Although through the years Strata’s Vision 3d has been a highly regarded 3-D modeling, rendering, and animation package, recently it has been largely overshadowed by the company’s Studio Pro. These days, Studio Pro is usually touted as the professional-strength tool, and Vision 3d is cast as an entry-to midlevel program. That’s a bit of a shame, because Vision 3d is better now than at any time in its history. Over the past five years, Vision 3d has continually adapted and evolved, and the package you see today is a well-conceived, smartly executed, and modern-looking program with advanced modeling features and excellent rendering options.
With version 4.0, Vision 3d expands its array of modeling tools, adding the ability to perform Boolean functions, sweep surfaces, and skin and unskin objects. And it adds two new tenderers — RenderScript, which lets you scale images to any size, and Phong witli Shadows — to the program’s already extensive rendering options. Sure, Vision 3d’s animation capabilities aren’t as sophisticated as those of Studio Pro, but for modeling and rendering, 3d offers a similar work environment and a comparable features list at half the price.
Visionary Architecture
Vision 3d derives its modeling and rendering prowess from plug-in program extensions. For developers, plug-ins are an easy way to add functionality; for users they provide a practical way to customize a program, letting you add or remove tools and features from the mix. Vision 3d’s shape-creation tools, object editors, surface textures, and clip-object shapes are all extensions. Modeling plug-ins are either deployed on a button bar above die working area, found as menu selections, or both. Surface textures and shapes appear automatically in the Texture/Shapes palette.
In addition to a full complement of editable three-dimensional primitives (sphere, cylinder, cone, and so on). Vision 3d's modeling tools include the 2d Sculpter extension, which lets you precisely adjust Bézier-curved outlines that you can then lathe, extrude, and sweep into 3-D objects. In turn, you can reshape 3-D objects in the program’s 3d Sculpter extension. The 3d Sculpter works with bodi polygonal and Bézier objects, letting you edit them by manipulating individual vertices or by deforming surface patches, a technique similar to shaping soft-clay models.
Vision 3d’s new Boolean modeling extension allows you to perform union, subtraction, and intersection operations on objects. Vision 3d is a surface modeler, so the program performs these functions by calculating the interaction of the object surfaces. For example, union melds one object with another and removes their intersecting surfaces, while subtraction produces a gouge on one object from the intersecting surfaces of the other.
To perform Boolean operations you first move the objects into intersecting positions in the three-dimensional scene and then activate the Boolean modeler — a dialog box with a pair of scrolling lists — where you must find and select die objects you want to modify. The Boolean dialog box lists every object in the current scene, but when you select an object, a wireframe thumbnail appears so that you can make a more-positive identification. Choose a Boolean function, and click on OK, and the modified object appears in the 3-D space.
Boolean capability is a great addition to Vision 3d, but unfortunately, the implementation isn’t the best. Scrolling through lists to find the correct objects is cumbersome, and it can be confusing when the 3-D space contains several items identically named “cylinder” or “sphere.” It would be easier on the user if the objects selected in the 3-D scene appeared automatically in the Boolean modeler, as they do in the 3d Sculpter. Furthermore, an implementation similar to the 3d Sculpter’s would allow you to move around the object, see the effects of the Boolean operation, and make necessary adjustments before returning the object to the 3-D scene. As it stands, if you need to alter object positioning, you must undo the Boolean immediately upon returning to the 3-D scene. If you change viewpoints to assess the object’s geometry, you can no longer undo the Boolean — you must start over.
True, the majority of Vision 3d’s modeling extensions behave similarly; the program overall could use a few more levels of Undo. But modelers such as Lathe, Extrude, Skin, and Sweep perform object-construction operations that arc generally easier to judge at first glance. On the other hand, Booleans are often objectediting operations, which tend to require more fine-tuning. All that said, I should in fairness note that Vision 3d’s Boolean functions, like all its modeling extensions, work just fine.
Visionary Images
Even when it was not as competent a modeler as it is today. Vision 3d was always an excellent rendering program. In addition to such standard renderers as Gouraud, Phong, and ray tracing, Vision 3d offers three unusual imaging options — RayPainting, Phong with Shadows, and RenderScript.
The RayPainting feature works like ray tracing, but rather than producing photo-realistic images, it emulates natural-media effects such as dry-brush and watercolor. In addition, RayPainting comes with two preset choices that reproduce the painting techniques of Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat.
New to version 4.0 is Phong with Shadows, a separate tenderer that offers all the capabilities of Vision’s regular Phong engine and adds the ability to create shadows. Also new is RenderScript, a Phong-based tenderer that produces images in the EPS (encapsulated PostScript) file format. RenderScript can produce such photo-realistic effects as surface mapping and glowing surfaces, and since the output file is in PostScript, its images can be scaled to any size.
Vision 3d comes with dozens of surface and procedural textures to give objects the look of materials such as stone, wood, and glass. Surface textures are image maps applied to the outside of an object, while procedural textures are mathematical descriptions of texture materials that are applied to the entire object. Vision 3d provides excellent controls for customizing texture attributes, such as diffusion, specularity, transparency, and bump mapping.
Sadly, the Goodies CD that used to ship with Vision 3d is gone. It was filled with additional sample textures and shapes you could use right away. Vision 3d now comes with a locked CD containing complete shape and texture libraries; to unlock the libraries, you call Strata and get the key over the phone (you will need a credit card). But whereas the samples in the Goodies disc whetted the appetite, the library CD suppresses desire. Its browser provides such tiny thumbnails, you can barely see what you’re buying.
Vision 3d 4.0 offers a competent, if somewhat limited, animation environment that lets you move objects along spline paths and animate textures to create surface transformations. In addition, the program comes with animation extensions that produce bouncing effects, convert 2-D lines to animation paths, and keep cameras pointing at moving objects.
In practice, the animation tools look and feel much like the ones in Studio Pro, but they lack the power, capacity, and flexibility of Vision 3d’s high-end relative. Nowhere is that more evident than in Vision 3d’s truncated animation palette, which is capable of holding only one object or group at a time. Although Vision 3d is more than adequate for creating simple motion effects such as flying logos, it is not equipped to tackle complex animations.
Visionary Docs
For the most part, 3-D programs are complex constructions that demand time and effort to learn and master. Packed with tools and features, Vision 3d is no exception. However, the program’s excellent documentation makes the learning process relatively painless. Don’t be put off by the two hefty manuals — one for modeling, the other for rendering and animation. With tutorials interspersing fairly comprehensive reference material, these manuals are easy to read, informative, and generally well organized.
If you just can’t wait to get going, a separate tutorial volume provides a brief but thorough introduction to all facets of the program. Vision 3d runs on both 680X0 and Power Macintoshes and requires a minimum of 8MB of RAM. (I recommend a Power Mac with as much RAM as you can afford.)
The Last Word
With years of fine-tuning behind it. Strata’s Vision 3d has matured into a wonderful modeling and rendering package. As long as your animation requirements are modest, Vision 3d is suitable for professional use in applications ranging from graphic arts to industrial design.
Martinez, Carlos Domingo. (July 1995). Vision 3d 4.0. Macworld. (pgs. 56-57).
Strata Inc.
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stratavision3d_4.zip
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Basilisk II
