Modeler was originally created by Tony Polichroniadis, written as a final-year college project when studying for his BSC honors at Leeds University around 1995. In 1998, the source code because available and Neil Colvin began developing it. Today, Modeler is the most specific and versatile RenderWare modeler known.
Modeler is a simple 3D (three-dimensional) drawing package specifically intended for producing RenderWare script (RWX) files. Developed by Criterion Software Limited (http://www.csl.com), RenderWare is the 3D API (applications programming interface) graphics rendering engine, used in Modeler. Specifically oriented to the Active Worlds (http://activeworlds.com) object development environment, Modeler provides a set of tools to allow the easy creation and editing of Active World objects. Active Worlds is a 3D virtual reality chat/building environment on the Internet.
· Execute ModelerSetup.exe (self-installing exe).
· Be sure the RenderWare 2.1 DLLs (rw21.dll, rwdl6a21.dll, etc) are either in the same directory as Modeler or in the path. For Active Worlds 2.x users, putting Modeler into the Active Worlds directory will work. Alternatively, placing the RenderWare DLLs in the path will also work. They may be downloaded from http://tnlc.com/rw/rw2.1.15dlls.zip. Install the DLLs into your Modeler directory, or somewhere else on your path (like windows/system32).
· Run Modeler.exe.
It should be relatively easy to get used to Modeler, especially if you have used packages like Corel Draw or Corel Xara before. The buttons listed on the left side of the main window represent tools. Each tool displays a different set of controls at the bottom of the program when clicked and a brief description (Tool Tip) of each tool appears over the button if the mouse is left over it long enough.
The tools, in order are:
Edit Object (F2): Manipulates, moves, rotates, and shears whole objects.
Edit Vertex (F3): Manipulates object vertices.
Material Painter (F4): Changes and applies materials to objects.
Texture Co-ordinates (F5): Changes texture coordinates of objects.
Create mesh, light or camera (F6): Creates primitives (cone, block, cylinder, disc, etc), cameras, and lights.
Extrude Face (F7): Face (polygon) teetering, tottering, loft lengthening, scaling, and twisting.
Edit Polygon and Vertex (F8): Manipulates object polygons and vertices.
New Features in this Release
For a complete list of the new features in this release of Modeler 1.2 Beta 4, read the New Release information here.
Original Features (1.0b)
· create objects (primitives, mostly)
· manipulate whole objects
· move specific vertices
· change material attributes
· apply materials to whole objects or faces
· manipulate texture mapping coordinates
· extrude faces
· RenderWare 1.4
New Supported Features (1.1 Beta 1)
· models.ini is removed and settings are now saved in the Windows registry
· RenderWare 2.1
· saved options/settings
· set background color
· MRU (most recently used) files listing
· saved window views
· delete/duplicate materials
· true undo for all modifications (except right-mouse button viewing, which is not considered a modification)
· proper tracking of modified models (with save prompting)
· texture paths (with directory ordering)
· intelligent texture loading (if loading an object and texture isn’t in texture path, Modeler prompts to locate it with options to remember the path)
· JPG textures (BMP support native to RenderWare)
· ZIPped object/mask uncompressing/recompressing/encrypting
· animated (multi-frame) textures
· full 3D rotational right-mouse button viewing
· set view window highlight color
· object grouping/ungrouping
· eye dropper polygon material detection
· proper avatar loading (manipulation still needs work)
· joint editing
· auto viewing (auto zoom and center)
· support for Renderware binary files
New Supported Features (1.1 Beta 2)
· right click on any slider and enter values directly
· when creating objects, SHIFT key causes aspect ratio to be maintained when sizing in first two dimensions
· when creating objects, CTRL key causes object to be created centered on specified point, not tangent to it.
· there is now a Leave Open checkbox for object creation, which leaves the ends of a cylinder, and the base of a cone or hemisphere, open.
· the teapot tool is now a teapot
· There is now a Text tool (the T). This will render TrueType fonts as RW Objects. The entire string entered in the Text field of the dialog box will be created as a single RW object. Each closed face of a letter is a single polygon. The Detail slider indicates how many vertices to generate for each spline in the character (but it may use less if the character becomes too complex). The text is created with a zero thickness. There is a checkbox Extrude Text, which will create the text with a unit thickness, and with both front and rear faces. If it is extruded, the length of the extrusion can be modified just like a cylinder or cone.
Note: There are still some TrueType fonts which will not render properly, please let me know if you find one. Also, the scaling of the font while you create it is funky. Once created, it scales normally. Also, the spline approximation is still not great but RW puts some severe limitations on number of polygon vertices, so I am working hard to make it better. Finally, I have identified a number of RW problems by providing this capability, and Criterion has already given me one fixed version, and is still working on another. Please watch their site, or AW, for RW updates. If you see funky results, it probably is a RW problem.
· There is now a DoubleSided checkbox in the Material Editor, which create the material as double sided, and when applied to a polygon, appears on both sides of the polygon.
· In the Loft tool, there is now a Reverse Original Polygon checkbox, which will reverse the faces on the original polygon after the Loft is complete, leaving a closed figure.
· There is a View->Properties menu which will display certain properties of the model, and of the selected object within the model.
· There is a Getting Started Help option which introduces Modeler and some of its capabilities.
New Supported Features and bug fixes (1.1 Beta 2 Version 1.1.0.41)
· Fixes some major bugs in scaling, rotation, and shearing.
· Fixes some bugs introduced by Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 5.
· Adds a “nudge” feature to the pointer functions (move, scale, rotate, joint). This allows the use of the arrow keys to gently nudge the object around. If a selection is made, and the cursor is NOT on any of the handles (it is a normal arrow) on the object, then the arrow keys will move the selected objects in the specified direction as if the mouse was moved by one pixel on the screen. If the cursor is over one of the handles (and has one of the move shapes), then the arrow key will move that handle as if the mouse had been moved by one pixel on the screen, rotating or scaling the selected objects accordingly. If the arrow key is held down, then the expected result occurs. If the cursor is on a handle before the arrow key is used, it will still be on the same handle afterwards. Expires January 1, 2002.
New Supported Features and bug fixes (1.1 Beta 2 Version 1.1.0.42)
· Fixes a large number of memory leaks.
· Fixes every currently reported bug (hopefully), and many that were not reported.
· Extends the nudge feature to vertex editing as well. Also, the amount of the nudge is user controllable and may be specified in either pixels or model units. This is controlled by a drop down selection of the type of nudge, and a slider for the amount.
· Adds a complete Redo capability to the current Undo. Anything that can be Undone can be Redone (current limit on both is 50 actions). Redo button on toolbar, accelerator CTL+Y, and Edit->Redo all cause the last Undone action to be Redone. Note that any new action to the model clears the Redo list.
· Adds the ability to explicitly specify the desired location of a handle or an object during move, scale, rotate, joint, and vertex edit operations. To use this feature, use a CTRL+SHIFT+LeftMouseButton on the mouse at any point that a normal LeftMouseButton is allowed. (Note that holding down CTRL+SHIFT will change the cursor to a little grid). A dialog box will appear, allowing the entry of either a new explicit location (in model units), or a delta (also in model units) to the current location (which is displayed in the dialog box). If a delta is entered, the coordinate value changes. To start over on the coordinate entry, push Reset. Pushing OK is exactly equivalent to having used the left mouse button to drag to the new coordinate, and then releasing it. Note that the dialog box will only allow appropriate values to be changed, based on the type of view it is used in.
New Supported Features and bug fixes (1.1 Beta 2 Version 1.1.0.43)
· Fixes the bug which had prevented JPEG textures from loading and displaying properly on machines with a 32-bit display resolution. This eliminates the last reported 32-bit display problem.
· Adds a texture preview window to the Load Texture file selection dialog. Renders the texture “unlit”.
· The nudge feature will now work during vertext editing without the mouse being over a vertex, as long as at least one vertex has already been selected.
· Fixes a bug in the “Getting Started” online help file which prevented the links to the website from working.
New Supported Features and bug fixes (1.1 Beta 2 Version 1.1.0.45)
· Changes the default sizing mode back to the way it was about three versions ago. Sizing by default is relative to the opposite handle (eg. the opposite handle is fixed and the selected handle moves). To size relative to the local origin, hold down the space bar BEFORE pushing the left mouse button.
New Supported Features and bug fixes (1.1 Beta 3 Version 1.1.0.46)
· Adds a “Reduced” output option to the Save menu to reduce the saved file size. If the model is being saved as a .rwx or .zip file, then a Reduced checkbox appears. Checking this box displays a menu of options to control how the file is reduced. The default options will result in an output file which is about one-quarter the size of a RenderWare standard .rwx file.
· All of the objects generated by the mesh tool have been cleaned up and optimized. Polygons (as opposed to many triangles) are used wherever possible. Polygon faces are oriented correctly (outward). Extraneous vertices have been eliminated from the mesh. The “Detail” slider now only allows values that make sense for each type of mesh.
· A “Show Hidden Vertices” check box has been added to the Vertex Editing Tool. The default is now to not show vertices which are hidden by the view of the object being edited. Checking this box shows all vertices (as in previous versions of Modeler).
· A “Browse Textures” button has been added to the Painter Tool. This button opens a dialog box which displays all textures found on the current texture path (s), sorted alphabetically. They are captioned by the name used by the RenderWare library (without their extensions), which does not allow duplicate names in a model. The dialog box can be resized, and the size and the position of the dialog box is preserved across sessions. A texture selection can be made by double clicking the thumbnail, or by selecting the thumbnail, and clicking the Select button. The thumbnails may be displayed either with cubic or spherical texturization, by selecting the desired option. Cubic is the default.
· Fixed many bugs in Undo/Redo.
· Adds a “Merge” function to the “Arrange” menu of the Pointer tool. This function takes all of the objects currently selected, and makes a single object from them. This is different from the “Group” function, in that it cannot be undone. The new object contains all of the vertices and polygons from each of the selected objects.
· Adds a “Share Vertices” option to the Mesh Tool. This option (on by default) allows the tool to share the same vertex among multiple polygons in the object. This creates a smaller object which will download faster. However, since a single vertex can have only on UV, this can cause problems if a texture is applied to the mesh. Textures will behave very strangely on some of the polygons, since the UV may be parallel to, not orthogonal to, that polygon at a particular vertex. This option should be turned of if the texture is supposed to appear the same on each face of the mesh (or “wrap” the mesh), or a different texture is to be applied to different faces.
· The Text object in the Create Mesh tool now allows multi-line text to be entered. This requires that the OK button be clicked when done. The Font selection dialog no longer asks for the size of the font being used, since all scaling is done in Modeler.
· The Pointer tool now has a number of different alignment and spacing functions. Similar to those found in other drawing applications, these functions allow objects to be aligned with each other along the x, y, and z axis. To use, select a “master” object, and then use the “add on” selection (CTL-CLICK) to choose the objects to be aligned with the master. Then pick the appropriate function. The selections persist, so multiple alignments can be done on the same objects. The spacing functions work similarly, except there is no “master”, and at least three objects must be selected. The objects are spaced along the specified axis, in the order selected, with equal space between them. If the objects total width exceeds the available space, nothing happens.
New Supported Features and bug fixes (1.1 Beta 3 Version 1.1.0.48)
· Fixes a link bug which caused failure on some Windows 9x/ME systems.
New Supported Features and bug fixes (1.1 Beta 3 Version 1.1.0.49)
· Fixes a bug caused by a bug in the Common Dialog Box in Windows ME. It affected loading textures.
New Supported Features and bug fixes (1.1 Beta 4 Version 1.2.0.17)
· Fixes a bug in the date detection routine. This caused the program to think that it had expired.
New Supported Features and bug fixes (1.1 Beta 4 Version 1.2.0.18)
· Fixes a bug in the RenderWare DLL version detection code. This bug would cause the program to hang at the splash screen if any RenderWare DLL version besides 2.1.15 was installed on the system.
New Supported Features and bug fixes (1.1 Beta 4 Version 1.2.1.2)
· Fixes a bug in using textures smaller than 128x128. Models that used small textures rendered properly, but were unable to be saved. This problem has been fixed.
· This release will expire on February 1, 2004.
New Supported Features and bug fixes (1.1 Beta 4 Version 1.2.1.3)
· Fixes a bug introduced in version 1.2.1.2 that stopped animated textures from working.
New Supported Features and bug fixes (1.1 Beta 4 Version 1.2.1.4)
· This release will expire on February 1, 2005.
New Supported Features and bug fixes (1.1 Beta 4 Version 1.2.1.5)
· This release will expire on February 1, 2006.
New Supported Features and bug fixes (1.1 Beta 4 Version 1.2.1.6)
· This release will expire on February 1, 2007.
· DirectDraw and Direct3D support
· bounding box support/manipulation
· Manual
· importing/exporting of other 3D model formats (3DS, COB, DXF, etc)
A Modeler website is at http://www.rwmodeler.com and the latest release is always available from there, as well as a FAQ, links to other RenderWare and Active Worlds resources, and other useful development tools.
Email support is available from modeler-support@rwmodeler.com.
Active Worlds is a trademark of Circle of Fire Studios, Incorporated.
RenderWare is a registered trademark of Canon, Incorporated.
All rights reserved.