rds95@leah.Albany.Edu (Robert Seals) (02/17/89)
Well, I got the recently posted "dbwrendr" aka "ray" and "tmp2gif" and everything unpacked fine and stuff, and it runs... kinda. After computing around 200 scan lines, the program terminates, apparently normally. Then when using "tmp2gif" the bottom half of the picture is just a repeat of the last scan line; I presume this is because of the Amiga's 400 scan lines. So what's the scoop? rob
labc-4dc@web-3g.berkeley.edu (Erik Talvola) (02/17/89)
In article <1575@leah.Albany.Edu> rds95@leah.Albany.Edu (Robert Seals) writes: >Well, I got the recently posted "dbwrendr" aka "ray" and "tmp2gif" >and everything unpacked fine and stuff, and it runs... kinda. > >After computing around 200 scan lines, the program terminates, apparently >normally. Then when using "tmp2gif" the bottom half of the picture is just >a repeat of the last scan line; I presume this is because of the >Amiga's 400 scan lines. So what's the scoop? If you look in the documentation concerning TMP2GIF, you will find that it normally expects a 320x400 line image. It then skips every other line to get the final 320x200 GIF picture. All of the sample files on the disk are set up to be 320x200 resolution originally however. If you run TMP2GIF with a "-2" option (I think), it won't skip the lines and you will have the full image. -- Erik Talvola | "It's just what we need... a colossal negative labc-4dc@web.berkeley.edu | space wedgie of great power coming right at us c164-2bf@bard.berkeley.edu | at warp speed." -- Star Drek
nanook@novavax.UUCP (Keith Dickinson) (02/17/89)
in article <1575@leah.Albany.Edu>, rds95@leah.Albany.Edu (Robert Seals) says: > > Well, I got the recently posted "dbwrendr" aka "ray" and "tmp2gif" > and everything unpacked fine and stuff, and it runs... kinda. > > After computing around 200 scan lines, the program terminates, apparently > normally. Then when using "tmp2gif" the bottom half of the picture is just > a repeat of the last scan line; I presume this is because of the > Amiga's 400 scan lines. So what's the scoop? > > rob Rob, You were trying to convert a picture that was only 200 scan lines tall.The convert program defaults to 400 lines. It will trash every other line to pack 400 lines into 200. This also causes the last line in the real image to be repeated for half of the screen. Try running tmp2gif with the '-2' command line option. That should fix it! Keith Dickinson -- _ /| | Fidonet : 369/2 [(305) 421-8593] Brave Mew World South \'o.O' | Internet : nanook@muadib.FIDONET.ORG =(___)= | UUCP : (novavax,hoptoad!ankh,muadib)!nanook U | USNail : 433 SE 13th CT. J-202, Deerfield Beach, Fl. 33441 Ack! | Disclamer: This message was created by a faulty AI program. Don't blame me...I voted for Bill'n'Opus in '88
malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) (02/17/89)
In article <1575@leah.Albany.Edu> rds95@leah.Albany.Edu (Robert Seals) writes: >Well, I got the recently posted "dbwrendr" aka "ray" and "tmp2gif" >and everything unpacked fine and stuff, and it runs... kinda. > >After computing around 200 scan lines, the program terminates, apparently >normally. Then when using "tmp2gif" the bottom half of the picture is just >a repeat of the last scan line; I presume this is because of the >Amiga's 400 scan lines. So what's the scoop? When in doubt, RTFM. The file TMP2GIF.MAN explicitly states that the program converts a 320x400 .TMP file into a 320x200 GIF file by throwing away alternate lines. With 100 lines to fill, and no new lines to read, the program just repeats the last scan line. However, if your input .TMP file is already 320x200, the manual says to use the invocation 'TMP2GIF -2 <file>' which tells TMP2GIF that the input is only 200 lines high, so don't drop alternate lines. Sean Malloy Navy Personnel Research & Development Center San Diego, CA 92152-6800 malloy@nprdc.navy.mil
troy@arthur.uchicago.edu (Troy Zerr) (02/18/89)
In article <1575@leah.Albany.Edu> rds95@leah.Albany.Edu (Robert Seals) writes: >Well, I got the recently posted "dbwrendr" aka "ray" and "tmp2gif" >and everything unpacked fine and stuff, and it runs... kinda. > >After computing around 200 scan lines, the program terminates, apparently >normally. Then when using "tmp2gif" the bottom half of the picture is just >a repeat of the last scan line; I presume this is because of the >Amiga's 400 scan lines. So what's the scoop? > >rob The summary says it all . . . QUESTION QUESTION QUESTION QUESTION Is there someplace where I can get some .TMP files? I'm working on a program to display the files on an EGA in 640x350 mode by dithering the 320x200 .tmp file to get an effective resolution of 64 colors or 48 shades of gray. Running a bunch of test files through my computer just takes too long. Please email any responses to Troy Zerr Troy@zaphod.uchicago.edu
csd@drutx.ATT.COM (DavisCS) (02/18/89)
In article <1575@leah.Albany.Edu>, rds95@leah.Albany.Edu (Robert Seals) writes: ... > After computing around 200 scan lines, the program terminates, apparently > normally. Then when using "tmp2gif" the bottom half of the picture is just > a repeat of the last scan line; I presume this is because of the > Amiga's 400 scan lines. So what's the scoop? > > rob Did you use the -2 option with "tmp2gif"? I tried it out and it worked for me. I have an EGA with 640x350 resolution. However, the picture was pretty fuzzy even though the program computed all points and guessed at nothing. So far, I am assuming the fuzziness is due to computing the picture at 320x200 resolution and then expanding to 640x400 (or 640x350?). I have seen a few ray traced pictures in GIF format on BBS' that have pretty good resolution (the gif's not the BBS'). A couple are named with some some variation of "ball" and one is called "emrldcty.gif". Anybody know the source of these creations? Scott
akk2@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Atul Kacker) (02/18/89)
I have used the dbwrender program and the accompanying tmp2gif program
quite succesfully, except the GIF file that gets created isn't right.
It is only about 2-3 thousand bytes in size and my GIF viewers don't
read them. The screen image looks just fine. Is there some magic
incantation that I need to do to get a good GIF file on disk?
Thanks,
--
Atul Kacker | Internet: akk2@uhura.cc.rochester.edu
| UUCP: {ames,cmcl2,decvax,rutgers}!rochester!ur-cc!akk2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------troy@zem.uchicago.edu (Troy Zerr) (02/18/89)
In article <884@ur-cc.UUCP> akk2@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Atul Kacker) writes: >I have used the dbwrender program and the accompanying tmp2gif program >quite succesfully, except the GIF file that gets created isn't right. >It is only about 2-3 thousand bytes in size and my GIF viewers don't >read them. The screen image looks just fine. Is there some magic >incantation that I need to do to get a good GIF file on disk? 1. Remember the -2 flag on the tmp2gif command. 2. What Gif Viewer depends on what display card you have. PICEM ought to work for VGA, since tmp2gif produces 320x200x256 pictures. PICEM won't work for the EGA since it doesn't know how to crunch 256 colors into 16. If you have EGA, use CSHOW, from COMPUSERVE. It can give you a 320x200x16 approximation. However, expect it to look awful -- the low resolution coupled with fewer colors wastes much of the picture data. CSHOW (at least the version I have) won't do VGA modes. As I mentioned before, I'm working on a program to dither the image. I have an analog monochrome monitor, and I can get 48 shades of gray out of it and it looks great. One ought to get 64 colors from a color monitor by using a similar dithering scheme, but obviously it would be hard for me to test on my system. If you have a CGA or Hercules card, don't bother. If you do go through the trouble of calculating one of these beasts, you owe it to yourself to see them on a color VGA. They are REALLY NEAT. Best of luck Troy Zerr
marks@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM (Mark D. Salzman) (02/24/89)
For anyone that hasn't already figgured this out, it seems that the byte
ordering for the output file is backwards from the way TMP2GIF expects it
to be when done on a PC. I found the best results using both the -r and -2
switches as such:
tmp2gif -2 -r <filename>
The only time you don't need these switches is when the .tmp file is done
on an Amiga or other machine with correct byte order.
Hope this helps.
--
Mark D. Salzman Phone (206) 253-5542. | The more complex the mind,
Tektronix Inc., P.O. Box 3500, M/S C1-936 | the greater the need for
Vancouver, Washington. 98668 | the simplicity of play.
{world_at_large}!tektronix!tekigm2!marks | James T. Kirk