gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) (08/31/90)
On some of the information services (Genie and AOL, not sure about CIS), there is a new demo from FTA available for downloading; although it takes well over an hour to download, it is so spectacular that you may want to do it anyway. If you thought the Nucleus demo was nifty, well this one goes well beyond that. For example, you can rotate polygonal objects IN REAL TIME with hidden-surface removal! This is something that people normally think requires a Silicon Graphics Iris or equivalent. With continuous background sound it is actually niftier. (The lighting model is fixed to the object description, not the view, but as the demo shows this isn't all that big a loss.) I wish these guys would release their source code, and an English translation of the IIGS programming book they seem to rely on..
knauer@suna2 (Rob Knauerhase) (08/31/90)
In article <13715@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) writes: >On some of the information services (Genie and AOL, not sure about CIS), >there is a new demo from FTA available for downloading; although it takes >well over an hour to download, it is so spectacular that you may want to >do it anyway. Actually, at 2400 baud, it took something like 50 minutes; the _only_ reason I kept America Online after they went to mandatory per month fees is that they are the only ones that don't penalize you for having a fast modem... > If you thought the Nucleus demo was nifty, well this one >goes well beyond that. For example, you can rotate polygonal objects IN >REAL TIME with hidden-surface removal! This is something that people >normally think requires a Silicon Graphics Iris or equivalent. With >continuous background sound it is actually niftier. (The lighting model >is fixed to the object description, not the view, but as the demo shows >this isn't all that big a loss.) I was pretty impressed, but I wouldn't compare it to an Iris... >I wish these guys would release their source code, and an English >translation of the IIGS programming book they seem to rely on.. Me, too. I know someone who was working on de-compiling some of their stuff (are you out there, Tim? :) but haven't heard of his progress. By the way, it should be up in _many_ BinSCII-ed parts on comp.binaries.apple2, and it's certainly worth the download. I also put it in the incoming directory at tybalt.caltech.edu (and have yet to inform Todd -- sorry). How many other people out there are spending at least an hour per month on AOL (to get use of the monthly minimum)? UPLOAD the stuff you get -- it not only does a service to the net community, it gives you a warm-fuzzy philanthropic feeling as well. [And if you upload from a networked Mac, it doesn't take much time at all. :) ] Rob Knauerhase +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Robert C. Knauerhase | | knauer@cs.uiuc.edu | U of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign| | rck@ces.cwru.edu,knauer@cwru.bitnet | Case Western Reserve University | | knauer@scivax.lerc.nasa.gov | NASA Lewis Research Center | +----------------------------------------+---------------------------------+ | "Computers are different from telephones. Computers do not ring." | | -- A. Tanenbaum, "Computer Networks", p. 32 | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+