COMPANY: XenoDream Software, LLC | URL: http://xenodream.com | TYPE: Standalone | PLATFORM: Windows | PRICE: $119
			XenoDream is a 3-D graphics program that could be described as an artist's workshop, adventure playground, tool or toy. It is a flexible environment incorporating 3-D object creation, 3-D lighting and filters, 2-D layering and various other operations. XenoDream's object modeling is unique and very powerful, combining smooth shapes and 3-D IFS fractal methods. This allows it to cover vast possibilities, from constructing the simplest objects to exploring wild shapescapes. There are no formulas or programming to learn; it is entirely interactive. Overview 3D modeling combines conventional and IFS fractal methods for powerful shape construction Up to 200 (V2! 400) bulding blocks (holons), which can be primitive shapes and/or transformations Holons can provide independent shapes, simple replication or fractal interaction 3D lighting and filters 2D picture layers and filters 3D Mesh export (New! major improvements) General New! Compatible with Windows Vista Speed control for fast or slow mouse dragging Multiple selection of holons for collective editing Memory spots for easy storage and recall of camera views, shape, coloring, selections and lighting Very small parameter files saved individually for easy portability Save creator name and comments (New! unlimited length comments) with parameter files New! Associate parameter files with XenoDream Fast preview of parameter files from File Open dialog File Reopen menu with recently used files File Append option to merge from other files File Save with auto-incrementing suffix if file exists File Save Holon to save a single holon Copy Holon Properties dialog Quick Start buttons open random choice of sample or user files Holon window for layout of holons in 3D Right-click in holon window to add a holon, chosen from popup menu of standard shapes Practically real time preview for most operations New! Choices of background colors for Holon window and preview V2! Preview grid options V2! Show/hide Holon window and preview New! Mouseover hints in Holon window identify holons and their status Transparent preview option Automatic re-initialization allows rendering unstable shapes New! Undo/Redo (V2! 12 history levels) Custom color picker with choice of color modes, standard and custom color squares, eyedropper and live update of the program New! Improved preset management, switch between system and personal preset files Help file with complete reference, now in CHM format New! 'Using XenoDream' guide, with 50 topics of tutorials, illustrations, tips and FAQ Camera View Full 3D camera view including zoom, with 3D mouse dragging or individual controls Rotate view by selectable increments Fisheye lens Front and back clipping planes allow cutaway views Stereo mode, with Stereo Depth and Distance controls, for automatic and interactive creation of stereograms New! Preview stereograms in cross-eyed, parallel or anaglyph (four color choices) Shape Add, clone and delete holons Each holon has scale, skew, rotation and position controls in each of X,Y,Z directions Mouse dragging of scale, skew, rotation and position relative to camera view Interactive randomized morphing of the shape by mouse dragging New! Explore mode, with choice of parameters to morph in each direction Distribute selected holons along a line or a variety of waveforms. Applies independently to position, scales, skews or rotations. New! improved support for replicating constructors. Randomize all or individual parameters for selected holons Maximum Iteration control for each holon One or two metamorphs (nonlinear transformations) can be applied to each holon 174 (84 New!) metamorph styles, from simple swirls and waves to complex hyperwarps 21 of these (9 New!) are 'constructor styles', allowing spheres, cubes, cylinders, tori, cones, planes, polyhedra, gearwheels and others to be used independently or with fractal replication New! Metamorph style list is now in a floating window, organized in categories Popup help describes each metamorph style Metamorphs can be individually repositioned, reoriented and rescaled to the holons Metamorphs have Amount, Scale and Special parameters for many variations Randomize any combination of metamorph parameters for selected holons Extend holons for either extra metamorphs or displacement mapping Hide individual holons while preserving any fractal interaction Free holons: make multiple instances of the object and apply further transformations to each Hide the parent shape so only free holons are visible V2! Solo Holon button to show only the active holon, for easier editing New! Option to remember shape memory spots between sessions V2! Buttons to save and open shape memory spots as sets of parameter files Color Holon sequence coloring method uniquely correlates the color of each 3D point to the shape Metamorph coloring method for texture mapping from metamorphs or other sources Map each holon to a gradient or a picture Gradient strip showing active gradient Powerful custom gradient editor (New! includes HSB blending) Curve and blend options to filter and combine patterns Create background pictures from metamorph coloring patterns Randomize gradients Save and open gradient presets (New! Includes 200 new presets for general use and sky, stone, wood and other textures) Rendering Three rendering methods: chaos, ordered and hybrid Set render size to standard or custom sizes Render sizes remembered in order of recent use Large renders supported depending on memory, eg about 6000x4500 with 512MB of RAM Start/stop/resume rendering from main window or picture window Opacity can be varied per holon Three different modes for transparent rendering Shadow casting can be disabled per holon Animation V2! Create animation sequence with up to 30 keyframes V2! Interpolate camera, shape and coloring with up to 800 steps between keyframes V2! Linear or smooth transitions V2! Preview animation before creating batch for rendering V2! Save animation keyframes and settings as animation project file Render batch, saving images in JPG, BMP or PSD format (New! support for polishing and layers in batch) Picture Set magnification to 200%, 100%, 50%, 25% or to fit window Supports three open pictures at once. Two layers can be combined. Front layer can have background masking, alpha masking, layer opacity, merge modes Choice of 21 merge modes Copy one layer to another, or combine two layers to any layer Open JPG, BMP or PSD images as a layer Save to JPG, BMP or PSD files Save PSD files with transparency and layer masks, opacity and merge mode Reopen menu for recently used pictures Copy layer to clipboard Flip vertical, flip horizontal, invert colors Adjust hue, saturation, lightness and contrast Gaussian blur/sharpen filter with width and amount controls Remove/increase noise filter V2! Depth of field filter, with aberration, highlight boost and focal depth controls V2! Pic Texture filter for creating textures for background pictures (see below) Save depth map as 16 bit heightfield in PGM format or RG-encoded TGA Open PGM files as depth map New! Save depth map to/from BMP format, to support depth effects in Photoshop V2! Stereo mode options to add stereo border, swap left and right, and convert to anaglyph (four color choices) Depth window allows conversion of colors to the depth map. (New! completely overhauled, independent handling of object and background allows casting shadows onto backgrounds, convert from alpha channel, tilt plane horizontally or vertically.) V2! Pic Texture filter (this powerful filter is only available in version 2) Up to six layers of texture. Enable/disable and reorder layers. Preview 100% or thumbnail view Each layer has spatial, contour, noise, turbulence and gradient controls Spatial controls adjust position, rotation, perspective and stereo depth (in stereo mode) Contour controls provide adjustable shapes (ramp, ellipse, ring, square, cross, radial) to drive gradients Noise controls add patterns with blending of octaves 22 Noise patterns include varieties of Perlin, Voronoi, bricks, hexagons, spots, random blocks Two turbulence sources (9 patterns) warp the layer in various ways Gradient controls add a color gradient or use the existing picture, adjust opacity and bump Global controls adjust scale, position and rotation of all layers together Memory spots for temporary storage of single layers or complete textures Save and open textures as presets for permanent storage 100 presets provided, from simple gradients, rocks, seascapes to a wide variety of skies Full support for stereo mode Alpha mode allows creation of alpha channel instead of picture Lighting Powerful 3D lighting model includes filters for convenient combined effects All lighting (except permanent cleaning options) is non-destructive, and applied post-render Experiment, apply and save any number of effects quickly without re-rendering the object Lighting preview window shows lighting/filters in realtime (at 100% zoom) Lighting preview zoom settings 100%, 50%, 33%, 25% with auto or manual preview Lighting ball for easy interactive adjustment of light sources Up to 15 light sources plus ambient (New! enable/disable individual lights) Optional shadows per light source New! Adjust shadow quality Adjust material properties per light: surface smoothing/sharpening, diffuse amount and color, shininess, metallicity Effects include blur/sharpen, contrast, saturation, iridescence, reflection, refraction, glow, haze New! Adjustable Fresnel effect for more realistic plastic, ceramic and glass New! Improved reflection, refraction and highlights, and improved support for stereo mode New! Four new haze controls adjust vertical angle and cloud and fog effects Use alpha channel for transparent effects New! Adjust response of alpha channel with gamma and level controls Surface cleaning options to fill holes, remove noise, smooth/sharpen permanently (New! Polish filter allows high degree of smoothing while preserving edges) Autofill holes and background for special effects V2! Autofill with 127 variations including cellular automata patterns Save and open all lighting parameters as presets in definable categories Hundreds of presets supplied, covering a wide range including lighting, artistic effects, metals and many types of materials (New! includes 140 improved presets for basic, art, metal, glass and ceramic effects) Randomize lighting parameters Protect groups of parameters from change when opening presets, memory spots or randomizing Apply lighting filters cumulatively for complex effects Divide object into regions (before rendering) based on holons or color, then light them independently Region lighting memory spots Mesh Export Render for mesh generation, faster than rendering as a picture Choose maximum mesh resolution between 100 and 500 (V2! up to 1500) (rendering is 2x oversampled) New! Faster and uses 50% less memory than v1.5 Surface method captures accurate surface from 14 directions Volume method captures internal or complex structure Fill volume option for eliminating hidden triangles (New! shows percentage filled) New! Volume cleaning option based on neighboring voxels Mesh filtering to reduce voxelization or other artifacts (New! much better filter method) Simplify mesh to choose desired level of detail, with realtime adjustment V2! Mesh smoothing controls that can be used repeatedly Save mesh in Wavefront OBJ format, POVRay INC format or PLY format, with or without smooth normals
					Sample images courtesy of XenoDream Software, LLC