hill@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Anthony Adam Hill) (11/17/89)
Thomas,
I'm no video professional but here are some explanations....
Turbo Silver(Impulse Inc.)--- A comprensive raytracing package. Supports
texture mapping, preview mode and several other options. Though I do
not know how well it supports animation. Has an extension package that
can draw different types of terrain. Is considered an excellent 3-D pack
over-all.
Calligari (Octree) -- Great wireframe preview mode but does not output
standard format IFF files. Only seen it once. Does not support HAM
There are several packages for constructing 3-D images.
3-Demon (Mimetics)
Design 3D (GoldDisk)
Two other packages have also been introduced for 3D modeling.
PageRender 3D (Mindware International)
3D Professional (Progressive Peripherals)
Sorry I haven't used any of these packages. My interests lie in other areas
(software engineering)
Next... hardware.
Motrorola has announced a 50 Mhz version of their 030 chip though it has
no cache on board (a cache is high speed memory that contains the next
??? bytes of instructions and/or data)
What 030 card do you use? GVP has current state of the art card (for the
minute :-) ) It has an asynchronus design which means the card's clock runs
independently of the system clock. This will allow the card to increase its
speed without worring about how fast the system runs. Supposedly the 68040
is plug compatible with the 030.
As for the transputer take it with a grain of salt. DAP has been announcing
it for a while, even though it has been seen by mortals --- will it run existing
software any faster? The engineer in me says NO -- It (the software) will have
to be recompiled with a compiler that optimizes/compiles for a transputer system. So be that as it may.
How about the Video Toaster (NEWTEK). It has been shown and is said to be
quite impressive Price is a firm (yeah right) $1495.
There is also a product known as the V-Machine (Digital Creations)
which is " ... an infinite window TBC with dissolve overlay and keying system,
as well as programmable realtime digital video effects... Features NTSC RS-170A
compatable , Y/C compatable (VHS and Beta) " Like I said I'm not a video person.
Polaroid has put out a 35mm attachment for their Liquid Light slide recorder.
Its cost is $6995. (see the Oct/Nov issue of Amiga +) And last but sure not
least Active Circuits has released 16, 24, and 32 bit Targa boards for the
Amiga. Prices 2195, 4009 and 4950 respectively. Has software that will
convert between IFF, Sculpt and Direct, DigiView, Macintosh, Targa File and
Turbo Silver . Modules add new formats Sun Rasterfile (Trace your anims on a
Cray Y/MP!!!), GIF and TIFF.. This sounds very impressive.
As for price (I thought a 32 bit mac costs about 12,000 with monitor)
Here we go....
Amiga 2000 $1699
030/882 (25 MHZ) 4 megs 32 bit RAM $2599
Hard Drive (pick one the GVP card has
an SSCI interface built in) $799 (80 meg) $999 (GVP 42 meg removable)
Magni Genlock $1695
--------
$6992
So for a little over half your budget(?) you have a very powerful system.
Just add software, and extras.
Feel free to ask any question about anything (I have a hard time about guessing
the level at which people understand the Amiga, over the net).
Two more things ---- Get 1) Amazing Computing's Fall '89 Guide $4.95
This is an invaluable reference guide.
VERY IMPORTANT!
2) MagDex -- list of 4300 articles from 11 Amiga
magazines (type, subject title author)
Order from Selectronic Inc.
(I cannot find an address now!!! ARGHHH!)
Hope I have helped (and not decreased the signal to noise ratio)
Adam Hillmblair@orion.oac.uci.edu (Mark Nagel) (11/19/89)
In article <4303@nigel.udel.EDU> hill@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Anthony Adam Hill) writes: [... stuff deleted ...] > > Amiga 2000 $1699 > 030/882 (25 MHZ) 4 megs 32 bit RAM $2599 > Hard Drive (pick one the GVP card has > an SSCI interface built in) $799 (80 meg) $999 (GVP 42 meg removable) One minor correction: the GVP accelerator card does not have a SCSI interface built in. It is a different type of interface, but I have forgotten what they call it :-(. But don't worry; GVP sells Quantum hard drives with this type of interface. The 42 meg removable-cartridge drive is made by Syquest, and is not available (last I heard) with this interface. (Information comes from GVP -- I have a summertime job at an Amiga dealer in Las Vegas, and I called up GVP once to get some information for a customer who wanted one of these boards.) I hope this has been helpful. [... stuff deleted ...] > > Hope I have helped (and not decreased the signal to noise ratio) > > Adam Hill -- Mark Blair University of California, Irvine mblair@orion.oac.uci.edu