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Wow. It's been years, but an email from Tore inspired me to actually get around
to working on a sorely-needed update for L3PAO.
Although Lars hasn't changed L3P in a while, so no new L3P features have been
added, there have been a few bugs and necessary updates that I have been
neglecting for some time.
The big news is that I've finally gotten past the limitation on the DOS command
line length (127 characters) by using a different API to shell out to L3P. Now
your command line can be as long as you want (well, 32768 bytes actually). No
more having to trim down filenames, no more having to move files around so that
the path isn't included in the command line, no more having to limit your option
selection. Now you can pretty much work with any filename/pathname and as many
of the L3P options simultaneously as you like.
The actual reason for the update was a request Tore made. L3PAO will now parse
the selected model file looking for 2 objects ("camera.dat" and "look_at.dat").
If it finds either of these objects it will use them for camera settings. We've
tested it and it seems to work.
This was a major rewrite of the code (although the front-end looks pretty much
the same) to update many old, bad practices so I expect there to be plenty of
new bugs. I've tested all aspects of the software, but I'm sure someone will
find something in some of the more obscure options that causes a problem. Feel
free to let me know if you find anything wrong.
email: L3PAO(at)malagraphixia.com
You can get the full install here:
http://l3pao.malagraphixia.com/downloads/L3PAO.zip
Or if you already have a previous version of L3PAO installed, you can just grab
the newest .exe:
http://l3pao.malagraphixia.com/downloads/L3PAO_exe.zip
The web page hasn't been updated yet, hope to get to that in the next couple of
days.
http://l3pao.malagraphixia.com
Enjoy!
Jeff
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In lugnet.cad, Jeff Boen wrote:
> Wow. It's been years, but an email from Tore inspired me to actually get around
> to working on a sorely-needed update for L3PAO.
>
> This was a major rewrite of the code (although the front-end looks pretty much
> the same) to update many old, bad practices so I expect there to be plenty of
> new bugs. I've tested all aspects of the software, but I'm sure someone will
> find something in some of the more obscure options that causes a problem. Feel
> free to let me know if you find anything wrong.
You should update the URL to check for latest L3P - it currently redirects ok to
the new site but that might not last :)
ROSCO
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Here's some other issues I've had regarding L3PAO (I wrote them down a long time
ago, so I might not be able to remember exactly what I meant at the time):
- Doesn't remember the last-used file correctly (always picks the first file in
the directory).
- Doesn't remember other settings.
- Doesn't set lights properly if lattitude, longitude, and radius are all zero.
- Doesn't recognize recent versions of POV-Ray.
One more question:
When using the camera.dat and look_at.dat, are the camera's "Up" and "Right"
vectors determined by the orientation of the LDraw parts?
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> The actual reason for the update was a request Tore made. L3PAO will now
> parse
> the selected model file looking for 2 objects ("camera.dat" and
> "look_at.dat").
> If it finds either of these objects it will use them for camera settings.
> We've
> tested it and it seems to work.
How does this actually work? I was assuming that I take any LEGO part, copy
it, and then rename it to camera.dat and to look_at.dat. For this purpose I
used the her.dat file created for the helper rotation tutorial:
http://www.holly-wood.it/files/Helper_Her.zip
I then assumed that I place camera.dat in the scene where I wanted the
camera to be at and then placed look_at.dat where I want the camera to point
towards. I then load the file up in the latest l3pao and use the "Get Camera
and Look At settings from model" button. When I try to render the model in
POV I can't see my model. It looks like I see the floor and the sky. Am I
using the camera.dat and look_at.dat functions correctly?
Thanks,
John
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In lugnet.cad, John O'Keefe wrote:
>
> > The actual reason for the update was a request Tore made. L3PAO will now
> > parse
> > the selected model file looking for 2 objects ("camera.dat" and
> > "look_at.dat").
> > If it finds either of these objects it will use them for camera settings.
> > We've
> > tested it and it seems to work.
>
> How does this actually work? I was assuming that I take any LEGO part, copy
> it, and then rename it to camera.dat and to look_at.dat. For this purpose I
> used the her.dat file created for the helper rotation tutorial:
>
> http://www.holly-wood.it/files/Helper_Her.zip
>
> I then assumed that I place camera.dat in the scene where I wanted the
> camera to be at and then placed look_at.dat where I want the camera to point
> towards. I then load the file up in the latest l3pao and use the "Get Camera
> and Look At settings from model" button. When I try to render the model in
> POV I can't see my model. It looks like I see the floor and the sky. Am I
> using the camera.dat and look_at.dat functions correctly?
>
> Thanks,
> John
I can't see the camera and look_at objects in your zip file, so therefor I can't
tell if you are using the functions correctly or not. Please have a look at the
example I gave in the following post:
http://news.lugnet.com/cad/?n=13279
/Tore
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> I can't see the camera and look_at objects in your zip file, so therefor I
> can't
> tell if you are using the functions correctly or not. Please have a look
> at the
> example I gave in the following post:
>
> http://news.lugnet.com/cad/?n=13279
OK, I tried your objects and it works great. I just changed the camera.dat
and the look_at.dat files with yours from your posting and it worked fine.
Thanks for the help!
- John
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In lugnet.cad, John O'Keefe wrote:
>
> > I can't see the camera and look_at objects in your zip file, so therefor I
> > can't
> > tell if you are using the functions correctly or not. Please have a look
> > at the
> > example I gave in the following post:
> >
> > http://news.lugnet.com/cad/?n=13279
>
>
> OK, I tried your objects and it works great. I just changed the camera.dat
> and the look_at.dat files with yours from your posting and it worked fine.
> Thanks for the help!
>
> - John
My pleasure. Just note that the rotation of the LDraw camera object has no
effect on the direction of the POV camera. The POV camera is pointed towards the
look_at location and the LDraw camera rotation is (so far) ignored. I have no
intention at this point to either turn the LDraw camera towards the look_at
point or let the LDraw camera rotation set the POV camera direction, because the
current new L3PAO feature I suggested perfectly meets my needs.
But if anyone is interested in some touch-up work like a small utility that
points the camera at the look_at point, I really wouldn't stand in the way for
it. Or, say in the future, ML-Cad or any program does it automatically.
/Tore
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