AR3D Test: First Impressions.

[Chris]

Hi David.

A few comments from a first impression.

o  I like the black background, though whether this is practical in all circumstances I am not sure.
o  Maybe the outline of the baseboard could be included.
    (I've appended an image from another product (no longer available) to give an idea of what
     I am suggesting.)
o  As someone who hasn't 'gamed' since Doom on MS-DOS I do not find the controls intuitive.
    After a lot of fiddling I did manage to get an operator's eye view (i.e. layout rotated through
    180 deg.) but could not get there again.
o  I note that the mouse always returns to the centre of the screen as soon as the left button is pressed.
    Is this intentional?
o  It would be good if the program remembered the last 3D view orientation. As it is it comes in
    at a rather odd angle.

Overall I see the potential but, as you wrote, this IS a first stab at the implementation. The future is bright!

With best wishes,
Chris.

[David]

Thanks Chris for your message.

We'll just collecting comments now, and see what comes out of it as the most wanted features.

In the meantime, when others wonder what this is all about, please look here.

Just to make sure: The picture that Chris attached is not made with AnyRail!

David.

[David]

+++++ THIS CONCERNS A BETA TEST FOR THE ANYRAIL 3D VIEWER +++++
Please go here for details.

Hi Chris,

Just a few reactions:

- The black background looks good indeed, but might be problematic when printing. Also, it doesn't give much of a clue what's up and down. We're considering adding a blue sky to make it easier to navigate
- Yes, we're adding the surfaces as well
- Indeed, it's always difficult to control things in 3D. We thought that the 1st person perspective would be best, but maybe not
- The mouse always returns to the center intentionally. We'll make it invisible in the next release
- Yes, there's a lot of fine tuning to do to keep the orientation and to start with a useful bird's view

Thanks so far!

David.

[santerdam]

The black background does look good on the screen. If printing is a problem, you might possible surpress the background only while printing. (A blue background is in my opinion the same problem while printing)

When adding surfaces (and lines), can you please make a setting for toggling on/off the surfaces. (I am using surfaces and lines also for things like table-construction and electrical wires - I don't want those in the 3-D view)

Navigating is not the most easy thing, but I noticed the difference in moving (mouse + left button) combined with arrow-key's. The combination gives differences in moving. My problem is that I sometimes have to move the track outside the screen to get the desired rotation.

Sander

[David]

Sander:

You are right about the background.

The surfaces will probably only be shown with the 'lines and surfaces' option on.
Only surfaces are drawn, not lines.

Moving around works like in many first person shooter games:
The mouse (in this case with the left mouse button down) moves your 'eyes' while standing still.
The arrow keys can be used to move closer (arrow up) or away (arrow down) or to the left or right.

David.

[David]

We've put this development on hold for a while.

Nothing serious, but it would take a lot of development time to make it perfect.
We think this time can better be spent on other features!

David.