Dear Customer,

I am happy to send you a free, updated version of our Magic IPAS. This
version, MAGIC 1.1 was created in answer to many customer requests. Here is a
summary of the enhancements:

FASTER RENDERING - Now all processing of the AXP object's position is done in
memory not on disk. This has a dramatic affect on overall processing speed.
Tests done here at Digimation using 10,000 Magic particles showed a maximum
render time of just over one minute using Magic 1.1. Older releases of Magic
took as much as twenty minutes!

RENDER ANY FRAME - Now you can create a Magic animation, immediately render
any frame of the animation and see the Magic trails. Older versions required
you to render the animation starting at frame 0 to see proper trails.

MULTIPLE AXP OBJECTS - Now you are allowed to have as many Magic AXP objects
as you like. Older versions produced unpredictable results with more than one
Magic AXP object in a scene.

NETWORK READY - This version of Magic is fully network compatible.

EASIER TO USE - Now Magic has a simplified interface. Internal changes also
make it easier to place the AXP cube.

We will continue to enhance and refine Magic and Bubbles, our first particle
system. Of course we will keep you up to date as these enhancements become
available. If there is something that you feel we should add to these
routines, please let us know. Thank you very much for your support.

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Magic Manual Addendum - September 1, 1994

Version 1.1 of Magic is called MAGIC4_I.AXP. Copy this file to the PROCESS
sub-directory of your 3D STUDIO. Copy the sample .3DS files to your MESHES
sub-directory.

GRAVITY INFLUENCE - instructs MAGIC just how many particles will be affected
by the GRAVITY setting. The slider ranges from 0 to 100 and denotes
percentage. For example, 0 makes sure that 0%, or none, of the particles are
affected by GRAVITY. 50 tells MAGIC that 50%, or half, of all particles will
be influenced by GRAVITY. This makes it possible to create the classic
'Disney' style of fairy dust. If you look at Peter Pan, you'll notice that
most of the particles stay suspended in the air while just a few fall to
earth. Try a GRAVITY INFLUENCE setting of 10 and a GRAVITY setting of around
4 for this effect.

The Life Cycle selections: RAMP and CONTINUOUS have been removed. All MAGIC
operations are based on a new algorithm that does away with the need for a
user selection.

The At Surface selections: SPREAD, BURN OUT and IGNORE have been removed.
These became impractical since proper bounding box size has been decreased.
All particles will ignore the edges of the bounding box and keep traveling
for as long as the LIFE settings permit.

The internal calculations that MAGIC uses have been drastically changed to
facilitate smaller AXP boxes. In version 1.1 you should create a box the same
size as the 'head' of the Magic 'comet'. For example, if you want to fly a
pencil around the room trailing Magic particles, you would create an AXP cube
roughly the size of the pencil's eraser. With this in mind, changes have been
made to the INITIAL SPREAD slider.

INITIAL SPREAD - sets the size of the initial sphere of Magic particles. Think
of this as the 'head' of a comet. Valid settings range from 0 to 10. A setting
of 10 fills the AXP cube with the round 'head' of the Magic trail. Lower
settings create smaller initial spreads. A setting of 0 causes the particles
to spread from a pinpoint. 

You will find a couple of new 3DS files on the disk with your Magic upgrade.
These will give you a good idea of the proper use of the new settings.

Unfortunate Final Note: because of certain enhancements, primarily in the
rendering speed, and quirks in IPAS, Magic will not behave predictably when
it is linked to another object. If at all possible, give each Magic AXP
object it's own set of keyframes to follow. If you absolutely need your Magic
object linked to another object, you will need to use the older MAGIC3_I.AXP
routine. That is why this version is called MAGIC4_I.AXP. This way you can
have both the older version and the newer version in your PROCESS sub-
directory. We feel that the extra speed and other enhancements make this
revision worthwhile even considering this inconvenience.

