FAQ for Moonlight Creator
March 2 1998

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What is Moonlight Creator?
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  Moonlight Creator is a computer graphics application. It currently does
  simple modelling and rendering. It supports global illumination
  (radiosity) in background with the modelling operations.
  This software runs under Linux (with Mesa) and Windows 95/NT
  (with Microsoft OpenGL).
  It is copyrighted Stephane Rehel (rehel@worldnet.fr).

  OpenGL(R) is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc.
  Mesa is copyrighted Brian Paul.

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Where is the official site of Moonlight Creator?
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  The official site of Moonlight Creator is:

    http://www.cybersociety.com/moonlight/

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Is is free software?
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  Moonlight is distributed under the terms of the GNU
  General Public License, see the LICENSE file for details.

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Is there a mailing-list?
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  Not for the moment, but volunteers are welcome!!

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What is OpenGL? Mesa? Why do you use OpenGL?
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  OpenGL is portable 2D/3D graphics library.
  See http://www.opengl.org for further information.

  Mesa is a library released under the GPL with an API which is very
  similar to that of OpenGL.
  You can get Mesa at: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~brianp/Mesa.html

  OpenGL is highly portable. It is the most flexible choice for
  3D rendering under X11 and Windows.

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Where can i find a tutorial for Moonlight?
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  There is no tutorial. Mmmh, any volunters?:-)

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What is radiosity?
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  Radiosity is a global illumination algorithm which simulates both direct
  and indirect lighting in a 3D environment.
  It can render more realistic images than traditional ray-traced direct
  lighting.
  If you want to get additional information on global illumination
  techniques, read "Radiosity and Global Illumination",
  Francois X. Sillion and Claude Puech, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc,
  San Francisco, California.
  On the Web:
  http://w3imagis.imag.fr/Membres/Francois.Sillion/Papers/Index.html#SP94Tag

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I don't exactly understand how it works... I can't select any object.
Could you help me?
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  Clicking on a 3D window does nothing. You have to tell Moonlight to use
  a mode. A mode defines the type of action you want to do. Use the mouse
  to perform the action. You enter a mode by pressing its associated
  mode-key.

  Example: The Select mode-key is Space. For selecting an object:
    + press Space key,
    + select the object with the mouse,
    + release Space.

  You may access a small dialog that shows you all the available modes.
  It may help you at the beginning. Click on the "Modes List" button
  from the first entering dialog.

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I can't load any file. Moonlight tells me "*ERROR*".  What's wrong?
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  Moonlight stores its files in directories called "databases".
  A database is a directory entry that contains a ML database hierarchy
  (geometries, scenes, materials, etc.)
  The list of available databases for your account is stored in ~/.mlrc.
  Here's an exemple of a ~/.mlrc file, that refers to 4 databases:

    ~/moonlight/database
    /usr/moonlight/database
    ~peter/light_projects
    c:/moonlight/database

  If there's no .mlrc, Moonlight tries to guess a default database
  in ~/moonlight/database.

  You can specify a custom resource file by using the -mlrc option. (See
  README file)

  For Windows users: use slash "/" or backslash "\" as you want.
  If you don't specify the drive, C: is used. Use Cygnus-Win32 convention
  for drives naming. (for example "//D/windows" refers to "D:\windows")

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Is it possible to write new modules or plug-ins?
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  Not for the moment. But Moonlight is architectured in this way: it
  supports both new modules and plug-ins.

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What does the POV exporter?
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  The POV exporter only exports the geometry of your scene. (vertices,
  normals and triangles). Camera and materials are not currently exported.
  Radiosity lighting is discarded.

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Can i use Moonlight to create and illuminate 3D scenes, and then use them
in my program?
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  Yes! Just use the MLRAW export format. This format exports for you
  the geometry and the illumination of the scene. See the documentation
  file located in docs/mlraw/MLRAW_FORMAT and the sample C++ reader.

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I'm getting bored with databases. Is there another way to export
my project in one single file?
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  Yes! Just use the "Packaged" file format (extension .mlk).
  Select File/Get/Packaged and File/Put/Packaged popup menus.
  This format includes geometries, hierarchies, materials, scene,
  project. This way, you can easily exchange scenes with your friends!

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Moonlight crashes in a unexpected way under Windows. What's wrong?
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  Moonlight is being developed under Linux and Mesa.
  If you have problems running the Windows version, ask your graphics
  card provider or your OS provider.
  Moonlight has been successfully tested under Windows 95 with the
  standard Microsoft OpenGL 1.1 library.

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Does Moonlight support 3Dfx for rendering?
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  Voodoo chipset does not support windowed rendering yet. Mesa has
  an hack to do windowed rendering using 3Dfx hardware.
  The driver must support: rendering in multiple window with a single
  GL context, GL_BACK and GL_FRONT rendering, XPixmap/Bitmap rendering.
  I have no idea if any user have already run Moonlight with a 3Dfx.
  To be followed!

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How did you create the sample scenes of the standard distribution?
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  I have imported free objects. They have not been modelled with Moonlight!

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How can i import 3D models?
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  Try "moonlight -convert". You can import DXF, OFF and 3D-Studio ASC
  formats.
  For example, import the file "object.dxf":

    moonlight -convert object.dxf -outname MyScene -db /moonlight/database

  You should be able to get scene "MyScene" from the database
  "/moonlight/database". (Select the File/Get/Scene popup menu)
  Specifying the database location is optional. If you don't specify it,
  the scene will be written in the first database found in ~/.mlrc

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Do you plan to integrate a simple language for plug-ins?
Do you plan to write plug-ins for interfacing the GIMP and Moonlight?
Do you plan to integrate shaders into the Moonlight renderer?
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  Why not!

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How can i do texturing?
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It is not implemented yet.

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