From Real 3D to Realsoft 3D
Realsoft 3D
was originally conceived on the trusty old
Amiga computer 15 years ago. The Meskanen
brothers (now Realsoft,
Finland) initially wrote Real
3D version 1.0 as a university assignment:
"Well, Juha
and I bought our first Amiga in 1985,
and started coding a graphics oriented
program right away. Developing it further
was Juha's graduating work in his engineering
studies. We continued developing it purely
as a hobby. Then we visited a computer
exhibition and saw a demo of Sculpt 3D
- we were 100% sure that we could do better
(because our first prototypes already
had procedural booleans and non-faceted
mathematical surfaces!) So, we started
systematically finishing the product prototype.
It was year 1989 when it became finished
enough. I jumped out from my university
career and started the Realsoft
company. "
Vesa Meskanen
It matured enormously when it hit version
2 - a huge leap forward not only from its
previous version of 1.4 but for ALL 3D programs.
It introduced totally amazing features -
booleans, CSG primitives, b-spline curves,
physically based animation simulation, morph
based animation techniques and blew most
of the competition out of the water with
its phenomenal rendered output. It took
full advantage of the multi tasking abilities
of the Amiga - allowing the user to continue
editing a scene on another window while
it rendered !
But Real was also renoun for its complexity.
For all its power it has always been critisiced
for its inherently steep learning curve.
By Version 3 - Real had been ported to
many operating systems including SGI,
Alpha, and Intel Pentium computers.
The feature set kept growing exponentially.
Version 3.53 was the last version that
the public has seen for 3 years - during
which time Realsoft have been labouring
hard with the beta team to make this new
version the easiest and most powerful 3D
program on the market.
And Lo ! Realsoft
3D is born - Realsoft
Oy , Finland have renamed the package
to Realsoft 3D.
Essentially Real
3D version 4 - has been totally re-written.
Reals past features are obviously still
present - with new and improved materials,
rendering engine, objects and GUI - a ground
up rebuild.
RS3D fully multi-threads now - taking advantage
of multiple processor machines (and local
and Internet networks !) allowing the user
to render the scene while still editing
objects. Full raytrace rendering in ANY
viewport. It is possible to edit completely
in perspective mode with new Input Planes
allowing one to align to any axis or object.
New Keyframe animation, Subdivision objects
Global Illumination and much more.
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