[comp.graphics] NFF file format

james@cisunx.UUCP (Doug E James) (09/03/88)

I recently got a Ray tracing program by Mark VandeWettering which uses 
Eric Haine's NFF file format for objects.  I was wondering if anyone has
used this format and has any object files I could have.

More importantly, does anyone have any documentation on it or any
programs to generate it...

Please either leave a message on this group or reply to me at
		james@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu

Thanks..

saponara@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (John Saponara) (09/05/88)

First off, this is Eric Haines, not John Saponara.

In article <12282@cisunx.UUCP> james@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Doug E James) writes:
>I recently got a Ray tracing program by Mark VandeWettering which uses 
>Eric Haines's NFF file format for objects.  I was wondering if anyone has
>used this format and has any object files I could have.
>
>More importantly, does anyone have any documentation on it or any
>programs to generate it...

Here's my default description of the SPD package, recently updated.  To all
who've seen it before (and before (and before)), hit that `N' key now.  I
figured posting this once again will save us all 5 more requests for info on it.

        The "Standard Procedural Database" package is a set of 6 database
    generators, including the recursive tetrahedron, a fractal mountain, and
    a tree grower.  For images produced by the databases and more information
    on the concept, see the article in IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications,
    November 1987, p. 3-5.  To get the package, send mail to Netlib (which has
    a lot of other worthwhile free stuff) at `netlib@anl-mcs.arpa' or at
    `research!netlib'.  Send the one line message `Send Haines from Graphics'
    and the program which receives your message will send you a copy of the
    package.  If you send the message (on a separate line) `Send Index' you'll
    get the index and more information about Netlib in general.  Eric Grosse
    and Jack Dongarra run Netlib.  I (Eric Haines) simply wrote the SPD package.

	The NFF format is a very basic format that allows the specification
    of the scene's geometry, lighting, and the viewpoint.  Polygons, polygonal
    patches, spheres, cylinders, cones, and tori are presently supported.
    It is meant to be minimal and simple, so that users can write a translator
    program to convert this format into their own package-specific format.
    Since the focus of the SPD package is on testing ray tracers, the format
    is limited in many ways.  For example, matrices are not supported.  The
    file contains raw geometric data and not much else (e.g. light source
    intensities cannot be specified, as this parameter has no effect upon
    how fast the scene can be ray-traced).

	The newest version of the SPD package is 2.4 (check the mountain.c
    module to see if yours is labeled as such).

Eric Haines, who is still not John Saponara