and still see it fully.
This gives a very strongly perspectived image as produced by a wide angle
lens.
With the observer position gadget you can look at the object from any
direction. If you want to know your location in space, click on the REC
gadget with the left mouse button. If you wish to see this information
continuously when moving in space, turn continuous Recording (AR) on so
that your location will be shown all the time.

Many of the control gadgets in the wireframe model are used for defining
data to be used in animations and solid modeling. The solid modeler needs
various information, such as the direction from which you are looking at
the object, the distance from the object and, finally, the distance
between your eyes and the monitor screen. You can set these settings
with the controls of the wire frame model and store them in memory with
the AR and REC gadgets. Creating animations and defining location
information for the solid model are described in greater detail in the
sections on Solid Model and Animations.

                                - PAGE 44 -

4 SOLID MODEL
-------------

Until now you have only created tables, light sources, etc. But, you
havn't seen anything but wireframes. In this chapter we will learn about
the Real 3D's solid model screen, the most complex and sophisticated part
of Real 3D. This of the software renders the images of your scenes using
the so called ray tracing prinsiple. The surfaces of the objects that you
have created in the editor are colored in by the solid model using a
mathematical model of the reality. In this model light rays are emitted
from the light sources and reflected from object to object until they hit
a place which causes vision: your eye.

Whilst solid model relies on complex routines, it is very simple to use.
To render a ray traced image of a group of spheres of different colors:
- Create the spheres.
- Choose Modes -> Wireframe.
- Find a suitable viewing point and 'take a picture' of the object using
  the REC operation. Once the image is rendered by solid model the objects
  will be seen in exactly the same size and composition as in the
  wireframe model.
- Exit the wireframe model by choosing SOLID. Real 3D then brings up the
  solid model screen with which you can select the modeling resolution,
  the picture size, etc. Leave all the defaults and just click on 'RENDER'
  so that the scene will be modeled using the default FAST method.
- When the picture is ready. Choose Control -> Exit or Control -> Save if
  you want to save the picture.

                             (Picture "PIC45")

                                - PAGE 45 -

The solid modeling control window includes the following functions:

FRAME
You can move to any frame in the animation using Frame fields.

NAME
This field contains the name with which the pictures will be saved when
you are modeling an animation. The default name is the name of the object,
so remember to add a suitable directory path to the beginning of the name
(for example df0:pictures/root). Otherwise the images will be saved in the
current directory.

BOX OFF
If you have a box definition on the rendering display, and you want to
render the whole screen, you can use the BOX OFF gadget to remove the box.

BASELIGHT
When this gadget is activated, you can define the brightness and the color
of the ambient light using the RGB sliders beside the gadget. In other
words, this function defines the amount of diffused reflected light that
is present. A good real world example of a diffuse reflecting surface is
a white wall in a unlit room on a cloudy day. in the world of Real 3D this
light is called base light. The greater you set the base light intensity
the less contrast there is between lit and shadowed surfaces on objects.

BACKGROUND
The R, G and B sliders can also be used to define the background color for
the picture. This is done by clicking on the background gadget, and then
using the RGB sliders to define the background color.

BRIGHTNESS
The intensities of the light sources can be set to a proper level with the
brightness gadget. When you create light sources in the editor, you don't
have to pay attention to their brightness, since the differences in
intensities will automatically be scaled to appropriate levels. This
scaling is based on the amount of light these light sources cast on the
origin, the brightness ratios of the light sources are preserved. The
outcome of the scaling depends on

                                - PAGE 46 -

the value of the brightness control. This control has no affect on
surfaces that are in shadow.

OVERLIGHT
This gadget defines what happens in the bright parts of the picture. If
overlight is zero, even the color of the brightest objects does not turn
to white. On the other hand, if you start to increase the overlight value,
you get more and more overexposed pictures. This effect can be used to
trick Real 3D into making objects that usually look matt look shiny
instead. This is quite useful, because matt surfaces are very much faster
to render than truly reflective surfaces.

ANTIALIASING
You can select a suitable level of anti-aliasing using this gadget. The
effect of this function is to smooth jaggies caused by insufficient
picture resolution using color sweeps. If the value is 0, no anti-aliasing
is done, but if a value of 2 or 3 is used, you get quite a nice, smooth
picture. The only disadvantage is that the rendering process gets slower
as the anti-aliasing factor increases. When outputting to standard Amiga
picture formats, there is no need to use a higher anti-aliasing value
than 4. However, if the rendering is done using 24 bit color resolution,
increasing the factor may give a visible improvement in the picture
quality. The FAST and OUTLINE modes do not support anti-aliasing.

RESOLUTION
The resolution fields specify the resolution of the rendering picture,
that is how many pixels are rendered dor a single calculated point. This
function is useful for previewing.

WIDTH AND HEIGHT
It is possible to define the size of the image to be rendered using Width
and Height fields. If the size defined is bigger than the screen size,
rendering is done directly to disk using the file name given in the Name
field. The picture size is limited only by the Amiga's operating system:
under Workbench 1.3 the maximum is 1024 * 1024 pixels, but under Workbench
2.0 the theoretical maximum is 32768 * 32768 pixels.

RECURSION DEPTH
The recursion depth field defines how far light rays are traced when they
reflect from surface to surface. For example, this field can have a value
of three, which means that only

                                - PAGE 47 -

the first three reflections of any light ray can have any effect on the
environment. If an scene does not contain any reflective or transparent
bodies this field has no effect. However, if your object does contain
transparent and reflective materials, the bigger the value of this field
the better and the more realistic the result looks. Unfortunately, the
rendering time may increase dramatically, so it is best to keep it as
small as possible. For example, if your target includes one glass sphere,
a recursion depth 3 is probably enough. Instead, if yous model represents
two glass balls and you are looking through both of them at the same time,
the recursion depth must be at least five.

FASTMODE
When the FAST field is set, modeling is executed using the so called fast
mode. Here all the objects are converted to a basic material which is
neither mirrorlike nor transparent. It also does not have any texture.
The modeling is done using a single light source that is in the same place
as the observer.
Fast mode is the fastest ray tracing mode in Real 3D. Although the speed
is partly obtained by simplifying the model, the mode is adequate for many
purposes, such as previewing before final rendering or representation of
technical objects. In the latter example, shadows and reflections can only
cause unwanted visual confusion. Fast mode in combination with greyscale
and interlace options offers an excellent alternative to produce clear
and detailed graphics.

NORMAL MODE
When the NORMAL field is set, a complete model is used. This means that
the rendered picture will have shadows, reflections, etc.

SHADOWLESS MODE
In this mode rendering is done as in NORMAL mode with one exception: the
shadows of objects are not calculated. This makes rendering considerably
faster. Therefore this mode is especially suitable for animation
production.

LAMPLESS MODE
This mode is even faster than shadowless mode. It can be described as a
combination of the fast mode and the shadowless mode: only one automatic
light source is produced, but textures, properties of materials, etc,
are taken into account.

                                - PAGE 48 -

OUTLINE MODE
The OUTLINE mode renders a two color contour picture of the object.

SINGLE OPTION
The single option is usually used with animations. If this field is set,
only the current frame is rendered. Otherwise the animation is rendered
from the current frame of the animation and the pictures are saved
automatically to disk. Of course, you can autosave one single frame as
well as a series of frames. Note that when automatic picture saving is
enabled, the pictures are indexed automatically before saving by assing
a growing index to the name given in the name field. This indexing starts
from zero, unless you define another value by writing it to the end of the
name field. Thus, if the name field contains the string "pic" and
automatic saving is enabled, the pictures are saved as "pic0", "pic1" etc.

AUTOLIGHT OPTION
The AUTOLIGHT field sets on the automatic scaling of light sources. Then
the brightness of the picture is determined on the overall brightness of
the object. This option can be compared with the automatic exposure
function of a camera.

INTERLACE OPTION
By setting the INTERLACE field you can select an interlaced video mode
thus doubling the vertical resolution of the screen.

OVERSCAN OPTION
The OVERSCAN field enlarges the picture to fill the entire screen
including the borders.

GREYSCALE OPTION
Instead of color graphics with a horizontal resolution of 320 pixels, you
can use a grey scale shading which enables a better horizontal resolution
of 640 pixels per line. This option has no effect if OUTLINE mode is
selected.

DITHER OPTION
The DITHER field turns dithering on. Dithering is a method to increase the
number of colors available by mixing existing colors. Dithering works best
in high resolution pictures.

                                - PAGE 49 -

You can choose between different dithering methods using the Dithering
menu. The first dithering method, random 1, is the default one. It adds
the same random deviation to each color component. Random 2 dithering uses
separate random deviation for each of the R, G and B components. Line
dithering mixes the colors linewise, not pointwise, thus giving slightly
faster rendering and better image compression.
The menu Dithering -> Scale menu option can be used to define the maximum
amount of color deviation in dithering. The default value is 16 and the
maximum is 256. The higher the value is, the more mixed colors you get.
Note that the 24 bit rendering modes do not use dithering.

SAVEMEM OPTION
This option may be neccessary if you want to run another program while you
are producing a picture of a complex object with Real 3D. Real 3D uses RAM
to speed up the rendering and therefore it may use all the memory
available. If you set this option, Real 3D leaves at least 100kB of CHIP
memory free, but rendering will get a little slower.

HL-SHADE OPTION
This option offers an alternative shading mode. The default shading mode
maintains the proportions of the RGB color signals when calculating
different shades for the color of an object. This principle, which is
theoretically correct, does not always produce good looking pictures when
using HAM graphics, because the number of the colors available is limited
to 4096. This happens especially when colors are not pure, that is, when
there are not significant difference between the R, G and B components.
HL-Shade uses an additive method instead of a proportional method: all the
RGB components are changed the same number of units between consecutive
shades of a color. The original color may distort, but the result is fine.

TARGA OPTION
The TARGA gadget selects 24 bit rendering where the image is constructed
using over 16 million colors. The renderer writes the image directly to
disk with the file name defined in the Name field (unless a frame buffer
is used). The file format Real 3D uses is the true color Targa format,
which is a popular standard in professional computer graphics environments.
Note, that the FAST and OUTLINE modes do not support 24 bit rendering.
Note also, that 24 bit rendering creates very big picture files, for
example a picture with 1024 * 1024 pixels requires three megabytes.

                                - PAGE 50 -

IFF-24 OPTION
The IFF-24 field selects compressed IFF ILBM format output in 24 bit
rendering.

FRAME COMMAND
The rendering control screen contains two frame command menus: the Define-
menu and the Use-menu. With the former one you can define a character
string containing an executable command, that is, any command you can
execute from Amiga command line interpreter CLI. Use-function then
activates this command so that if you render an animation (the SINGLE-
gadget off), whenever a new frame is ready the frame command is executed,
the images are not saved. If the rendering is done directly to a disk
file, then of course the pictures are also saved.
The main purpose  of this function is to allow animation recording to a
video tape frame by frame. In that case the frame command is usually of
the form 'execute fscript', where fscript is a text file including all the
commands needed for a single frame recording.

ASPECT RATIO
This menu allows the user to define the pixel aspect ratio (pixel height/
pixel width) for rendering. If a value 0 is given, then the program uses
default ratios, which are the same as defined in the editor's screen
object (for example in HAM-INTERLACE the default aspect ratio for PAL is
0.5). If a nonzero value is given, then it replaces the default pixel
aspect ratios. Note that the last aspect ratio definition is saved
automatically when exiting the program.

RENDER
The RENDER gadget starts the rendering process.

EDITOR
Exits the rendering unit and goes to the editor.

WIRE
Exits the rendering unit and goes to the wireframe model.

                                - PAGE 51 -

You can acquaint yourself with the solid model by rendering your scene
using various rendering resolutions and rendering modes. If you use NORMAL
or SHADOWLESS mode, remember to create a light source to illuminate your
object - otherwise all the objects in your picture will have only base
light.

NOTE: If you have started rendering and for some reason want to interrupt
it (the resolution isn't right...), you can stop it by choosing Control ->
Cancel or by hitting the 'q' key.

After rendering has started, the user can select some functions. With the
box functions, the user can define the part of the display that is to be
rendered. The purpose of this is to make the time consuming rendering
process faster. Using the 'Set box' function you can define a rectangular
region to be rendered. In this way you can take a quick look at a critical
part of the frame before you start rendering the whole frame. It is also
possible to render a frame using a lower resolution, after which the
regions required can be defined and rendered using a higher resolution.
In animations the box function can be used in many cases to greatly speed
up the rendering process by excluding those parts of the frames that don't
change. The Fill box function fills the box, and Box off removes the box
definition that is defined.

Note that if you define a box and then return to the editor, the solid
model rendering screen is not removed. So when you enter the solid model
again, the old picture is still there.


FRAMEBUFFER SUPPORT
Real 3D Professional contains direct support for some frame buffers.
At the moment, support for the Harlequin frame buffer is included, and a
special program version for the VD2001 from Austria is available too.

These support features become active automatically, when the frame buffer
is properly installed in the system. For example, when using Harlequin,
just plug the card into your machine and copy 'harlequin.library' to the
'libs:' directory. Then start Real 3D and select Modes -> Solid. If the
frame buffer installation was successful, you should now find a set of
new menus in the rendering control screen.

To render directly to the frame buffer display:
- Activate the LAMPLESS rendering mode.
- Activate either the TARGA or IFF 24 option.
- Select the 'Open screen' function from the frame buffer menu.
- Select RENDER.

                                - PAGE 52 -

- After rendering, you can save the image using the Save function on the
  frame buffer menu.

To change the frame buffer display attributes:
- Select the desired options from the frame buffer menu.
- Select the 'Open screen' function again.

                                - PAGE 53 -

5 MATERIALS
-----------

As mentioned before, Real 3D can represent objects as solids which can be
given properties like brilliancy, texture, color, transparency and speed
of light in the material. The color and transparency specify how much of
the light hitting a body is reflected, absorbed or let through.

                            (Picture "PIC54")

The color of a body is for example white, all wavelengths of light reflect
from it equally, while a black body absorbs all the light that hits it.
A yellow body absorbs the blue component of light, and so on. The color of
the body defines how great amount of each of the light components is
absorbed. The rest of the light can either fully reflect from the body,
go through the body or something in between these extremes.

                            (Picture "PIC54")

                                - PAGE 54 -

In Real 3D, it is possible to define the physical parameters of the
objects very accurately. The user can create different materials which
can be saved to disk as material libraries. The user can load any of
these libraries and then all the materials contained in the library are
available for use. When an object is created, any of the materials
present can be applied to it.

Materials can be created/modified using the material requester below:

                            (Picture "PIC55")

The requester contains many proportional gadgets (sliders) such as the
surface brilliancy gadget: These gadgets display their values as a
percentage of the maximum value. The functions of the gadgets of the
material requester are listed below.

NAME
In this field you can type a suitable name for your material.

BRILLIANCY
The brilliancy of a surface dictates how the reflected light will travel.
If the surface is very smooth, the light will reflect perfectly and the
surface will act as a mirror. If the surface is rough or matt, the light
will reflect in random directions as in real life. In Real 3D the
brilliancy can be set to any value from completely matt to totally
mirrored.

                                - PAGE 55 -

TRANSPARENCY
The transparency can also be defined from fully transparent to opaque.
Real 3D is consistent with the theory of relativity, thus 299,792,466.2
metres per second is the greatest speed of light through a body that can
be defined.

SPEED OF LIGHT
The speed of light in a material defines how light is refracted when it
goes through the material (refraction happens because light always travels
along the fastest route between two given points). This is often referred
to as the refraction index. If a body is perfectly impenetrable to light,
the speed of light in it is not considered. In cases where light travels
from an optically thicker material to an optically thinner material, the
refraction index also defines the angle at which total reflection will
happen. For the sake of performance, the effect of wavelength on
refraction is not taken into account. Therefore, different wavelenghts
of light cannot be resolved using a prism. In Real 3D you can create
materials that have extremely high refraction characteristics. While
diamonds have a refraction index of 2.4, you can create materials with
a refraction index as high as 256.

TURBIDITY
This value defines how turbid a material is. For example, you can create
a fog-like material. Note that the transparency factor defines how light
rays penetrate the surface of a material, whereas turbidity describes what
happens inside the material.

SPECULARITY
This material property describes how strongly reflected light rays from
light sources concentrate around the ideal reflection direction. The
higher the specularity the sharper and smaller the highlights created
by light sources are.

SPECULAR BRIGHTNESS
This gadget defines how bright the light spots are. Specular brightness
has effect only if the material contains some specularity.

BUMP HEIGHT
The absolute height of bumps in bump mapping. See the BUMP gadget
description below.

                                - PAGE 56 -

PICTURE
An object can be given a texture by combining it with an IFF format
picture. Almost all programs for Amiga use this standard. For example,
pictures created with programs such as Deluxe Paint or Digipaint can be
used for painting objects. The picture field defines the name of the
texture when using the texture mapping feature.

SELECT
When defining a texture map for the material, you can directly write the
name to the picture gadget, but it is also possible to use the select
gadget, which activates the file requester for the texture selection.

SHOW
This gadget displays the texture to be used for the material, if it is
defined.

TEXTURE INDEX
This feature helps you to create animations in which the material textures
change during the animation. For example, a wavy water surface can be
animated by using a series of slowly changing texture maps and bump
mapping. To use this feature, do the following:

- Produce the texture and save them with a suitable name followed by a
  growing index starting fom zero: 'texture0', 'texture1'...
- Create a material with suitable properties and write the name of the
  textures (with or without any index) to the texture name gadget in the
  material device.
- Type the number of different texture files into the Txr.index field.

After these steps you can use the material in your scene. When you then
start rendering, the texture name is indexed automatically according to
the frame number. Consequently, the first animation frame uses
'texture0', second uses 'texture1', and so on. When all the textures have
been used once, the indexing skips back to the first texture.

MAPPING
Textures can be mapped onto an object in four different ways:
- As a parallel projection
- As a cylinder projection
- As a ball projection
- As a spiral projection.

                                - PAGE 57 -

Parallel projection is probably the most widely used. Different kinds of
materials, upholstering, wood, etc can be created with it. With cylinder
projection the texture can be wrapped around the object, and in spiral
projection this wrapping forms a spiral. Ball projection is achieved when
you first wrap a picture around an object and then crumple the ends of the
picture so that it forms a sphere around the object. Sphere projection can
be easily comprehended if we take the globe and a globe map as an example.
By projecting a plan map of the earth on the sphere we can create a globe
map.

                          (Picture "PIC38,58,61")

NO 0-COL
If this gadget is activated then the first color of the palette of the
texture (usually the background color) is treated as if it were
transparent, and the original color of the object is used to replace this
color.

Textures can be used to define many different properties for objects.
With the Maptype gadgets you can activate color mapping, clip mapping,
bump mapping and special mapping, which are described in more detail
below. You can combine all these mapping methods freely, so for example
if you want to define just bump mapping remember to activate the color
mapping field.

CLIP
It is possible to use textures to cut surfaces in the following way:
Create a material with a suitable texture and activate the CLIP field.
Then create a hollow object and change it to the material you have just
defines. Then all the parts of the surface not painted by the texture
will be removed.

                                - PAGE 58 -

BUMP
Bump mapping allows textures to be used for defining 'bumps' instead of
colors on surfaces of objects. The red values of the bitmap used define
the relative height of the bumps: The higher the red component the higher
bump, so the highest bump will be where the red value of the pixel is 16.
The absolute height of bumps can then be adjusted using the bump height
gadget.

SPECIAL
If this mapping type is selected, then the green value at any point of the
bitmap defines the transparency of the surface in the corresponding
position on the object and blue defines the brilliancy. In this way you
could map shiny letters onto a matt surface.

COLOR
This is the default texture mapping method which can be used for
determining the colors of objects.

Horizontal and Vertical texture mapping options give additional
flexibility to texture mapping features. Below is a list of the
options; they work in a similar way in both horizontal and vertical
directions.

GRADIENT
This can be used to produce a range of smoothly graduated colours across
the surface of an object. If you set this flag, then the color boundaries
between rectangular pixels are smoothened. This is especially useful when
rendering 24 bit images.

TILE
This function repeats the texture in a tiled fashion on the material
surface.

FLIP
The flip function inverts every second texture of a tiled map. This gives
better pattern continuity in the junctions of textures. For example, if
you use a digitized image of a wooden surface as a texture map this
function is very useful.

                                - PAGE 59 -

ANGLE
These fields define the angle to which the texture is mapped. With spiral
and cylinder projections only the horizontal angle is considered, whereas
ball projection uses both angle definitions. In the horizontal direction
the default of 360 degrees maps the texture precisely once around the
object. If the angle is greater, only part of the texture is visible.
If the angle is smaller, the texture is mapped across a narrower section
so that tiling is possible if desired. In the vertical direction the
default angle is 180 degrees, which maps the texture from the 'north pole'
to the 'south pole'.

The following two options are sometimes useful:

UNSHADED
If you set this gadget, then any object made of the material is not
affected by light sources.

SMOOTH
This option removes specualr reflections on the boundaries of transparent
materials. For example you can remove reflections from a transparent,
turbid sphere in order to create a fog cloud.

OK
This gadget exits the material requester and accepts the material
definition or modification.

CANCEL
This gadget cancels the function.

Although the list above is long, creating a material is quite easy.
For example, to create a birch material:
- Draw a pattern imitating the filaments of birch with any drawing program
  for the Amiga, and save the pattern for example to a disk called
  'Textures:' as a file called 'birchtexture'.
- Choose Projects -> Materials -> Create, so that Real 3D opens the
  material device. Type in material name 'birch'. Later, when choosing
  a material, you will refer to this material by the name 'birch'.
- Type the DOS path Real 3D will use to find the pattern
  ('Textures:birchtexture') to the Picture field.

                                - PAGE 60 -

- Define the mapping for the pattern as PARALLEL
- Activate the horizontal and vertical tiling gadgets.
- Define brilliancy as 30 percent.
- Choose OK.

When you create a primitive, Real 3D makes it from the default material.
The default material has a totally matt surface. This material does not
have any texture and neither reflects light nor passes it.

To change the material of an object to the material 'birch':
- Define the material birch as described above.
- Select the object.
- Choose Modify -> Hierarchy -> Material.
- Select birch as the material when Real 3D asks for it.

                          (Picture "PIC38,58,61")

Now the selected object is made of birch. Real 3D shows the new material
in the instruction window. The pattern of the material you drew using the
drawing program is also attached to the object, and its location,
direction and size are given default values. The values depend on the
projection method under which the object is created, the scale and the
object. The picture of the material is positioned so that its upper left
corner is at the object's offset point. The pattern will be the same size
as it would be if loaded in the current scale to any of the projection
windows of Real 3D. If the material is such that it requires accurate
positioning of the pattern, you can modify the size, shape and location
of the pattern.

                                - PAGE 61 -

MAPPING TEXTURES
With the painting function you can accurately position textures. To define
the size and location of a pattern/texture that is attached to an object:
- Select the object.
- Choose Modify -> Hierarchy -> Painting.
- Real 3D lets you draw a line segment on the screen.

If the projection mode of the selected object is parallel projection, this
line segment corresponds to the top edge of the pattern/texture. In
cylinder, spiral and ball projections it corresponds to the center point
and radius. In these mapping methods the actual projection axis is
perpendicular to the window in which the line was drawn, and it starts
from the given center point. Furthermore, in cylinder and spiral
projections the length of the line segment defines how high the mapped
pattern becomes on the surface of the object.
Finally, you can also define the direction to which 'the seam' is created
in sphere, cylinder and spiral projections; it is the direction given by
the line segment. Now you have changed the shape, size and location of a
pattern that is used for a texture. You can also try out different
projection modes to see how the selected material looks. If you don't set
any of the projection fields, the selected material will not have any
texture. Painting an object can be accomplished using the so called tile
function, and the pattern will be repeated on the surface. In this way it
is easy to create, for example, a brick wall withou having to draw a
picture of the whole wall. It is sufficient to draw a single brick in
a suitable scale.
All operations that change the shape of an object also change the shape of
the texture. For example, if you move a textured object, also the texture
map is moved, too. Textures can be easily created for example with Deluxe
Paint's brush tool. The Real 3D software package includes a large
collection of readymade textures.

OTHER MATERIAL FUNCTIONS
The properties of the material you created do not satisfy you, they can
be changed.

To change the brilliancy of material 'birch':
- Choose Projects -> Materials -> Modify.
- Choose material 'birch' when Real 3D asks for a material to be modified.
- Change the brilliancy setting of the selected material.
- Choose OK.

If the whole material is a fiasco, or it has become obsolete, you can
delete it. All objects that currently use that material become the default
material again.

                                - PAGE 62 -

To delete materials:
- Choose Projects -> Materials -> Delete.
- If you want to delete all materials kept in memory, select the 'Delete
  all materials' function. If you want to delete one material, select
  'Delete one material' and then select a material that is to be deleted.

As you have created new materials, you have added them to the material
library of Real 3D. When you save a material to disk, you always save all
the materials in the library. Likewise, you don't have to load materials
one at a time, instead you can load a material library, and all materials
in it will become available for use.

To save a material library to disk:
- Choose Projects -> Materials -> Save.
- Name the material library using the file requester and choose OK.

To load a material library to disk:
- Choose Projects -> Materials -> Load.
- Give the name of the material library to load and choose OK.

If there are materials in memory, these new materials can be either added
to the previous materials or the previous materials can be replaced with
the new ones. Real 3D contains a library of ready made materials. It is
recommended that you load this library and examine the definitions of
different materials using the Materials -> Modify function, because
examples of using most of the material features are demonstrated in this
library.

The UNSHADED option controls the shading of the material. If you set this
gadget, then any object made of the material is not affected by light
sources. Instead, the whole object is rendered using the unshaded,
original color, so that the object looks luminous. The UNSHADED option
is very useful if you want to combine 2D and 3D graphics by adding a ray
traced picture of a three dimensional object in front of a background
picture. This can be done using a genlock or simply by doing the rendering
over the old picture, but these techniques have obvious defects: there is
no connection between the 2D and 3D worlds - no reflections or realistic
looking transparent objects.

The following example demonstrates a technique which gives great results:
- Create the background picture. For example, take a photo of a view in a
  town and digitize the picture with a video digitizer. Retouch it with a
  paint program if necessary.
- Create a Real 3D model of a new building.
- Create a material which has the background picture as a parallel mapped
  texture.

                                - PAGE 63 -

- This background picture is already shaded and therefore we don't want
  light sources of the 3D model to affect it, thus set the UNSHADED field.
- Create 'a wall' behind the building using an infinite rectangle, and
  change the material of the rectangle to be the material with the
  background picture by the Modify -> Hierarchy -> Material function.
- Select Modify -> Hierarchy -> Painting and define the size of the
  background picture so that it corresponds the size of the building.
- Add light sources to the Real 3D model so that light comes from the
  same direction as the background picture.
- Set the observer position to be the place where the background picture
  was taken.
- Start rendering.

                                - PAGE 64 -

6 LOGICAL OPERATIONS
--------------------

Logical operations offer one of the most powerful means of creating and
modifying objects. These operations offer practically unlimited
possibilites. Let's consider a situation where an engineer cuts an object
made of pine with a tool that has just been painted. Since the paint on
the tool is still wet, it sticks to the object and the surface of the cut
is covered with the wet paint. The engineer notices this and replaces the
tool with another clean one. The new cut surface is clean, showing the
beautiful filament texture of pine.

The logical operations of Real 3D work in a similar way. Let's suppose
that two cylinders are positioned so that they partially intersect. Now
we can execute any of the logical operations on the object. The results
of these operations are illustrated below:

                        (Picture "PIC65,68,69,70")

                                - PAGE 65 -

                            (Picture "PIC66")

If you look at the list above, one of the logical operations would seem to
be missing, namely OR. The reason for this omission is the OR is the
default operation. That is, it is executed of no other operation is
specified by the user. In other words, when you create objects, you add
matter to the ether.

NOTE: If you position two objects so that they partially intersect, their
materials will not fuse. What happens is that Real 3D automatically
removes material from the first primitive to make room for the second
primitive.

In Real 3D it is possible to execute the logical operations so that the
tool affects not only the volume of the target object, but also its
surface. This is one of the Real 3D's most useful features. For example,
if you cut a notch in a pine board using a reflective toll by us-

                                - PAGE 66 -

ing the 'AND NOT with paint' operation, you will get a reflective notch on
the board. Likewise, if you use a red lathe you will get a red notch.
And if you use a chimney to cut a notch, you will get a piece of wood with
a notch of brick coating. On the other hand, if you use any of the non
painting operations, you will get a clean notch of pine on your pine
board. In this case the surface of the tool does not affect the object
that is operated on. The objects used in these operations can naturally
be complex ones with many levels of hierarchy, and they can contain
objects that have resulted from previous logical operations.

All logical operations are executed in the same way:
- Select an object to operate with (The Tool).
- Choose an operation.
- Select an object to be operated on (The Work Piece).

The operations preserve the tool intact, and it can be used to carry out
several operations. One of the simplest objects that can be created with
the logical operations is a lens. A lens can be thought of as the
intersection of two partially intersecting spheres.

To make a lens, firstly create two similar spheres and naming them as work
piece and tool. Then make the spheres partially intersecting. If you now
execute the AND operation between the spheres, the resulting object will
be the part of the work piece that is inside the tool. It is a lens.

To execute the AND operation:
- Select tool as the active object.
- Choose Modify -> Operations -> AND.
- Select work piece as the object to be operated on when Real 3D asks for
  it. Now Real 3D shows a message AND done.
- Delete the tool because you will not need it any longer.

Now you have created a lens, but in the projection window there are still
two partially intersecting spheres visible. Unfortunately, it is quite
hard to change the wireframe representation of the spheres automatically
so that the resulting lens would be depicted. Therefore, you must keep in
mind what the result of the operation represents.
If you look at the selection window, you can see that the color of the
name work piece has changed to indicate that it has been operated on.
For the sake of clarity, change the objects name to lens. At any time,
by using the info operation, you can also find out what operation has
been applied on the object.
If you create objects that you plan to save later to disk, it is useful
to change the objects wireframe representation to represent the actual
shape of the object. We will return to cre-

                                - PAGE 67 -

ating new wireframe representations later on.
If you render your creation in the solid model, you will notice that you
really have created a lens shaped body. If you change the material of the
lens to glass, it can be used as a magnifying glass...

                        (Picture "PIC65,68,69,70")

To cut an oval hole into the lens:
- Create a cylinder and stretch it into an oval form.
- Locate the cylinder so that its axis goes through the focal points of
  the lens.
- Choose Modify -> Operations -> AND NOT while the cylinder is the active
  object.
- When Real 3D prompts for the object to be operated on, select the lens
  you have created.
- Delete the cylinder because it is no longer needed.
- Render an image of the object.

                                - PAGE 68 -

                        (Picture "PIC65,68,69,70")

Finally, we may make a section diagram of the lens by splitting the lens
in two, using a plane surface. You are already familiar with the two
dimensional primitives like circles, rectangles and triangles. When used
in logical operations, these plane primitives are not extremely thin
two dimensional surfaces, but, on the contrary, are infinitely thick
halves of space. In other words, a plane divides the space into two halves
and involves one of these halves. The wireframe representations of plane
primitives have a small peak, that tells you which side of the plane is
defined by the two dimensional primitive. Because we want to see the real
material and color of the objects, we do not use operations which affect
the cut surfaces of the work piece (the 'and paint' operations). If you
set a plane so that it goes through the focal points of a lens, and then
execute the AND NOT operation, the half of the lens that is on the same
side of the plane as the spike is removed. The AND operation would
preserve the half that is on the spike's side of the plane.

To remove half of a lens:
- Create some plane primitives, e.g. a rectangle, and place it so that it
  goes through the focal points of the lens.
- Choose Operations -> AND NOT while the rectangle is the active object.
- Select the lens as the object to operate on.
- Delete the rectangle since it is no longer needed.

Now you have made half a lens with an oval hole through it, which is a
very simple object to Real 3D. You can, for instance, stretch it if you
want. In a similar way you can create more and more complex objects, which
can be saved to disk and used to create noew objects. As you complete
useful new objects and tools the program becomes easier and faster to use.

                                - PAGE 69 -

                        (Picture "PIC65,68,69,70")

As you can see, using the logical operations is very simple. The only
drawback can be seen when you look at the recently created lens with a
hole in the editor. An outsider could not tell what these wireframes of
the two spheres, the cylinder and the plane depict. For this reason the
program includes options to replace the original wireframe representtions
of the primitives with a new wireframe that more closely illustrates the
recently created object.

The easiest way to modify the wireframe of an object produced by a boolean
operation is to use the Extras -> Rethink function:
- Select the object to be modified.
- Select Extras -> Rethink or hit the '!' key.
- If the result is not suitable, use the Extras -> Undo function.

This operation makes all wireframe line segments outside the volume of the
current object invisible, which usually gives a better representation.
The result of this automatic wireframe modification can then be further
improved with the other representation tools. The rethink function may
sometimes leave too little of the original wireframe, because Real 3D
tries to represent the objects as minimally as possible.

The Observer function (alt-key + 2) is the function for making individual
points invisible. Use it in the following way:
- Select the primitive to be modified.
- Select the Extras -> Representation -> Obscure function.
- Click near the point you want to make invisible.

                                - PAGE 70 -

Extras -> Representation -> Draw wire is the function for drawing a new
wire for the object (alt-key + 3). This function can be applied only to
objects that do not have a wireframe yet. That is, only to boolean
operations and other hierarchical objects which have sublevels. This
function allows you to draw a single curve, which you can afterwards edit
with the Obscure function if necessary.

One method of replacing the wireframe is to steal the wireframe
representation of an existing primitive. Then, you can modify this
wireframe until it represents the operated object with sufficient
fidelity. To use this technique:
- Create a primitive whose wireframe you wish to use as a starting point,
  and modify its wireframe to give a preliminary representation of the
  required object.
- Choose Extras -> Representation -> Add wire while the object to which
  the wireframe is to be added, is selected.
- When the program asks for it, select the primitive whose wireframe you
  want to use for the replacement. The wireframe of the primitive has now
  been added to the active object, and the primitive is deleted.
- You can modify the wireframe by moving individual points of the
  wireframe using point editing operations.
- Using the Info function, make the substructures of the replaced object
  invisible.

You can add a wireframe to any object that does not have a wireframe yet,
as illustrated above. It's sole purpose is to give information about the
real shape of the object. In the solid model the extra wireframe has no
effect whatsoever.

You can delete a wireframe representation by choosing menu item Extras ->
Representation -> Delete wire while the required object is selected.

Once you have operated on an object, the hierarchical structure of the
object is modified to reflect the volume of the resulting object. If we,
for example, drill a round hole through a cube using a cylinder as a tool,
you will notice that the hole moves with the cube when you relocate the
cube.

The following figure shows the structure of a hole drilled through a cube
with a cylinder.

                                - PAGE 71 -


                                 +------+
                                 | CUBE |
                                 +------+

                     +------+                +------+
                     | CUBE |                | CUBE |
                     +------+                +------+

The substructure of an operated object can be exposed by first selecting
the whole object and then pressing the 'Ctrl' and 's' keys simultaneously.
Real 3D will then let you use the selection window to move the
substructure of the operated object and to apply a modifying operation to
these substructures. The substructures, however, should not be modified
with operations that change the hierarchical structure of the object
(e.g. Locate or Delete) unless the user is familiar with the results of
such modifications.

NOTE: It is possible to close any hierarchical object in the same way as
boolean operations are. The keyboard function 'Alt' + '4' closes the
hierarchical structure. This protects you from creating objects into
unwanted hierarchical levels. You can move through the closed level using
the Ctrl-s keys. If you choose the function again, the structure will be
opened up.

By changing the location or size of the substructures or by stretching
them, we can easily create animations where you can actually see the hole
being drilled. Anotehr example would be an object being turned in a lathe.
The possibilities go on and on...

                           (Picture "PIC72,78")

                                - PAGE 72 -

It is possible to carry out operations that have no meaning. Although, in
theory, it is possible to execute for example an AND operation with the
object itself, Real 3D won't let you carry out such nonsense. The result
of such an operation is always either the object itself or nothing at all.
For instance, the EOR operation between two objects that are the same
deletes the whole object. However, this can be done more practically using
the normal deletion method.

                                - PAGE 73 -
                                - PAGE 74 -

7 FREE FORM MODELING AND POINT EDITING
--------------------------------------

In this chapter we will learn to use the modeling techniques of Real 3D
which are more suitable for creating free form objects such as a human
face. This approach is based on curves and polygon meshes whose points
can be freely edited to obtain a desired shape. The usual procedure for
creating a free form surface is the following:

- Create some curves, which contain enough information for the basic shape
  of the surface.
- Manipulate and edit the curves if needed.
- Use one of the tools to build a surface from the curves.
- Use linear and nonlinear modifications to edit the overall shape.
- Use point editing for detail and fine tuning.

CREATING CURVES

A curve is just a sequence of points in space, and is an important object
in free form modeling. The free form tools of Real 3D create surfaces by
combining curves in different ways. Another context where curve data is
used regularly is animations: free form motions in Real 3D animations
are defined using curves.

There are two classes of curves in Real 3D: open curves and closed ones.
The result of many of the operations depends on this difference. For
example, when defining an orbit for an object, a closed curve gives a
different result to an open one, even if the start and the end point of
the open curve coincide.

To create a free form curve:
- Select Freeform ->Create curve -> Curve.
- Use the left mouse button to add new points to the end of the curve.
- When the curve is ready, use the right mouse button to end the
  definition.

The following special options are available during curve creation:
- Esc key removes last point.
- C key closes the curve and ends the definition.
- * key allows the user to select a primitive (for example another curve),
  whose point data is copied to the end of the curve being defined and
  ends the curve definition.

Circular curves are easy to create using the Circular-loop function:
- Select Freeform -> Create curve -> Circular loop.
- Click the centre point position.
- Shape a circle.

                                - PAGE 75 -

- Type a suitable number of points for the curve when the program asks for
  the subdivision factor and click OK. Usually the default value 12 is
  sufficient.

There is also support for easy creation of spiral curves:
- Select Freeform -> Create curve -> Spiral.
- Click the centre point position.
- Shape a circle, which defines the radius of the spiral.
- Define a suitable number of points, length and an angle for the spiral.
  For example, the default angle 720 gives two revolutions around the
  spiral's axis.
- Select OK.

Sometimes it is necessaryto produce a curve which goes along another
curve, maintaining a constant distance from it. This can be done quite
easily in the following way:
- Activate the curve from which you want to create a parallel curve.
- Select Freeform -> Create curve -> Parallel.
- Draw a line from the first point of the active curve in the desired
  direction: the length of this line defines the distance between the
  curves.

The functions described above can also be selected from icons in the
selection window (in the seventh row).


SELECTING POINTS
When freeform modeling, hierarchical access to objects is often not
sufficient: To get a desired result, an operation must be restricted to a
subset of the points of a primitive. Therefore Real 3D includes support
for point selection, which enables editing of individual points within
object. This kind of editing is mainly intended for free form curves and
meshes out it can be used to modify other primitives too: A modification
of individual points may be used if it preserves the shape. For example,
a point on a triangle can be moved freely, but moving a point out of the
surface of a sphere gives a very impredictable result.
In certain situations point selection can be used to define some
additional information for a function. For example curve subdivision can
be restricted to the interval between two points instead of subdividing
the whole curve. The points which are specifiedusing point selection are
called active points. Point selection overrules the hierarchical
selection. For example, the normal Move function moves just the active
points instead of the current object. There are five functions available
for point selection. They can be selected from the menu. Freeform -> Point
editing or from the selection window icons (on the bottom row).
The Select function activates more points in the current object (the
current selections to main valid).

                                - PAGE 76 -

- Select Freeform -> Point editing -> Select.
- If you want to select only one point, click near it. You also have the
  option to drag a box around the points you want to make active.

The Select new function works in a similar way, but it first deselects all
the currently active points.

The Deselect function allows the user to deselect particular points:
- Activate the object whose points you want to deselect.
- Select Freeform -> Point editing -> Deselect.
- You can only deselect one point by clicking near it. But, if you drag
  a box, all the points inside the box will be deselected.

The Deselect all function deselects all the currently selected points.
The Show points function shows the positions of all the points of the
current object. This is useful for point selection.


BUILDING FREE FORM OBJECTS
Real 3D includes a set powerful functions, which can be used to create
polygon meshes from curves. These objects can then be edited at an
individual point level. The program supports 3 classes of mesh: Open
meshes, cylindrical meshes and torus meshes.

A mesh surface consists of a regular grid of curves, which usually show
the shape very clearly. The regular representation allows also some
special surface manipulation techniques such as remapping, which is
described later. When rendered, mesh surfaces are represented using
polygons and smoothened using Phong shading. This smoothing turned
on using the SMOOTH gadget in the Info requester.

Mesh surfaces are always hollow. This means that you can use the Boolean
operations to cut them, but you cannot use them as tools so you can't cut
with them.

The conventional way to define a surface is to use the coplanar sweep.
using this tool the surface is obtained by sweeping one curve along
another. To use this function:
- Select Freeform -> Build -> coplanar sweep.
- Define a profile curve which shows the shape of the surface's cross
  section.
- Define a curve to sweep it along.

                                - PAGE 77 -

                           (Picture "PIC72,78")

NOTE: You can define curves in the same way as you create a free form
curve using the Freeform -> Create curve -> Curve function. See the
section 'Createing curves' in this chapter. Among other things it is
possible to take the curve data from predefined, carefully created curves
using the '*' key. Sometimes this method is better because it allows
careful and accurate positioning of the curves. Also, if the result is
bad, it may be easier to edit the input curves and to build the surface
again rather than editing the surface itself.

The Orthogonal sweep is quite similar to the coplanar sweep, but while it
sweeps the profile curve along the sweeping curve, the profile curve is
also rotated according to the direction of the sweeping curve.

                           (Picture "PIC72,78")

                                - PAGE 78 -

The rotation function is a special case using the orthogonal sweep: the
difference is that the sweeping curve is always circular. You can create
rotational forms in the following way:
- Select Freeform -> Build -> Rotation.
- Define a profile curve for the rotation.
- Define the rotation axis by drawing a line.
- Define the rotation angle and the subdivision factor and click OK.

Swinging is another theme on the previous rotation function. It inputs a
swinging curve, which scales the radius of the rotated profile curve and
moves it in the direction of the axis. Use it in the following way:
- Select Freeform -> Build -> Swing.
- Define a profile curve for the swing.
- Define the rotation axis by drawing a line.
- Define a swinging curve around the axis (is is usually in a plane
  perpendicular to the axis. Note that the cursor defines the axis
  position in this plane: draw the swing curve around it).

                            (Picture "PIC79")

                                - PAGE 79 -

The join function joins a curvo or a mesh to another curve or mesh. For
example, it is possible to create a sequence of section curves, which
define the cross sectional shapes of an object in desired places and
then join the curves into a single mesh.

                            (Picture "PIC80")

This function can be used in the following way:
- Draw a sequence of intersection curves: curve1, curve2, curve3....
- Activate curve2.
- Select Freeform -> Build -> Join.
- Select curve1. Now curve2 is joined to curve1, and curve1 becomes a
  mesh.
- Activate curve3, select joining function again and select curve1. This
  adds a new section to curve1.
- Continue adding the new curves to curve1, until the shape is ready.
- The remaining curves curve2, curve3, etc. may be deleted if the
  operation is successful.

To get the best results each curve should have the same number of points
and the curves should be oriented equally. Also the start points of the
section curves should be located along the same longitudinal direction.

                                - PAGE 80 -

As well as two curves, two meshes can be joined together. In the previous
example it was assumed that the curves positioned in the correct order. If
the situation is such that there order is not known so that you do not
know which sides of the curves/meshes will be joined then the joining can
be defined accurately by activating a couple of points in the desired
edges of the meshes. The following image demonstrates this:

                            (Picture "PIC81")

The procedure for joining two meshes is:
- Activate the target mesh to be modified with the join function (this
  mesh will grow in the operation)
- Select two points on the desired edge curve of the target mesh.
- Activate the tool mesh, which will be joined to the target mech.
- Select two points more this time on the desired edge curve of the tool
  mesh.
- Select Freeform -> Build -> Join.
- Select the target mesh.
- The tool mesh is not modified in the operation: you may delete it, if
  the operation was succesful.

If one of the objects to be joined is a curve, then there is no need for
point selection on that curve. The mesh building function can be activated
from the selection window icons too (in the eight row).

                                - PAGE 81 -

MODIFYING CURVES AND MESHES
The function on the Freeform -> Modify menu can be used to manipulate free
form objects in many ways.

The remap function is a very powerful feature of Real 3D. whit it, you can
modify the number of the points with which a curve or a mesh is
represented. Increasing the number of points smoothens the shape: this is
useful, because the basic form can be defined very roughly and the remap
function can then be used to get the final smooth shape.
By decreasing the number of points instead, it might make it easier to
edit the shape. A smaller number of points is easier to control. When
you've finished editing you can restore the smooth shape by remapping the
object back to the original point count. Of course, if you first decrease
the number of points and then remap it you will not always get the same
shape. This is because with fewer points you cannot store the same amount
of information as with the original number of points.

To modify the number of points in a mesh:
- Activate the mesh.
- Select Freeform -> Modify -> Remap.
- Real 3D requests the new point counts and displays the current counts.
  Define suitable numbers and click OK.

Another reason for decreasing the point count is related to memory
problems: if you find that you cannot render a free form surface because
of lack of memory, you can reduce the number of points in the scene until
the you succed in rendering it. The show spline function shows the form,
which is achieved if the curve/mesh is remapped with a high number of
points. This is useful when editing the shape with few points.
The smoothen function can be used to smoothen the shape of a curve or a
mesh. For example, hand drawn curves or curves vectorized from bitmaps
tend to have unwanted irregularities. These can be eliminated  with this
function. If smoothening is applied to an open curve, the point count is
incremented by one, whereas with closed curves the point count is
maintained.

If the object to be smoothened contains relatively few points smoothening
may change the shape quite radically. The result of smoothening an object
which has densely spaced points is easier to predict.

To use the smoothening function:
- Activate a curve or a mesh.
- Select Freeform -> Modify -> Smoothen repeatedly until the result is
  smooth enough.

                                - PAGE 82 -

When creating a curve, the curve can be closed using 'C' key option. An
open curve can be closed afterwards using the closing option:
- Activate the curve.
- Select Freeform -> Modify -> Close.

If you apply the Close function to an open mesh, you get a cylindrical
mesh, and closing a cylindrical mesh produces a torus mesh.

Curves can also be opened or broken into pieces:
- Activate the curve.
- Activate the point where you want to break the curve.
- Select Freeform -> Modify -> Break.

When breaking a mesh, a curve along the break must be defined. This can
be done by activating two points on the desired curve.

To break a mesh:
- Activate the mesh.
- Define a break curve on the mesh.
- Select Freeform -> Modify -> Break.

If you break a closed curve, it becomes open. With an open curve, the
result is to divide it into two separate curves instead. Similarly, if you
break a torus mesh you get a cylindrical mesh. Note that the break
operation does not produce any visible gaps, because the break
point/break curve is copied to both ends of the opened/closed shape.

It is possible to connect two curves together using the Concatenate
function:
- Activate the curve, which you want to concatenate to another curve.
  This curve is not deleted in the operation (tool curve).
- Select Freeform -> Modify -> Concatenate.
- Select the target curve to which you want to concatenate the tool curve.
- Draw approximately a line from one end of the tool curve to one end of
  the target curve. This line defines the desired way to connect the
  curves.

Meshes can be connected using the join function as described earlier in
this chapter.

The Remove points function can be used to remove unwanted points from a
curve:
- Activate the curve.
- Activate the points to be removed.
- Select Freeform -> Modify -> Remove points.

                                - PAGE 83 -

If you want to remove a point from a mesh, you must remove the whole curve
containing the point:
- Activate the mesh.
- Define the curve containing the points to be removed, by activating two
  points on that curve.
- Select freeform -> Modify -> Remove points.

The subdivide function subdivides each point interval of a curve to give
a number of subintervals, thus increasing the point count of the curve.
Note that this does not smoothen the shape as the Remap function does, all
the new points lie on the lines connecting the original points. To
subdivide a curve:
- Activate the curve.
- If you want to subdivide only a line between two consecutive points,
  activate the points too.
- Select Freeform -> Modify -> Subdivide.
- Define the subdivision factor and select OK.

Mesh subdivision works in a similar way. All the curves on the mesh are
subdivided. Mesh subdivision always affects the whole mesh.

                                - PAGE 84 -

BENDING FUNCTIONS
In addition to conventional modification functions such as move, rotate
or size, Real 3D contains a large set of nonlinear functions for bending
objects. These functions are intended for modifying curves and meshes
rather than primitives, because bending often distorts primitives to
badly.
There are 24 different bending variations availabale: That's four
different bending functions combined with six different bending mode
combinations. All the bending functions on the Freeform -> Bend menu first
require a line called the bending axis. This defines the bending interval.
The following picture illustrates the differences between the bending
functions:

                            (Picture "PIC85")

On the picture, the arrow on the left is the bending axis, and the
straight cylinder is the original object. The small arrow defines the
amount of bending. For the sake of clarity the four left mousebutton
clocks needed to define the modification are numbered from 1 to 4.
Local bending affects only the points of the object that are inside the
bending interval, whereas global bending affects every point. End point
bending bends the object so that the start point of the bending axis is
not affected at all, but the amount of bending grows the further along
the bending axis you go.

For example, to bend a small curve into a tube:
- Activate the tube mesh.
- Select freeform -> Bend -> Global (use the default modes Bend & Move
  and 2D)

                                - PAGE 85 -

- Draw a line in the middle of the tube along its length: the length and
  position of the line defines the area where the bending affects the
  object.
- Grab the object by clicking with the left mouse button.
- Move the mouse in the direction you want to bend the object.
- When the result is OK, hit the left button again.

The Bending modes menu contains two sets of bending options. If the option
Bend & Move is activated, all the points under modification are moved an
equal amount in the bending direction regardless of their distance from
the bending axis. If the option Bend & Size is selected, bending becomes
multiplicative: That is, the further the point lies from the bending
axis the more it will be moved. The following picture demonstrates this:

                            (Picture "PIC86")

When using the Bend & Size mode, the distance of the bending axis from the
object is very important. For example in the picture above the bending
axis was positioned precisely along the left edge of the cylinder and
therefore that edge of the object remained unchanged after the
modification. Also the distance from the point which you grab to the
bending axis is important the greater the distance, the more accurate the
control you have.
On the other hand, if the point where you grab lies on the axis itself
moving the pointer even a bit produced a dramatic change in the shape.

                                - PAGE 86 -

The second set of bending options defines how the points distance from the
bending axis in a direction perpendicular to the plane that the bending
axis was defined in is taken into account in the modification. If the 2D
option is selected, then the bending effects the object to the same degree
regardless of its depth in the screen. The 3D option effects the points of
the object in the direction perpendicular to the bending axis in precisely
the same way as in the direction of the bending axis. When using the 3D
option the position of the cursor defines the middle point of the bending
area in the depth direction. Finally, the Radial option directs the
modification radially away from the bending axis. This example picture
will give you a better idea of what all this means...

                            (Picture "PIC87")

                                - PAGE 87 -

8 ANIMATIONS
------------

INTRODUCTION
In this chapter we will look at the animation interface of the software.
The first four sections give information on the easy to use animation
functions of the program, which you will find sufficient for most
purposes. The section on exposing and de-exposing contains more detailed
information on Real 3D animations. It is possible to use most of the
animation functions without knowing about exposing and de-exposing, but
advanced users who want to have a through knowledge of the animation
system should read it. The rest of the sections contain general
information on other animation features. We call a database from which
images can be rendered an animation. In Real 3D an animation consists of
a sequence of frames where each frame may have its own objects, observer
and aim point positions. Animations can be thought of as the basic data
structure of Real 3D, because if you create a scene in the editor you are
in fact creating a one frame animation. Consiquently, when you save an
animation, you save the objects in the scene, the editor settings, the
palette, the rendering options etc...
When you start working on an animation with more than one frame, you will
find three new gadgets at the right end of the instruction window.

<< (X) >>
Rewind Expose Wind

With the wind and rewind gadgets you can move to any frame. You will find
the same gadgets in the wireframe screen and the rendering control window.
The expose gadget is explained later in this chapter.
When creating an animation, the first step is to create a screen to be
animated. The scene should be finished as possible before animating
because it is usually easier to edit one single frame than a sequence of
frames.
When the scene is ready, the next step is to define the camera settings.
The best way to do this is to use the wireframe mode functions, which
control the observer (or the camera) and the aim point positions and the
screen setting (or the focal length of the camera). In the wireframe mode
it is easy to find a good viewing angle for the scene and record the
position with the REC gadget. If you are going to animate the observer,
you can easily include the position of the observer you have defined in
the wireframe mode in its orbid. When the scene is this ready, it is
finally time to animate the objects in the scene. Real 3D supports several
animation techniques, which are described in the following sections of
this chapter.

                                - PAGE 88 -

THE FIRST ANIMATION
Let us practise the whole animating procedure with the following example,
in which we will animate the scene by moving the observer around it.

- Create a simple scene in the editor. For example, a rectangle with a
  sphere and a cube above it.
- Choose Projects -> Animation -> Size
- Type 50 when the program asks for the size of the animation.
- Go into the wireframe mode by selecting Modes -> Wireframe.
- Find a suitablr viewing angle for the scene using the wireframe
  controls.
- Activate the AR (continous recording) gadget.
- Grab the position gadget and slowly start to move the camera around the
  scene. All the changes in the camera position are recorded.
- When the frame counter displays 49, release the position gadget.
- Deactivate the AR gadget.
- Activate the PLAY gadget. This shows a continous preview of the
  animation.
- Stop the playpack by clicking the PLAY gadget again and wind the
  animation to the beginning using the gadget marked <<.
- Select the SOLID gadget and you will enter the rendering control screen.
- Type a name in the name field for the file name that the images
  generated for the animation will be saved as. For example df0:myscene.
- Set the rendering resolution and the other settings to suit you.
- Switch off the SINGLE operation, so that the whole sequence of pictures
  will be produced automatically.
- Put an empty, formatted disk on which you want to save the animation in
  the disk drive and click on RENDER.

Depending on the complexity of the scene and the frame count, rendering
will take from several minutes to several hours.

NOTE: Because the rendered pictures will be packed to save space when
saved to disk the size of the animation that fits on a disk varies. If
the frames contain large surfaces of the same color upto a hundred
pictures can be saved on one disk. In the worst cases, not even ten
pictures will fit on one disk. When a disk becomes full, Real 3D interrups
rendering and prompts you to put a new disk in the disk drive.
When Real 3D saves the rendered frames, it adds an index to the file name
given in the name field. This index shows the number of the frame in the
animation. Thus the name of the first frame of our example animation will
be myscene0, the second frame will be named myscene1, and so on.

                                - PAGE 89 -

To show a rendered animation:
- Open one of the pictures of the animation by moving the mouse pointer on
  to its icon and doubleclicking the left mouse button.

This activates the default tool of the picture - the Display program. It
shows the pictures directly from the disk and therefore it is not fast.
There are, of course, other faster methods of showing the animation, which
are described in the sections which deal with the Delta software and the
Realplay program.


ANIMATING OBJECTS WITH THE ORBIT FUNCTION
Free form motions are propably the most important way of animating
objects. If you want to define a smoothly curved orbit for an object:
- Activate the object.
- Select Projects -> Animation -> Orbit.
- Now you can draw a path of several consecutive line segments by clicking
  the mouse in the desired places. These line segments define the orbit or
  path that the object will follow in the animation.
- Use the right mouse button to stop the orbit definition.
- Real 3D asks for the number of frames over which the defined motion
  happens. Give the number of the first frame and the last frame, and
  click on OK.

Real 3D will firstly increase the animation size necessary, so that the
number of frames defined will be included in the animation. Then the
program calculates a smooth spline curve from the first point of the path
to the end point of the path. Althought the line segments form sharp
angles, the spline curve defines a nice, smooth motion for the object.
The path is smoothened so that the start point of the path and the end
point of the path are included in the resulting orbit: the other points
of the path are not necessarily included. Instead the orbid goes through
the middle points of all the line segments, and the edge points or control
points of the spline curve act as magnets which attract the orbit towards
them.
The orbit does not directly define the absolute positions for the animated
object: The distance of the object in the first frame of the orbit from
the first point of the orbit itself does not change throughout the
animation. This sounds complicated but in practice it means that the
object need only have the correct position before the orbit function is
applied.
You can accelerate the motion by defining long line segments, whereas
shorter segments slow down the object. For example, if you want a
motionless object to accelerate slowly click twice on the first point of
the path. And of course, if you want an object to move directly from one
point to another point, just draw one straight line between the points.

                                - PAGE 90 -

The example above shows the easy way to define orbits. However, this orbit
can only be drawn in two dimensions, and editing the orbit afterwards is
difficult. The accuracy required for complicated motions can be obtained
using predefined curves for orbit definitions. Real 3D offers versatile
curve editing features, which are all available for orbit manipulation
when using the method described in the following example:
- Go to the first frame of the orbit.
- Create a curve, which defines the desired orbit, using the free form
  curve tools (create the curve immediately under the root level of the
  hierarchy).
- Use the Show spline function to ensure that the smoothened orbit is
  suitable. If not, edit the curve some more.
- Select the object to be animated and move it to its initial position.
- Select Projects -> Animation -> Orbit.
- Hit the '*' key and select the curve using the selection window. The
  path definition is taken from the curve you created.
- Define the frame interval and click OK.
- Preview the animation using the Projects -> Animation -> Play function.
  If the orbit is not yet good enough, edit the curve and use the orbit
  function again.

It is recommended that the curves for motion definitions are created in
the root level of the hierarchy, so that the orbits themselves are not
animated by a mistake. Never but the curve in the hierarchy of the object
to be animated - that is unless you want to see curves flying around your
animation. It is a good idea to create an abject 'orbits' under the root
and place all the objects in this hierarchy. Then it is possible to make
the whole collection of orbits invisible if necessary. Another good idea
is to name the orbit curves. For example 'ballorbit' would be a suitable
name for the motion curve of a bouncing ball.
When creating looping animations with the orbit function, use the 'C' key
to close the path or use the predefined closed curve.


THE ROTATE FUNCTION
If you want an object to rotate, do the following:
- Activate the object.
- Select Projects -> Animation -> Rotation.
- Click the mouse at the center of the desired rotation.
- Real 3D asks for the rotation angle and the frame interval. An angle of
  360 degrees produces one revolution. Naturally you can give an angle of
  720 degrees which would give you two revolutions or any other angle you
  desire. Also define the first and the last frame during which the
  rotation occurs.
- Click OK.

                                - PAGE 91 -

As with the orbit function, the animation will automatically be enlarged
if necessary, and the rotation is created throughout the given frame
interval.

NOTE: The rotation movement does not replace any other movements that have
already been applied to the object, so that combinations of different
movements are possible. Therefore, if you have defined a rotation that
does not suit you and you want to redefine it, you cannot just set a new
rotation because these ywo rotations would be combined probably producing
an unwanted result. The right way to do this is to first remove the object
to its initial location in the first frame of the rotation. Then de-expose
the object in the rest of the frames and after that use the rotation
function again.


THE DIRECTION FUNCTION
The directoin function changes the direction that an object points in with
regard to the direction of motion. The following example demonstrates this
feature:
- Make a simple model of a car and rotate it so that it points in the
  direction that you are initially going to move it.
- Use the Orbit function to give the car a wiggly, curved path to move
  down. Now, when the car moves around the curvesin its orbit, it will
  move sideways or even backward.
- To direct the car along its path, select the menu Project -> Animation
  -> Direction. Define the frame interval to be from 0 to the last fram
  and select OK.

Note that you must initialize the direction of the object yourself,
because the program cannot guess what part of the object should point
ahead. The direction modification is additive that is, it does not replace
earlier rotations of the object. This means that you can supply this
function only once to an orbit, therefore you must prepare the orbit
completely before using the direction function.
Note also that the object is never turned upside down when directing it.
For example, if the direction of the object changes a full 80 degrees it
is impossible for Real 3D to decide whether you mean to turn it
horizontally or vertically. In such cases the function will always select
the horizontal turn. Here is a practical way to describe the proble:
The function is more suitable for directing carn than aeroplanes.


EXPOSING AND DE-EXPOSING
A Real 3D animation consists of a sequence of frames. When you move to a
new frame the selection window displays the hierarchical structure of the
objects shown in the frame. In each frame, the objects can be devided
into two classes, which are called exposed and de-exposed objects. Exposed
objects are usually the ones that have been animated. Whereas de-exposed
objects are motionless. More precisely an object is exposed in a

                                - PAGE 92 -

certain frame if the frame contains a 'private' copy of object, so that
any animation effect modifying the object is stored in that frame.
Object exposure is a hierarchical property: If an object is exposed, all
its subobjects are exposed, too. The operation, which makes a private
copy of an object for a frame, is called exposing, and removing that
copy is called de exposing.

If an object is not exposed in a frame, the frame uses the object in the
first preceding frame where the object has been exposed. For example,
if an object is exposed only in the first frame of the animation, any
modification effects that object in every frame of the animation,
regardless of the frame in which the modification was made. On the other
hand, if an object is exposed in every frame, then the modification will
effect only the object in that frame. In this case, global modifications
to the object must be made individually in each frame (macro techniques
can be used as described later). This way of representing animations has
a couple of significant advantages. First of all, memory is spared,
since motionless objects are stored only once. Furthermore, creating cel
animations becomes easier, since the previous state of an object can be
used as a good starting point for editing. This is done by exposing the
object when entering a new frame.

You can find out if an object is exposed by activating the object and
clicking one of the projection windows with the left button. If the
object is exposed, the instruction window displays the message
'<n>(X)Object', whereas de exposure is indicated by the message
'<n>()Object'. An object can be exposed in the current frame using the
'(X)' gadget on the right hand edge of the instruction window. Most
animation functions (orbit, rotate, macros) expose objects automatically
when modifying them, so the user does not have to do it frame by frame.
The function for de-exposing is the Projects -> Animation -> De-expose
function.

The next figure shows an animation consisting of six frames:

1        2        3       4       5       6
()root   ()root   ()root  ()root  ()root  ()root
(X)Obj   ()Obj    ()Obj   (X)Obj  ()Obj   (X)Obj

It shows that you have exposed the object. Obj in the first and the
fourth frame so that:
- The frames 1 - 3 share the same data from Obj which is stored in
  frame 1.
- The frames 4 and 5 share the same data from Obj which is stored in
  frame 4.
- The data for Obj in frame 6 is for that frame only.

                                - PAGE 93 -

This means that if you modify the object Obj in frame 2, you will at the
same time modify it in all those frames that share the same data - frames
1 and 3. On the contrary, modifications that are performed to the object
in frame 6, effect only that frame. Usually the root level should not be
exposed, because this makes it easy to add objects to a single frame in
an animation: If a new object is created in a de-exposed hierarchy level,
it is visible in every frame of the animation. De-exposing can be used to
initialize the state of an object in an animation, for example to remove
an unwanted motion component.

OTHER ANIMATION FUNCTIONS
The menu Projects -> Animation contains several useful functions for
animation handling.

To resize an animation:
- Choose Projects -> Animation -> Size.
- Enter the new size for the animation.

If you increase its size, new frames will be added to the end of the
animation. If you decrease the size, some frames will be removed from the
end of the animation. Note that if you add frames to the animation, the
new frames are identical to the last frame.

To delete the animation you created:
- Choose Projects -> Animation -> Delete.
- Confirm the deleteion by selecting OK.

NOTE: The function Projects -> Animation -> Delete is the same as the new
project function: it resets everything except the curent material
library, which is kept in memory.

To save the animation to file 'testanimation' on drive df0:
- Choose Projects -> Animation -> Save.
- Enter the name of the animation 'df0:testanimation' and choose OK.

To load an animation:
- Choose Projects -> Animation -> Load.
- Enter the name of the animation to load, 'df0:testanimation', and
  choose OK.
- Now Real 3D asks if the new animation should replace the current
  animation (replace), should be concatenated to the end of the current
  animation (concatenate), or should be joined to the current animation
  frame by frame (join). If the last alternative is selected, the
  joining will be started from the current frame and the settings (e.g.
  the color palette) of the original animation will be preserved.
  Choose the alternative that suits you.

                                - PAGE 94 -

When you want to insert new frames at a certain point in the animation:
- Move to the frame after which you want to add the new frames.
- Choose Projects -> Animation -> Insert.
- Give the number of frames to insert.

If you want to remove frames from a certain point in the animation:
- Move to the first frame to be removed.
- Choose Projects -> Animation -> Remove.
- Give the number of frames to remove.

If you want to remove the exposure of some frames:
- Move to the first frame in question.
- Choose Projects -> Animations -> De-expose.
- Define how many frames you want to expose starting from the current
  frame, click OK.

NOTE: You cannot remove the exposure of an object in the first frame.

To move to a new frame:
- Select Projects -> Animation -> Goto frame.
- Type the index number of the desired frame and click OK.

Also the editor contains an animation preview function:

- If you have the visible grid turned on, turn it off using 'G' key.
- Select Projects -> Animation -> Play or hit the 'P' key.
- The animation is played once. You can cancel the playback using the
  'Esc' key.


ANIMATING WITH MACROS
You can create an animation using the Macro feature in the following way:
- Create an object.
- Go to the wireframe model and find a suitable viewing angle and
  distance, click REC and return to the editor.
- Resize the animation to 100 frames with the menu Projects 0> Anumation
  -> Size.
- Choose Projects -> Macro -> Define.
- Execute appropriate modifications which define what happens between
  two consecutive frames. You could for example move the object slightly.
- Choose Project -> Macro -> End.
- Make sure that the part of the object that is to be modified is the
  active one, and choose Projects -> Macro -> Execute.
- Set Frames = 100, Startcount = 0, Increcment = 1 and click OK.

                                - PAGE 95 -

The macro function then advances the animation, beginning with the frame
being edited and manipulated the given number of frames as it goes. Each
frame of the animation is modified by the macro and the number of
modification cycles is incremented as the next frame is entered. The
modifications are executed to those parts of the object that correspond
to the current object in the frame being edited when the peration was
activated. If a frame is not exposed, it will automatically be xposed
before any modifications take place. All this should result in the
desired animation effect.

Note that if the picture count is greater than the number of frame, the
remaining modifications have no effect.

The previous description says that the macro is executed on the
counterpart of the active effect in each frame. The identification of
the object to be modified is based on the object name. Therefore,
identical object names in the same hierarchy level can cause problems,
because the animation function always select the first object having
the correct name.

The precise meanings of the three fields in the macro device are the
following:
- The frame field determines how many consecutive frames are modified by
  the macro, starting from the current frame.
- Startcount defines how many times the first frame is modified by the
  macro.
- Increment tells Real 3D how many more modifications per frame to do as
  the frames advance.

If increment is zero, the effect of macro modifications does not
accumulate with each frame: the number of modification cycles per frame
does not increase and the frames will not be exposed automatically.

Let's suppose that you execute a macro containing a little shift upwards,
to an animation. Increment = 0: the object will be shifted the same
amount upward in each frame, whereas with the increment greater than
zero the object would have an upward movement when animated. Macro
modifications with the increments value zero can be used to edit several
frames at a time. For example, if you want to change the material of an
object already animated from shiny to mirror you can use the following
technique:
- Move to the first frame.
- Activate the object.
- Select Macro -> Define.
- Select Modify -> Hierachy -> Material and select the material 'mirror'
  from the material list (it is assumed that the standard materials are
  loaded).
- Select Macro -> End.

                                - PAGE 96 -

- Select Macro -> Execute and give Frames = number of the frames in the
  animation, Startcount = 1 and Increment = 0.
- Click OK.

Note that using the meterial function directly would change the material
in the current frame only.

The macro method offers the most general way of doing animations in Real
3D: a macro can include whatever modifications you like. Nevertheless,
this generality means that the user has to define quite a number of
things when creating an animation and therefore the macro method can be
somewhat laborious. In fact, defining a macro including several steps is
very similar to writing a small computer program.


ANIMATING THE OBSERVER AND THE AIM POINT.
It has already been mentioned that the observer can be animated using
wireframe functions. Although this method is easy, the results tends to
be inaccurate. If you create the objects observer and aim point in the
hierarchy using the menus Creation -> Observer and Creation -> Aim point
you can animate them in a similar manner to other objects.
For example, you can create a scene where the observer is located in the
hierarchy of the car, and the aim point is located in the hierarchy of
an aeroplane. When you animate the car and the plane, you get an
animation where the camera moves along inside the car while tracking the
moving plane.
Even if you do not want to animate the observer or the aim point, it may
be useful to have these objects in the hierarchy, because then it is
possible to control their positions in the editor too, instead of just in
the wireframe mode.
If you group the objects observer and the aim point under one object
'camera', you can animate them together. For example you can initialize
the camera direction, then draw a free from orbit for it and finally
direct the camera using the Animation -> Direction Function. This creates
a nice 'spacelight' type effect.


CREATING BIG ANIMATIONS
When you create large animations, it may be necessary to produce the
animation in several parts. Then you must take into consideration the
picture indexing convention mentioned before. Also, the automatic scaling
of light source intensities will be carried out using the first frame of
the animation, so it might be necessary to place the same frame at the
beginning of each of the animations.
You should not change the color palette between rendering separate parts
of an animation althought the colors of the object will remain the same,
the solid modeler may come to

                                - PAGE 97 -

different solutions when it produces HAM pictures. This will cause
unpleasant fluctuations in the picture when the entire animation is
played. One fact to keep in mind is that if you use a macro, it is best
to modify all parts of the animation at the same time because the current
version of Real 3D does not support macro saving and loading
Sometimes much memory can be saved using simple tricks. For example, if
you are going to render an animation of a spinning logotype using the
lampless rendering method, do not spin the logotype: spin the camera
around the logotype, instead of rotating the logotype. Then the observer
is the only moving component of the scene, and as it is a simple object
it does not require much memory.

                                - PAGE 98 -

9 PRACTICAL INTEGRATED FUNCTIONS
--------------------------------

THE DISPLAY
The projection windows of Real 3D can be thought of as holes through
which the user can see space. Changing the scale changes the size of
these holes. When these holes are large, the user will see a large
portion of the space, and when the holes are small, tiny details of
the objects can be seen accurately. As if you were looking at the same
scenery on a map at different scales.

To change the scale:
- If you intend to enlarge the object on the screen, choose the operation
  Settings -> Display -> Scale in.
- Then move the mouse pointer to that part of the screen you want to
  enlarge. When you press the left mouse button, you can draw a rectangle
  on the screen. The region inside the rectangle will be enlarged so that
  it takes up the whole screen.

You can reduce the size of an object by choosing the operation Settings
-> Display -> Scale out. Then you can define a rectangle that will, after
reduction, contain that part of the space that is visible on the screen
when the operation was initiated. These operations can produce at
maximum, a hundredfold magnification or reduction of the screen.
A quick way to change the scale is to use the '-' and '+' keys.

When Real 3D is started, all projection windows are positioned so that
when you the origin (0,0,0) of space is located at the center point of
the window. Using the Pan operation you can change the position of the
windows in the space, so that you can observe in detail an object that
is on the edge of the space.

To move a projection window  in space:
- Choose menu Settings -> Display -> Pan.
- Grab an object and move it to any place you want. Instead of moving the
  object, Real 3D moves the window so that the object will show in a
  different part of the window. The new position of the window's center
  will be shown in the instruction window.

The autofocus function offers a fast way to pan and scale the display
around the active object:
- Activate the desired object.
- Select Settings -> Display -> Autofocus or hit the '>' key.

The display will be centered around the actibe object and the active
object will be magnified to fill the display. If you want to reset the
scales and the position of the windows to the default values:
- Choose Settings -> Display -> Reset or hit the 'o' key.

                                - PAGE 99 -

DISPLAY REDRAWING MODES
Even though it may be possible to fit several thousands of basic objects
into a main memory of 9 megabytes, modification calculation and display
updating probably takes so much time that working interactively becomes
impossible. Real 3D includes many methods with which these kind of
problems can be reduced considerably. These methods are described in the
next two sections.
You can speed up screen updates by choosing Settings -> Drawmode ->
Reduced. Then the program updates only the active projection window and
you can, when necessary, redraw the whole screen using the Extras ->
Redraw operation. This does nor make calculations much faster, but since
only one window of all three is redrawn, drawing takes only one third of
the normal time.
If the previous technique is not fast enough, select Settings -> Drawmode
-> None. Then the program does no automatic updating at all. When the
display gets to confused, select Extras -> Redraw or hit the return key.
Extras -> Drawmode -> Normal turns the default automatic updating on.

If you have selected draw mode Reduced or None, object modifications are
also affected. When you try to modify a complex enough object, Real 3D
automatically creates a simpler representation for the object. This
simpler image, consisting of boxes that cover the object that are fast
enough to rotate, move, etc. A small drawback is that at the beginning of
any modification it takes some time to create a new representation, so
some patience is needed.

NOTE: If you select draw mode None and go to the wireframe model, the
simplified drawing method is used also there (the RBOX function).
NOTE: Decreasing the screen depth to two will usually make display
updating remarkably faster.

THE VISIBLE RANGE OF THE OBJECT
Often it is unnecessary to draw an object to the screen other than the
object you are creating. For example, if you are creating a rocking
chair inside a house, drawing the house all the time is no use. The
house should be drawn only when the rocking chair is ready and  can be
positioned in the living room. Usually, only a portion of the object, as
small as possible, should be kept visible, so that the screen update is
fast.
The visible range of an object can be defined in relation to the active
object. You have three levels of visible range:
- All. The whole project is drawn to the screen regardless of which
  object is active.
- Parent. Only objects that are in the same hierarchical level as the
  active object, or, if the active object is a primitive, objects the
  are on the same levels as the object to which the

                                - PAGE 100 -

  active object belongs, are drawn.
- Current. Onlyt the active object, or, if the active object is a
  primitive, the object to which the active object belongs, is drawn.

Real 3D automatically takes care of updating the screen and determines
which objects will be drawn depending on which object is active at a
given time. Likewise, the screen will not be updated if user actions do
not require it.
If you want only the active object to be drawn on the screen:
- Choose Settings -> Drawlevel -> Current.

From then on only the active object is drawn.

MEASURING METHODS
You have three methods of measuring:
- Absolute measuring
- Relative measuring
- A combination of absolute and relative measuring

When the absolute measuring method is used, the program continually
displays absolute coordinates. With relative measuring the program
displays coordinates that are relative to the cursor. If you use the
combination of absolute and relative measuring, the program displays
absolute coordinates until the user chooses a creation or modification
operation. From then on the program displays relative coordinates to
show the size of the object created or the magnitude of the modification.
The measuring method can be chosen from menu Settings -> Coordinates.

THE GRID
The grid function of Real 3D rounds the mouse coordinates to a desired
grid. You can activate a grid using the menu Settings -> Grid, which
displays the follwing requester:

                                - PAGE 101 -

                      (Picture "PIC102,104,105,106")

The four top rows are for fast grid selections. You can redefine their
contents by clicking one of the rows, and then writing the desired grid
values to the X, Y and Z fields below the four rows and selecting OK.
Next time you enter the function, the new values are available. You can
also define directly an arbitrary grid by typing the desired measurements
to the X, Y and Z gadgets and selecting OK.
The gid can be made visible by activating the VISIBLE gadget. The value
on the right side of the gadget defines how densely the visible grid is
drawn; for example, if the value is 2, then every second grid position is
drawn.
The grid visibilty can be quickly changed using the 'G' key. The number
keys '1' - '9' can be used to set a grid from 10 to 90, and the key '0'
removes the grid.

INFO
You can use the info operation to get information about objects and to
modify this information when necessary:
- An object can be made invisible in the editor.
- An object can be made infinite by removing the so called standard
  limits from it.
- An object can be made hollow.
- The covers, i.e. the surfaces at its ends, can be removed from a hollow
  object.
- An object can be made invisible in the solid model.
- A mesh can be smoothened in the solid model.

In addition to these, the type, color and material of the object is
shown, as well. The color signal values can be also changed using this
function. The device allows you to define greater values than 15, which
is the maximum color value in the Amiga color system. You can use this
feature to obtain very bright objects, light sources etc.

                                - PAGE 102 -

                            (Picture "PIC103")

To make a cone visible:
- Select the cone.
- Choose Extras -> Info.
- Set the INVISIBLE field on.
- Choose OK.

After this the cone is invisible in the editor, but you can still confirm
its existence in the selection window.

To make a cylinder into a thin walled tube:
- Select the cylinder.
- Choose Extras -> Info.
- Set the HOLLOW and UNCOVERED fields on.
- Choose OK.

NOTE: If the object is not hollow, you cannot remove its covers.
When the covers are removed from a cube, the covers are removed so that
you can look through the cube in the projection window in which the cube
was created.

The UNCOVERED and INFINITE fields of the info operation affect only
primitives. Conversely, you can make any complex object hollow.

The INVISIBLE function is needed when, for example, the outcome of a
logical operation is given a new, more descriptive wireframe
representation. Also, all unwanted details, like slight roundings of
the edges of a cube, should be made invisible to make the editor faster.

                                - PAGE 103 -

The SCENE gadget makes an object invisible in the first phase of ray
tracing. This means that you cannot see the object directly, but you can
see its shadows, reflections etc. This may sound a bit strange bu consider
the following problem: a shiny, golden logotype moving in black space
looks good but unfortunately black space produces no reflections at all!
The solution is to create an environment, which creates rich reflections
in the logotype. However, you do not want to be able to see the
environment directly, so make the environment invisible using the SCENE
function.

The SMOOTH gadget controls the smoothing of polygon meshes in solid model
renering.

One gadget has not been explained yet: What is the purpose of the
INFINITE gadget? We will take a closer look at it in the next section.

STANDARD LIMITS
Primitives, by their ultimate naturea, are volumes that are associated
with information like: The properties of the material they are
constructed from, location and direction information, and the wireframe
representation. A set of surfaces determines the volume of a primitive.
Only a few of these surfaces can be defined a definite volume in space on
their own. These surfaces are the sphere and the ellipsoid, which is
really just a stretched sphere. All other surfaces limit an infinite
volume of space that would be very difficult to represent in the editor
using wireframes. For this reason, all the other primitives are defined
by more than one surface. For example, a cylinder is a volume bounded by
a cylindrical surface and two plane surfaces for the ends.

                      (Picture "PIC102,104,105,106")

                                - PAGE 104 -

These surfaces that limit primitives, for example a cylinder, are called
standard limits. These limits can be removed so that three dimensional
primitives are infinitely long, apart frome plane primitives which
become infinitely wide.

To create an infinitely long cylinder:
- Create a cylinder.
- Choose menu Extras -> Info.
- Set the INFINITE field on and choose OK.

If you look at the object in the solid model, you will notice that it is
infinitely long. To limit its length reset the INFINITE field so that the
object matches its wireframe. The standard limits are removed most often to
give the desired effect when logical operations are used. For example, if
you want to bore holes through a cylinder using another cylinder, it is
often wise to remove standard limits from the cylinder being used as a
drill.
By this way, the cylinders can be created of equal length, which makes
the wireframe representation more realistic. If you don't do this, and
the drilling cylinder is the exactly the same length as the cylinder to
be drilled, there maybe a thin membranes left at the ends of the latter
cylinder. Because the thickness of these membranes is of about the same
magnitude as precision of Real 3D's calculations, they will be visible at
some regions and invisible at others. Another thing to note is that
removing unnecesary limits also makes solid model rendering of objects
faster.

                      (Picture "PIC102,104,105,106")

NOTE: Removing limits from spheres or objects modified from spheres has
no effect, since such objects do not have any standard limits.

The standard limits may play some role in shortening the rendering time
when the objects are complex and many logical operations have been
executed on them. In the following cases the standard limits can be
removed to make the rendering time shorter:

                                - PAGE 105 -

- If, after an operation has been applied to an object, the standard
  limit does not limit any part of the resulting object.
- If lengthening a primitive that is used as a tool does not have any
  effect on the result of the operation.

If you have, for example, made bevels at the ends of a polyhedron by
cutting it with a plane surface, Real 3D does not check whether the
standard limit is still needed. If a standard limit does not delimit the
primitive at all, it may be removed. Standard limits are automatically
removed from plane primitives (polygons, disks, and ellipsoids) when they
are used in operations, unless they are used as targets and are also
hollow. In this case they act as two dimensional surfaces.

                      (Picture "PIC102,104,105,106")

If you, wanted to, for example, cut holes through a board, they can be
cut with an infinitely long tool. In other words, the standard limits of
the tool can be removed before cuting the holes. Also, the standard
limits may have to be removed to get the desired results. For example,
if we want to make a groove in a long cylinder using a hyperboloid, it
can be done with the AND operation as in the following picture.

ATTRIBUTES
The user can modify some default attributes of the primitives, like the
names and depths.

To change the default depth of a cube:
- Choose menu Settings -> Attributes.
- Use the slider to find a cube.

                                - PAGE 106 -

- Move the mouse pointer on the DEPTH field and press the left mouse
  button.
- Give a new default depth value when Real 3D prompts for it, and choose
  OK.
- If you don't want to change any of the other default values, choose
  SAVE or OK depending on whether you want the change to be permanent
  or not.

If you now create a cube primitive, it will be of the given default
depth. If you want all the cubes you have created to be hollow:
- Choose Settings -> Attributes.
- Move the slider to the position 'cube'.
- Move the mouse pointer over the FLAGS field and press the left mouse
  button.
- Real 3D will now bring up the Info Requester, which you learned about
  in the section on 'info'. Set the HOLLOW field and choose OK.
- If you don't want to change any other settings, choose either OK or
  SAVE.

From now on all cubes you create are hollow. You can verify this using
the Info function. You can also change the names of the primitives to a
different language e.g. Finnish. If you want Real 3D to ask for the
depths of new primitives instead of using the default depth, set the
CUSTOM DEPTH field. The Attributes data structure is also used to store
the default directory paths of object, animation and material input.

CALCULATING OBJECTS' PRICES
When needed Real 3D can be used to calculate the production cost of an
object. The data structures contained in the program can be used to
represent, the material and labor costs of an object for example

                               +-----------+
                               | Axe ($10) |
                               +-----------+

              +--------------+               +-------------+
              | Handle ($15) |               | Blade ($20) |
              +--------------+               +-------------+

     (Manufacturing expenses of an axe.)

As the manufacturing expense of the handle is 15, the blade 20 and the
assembly of the handle and the blade is 10, the total manufacturing
cost is 45.

                                - PAGE 107 -

To set a price for an object:
- Select an object.
- Choose Extras -> Costs -> Set Price.
- Give the price when Real 3D asks for it.

To look how much an object created by you will cost:
- Select the appropriate object.
- Choose menu Extras -> Costs -> Look Price. Now Real 3D shows the price
  in the instruction window.

NOTE: If a larger object is concerned, you can use the Set Price function
to look at what the cost is of a particular manufacturing phase. The Look
Price function always calculates the price of the whole object.

THE MEMORY MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS OF THE EDITOR
The Extras menu contains some functions which may be helpful when
meeting memory problems. If the program does not execute a selected
function, but gives a message 'NOT ENOUGH MEMORY', it is recommended that
the scene is saved before further action is taken. Running the system for
long periods with insufficient memory may reveal new programming errors,
which will often lead to a system crash.

The function Extras -> Avail mem displays the amount of free chip and
fast memory.

The function Extras -> Close WBench tries to close the workbench screen.
If the workbench is in hires-non-interlace mode, this saves 40 kilobytes
more memory. The close function will not succeed if other programs are
using the screen. Therefore, close all other windows and programs before
attempting to use the function. The Workbench closing option is saved to
the Realpref file when you exit the program. You can open the Workbench
again using the Extras -> Open WBench function. Sometimes the amount of
free memory may get so low that the user interface of the software cannot
run properly: Some menus will not open or selecting a function may not
have any effect. If the editor is functional enough for deleting a part
of the scene, this situation can be recovered, but sometimes deletion may
not be possible. The function Extras -> Get memory is intended for such
problematic situations. The function executes the following actions:
- Tries to close the Workbench.
- Puts the editor screen into non-interlace-NTSC-non-overlapping mode
  with a screen depth of 2.
- Clears the undo buffer.

                                - PAGE 108 -

These actions usually give enough memory to recover the lack of memory.
If you cannot open the Extras menu, hit the '$'key instead.
Deactivating the undo feature using the 'Extras -> Undo on' menu usually
helps with a lot of memory problems.

NOTE: If your scene causes memory problems in the editor, it is almost
certain that you will not be able to render images of it in the solid
model anyway.

THE UNDO FUNCTION
The undo function of the editor can be used to restore the situation as
it was before the latest action in the current animation frame.
To use this feature:
- Select Extras -> Undo or hit the 'U' key.
- If you select the function again, you get the original situation.

Note that the undo buffer contains only the current frame. Therefore,
you canoot undo functions effecting several frames at a time, such as
the Animation -> Delete function. You can deactivate the undo feature
using the 'Extras -> Undo on' function. This saves memory and speeds
up the editor slightly.

                                - PAGE 109 -

10 ADDITIONAL INTEGRATED SOFTWARE IN THE REAL 3D
------------------------------------------------

DISPLAY
This program can be used to view IFF pictures. When the solid modeler
saves a picture, it makes Real:Display the default tool program. So, when
you open the picture's icon, Display will start automatically and show
the picture. This program can also show a series of pictures. If the
directory from which you want to show the picture also contains pictures
of the same name indexed with 0, 1, 2 etc. the program starts to show
them in turn.
When using the command line interpreter, the command has the form:
Real:Display picture n1 n2
Where n2 is the time to show a single picture (excluding the time to load
the picture), and if a series of pictures is concerned, n2 indicates how
many times these pictures are to be shown. If a single picture is
concerned and the parameter n1 has not been given, the picture will be
shown until the left mouse button is pressed or a key is hit.
The program can also show 24 bit targa images created with Real 3D by
converting them into HAM mode.

DELTA CONVERT
With this program you can convert a series of IFF pictures into a new
file, in which the pictures only the differences between consecutive
pictures are stored. If the pictures are similar, they can be fitted into
a very small space. Above all, this method of displaying the pictures in
succession is much more rapid than using the Display program described
before. Usually the speed is between 10 to 25 pictures a second, which
makes the animation appear continuous. All pictures must use the same
palette and display mode.

Suppose we want to convert ten pictures such as DF0:pic0 - pic9 to a
Deltafile. The following example illustrates the program's use:
- Start the program either by double clicking on its icon or by using
  the CLI (you can give the parameters in the usual manner).
- First the program asks which optimization mode to use. If you select
  Small delta, as small a deltafile as possible is produced. If you
  choose Fast delta, the program outputs a bigger deltafile, which can
  be show somewhat faster. The option Anim5 produces a standard Anim5
  format file, which gives the best compression but which is not as
  flexible or as fast as the Real 3D delta format. Choose for example
  Fast delta.
- Give a unique name to save the animation by, when the program prompts
  for it and choose OK.
- Give the name of the first picture to be converted when the program
  prompts for 'Picture:'. Write df0:pic and then choose OK.
- Define the start index as 0 and click OK.
- Define the last index as 9 and click OK.

                                - PAGE 110 -

- After the program has processed all the pictures with the given name
  and the given index range, it asks for more pictures. If you have more
  pictures that belong to the animation, define a new name and a new
  index interval. These are then appended to the animation. On the other
  had, if all pictures have been processed, choose ALL DONE.

The Delta convert program saves the delta data for both directions. That
is, if chnages from Picture1 to Picture2 are saved, then changes from
Picture2 to Picture1 are saved too. This allows for much more flexible
animation representation, but requires more space. Therefore, the delta
data method comes into its own only if a part, say less than 2/3
of the whole display, is changing in the animation.
Because of the principle used for organising all the Amiga's display
information in main memory, stable picture areas, particularly in
horizontal chunks, can be utilized effectively.
Whereas, vertical areas are of less importance.
For example, if the top quarter of the display in an animation does not
change, then the animation is certainly much faster to play and requires
one quarter less disk space than an animation involving changes of the
whole display. If instead, the stable quarter is on the left side of the
display, then the animation may be just as slow and as large as any whole
display animation.

Note that when the animation is shown, the pictures are synchronized to
the display's refresh cycle. In PAL system, the refresh rate is 50 Hz,
and therefore possible animation rates are 50 pictures per second, 50/2
(that's 25) pictures per seconds, 50/3 pictures per second, 50/4 per
second and so on. The differences between these rates are very
significant, and usually only the first three rates are fast enough to
produce an impression of continuity.
Anyway, even 50/4, which equals 12.5 pictures per second may suffice if
the differences between consecutive pictures are small.
It should be noted that the Real 3D delta format used is not a standard
format in any way. Instead, one must use IFF pictures as a link between
various programs.

DELTAPLAY
With this program you can display the files created by Deltaconvert.
Deltaplay is also the default tool program of such files, hence a delta
animation is shown simple by double clicking the icon of a delta file.
The show ends when you hit 'q' followed by 'return'. The whole file is
read into memory before the animation is shown, therefore the size of
the animation is restricted by the amount of free RAM. All memory, not
only CHIP memory, can be utilized. So if you have 3 megabytes of RAM,
you can show quite large animations with your Amiga. If the animation
is too big to fit into memory, Deltaplay shows as much of it as possible.

                                - PAGE 111 -

You can also specify a control file as a parameter for Deltaplay. This
enables you to represent the same picture material in an infinite number
of ways. The control file is a text file, which can contain the
following commands:

COMMAND         EXPLANATION
    <n>         Shows next <n> pictures
E   <n>         Shows previous <n> pictures
D   <n>         Delay <n>/50 seconds
T   <n>         Delay <n>/50 seconds in every picture
S               Shows the animation backwards to the first picture
E               Shows the animation to the last picture
Q               Quit
H               Quit, but leave the last picture on the display
R               Removes a picture left by a previous delta animation

It is also possible to add comments to a control file, which may be
necessary when doing long control files. Deltaplay ignores all the
characters after the semicolon on any line. The following example script
demonstrates how to create a show several minutes long from an animation
of 50 pictures:

DELTAPLAY CONTROL FILE
F  49           Show the animation from the first to the last picture
D  100          Shows the last picture for button seconds
B  10           Go back 10 pictures
D  50           Delay one second
E               Play from the 40th to the last picture
S               Show the animation backwards from the last to the first
                picture
T  50           Animation speed 1 frame per second from now on
B  100          Shows the animation 2 times backwards
D  50 T 0       A small pause and maximum animation speed again
B  1            The previous picture
D  50 F 2000    Shows the animation many times
E               And once again to the end
Q               Then quit!

                                - PAGE 112 -

You can use this script from the CLI by the command:
Deltaplay <animation> <script>

Or from the workbench by giving both the animation and the script as a
parameter to Deltaplay by selecting all the icons needed with the 'SHIFT'
key pressed. If no script is defined, the animation is shown as a loop.
You can also control animations directly from the keyboard with the
previous commands by typing the desired sequence and hitting return.

H and R commands are used to concatenate several animations together, and
in this way to create more complex animations. For example, if the
animation is to big to fit into memory, you can create two deltafiles.
You can also create a continuation to an animation. sometimes it is best
to create an animation of several sub animations, which can be controlled
with their own scripts. A good example of this is an animation in which
we first approach the target (part 1), then we orbit it for a while
(part 2), and then we depart from the scene (part 3).
This animation, consisting of three deltafiles, can be shown with the
following CLI script, which we shall put in a text file called
'mainscript':

Deltaplay part1 script1
Deltaplay part2 script2
Deltaplay part3 script3

The three Deltaplay command scripts could be:
script1: E H
script2: R E F1 E F1 E F1 H
script3: R E Q

Now the animation can be started with the CLI command 'Execute
mainscript'. The control script 1 leaves the last picture on display,
the first command of the script 2 removes it then starting to show the
second part. The second part also leaves its last picture on the display,
and the third script removes this picture.
Note, that the last script ends on the command Q instead of H. Otherwise,
when the animation ends, the memory required by the display would be
left reserved. In other words, every script ending in the H command
must be followed by another script starting with the R command, and the
last script must not end with an H command.

NOTE: The window Deltaplay opens is its input window. Keep it active,
then you can control the program. You can activate it during animation
show by pressing the left Amiga and 'n' keys to make the Workbench
display somewhat visible, and then by clicking in the window with the
left mouse button.

                                - PAGE 113 -

DELTA TO IFF
This program can be used to produce the original IFF pictures from a
Real 3D delta file. The program is used in the following way:
- Start the program by clicking on its icon.
- Give the name of the delta animation from which the pictures are to be
  extracted, and click OK.
- Give the name with which the pictures should be saved. Remember to add
  a suitable DOS path to the name. The name will be have an index added
  to it when the pictures are saved.
- Define the index of the first picture to be extracted (the first
  picture of an animation has the index 0) and click OK.
- When enough pictures have been extracted, you can stop the program by
  clicking the close window gadget in the, top left corner of the window.

Usually, a delta file is a much more convenient way to store an animation
than original IFF pictures. AmigaDOS is slow in handling large
directories, and if you open a Workbench drawer containing 200 IFF
pictures, then Workbench takes quite a time to load the icon data.
Instead, one delta file icon is easy to handle and since you get the
original IFF pictures back if necessary, you can delete the original
pictures after creating the delta file.

REALPLAY
Realplay gives another way of showing animations. Instead of delta data,
it can show an animation directly using IFF pictures. To obtain the speed
required, Realplay reads pictures into the memory and processes them
there before showing the animation.
Realplay is equally fast at showing animations as Deltaplay when changes
between pictures are big. If an animation is to be shown continuously,
without picture swapping from disk, this may require quite a lot of
memory. One non interlaced HAM picture in a PAL system requires at least
60 Kb, and an Amiga with 3 megabytes of RAM can show only about 40
pictures continuously.
Nevertheless, you do not have to worry about the memory requirements when
creating animations. If there is not enough memory to show the animation
continuously, Realplay shows it in parts as long as possible. When one
part is shown, a new set of pictures is loaded into the memory so that
the animation can continue. Realplay requires a script file which defines
the pictures and the way the pictures are shown. You can run Realplay
from CLI with the command Realplay <scriptname> or from the Workbench in
the usual way.

                                - PAGE 114 -

The script file is a text file with the following format:
picturename
picturename
pic 5-19
...
picturename
command lines

In the beginning of the file is a list of the pictures, one name per row.
If you have several pictures with the same name and different indexes,
you can define the index range by giving the first and last index
separated by the character '-'. After the names there must be one empty
line as a separator. The rest of the file contains command lines,
consisting of the same commands as described in the context of
Deltaplay. If no commands are present, then the animation is shown in
the usual looping manner. In addition to Deltaplay commands, there are
some extra commands you can use with Realplay. Automatic picture swapping
can be controlled with a 'P' command (play). When this command is
encountered, all the previous commands are executed immediately. In this
way you can control the breakpoints caused by insufficient memory and put
them in suitable places for the animation.
Realplay does not use the deltaplay 'r' and 'h' commands for joining
animations together, because it automatically shows animation in several
parts when necessary. Pictures in the control script are indexed
internally starting from zero. You can jump to any picture in an
animation simply by giving the number of the picture. For example, the
command 'O' shows the first picture in the animation.
Furthermore, you can put any CLI executable  commands in the scripts.
These commands must be separated with double quotes from other commands.
For example, the script:

Picture A
...
Picture F

F5 "Display another pic 5" B5
shows the first 6 pictures of an animation, then displays a picture
called "another pic" for 5 seconds, and then continues showing the
animation by showing the first 6 pictures in reversed order. The script
does not end on the Q command and therefore these actions are repeated
until the user breaks the scripts execution from the keyboard: just as
with Deltaplay, you can control Realplay from the keyboard.
It is possible to use Realplay to show IFF pictures directly without
any ASCII script. If you give a picture to Realplay as a parameter,
either from the Workbench using icon se-

                                - PAGE 115 -

lection or from the CLI with the command 'Realplay <picturename>',
Realplay shows the picture until you hit 'q' and 'return' keys.
Furthermore, if the program detects that there is an indexed sequence
of pictures in the directory, it shows them all just as Display does,
only much faster.
One advantage of Realplay is that pictures need not be of the same
display mode, and they can have different color palettes. The only
requirement is that they are in the IFF format. Realplay allows direct
jumps to any picture, whereas Deltaplay connot do this. One drawback
is that loading packed IFF pictures takes much time, whereas delta
animations are loaded five or ten times faster.

NOTE: The window Realplay opens is its input window. Keep it active so
that you can control the program. You can activate it during an animation
show by pressing the left Amiga and 'n' keys simultaneously to make the
Workbench display somewhat visible, and then by clicking in the window
with the left mouse button.

BLON AND BLOFF
These two tiny programs in the Util directory are useful if you want to
create a video representation which includes several animations and
pictures. The Blon command creates a black, two colour screen in front
of the display, and Bloff removes it. Usually it is not desirable that
the Workbench screen becomes visible between the parts of the show, a
pure black display is a much better alternative.

The following CLI script illustrates how to use these commands when
creating picture and animation shows:
Run Real:Util/Blon
Real:Display Pictures/Pic0
Real:Deltaplay Animations/DeltaAnim script
Real:Display Pictures/Infopic
Real:Realplay Animations/Anim2 script2
...
Real:Util/Bloff

SCULPT TO REAL
A small utility program SculptToReal converts Sculpt scene files to Real
3D animation files. The current version converts only object shape
definitions. It is possible to create one point-editable primitive or
several individual triangles, each having its own attributes such as
color and material. In the latter case the output file requires much
more space than when using single primitive conversion.

                                - PAGE 116 -

11 MENU DESCRIPTION
-------------------

PROJECTS

OBJECTS -

Create
Craetes so called logical objects in the hierarchy level below the
current object. Objects are used to bind primitives or other objects
into logical entities.

Create root
Creates a logical object above the root. Creating a new root is necessary
when, for example, an object is loaded from disk into the same
hierarchical level as the current root.

Load
Load an object into the active hierarchy.

Save
Save the active object.


ANIMATION -

Delete
Deletes an animation. In other words, the size of the animation is set to
one and the display is reset. This can be considered as a 'new project'
function.

De-expose
Removes exposure of the current object from a given amount of frames,
starting from the current frame.

Direction
Directs the active object along its animation path during its motion for
the given number of frames.

Goto frame
Inputs the index number of a frame, and moves to that frame.

Insert
Inserts frames after the current frame.

                                - PAGE 117 -

Load
Loads an animation into memory. The old animation can be replaced with
the new one, the animations can be concatenated (appended) or the
animations can be joined frame by frame.

Play
Shows the animation in the main projection windows.

Orbit
Allows the user to define a freeform spline orbit for the active object.
The frame interval during which the motion occurs can be defined. This
function enlarges the animation automatically if necessary.

Remove
Removes frames starting from the current frame.

Rotation
Rotates the active object around a given point by a given angle. The
frame interval during which the rotation occurs can be defined. The
animation size is increased if necessary.

Save
Saves the animation with a name given by the user.

Size
Changes the size of an animation. If the animation is made longer, the
new frames are appended at the end of the animation. If the animation
is made shorter, frames will be removed from the end.


MATERIALS -

Create
Create and add a new material to the list of materials.

Modify
This function is used to modify the properties of an existing material.

Delete
Deletes a material that is picked from the materials list. The material
of all objects already made of this material will be changed to the
default material. Also, deletion of all materials is possible.

                                - PAGE 118 -

Load
Loads a list of materials, and either appends it to the end of the
current list, or replaces the old list.

Save
Saves the current material list with a name given by the user.


MACRO -

Define
Removes any old macro definition from memory and starts defining a
new one. The current object is copied to the memory so that it can
later be restored.

End
Terminates macro definition. The current frame is restored to the
state in which it was when Macro -> Define was selected.

Execute
Executes operations stored in the current macro.


SCREEN
Sets the desired display mode and the number of colors used. The
selected mode is used both in the editor and the wireframe model.


EXIT
Program termination.


CREATION -

PRIMITIVES
You can create basic objects, i.e. primitives.

TOOLS -

Circular tube
This tool is used to create a tube that has a circular cross section
and slighty rounded bends.

                                - PAGE 119 -

Conical tube
Creates a tube with rounded joints and changing radius. Includes
also a smoothing subdivision option.

Fence
Produces a sequence of rectangles.

Lathe
The lathe tool is used to create objects consisting of several
primitives.

Lathe2
This lathe tool creates smooth shape rotational objects.

Pixeltool
Reads a small brush and replaces each pixel (except ones the same color
as the background) with a given 3D object. Also, the size of the output
can be defined.

Pixeltool2
This tool creates a free form surface using the brightness of a picture
as height information.

Polygon
Creates a free form polygon.

Polyhedron
Creates a free form extruded polygon.

Rectangular tube
This tool is used to create a tube that has a rectangular cross section
and slighty rounded bends.


LAMP
Creates a lamp to a user specified location. A lamp is a primitive that
radiates light of its own color to its surroundings.


OBSERVER
Creates an observer (camera) in the hierarchy tree.


AIM POINT
Creates an aim point to the hierarchy.

                                - PAGE 120 -

FREE FORM

CREATE CURVE -

Curve
Creates a free form curve.

Circular curve
Creates a circular curve.

Spiral
Creates a spiral.

Parallel
Creates a curve parallel to another curve.


MODIFY -

Break
Opens a closed curve/mesh or breaks it into two pieces.
Close
Closes a curve/mesh.
Concatenate
Concatenates two curves.

Remap
Changes the number of points of a curve/mesh.

Remove points
Removes active points from a curve or a selected curve from a mesh.

Show spline
Shows the smoothened shape of a curve/mesh.

Smoothen
Smoothens the shape of a curve/mesh.

Subdivide
Subdivides the intervals between points of a curve/mesh. It is possible
to subdivide only one interval in a curve by activating the end points
of the interval.

                                - PAGE 121 -

BUILD -

Coplanar sweep
Creates a mesh by sweeping a curve along another curve.

Join
Joins two section curves to form a mesh. Also two meshes, or a curve and
a mesh can be joined.

Orthogonal sweep
Creates a mesh by sweeping and rotating a curve along another curve.

Rotation
Creates a mesh by spinning a curve around an axis.

Swing
Creates a mesh by spinning a curve around an axis and by scaling the
radius using another curve.


BENDING MODES -

Bend & Move
With this mode selected, the movement of a point being bent does not
depend on the distance of it from the bending axis.

Bend & Size
With this mode selected, the movement of a point is dependent on the
distance from the point to the bending axis.

Radial
This mode directs the effect of the bending functions radially away from
the bending axis.

2D
With this mode selected, the effect of the bending functions is
independent of the depth coordinate.

3D
The depth direction and the bending axis direction are treated similarly
in the bending functions.

                                - PAGE 122 -

BEND -

End point
This function can be used to bend an object from its end.

Global
This function bends the object everywhere.

Local
This function bends the active object only inside the given interval.

Linear
Linear bending is a skew transformation.


POINT EDITING -

Select
Activates more points on the active object.

Select new
Activate a new set of points.

Deselect
Deactivates points from the current object.

Deselect all
Deactivate all selected points.

Show points
Shows the points on the active object.


MODIFY

HIERARCHY -

Move
This function is used to move an object to another place in space.

                                - PAGE 123 -

Move to
Moves the active object to a spatial position given by the user. The
position of the object is determined by its offset point.

Stretch
Stretches an object.

Size
This function changes the size of an object.

Rotate
An object can be rotated in space.

Mirror
Mirrors an object in a user given reflection axis.

Extend
This function can be used to stretch an object in a particular direction.
For example, it can be used to lengthen objects.

Explode
This function is used to explode an object comprising of several
primitives.

Copy
Duplicates the active object.

Rename
This function can be used to change the names of objects.

Locate
You can move the active object to a new location in the hierarchy tree.

Delete
Deletes the active object.

Color
Changes the color of the active object to the current color.

Material
This function can be used to change the material of the active object.

                                - PAGE 124 -

Painting
You can use this function to change the location, size and direction of
the texture of the active object.


WILDCARD -

The modification operations are done on certain objects based on their
properties. The user can define properties that an object must comply
with to be selected by the operations. If no conditions are given, all
objects under the current object will be operated.

Replace
Replaces all objects in the active object that satisfy the user given
conditions, with an object selected by the user. The replacing object
is positioned to its place using the offset point.

Color
Changes the color of all objects that satisfy the usergiven conditions to
the current color.

Delete
Deletes from the active object all objects that satisfy the user given
conditions.

Macro
Executes the operations included in the current macro to all objects in
the current object satisfying the given conditions.


OPERATIONS -

These operations are executed with two objects. One of the objects is
always the active object, its volume is changed as a result of the
operation. The volume of the other object, the so called tool, does not
change, so it can be used to operate on several objects when needed.

AND
Executes the Boolean operation AND (intersection) between two volumes.

EOR
Executes the EXCLUSIVE OR operation between the volumes of two objects.

                                - PAGE 125 -

AND NOT
Executes the AND operation between two volumes, where the volume of the
tool is inverted.

AND with paint
Executes the AND operation between two volumes, The tools 'with paint'
also effect the surface of the target object.

AND NOT with paint
Executes the AND operation between two volumes, where the 'with paint'
volume of the tool is inverted. Also, the cut surface of the active
object gets the properties of the tool's surface.

DIVIDE
Divides the active object into two parts along the surface of the tool.
This operation results in two separate objects.


COLOR

The menu includes 6 default colors. Any objects that are created will be
of the last selected color. Each color is defined as three components
(R, G, B), each of which can have one of sixteen intensity values. The
intensities of the components can be changed using the Palette function.


SETTINGS

DISPLAY -

Scale in
Changes the display scale. The operation defines a region to be
magnified.

Scale out
Changes the display scale. The screen is shrunk to the size of the
defined region.

Pan
This function is used to change the locations of the projection windows
in space, so that other parts of the space can be seen through them.

                                - PAGE 126 -

Autofoucs
Centers and scales the display around the active object.

Reset
Reinitializes the display scale and window locations to their original
values.


DRAWMODES -

Normal
All windows are updated automatically whenever necessary.

Reduced
This function is used to select whether only the active projection window
or all three projection windows are updated. When needed, the whole
screen can be updated manually using the Extras -> Redraw function.

None
No automatic display redrawing occurs.


DRAWLEVEL -

All
When the windows are updated, the scene is drawn starting from the root
object.

Parent
When the windows are updated, the object is drawn starting from the
parent object of the active object.

Current
Only the active object, or if the active object is a primitive, the
parent object of the current object is drawn to the screen.


COORDINATES -

Absolute
Absolute measuring. Real 3D continually displays absolute coordinates.

                                - PAGE 127 -

Relative
Real 3D displays coordinates that are relative to the most recently
selected point.

Abs & Rel
The combination of the absolute and relative measuring. The program
displays absolute coordinates until the user chooses a creation or
modification operation, when the program displays relative coordinates
to show the size of the object created or the magnitude of the
modification.

None
No coordinates at all.


ATTRIBUTES
This function is used for changing default information concerning
primitives, like names and depths.


ALIGNMENT
This function is used to define the so called alignment vector. The
vector is used when copying and loading objects. When copying, the object
is positioned in a location defined by the vector as an offset from the
original object. When objects are loaded from disk, they are positioned
so that their offset points are located at the most recently selected
point in space. After loading the selected point is moved by the size
of the vector. This can be utilized when loading characters from a font
directory.


GRID
This function is used to set the unit length. The coordinates of the
objects will be rounded to be an exact multiple of the unit length. Each
of the coordinate directions can have its own unit length. The defaults
are one hundredth in all directions. The Grid device has four instant
selection fields. Their values can be set using the three fields at the
lower part of the device and then choosing OK. Also the grid visibility
can be defined.

                                - PAGE 128 -

EXTRAS

REDRAW
Updates the editor windows.

INFO
You can look at and change some properties of the objects.

COSTS -

Set price
With this function you can attach expenses to an object corresponding to
that hierarchical level.

Look price
Calculates the price of an object as defined by the set price settings.

AVAIL MEM

Shows the amount of available memory.

GET MEMORY
Recovers a serious memory lack situation.

REPRESENTATION -

Add wire
This function attaches a new wireframe to an object that is not a
primitive and that does not yet have a wireframe representation.
Wireframes are usually added to objects that have been operated on,
since the old wireframe no longer represents the new object. After the
new wireframe has been added, subobjects of the object can be made
invisible so that the only representation of the object in the editor
will be the new wireframe.

Delete wire
This function deletes the additional wireframe of an object.

Move point
This function is for moving single points of the wireframe that have been
added with the Add wire function.

                                - PAGE 129 -

Obscure
Hides points from the wireframe of the active object.

Draw wire
With this function it is possible to define a single curve wireframe.

Rethink
Automatic wireframe modification for boolean operations.

Offset
With this function you can change the offset point of an object. The
offset is used, for example, to position objects when they are loaded
or replaced.


CLOSE WBENCH
Tries to close the workbench screen and activates 'no workbench'
option, which is saved when you exit the program.


OPEN WBENCH
Tries to open the workbench screen, and disables the 'no workbench'
option.


NO ICONS
If this option is selected, no icon data is created for the outputted
date. The file Realpref contains the current state for this icon data
option.

UNDO ON
This function can be used to activate/deactivate the undo feature.

UNDO
Restores the situation before the last action was executed in the
current frame.

                                - PAGE 130 -

MODES

WIREFRAME
With this function you can watch the object's wireframe in realtime. The
model is also used to define values that are to be used in the solid
model.

SOLID
The solid model, which renders shaded images.


THE CONTROL MENU OF THE RENDERING SCREEN

CNCAEL
You can use this function to terminate rendering and return to the
control screen of the solid model.

EXIT
When the picture is finished, this function returns to the control
screen.

SCREEN TO BACK
Puts the Real 3D screen behind other screens.

SAVE
Saves the picture to disk.

PRINT
This function is used to make a hard copy of the picture. Printing is
carried out using the preference settings of the Workbench. Requires
SYS:utilities/graphicdump and C:run to be available.

SET BOX
The box function is made for making the time consuming rendering process
faster. Using the Set box function you can define a rectangular region
to be rendered.

BOX OFF
Cancels rendering. If a box definition is on, it is removed. This
function does not return to the control screen whereas cancel
function does.

FILL BOX
Renders the defined box, or, if no box is defined, the whole picture.

                                - PAGE 131 -

KEYBOARD SUPPORT
----------------

For an experienced user, the keyboard offers a much faster way to control
the program than menu selection. In Real 3D, the most common functions
can be activated from the keyboard. The keyboard codes for editor
functions are given in the following list:

KEY     FUNCTION
a       Rotate
s       Size
d       Delete
f       Color
g       Stretch
h       Mirror
j       Explode
k       Move to
l       Locate
x       Extend
c       Copy
v       Painting
b       Material
n       Rename
m       Move
+       Scale in
-       Scale out
.       Pan
>       Autofocus
O       Reset display to default settings
return  redraw display
1 - 9   Grid 10 - 90
0       No grid
G       Visible/invisible grid
L       Load animation
S       Save animation
D       Delete animation

                                - PAGE 132 -

F       Goto frame
P       Play animation
U       Undo function
i       Info-function
!       Rethink-function
r       Repeat last menu selection
(       Define macro
)       End macro
e       Execute macro once to the active object
$       Out of memory recovery
Esc     Break current function execution
Space   Primitive selection based on the mouse click near the primitive
p       Selects the parent of the current object
w       Wireframe model
q       Solid model

Note that the top row of alphabetical keys contains 'general' functions,
wheras the two lower alphabetical key rows contain only the modification
functions which appear on the menu Modify -> Hierarchy.
Also in wireframe mode one key is active: the 'f' key hides/shows the
control panel.

                                - PAGE 133 -

GLOSSARY
--------

ALIGNMENT
A line segment that defines how much to move the cursor of the editor
when any objects is being copied or loaded.

ANIMATION
This concept is both a Real 3D data structure and the output of the data,
namely a collection of pictures to be shown rapidly in succession.

BRILLIANCY
A property of materials which defines how 'parallel' the surface of the
material reflects and refracts the light.

BUMP MAPPING
A method with which it is possible to imitate rough, bumpy wavy etc.
surfaces.

DELTA ANIMATION
A method in which only the differences between successive pictures are
stored. This produces both a smaller data size and a higher frame rate.

DITHERING
New colors can be created by mixing the existing colors in adjacent
pixels; this is called dithering.

EXPOSE
An action which attaches a private copy of an object to a frame. If you
De-expose an object, you can tell the program that the frame does not
need its own object description, it can use one from the earlier frames
instead.

FRAME
The data structure containing the info.

HL-SHADE
One shading technique in Real 3D, especially suitable for nonpure colors.

MACRO
A collection of several Real 3D functions.

MAPPING
A rule which tells how to find a counterpart for each member of a set
from another set. As a precise mathematical concept, mapping is a
function. For example, every point in the

                                - PAGE 134 -

surface of an object can be mapped to the set of the pigels of a picture,
and this relation can be used to color the surface.

MATERIALS
A collection of object properties in Real 3D. These properties define
what happens when a light ray hits an object made of the material.

MODEL
An abstract description of a real world phenomenon.

OBJECT
In Real 3D, basic forms and their collections are called objects.

OBJECT HIERARCHY
A tree structure describing how objects are organzied to logical
hierarchy groups, which in turn forms new groups.

OBJECT ORIENTED
In Real 3D, you can modify an object with a modification function, no
matter what the substructure of the object is.

OFFSET POINT
This point which is attached to every object in Real 3D; can be used for
accurate positioning of the object.

OPERATIONS (BOOLEAN LOGICAL)
The technique which allows the user to cut something away, from an object
using another object.

OVERSCAN
Display mode which allows extra large picture sizes hiding the display
borders.

PICTURE
The difference between the frame and picture concepts is that a frame
contains information for producing a picture, and picture is the Real 3D
output of a frame.

PIXEL GRAPHICS
This is the principle of creating graphics by using a space consisting of
a finite number of elements, such as squares or pixels in a two
dimensional plane.

                                - PAGE 135 -

POLYGON
The surface of an object can be represented approximately using
representation only triangles which cover the object. The advantage of
this method is generality, and it is suitable for representing free form
objects.

PRIMITIVE
A basic object of Real 3D, for example a cone.

PROJECTION
A rule which tells how to find counterpart for each member of a set from
another set. As a precise material concept, projection is a function.

RAY TRACING
A method which generates a picture of an object by following the light
rays from the observers' eye through every pixel in the screen. If a
light ray hits an object, reflections and other things that decide the
color of the pixel in question can be calculated according to the laws
of physics. Therefore this technique produces very realistic pictures.

RENDERING
Producing a picture according to the information contained in an
abstract model.

SOLID MODEL
A principle to represent three dimensional objects as volumes
containing matter.

SPLINE
A method to create a new curve by adding a few curves together. In
three dimensions, a new surface can be created by adding several surfaces
together. Usually in computer graphics this means that the curves/
surfaces are joined smoothly.

TEXTURE
A picture which is used to paint the surface of an object.

TRANSPARENCY
A property of materials that defines how light penetrates the material.

VECTOR
A mathematical object, which includes two things: direction and lenght.
In three dimensions, these two can be defined with a coordinate triple
(x, y, z).

                                - PAGE 136 -

VECTOR GRAPHICS
A principle to represent an object using a model, which includes graphics
vectors. This model is practically resolution independent, which means
that it is possible to create increasingly large magnifications of the
details of the object without sacrificing accuracy.
Real 3D uses vector graphics.

WIREFRAME MODEL
A principle to represent the shape of an object using an adequate number
of points in the surface of the object and connecting these points with
lines in a suitable way.

                                - PAGE 137 -

INDEX
-----

A
Active Points                    81   Avail mem                       129
Add wire                        129
Aimpoint creation               120   B
Aimpoint position                41   Background                       46
Alignment                  128, 134   baselight                        46
AND Operations              65, 125   Bend & Move                 86, 122
AND NOT Operations          64, 126   Bend & Size                 86, 122
AND with paint Operations       126   Bending functions           85, 122
AND NOT with paint Operations   126   Bending Modes               86, 122
Angle/mapping                    60   - 2D                        87, 122
Animating                             - 3D                        87, 122
- Aim Point                      97   - Radial                    85, 123
- Macros                         95   - Bend                      85, 123
- Observer                       97   - Local                     85, 123
Animation                  117, 134   - Global                    85, 123
- Delete                    94, 117   - Linear                    85, 123
- Delta                         134   Blon and Bloff                  116
- De-expose                     117   Boolean operations       4, 65, 125
- Direction                     117   Box                              46
- Goto frame                    117   - Fill                          131
- Insert                    95, 117   - Off                       46, 131
- Remove                        118   - Set                           131
- Load                      94, 118   Break                       83, 121
- Orbit                     90, 118   Brightness                   46, 56
- Play                          118   Brightess of light the           36
- Preview                        92   Brilliancy                  55, 134
- Resize                         94   Build                           122
- Rotation                      118   Building Free Form Objects       77
- Save                      94, 118   Bump height                      56
- Show                           90   Bump mapping             6, 59, 134
- Size                      94, 118
Animation support                 6   C
Animating textures                6   Calculating the objects' prices 107
Anti-aliasing                 7, 47   Cancel gadget           38, 60, 131
AR                               42   Change
Aspect ratio             25, 38, 51   - Color                      26, 37
Attributes             19, 106, 128   - Name                           19
Autofocus                   99, 127   - Scale                          99
Autolight option                 49   Circular tube creation      31, 119

                                - PAGE 138 -

Clear                            43   - Polygon                       120
CLI script:                113, 116   - Polyhedron                32, 120
Clip mapping                  6, 58   - Conical Tube              33, 120
Close                       80, 121   - Lathe2                        120
Close function              82, 121   - Pixeltool2                    120
Close WBench                    130   - Lamp                          120
Color                       37, 126   Curved Surfaces               4, 79
- Change                         37   Curve Creating          79, 80, 121
- Mapping                        59   Custom Depth                    107
- Wildcard                      125
Colors                           37
Command explanation        112, 113   D
Command frame                    51   Decreasing                       90
Concatenate                     121   De-exposing                      89
Conical tube tool           33, 120   De-expose animation             117
Control menu                    131   Delete
- Solid                     46, 126   - Animation                 94, 117
- Wireframe                      41   - Material                      118
Coordinates                           - Object                         25
- Absolute                      127   - Point                          83
- Relative                      128   - Wildcard                      125
- Abs & Rel                     128   - Wire                          129
- None                          128   Delta animation                 108
Coplanar sweep              78, 122   Deltaconvert                    110
Copy                            124   Deltaplay             111, 112, 113
Costs                      108, 129   Delta To IFF                    114
Creating                              Delpth Screen                    38
- Big Animations                 97   Depth Recursion             47. 106
- Curves                75, 82, 121   Define Macro                28, 119
- Materials                     118   Device input                     17
- Objects                       117   Direction                        92
- Root                          117   Direction Animation             117
Creation                              Display the             25, 99, 110
- Primitives                    119   Display modes            6, 38, 125
- Tools                         119   Display Redrawing Modes         100
- Lathe                     30, 120   Distance                         42
- Rectangular tube              120   Dither options                   49
- Circular tube             31, 119   Dithering                    7, 134
- Fence                     32, 120   Divide operation            66, 126
- Pixeltool                 34, 120   Drawlevel                       127

                                - PAGE 139 -

- All                           127   Frame command                    51
- Parent                        127   Free form modeling               75
- Current                       127   Free form objects building       77
Drawmode                        127   Free form
- Normal                        127   - Create                        121
- Reduced                       127   - Curve                         121
- None                          127   - Spiral                        121
                                      - Parallel                      121
                                      Function
E                                     - Bending                        85
Editing Point               75, 123   - Close                          82
Editor               11, 13, 43, 51   - Direction                      92
End Macro                       119   - Invisible                     103
End point                       123   - Key                           132
Eor operation               66, 125   - Macro                           7
Execute Macro                   119   - Memory management             108
Exit                       119, 131   - Rotate                         91
Explode                         124   - Smoothen                      104
Expose                      88, 134   - Undo                     109, 130
Exposing                         92
Exposure Remove                  95
Extend                          124   G
                                      Gadget
                                      - Cancel                38, 60, 131
F                                     - Infinite                      104
Fast mode                        48   - Scene                         104
Fast rendering                    7   Get memory                      129
Features                          4   Global bending              85, 123
Fence tool                  32, 120   Glossary                        134
File requester                   27   Go to frame animation           117
Fill box                        131   Gradient mapping                 59
Flip                             59   Greayscale options               49
Fog effects                       5   Grid the              101, 102, 128
Forward                      42, 88
Frame                       43, 134
- Insert new                     95   H
- Move to                        95   Hardware requirements             8
- Remove                         95   Height Width and                 47
Frame buffer support             52   Hierarchical              4, 19, 22

                                - PAGE 140 -

Hl-shade options            50, 134   Linear bending              85, 123
Hollow                          103   Load
                                      - Animation                 94, 118
                                      - Materials                 63, 119
I                                     - Object                    27, 117
Iff-24 option                    51   Local bending               85, 123
Increment                    29, 33   Locate                          124
Index                            57   Logical operations               65
- Picture                        57   - And (ab)                       65
- Texture                        57   - And not (ab)                   65
Infinite                   103, 105   - Divide (ab+ab)                 66
Info                       102, 129   - Eor (ab+ab)                    66
- Device                        103   - Obsecure-function              99
Input device                     17   Look price                      129
Insert animation                117
Insert new frames                95
Installation of the software      8   M
Interlace                25, 37, 38   Macro                       28, 134
Interlace options                49   - Animation                      95
Invisible                       103   - Define                    28, 119
Invisible function              103   - Device                     29, 96
                                      - End                           119
                                      - Execute                   29, 119
J                                     - Modifications                  29
Join function           80, 81, 122   Macro function                    7
                                      Mapping                         134
                                      - Angle                          60
K                                     - Bump                   6, 59, 134
Keyboard support                132   - Clip                        6, 58
Key functions                   132   - Color                          59
                                      - Cylinder                       58
                                      - Flip                           59
L                                     - Gradient                       59
Lamp creation                   120   - No 0-col                       58
Lampless mode                    48   - Parallel                       58
Lathe                   30, 31, 120   - Special                     6, 59
Lathe2                      33, 120   - Spherical                      58
Light                                 - Spiral                         58
- Speed of                       35   - Textures                5, 57, 62
- Sources                 6, 35, 36

                                - PAGE 141 -

- Tile                           59   Mouse The                        13
Material functions               62   Move                    15, 20, 123
Materials                5, 54, 134   Move to                         124
- Create                        118   Move to frame                    95
- Modify                        118
- Delete                    63, 118
- Load                      63, 119   N
- Requester                      55   Name                         46, 55
- Properties of                   5   No 0-col/Mapping                 58
- Save                      63, 118   No icons                        130
- Select                     57, 61   Normal mode                      48
- Show                           57   NTSC                         25, 38
Measuring methods               101
Memory management functions     108
- Avail                         129   O
- Get                           129   Object                  14, 15, 135
Menu description            14, 117   Object hierarchy            16, 135
Meshes                           77   Object oriented construction      4
- Join                           81   Objects
Mirror                          124   - Create                        117
Mode                                  - Free form                      77
- Display                         7   - Load                      27, 117
- Display Redrawing             100   - Modifying                  24, 25
- Fast                           48   - Saving                    27, 117
- Lampless                       48   Obscure                          70
- Normal                         48   Observer                    97, 120
- Outline                        49   Offset                          130
- Shadowless                     48   Offset point                    135
Modes                                 Open
- Bending                       122   - Curve                          83
- Solid                         131   - Mesh                           83
- Wireframe                     131   Open WBench                     130
Medeling Free form               75   Operations              5, 125, 135
Modify                      20, 123   - AND                       65, 125
Modifying                             - AND NOT                   65, 126
- Curves                         82   - AND with paint                126
- Hierarchy                      22   - AND NOT with paint            126
- Materials                     135   - Boolean                5, 65, 135
- Meshes                     77, 82   - Divide                    66, 126
- Objects                        24   - Eor                       66, 125

                                - PAGE 142 -

- Logical                    65, 67   - Show                          123
Options                               - Remove                        121
- Autolight                      49   Polygon                         136
- Dither                         49   - Tool                      32, 120
- Greyscale                      49   Polyhedron tool             32, 120
- Hl-shade                       50   Position
- Iff-24                         51   - Aimpoint                       41
- Interlace                      49   Position-gadget                  41
- Overscan                       49   Preface                           2
- Savemem                        50   Preview Animation                95
- Single                         49   Price
- Targa                          50   - Calculating                   107
- Unshaded                       63   - Look                          129
Orbit                                 - Set                           129
- Animation                 90, 118   Primitives             24, 119, 136
Orthogonal sweep            78, 122   Print                           131
Outline mode                     49   Program modules                   4
Overlight                        47   Projection                      136
Overscan                        135   Projects                        117
- Options                        49   Properties of surface        5, 104
                                      Properties of materials           5

P
Painting                         62   R
- Modify                        125   Radial bending mode             122
Palette                          37   Ratio Aspect             25, 38, 51
Pan                             126   Ray Tracing                  4, 136
Parallel                         58   Rbox                             43
- Free Form                     121   Realplay                        114
Picture                     56, 135   Record                           42
Pixel tools                 34, 120   Rectangular tube creation       120
Pixeltool2 creation             120   Recursion depth                  47
Play                             43   Redraw                          129
Play animation                  118   Remap function                  121
Point                                 Remove
- Delete                         83   - Animation                     118
- Deselect                      123   - Exposure                       95
- Editing                   75, 123   - Frames                         95
- Select                    76, 123   - Points                        121
- Select new                    123   Rename                      17, 124

                                - PAGE 143 -

Render                           51   Setting the grid                102
Rendering Fast                    7   Shadowless mode                  48
Rendering                       136   Show
- Techniques                      6   - Animation                      90
Replace wildcard                 26   - Material                       57
Representation                  129   - Points                        123
Reset                           127   - Spline                        121
Resize animation                 94   - Texture                        57
Resolution                       47   Single option                    49
Rethink                         130   Size                            124
Rewind                       42, 88   - Animation                 94, 118
Root                             16   - Window                     25, 38
- Create                        117   Smooth                  60, 82, 104
Rotation-function           91, 124   Smoothen function               121
Rotation Animation              117   Smoothly curved surfaces          4
                                      Software installation             8
                                      Solid                            43
S                                     Solid model              4, 45, 136
Save                        42, 131   Solid mode                      131
- Animation                 94, 117   Sources
- Materials                     119   - Light                       6, 35
Savemem options                  50   - Brightness of light the        36
Saving objects              27, 117   Special mapping               6, 59
Scale Change the                 99   Special tools                    30
Scale in                        126   Specular brightness              56
Scale out                       126   Specularity                      56
Scene-gadget the                104   Speed                             4
Screen the                   37, 42   Speed of light                   56
Screen to back                  131   Spherical                        58
Screen depth                 25, 38   Spiral                           58
Script file                113, 115   - Free form                     121
Sculpt To Real                  116   Spline                          136
Select                           57   - Function show                 121
Selection                             Start count                  29, 96
- Materials                      61   Standard limits                 104
- Window                         16   Starting the program              9
Selecting points                 76   Stretch                         124
Set box                         131   Subdivide                   84, 121
Set price                  108, 129   Support
Settings                        126   - Animation                       6

                                - PAGE 144 -

- Frame buffer                   52   - Tube                 31, 119, 120
- Keyboard                      132   Transparency                55, 136
Surface                         104   True solid modeling               4
Sweep                                 Tube tools                       31
- Coplanar                  78, 122   Turbidity                        56
- Orthogonal                78, 122
Swing                           122
Swinging                         79   U/V
                                      Uncovered                       103
                                      Undo on                         130
T                                     Undo function the          109, 130
Targa options                    50   Unshaded                     60, 63
Tile                             59   Vector graphics                 137
Texture                               Visible range the               100
- Bump                           59
- Clip                           58
- Color                          59   W
- Flip                           59   WBench close/open               130
- Gradient                       59   Wildcard                        125
- No 0 col                       58   - Color                         125
- Special                        60   - Delete                        125
- Tile                           59   - Macro                         125
Textures                        136   - Replace                       125
- Animated                        6   Width and height                 47
- Index                          57   Wind                             88
- Mapping                 5, 57, 61   Window
- Picture                        57   - Editor                         11
- Select                         57   - Selection                      16
- Show                           57   - Size                       25, 38
Tools                                 Windows the                      10
- Circular tube                 119   Wire                             51
- Conical tube              33, 120   - Add                           129
- Creation                      119   - Delete                        129
- Fence                     32, 120   - Draw                          130
- Lathe                         120   Wireframe mode                  131
- Lathe2                    33, 120   Wireframe model         41, 44, 137
- Pixel                     34, 120
- Polygon                   32, 120
- Polyhedron                32, 120
- Special                        30

                                - PAGE 145 -

*************************************************************************
                 THIS IS THE README FILE ON THE DISK !!!!
*************************************************************************

Real 3D V 1.4
-------------

Thank you for purchasing Real 3D, the fastest and most impressive ray
tracing software in the Amiga market.

This file contains information about the new features not described in
the manual.


24 Bit      Real 3D supports 24 bit IFF ILBM texture maps.
Textures

Anti-       The solid model screen menu bar contains one new function
aliasing    for antialiasing control. If the Prefs->No background
            antialiasing function is activated, antialiasing is not done
            with the background color. This special feature is usually
            needed when the computer generated image is genlocked with
            a video background.

            Note that animations created with earlier Real 3D versions
            may have this special anti-aliasing function active when
            loaded.
            Therefore, before rendering old animations check the state of
            this feature from the solid model screen menus.


Info/       The new NOREFLECT - gadget can be used to speed up rendering,
NOREFLECT   when the scene contains many reflecting objects. If this
            object flag is set, then the object is not considered in the
            reflection calculations. More precisely, NOREFLECT objects
            may reflect but they are not reflected; they are not visible
            in reflections.
            A good example is a scene, where a golden, shiny logotype is
            floating above a chequered floor. If the logo has NOREFLECT
            property, then it reflects the floor, but the parts of the
            logo do not reflect each other. This is probably acceptable,
            because rendering speed may be even 10 times higher than with
            normal reflection calculations.


Morphing    The program contains two additional functions for key frame
And Key     animating: Morphing and Key framing. Morphing calculates the
Framing     frames between defined key frames by interpolating the shape
            of individual primitives. Free form primitives (polygon
            meshes) are interpolated pointwise, whereas other primitives
            are interpolated using their local coordinate systems.
            Morphing requires each key frame definition of the morphed
            object to have equally many points.

            For example, it is possible to morph between a small sphere
            and a big ellipsoid, but not between a sphere and a cube.

            To create an animation with morphing:
            - Create for example a polygon mesh.
            - Define the animation size (e.g. 50 frames).
            - Go to the frame 25 and expose the mesh in that frame.
            - Modify the mesh. You can use conventional linear modifi-
            cations such as stretch or rotate, but a polygon mesh may be
            point edited or bended as well. Do not use remap or any other
            modification, which changes the point count of the primitive.
            You may also create a new primitive with equally many points,
            expose it, delete the original one and rename the new one
            with the original name.
            - Define the next key frame in a similar way.
            - When all the desired key frames are defined, make sure that
            the mesh is active and select Projects->Animation->Morphing.
            - Define the frame interval during which the morphing happens,
            for example from the first frame to the last one.
            - Define the curvature parameter. The default value 5 produces
            quite smooth and nice interpolation between the key frames.
            Value 0 gives linear interpolation with rapid direction
            changes in key frames. Large values such as 15 produce
            'exaggerated' point paths, even additional loops.
            - Click OK and wait until calculations are ready.

            The previous example shows, that key frames are defined
            using object exposing and only the current object is morphed.
            The morphing function searches all the frames inside the
            given frame interval and takes the frames in which the
            current object is exposed as key frames. After morphing, the
            current object is exposed in all the frames contained in the
            given frame interval.
            Therefore, if you want to morph again with different
            parameters, you must de-expose the frames which should not
            be used as key frames first.

            The actual key framing function does not interpolate
            individual points, only local coordinate systems. Therefore,
            it does not interpolate point editing and bending effects,
            only conventional linear modifications. It also works
            hierarchically if possible, producing correct tweening with
            complex animation hierarchies.

            Key framing function can be used in a similar way as the
            morphing function. For example, to animate a logo just define
            key frames by exposing, define logo position and orientation
            in the key frames an use the function. Nevertheless,
            hierarchical animations require some additional preparations
            which are described in the following example.

            To animate a robot arm:
            - Create the arm hierarchically. For example, the hand should
            be a subobject of the arm, and a finger should be a subobject
            of the hand.
            - To ensure that the program can find correct local
            coordinate systems, add a 3D wireframe to each hierarchical
            object level. For example, create an aim point, which has
            crosslike wireframe and add it to the object using Extras ->
            Representaton -> Add wire function. If you put these
            additional wireframes to the middle of the joints of the arm,
            they act as useful reference points, too.
            - Define the animation size, expose the arm in the desired
            key frames and modify the arm in the key frames.
            - Activate the arm, select Projects->Animation->Key framing
            and define the frame interval and the curvature.
            - Select OK and wait until key framing is done.

Keyboard    Two new functions can be activated from keyboard: 'Alt'-'s'
Shortcuts   jumps to the first frame of the animation and 'Alt'-'e' to
            the last frame.

Attributes  The two files Attributes and Realpref, which contain object
& Realpref  names, screen modes, the editor palette and other such
            information, are now combined in a single file RealEnv.


PDrawToReal Util-drawer contains a program which converts Professional
            Draw clip and outline font files to Real 3D format.
            Professional Draw is a two dimensional vector drawing program
            from Gold Disk Inc. The conversion program creates Real 3D
            curve objects; with the flexible free form tools of Real 3D
            it is easy to create 3D objects from curve data. The
            converter offers easy to use method for high quality 3D
            font and logotype creation.

            Use the converter in the following way:
            - Start the program.
            - Define point density for output curves. The higher the
            density is, the smoother and better quality you get, but
            memory requirements grow respectively. The default value 3
            is sufficient for most cases.
            - Select a clip or outline font file.
            - Define the name for the Real 3D file. Now the converter
            produces and saves a Real 3D animation file.
            - You can continue by selecting a new clip file or exit the
            program by selecting CANCEL.


Sculpt-     Point-editable polygonal surfaces created by SculptToReal
ToReal      conversion program can be smoothed using Phong shading.
            Smoothing can be activated using Info/SMOOTH flag.


Deltaplay   The Deltaplay animation player contains some new commands for
            background sound control. With these commands it is possible
            to control the Bars&Pipes Professional program of Blue Ribbon
            Soundworks Ltd. The commands are:

            V <n>   sound on at n/50 seconds (or n/60 seconds in NTSC)
            V       start the sound from beginning
            X       sound off
            Y       try to synchronize sound with animation frame rate
            Z       sound synchronization off

            When using the commands, Bars&Pipes Professional must be
            running with Real 3D accessory. The accessory can be found
            from the disk 'Real2'; it is not copied to hard disk in hard
            disk installation.

            The same accessory also works with JAM!, a new interactive
            composition system from Blue Ribbon SoundWorks Ltd.


If you are going to use the software from floppy disk instead of hard
disk, copy the first disk, 'Real1', and rename it as 'Real'. After that,
you can use the copy as a Real 3D work disk, which contains most material
needed for using the sofware.

*************************************************************************

                                 CREDITS:

                   DOX WRITTEN BY: DIRTYBUSH / DUAL CREW

                         PICS DIGITIZED BY: D.E.M.


+----------------[  D U A L  C R E W  BOARDS WORLDWIDE: ]---------------+
|                                                                       |
|  GURU'S DREAM NODE 1 - 14.4 KBPS -  1 GB  -  +46 - 8 - 363425  (WHQ)  |
|  GURU'S DREAM NODE 2 - 14.4 KBPS -        -  +46 - 8 - 368169         |
|  GURU'S DREAM NODE 3 - 14.4 KBPS -  SOON  -  +46 - 8 - 369205         |
|  GURU'S DREAM NODE 4 - 14.4 KBPS -  2 GB  -  +46 - 8 - 369225         |
|  SYSOP: SNUSKBUSKE (DIRTYBUSH)                                        |
|                                                                       |
|  EASTERN FRONT       - 14.4 KBPS - 105 MB -  +358 - 28 - 22834        |
|  SYSOP: HAKA                                                          |
|                                                                       |
+-----------------------------------------------------[©1991 DUAL CREW]-+