Very Computer

I'm stumped.  The lack of a reasonable manual to tell you how to do
anything has got me beat.

I can't for the life of me figure out how to do a boolean render.  I've
tried the basic sphere in a cube (like the one that came as an object with
the program.).  No luck...whether I group or not...it just adds the two
together.  I spent all last night looking and clicking on everything I
could think of in an effort to find a panel to tell the program to
subtract it.

I also want to find out how to change the center/rotation point
location.  Bryce 1 had a panel that let you turn off center scaling.  I
hope bryce two has a way to move the rotation point to the end of an
object.  I want to multi-replicate a shape and if I can find the way to
change the centerpoint builing my object would be a snap.

Sigh...I understand that metatools wants ya to play with their new toy,
but there's a difference between playing and wasting someone's time
because basic information was not provided.  And what I've been doing
isn't playing...it's been a chore.

Oh...btw...thanks to those on the net who found the deep texture
panel...I looked for an entire night for that too.  Thanks to your
posting it I've been able to use that.

Apparently the folks at metatools think their interface is intuative.  
I'm living proof that it's not.

Anyway, sorry for the rant.  If anyone can help me again with my latest
two questions I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Ceci

The boolean objects available as presets render just dandy, but any
objects I construct refuse to behave similarly.  I've set everything
just like the preset...negative sphere inside a positive
square...group...render.  Nope, doesn't work.  But, oddly enough, if I
simply open the edit palette for the grouped object and close it back
up, the boolean render works just fine.

If I upgroup then regroup, I have to open and close the window in
order to get bryce to do a boolean render.  (Even if I don't edit a
thing.)  With the presets, I can ungroup and regroup...hit the render
button and it continues to do a boolean render.

Does anyone else have this behavior with bryce?  I've already
reinstalled the application part of bryce and I've done a quick
reinstall of my system.  I'll try trashing the prefs (oops, shoulda
done that already), but after that I'm stumped.

Ceci

- mark alan

When you create the object which you want to use to remove a bit of
another object, select it, then look for the three doodads that appear to
its right. Click on the top one (I think), and you should get a display
with some settings for the object. There are two check boxes for positive
and negative. Click negative, then close this box.

Now, when you position the two objects and group them, the negative
object should cut out the intersecting bits of the positive object. Just
click on your preview to check.

Oddly enough, I started a render yesterday, and it was looking fine. I
then stopped and resumed a while later, and suddenly the negative but
stated to appear, kind of screened back. I stopped the render and did a
preview, and the cube was there, big as life. I closed the document,
without saving, and when I reopened it, it was fine.

I think Bryce 2, cool as it is, has some bugs in it.  Waiting for that
upgrade.

I hope this helps.

Curtiss

To make Booleans work, use the object property dialog (click the top
trangle with the object selected) to set the negative, positive, or
intersect properties of each of the objects in your boolean. GROUP THE
PRIMITIVES. Now visit the object property dialog again (no need to
change anything, just OK it).

Now start a full render and stop it after the coarsest pass. Start it
again (don't resume it, start it over). Your booleans should be working.
I have observed that booleans are (sometimes?) ignored on the first
render after an edit (even on other objects) so the double render is
required.

There is a FAQ for Bryce 2 that covers these and other issues on

http://www.metatools.com   (and follow the Byrce trail)

Their support team keeps adding stuff so even if you've seen it you
should check back once in a while.

Render on...

Nick