
    COLCH_I.PXP  -  The Animagic GEOMETRYX(tm) COLor Changer Hack

         Copyright (C)1994 Animagic Developmet, Stefan Didak

             This routine and included files have hereby
                  been placed in the public domain.


WHAT IS COLCH ?

   The Color Changer IPAS routine allows you to interactively change
   the color palette used by 3D Studio. This can be quite helpful in
   some cases. Some practical examples are given below;

   - When creating a custom color palette for 3D Studio you will have
     to enter the RGB values in the 3DS.SET file. For those of you
     who have done this, you know that a lot of exiting and starting
     up again is involved for the fine-tuning. With COLCH you can
     create the colors interactively on screen, try them out, and
     manually copy the values over to the 3DS.SET file.

   - When exchanging projects and meshes for 3D Studio Release 3 with
     other people who have used a custom color palette, most times
     the mesh colors will look awfull when viewed on a different
     custom color palette. COLCH will allow you to change these
     mesh colors or interface colors so there is no longer any
     problem.


WHAT WILL IT DO ?

   COLCH will allow you to change the color palette entries (16)
   used by 3D Studio for the user interface, as well as the 64
   object colors used to assign colors to a mesh.

   COLCH will allow you to store and retrieve these custom color
   palettes for future usage.

   When modifying the 64 object colors palette, the GRAY SCALE
   button will generate a 64 gray scale color palette for you
   immediately.


WHAT FILES ARE INCLUDED ?

   FILE_ID.DIZ - Short description of the IPAS routine.
   README.TXT  - The text you're reading right now.
   COLCH_I.PXP - The actual IPAS routine.
   3DS.PAL     - The default 3D Studio palette.
   DEFAULT.PAL - My personal favourite default palette.
   BLUES.PAL   - A 64 color 'bluescale' palette.
   GRAY.PAL    - A 3D Studio default grayscale palette.
   PURPLE.PAL  - Yikes ! This is horrible :)


ARE THERE ANY BUGS ?

   Sad but true, there are some 'bugs'. Not actually bugs but small
   inner workings of 3D Studio that prevent the color changer from
   being even more useful. Some small reminders:

   - Be sure to set the gamma correction for the 3D Screen to 'off'
     in order to obtain the exact colors.

   - When switching to and from the Materials Editor, the color
     palette will be restored as it was originally read from the
     3DS.SET file. 3D Studio restores this screen from memory,
     which is not accessible by IPAS routines.


WHERE TO COMPLAIN ?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stefan Didak                     e-mail     : sdidak@animagic.knoware.nl
Animagic & Animagic Development  FIDO       : 2:283/203.30
Doelstraat 147                   PCGnet     : 2:580/203.30
3011 AJ Rotterdam                RenderRing : 511:8000/203.30
The Netherlands                  Phone      : +31.10.412.5719
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer graphics, animations, broadcast design, and software development
for the graphics and broadcast industries. 3D Studio IPAS development.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
