zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle) (03/09/91)
Some asked that I post this. I tried to mail him but got the rubber
message effect.... The author of DKBTrace sent me an excerpt from the
manual. It's at the end of this post.
BTW, the DUMPtoIFF included in the package, along with this format
description, gives me a way to display a 24-bit file as an ordinary
HAM picture. However, as my images get more sophisticated, this
eventually falls apart, with nasty fringing. Is there any way to
easily convert this to SHAM format? I have a viewer (Mostra) that can
deal with SHAM, but no way to convert to that format. From what I've
seen, SHAM images are a little bit better than HAM, and I don't feel
quite ready to cough up the money for a real 24-bit frame buffer just
yet (maybe next year).
---- included text follows ----
The format is really simple. The following text is taken from the updated
documentation file for DKBTrave version 2.10 which is currently in beta-
testing:
dbuck@ccs.carleton.ca
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.7) Output File Formats
People always ask me to describe the output file formats of DKBTrace. I
received so many requests for this that I decided to put it into the document.
The normal "default" output format is "dump" format. This is based on QRT
format and goes like this:
Header:
wwww hhhh - width, height (16 bits each, LSB first)
For each data line:
llll - line number (16 bits, LSB first, 0 to LINES-1)
rr rr rr rr rr ... - the red components for that line
(8 bits each - 0=dark, 255=bright)
gg gg gg gg gg ... - the green components for that line
(8 bits each - 0=dark, 255=bright)
bb bb bb bb bb ... - the blue components for that line
(8 bits each - 0=dark, 255=bright)
Note that this format is slightly different from QRT's.
The "+fr" option of the raytracer produces "raw" files. These are simply
three files with no header information and no line number information - just
the raw data.
The "+ft" option writes out Targa format. Specifically, the fields are:
Header:
00 00 02 00 00 - Fixed header information
00 00 00 00 00
LLLL - First line number (16 bits, LSB first)
wwww hhhh - width, height (16 bits each, LSB first)
18 20 - 24 bits per pixel, Top-down raster
For each line:
bb gg rr bb gg rr... - blue, green, and red data for each pixel.
Dan Zerkle zerkle@iris.eecs.ucdavis.edu (916) 754-0240
Amiga... Because life is too short for boring computers.