Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

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itendetir•g options incluce
numb*, of frames, six
levets of anti-sassing, Sour
output formate, and an
estimate of time required
addect every lime However, for large global
changes, such as changing the size of the
flagstones in our earlier example, the first
couple of passes will show enough detail that
the user can more Or less choose the correct
setting in real time.
As this method replaces the traditional
change one tiny value then wait three min•
utes for a quick render, Forge could justify its
asking price (to Imagine users) on this score
alone.
FEATURES
Previews are aided by a number of features
which, though unglamorous, are very
useful. The preview window itself is controlled
either by its re-sizing gadget or by the low of
buttons found below rt.
Of these, there are two to double or halve
the size of the window, ReSpect to force the
window to adopt the same aspect ratio as the
finished image, MaxSpect to show the whole
Image in its largest size (dependant on
nis son of texture would take an ago to
lender in lmagine. but Forge wilt preview
changes to it in seconds
Nultplate
and pitted
textures coo,
tese of Essence,
spherical map rendered by
Forge. fi nal image by liontwave. Phew!
aspect ratio), -and MaxSize to boost the window
to its biggest possible size_
Below these buttons, a box shows the size
of the current preview window compared to
the whale image, and users can drag this box
to any pan of the image.
In addition, there are slider controls for
zooming in and altenng light intensities, and
as light direction can be set from the dropdown
menus it should be possible to accurately
preview a texture in almost any
conditions.
Animation previews can also be created
and the final animation rendered from within
Forge, thanks to a couple of clever teatures,
Setting start and end frames is as easy as
clicking on the buttons in the middle of the
Forge screen, and changes can be made
either to both at once or just one of them.
Creating a raindrops animation using the
Essence II raindrops texture is then a simple
matter of loading the texture, setting its builtin-time
variable to one second on the last
frame, then rendering 25 frames in
sequence.
The preview itself comes in the form of a
storyboard view, which can force the normal
window to show up to 25 shrunken images at
once. When this view is selected, a small preview
box appears below the window, and
clicking in it starts the animation,
Nothing could be simpler, and though it
can be tricky to see arty changes in the tiny
anim box, this is still many times better than
The preview, here shows a spherical
map in the process of being
comp/oiled for use in another package
Jargon buyter
GRAPHICS
texture - a generic term for any process or image applied to a
surface with the intention of altering its appearance.
procedural texture - a texture fin fact a small program) which
has a number of built in variables the user can set to achieve
limitless variety in the finished appearance.
Procedural textures produce very clean 3D effects, but
because of the maths involved they can be very slow to render.
Their prime advantages are memory efficiency and flexibility.
Image map - a texture lormed by taking an existing image and
••mapping - it onto the target object. Image maps render very
quickly. but are fairly inflexible and use precious memory.
Forge can be used to create image maps from any Essence II
procedural texture, thus speeding up rendering while retaining a
degree of flexibility,
tiling - the practice of taking a small image map and tiling or
repeating it across a large surface This process saves memory
because the image map is kept as small as possible, but is only
suitable for images which follow a pattern of sorts.
spherical reap - a map designed specifically to wrap around a
sphere, thus avoiding the usual squashing effect around the
poles. A good example of this would be the strangely shaped
planet Earth maps often found in atlases. Forge can automatically
take care of pole squashing when creating spherical maps.
Amiga Computing
OCTOBER 1994
attempting the same job in Imagine.
Forge will make a good guess at the time
each frame is going to take to render, so if
you are generating a series of large images
for use as a sequential image map, the program
will even tell you when it would be a
good idea to nip off for a cuppa_ Isn't that
nice?
Without a doubt, Forge is well worth buying
and virtually unmissable for Imagine owners.
The speed and ease with which one can
experiment not only boosts productivity but
encourages whacky combinations of textures
(up to nine can be used at once) and prods
the user on towards creating now looks.
laghtwave and Real 3D owners won't have
quite as much use for Forge, but even these
users would be crazy not to give it a quick
lest run.
SYSTEM ROD - E L AESSEFITIALSI. M Recommended
Mbl
RAM
1
Hard drive
[4- Mb]
Rem or
above
co-procesOOt
I
K
2.04
i
The bottom c line
Product: Forge/Essence k II v3.0
Supplier: Meridian s Distribution
Price: t E79
Phone: 081-543 e 3500
r
Ease of use
t
Implementation
9
8
Value for money
8
Overall 9