Notes About Discreet® combustion® 3.0.1

for Microsoft® Windows® Updater

 

The combustion 3.0.1 for Microsoft Windows Updater is now available for download at the Discreet website. After you have installed and registered combustion 3 software, please make sure to download and install the combustion 3.0.1 Updater.

 

For additional last minute information about combustion software, or for any downloads, consult our Support page at: http://www.discreet.com/support/combustion/

 

To help us improve the shipping product, please send feedback, comments, feature requests, or defect reports by clicking the feedback menu at the following Support page and complete the online form: http://www.discreet.com/support/combustion/

 

You can find information about combustion software at: http://www.discreet.com/combustion/

 

For updated information on Discreet products, visit our website at: http://www.discreet.com/products/

 

Issues Addressed

The following describes the issues addressed by this release.

 

Adobe® After Effects® Plug-ins

·         You can now select multiple polygons via the Workspace panel.

·         You can now select multiple polygons and control points with a marquee selection.

·         You can now scale, rotate, and translate polygons, as well as change a polygon’s pivot point.

·         You can now Select All, Select None, Delete, and Delete All via the Edit menu or via the hot keys.

·         You can now track polygons.

·         You can now navigate the polygon tools in the Toolbar using the hot key “Tab” to access the polygon edit option tools, and using the hot key “P” to select the Polygon tool.

·         The viewport now updates when you move control points.

·         When you undo and redo, the result is now as expected.

 

Adobe Photoshop® Files

·         You can now import Adobe Photoshop files by selecting the Color mode or the Color+Alpha mode in the combustion preferences, under the Footage General category.

 

Audio

·         You can now add to the render queue a workspace that includes audio.

 

Custom Brushes

·         You can now add softness to a shadow.

·         You can now use the pen pressure to paint with a custom brush.

·         You can now create a custom brush using a new particle as the brush source.

·         When you group a set of custom brush strokes, you can now modify the custom brush strokes’ properties within the group.

·         When you use text as a custom brush, you can now modify the text properties.

·         You can now center the Custom Brush handle.


Exporting Paint Objects as .swf Files

·         Paint objects created using clone/reveal are now saved properly as Macromedia® Flash™ (.swf) files.

 

Expressions

·         You can now use the Quick Pick button for channels in the Workspace panel.

 

Importing GMasks Setups

·         combustion GMask (garbage mask) setups are now imported properly in combustion software when the Animation button is enabled.

 

Multi-Monitor Setup

·         You can now delete operators in a workspace and continue your work on your multi-monitor setup.

 

Particles

·         Importing a combustion 2.1 workspace with particles no longer causes a run time error.

 

Proxies

·         The correct reference size is now displayed when stabilizing using quarter resolution in the Footage Controls panel.

 

Rendering

·         You can now enable “skip existing frames” in a render.

·         You can now render in combustion software if you have Discreet edit 6.5 software and combustion 3.0.1 installed on the same workstation.

 

Text

·         You can now change the font of a character in a text object with Preview enabled (in the Font Browser) after you undo your last change and go back to the Font Browser.

 

Timeline

·         You can now drag a selection box and select as many operators, objects, and properties as you want in the Timeline.

 

Workspaces

·         The software’s response time for closing workspaces is faster.

·         When you open a workspace that contains a .mov file on a workstation that does not have Apple® QuickTime® or when you open a workspace that contains an .avi file on a workstation that does not have Microsoft DirectX® installed, combustion software now gives a message stating that the source file type is not supported. Although you cannot read the .mov file or .avi file within the workspace because you do not have Apple QuickTime or Microsoft DirectX installed, combustion retains the file path.

 

Issues not Documented

The following describes the issues not documented in the combustion 3 ReadMe.rtf.

 

File Extensions

·         combustion 3 and combustion 3.0.1 cannot read four-character file extensions (such as .aiff, .tiff, .mpeg, and .jpeg files). The workaround is to save four-character file extensions as three-character file extensions. For example, save .aiff files as .aif files, .tiff files as .tif files, .mpeg files as .mpg files, and .jpeg files as .jpg files.


Notes About Installation

Install the combustion 3.0.1 Updater over combustion 3.

Note: Installation over combustion 2.1.1 software or any earlier versions of combustion software is not possible.

Following is a list of requirements for installing combustion 3.0.1 Updater:

·         You can install the combustion 3.0.1 Updater on Microsoft® Windows 2000 or Windows XP operating systems.

·         Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or later is required. If you don’t have Internet Explorer 5.5 or later, you can download the latest version by using the “Windows Update” feature in the Windows Start Menu, or you can go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp.

 

Supported OpenGL® Graphics Cards

The following lists the OpenGL graphics cards tested and supported for use with the OpenGL features in combustion 3.0.1.

 

For the latest updates, visit the Discreet Support website at: http://www.discreet.com/support/combustion/

 

The following lists the highest performance OpenGL graphics cards:

·         3Dlabs Wildcat VP990 Pro (latest driver)

·         3Dlabs Wildcat VP870 (latest driver)

·         NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 3000G (latest driver)

·         NVIDIA Quadro FX 2000 (latest driver) supports shadows and reflections

·         NVIDIA Quadro FX 1000 (latest driver)

·         NVIDIA Quadro®4 900 XGL (latest driver)

·         NVIDIA Quadro4 750 XGL (latest driver)

Note: Some of these OpenGL graphics accelerator cards only support lighting effects in software OpenGL.

The following lists the mid-range performance OpenGL graphics cards:

·         ATI® Fire GL™ X1 (128 MB), (drivers 6.13.10.1032 or later)

·         3Dlabs Wildcat4 7210 (driver 5.6.0.35 or later)

·         3Dlabs Wildcat4 7110 (latest driver)

·         3Dlabs Wildcat III 6210 (latest driver)

·         3Dlabs Wildcat III 6110 (latest driver)

·         3Dlabs Wildcat II 5110 (latest driver)

·         3Dlabs Wildcat II 5000 (latest driver)

·         Matrox Parhelia™ (driver 1.04.01.003 or later)

·         NVIDIA Quadro®2 Pro™

·         NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR™ (latest driver)

·         NVIDIA Quadro2 DCC (latest driver)

Note: Some of these OpenGL graphics accelerator cards may display performance limitations with some OpenGL operations. They support hardware OpenGL but not all of its components. Therefore, some features such as lighting effects (shadow/reflection) might only work in software OpenGL mode - note that 3D layer environments respond very well.


The following lists the low-range performance OpenGL graphics cards:

·         Matrox G550 (driver 5.72.021or later)

·         Matrox G450 (latest driver)

·         Matrox G400 (latest driver)

Note: These OpenGL graphics accelerator cards have limitations with speed and particles but work well in 3D layer environments. They may not support hardware OpenGL, in which case, alpha channels are not supported for particles compositing.

Note: Radeon cards are not officially tested for combustion 3.0.1 on Windows because they are optimized for gaming. Therefore, they might present some issues. ATI recommends using the FireGL product line for optimal performance in the combustion software.

 

Windows Framebuffer Support

combustion 3.0.1 software supports the following video output cards:

·         Matrox® DigiSuite® family (including full DigiSuite™, LE™, LX™, and DTV™ models)

·         Pinnacle Systems, Inc. ® Targa™ 3000.

·         DPS®/Leitch Reality™, 3dLabs Wildcat 5000/5110, 6110/6210 (latest drivers)

·         View Graphics® Videopump™ and Videopump HD™

·         Bluefish444 (supported output format is NTSC or PAL in 8-bit ARGB. Acetylene pc v1.0 driver) and HD on HD cards

·         Firewire 1394 (Open Host Controller Interface) OHCI-compliant DirectShow® framebuffer API and the QuickTime™ Video Output Component standard which may provide compatibility with additional cards not listed here. Please check with the hardware manufacturer for DirectShow and QuickTime framebuffer compatibility.

Note: The use of Targa 3000 as a framebuffer for video monitoring with the currently available Targa 3000 drivers (Animation Recorder v1.0) is not supported. The use of this driver results in extremely slow performance. Please check the Pinnacle and Discreet support website for information as to when the next update of Animation Recorder will be available.

 

For the latest updates, visit the Discreet Support website at: http://www.discreet.com/support/combustion/

 

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Autodesk Canada Inc./Autodesk, Inc. reserves the right to revise and improve its products as it sees fit. This publication describes the state of this product at the time of its publication, and may not reflect the product at all times in the future.

 

Government Use

The software and documentation is provided with RESTRICTED RIGHTS. Use, duplication, or disclosure by the United States Government or any agency, department or instrumentality thereof is subject to the restrictions set forth in the Commercial Computer Software—Restricted Rights clause at FAR 52.227-19 or the Commercial Computer Software—Licensing clause at NASA FAR Supplement 1852.227-86. Manufacturer is Autodesk Canada Inc./Autodesk, Inc., 10, Duke Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3C 2L7

 

Discreet is a division of Autodesk, Inc. Autodesk, Discreet, and combustion are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc./ Autodesk Canada Inc. in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

© 2004 Autodesk Canada Inc./Autodesk, Inc. All Rights Reserved.