Multimedia Toolkit 2/Multimedia Toolkit 2.iso/imagine/objects/technology/a3000/a3000-cpu.readitorelse

Text File | 1991-12-31 | 7.4 KB | 157 lines

           An Imagine  object by Carmen Rizzolo:  The Amiga 3000 CPU

  Greetings!  How many times have you felt envy boiling in your gastric
juices every time you hear someone refer to their Amiga 3000 setup with
their 16 MEGS of RAM, their 68030 humming along it's merry way, and thier
2 MEGS of Graphics memory?  Well now you too can have your VERY OWN Amiga
3000! That's right.  It's the "Commodore/Impulse Powerup Program"  If you
have Imagine 1.1 or higher, you can have an Amiga 3000 absolutely free!

  To disclaim myself, the top paragraph is pure rubbish.  Here's an
Imagine object of the Amiga 3000 CPU.  This object requires no brushes, yet
does have the "Commodore Amiga 3000" and power button decals.  I'm rather
proud of this fact, I must say. It was made with Imagine 2.0, taking
advantage of the new "phong damn" feature.  If you are only using Imagine 1.1,
go through the attributes of each object (in 'Pick Objects' mode) and make
sure PHONG is turned OFF on every object.  If PHONG is ON with any of the
objects in Imagine version 1.1, the CPU will look like an inflatable computer!

  Many measures were taken to insure that the object will looks it's very
best, with the shortest possible rendering time.  In Imagine version 1.1,
some of the rounded corners will look faceted if the camera is close
enough, but this shouldn't be that much of a problem.  The CPU object is a
group of many objects, so that modifying the objets would be simple.  The
grouped objects are clearly named, so look in the 'Find By Requestor' if
you need to find a specific object.  All of the grouped objects have 'Fast
Draw' enabled for speed and ease of use.

  There is one object grouped with the lot called "Floppy.Hole."  "Floppy.
Hole" has no faces, it's simply there to let you know exactly where the hole
for the floppy disk drive is, in case you want to make an animation of a
floppy disk entering the floppy disk drive.

  There is another grouped object worthy of note called "Black.Plate."  This
object is directly behind the floppy disk drive cavity and the power
button cavity.  "Black.Plate" is there so that you will not see the
insides of the CPU object when the camera is looking at the floppy disk
drive.  "Black.Plate" is a black plane with 'Bright' enabled so that it's
contribution to the rendering time will be very small.

  The "Power.Light" object is a light source.  If you wish to turn "on" the
"Hard.LIGHT" or the "Floppy.Light" objects, look at the attributes of the
"Power.Light" object to see how to acieve the same effects.  The "Power.
Button" has the "Power.Decal" object grouped to it.

  If you're moving the "Power.Button" object, be sure the "Power.Decal" object
follows it.  The "Power.Decal" object looks like (in 'Fast Draw' mode) a plane
just in front of the "Power. Button" object.

  The parent object of the CPU group is an axis called "CPU.Obj."  I make a
habit of adding an axis and using it as a parent object for my groups.  This
way, should I decide to replace one object with another in the 'Action
Editor,' The porportion of the object (defined by the original object's size
bar) will not become distorted (too large or too small may still be a factor,
but that's easy to fix!).  It's also a little more organized.

And now, some reflections on Imagine version 2.0:

  Althought I believe that Imagine 2.0 should really be called "Imagine v1.5"
or "Sorry, this is what we meant for Imagine to be" the real-time manipulation
of points in Imagine 2.0 really does make it worth the money.  Other new
features that I like is the new "Pastella" texture.  Pastella is like
splotching several colors on an object, then using an airbrush or a
turpentined rag to smooth out all the colours.  Very nice effect.  Using the
default colours in Pastella is nice, but try using lighter and darker
variations of the color you selected in the main 'Attributes' requestor and
increasing the detail size.  You can make some "Toaster-like" fractal-looking
surfaces.  Very classy stuff.  Quickrender is nice to have, and so is the DCTV
support.  Another great new plus is the user-definable buttons.  Learn how to
cusomize these.  And get used to using them! They're great.  Here's what I
used for the buttons in my new Imagine.Config:

# User Gadgets

DBTN    250,"DRAW"    # Re-Draw screen
DBTN    584,"PRIM"    # add primative
DBTN    230,"GRID"    # Turn GRID on/off
DBTN    610,"ALL"    # Pick All
DBTN    360,"...CUT"    # Cut to buffer
DBTN    370,"COPY"    # Copy to buffer
DBTN    380,"PAST"    # Paste from Buffer
DBTN    4e1,"...CLIK"    # Select by Clicking
DBTN    4e2,"BOX"    # Select by drawing Box
DBTN    4e3,"LASS"    # Select by drawing Lasso

FBTN    210,"Coords"    # Coordinates On/Off
FBTN    260,"...I"    # Zoom in
FBTN    270,"O"    # Zoom out
FBTN    510,"...NoSym"    # Symmetry off
FBTN    520,"FS"    # Front (Top) view symmetry
FBTN    530,"RS/TS"    # Right (Front) view symmetry
FBTN    540,"Both"    # Symmetry in both views
FBTN    550,"90"    # "90 degree" symmetry
FBTN    710,"...Select"    # Select cross section
FBTN    720,"+Key"    # Make key cross section
FBTN    730,"-Key"    # Unmake key cross section
FBTN    740,"Copy"    # Copy from another cross section
FBTN    750,"Cancel"    # Cancel cross section command
FBTN    410,"...Edit"    # Edit mode
FBTN    420,"Add"    # Add mode
FBTN    430,"Del"    # Delete mode

CBTN    210,"Coords"    # Coordinates on/off
CBTN    260,"...I"    # Zoom in
CBTN    270,"O"    # Zoom out

SBTN    260,"I"    # Zoom in
SBTN    270,"O"    # Zoom out
SBTN    3b0,"...TRAK"    # (Re)Track Camera
SBTN    730,"...F+"    # Next Frame
SBTN    740,"F-"    # Previous Frame
SBTN    380,"...POS"    # Position Bar
SBTN    390,"AL"    # Alignment Bar
SBTN    3a0,"SIZ"    # Size Bar
SBTN    520,"...S+"    # Select Next
SBTN    530,"S-"    # Select Previous
SBTN    580,"S?"    # Select by Requestor
SBTN    3c0,"...QA"    # Quickdraw All
SBTN    3e0,"QN"    # Quickdraw None
SBTN    160,"...SA"    # Save Changes
SBTN    150,"ST"    # Go to Action Editor

ABTN    210," ADD "    # Add action bar mode
ABTN    220,"DELETE"    # Delete action bar mode
ABTN    230,"RENAME"    # Rename stage object mode
ABTN    240," INFO "    # Action bar info mode
ABTN    270,"CANCEL"    # Cancel Add
ABTN    180," UNDO "    # Undo last operation
ABTN    160," SAVE "    # Save Changes
ABTN    150," STAGE "    # Go to Stage Editor

  You can just steal mine if you want to.  Feel free to tweak it any way
you see fit.  The "Make Sharp" and "Make Soft" features (PHONG damns) are
also very welcome, and will make 'logo' construction much more easier and
efficient.  If you try converting any of my released objects to other
formats in the future, Beware of nasty results!  You're converted objects
will either look too faceted, or puffed out like an inflatable sex-toy
(and we can't have any of THAT!).  The new 'Explode' effect in Imagine 2.0
(now named "Firecracker") has a nice new feature of allowing the particles
to eventually fall along the Y axis (to the ground, with thoughtfull
modeling), just like in real gravity.  I haven't tested anything else out
yet.  but I can't wait to blaze some more digital trials!

  If I get some more free time (Yeah, and wolverines make excellent back-
scratchers), I'll make a keyboard, mouse, and maybe even a 1084 monitor to go
along with the Amiga 3000 CPU object.  It's a good thing that Impulse make
Imagine 2.0 objects loadable in Imagine 1.1!  This object is Public Domain.
If you use this object in any of your projects, please give me some credit
for modeling help.  Thanks.  It is a pleasure to share this object with all
you you Imaginative people out there.  Thanks for tolerating any spelling
errors, "I'm an artist not a Scholar!"  Till next time we meet, this is Carmen
signing off it amazing 3-D!


                                          Carmen Rizzolo