PC_Advisor_Issue_264_July_2017

Reviews
Inking on Photos is fun,
but doesn’t have the
verve of Inking on Videos
Inking photos and video still
needs some polish – the erase
feature is all or nothing – and the
feature cries out for some stickers
or emoji, too. Add those, though,
and Microsoft could regain some of
the playful fun that’s been missing
from Windows from a decade.
One of the features Microsoft
seems proudest of – inking two
points within Maps, which then
calculates the distance – we initially
dismissed as useless. Tracing a
footpath or stream and calculating
the distance, though, has merit. (You
can either use Ink’s older straight
edge – which now tracks angles – or
a second, circular ‘protractor’ that
helps draw arcs.) What Microsoft
doesn’t really make clear is that you
can draw a similar line between two
points, and Maps will then calculate
the street route between them.
That’s much cooler, and something
Google doesn’t offer.
Paint 3D anchors a
patchwork 3D experience
If there’s one theme that Microsoft
established during its autumn reveal
of the Creators Update, it’s that
virtual – sorry, mixed – reality was
central to the update. It’s a shame,
then, that much of it falls short.
You may not even be aware that
Windows hides a robust suite of
tools to import, create/edit, view,
and print 3D objects: 3D Scan, View
3D, and 3D Builder all cooperate
to provide a 3D content-creation
toolchain throughout Windows. All
of them were already there within
Windows 10, and Paint 3D joins
them with the Creators Update.
The Achilles heel here is 3D
content creation. Last October,
Microsoft promised – even
demonstrated – a Capture 3D app
that used a mobile phone camera
to 3D-scan an object as easily as
taking a movie. And where is it?
Missing in action. Are 3D objects
in Office? No. We spent hours
with the built-in 3D Scan app,
connecting a Kinect depth camera
to a Surface Studio and attempting
to scan 3D objects, including this
writer. Those attempts failed
miserably, resulting in an ‘object’
that looked more like a puddle.
Paint 3D, on the other hand, is
one of the triumphs of the Creators
Update. It encourages you to create
simple 3D objects with a variety
of textures, or incorporate more
complex objects from the Remix
3D community site.
From there, you can export your
3D object to Windows 10’s existing,
excellent 3D Builder app. The app
neatly integrates a connector to
a third-party 3D-printing service,
which automatically imports your
object and prices out its cost. But
it’s heartbreaking to come all that
Here, Maps is
calculating distance
as the crow flies
(pink) versus a
calculated route
(blue). The red bar is
Ink’s straight edge
22 www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews July 2017