[comp.sys.amiga] Data driven 3D rendering and animation

gpotts@oregon.uoregon.edu (09/15/90)

I want to take a 3D object and have access to the color parameters of the
individual polygons which make up the object so that those colors could be 
driven by data. In other words, I need a program which allows script control
of the color parameters of the display list. With such a capability, I could
take arrays of data which represent measurements at different times and apply
those measurements to drive the colors of the 3D object. Neither Sculpt nor
Turbo Silver have this capability but there are a number of new rendering and
animation packages on the market and I wonder if any of them might work.

What we are doing is measuring the electrical activity of the brain during
cognitive processing (Event Related Potentials of ERPs) and we want to map
our measures back on to a head model and animate to show the appearance and
migration of current sources and sinks across the surface of the scalp.

We are currently doing our work on Mac IIs which have software that allow
script access to the display list but animation on the Macs is a tedious
process at best and the results ar less than optimal. I've been trying for
a year now tho get an Amiga through the door of the department to no avail.
If this software could be found, I just might be able to pull it off.

Geoff Potts
Dept. of Psychology
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403

gpotts@oregon.uoregon.edu

jerry@truevision.com (Jerry Thompson) (09/18/90)

In article <20066.26f0fb4f@oregon.uoregon.edu> gpotts@oregon.uoregon.edu writes:
>I want to take a 3D object and have access to the color parameters of the
>individual polygons which make up the object so that those colors could be 
>driven by data. In other words, I need a program which allows script control
>of the color parameters of the display list. With such a capability, I could
>take arrays of data which represent measurements at different times and apply
>those measurements to drive the colors of the 3D object. Neither Sculpt nor
>Turbo Silver have this capability but there are a number of new rendering and
>animation packages on the market and I wonder if any of them might work.

Take a look at PageRender 3D from Mindware International.  It has support for
AREXX and allows you to access and modify object structures via AREXX.
-- 
Jerry Thompson                 |     // checks  ___________   | "I'm into S&M,
"What I want to know is, have  | \\ //   and    |    |    |   |  Sarcasm and
 you ever seen Claude Rains?"  |  \X/ balances /_\   |   /_\  |  Mass Sarcasm."