        #
        | README file for
        |
        | ELSA MAXtreme, driver for 3D Studio MAX R2.x and R3
        |                       and 3D Studio VIZ R2.x
        |
        |       Windows NT 4.0 (i386)
        |
        |       GLoria-L
        |       GLoria-L/MX
        |       GLoria-XL
        |       GLoria-XXL
        |       GLoria Synergy
        |       Synergy II
        |
        | Version: 1.08.09
        | Version: 2.00.06
        |
        | Copyright (c) 1993-99 ELSA AG, Aachen (Germany)
        |
        | ELSA AG                  Internet   : http://www.elsa.de
        | Sonnenweg 11
        | D-52070 Aachen
        |
        | ELSA Inc.                Internet   : http://www.elsa.com
        | 1630 Zanker Road
        | San Jose, CA 95112
        | USA
        |
        | ELSA Asia Inc.           Internet   : http://www.elsa.com
        | 7F-11, No. 188, Sec. 5
        | Nanking East Road
        | Taipei 105
        | Taiwan, R. O. C.
        |
        | ELSA Japan Inc.          Internet   : http://www.elsa.com
        | Mita Suzuki Building 3F
        | 5-20-14 Shiba, Minato-ku
        | Tokyo 108-0014
        | Japan
        |
        | 07/20/1999, ASuessen/JFoerste


        Table of Contents

        1. Overview
        2. Directory Contents
        3. Installation
        4. Notes
        5. Release Notes
        6. Known Problems

-------------------------------------------------------------------

1.      Overview

        This disks contain all components of the driver ELSA 
        MAXtreme for 3D Studio MAX R2.x and 3D Studio VIZ R2.x, as soon as
        for 3D Studio MAX R3.

        Supported platform is Windows NT.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

2.      Directory Contents

        The driver's setup directory contains the following files:

        README.TXT      this file
        LIESMICH.TXT    German version of this file
        SETUP.EXE       Installation program for Windows
        (all others)    files that will be installed

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3.      Installation

3.1     Installation from CD

        Insert the WINNERware-CD in your CD-ROM-drive and start
        CDSETUP.EXE from the root directory of the CD if the
        program is not started automatically.
        Select "MAXtreme driver for 3D Studio MAX / VIZ 2.x" from
        the installation menu and then klick "Install".

3.2     Installation from floppy disk

        The MAXtreme installation set consists of two floppy disks.
        Start SETUP.EXE from the first disk.

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4.      Notes

4.1.    Fog

        MAXtreme supports the rendering of standard fog into the 
        viewports since version 1.01.00. Within the configuration
        dialog you can select this capability. Currently only one
        linear standard fog is supported. Other and additional
        linear standard fog will not be used in the viewport.

4.2.    Transparency

        MAXtreme supports an additional transparency representation
        since version 1.02.00. Within the configuration dialog you
        can select between these settings: 
      - None : No transparency is used.
      - Standard : Transparent objects are stippled more or less 
                   dense.
      - Blended : Transparent objects are drawn by blending their 
                  color with the objects behind it. This produces
                  the impression of true transparency. But this
                  impression may be disturbed if two or more
                  transparent objects are behind each other.
      - Sorted Blended : The same technique as described under
                         'Blended', but the faces are sorted before
                         they are drawn. This gives the best
                         transparency impression.

4.3.    MAXtremeStereo

        MAXtreme supports stereo within viewports since version
        1.03.00. For this the plugin "MAXtremeStereo" should have
        been installed together with the MAXtreme driver.
        Stereo viewing is possible on ELSA GLoria XL and ELSA 
        GLoria XXL if the resolution and color depth are not too
        high, because twice as much video-memory is necessary.
        On a 16MB card e.g. the highest possible stereo resolution
        in true color is 1152x864. For flicker-free viewing you
        also need a monitor that can handle refresh rates of at
        least 140Hz - so the maximum resolution to use will 
        probably be 1024x768.
        You also need 3D stereo shutter-glasses to view in stereo.
        If the version of your NT-driver is greater than 5.35.00.366
        (GLoria XL) or 5.36.00.402 (GLoria XXL), you can easily switch
        between stereo and mono within MAXtremeStereo. With older NT-
        drivers, you have to select "Stereo Modi" in the
        "Advanced..." - Section in the ELSA Application Settings
        before you start 3D Studio.
        After starting 3D Studio within a stereo capable resolution
        the Stereo checkbox in the configuration dialog is 
        accessible. Changing this setting requires a restart of 
        3D Studio.
        To control the stereoscopic views you have to activate the
        plugin MAXtremeStereo by pressing "More..." on the 
        "Utilities" tab and selecting "MAXtremeStereo" from the 
        listbox.
        With the plugin you can switch to stereo for
        perspective views (and therefore camera views too). With
        the two spinner controls you can adjust the eye distance
        (in percent of the focus distance) and the focus distance.
        Eye distance controls the depth perception in the stereo
        view. A distance of about three percent usually gives a 
        good stereo impression.
        The focus distance controls the position of the drawing 
        objects relative to the screen plane. Objects nearer than
        this distance seem to be in front of the screen, objects
        farther away than this seem to be inside the monitor.

4.4.    MAXtremeRender

        MAXtreme supports using the Production/Draft renderer into a
        viewport since version 1.06.00. For this the plugin
        "MAXtremeRender" should have been installed together with the
        MAXtreme driver.
        This plugin can be used on all graphics cards that MAXtreme
        support.
        To control this rendering you have to activate the plugin
        MAXtremeRender by pressing "More..." on the "Utilities" tab
        and selecting "MAXtremeRender" from the listbox.
        With this plugin you can switch to using the Production/Draft
        renderer into a viewport. The only exception to this are
        stereoscopic viewports that are no camera views.
        The renderer can be used in high, medium, or low resolution,
        and with medium and low resolution you can smooth the rendered
        image by linear interpolation.
        Because the Production/Draft renderer is relative slow, the
        viewports are not updated in every situation. To force an
        update you can use one of two Update buttons to update either
        all rendered viewport or the active viewport.

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5.      Release Notes

        Version 1.00.05
      - BugFix: clipping problem with screen filling primitives 
                near the far clipping plane

        Version 1.00.06
      - BugFix: illegal memory access with some drawings from
                3D Studio MAX R2.5

        Version 1.01.00
      - Feature: Simple fog can be rendered in the viewports
      - Feature: Easy configuration selection:
                 Speed - Quality - Customize
      - Feature: Welcome dialog when using MAXtreme the first time 
                 or with a new version.

        Version 1.01.01
      - Feature: Fog Background is supported now.

        Version 1.01.02
      - BugFix: Version 1.01.01 crashed on enabling vertex coloring.

        Version 1.01.03
      - BugFix: Fog with animated color is correctly animanted.

        Version 1.01.04
      - Feature: Fogging is supported with non-default near and far
                 values.
                 An OpenGL driver version of at least 2.01.14.124
                 is required. Not all graphics cards support this
                 feature.

        Version 1.01.05
      - BugFix: Background images are animated correct.
      - BugFix: Fogging can be switched off in the configuration 
                dialog.

        Version 1.02.00
      - Feature: Transparency can be switched to
                 - disabled
                 - standard (Screen Door)
                 - blended

        Version 1.02.01
      - BugFix: Lit Wireframe is drawn correctly.
      - BugFix: Objects with "Vertex Colors" on are drawn with the
                correct color.

        Version 1.03.00
      - Feature: Support of stereo in viewports
      - Feature: Additional Plugin: MAXtremeStereo
      - Feature: New Online Help

        Version 1.04.00
      - Feature: Supports ELSAInfo
      - BugFix: Transparent elements are always drawn with the correct
                depth information

        Version 1.04.01
      - BugFix: Background Images are drawn correct (in mono as well as
                in stereo).
      - BugFix: The user interface of MAXtremeStereo uses the selected
                language.

        Version 1.04.02
      - Feature: Localized versions in french, italian, and spanish.
      - BugFix: Some errors with transparency type blended corrected.

        Version 1.05.00
      - Feature: Sorted Blended Transparency.

        Version 1.06.00
      - Feature: Additional Plugin: MAXtremeRender

        Version 1.06.01
      - BugFix: Crashes with MAXtremRender repaired.
      - Feature: With new NT-drivers you can easily switch online
                 between stereoscopic and monoscopic display.

        Version 1.07.00
      - Feature: MAXtremeRender and MAXtremeStereo can be used on the
                 same viewport.

        Version 1.08.00
      - Feature: MAXtremeStereo can render stereoscopic views to pairs
                 or sequences of pairs of files.
      - Feature: The user interface of MAXtremeRender is new.
      - BugFix: In stereoscopic views all transparent modi are handled
                correct.
      - Feature: Improved installation path detection.

        Version 1.08.01
      - Feature: Separating installation on two disks.

        Version 1.08.02
      - BugFix: Readme.txt is correctly copied and displayed again.

        Version 1.08.03/2.00.00
      - Feature: First support of 3D Studio MAX R3.

        Version 1.08.04/2.00.01
      - BugFix: Display error with some faces with four vertices.

        Version 1.08.05/2.00.02
      - BugFix: Fog: temporarily inactive fogs are no more used.
      - BugFix: MAXtremeStereo: Stereo recognition went lost in
                previous version.
      - BugFix: MAXtremeRender: Animating a non-rendered view while an
                other view was rendered resulted in rendering of the
                animated view.
      - BugFix: Highlighting of selected vertices went lost in
                previous version.

        Version 1.08.06/2.00.03
      - BugFix: Localization completed.
      - BugFix: On Synergy II now textures are displayed in every
                view.

        Version 1.08.07/2.00.04
      - BugFix: Transparency: Update error with blended and sorted
                blended transparency fixed.
      - BugFix: MAXtremeRender: Error on Reset fixed.

        Version 1.08.08/2.00.05
      - BugFix: Transparency: Blended and SortedBlended now ignore
                the transparency or a texture map. This is the same
                behaviour as with Standard transparency.
      - BugFix: MAXtremeRender: Error on Update fixed.

        Version 1.08.09/2.00.06
      - BugFix: Display error with blended transparency fixed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

6.      Known Problems

        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, it happens to be that such picture elements are
        not completely clear but seem to be fogged.

      - The Toggle 'Active' in the 'Atmosphere' section of the
        'Environment' dialog is not supported. Supported fog is always
        rendered as active in the viewports.

        MAXtremeStereo:

      - When storing a stereo-paired animation as defined in the
        'Render' dialog, 'File Number Base' is ignored. The animation
        frames are stored with a 'File Number Base' of zero.
