Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

32
The
building block
401
Paul Austin casts a
quizzical eye over the all •
new Modeler and also
explores the LightWave
alternatives •
s promised, this month I'll be continuing
the guided tour of
NewTek's latest incarnation of their
award-winning 3D design and animation
system. This time it's Modeler's turn for
a once over, but Ill also be exploring lightWave
on the Amiga's arch rival. However, before
inspecting the opposition's approach, it's time
for a close look at the straight-man in the
LightWave double act
Modeler is without doubt the poor relation
in the LightWave partnership in the rush to
match the exploits of Ron Thornton and
The tra ditiona l solid vie w - e ithe r
moving or sta lk on a sta nda rd Amiga
display
AMIGA COMPUTING
M A Y 1 9
friends. The temptation is to dive straight into
Layout and set about throwing things around
the screen in the vain hope that by some miracle
you'll stumble across a masterpiece.
Unfortunately, that just ain't the way things
happen.
Si MI LARM ES
As you can see, the all new Modeler 4_0
isn't exactly a million miles away from its predecessor.
In fact, you have to look pretty close
before you can spot any real changes. All the
buttons and options appear in almost identical
positions, but there is one very major
invisible, update which many a die hard m
eler hack has been dreaming of since th
beginning. The update in question is the lo
awaited addition of multi-level undo and t
In the past you were limited to undoing 1
the last edit, but now you can go way
into the design history of your aeations.
thanks to redo, you're also free to move
and forth through the changes you've made,
In short, the benefits are immense, not le
of which is the ability to experiment fr
without having to go through the drudgery
n At fi rst gla nce not a lot of diffe re nce from the solid vie w. H owe ve r,
look close a nd you'll spot WM101'11421 .114.WhICIPS a nd a la yout tha t doe sn't
obscure pa rts of the mode l tha t a ro hidde n in solid pre vie w
P. 1