All This and Everything Else

Monday, June 09, 2008

Software Review: Vue 6 Infinite From e-On Software

Written by T. Michael Testi

Vue 6 Infinite is the professional version of e-On Software’s Vue 3D product line which is used to create realistic 3D environments. In total there are five versions of Vue. Easel is the entry level version for newcomers to 3D graphics. Esprit is designed for artists and illustrators. Pro Studio is geared for the advanced artist. Infinite is designed for the professional 3D animator and production studio. And xStream is the integrated solution; this is a version of Infinite that can integrate directly into other 3D applications such as Maya, 3ds, Lightwave, and Cinema 4D. To see all of the differences, you can check out the comparative matrix from e-On software.

The main difference between Vue 6 Infinite and xStream is that Vue 6 Infinite is meant to run as a standalone product and xStream is built to run in other products; other than that difference, the features are the same.

Vue 6 Infinite runs on Windows (2000 or greater) or Mac (OS X 10.3 or later) with 2 GHz or faster recommended, 1 GB RAM (2 GB or more recommended); an OpenGL enabled graphics card is not required but highly recommended with 1024x768 in 65K colors/16 bits (24+ bits recommended), and 200 MB free hard disk space. Multi-processor rendering is only available on all multi-processor OS X, 2000, XP Pro and Vista systems.

Originally developed by French College student Nicholas Phelps in 1992, Vue was created to construct animated landscapes. e-On Software was founded in 1997 with the release of Vue d'Esprit 2. Embraced initially by artists and animators, it has now become a feature in Hollywood and has been used to create scenes in such movies as Pirates of the Caribbean II and the Spiderwick Chronicles as well as for television shows such as those produced by the Discovery Channel. It is also finding its way into advertising and the fine art industry.

So, what's new with Vue 6 Infinite? A lot! Since this latest release is actually version 6.5, I will focus more on these items, but you can check out the complete feature list.

• EcoSystems Generation II – lets you directly paint over surfaces with pressure sensitive tablets. You can create stacks of layered EcoSystems, change the size and color on the fly, and control everything right down to individual instances. You can have multiple layers, each with its own complete set of parameters for easy control of separate populations. The new affinity setting allows control of one layer by another. You can even choose from EcoSystem display modes.

• Unlimited Overlapping Spectral Cloud Layers – will allow you to create complex and realistic cloudscapes. The spectral atmosphere engine is capable of rendering volumetric clouds with lighting and shadows. Spectral cloud layers are 3D renditions which allow you to create everything from thin ground fog to massive cumulonimbus.

• New Cloud Lighting technology – lets you set local lights that affect spectral atmospheres and clouds. Create true to life thunderstorms, searchlights or illuminated objects that fly through clouds.

• Faster Atmosphere rendering – lets you render spectral atmosphere animations faster than ever before with a new optimized anti-flickering technology.

• High resolution rendering – is now capable over a network of computers. The render control panel gives you precise control over every parameter which gives you the flexibility to do what you need without sacrificing quality. You can render in stand-alone mode or via network rendering. You can even integrate Vue 6 Infinite into a render farm that is capable of running several different applications.

• Animated Graph Editor – now lets you animate using keyframes, time curves, tangents and interpolation. It has been redesigned to give you all of the tools and controls you will need to create your animations. Along with traditional techniques, you also have an animation wizard that lets you create path animations as well.

• Omni and Directional Ventilators – give you much greater control in creating wind and special effects. These two new wind generators enhance the ability to create localized wind effects that can be linked to the movement of other objects in the scene.

• SolidGrowth 4 – Plant rendering technology will let you can produce flicker free animations. This is based on random growth technology so no two plants of the same species will ever look exactly alike. It also simulates the different color tones found in nature for greater realism. There are over 50 plant species (grass, shrubs, trees, etc) and you can develop your own, or purchase more online.

Vue 6 Infinite is nothing short of incredible! At first blush, one might look at this product and say that this is really only useful for animation and film production, but that would not be taking into account all of the other industries that could benefit from its use.

For example, if you are a builder, architect, landscape designer, or other professional that needs to emulate an environment, Vue 6 is the perfect application to model your design and/or prototype as a proof of concept design. If you are in advertising, what better way to provide backgrounds and other layout art without having to go on location or pay a high dollar firm to do equivalent work? The uses are endless.

With five different versions of Vue 6 ranging from $99 to $1035 USD there truly is a version for everyone and considering what this product can do, each is well worth its price.

If you want to see what some have done with Vue 6 Infinite you can check out the gallery that is located on the e-On Software website. There is also a pretty active community forum available as well. I very highly recommend Vue 6 and especially Vue 6 Infinite.

Friday, June 06, 2008

IN3: Google Health 2018: Worst Case Scenarios [PMR, Privacy, HIPAA, Wellness]

Here is an interesting article about what could happen if Google is allowed to move forward with their plans on organizing patient medical data. It is a little scary to me to put this in to the hands of someone other than the patient. But considering how careful everyone is with their own data, that could be as scary as well.

"ANALYSIS Google Health organizes a patient's diverse medical data into a coherent on-line personal health record (PHR). The visceral reaction of many to the privacy concerns is revealing: most people think they need to keep medical data secret because they're covering something up -- with employers, insurers, loved ones, maybe even themselves. "

Read it all...

For equal balance...

"ANALYSIS Google Health organizes a patient's diverse medical data into a coherent on-line personal health record (PHR). At base, it's a simple convenience, good record-keeping for important information that puts the patient in control of his own data. But as the growth of the World Wide Web has shown, standardized digital information -- cheaply networked, easily accessible, interoperable and extensible -- is the foundation for great new ideas, disruptive applications and boundless innovation. Looking ahead a decade of Internet time, here are a few possible applications."

Read it all...

Then you decide...

Friday, May 30, 2008

DVD Review - Joseph Campbell: The Hero's Journey - A Biographical Portrait

Reviewed by T. Michael Testi

Joseph Campbell: The Hero's Journey – A Biographical Portrait is a documentary about the life and works of Joseph Campbell, the author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces. During his life Campbell was known as an American Mythology professor, a writer, and a lecturer who revolutionized the fields of comparative mythology.

Joseph Campbell was born and raised in White Plains, New York in an upper middle class Roman Catholic family. As a child he was fascinated with American Indian culture. He taught himself everything he could about the culture and focused on the mythology of the Indians. During the 1920's he spent time traveling in Europe and became highly influenced by the Lost Generation; a group of American authors such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Dos Passos, as well as the avant garde artists of the time such as Matisse and Picasso.

It was during this time that he realized that many of the myths throughout the world had similar threads and this became the theory of the journey of the archetypal hero. It is this theory that formed the basis of his 1949 seminal classic The Hero with a Thousand Faces. This is also the book that filmmaker George Lucas credits with helping him to form the stories of the Star Wars films; Lucas is shown giving credit to Campbell in this film. At the same time Campbell came to understand the myths that defined his own existence.

Joseph Campbell: The Hero's Journey – A Biographical Portrait is a film that is 57 minutes long and is narrated by Peter Donat. It is 4:3 full screen format and contains no bonus materials. It mixes much of its time between interviews with Campbell, listing to him lecturing, and historical footage so as to put time frames in perspective.

Joseph Campbell: The Hero's Journey – A Biographical Portrait is the kind of film that needs to be watched multiple times to really get all that Campbell has to offer. The lectures and interviews appeared to have happened in the 70's and 80's (based on hair and clothing styles), but you can tell what an captivating speaker and storyteller he was.

The biggest problems that I had with Joseph Campbell: The Hero's Journey – A Biographical Portrait is its length. In my opinion it is too short. You get a good representation of his life from a young age to around the time of World War II and then you have him lecturing in the last decade of his 83 years, but not anything in between.

If you have seen my reviews on Mythos I and Mythos II you will know that I really like Campbell's work and have a high degree of respect for the man and what he has done for reclaiming myth for the modern generation. If you don't know about Joseph Campbell the man, I highly recommend Joseph Campbell: The Hero's Journey – A Biographical Portrait.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Software Review: MSI Factory 2 from IndigoRose

Written by T. Michael Testi

Just because creating software can be hard, that doesn't mean that delivering that software has to be harder. But that is just what it is when you don't have the right tools to do the job. MSI Factory 2 is the latest version of IndigoRose's Microsoft Windows Installer product that is aimed at creating 100% pure .MSI format installers.

MSI Factory 2 works hard at making the creation of professional installers faster and much more hassle free. It is meant to be easy to use without the complexities of the MSI database tables, sequences, and components. By using its drag and drop abilities, the customization of some dialog boxes via the visual editor and one-click build, it creates a single installer that works on any version of Windows from 95 to Vista.

MSI Factory is not to be confused with IndigoRose's Setup Factory which I will look at in a separate review. Whereas MSI Factory uses Microsoft's Windows installer service which must be installed on the end user's system, installers of this type must abide by the rules of the Windows Installer technology. Setup Factory, on the other hand, creates its own custom installations and has independent flexibilities.

So how does MSI Factory work? You start off with making either an installer project that creates a full installation package, or a Merge Module Project that is used to create a merge module database. A merge module is a Windows installer database file that is used to describe installation logic that will be merged with a larger Windows installation package. Merge modules are used to deliver shared code, files, resources, registry entries, and setup logic to applications as a single compound file.

Once you select the install, you browse to the files that you want to include and add them. From there you can select options in the following categories: "Files" where you can add, remove and set properties of the files, "Projects" where you can adjust the settings, components, features, folders, and media settings with regard to the project, the "Requirements" of the install such as launch conditions, searches, and merge modules, the "User Interface" that includes the dialog boxes, languages, and styles of the dialogs presented to the user, and the "System Editors" which handle the registry changes, INI files, shortcuts, file operations, environment variables, services, ODBC, XML, and custom actions. Finally you also have control over extensions such as IIS. Once you have everything set up correctly, it is just a matter of building the project.

So, what's new with MSI Factory 2?

• Next Generation Installer – now fully leverages WiX complier technology giving you easy access to the same technology that Microsoft uses for creating installers for Microsoft Office and SQL Server. In fact MSI Factory is the first visual setup builder to fully use Microsoft's WiX compiler technology.

• Intelligent Development – now takes the MSI Factory IDE's focus to the files that you want to distribute as opposed to abstract concepts like components, features, sequences, and GUIDs. This makes it possible in the case of simple installs to just drop files, press build, and deliver.

• Bootstrap Wrapper – is a unique, fully scriptable .EXE bootstrap wrapper with LZMA compression and over 300 actions including HTTP downloads for real flexibility in an MSI based installer.

• WiX – compatible source projects with integrated support for WiX fragments and extensions.

• Dialog Editor – provides visual editing for quickly customizing the interface. It includes 22 different control types such as check boxes, radio buttons, and bit maps that will allow you to create fully customized dialogs.

• System Editors – give you an extensive list of actions including registry editing, shortcut icons, INI files, the ability to set file permissions, and more.

• Enterprise Ready – by giving you the features for team and enterprise development. These include automated builds, processor directives, pre/post build steps, and integrated support for WiX fragments and extensions.

Personally I found MSI Factory 2 very easy to use and much more intuitive than the native .NET installer. You have an incredible amount of control over virtually all aspects of your MSI install.

As of the time of this review, they have not updated the videos for version two, but the videos for version one are still on their site. I did have some sound quality problems with the videos when using my Firefox browser, but under Internet Explorer they worked just fine. The help is primarily a compiled Microsoft help file that also links you back to the videos and to a FAQ page on the IndigoRose website. They also have a pretty dynamic forum where you can get answers to questions.

MIS Factory 2 is available from IndigoRose for $495 USD or you can download a 30 day trial version. If you are looking for the ability to create Microsoft Window Installer files quickly and easily and especially if you want to use the new WiX technology, then you need MIS Factory 2.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Design Environment: