ELSA MAXtreme® 3 & 4 ===================== Internet : http://www.elsa.com This README document contains the following information: 1. Introduction 2. Contents of Directory 3. Installation 4. Uninstallation 5. Notes 6. Known Issues 1. INTRODUCTION ============== ELSA MAXtreme is a driver designed for 3D Studio MAX®. The ELSA MAXtreme 3D driver is highly optimized for use with ELSA® workstation graphics cards, which enhances the capabilities of the interactive renderer. You can use the configuration dialog box to customize the ELSA MAXtreme 3D driver for display quality and speed. You can access the configuration dialog box from the MAXtreme main menu. ELSA MAXtreme comes with MAXtremeRender, a utility that allows you to use the current software production renderer to render into a viewport. This method of rendering may not be as fast as using the graphics card hardware engine, but it is easy to use and provides better control of the final rendering. If you are using an ELSA workstation graphics card, you can view your drawings and animations in true stereo. You only need some stereo shutter glasses in addition to ELSA MAXtremeStereo, which is part of the MAXtreme installation. ELSA MAXtremeStereo is a plug-in utility located in the Plugins directory of 3D Studio. For information on ELSA MAXtreme Version 4.00 features, see online Help. For further information about ELSA and its products, go to http://www.ELSA.com. 2. CONTENTS OF DIRECTORY ================================= The ELSA MAXtreme SETUP directory contains the following files: Readme.txt this file Setup.exe installation program for Windows MAXtreme.chm Help in English (all others) files required for installation 3. INSTALLATION ============= 3.1 Prerequisites ---------------- Before you install and use ELSA MAXtreme, make sure you have the following: * Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 operating system * A graphics card based on the ELSA Quadro or Quadro2 series of graphics processors * ELSA Windows NT 4.0 Display Driver or ELSA Windows 2000 Display Driver (Version 6.46 or higher) * 3D Studio MAX must already be installed on your computer. 3.2 Installation Procedure ------------------------- From the installation directory, click the SETUP.EXE program and follow the instructions that appear in the InstallShield prompts. NOTE: If the installation program stops processing and generates an error message, try to run it with Administrator access rights. 4. UNINSTALLATION ================ 1. From the Windows desktop, click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs. 2. Click the "Add/Remove Programs" icon. 3. Click "ELSA MAXtreme" from the list. 4. Click the "Change/Remove" button. 5. Follow the instructions from the InstallShield program to complete uninstall. 5 NOTES ====== 5.1 Fog ----- ELSA MAXtreme supports the rendering of standard fog into the viewports since version 1.01.00. You can enable this feature from the configuration dialog box. Currently, only one Linear or Exponential Standard Fog is supported. Additional Standard Fogs and all Layered Fogs are ignored. 5.2 Transparency ---------------- To produce more realistic images, ELSA MAXtreme supports the display of various Transparency modes in Shaded Views. Transparency is used for drawing elements that have an opacity of less than 100. Transparency modes include: None, Standard, Blended, and Sorted Blended. 5.3 MAXtremeStereo ------------------------ ELSA MAXtreme supports stereo within viewports. For the plug-in "MAXtremeStereo" to work, it should be installed together with the MAXtreme driver. Stereo viewing is possible on a stereo-capable NVIDIA workstation graphics card and a resolution and color depth that are not too high since twice as much video-memory is required. NOTE: You also need 3D stereo shutter glasses to view in stereo mode. 5.4 MAXtremeRender ----------------------------------- ELSA MAXtreme supports using the software production renderer into a viewport. For this the plug-in to work, "MAXtremeRender" should have been installed together with the MAXtreme driver. This plug-in can be used on all graphics cards that MAXtreme support. To control this rendering, you have to activate the plug-in MAXtremeRender by pressing "More..." on the "Utilities" tab and selecting "MAXtremeRender" from the list box. The renderer can be used in high, medium, or low resolution; under medium and low resolution, you can smooth the rendered image by linear interpolation. Because the software production renderer is relative slow, the viewports are not always updated automatically. To force an update, you can use one of two Update buttons to update either all rendered viewports or the active viewport. 6. KNOWN ISSUES ============== 6.1 Fog: ----- * The fogging depends on the environment range of the camera. When the near and far values are equal, everything at this distance should instantly vanish into the fog. With MAXtreme, there is a small range around this distance where the fog intensity rapidly grows. * When the environment range of the camera is set in such a way that large picture elements are within the fogged range as well as outside, those parts of the picture elements in front of the fogging range should be clear. With MAXtreme, these picture elements are not completely clear and seem to be fogged. * The "Active" toggle in the "Atmosphere" section of the Environment dialog is not supported. Supported fog is always rendered as active in the viewports. 6.2 Stereo -------- With Stereo selected, there is no Dual Planes support in stereo-capable resolutions. 6.3 MAXtremeStereo --------------------- When storing a stereo-paired animation as defined in the Render dialog box, "File Number Base" is ignored. The animation frames are stored with a "File Number Base" of zero.