Real 3D

[JaXanim]

Imagine4 was given away on CU-Amiga CD-Rom 6 (January 1997). That disc includes 100Mb of Imagine extras.

A licensed edition of Cinema4D was CUA's swan song on CD-ROM 27 (October 1998).

Both are arguably better than the Amiga version of Real 3D, but it's a personal opinion.

The best of the best is LightWave 3D, now almost impossible to get (though I saw one one AmiBench recently) and it's worth scouring eBay. It appears there fairly often, but usually the pc versions.

Cheers,

JaX

[JaXanim]

@X-ray

Yes, I think so. I remember Hi-Soft selling manuals and stuff in one of mags. You had to call them to get the licence key to run the CUCD.

Releasing the licence number became an issue in some quarters. People who left it too late were disappointed to find Hi-Soft closed down and their disk unusable. It may be a matter of opinion, but I think since they published the CD, anyone with a legal copy should have access to the licence key. CUA simply forgot to publish it in the mag, they admitted that and quoted a phone number to call. That lasted a few weeks and then went dead.

The CUCD installer was also faulty! It wouldn't work at all. Amiga Format subsequently included a revised installer for the CUCD which had the licence number built in. That was in AFCD35 (January 1999).

Cheers,

JaX

[JaXanim]

@X-ray

The CUCD edition of C4D has the same date, 26.4.97 and the same description, "Version 4.2 CD-Edition Pro FP", as yours.

Cheers,

JaX

[JaXanim]

@realstar

I guess it's a personal choice, but Imagine's six (at my last count) interfaces makes it terribly cumbersome. Amiga LightWave is a dream in comparison. As for output quality, they didn't produce Babylon5, RoboCop, SeaQuestDSV, etc., etc. with Imagine, nor C4D, nor Real3D.

The SFX for the original (and best) series of Babylon5 was rendered using a bank of A4000s running LightWave v3.5. Anyone familair with LW will know about the use of the Sharp Terminator function. This gives rendered planets a much more realistic appearance than Phong Shading alone will give. NewTek added that because of the demands of Babylon5. Not a lot know that!

Cheers,

JaX
(LightWaver above all)

[JaXanim]

@realstar

You're right. The most important thing, whatever you choose, is to enjoy it, eh?

Cheers,

JaX