rdb@oasis.icl.co.uk (Roger Binns) (06/14/91)
I have just got hold of the dkb ray tracer. It produces the most amazing
24 bit pictures. Unfortunatley, I only have VGA, and so have to convert it
to use only 256 colours. They still lokk very good.
The problem is in trying to use them under windows. Even if converted to
16 colours, they aren't drawn properly. I suspect that this is due to
windows use of the palette. ie it reserves the first twenty colours for
itself (for scroll bars, window titles etc) leaving me with a vast number
of colours to play with. I have tried dithering the images, and they look
ok from a distance, but close up, they are awful.
The VGA card is a standard VGA, so I did a little back of the envelope
calculation, and discovered that a 640x400x256 display is possible (uses
250K). Now, the big question:
IF ANYONE HAS A 640x400x256 VGA WINDOWS DISPLAY DRIVER, PLEASE SEND ME A
COPY.
thanks,
roger
ps: I would highly recommend the ray-tracer to anyone who has access to
serious equipment. I use a 33MHZ sparc based machine, and the PBM+
utilities to get gifs. Mail me for me details.
rdb@oasis.icl.co.uk ICL, Bracknell, UK
cs89rdb@brunel.ac.uk Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK