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Reactivating the Magic Ring
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Reactivating the Magic Ring // Roundtable
Post by Paul Boland // Feb 7, 2006, 9:05am
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Paul Boland
Total Posts: 383
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In the TrueSpace 5 manual, it says that once you close the Magic Ring tool, you can't reactivate it. This is a bit of a pain as sometimes you want to create a primative and position it and then edit its shape, but you can't do this. Is it possible to reactive the Magic Ring tool in TrueSpace 6 and/or 7 once you have closed it? If not, this is something Caligari should really look into as the Magic Ring tool is a very powerful manipulation tool to work with and its use should not be limited to just the initial creation of an object. |
Post by Cannikin // Feb 7, 2006, 9:11am
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Cannikin
Total Posts: 18
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That's a cool idea but I'm not sure how it would work right. I can only imagine the mathatical formulas for trying to add the extra geometry. :) |
Post by spacekdet // Feb 7, 2006, 9:55am
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spacekdet
Total Posts: 1360
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Like virginity, once it's gone it's gone.
But I agree, it would be nice to get it back. The Magic Ring, I mean.
I guess that's why it's Magic!
Have you right clicked on a primitive icon before you create it? You can set starting parameters there and further modify it with the Ring.
Edit: You can also left, then right click on any primitive and get a whole slew of options for setting up the parameters of the primitive before you create it by clicking and dragging in the workspace. |
Post by Alien // Feb 7, 2006, 10:01am
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Alien
Total Posts: 1231
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As Spacekadet points out, once it's gone it's gone, though it might be possible to create a widget that looks the same & does the same job. As for the extra geometry - it depends, on simple primitives I wouldn't have thought it would be much more complicated than the original magic ring itself, but for anything that's been modified I would agree that the complexity would increase with the degree of modification to the model. |
Post by W!ZARD // Feb 7, 2006, 8:03pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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I guess it's a case of different strokes for different folks but I rarely use the magic ring - I find the spinners and numerical boxes you get when you right click on the primitive icon seem to suit my modelling style better. It's cool that there are so many different ways of manipulating your primitives, with or without the magic ring. In short, I don't miss it once it's gone - a bit like my virginity!:D |
Post by Paul Boland // Feb 8, 2006, 9:28am
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Paul Boland
Total Posts: 383
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LOL!!! You are all mad :p !!
I agree with the points being made but I have to say, the Magic Ring tool is a power house of a tool. The modifications you can do to primative objects with it is stunning and you can achieve some really great shapes with it. I totally agree, once an object has been modified beyond a basic primative, then perhaps the Magic Ring tool would no longer work for it, but as long as an object is a primative, you should be allowed to call it back.
Let me give you an example...
I'm working on some 3D spaceship models for a new computer game. There are times when I want to create a part of the ship to match geometry that currently already exists on the ship. At the moment, I have to image what I want in my head, then create the primative, do my editing with the Magic Ring and then close the tool and position the object where I want it and hope it fits. Most times it doesn't. In which case, I look at what needs to be changed and make a new primative and try and create the object again with the alteration needed.
Now what would be great would be if I could create a primative and then position it on the ship where I want it. Then call the Magic Ring tool again and do my editing to make the object conform to what I want.
As I said, I agree that once an object has been modified, then the Magic Ring may not work any more, but as long as an object is still in its primative form, the Magic Ring should be call-able. |
Post by jamesmc // Feb 8, 2006, 9:50am
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jamesmc
Total Posts: 2566
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If you knew the x,y,z coordinates of an item or the approximate location...
Couldn't you just make the primitive, right click the object selection arrow, then you can manipulate the object location with the propertities box.
or...
Could kludge out their scene in an alternative small window, i.e. a new perspective window or w/e, make a temp object in the location. Then when you are satisfied with the temporary arrangement, record the location of the object, then open a new primtive, plug in the new coordinate.
or...
Having a mapper with something as traditional as the mainframe computer game Startrek. It wouldn't be too much of problem to make a long range scanner for tS, heh heh.
You could then have shadow-masks representing the scene area to accurately position the object.
Sorry, thinking like an old tech 2D gamer. :) |
Post by Colfax // Feb 8, 2006, 10:05am
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Colfax
Total Posts: 49
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I suppose Truespace could let you bring the magic ring back even after you move a primitive if they kept those primitives flagged as special objects like metaballs. Up until the point you go to edit the mesh of the primitive yourself, I don't see what would be so hard about keeping the magic ring available.
After you've edited the mesh, using the magic ring would be more difficult to implement. More into the area of straight up deformation or what TS7 SDS modelling can do with moving the control cage and propagating details.
I think the magic ring stands out as a great example of Caligari's flashes of brilliance being left under utilized because of a few shortcomings. How many people really understand the magic ring? I personally went quite a long time ignoring the fact that every primitive I created had this strange 'widget' placed on it. My method for creating unique primitives was the same as Wizard's, I would right-click the primitive icon and adjust the same things that you would using the Magic Ring widget, but using the primitive parameters panel with a set of sliders and direct numerical inputs instead of directly manipulating the widget.
It was only more recently that I bothered to take a minute to really understand how the magic ring works, and now that I understand it, I tend to play with it more often, but I still go back to the primitive parameters panel for accurately entering measurements I want.
One of the tricks to exploring the features in Caligari's software that I learned early on is right-clicking icons to see if you get more options. Widgets haven't been as easy for me to get used to. More often than I like, my navigation widget gets lost under an object in my scene, or an objects widget ends up laying right on top of it. The navigation widget offers awesome functionality, but if you gave me a navigation panel with a set of sliders, I'd probably use that more. I would also love it if the object info panel had sliders. But now I'm rambling... well I guess I've been rambling the whole time. |
Post by splinters // Feb 8, 2006, 11:06am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Would have tried but my TS7 is damaged at the moment and I have to wait until feedback from support.
Have you posted your problem here Emma-there are a lot of experienced tester who might just have the reply you need...:) |
Post by Paul Boland // Feb 9, 2006, 9:04am
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Paul Boland
Total Posts: 383
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I suppose Truespace could let you bring the magic ring back even after you move a primitive if they kept those primitives flagged as special objects like metaballs. Up until the point you go to edit the mesh of the primitive yourself, I don't see what would be so hard about keeping the magic ring available.
After you've edited the mesh, using the magic ring would be more difficult to implement. More into the area of straight up deformation or what TS7 SDS modelling can do with moving the control cage and propagating details.
Yes, this is what I mean. Caligari, would be great if you could implement this feature into TrueSpace. Not everyone may use the Magic Ring, but for those of us who do, it's a power house of a tool for basic primative construction. |
Post by Paul Boland // Feb 16, 2006, 7:38am
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Paul Boland
Total Posts: 383
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Thanks for trying, Emma. Best of luck with TrueSpace 7. |
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