Hi,

A couple of months ago a UK magazine distributed a free version of Xfrog 
3.02 Lite on their cover disc (see 
http://news.povray.org/povray.general/28200/?ttop=29293&toff=100 for 
more details). Xfrog are now offering an upgrade to the full 3.5 version 
for 82 GBP (about 120 USD).

Before I spend my hard earned money on this, I wanted to know if anyone 
has experience of this version and if they feel it is a worthwhile 
investment. Any and all comments welcome!

Cheers,
Ian Shumsky.

http://www.outerarm.demon.co.uk/graphics/graphics.html
(in need of repair)

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3DF### [at] outerarmdemoncouk...
> Before I spend my hard earned money on this, I wanted to know if anyone
> has experience of this version and if they feel it is a worthwhile
> investment. Any and all comments welcome!

XFrog 3.5 is not very different from 3.0, IIRC it's more about bug fixes and
support of other 3D apps. It's a good investment if you need to have
realistic trees (or weird biological creatures) in your scenes on a regular
basis.
Make sure you get a fast config with lots of RAM, those trees can really
clog a computer, either in Xfrog or in Povray. It's quite easy and fun to
use and gives good results, provided that you can live with the limitations
of a very specialised modeller. I'll have a Xfrog -> Povray tutorial ready
one of these days once the isses related to the OBJ export are solved. Btw,
it's one of the few apps used by SFX companies that is also affordable to
hobbyists.

G.
--

**********************
http://www.oyonale.com
**********************
- Graphic experiments
- POV-Ray and Poser computer images
- Posters

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On 17/12/2002 at 19:38 Gilles Tran wrote:
 >
 > XFrog 3.5 is not very different from 3.0, IIRC it's more about bug 
fixes and
 > support of other 3D apps. It's a good investment if you need to have
 > realistic trees (or weird biological creatures) in your scenes on a 
regular
 > basis.
 > Make sure you get a fast config with lots of RAM, those trees can really
 > clog a computer, either in Xfrog or in Povray. It's quite easy and fun to
 > use and gives good results, provided that you can live with the 
limitations
 > of a very specialised modeller. I'll have a Xfrog -> Povray tutorial 
ready
 > one of these days once the isses related to the OBJ export are 
solved. Btw,
 > it's one of the few apps used by SFX companies that is also affordable to
 > hobbyists.
 >

Hi Gilles,

Thanks for the info.

I've seen some good results with XFrog and I've been playing with both 
the 3.02 Lite and 3.5 trial versions and it is quite easy to get some 
decent looking results. I have several projects on the boil where I'll 
need some good organic constructs, so I think I'll get it now while it 
is cheap.

Now I just have to shift this Work / Real Life / Pov balance away from 
its current 99% / 1% / 0% split to something that is a little more 
acceptable...

Cheers,
Ian Shumsky.

<http://www.outerarm.demon.co.uk/graphics/graphics.html>
(in need of repair)

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Gilles Tran wrote:
> I'll have a Xfrog -> Povray tutorial ready
> one of these days once the isses related to the OBJ export are solved.
Btw,
> it's one of the few apps used by SFX companies that is also affordable to
> hobbyists.

**********
Hmm... OK.  so right now you can't just grow something in Xfrog
and then shuffle it over to POVray to render.

And by the way, Gilles, I notice that the Xfrog site features one of
your renders in the fantasy section.   Mighty sexy!  Good stuff.

miker

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3e109f65@news.povray.org...
> Hmm... OK.  so right now you can't just grow something in Xfrog
> and then shuffle it over to POVray to render.

Just use the 3DS export instead of the OBJ. There's a fix coming up for the
OBJ anyway (it looks like this format is giving some trouble to people who
write importers and exporters).

> And by the way, Gilles, I notice that the Xfrog site features one of
> your renders in the fantasy section.   Mighty sexy!  Good stuff.
Thanks, actually there are 5 of them :-)

G.



--
**********************
http://www.oyonale.com
**********************
- Graphic experiments
- POV-Ray and Poser computer images
- Posters

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Gilles Tran
> Just use the 3DS export instead of the OBJ. There's a fix coming up for
the
> OBJ anyway (it looks like this format is giving some trouble to people who
> write importers and exporters).

*********
Thanks, Gilles!  I was looking for a good reason to try out Xfrog, but
lack of POVray compatibility was a minus.  I'll give it a shot.  Being a
newbie, I've not had good luck with conversions, however.  Seems like
I oftentimes lose the textures and colorings that make the model appealing.

Thanks again, Miker

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