Quote

Originally posted by foo12:
**Ummm... let's see. A no longer supported, developed 3D program which

• Has the tendency to corrupt its files

• Has such trivial textuing capability to be considered nonexistant

• Only goes up to phong shading (ooh...)

• Renders slooooooowly, especially considering it's only rendering phong.

• Has a limited UI and a limited set of primatives

• Has no ability to use 3d cards (if present), severely limiting the complexity of your model.

• Has VERY anti-intuitive lighting controls.

• Laughable animation controls.

Or, one could download Strata3D for free and get:

• A decent modeller, though it's non-support for Nurbs means it's a bit difficult to do anything organic.

• Full set of primatives...

• Fantastic shape instancing

• Raytracing, raytracing, raytracing (where did radiosity go in 3.0? I miss it.)

• Full texturing...

• Actual timeline based animation. (You can animate darn near anything in Strata, including textures)

• Multiple, non-global, non-ambient light sources

• WYSIWYG control of lights and cameras (you can literally stear the camera to the object)

And oh, it can do this:
http://www.thefyi.co...oom_320x240.jpg (8k)

I did that. Took about 30 minutes to model, about four days to render split across five loaded-to-the-gills 400 MHz B&W; G3s. (the penalties of using radiosity to create a 300 dpi, 2'x3' image--yes, two feet by three feet)

**

Erm...I wouldn't go praising Strata 3D...

First off, it is not easy to learn...it has no manual, and constantly crashes on my iMac DV SE...I have had no problems with Mechanisto, though I admit it is limited and slow rendering...

The reason I don't like Strata 3D is that it is just a stripped down version of Strata Studio...if you want learn the program, get more shaders, deforms etc. you have to buy them..plus, I'm sure it doesn't run on any old computers...

Just my opinion...

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Kraig Hill
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"It's better to burn out then to be forgotten" - Neil Young
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http://www3.cybercit...lyde/index.html

Quote

Originally posted by Kraig Hill:
**Erm...I wouldn't go praising Strata 3D...

First off, it is not easy to learn...it has no manual, and constantly crashes on my iMac DV SE...I have had no problems with Mechanisto, though I admit it is limited and slow rendering...

The reason I don't like Strata 3D is that it is just a stripped down version of Strata Studio...if you want learn the program, get more shaders, deforms etc. you have to buy them..plus, I'm sure it doesn't run on any old computers...
**

(list=1)
()We're comparing the relative merits of a formerly commercial 3D app and some shareware that hasn't been updated in... five years, is it? Therefore points about lack of "shaders, deforms, etc." is irrelevent as Mechanisto supports nothing close. Nothing.
()All the Strata yanked out of Srata 3D 3.0 is PowerModel 1 and the radiosity engine. The radiosity engine produces gorgeous results, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they have access to several G3s with at least 128MB of RAM each. PowerModel 1 includes a few special effects, and the IK model and mesh deform. You can live without it and make spaceships. Trust me. The other modeling tools you refer to have never been distributed as part of the commercial release, always being optional add-on tools.
()Included shader modes. Other than the built-in shader, which is really quite good, you get a procedual Wood and a procedual Stone. (and a few others, can't remember off hand and I don't want to say more as I'm still with my licensed copy of StudioPro 2.5.3) Don't want to buy shaders? Make your own. It's not that hard to get "good enough" results, satisfactory for something in EVO.
()Manual---it's online in its entirety and accessible from within the program. Besides, Strata is not a difficult 3D program to learn by any measure.
(*)Crashes. How much RAM do you have? Don't change Strata's default memory allocations whatever you do as it has its own, internal memory allocation that works through temporary RAM. Allocating more to the application by default will actually starve it as temporary memoray is allocated from whatever is free in the heep.

Admittedly Strata is finicky. Just make sure you do a fresh boot before using it, don't run it with any other app in the background (other than the Finder, obviously), and turn off useless control panels like Kaleidoscope. Using OpenGL instead of QD3D also does wonders.
(*)System support: I've successfully run Strata3D on a 210 MHz PPC 604e box with 128MB of RAM and the default video. Machine support isn't a problem. Just don't be stupid and think it'll run on 603e, 601, or 68k machines because it won't.
(/list=a)

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I have Strata 3D, but it's almost impossable to align vertices because it sputters as I'm moving them. I've got a powercenter 150 with a 350Mhz G3 upgrade card.

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Let me correct my earlier system specs:

PowerMac 8500/132 (604e chip)

48 (sigh) MB RAM

1 gig drive

1 jaz drive

1 zip drive

1 desperate need for more RAM

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KIRK: Very funny, Scotty - now beam down my clothes!

Actually Strata Studio Pro was a good program many years ago. Back then it was king! However Strata has more or less rested on it's laurels while the competition has caought up and surpassed it. There is a reason why Strate is reducing it's workforce; because not many peole are buying there programs anymore.

As comparing Strata 3d to Mechiesto (that how you spell it?); well one is a shareware app. while the other was made by a professional company. Expect Strate 3D to be better.

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Quote

Originally posted by mactypetim:
**I have Strata 3D, but it's almost impossable to align vertices because it sputters as I'm moving them. I've got a powercenter 150 with a 350Mhz G3 upgrade card.

**

Video card or onboard video? If you haven't upgraded the video, you're screwed. If you have, it's likely an ATI card. Turn video sync off in the ATI config.

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Strata won't run on your machine. 64 MB of RAM is the minimum, meaning you should have at least 128MB. And on a 132MHz 604e? shudder

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NO, no, no! My original CPU was a 150 Mhz 604, but I upgraded it to a 350Mhz G3. I do have 64 megs of Ram, though (haven't upgraded that yet), and my VM is set up to 180 megs. I also have a Voodoo 2 graphics card.

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Well, Mechanisto works!

It's a classic case of RTFM - I reinstalled System 8.6.1 a few months ago - and I neglected to check which version of QuickTIme was installed with it. I check and whoops! it's 2.1. And the manual sez that anything less than 3.0 is a no-no. So now I've got 4.0.1 on the ol' 8500/132, and Mechanisto ROCKS!

Sorry for all the trouble!

Viva Me!

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KIRK: Very funny, Scotty - now beam down my clothes!

First off, my configuration for those "won't work" sayers out there:

Performa 6300 (which is a lowly 603e clocked at 100mHz)
48MB RAM
MacOS 8.6

If I set virtual memory to 49MB, Strata 3d runs just fine for me. In fact, it's only ever crashed on me once, and that was my fault. It crashed when I tried to import a bump map into one of my textures while not having the QuickTime extensions loaded. At first I thought it was a bug, but once I enabled the QuickTime extensions and rebooted, the problem went away.

I repeat, Strata 3d runs just fine on my computer as long as VM is enabled. I use to use StrataVision 3d (the "consumer" sibling of StudioPro). Even with VM on, Strata 3d runs and renders noticeably faster than Vision 3d without VM. The only thing I haven't discovered in the new Strata 3d that I still use Vision 3d for is Boolean (spelling?) modeling. I've tinkered around with the Metaballs function some but if anyone knows if Strata 3d has Boolean modeling, please let me know. The other thing is I really like being able to set the bit depth of renders when saving and this is another thing I've yet to figure out how to do with Strata 3d.

Oh, and one final bonus, textures, shape, and models all transfer seamlessly to Strata 3d. And as mentioned previously, OpenGL...much quicker than QuickDraw.

I just found that free version 4.0 of stratavision3d, and I'm looking forward to teaching myself how to use it. Maybe a plugin in the future? I hope so! I do have a few ideas...

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Quote

Originally posted by mactypetim:
**NO, no, no! My original CPU was a 150 Mhz 604, but I upgraded it to a 350Mhz G3. I do have 64 megs of Ram, though (haven't upgraded that yet), and my VM is set up to 180 megs. I also have a Voodoo 2 graphics card.

**

Not you--el guapo. And 64MBs of RAM is awfully stingy for Strata. Don't create too complex models or they'll choke your machine.

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Okay... if you're happy with a crawl...

Quote

Originally posted by Wilk:
**First off, my configuration for those "won't work" sayers out there:

Performa 6300 (which is a lowly 603e clocked at 100mHz)
48MB RAM
MacOS 8.6

If I set virtual memory to 49MB, Strata 3d runs just fine for me. In fact, it's only ever crashed on me once, and that was my fault. It crashed when I tried to import a bump map into one of my textures while not having the QuickTime extensions loaded. At first I thought it was a bug, but once I enabled the QuickTime extensions and rebooted, the problem went away.

I repeat, Strata 3d runs just fine on my computer as long as VM is enabled. I use to use StrataVision 3d (the "consumer" sibling of StudioPro). Even with VM on, Strata 3d runs and renders noticeably faster than Vision 3d without VM. The only thing I haven't discovered in the new Strata 3d that I still use Vision 3d for is Boolean (spelling?) modeling. I've tinkered around with the Metaballs function some but if anyone knows if Strata 3d has Boolean modeling, please let me know. The other thing is I really like being able to set the bit depth of renders when saving and this is another thing I've yet to figure out how to do with Strata 3d.

Oh, and one final bonus, textures, shape, and models all transfer seamlessly to Strata 3d. And as mentioned previously, OpenGL...much quicker than QuickDraw.**

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I just tryed Vision3D out, and it does not stumble around like Strata3D did. Admittedly, my computer does need more RAM, but I chose to shop for a harddrive first (5 Megs a sec could be called a handycap for a G3, wouldn't you say? :rolleyes: ).

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Quote

Originally posted by mactypetim:
**I just tryed Vision3D out, and it does not stumble around like Strata3D did. Admittedly, my computer does need more RAM, but I chose to shop for a harddrive first (5 Megs a sec could be called a handycap for a G3, wouldn't you say?:rolleyes: ).

**

Admittedly, RAM is expensive right now... but you'll be a lot happier with more RAM. A larger hard drive won't do you any good for transfer rate as, iirc, SCSI-1 has a maximum real world transfer limit of 5MB/sec. Of course you could get a faster SCSI card and a faster hard drive, but you probably don't absolutely need the extra speed unless you do lots of pre-press graphics work or find yourself slinging large-ish files constantly. (This spoken by a man that often works on 150MB+ photoshop files.)

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I got a scsi card too, with a minimim of twenty megs a second (I'm not familar with the types of scsi. You can clarify me on them if you wish). I'm still waiting for that though, since they never told we it was back ordered! That reminds me of a technical question I have about my computer.
My computer's "bios" has a limitation of ten gigs, and at present I have two harddrives connected to it, a ten gig, and a two. The computer is only reading eight gigs off the system drive, and all two gigs of the other. But my problem is this, the one I bought is a ten gig. So how am I going to get all of my files onto the new drive? The new card is going to add a second bus to my system, with a theretical capability of seven more drives. Will this add to my limit?

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YO! Here are some good programs to use!!

lightwave 5.5------1864$ (hehe, expensive, but good and easy to learn, with great modeling abilitys)
Specular LogoMotion---(from the makers of infini-d, only a crappier version, but not expensive!PLUS: VERY VERY EASY TO LEARN AND USE!!)
Ray Dream----Havent used it, i dunno.

Just being strange and helpfull.

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Admiral Zombat
http://www.cerolia.pyar.com

"Im only insane if youre insane, darnit!!"