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Ray Dream Designer is a Dream



Author: Jignes Patel
Date: May, 1994
Keywords: 3D modeling redering program application review model render
Text: Ray Dream Designer 3.0 by Ray Dream, Inc. is a three-dimensional modeling/rendering program that looks and acts like it was made for a Macintosh. Ray Dream Designer is a complete makeover from the original Ray Dream Designer. The original Ray Dream Designer consisted of two modules, Lightforge (creating objects) and SceneBuilder (for textures and shading). The new version has seven different modules: freeform, modeling wizard, text, cone, cube, sphere, and cylinder. It also has three different types of lights and gels, a background module, an atmosphere module, and a shaders editor. WOW! To run Ray Dream Designer 3.0 you'll need: * Any color compatible Macintosh * System 6.07 with 32 bit QuickDraw and 5 megs of RAM. * System 7.0 or greater with 8 megs of RAM. For 3D text you'll need: * TrueType fonts (included with system 6.07 and later) * Type 1 fonts and Adobe Type Manager (a must anyway!) v.2.02 or greater * System 7.1 requires ATM or greater Ray Dream Designer also works in black/white, and all shades of gray, so all you PowerBook users can create models in wireframe (black/white) or shade them if you have more colors. It does not support System 7 balloon help and publish and subscribe. What comes with Ray Dream Designer ? * Four high density disks (oops! The manual says five.) * A fair sized manual with a tutorial. * a very helpful shortcuts template. Installation was simple. Pop in disk 1 and an installer screen comes up, like the one you see when installing system software. You can customize the installation or do a full install. You'll need about 11 megs of hard drive space for a full install. With the full install comes 26 ready made objects for use in Ray Dream Designer, and 128 different textures. Installation takes between 5 and 7 minutes. Why should you choose Ray Dream Designer? I use Infini-D, which is another good 3D program, but the modeling capabilities are poor. With Ray Dream Designer I can create an object and save it as DXF file (a file-format for AutoCad, Infini-D, and other programs), and then import it into Infini-D where I can animate it. With both programs I have a very complete 3D package. Ray Dream Designer has features that put it above the rest. The Freeform modeler allows you to create objects by drawing a shape on different planes. With the sweep control you can create an object that is bowed instead of flat. With the preview mode enabled, the user can see a shaded object instead of a wireframe. There's even a neat little tool that fits all the main windows according to your screen size (from 12 - 21''). The Modeling Wizard allows beginners to create simple objects with predefined shapes, such as extruding, revolving, lathing, and others. This allows users to create objects quickly and easily. The text tool allows you to extrude text and bevel the characters. The light editor is the best I've seen. With Infini-D I could only create a light with special effects. Ray Dream Designer has three different lights: spotlight, distant light, and light bulb. You can edit the intensity, the color, and even the ''fall off'' of the light. The user can create a realistic appearance with lighting. Gels can be added to the lights. The Shaders Editor allows you to create shades and texture with the drag of a slider. You can edit predefined shades to create new looks. You can categorize your shades by families and colors. They range from wood to marble, and even include paper. There are 13+ categories already created. When applying anything in Ray Dream, all you need to do is drag and drop it on the object. Drag and drop, it's just as easy as that! Another feature of Ray Dream Designer is the renderer. Ray Dream Designer does not use an FPU. What? Yes! It doesn't need it. Though it may not render as fast as Infini-D or Strata Studio Pro, it's fast enough. You can ask it to give you the best possible resolution in a given amount of time (so you'll always know how long things are going to take instead, of waiting for things to get done so that you can do something else). There is a Batch Queue that allows you to setup several rendering jobs. DreamNet, another Ray Dream product, is an rendering engine that allows network rendering, splitting up the rendering over two or more machines, thus increasing the rendering speed. The manual is good; it explains everything in the program. The tutorial however, could be improved. The tutorial provides the user with objects that are already created. The user isn't allowed to create the objects and learn from the experience (it wouldn't be that difficult to create the objects from scratch). The otherwise very good manual could do a better job of guiding the user through the tutorial. Ray Dream Designer has excellent technical support. If you have a problem with any Ray Dream product, they can be reached by voice, fax, or e-mail. The prefs file damaged itself once in a while which caused Ray Dream to crash, and only the first 24 fonts in the fonts folder were accessible. Hmmm.... How long did it take to get back to me? On America On Line it only took 15 minutes, AppleLink it took 20 minutes, and by voice I only went through one two-minute hold. Now that's support! Many questions are answered in the manual. Now, about the two problems that I had*I was able to fix them both. Ray Dream has uploaded updaters to RDD 3.01-3.02 and RDD 3.02-3.03 which fix any problems. MacUser found one ''con'' with Ray Dream Designer 3.0, ''It lacks animation capabilities.'' Hello? Ray Dream Designer 3.03 isn't an animation program. I don't consider that a problem. Ray Dream Designer 3.03 is the perfect modeling program. Ray Dream, Inc. 1804 N. Shoreline Boulevard Mountain View, CA 94043 415/960-0768 Fax 415/960-1198 AppleLink :Rdream.tech AOL - RDREAMTECH Suggested price - $349, Street price - $250, Upgrade - $99

Copyright © may, 1994 by Jignes Patel


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