Introduction
Usage
Videos
History
Requirements
Installation
Ordering

Wrinkle is LightWave ® Modeler interactive and working in the real-time tool useful to create various kind of details on the object surface.

In the version 2.0 it has been updated a lot. Many things have been completely rewritten from scratch. Even from the first look at the plugin's panel there're clearly visible severe changes. Panel had to be updated due to changes made to plugin engine and now has tab controls to classify parameters in logic groups.

From the new introduced features the most important are:

  • Preset system to store predefined settings on disk for later easier use or for exchanging with friends. You can now create new presets, delete existing one, delete all presets, clone current preset, rename current preset for easier recognizing in the future or clear current preset if it completely does not satisfy you. Adding, modifing and deleting preset points using mouse in real-time.
  • Preserving the all vertex maps of modified polygons! Now you could have applied f.e. UV map or weight map and without any risk adding details using our's unbeliveable tool!
  • Working with polygons which have unlimited number of vertices! Now you could use built-in LightWave Knife tool and without any further steps use Wrinkle completely ignoring fact that you could be working already with >4 vertices polygon! The new procedure is also used for ordinary triangles and quads, and they look better, especially in sub-patch mode.

The plugin operates on directly selected points, and will remain inactive until you select some. You can safely select any number of points. Points do not need to be connected in any way; their position and order in which they were selected also does not matter.

Since version 2.0 it supports polygons with unlimited numer of vertices.

This plugin behaves similarly to built-in LightWave ® modification tools like Move, Rotate or Size and is immediately active. If you don't see control panel after running plugin you should press 'n' key to open Numeric options window.

On the left image you can see the plugin control panel General tab.

Shift parameter defines distance for which selected points will be transformed. There is no hardcoded limits for this value. Zero simply divides polygons, negative creates concave object and positive creates convex object. The direction is calculated for each point from average polygons normal vector.

Segments parameter defines the number of segments to which original polygon will be divided. Since v2.0 because of supporting unlimited number of vertices in polygon it's no longer easy to calculate how many polygons this value will you give. The minimum is 1 segment.

Inner Distance parameter defines distance (in percents) on edge from selected to not selected point where wrinkle shape from preset should ends. This could be in the range from 0.0% to 100.0%. Default is 0.0%, which means that shape ends at selected point. Introduced in version 1.5

Outer Distance parameter defines distance (in percents) on edge from not selected to selected point where wrinkle shape from preset should starts. This could be in the range from 0.0% to 100.0%. Default is 0.0%, which means that shape starts at not selected point. Introduced in version 1.5

Merge Points parameter merges points with the exactly same position. Merging is slow and if you work with high point and polygon object, it might be better to switch this checkmark off and merge manually from time to time, instead of doing it while you run Wrinkle plugin. Introduced in version 1.7

On the left image you can see the plugin control panel Preset tab.

Preset pick up the preset you want to work with. If two or more presets have the same name, they get index after dot, like on image. It's just for distinguishing them on the screen, internally they still have original name. Introduced in version 2.0

Operation pick up the operation on the currently active preset or the all presets. See below for more informations. Introduced in version 2.0

Mode changes thumbnail working mode. Introduced in version 2.0

Currently available modes are:

Edit drag'n'drop preset point.

Add add new preset point in selected position.

Delete delete the nearest preset point to selected position, except 0.0 and 1.0, which cannot be modified.

Preset operations could be one of:

Pick do nothing. Useful when you stuck in this window.

Create create the new preset with name Unnamed. Preset has now just two points at positions 0.0 and 1.0 which gives straight line.

Delete delete after confirmation currently active preset. If it's the last present, new empty one is created.

Delete All delete after confirmation the all presets and create new empty one.

Clone clone currently active preset and activate it. It's exactly the same shape and name (but displaying routine adds index at the end to distinguishing them).

Rename rename currently active preset.

Clear clear currently active preset after confirmation. Preset has now just two points at positions 0.0 and 1.0 which gives straight line.

On the left image you can see the plugin control panel Surface tab.

Inner Surface parameter defines surface which will be created (after typing new name) or existing surface used (after selecting from pop-up menu) for inner polygons. Only surfaces present in the currently active object are listed. If you leave this empty or select "[unchanged]" currently used polygon surface will be used. This option is enabled only if Inner Distance is higher than 0.0%. Introduced in version 1.7

Shape Surface parameter defines surface which will be created (after typing new name) or existing surface used (after selecting from pop-up menu) for wrinkle shape polygons. Only surfaces present in the currently active object are listed. If you leave this empty or select "[unchanged]" currently used polygon surface will be used. Introduced in version 1.7

Outer Surface parameter defines surface which will be created (after typing new name) or existing surface used (after selecting from pop-up menu) for outer polygons. Only surfaces present in the currently active object are listed. If you leave this empty or select "[unchanged]" currently used polygon surface will be used. This is only for completeness, normally you want keep it in unchanged state. This option is enabled only if Outer Distance is higher than 0.0%. Introduced in version 1.7

It's advised to download videos to disk using Save File As... and watch in off-line movie player.

Wrinkle interactive tool at work. Change YouTube quality to Full HD!

Wrinkle interactive tool at work. Change YouTube quality to Full HD!

Download animation (0.000 KB) illustrating Wrinkle plugin in work!

Changes made in the 2.5 (8-Sep-2005)

  • Added support for sub-patches. Now plugin can work directly with sub-patched object, without having to pressing tab, and making sure that only triangles and quads are generated.
  • Added support for parts. Now plugin preserves part names of modified polygons and the new one created have them properly set.
  • Fixed broken optimization in list class which led to completely useless preset system.

Changes made in the 2.1 (30-Jan-2005)

  • Better support for Macintosh.

Changes made in the 2.0 (25-Jan-2005)

  • The major release since the beginning of this plugin.
  • Added support for presets.
  • Slighty changed the way quads are splitted. Now after sub-patching they look better and smoother.
  • Added support for unlimited vertices polygons.
  • Added support for vertex maps (starting from UV and weight maps).
  • User interface handling code has been almost completely rewritten to support tab, thumbnail and preset controls.

Changes made in the 1.8 (25-Jun-2004)

  • Code has been slighty modified and fixed.
  • Optimizations in merging points has been made.

Changes made in the 1.7 (25-Feb-2004)

  • Added Inner Surface, Shape Surface and Outer Surface parameters. Plugin now remembers which surfaces divided polygons used and newly created polygons have them properly set.
  • Added Merge Points checkmark.
  • User interface handling code has been almost completely rewritten.

Changes made in the 1.6 (15-Dec-2003)

  • Improved point finding routine which leads to better optimized mesh.
  • Improved polygons generating routine. The plugin no longer generates two points polygons.

Changes made in the 1.5 (1-Dec-2003)

  • Added Inner Distance and Outer Distance parameters.

Changes made in the 1.0 (13-Nov-2003)

  • The first official (Windows and Macintosh) release.

Minimum Windows Requirements

  • LightWave v6+
  • Pentium or better
  • Windows 32 bit

Recommended Windows Requirements

  • GeForce2 Titanium 32 MB or better
  • x86 compatible CPU 1.0 GHz or better
  • Windows Me or better

Minimum Macintosh Requirements

  • LightWave v6+
  • PowerPC or better
  • MacOS X

Recommended Macintosh Requirements

  • PowerPC G3/G4 CPU 1.0 GHz or better

Installing the product

In order to install the program, please extract the archive to some location on your hard disk.

On Windows ®, the archive is in the ZIP format. You will need 3rd party software such as WinZIP, which you can download from http://www.winzip.com (it's not included in the package), or other compatible software to decompress the archive.

Windows XP ® has built-in ZIP support (simply right click on the archive�s icon, and choose �Extract all files...�).

On Macintosh ®, the archive is in the SIT format. You will need 3rd party software such as StuffIt, which you can download from http://www.stuffit.com (it's not included in the package), or compatible software to decompress the archive.

The LightWave ® plugin does not require files to be in specific locations, which is a very nice feature. But for easier file management it is recommended that the plugin files (i.e. those with .p extension) be copied to your LightWave ® plugins folder (f.e. LightWave\Plugins\).

Installing LightWave ® Modeler Plugins

Run the LightWave ® Modeler executable. Select pop-down menu Modeler > Utilities > Add Plugins..., then choose the folder containing the new plugins and select them. You should see a message from LightWave that the plugins have been added successfully. The changes will be saved to your configuration file when you quit the program.

Click on the image to see it at full resolution.

Uninstalling the product

Uninstalling LightWave ® Modeler Plugins

Run the LightWave ® Modeler executable. Select pop-down menu Modeler > Utilities > Edit Plugins..., then select the plugin files and press the Delete button. The changes will be saved to your configuration file when you quit the program. Now you can safely remove the files from your hard disk.

Click on the image to see it at full resolution.

Price

The price for a single license (product installed on the one machine) is 50 USD (United States Dollars).

On-line ordering

This is the preferred ordering method. It has several advantages:

  • Easy. You just need to type your personal and credit card details into the order form, and you will receive your goods within max. 48 hours.
  • Fast. Usually, you will receive the purchased products within an hour (depending on the time difference between where you live, and the hours we are working)!
  • Safe. You are sure your order won�t be stolen in transit, or held up by postal strikes etc.