The 3D Render Daemon ::: The REALSOFT 3D Resource website

WOW ! Did I say that there was some excitement brewing in the background ? Did I promise some good gear for this newsletter ? Well READ ON fellow RS user - for we have some exciting new stuff online for your reading pleasure!

WHATS NEW

Articles
The FEATURE article for the site - is of course, an interview with none other than Vesa Meskanen ! Vesa gives us a bit of background behind Realsoft, and what to expect for the future - Satu has even kindly supplied us with a few photos from finland ! :) To read, go HERE:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Articles.htm

Glossary
David Coombs has come through with the goods yet again ! With Part 3 of his Raytracing series - the man has a mission - to teach the world how Raytracing works ! Fantastic read and another great installment. Read online here:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Glossary_Main.htm

Model Library
We have had 4 swords sent in - many thanks to Robert den Broeder, Francesco Proietti and Peter A. Hou for taking the time to model up these terrific swords. View / download them here:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Models09-Swords.htm

New pages online
As per users requests - we have added a few new pages (albeit still under construction) - we have:

Environments page (yes - you can send in your environments for others to use),
Macros page (a few up here already - but feel free to send in macros, javascripts or Building Block project files)
Materials page (Still empty here - we have a few from the FTP, I'll try to add shortly)
Newsletter page - an archive of all the newsletters sent to the list (For people not subscribed to the user list)

THIS WEEKS TOPIC: is .. CARS

Be it a realistic Lamborghini or a simple cartoon SDS - have a go at modelling up some cars for inclusion on our Model Library Resource site. Try to keep them roughly to scale - and feel free to include jpg texture maps if req'd.

NEWS

While we all happily model our cars for the next topic, our bustling team of developers have been working hard putting nose to grindstone to bring you some fantastic new plugins. Not far now, here is the latest info:

Delta:
Has been very busy - currently developing a new website - all dynamic and looking terrific. The latest word from Alessandro about Chrono:

"Chrono -in beta release- has been already used succesfully for the design of true robots. Now it will also be integrated (through 'custom' releases) into a realtime vehicle simulator and into the control interface of industrial robots.

There will be different releases:

- CHRONO STUDIO (for animators, entry-level engineering, etc. without the ability of saving graphs of recorded variables (ex. speeds, forces) onto files. Unlike previously planned, Javascript programming is available like in the EXTREME version!)

- CHRONO EXTREME (for engineers and scientists, with all the features enabled. Also includes a genetic optimization engine for the best design of mechanisms, a cam design tool, etc.)

- CHRONO CUSTOM (for vertical applications - price and features must be agreed with the customer)"

He is also excited about the prospect of implementing Open Cascade into Realsoft3D. He says:

" I think that one area which need improvements in Realsoft3D is the CAD toolset. In fact I already used R3D and CHRONO for designing devices and mechanisms, but R3D is not a CAD, so it may be difficult to draw sheets for the mechanical parts, with measures/tolerances etc. Until now, I used IGES in/out to exchange files with some 3D CAD software (designing a schematic mechanism with CHRONO on R3D, then completing the drawing on a parametric 3D CAD like SolidWorks, to output sheets on plotter etc.), but file conversion -you know- may be a source of problems and soon or later you loose some details and informations.
Therefore I think that it would be nice to add some CAD tools to Realsoft, at least the most important (like line trimming, line filleting, chamfers, -for 2D- and true edge rounding/filleting/chamfer for 3D, with a robust 3D B-Rep engine, being able to represent good wireframes and good booleans. Maybe also with parametric/ associative/variational features like in hi-end products like SolidEdge, SolidWorks, Catia, ProE, etc.)
Of course the design of a robust B-Rep geometric engine is one of the most complex programming challenges, and it may require 50+ man-years. Anyway there is an easy solution: the OpenCascade open-source project! The OPENCASCADE geometric engine has been used for hi-end 3D CADs, and features powerful geometric tools. Given its license policy, we could write a plugin for Realsoft3D which uses some useful features of this huge library... This may be the fastest and easiest way to add 3D CAD features to Realsoft3D.
Go to www.opencascade.com and www.opencascade.org to understand the features of this library. You can also download it (many megabytes of source code!) for your own SW projects. "

Dynadream:
Carlo is also hard at work developing his website, and has some fantastic work well underway - stay tuned for next newsletter for further details !

Keep modelling and enjoy the read !

Bernie
3D Resource Website
email me at: bernie@vrgrafix.com.au

Render Daemon Newsletter #9

Wow ! What an exciting time ! Its the calm before the storm here - as all things Realsoft are firing on all cylinders ! Unknown to many users probably - there has been a frenzy of activity in the background, with developers creating some fantastic work that will surface very shortly now !

WHATS NEW

Articles
Building Blocks REVIEW online NOW ! Frank has came through with the goods, and we have reviewed what looks to be an important part of every RS3D users toolkit ! A must have program - check out the review to learn more about this exciting new app:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Articles.htm

Its been a relatively quiet week on the Daemon front yet again.

We have had no swords or shields yet (See topic below) I'm hoping that users have not lost momentum already in the Model library concept. Suggestions for other topics welcome.

Glossary
David Coombs is still working hard on Part 3 - and we hope to see that installment soon !

New FEATURE article appearing in next weeks newsletter - along with some great new news that I can't disclose yet ;) So its really a quiet week this one - all the action will happen next week hopefully !

THIS WEEKS TOPIC: is .. SWORDS & SHEILDS !

Get the viking blood flowing and create some realistic and mystical swords. Should be a great topic to show off RS rendering capabilities & caustics. Think bevelled edges, gold trim and leather bounding - shields with ornate patterns - its a topic that offers some huge potential.

Topic still currrent - I'm really surprised that we have had no submissions :( I'm hoping that we can keep the model library idea running - but it only runs with input from you users. Without input - we simply don't have a model library :/

Render Daemon Newsletter #8 - Jan 2003

G'day RS Affectionados !
As the User list has been down for some time - things have been quiet of late. I did sent out a newsletter #7 by direct mail, but have not had any response, so for the sake of those that missed out, this newsletter is essentially the same content with a few updates.

WHATS NEW

Its been a relatively quiet week on the Daemon front -

We have had no swords or shields yet (See topic below)

The Trees topic only yeilded 3 trees from Frank Bueters - who came up with the goods on some sensational 3D trees. Its a bit of a shame, but its a tough topic.
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Models01.htm

Glossary
David Coombs has come up with the goods again, and written Part 2 of his Raytracing articles. As earlier posted to the list, I think many people have seen this one already - but again, I highly recommend everyone to read this one - very professional:
http://www.vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Glossary_RaytracingPt2.htm

We are all keenly waiting for the next installment David ! Great work.

Articles
New article online - an interview with the amazing Tim Borgmann of (BT)Grafik. Find out more about the man responsible for designing the RS website and modelling up the famous Knife logo:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Articles.htm

Profiles
New profile added - Mirco is keen to show his acrobatics to the world ;) Read his profile here:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Profiles.htm

Models
Matthew has been struggling to get his lamp finished and has finally sent it
in. Skeleton attached - Go to the Lamps page to see his handiwork:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Models05_Lamps.htm

News
Frank has some good news - his program Building Blocks is essentially finished ! goto the news page to read more:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/news.htm

Realcloth is progressing in great leaps - Carlo has been hard at work, and is currently producing tutorials and documentation. Stay tuned for more progress on this exciting new plugin.

Service Pack 1 is nearing release - Realsoft are working hard to polish off the last bugs. Stay tuned.

THIS WEEKS TOPIC: is .. SWORDS & SHEILDS !

Hoping that this will generate some entries. Its a fun topic - and plenty of reference material around so it should generate some fantastic images !

Render Daemon Newsletter #7 - Jan 2003

G'day RS Affectionados !
Sorry for the lateness of this newsletter - but this week has proven highly hectic at this end.
Fires ripping through our city - (only a hundred metres from my place) in Canberra, Australia. Poor old computers have been packed up and shipped around twice now as they keep telling us to evacuate ! Another hot weekend coming with threats of more of the same :/

WHATS NEW

Its been a relatively quiet week on the Daemon front -

The Trees topic only yeilded 3 trees from Frank Bueters - who came up with the goods on some sensational 3D trees. Its a bit of a shame, but its a tough topic.

Unfortunately, I've had so little time with the fires and powering away on yet another 3d Office building, that I have not uploaded the Tree page yet. I'll try to rectify this on the weekend - my apologies to Frank. The trees are certainly worth the download. Keep checking this page for updates:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Models01.htm

THIS WEEKS TOPIC: is .. SWORDS & SHEILDS !

Hoping that this will generate some entries.

Render Daemon Newsletter #6 - Jan 2003

A big hello to all in RS land - another busy week has passed, and a few items of interest have been added to the Realsoft 3D Resource website:

WHATS NEW

A few more faces & fact on some "famous" name RS users added to the Profiles page:
http://www.vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Profiles.htm

Glossary
A sensational new article is now online - care of David Coombs, he has written an excellent resource article on Raytracing. Highly recomended reading - can be found in the glossary section:
http://www.vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Glossary_RaytracingPt1.htm

A few broken links have been fixed - thanks to all for reporting. (tutorial on modelling had no images, reviews pages etc - all should be fixed)

Author Pack
A new page detailling the use of style sheets and layout guidelines for people considering sending in articles.
http://www.vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/AuthorPage.htm

Articles
No new articles this week I'm sorry - I'll try to get a few online next week. stay tuned.

MODEL LIBRARY

A few new lamps have been added, from Krystian and Frank. Frank has been very busy and sent in 5 models (all very detailed) for the Desk Ornaments topic - all up a good collection now online.

THIS WEEKS TOPIC: is .. TREES !

Due to the interest on the user list, I think it would be good to keep the interest rolling with a topic on 3D trees. If there is enough interest, I could add the Real3D tutorials on how to use the Fractal Tree generator settings online. As usual, send me your models and I'll upload them to the site for all to use.

Render Daemon Newsletter #5 - January 2003

Happy New Year everyone ! I hope you all had a good break and we wish
you a propsperous new year with lots of RS3D fun ahead !

WHATS NEW

Well, while the rest of the world has been partying hard - I've been slugging away judiciously on the 3DRD site:

Tutorials Pages
Have been extensively upgraded. It was a mammoth task, but I've added dozens of new tutorial pages up here (Many were old ones from my previous r3D site) and a few new ones to keep it all interesting. Please have a look here: http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Tutorials.htm
It took a fair whack of work, but I have added Alex Penners VSL tutorial (Was a PDF) online as well - I think it came up well: http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Tute_VSLShaders.htm
Also Gunnars Classic tute - Modelling an SDS Bee is online as well. (was a Broken link to the old Magnamana site):
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Tute_Gun_Bee.htm

Beginners Page
New page added - aimed at Beginners and new RS3D users.
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Beginners.htm

Glossary
The glossary pages are back online - which I think are quite useful:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Glossary_Main.htm
The Refraction page for example has RS specific details about Refraction, what it is and how its used in RS3D through the Optical Thickness channel - along with example materials and settings:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Glossary_Refraction.htm
Another useful page is the Terminology page, giving cross application terminologies. If you can think of any more, feel free to email to me !
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Glossary_Terminology.htm

Renders Pages
This was a biggie - and will ultimately be broken up into sections.

Currently I have added the Image Contest winners at: http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Renders_ImageContest.htm
Example User images at: http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Renders_Users.htm
Realsoft Oy images at: http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Renders_Realsoft.htm
And a collection of my own images at: http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Renders_VRgrafix.htm

Links Page
Is now back online - and has dozens of Realsoft specific related links:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Links.htm
If you would like your home page added, please feel free to send me the url for inclusion.

Screenshots page
Is also back online - just some screenshots of RS3D in action for users not aquainted with the package.
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/ScreenShots.htm

MODEL LIBRARY

Is going great - we have a few new models trickling in each week - but we want to keep that momentum up - For those of you with half finished chairs or lamps, please tidy up the models and send them in for inclusion - there is no timeframe for these !

New models added to the general page - A great mannequin from Robert that he would like to see with a skeleton - and the Kits (Spider and Petaranodon) online now as well.
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Models02.htm

The LAMPS topic was a great success - and Robert has almost be solely responsible for half of the objects there ! Some really nice work there and certainly worth a look at:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Models05_Lamps.htm

THIS WEEKS TOPIC: is .. DESK ORNAMENTS !

Think vases, photos, flower arrangements, coasters, plates, cutlery, items that you would find on a coffee table to shelf. This is pretty open topic and I'm hoping will generate a fair bit of interest. As usual, send your entries into me for inclusion. Details at:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Models01.htm

Whew ! As you can see - its been busy - and now that everyone is trickling back on deck, I'd like to see some great work come to the site for the benefit of all. Think User profiles, Tutorials, and of course, models. I'm hoping to see some great Desk ornaments from a few new people as well this week - Keep modelling and all the best -

Render Daemon Newsletter #4 - December 2002

Its been busy even over the Christmas period ! A Great New Year for all -

As its a "holiday Period" we will not set a new model topic this week - but wait until January 2003.

However, models have been pouring in this week - and we've had a terrific response from people with the Lamp topic - Particularly Robert who has been modelling like mad ! http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Models01.htm
Another chair has been added as well.

Article with Yours Truly - as questioned by Frank Dodd now on the articles page:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Articles.htm

And I've made a big hit on the Tutorials page - uploading a dozen golden Oldies:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Tutorials.htm
As requested by Matthew Hagerty - the Archtiectural Tute is online again.

Some new content in the pipeline and some news items hopefully. Stay tuned.

3D Render Daemon newsletter #3 - December 2002

Model Library

GI
Thanks to Mark Heuymans as the only man with the render power to submit a GI test project ! A little dissapointing that it was all left to me to put some content up - but I'm hoping that people will send in what they experimented with to get some more hints / tips online - keep the momentum going !

Chairs topic
We had a terrific response from people for this one - and we have a great collection of freely usable models online now at: http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Models03.htm

This weeks topic is: LAMPS
All manner of lighting - from floor lights, freestanding lamps, desk lamps - you choose. Its a challenging topic - and getting the light emitted from the lamp is 80% of the challenge. Give it a try for more details and submissions - check:
http://www.vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Models01.htm

New Article added - Kimmo Pekkola - Soft Artist

A veritable unknown in the RS community - but is responsible for writing many of the in/out plugins for Realsoft 3D. Read the article and find out about the challenges Kimmo faced writing the IGES plugins:
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Articles.htm

More articles are in the pipeline - we still hope to hear back from Dustin McCartney soon so stay tuned for next weeks newsletter - and don't forget to send us your LAMP models!

3D Render Daemon newsletter #2 - Dec 2002

A big THANK YOU to all who contributed this week ! The response was fantastic and we hope to keep the momentum going this week again.

Model Library - Chairs topic

Is off to a great start ! Check out the page for all the latest - we have some excellent models and some really interesting diversity there already !

Don't feel like the deadline is over - keep those submissions coming! - click the link below to view the models page on details and submissions.
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Models03.htm

This weeks topic is: Global Illumination (GI)

The user list has been alive with people talking about GI - and the best ways to get the most out of this new feature. So we thought it best to make a topic of this - and create a page with scenes that users have created with GI projects that have worked for them. Also, we wish to collate all the hints and tips for this powerful new method of lighting. Email all ideas / tips here - and check the site for updates. HERE

News

Dustin tells me that Promethean FX 2.0 is nearing completion ! Stay tuned for more details.
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/news.htm

Newsletter this week in Plain Text due to user requests - any feedback on this appreciated.

New Article added - Miles Finlay - Image Contest Administrator !

Miles Finlay is a long time user of R3D. For several years now he has been the Contest Administrator for the RS3D Image Contest. Click the link below to read all about it.
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Articles.htm

User Profiles

Two new Questionnaires came in this week which is great ! Ed Scott and Markus Schmidt - we are keen to get a run down from all and sundry - so don't wait - shoot us your profile NOW ! Click the link below for details.
http://vrgrafix.com.au/Daemon/Profiles.htm

More articles are in the pipeline - we hope to hear back from Dustin McCartney soon so stay tuned for next weeks newsletter - and don't forget to send us your test GI scenes / tips and hints !

3D Render Daemon newsletter #1 - Dec 2002

WELCOME to the inaugral 3D Render Daemon newsletter !

With this mail out - we hope to bring to you the latest updates and going's on in the Realsoft 3D world.

While we realize that the site is still in its infancy - we hope to bring it up to standard - with the help from all RS users. Community sites don't exist without input and help !

Model Library

As discussed yesterday on the R3D email user-list, several people put their hands up to help out with rectifying the sad state of affairs that is the RS3D Model Library. This morning Frank (The Rookie) and myself discussed the best ways to approach this - and we thought that we would trial a weekly "topic" that might prove a catalyst for models. Using this method, I hope to keep users enthusiasm up, and models pouring in.

Note that there is no timeframe for models - feel free to submit as many models as frequently as you like on whatever topic - the weekly topic will hopefully give people some inspiration.

This weeks topic is: CHAIRS

Create any type of chair - from timber bar stools to leather sofas. For test scene info and more - click HERE to view the models page on details and submission point.

New Article - on Delta Engineering !

Alessandro Tasora - author of Chrono, kindly had a chat with us to tell us the status of this powerful plugin for Realsoft3D. Click HERE to read.

User Profiles

Questionnaires keep coming in - which is great to see ! There is several hundred yet to go though - and we are keen to get a run down from all and sundry - don't wait - shoot us one NOW ! Click HERE for details.

A few more surprises are in the pipeline - so stay tuned for next weeks newsletter - and don't forget to get modeling on a chair !

email us if you would like to add your materials here.

Page updated on Saturday, 22 March, 2003 . For feedback / model submissions or articles - please email us.

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