Geekholder opened this issue on Dec 22, 1999 ยท 4 posts
Geekholder posted Wed, 22 December 1999 at 1:14 AM
I got my package from MC today, containing the Macintosh version of Carrara. It comes as a two CD set. The application CD is Mac specific, the Content CD is cross platform. It has the interface we've come to expect from MetaCreations applications. I happen to like the Kai/Bryce interface, much more than I liked the RDS 5.5 interface, so this is fine with me. It has pop out trays along the sides of the screen. In Poser and Bryce they pop out when clicked. In Carrara they pop out when double clicked. Strangely, they are really slow. I am running on a G4/450, and I can watch them repaint several times as they extend from the sides of the screen. Carrara uses Navigation services. It can also use multiple monitors! You can drag tool palettes, rendered scenes, or other stuff onto the second monitor. Importing Poser figures has been problematic. I tried several times with an OBJ file exported from Poser 4 along with its .mtl, which I had used in a previous Bryce project. I navigated down to open the file. Carrara asked me what kind of file it was (OBJ, DXF, or 3DMF), and a few details about how to open it (whether to switch the Y & Z axis, etc). Then it brought up another Navigation Services dialog box saying "Impossible to find the file, please relocate it". Clicking cancel was ineffective, it just kept bringing up that message asking me to relocate the file. I twice had to reboot the machine to escape that loop. It seems to be the .mtl file giving Carrara fits: it I delete the "mtllib" line from the OBJ it imports correctly (though without textures). I had a similar experience with the first 3DS file I tried to open: it brought up another NavSrvcs window saying "Impossible to find the file, please relocate it". Fortunately clicking cancel worked, and the 3DS file then imported without incident. My initial impressions are that it is a classic MetaCreations product: it looks good, is priced at the middle of the market, and is somewhat buggy.