Blur Image Filter v2.0b1
Copyright 1997, Johnny Ow

DISCLAIMER:
This software is provided as FREEWARE, and cannot be sold. This software cannot
be bundled with any commercial package without express written permission from
the author. You may not disassemble, decompose, reverse engineer, or alter this
file or any of the other files in the package. By using this product, you agree
to exempt the author from any responsibility for the damages your computer
or your data may incur through the use of this program.  This is an unsupported
product so use this product at your own risk!

Distribution
============

Please do not distribute this product without this text file.

Summary
=======

Blur portions of an image based on the MaterialID or ObjectID.

Requirements
============

3DSMax v2.0 or better.

Installation
============

Place the file Blur.flt into your \3DSMax2\plugins directory.


Warning
=======

This is beta software and has not been tested fully.  Use at your own
risk!

This program will probably be in beta forever since I don't have
time for adequate testing.

Description
===========

11/21/97- Release v2.0b1
========================

This is the first public build for Max R2 (Yay!).  Here's a summary of new
changes and additions:

1.  Added support for multithreading to take advantage of these new fangled
    multi-processor machines.  Multithreading is active only if Constrain
	is TRUE and Overlap is FALSE.  This new code seems to be running okay.

2.  Radius parameter is now animatable, thanks to the new TV access in the
    R2 SDK.

3.  Simple anti-aliasing can be performed by turning on the Z-Coverage AA
    option.

4.  You can selective blur only portions of the image which are at the same
    depth or behind the source by turning on Respect Z-Buffer.  When this
	option is on, you can turn on Ignore Source Z.  When this second option
	is on, the any pixel which belongs to the source ObjectID or MaterialID
	will be blurred by it's neighbors even if it's in front of the current
	source pixel being evaluated.

04/02/97- Release v1.0b4
========================

Fixed--there was a massive memory leak occurring on every rendered
frame because I failed to delete some temporary storage used in the
blur routine.


01/03/97- Release v1.0b1
========================

The Blur image filter blurs specific portions of an image based on a
MaterialID or ObjectID--much like Glow.  This is extremely useful, for
example, in creating the effect of atmospheric distortion due to 
moving masses of hot air (like you would see from the exhaust of an
airplane).

The MaterialID and ObjectID fields are self-explanatory.

If checked, the Constrain to Shape parameter will limit the blur to
the exact pixels with the correct MaterialID or ObjectID--this has
the effect of giving you a very sharp transition from the blurred and
non-blurred portions of an image.  It is recommended that Constrain
to Shape be unchecked.

The Overlap parameter has the tendency to make things look a bit more
blurred.  However, it has the side effect of making the affected
portions of the image look quite muddy.  It is recommended that this
parameter be left unchecked, but just in case you ever need it, it's
available.

Affect Alpha will blur the alpha channel if it is checked.

The Radius parameter controls the amount of blurring.  If Constrain to
Shape is unchecked, it also controls the size of the soft edge around
the blurred portions of the image.

WARNING!  Be very careful with the use of the Radius parameter--
computing time increases *exponentially* with the radius of the effect.
The default setting of three for Radius is fine for most effects.

01/10/97- Release v1.0b2
========================

For a simple little filter, this thing had some bugs!--teaches me
not to stay up past 3am coding.

Fixed--When Constrain to Shape was off, the entire object was blurred
with a radius of one no matter what setting was being used in in the
Radius parameter.

Fixed--The alpha channel was being set to 100% opaque whereever the
image was being blurred.  This has been fixed such that the Alpha
channel is blurred, giving you a gradation of opacity.

Improved--This filter runs *so* much faster!  The speed improvement
depends on the Radius Parameter--the larger the Radius, the larger the
improvement.

Changed--You can now set the Material ID and Object ID parameters to
zero.  This allows you to, for example, blur the background.  The
default is still one though.

To Be Done
==========

Clean-up the visible artifacts when Constrain to Shape is off.

Contact
=======

Bugs, gripes, comments, suggestions, etc. can be directed at:  johnny@ywd.com.
I can't guarantee that I will respond to any or all email.
