dale@b17b.INGR.COM (Dale Rogers) (01/30/91)
I'm very close to buying either a 2500 or a 3000. My local dealer suggested that I buy a 3000 for the cost/performance. However I told him that I was interested in the Toaster. He informed me that the Toaster would work on a 3000 except for the size. I checked this out with New Tek. Tammi at New Tek told me that they will NOT support the Toaster on the 3000. She suggested that I go for the 2000 or the 2500. Fine. So I should get the 2500. Except that one of the issues that first attracted me to the 3000 was the higher resolution display. What is the highest resolution that I can hope to achieve on the 2500? This is including additional monitors/video boards that I can add on later. My goal is to produce nice animations, both 2D line drawing (cell animation) type stuff, and 3D Rendered stuff with the intent to go to Video Tape (thus my interest in the Toaster). Also, The same dealer is trying to interest me in Imagine. It sounds good. Is it? While I'm in question mode: What's a good digitizer/pen model to go with? Thanks in advance. Please note my signature for the correct mailing address. Dale Dale R. Rogers _________________________________________________ ingr!b17b!camelot!dale ingr.com!b17b!camelot!dale@uunet.uu.net "So then I says to Borg, 'You know, as long as we're under seige, one of us oughta moon these Saxxon dogs.'" -Gary Larson
mark@calvin..westford.ccur.com (Mark Thompson) (01/31/91)
In article <678@b17b.INGR.COM> dale@b17b.INGR.COM (Dale Rogers) writes: >I'm very close to buying either a 2500 or a 3000. >Tammi at New Tek told me that they will NOT support the Toaster on the >3000 This is contrary to what NewTek has been saying for some time. They have always said that they do not *currently* support the 3000 but they were reworking the board to make it fit in (at which point they would support it). >Fine. So I should get the 2500. Except that one of the issues that first >attracted me to the 3000 was the higher resolution display. What is the >highest resolution that I can hope to achieve on the 2500? This is >including additional monitors/video boards that I can add on later. If you have to have the Toaster now, get a 2500. As for display resolution, the stock 3000 is better than a stock 2500. However, boards such as the soon to be released ULowell graphics card will allow up to 1024 x 1024 with 256 out of 16M colors on either the 2500 or 3000. I don't know if you can run your workbench on it though. >My goal is to produce nice animations, both 2D line drawing (cell >animation) type stuff, and 3D Rendered stuff with the intent to go to Video >Tape (thus my interest in the Toaster). Note that the Toaster works only with full 24bit color images so that going to tape with your animations is not a real-time process. It requires a single frame record capable VCR or video disk recorder. >Also, The same dealer is trying to interest me in Imagine. It sounds good. >Is it? Well, if you haven't used Turbo Silver, let me caution you....Imagine is a very capable 3D animation package with a DISTURBINGLY NON-INTUITIVE user interface! It will create stunning images, but will take you months to figure out how to create them. To make matters worse, the documentation is absolutely terrible. If you decide to go this route, make sure to get your name on the imagine electronic mailing list (imagine@athena.mit.edu) where people discuss how to do things that should be simple, like wrapping a brush on a flat object. However, if you buy a Toaster, you will be the proud owner of Lightwave 3D which has to be the easiest to use 3D animation package ever created for the Amiga. It creates stupendous images and with all of its special effects and high rendering speed, you won't even care that it doesn't do ray-tracing. Note however that Lightwave only supports 24bit output. Another consideration for 3D animation is Hash Enterprises Animation Journeyman. I can't comment on its ease of use, but suffice it to say that if you plan on doing character animation (animals, people, and nice blobby objects) don't consider any other program except this one. Unfortunately, you can't get it from a dealer, only direct from Hash. It runs $500. >While I'm in question mode: What's a good digitizer/pen model to go with? If you are a sketch artist with a light touch (like myself), avoid the Easyl. It requires too much pressure (IMHO) and the surface is slightly uneven. The one I have liked the most is the one used by RD&L for AProDraw. I think it is a SummaSketch. It uses a corded pen but it is fairly quick, responsive, will take a light touch, has good resolution, and will even work with a moderately thick stack of paper on top (about 1/8 - 1/4 inch). Hope this all helps, give me a buzz if you have any more animation or Toaster questions. %~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~% % ` ' Mark Thompson % % --==* RADIANT *==-- mark@westford.ccur.com % % ' Image ` ...!{decvax,uunet}!masscomp!mark % % Productions (508)392-2480 (603)424-1829 % % % ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
danb20@pro-graphics.cts.com (Dan Bachmann, SubOp) (02/05/91)
In-Reply-To: message from dale@b17b.INGR.COM
I can say that Imagine is worth while. It is great for 3d ray-trace
animation creation if you have about 5MB you should be fine.
As for Amiga resolutions, the A3000 only has an ECS mode that is
better, but only shows 4 colors, so you probably won't want it for graphics.
One thing good about the A3000 is the interlaced display is rock solid on an
SVGA/VGA monitor, but you can get a flicker fixxer for the A2x00 if you want
that. I'd say go for an A2500 or A2500/030 if you also want some speed.
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U.S.Mail: 509 StonyBrook Drive, Bridgewater, NJ 08807swarren@convex.com (Steve Warren) (02/06/91)
In article <7420@crash.cts.com> danb20@pro-graphics.cts.com (Dan Bachmann, SubOp) writes: > I can say that Imagine is worth while. It is great for 3d ray-trace >animation creation if you have about 5MB you should be fine. > As for Amiga resolutions, the A3000 only has an ECS mode that is >better, but only shows 4 colors, so you probably won't want it for graphics. Want what, the 3000, or the ECS? ;^) >One thing good about the A3000 is the interlaced display is rock solid on an >SVGA/VGA monitor, but you can get a flicker fixxer for the A2x00 if you want >that. I'd say go for an A2500 or A2500/030 if you also want some speed. On what basis? You don't make a whole lot of sense, Dan. The 3000 has 3 major improvements over the 2500 in terms of graphics: 1) Enhanced graphics modes, which simply give you more display options than you can have with a 2500. 2) Built-in deinterlacer, which is an expensive ($350) add on for the 2500. The deinterlaced video is not only for VGA monitors; it works great on the standard multisync monitor that ships with the 3000 package deal. 3) Doubled memory bandwidth from the processor to the chip (display, etc.) memory. The 3000 has a 32-bit data bus from the 68030 to the chip memory. The 2500 only has 16. In addition, the 3000 is currently the only machine that Commodore is shipping with the 2.0 version of the OS. This is such a major enhancement that it is almost enough by itself to make you want the 3000 over the 2500. Eventually it will be available on the 2500 et al, but if you are going to buy a new machine, why should you wait another 6 mos or longer to have the new OS on your new machine? The only reason I can see to purchase a 2500 rather than a 3000 is if you are planning to purchase a Toaster for it. The Toaster is not currently supported for the 3000. Otherwise I think you will enjoy the 3000 much more. Another reason is that the upper limit of hard disk speed on the 3000 built-in SCSI controller is twice as fast as the upper limit on the 2500 (which is still very fast with a 2091). The 3000 has a 32-bit path to memory as opposed to the 16-bit path on the 2500. Another reason is that *all* memory in the 3000 is 32-bit memory, as far as the processor is concerned. So you get more efficient utilization of resources. In the 2500 only the coprocessor memory is 32-bit memory. All this is not to cut down the 2500. But the 3000 is superior in many ways (which it should be, since it is the latest and greatest from Commodore). -- _. --Steve ._||__ DISCLAIMER: All opinions are my own. Warren v\ *| ---------------------------------------------- V {uunet,sun}!convex!swarren; swarren@convex.com