Hi,

I just installed version 2.9 beta and new features look great. A few questions though:

1) There are new icons at the “Images” tab, next to “Image:” input box. A mouseover explanation of them would be useful. The icons you used look a little bit different, so a mouseover tip would help a lot of people to figure out the uses of them.

2) Will you be adding a new feature to open the top of the software box? (Just like you did with CD and DVD cases… Which usually adds a cool look?

Thanks, all the new features are GREAT!
Volkan

Very nice! After downloading tons of box shot programs, and getting tired of every one of them being complete junk, I’m glad I came across this one. The opened DVD box is perfect for what I need!

Yes, Volkan, we need to add tooltips to the buttons. Maybe to the sliders too. Added this to todo-list.

And one more “yes” for opening software boxes, we are yet to implement this.

it seems that the preview window is slower than before… for the final render it seems to be the same time. have you changed something in the render code?

Just compared 2.8 and 2.9 on default software box with default settings (started Box Shot 3D and pressed “Render”). Results are the same: 2.8 - 35 sec, 2.9 - 34 sec.

Rendering kernel was optimized a bit for complex shapes that made possible to add more details, for example to Magazine shape. According to our internal tests, new version runs at least with the same speed as 2.8, but in some cases it runs a bit faster.

I just tried the new CD box shape, it seems that if we tick the “disc on the floor” option and un-tick it back later, the disc won’t get back inside the box, it remained on the floor. Maybe you should check the coding on that.

Hope the final release will be available for download soon.
great software

Hm… Just checked this - all seems to be OK. CD and DVD boxes act the same, but “disc on the floor” for CD box shifts CD just a bit. You can try to play with this option for DVD boxes to see the difference.

If “Disc on the floor” is checked - CD is aligned to the floor by it’s bottom part. If the option isn’t checked - CD is aligned to the center of box by it’s center.

“Just compared 2.8 and 2.9 on default software box with default settings (started Box Shot 3D and pressed “Render”). Results are the same: 2.8 - 35 sec, 2.9 - 34 sec.”
i wasnt talking about the rendering time, but about the preview window when you turn the object, set parameters and so on… the final rendering speed seems the same. between, do the program make youse of multi-core processors?
cheers and continue the good work

Preview window use the same raytracer but with draft quality (lots of calculation skipped). So its speed can’t be different.
2.8 draws rendering progress a bit smoother, 2.9 uses another method, so progress moves not so smooth. But the speed is the same, really
Box Shot 3D uses every CPU that is found (and that is allowed to use). But it releases one CPU on multiprocessor systems when you switch to another task. The logic is simple: if you switched to another application, it will need some CPU too.

If Box Shot 3D is active - it uses all CPU to render faster.

Regarding minor releases -
Will buying 2.8 now give access to 2.9 when that is available?

Same question, as I would like to buy now, but 2.9 is coming soon.
Will buying 2.8 now give access to 2.9 when that is available?

Yes, buying 2.8 gives access to 2.9, 2.10, 2.11 etc. And maybe even to 3.0 (when we finally decide to release it).
Minor updates are free.

I think the improvements in this 2.9 beta are great!

I thought I’d throw a few ideas in the mix. Tagged box would be good with a euroslot option. Spiral bounded book could have option to adjust the roundness of the book corners. Ring spiral would be great if the rings were adjustable (spacing between rings, size of rings, amount of rings, etc.) separately from the book, at the moment it stretches with the book.

But even without those options, this is a fantastic program and just keeps getting better

I second Paul!

Some VERY nice suggestions.
Thanks…

Brilliant! The new Box Shot 3D Beta 2.9 is SUPER! It offers greater freedom and better design decisions.
However, if you want to improve the value of the package, here are some suggestions:
1. File formats - since some of us are professional graphic designers, the software can benefit from offering “Save as” .EPS or .PSD files so we can use the high-res images in InDesign or Quark (we can do it now, but it will make our lives so much easier 2. If it could be possible to offer an “Open Book” shape - a book folded out with a page spread visible - that would be GREAT!

It seems that we’ll never get to release the “final” version of the software Thanks for suggestions they were carefully copied to our todo list, so we’ll do our best to implement them in the future releases.

If there are no real problems or bugs with this beta, we’ll call it “2.9 release” and start work on 2.10. If somebody met a problem with the beta (bugs, crashes or other bad things) please let us know.

# rafparis Says:
April 24th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

it seems that the preview window is slower than before… for the final render it seems to be the same time. have you changed something in the render code?

PREVIEW window is realy slower as RAPARIS said:)

great relase 2.9:)

Rene & Rafparis: how many CPU kernels does your PC have and what is they frequency? let’s try to find the difference, as I don’t see it.

I have intel Core 2 Duo e6550 @ 2,33Ghz 4G ram

Hi,

Just found your software, download, installed, loved it .. but .. is there possible to add the function to make file binders like this http://duraweldformanufacturing.co.uk/Images/yalelythobinder.jpg

That would be great since there are many businesses out there that use these in their products.

I know I will buy your software just for this .. =)

Have a great day,
Leif Bohlin
Gothenburg/Sweden

Leif, unfortunately, you can’t render file binder right now. But we’ll do ours best to add this shape soon (maybe even in 2.10).

Rene, give me few days to check preview speed. Thanks for specs.

Ok,

I´m looking forward to see that, you do not know when 2.10 is out?

Great software anyway .. =)

Have a great day,
Leif Bohlin
Gothenburg/Sweden

Great software!! but I have a problem like this:

http://i27.tinypic.com/2n64uo4.jpg

I have a Core 2 Dual 2.2 Ghz, 1,270 RAM and 256 MB video card.

What’s happened??

Thanks for your help!!

Regards

to JC Say:

buy it:)

as for my config it’s a P4 3.0Ghz, 1,5 Go Ram

Great new styles! But I miss being able to use a full cover image (front, side and back in one) - will that option return for the book designs?

You may still use full cover images, just load it to front, side and back slots and adjust cropping for each side (there is a button right from the file name).

You may find more details in the User Manual (press F1 when Images tab is opened).

Hey I have the exact same problem as JC… picture looks all messed up………

what seems to be the problem?

Hi,
There is one thing that really annoys me when you do a render with a transparent background, the reflection on the floor disapear…
which is annoing because when i want to combine several images into a complex one, i dont have the reflection… and it looks great with it, so is it possible to add the render of the reflection with transparent background? or am i missing something?

Starr, Rene already answered to JC’s questions. We’ve got nothing to add.

Rafparis, relection does not disappear. At least according to the test I just made with 2.9. There is a slider “Start level” below the reflection checkbox. Try to play with it.

If reflection really disappears - please send us screenshots, project file and the rest that will help to reproduce the problem, OK?

well, in fact reflection is here, its just that it seeems to fade away more when you put transparent background visually it seems not to be here, but when you put the png on a darker background, its here. sorry for messing up

Great new version. Just one problem. Now you have removed the DVD shape that allows the loading of a single image for all sides. I have to make a lot of packshots so the new cropping tool really slows down my workload to the point where it is not practical and I must go back to using an older version. Is there a chance we could get the old feature back?

The idea was to remove duplicated shapes: book with separated sides, book without separated sides etc. Now we have just “book”, “dvd” etc. This will not be changed because it is much more clear for many users. So we need to find out some solution for your problem while keeping single shape.

What do you think about this: we’ll add a side selector in the cropping window. You will be able to open cropping window once and crop all images without closing it. More, we’ll add a “magic” button that will crop several images for DVD Box or Book.

Or maybe it will be better to add some kind of wizard, where you will tell “I want DVD shape with this single image” and the wizard will split it for you.

Let’s think together to find out the best solution that will be suitable for advanced user and will not confuse beginners.

Rafparis, it seems that we just need to increase default reflection level to 50%

Thank you for the very fast reply. I think the best solution here for productivity is your idea for the wizard. This is a good idea because it is useful for beginners and advanced users. While this is being designed could a feature be added for leaving a margin? This is because 2.9 now renders covers all the way to the edge of a DVD case. In 2.8 there was a more accurate render that left about 4mm of plastic edge showing. This is helpful when showing a face on render when the colour of the case still needs to be shown. Thank you.

hm… I need to take a look at this border, it seems that it is better to change the shape a bit, so the border will come back. Maybe we’ll release 2.9.1 with number of little fixes like this.

wizards or something alike will be implemented in 2.10 and it will take several months, because we have two big things to do before it (we’ll show one of them very soon).

“because we have two big things to do before it (we’ll show one of them very soon).”

cant wait

Thanks for the wonderful new additions!

The spiral bound shape is great!

If you have a wish list, I would like to add an extra setting for that spiral bound: have the spiral “use” 21 or 34 holes instead of the 13. Or did I miss a setting where I can increase the number of spiral turns?

Thanks again,

Loes