Ray Tracing Box/RAY_CD.mdf/raytrace/rtn71/rtnv7n1.

Text File | 1994-02-02 | 79KB | 1,783 lines

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            "Light Makes Right"

             February 2, 1994
            Volume 7, Number 1

Compiled by Eric Haines, 3D/Eye Inc, 1050 Craft Road, Ithaca, NY 14850
    [e-mail]
All contents are copyright (c) 1994 by the individual authors
Archive locations:  anonymous FTP at princeton.edu (128.112.128.1)
    /pub/Graphics/RTNews, wuarchive.wustl.edu:/graphics/graphics/RTNews,
    and many others.

Contents:
    Introduction
    Quick Book Reviews, by Eric Haines
    Ray Tracing Roundup
    3D Artist Magazine Information, by Tim Riley
    Updated Graphics CD-ROM from Knowledge Media, by Paul A. Benson
    The Desert Isle List, by Amanda Osborne
    Raytrace Utilities List for DOS (and Windows), by Amanda Osborne
    Brief Reviews of a Bunch of Useful PC Stuff, by Tim Lister
    Tree and Plant Image Generation, by Phil Drinkwater and Jason Weber
    POV-Ray 2.0 Released, by Dave Buck
    JPEG Texture Maps, by Petri Nordlund
    ArchiCAD Model Translator, and other notes, by Paul D. Bourke
    New Radiance Version Available, by Greg Ward
    Previewer Program for Radiance, by Greg Ward
    IRIT Solid Modeller Version 4.0, by Gershon Elber
    Object-Oriented Graphics: GOOD 0.50, by Ekkehard Beier
    GFX News, by Eric Hsiao
    New Wavefront Listserv, by George H. Otto
    Optimized POV 2.0 version, by Peter K. Campbell
    Errata for "Adventures in Ray Tracing", by Alfonso Hermida

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction

In celebration of Ground Hog's day, we're having a special two-for-one sale.
This issue is dedicated to personal computer related resources for ray tracer
users.  It includes information and reviews for the latest releases of various
free packages, book recommendations, and other assorted articles.  The other
issue (v7n2) is more for researchers and programmers.  There was enough
accumulated stuff that I decided to try splitting things along these lines.
Let me know if the split was worthwhile.

This issue has a lot of access information:  3D Artist is a great resource
for users, the Knowledge Media CD-ROM sounds worthwhile and is certainly
cheap, there are a lot of new reference books out, etc.  I have also been
collecting and soliciting users' opinions (you think I have time to actually
use any of this software?) of packages out there; I'm particularly appreciative
of Ms. Osborne's quick response with her useful summaries.  One resource which
is in the other issue (v7n2) but is worth mentioning here is Nicholas Wilt's
_Object-Oriented Ray Tracing in C++_ book, as he's made the code for the
class libraries available.  Though it's more a programmer's book than a user's,
it's also useful as a tool for learning C++.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quick Book Reviews, by Eric Haines

There have been quite a few trade paperbacks which have come out in the past
year or so on ray tracing.  Some of these have been reviewed in these pages
(screens?) already.  The good news is that these books are getting better and
better in quality.  The bad news is that in many cases the authors have already
updated their software so that the books are already dated.

_Practical Ray Tracing in C_, Craig Lindley, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN
0-471-57301-9, 1992, $49.95, comes with software:  This one is quite old as
ray tracing books go (two years!).  Here's the table of contents:

    1. Background Information
    2. Introduction to Ray-Tracing Theory
    3. A First Ray-Tracer Program
    4. Color Quantization and Display of Image Data
    5. Graphics File Formats and Functions
    6. DKBTrace and the Image Development Process
    7. Basic Ray-Tracing Techniques
    8. Intermediate Ray-Tracing Techniques
    9. Image Model Discussions
    Further Reading/Glossary/The Companion Disks/RGB Color Tables

As you can see, this book is based on the DKBTrace software, which has been
superceded by POV 1.0 and 2.0.  The book has what you need to get going, and
deals with all the side issues like image file formats, VGA & VESA,
quantization, etc.  Actually, there's quite a lot about these topics:  40% of
the book goes towards them.  Modeling is not discussed much, which is fine
(the book checks in at 506 pages as it is).  The code per page ratio (i.e. how
much code listing there is in the book, a very common practice in these trade
paperbacks) is a relatively low 35%.  The text about ray tracing deals with
the theory of ray tracing and also acts as a user's manual for DKBTrace.
All in all it's not a bad book, but I can't get excited about it.  If you
want to use a ray tracer, get the book by Wells and Young on POV.  If you want
to understand or write a ray tracer, get Wilt's book.

----

_Ray Tracing Creations_, Drew Wells and Chris Young, The Waite Group,
ISBN 1-878739-27-1, 1993, $39.95 (includes disk)

You should get this book if you are a serious user of the POV ray tracer.
Yes, it's a little dated now that POV 2.0 is out; yes, you might already know
POV 1.0 backwards and forwards - still get it.  It's a 573 page user &
reference manual for POV which puts a lot of commercial software documentation
to shame.  Since it's a user's manual, there are no "pages and pages" of code
sections throughout most of the text (they did kill a few extra trees in
Appendix A, though, listing 65 pages of include files).  Input language
examples are kept short and sweet throughout, never more than the lines
you need.

The first part of the book is a user's manual which, after getting you through
the basics, then gets you using POV to try things out.  The last part is a
reference manual for the input language.  What makes this book so wonderful
is the use of images, figures, and layout.  There are elaborate POV images at
the beginning of each chapter, but what most impressed me was the lavish use
of images to illustrate techniques, concepts, and effects.  POV images are
used in many cases, but not slavishly so; artist's renderings are used when
appropriate.  There are pretty pictures on the back fold-out cover, but the
plates are color renderings of the grayscale reference section images.  About
the only criticism I can make is the darkness of many of the example grayscale
images.  All in all, this is a great manual.  I particularly enjoyed Mitch
Waite's publisher's note, showing how he got sucked into playing with the ray
tracer.

----

_Adventures in Ray Tracing_, Alfonso Hermida, Que Corp., ISBN 1-56529-555-2,
1993, $27.95 (includes disk).  Let's start off with the table of contents:

    1. Introduction to Ray Tracing
    2. Your First Ray-Traced Image
    3. Using Polyray
    4. Lights, Colors, and Textures
    5. Constructive Solid Geometry
    6. Additional Features
    7. Using a 3-D Modeler (POVCAD)
    8. Animation

If you want to get someone a single book for playing with a ray tracer,
consider this one (they'll need an IBM clone with Windows).  It covers Polyray,
Alexander Enzmann's ray tracer, along with POVCAD.  Polyray is almost something
of a testbed for POV, with some features in Polyray eventually migrating into
POV.  POVCAD is one of the better modelers for Polyray and POV.  The two
together make for a pleasant combination.  Right now the code that comes with
it is pretty up-to-date:  POVCAD has been updated once since the book's
release, and Polyray is still the same for now.

The information and layout of this book are good, with illustrations and
renderings of equal quality to those in the Wells & Young book.  There are
a few oddities in wording in Polyray (e.g. a "directional light" to Polyray
means a light that does not cast a shadow; this term is used in most other
renderers to mean a light at infinity, or maybe a spotlight), but otherwise
it seems to be a fine renderer.  There are some errors in the text, and
Alfonso kindly contributed his errata list to this issue (the last article).
The animation section is a bit short for my tastes, but does get you started.
But, if you're interested in animation, then...

----

_Making Movies on Your PC_, David K. Mason and Alexander Enzmann, The Waite
Group, ISBN 1-878739-41-7, 1993, $34.95 (with disks).

Table of contents:
    1. Introduction (concepts, tools on the disk, ...)
    2. Getting Your Feet Wet (running the software)
    3. Making a Movie in Eight Steps
    4. Advanced Techniques
    5. Movie-Making Tools (heart of the book: Polyray, DTA, SP, DMorf)
    6. The Movie Pages (a series of complete animations)

This book stresses animation, obviously.  Its approach is to teach you to use
a variety of shareware tools to do it:  Polyray, Dave's Targa Animator (which
converts a series of Targa images into a flic file), SP (a spline path
generator program), and DMorf (a 2D image morpher).  It's a pleasantly short
book, weighing in at 210 pages.  The layout is of good quality, with ample
illustrations.  There are a few tiny images which are hard to discern, but
nothing too terrible.

This book is not meant to be a guide for programmers or students, it's meant
for some serious playing around.  If you already understand the tools listed,
you probably won't gain much from this book (which I guess could be said of
any of the books above).  But if you're starting out and would like to
understand a bit more about how and why these tools work, consider getting
this one.  You don't necessarily have to design a movie from scratch, either:
there are nine movie scripts provided which you can modify to your heart's
content.

There's also a contest for best animation which is... over!  Oh, well; I'll be
interested to see the results (judging is at the end of March).

----

_Tricks of the Graphics Gurus_, Dick Oliver, Scott Anderson, James McCord,
Spyro Gumas, Bob Zigon, SAMS Publishing, 1993, $49.95.

This is a monster, coming in at 894 pages, two disks, and 3D glasses.  Polyray
is used on the ray tracing front, and lots of other graphics programs are
covered (as I recall:  morphing, fractals, image processing, etc etc etc).
It was certainly a, ummm, heavy book.  I wasn't incredibly impressed paging
through it, there seemed to be a lot of techniques thrown around but not
used particularly well.  However, this is based on looking at it for a few
minutes at Electronics Boutique with a sales drone hovering about, so take
this gut reaction with a grain of salt or three.

----

_Object-Oriented Ray Tracing in C++_, Nicholas Wilt, John Wiley & Sons,
ISBN 0471 304 158, 1993, $36.95:  See the next issue (coming out minutes
after this issue) for information on this one, and where to get the code on
the net.  It's a programmer's book, and is pretty good for what it is.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray Tracing Roundup

Lparser is an interesting-looking program to explore L-systems.  The software
takes in an L-system definition and creates output files in a variety of
formats, including POV.  There is also a viewer to get a rough idea of the
results.  The authors draw heavily on the wonderful book "The Algorithmic
Beauty of Plants".  Unfortunately, my system does not have enough memory to
run lparser, and there's no source code provided, so I can only admire some of
the images produced with it.  Pretty impressive stuff:  trees, various
creatures, procedural objects, etc.  It also includes a mutation facility, so
that you can evolve creatures a la Latham's work (though probably not render
them half so beautifully).  Check out issue #12 of "3D Artist" magazine (see
elsewhere in this issue) for a more in-depth review and images.  Find the
latest lparser (lparser2.zip, which does POV 2.0 output) on
weedeater.math.yale.edu in /incoming (and hopefully elsewhere, but I didn't
see it at oldenburg).

(Eric Haines)

----

Coprocessor speed

I have followed everyone's suggestions and purchased a math coprocessor.  Here
were the results [of running POV on a scene, not sure which - EAH]:

    386DX/33MHz w/out 387: 29hours, 54 minutes, 49 seconds
    386DX/33MHz w 387: 1hour, 47minutes, 32seconds

Definitely a huge time saver!!  It's neat having my 386/387 outperform a 486SX
(which took over 12 hours to render).  At any rate, if you're having any
trouble with rendering times -- an investment in a coprocessor is VERY
RECOMMENDED!!!

(John Warren, [e-mail])

----

New Pv3D Available

Ludovic Lecointe has released a new version of Pv3D to coincide with the new
release of Persistence of Vision, v.2.00.  The new release is *not* complete,
coming in under the version number of 1.91.  However, preliminary testing has
shown that it is certainly PoV v.2.00 compliant, including flat image/texture
mapping and height fields.

Availability has been confirmed at the following source:

The Graphics Alternative BBS [phone]

PV3D modeler Version B1.91 For POVRAY 2.0 and VIVID 2.00 Graphics interface
(GUI) with mouse.  Many function are modified since the last version!!!
Includes:  3D animation function 3D visualisation with camera / look_at
Vectoriel object structure.  XMS Support POV primitives support, Blob
structure Height Field Shape, Mapping Texture Bumping Function, GIF viewer
VIVID 2.00 primitives support External Textures Library (POV/VIVID) Dynamic
Rotate Move Scale (R-M-S) NEW!  Support Groupe and Object Library CSG,
Constructive Solide Geometry Direct generation of POV-RAY 2.0 files Direct
generation of VIVID 2.0 files And more.and more ..., Splines, ...Smooth and
Patch TXT shapes POV / VIVID

I talked with Ludovic on 10-11 and we discussed various future improvements,
including the documentation.  =] I am hoping he has the opportunity to work on
the new lighting improvements that PoV v.2.00 has brought to the fore.

In conclusion I have to admit that I did not expect to see a new release so
quickly.  I did know that Dave Mason sent him an "early" copy of PoV, so
perhaps that helped.  Regardless, it is here, so let's just get on with it! =]

David Anjo ([e-mail])

----

POVCAD 2.0c for Windows ready!

Hi!  POVCAD 2.0c for Windows now supports POV 1,2 and Polyray 1.6.  It's
AVAILABLE NOW from my BBS [phone] in Maryland USA.  [It should be at
oldenburg by now - EAH]

(Alfonso Hermida, [e-mail])

----

PV3D vs. Moray vs. ...

Francisco J. Diaz ([e-mail]) wrote:

: And wich one is better: MORAY or PV3D? I'm checking both out to see which
: one I'll stay with. Thanks!

Actually both have advantages and disadvantages, I find that I need both of
them most of the time.  Also check out povcad2c somewhere on the net.  More
than likely you will keep all three.  I like Moray's features and the way it
handles CSG, bounding boxes, texture editing, bezier patches, and the surfaces
of rotation, extrusion and conic rotation.  But it has many shortfalls, a
limited number of primitives and the copy feature is a drag.  PV3D v100 is
more flexible in this area but it too has many good features and drags too.
Same can be said for POVCAD.

BUT!  don't get me wrong, the guys who are working on this stuff are doing an
unbelievable and great job.  I say get all three, and if you have the space on
your disk, keep all of them, and don't forget to register if you can afford it
:-) ehhh he he he.  errmm caugh caugh.

(Ford Prefect [gee, I wonder if that name's real], [e-mail])

----

My personal opinion is that I like Moray better than POVCAD or PV3d (also on
oldenburg) -- POVCAD seems a bit clunky to me, and PV3d has the worst
documentation in the world (the program's okay, but the docs are in broken
English inexpertly translated from French)) which makes the program hard to
use.  Perhaps the next version of PV3d will be better, but I really like
Moray.  (Get more memory!)

(Gavin S. Patton, [e-mail])

----

Fonts for POV

A while ago I wrote a program DXF2TRI that converts polygons in a DXF file
to raw triangle data. The reason for this was to let me import any TrueType
font into POV in the following manner:
    1.    Using CorelDraw, generate the desired text and export to
        a DXF file. All lines are converted to POLYLINES in the
        process.
    2.    Run DXF2TRI on the DXF file, resulting in a raw triangle file.
    3.    Run RAW2POV on the RAW file.
You will wind up with an INC file with bounding surfaces (which was a bonus
when working with POV1.0; it's not that big of a deal with POV2.0) courtesy
of RAW2POV.

DXF2TRI has the option of extruding the shapes (while it was originally
designed for fonts, it will work on any shapes you can generate in Corel) to a
depth of 1.0, which can then be scaled as desired.  It will also generate a
back surface if needed.  It does not support bevelling.  It should be usable
with any vector drawing package that exports DXF files and converts all lines
to POLYLINES.  DXF2TRI does not recognize any other entities.

I believe DXF2TRI (as well as RAW2POV) can be found at:  wuarchive.wustl.edu:
/graphics/graphics/mirrors/ftp.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/pub/dkbtrace and in
the util or uploads|incoming directories.  The ZIP file contains the
executable, source code, directions on use and a sample JPEG image.

The alternative is to generate a B&W bitmapped image (GIF, TGA or IFF) of the
desired text and then use it as a height-map on a surface.  The drawbacks are
limits on the bitmap's resolution and the resultant non-coherence of the
extruded edges.

Tim Riley ([e-mail])

----

POV in IEEE CG&A

There is an article in IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications called
"Mike Miller's Many Hats", v. 14, n. 1, Jan. 1994, p. 4-6.  It discusses
his work, tools he uses and showcases a number of his images.

(Eric Haines)

--------

Syndesis for PC

>InterChange Plus from Syndesis currently converts between all those format
>and more, except for pov. It runs on the Amiga. Contact Syndesis at:
>[phone]

I talked to Syndesis recently, and they will also be coming out with PC
version.  Maybe late this month or sometime next month.

They say that they will also have a Softimage module in the future as well.

(Techs Avery, [e-mail])

--------

Rayshade Animation Language

I developed a simple language for producing animations in conjunction with
rayshade three or four years ago.  It is very similiar to using script to
generate lots of frames but it is (I believe) easier to coordinate events and
it takes care of the linear interpolation.  It does *not* blur the motion (the
tool was developed before rayshade had this capability).

It is available by anonymous ftp in /pub/sass on acs.cps.msu.edu.

Let me know if you are using it because I will begin work a major new release
real soon now (and I'll let you know when it is ready).

(Ron Sass, [e-mail])

--------

avalon.chinalake.navy.mil [129.131.44.11] (the 3D model archive)
...its IP is now 129.131.1.225.  Everything else is the same.

(Francisco X DeJesus, [e-mail])

--------

I've written a raytracer (available from wuarchive.wustl.edu,
graphics/graphics/ray/rayce/).  [More than this I do not know...  -EAH]

(Han-Wen Nienhuys, [e-mail])

--------

RTrace and Ray Tracing Races

I have added a BV hierarchy generator similar to Goldsmith/Salmon to RTrace
8.3.2 (new option c0) and did some tuning in the BV intersection code (beta
version 8.3.3).

[results deleted]

RTrace 8.3.3 seems faster in all scenes (83% in balls and 87% in tetra).  The
GS-like BV's in some cases are worst (balls and tree), but in the sphere test
it is much faster!  I still haven't understood why this happens, but there
must be an explanation.

(Antonio Costa, [e-mail])

----

RTrace & Radiosity

The "lightR" radiosity program from Bernard Kwok ([e-mail])
is now available to run in a PC with DOS DJGPP GO32 extender.

You can ftp a working version with some scenes and utils at asterix.inescn.pt
[192.35.246.17] in directory pub/LightR/PC-386

The source code is in pub/LightR/PC-386/src

I found the program very interesting and it helped me to learn a lot about
Radiosity (a rendering algorithm).

I have also adapted its output to the RTrace ray tracer so that nice images
could be produced:


         lightr          scn2sff         rtrace
   PAT, VW ----------> SCN ----------> SFF ----------> PIC PPM


I included minimal docs and specs, but I intend to improve this area in the
future...  Please feel free to contact me.

RTrace code (for PC's) is in pub/RTrace/PC-386

(Antonio Costa, [e-mail])

--------

VISION 3D, version 1.7, by Eduard Schwan ([e-mail])

Yes, it is here, straight from New Zealand!

Vision3d (CIS:GO GraphDev:LIB 6-RayTrace Sources:Vis3d.sea) is a Macintosh 3-D
CAD modeller, which outputs POV-Ray 2.0 syntax!  It is a Shareware polygon
facet modeller (i.e.  no primitives, just lots of triangles), but it has lathe
and extrusion capability, and some interesting effects.  It can export to
Super3D, Radiance, RayShade, Renderman, POV-Ray 2.0, and DXF.  The archive
contains both an FPU and non-FPU version of the program.  I'm only the
messenger (and the person who asked the author to support POV-Ray.)  If you
have comments, kudos, or questions, please drop the author a note.  Paul
Bourke is not on CIS, but he can be reached through the internet gateway,
using this CompuServe e-mail address:

  INTERNET:[e-mail]

For the internet-lopers out there with ftp access, the Vision3D archive can
also be retrieved from:
  hobbes.lbl.gov
in the
  pub/mac
directory, along with a fractal terrain & plant & L-System generator as well.
If enough people send him mail (and a shareware fee) he might add primitive
support for POV-Ray, and other features too.

--------

SPD 3.1 Enhanced for RenderMan RIB Output, by Philipp Slusallek
    ([e-mail])

The last few days I have extended the SPD package (Version 3.1) to support
RenderMan RIB output.

Please note that the RIB output has not been verified against the Pixar
RenderMan software, but only with our own.  So there might still be bugs that
our software does not yet check.

I hope you still maintain the SPD package (it's really nice for comparing
renderers) and can include that stuff for the next release.

[I hope to integrate this into the enhanced SPD package soon - I thought I
would announce it now, write me if you're desperate for the code.  -EAH]

--------

Polyray Update Soon

[As of 1/27/94] Polyray v1.7 is now in beta test.  Expected release is one to
two months.  I've got a lot of doc cleanup - the last full set of docs was for
v1.5.

New features include:  TrueType style glyphs (with a converter), NURBS,
displacement surfaces in either scan conversion or raytracing, greatly
improved antialiasing, and bumpmapping.

There's been a massive internal overhaul of the code, so I've been spending
lots of time squashing new bugs in addition to old ones that have been hanging
around.

(Alexander Enzmann, [e-mail])

--------

VIVID 3.0?

I'm still working on the docs for 3.0.  Due to my total love of writing docs
this is an extremely slow process.  :-) Please note that my email address has
changed.  That's another reason for my lack of time to finish 3.0.

(Stephen Coy, [e-mail])

--------

Imagine 2.0 Sites?

There are many objects, textures, and attributes for Imagine on Aminet (try
ftp.luth.se, as that might be your closest site), not sure which machine
you're running it on, but there might be some problems with using these files
on the IBM version, stuff on Aminet is for the Amiga :)  Be aware that
Imagine2.9 (alias 3.0) uses a different format for attributes (not sure about
objects or textures, I wish they used some kind of compression on the objects)
than previous versions, and aren't compatible.

(Steve, [e-mail])

--------

On-Line L-system, Fractal, Fuzzy Logic & CA Tutorial

Using xmosaic and world wide web, you can have access to an online tutorial on
l-system, fractals, fuzzy logic and cellular automata.  The url is
http://life.anu.edu.au/complex_systems/complex.html.

The main entry point is http://life.anu.edu.au/ from the Australian National
University Bioinformatics.

(Laurent Moccozet, [e-mail])

--------

The New Graphics BBS

Call The NEW Graphics BBS at 908/469-0049, All lines 14400 Baud, 24 hours a
day, every day!

Featuring:

   o    A graphics specific system for those of you interested in such things
    as 3D, objects, image processing, animation, MPEG, JPEG, GIF images,
    graphics mailing lists, file formats, clip-art and the latest in
    public domain graphics programs!

   o    Knowledge Media "Graphics 1" CD-ROM containing over 450 megs of
    graphics applications and information available for transfer to your
    system.  The 645 megabyte "MultiMedia" CD will be online shortly!

   o    Graphics specific mailing lists such as Imagine 3D, Rayshade 3D Studio
    POV Ray and Lightwave 3D mailing lists aliased to easy to read forums
    which you can join and read.  Many more to come!

   o    Newsfeeds from USENET that include topics such as graphics...

(by Bob Lindabury, [e-mail])

--------

The Graphics Emporium BBS

This BBS is dedicated to the graphics professional and hobbyist to exchange
information, ideas and techniques for Computer Y Graphics.  It is not
dedicated to any single system, as the Administrator has resources for Amiga /
Macintosh / IBM and other platforms as well.  Information exchange is the key,
and File sharing is as welcome as eMail.  So, share your latest 3-D models and
2-D renderings and also get the latest files and techniques - there are no
ratios.  Just a sharing of creativity.

Located in Redondo Beach, California:   [phone]

(Morph's Outpost on the Digital Frontier,
[e-mail])

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3D Artist Magazine Information, by Tim Riley ([e-mail])

3D Artist was originally a newsletter and occasionally appeared in electronic
form on various BBSs and the net.  It is now a full-fledged magazine, and I
have seen no electronic echo of it recently.  I subscribe to it and can
recommend it as a source of info on various ray-tracing and rendering
programs, both free/shareware and commercial, utilities and techniques.

----

I promised information on 3D Artist last week, so here it is (note: I am
merely a subscriber and have no other connections to the magazine):

3D Artist is a magazine that specializes in desktop 3D graphics.  It doesn't
appear to come out at a fixed schedule but as numbered issues.  It's full of
articles on share/freeware, commercial packages, how-to, reviews and ads.  In
fact, it's so full, it's sometimes not immediately obvious which illustra-
tions/photos are associated with which articles.  It would give a layout de-
signer or graphic artist a stroke and would be a good candidate for a make-
over in Publish magazine.  But information is of prime importance and it's
full of good info and decent illustrations.

The newest issue is #12 which I received last week and it contains 34 pages
with articles on:
    *    Lparser (review)
    *    Siggraph '93
    *    MacroModel (first look)
    *    Imagine-Detailor (review)
    *    Photoshop 2.5 (first look)
    *    Hi-color flic's packages (review)
    *    3D-Studio rel. 3 (first look)
    *    Visual Link (review)
    *    Animation Commander (review)
    *    AccuRender Chrome & Glass (how-to)
    *    Lighting (how-to)
    *    Playmation stereo pairs (how-to)
    *    Moving the Topas camera (how-to)
    *    MIDI online
    *    Imagine (how-to)
    *    Miscellaneous tricks & tips
    *    Various press releases, notes, calendar, addresses & phone
        numbers, classified ads.

Subscription info:

         Surface Mail     First Class           Air Mail
        ---------------  -----------  -------------------------
        US  CA/ME OTHER  US   OTHER   CA/ME  W.HEMI  EUR  OTHER
12 issues    $29  $41   $46   $44   $51     $44    $55    $68   $81
 6 issues    $16  $23   $26   $25   $28     $25    $30    $37   $43

It's not cheap and it's tightly packed, but I find it useful.  I think they
will sell single issues to let you get an idea (the cover price is US$3.50).
The address is:
    3D Artist
    P.O. Box 4787
    Santa Fe, NM 87502-4787 USA
    Voice: (505)-982-3532
    FAX:   [phone]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Updated Graphics CD-ROM from Knowledge Media, by Paul A. Benson
    ([e-mail])

Graphics 1 CD-ROM by Knowledge Media has been updated.  This disc is now
available.  The first 100 to order will receive a 20 % discount.

The price is 19.95 plus Shipping and handling. ( Regular price 24.95)

This CD-ROM contains 426 Megabytes, 16,000 files.  An extensive collection
popular public domain, shareware, and freeware graphics programs and tools,
along with sample data files.  A resource for all those interested in graphics
and multimedia.

    A partial list of applications includes( a full directory listing is
more than 500 pages) these programs:

Converters ( 21 Amiga, 10 IBM, 4 MAC)
Object Modeling Applications
Ray Tracing Programs
Fractal software ( 7 Amiga, 5 IBM)
Drawing Programs ( 2 Amiga )
Paint Programs ( 2 Amiga, 2 IBM, 3 MAC)
Image Editors
Image Manipulation Software
Geometric Manipulation Applications
Plotters
Rendering Applications ( 1 IBM, 2 Unix))
Image Viewers ( 28 Amiga, 9 Atari, 26 IBM, 12 MAC, 15 Unix)
Raster Toolkits
Format descriptions ( 37 )
Compression Packages ( JPEG, GIF, TIFF etc.)
Screen Capture ( 2 Amiga, 3 MSDOS, 7 Windows 3.1)
Mapping Applications ( 2 Amiga, 1 IBM)
Animation Players ( 8 Amiga, 1 Windows 3.1)
PHIGS Tool Kit
Gem Graphic Functions [??? Graphics Gems code ???-EAH]

Some examples of media for use with these applications

Images (4 BLM, 2 GIF, 20 JPEG, 1 Landsat, 14 NASA)
Objects ( 138 OFF and 8 NFF)
Movies ( 1 Amiga, 1 MPEG)

Knowledge Media's Resource CD-ROMs are MULTI-PLATFORM compatible.  They have
been recorded in the generic ISO 9660 standard file format.

Ask Knowledge Media about shipping & handling & whatnot:

    Voice:        1-800-78-CDROM
    Fax:        [phone]
    E-mail         [e-mail]
    Compuserve     73167,1312

    mail:        Knowledge Media
            436 Nunneley Rd, Suite B
            Paradise, CA 95969

A complete catalog of Knowledge Media's cd-roms may be ftp'ed from:
     ftp.cdrom.com:cdrom/know_med/catalog.txt

    or send email request to:
    [e-mail]

[Note that Bob Lindabury's "New Graphics BBS" has this CD available online;
see elsewhere in this issue for his announcement. -EAH]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Desert Isle List, by Amanda Osborne ([e-mail])

A lot more biased and arbitrary than the list below, the Desert Isle List is
the programs that I go back to time and again:  the ones that *never* leave my
hard drive.  For object translation I use 3DS2POV quite a bit; things have
gotten better and better with this program over the last couple of years.  I
wish it still supported 3D ascii files, but that's a minor quibble.  Also a
minor quibble is the desire to have RAW2POV support Rayshade output.  I've
been wanting to spend some serious time with Rayshade and already spend a lot
of time fooling with object creation, so it would be nice, but...  As it is,
the program does the best job I've seen of smoothing out those rough edges.
CTDS230 is another program that I've been using for a long time.  I'm still
finding new uses for it.  Many programs support CDTS output, but I've also
sketched things out on paper and come up with my own coordinate file.  I think
just about *any* rounded shape can be made with this program.

There are just a couple more programs on this list.  Too much fun to ignore, I
go back to LISS151 whenever I'm stuck for inspiration and have been pushing
too hard.  An early version of Lissajou helped me create my first real trace
and I still discover the occasional new pattern that I have to do *something*
with.  Because it helped me so much I always recommend this to someone who is
new to tracing.

Finally, a fairly new suite of programs that I find myself never growing tired
of:  LPARSER and LVIEWER.  I use Lviewer all the time.  It's fast and has
never choked on an object file no matter how big or crappy the object might
be.  It is also the only way I have to view .3DS files (count me amongst the
legions of wannabes too poor to take the plunge and buy 3D Studio).  I must
say, the l-system language read by Lparser isn't the easiest chore I've taken
on learning, but it's both sparse and extremely powerful.  Gravity (tropism)
is supported in version 2.  And, though I still wish I understood it better
than I do, this program has provided me with hours of useful exploration.  I
had better throw in a small caveat here:  Lparser is a computationally heavy
program.  There is no way to tell it is still chewing on what you've given it
except by the changing recursive level (and sometimes it takes a looong time
for that level to change).  Once, I took an early mutation l-system file and
attempted to output to DXF (3D faces).  Many hours later I discovered, to my
horror, that I had a 17 meg DXF file and 0 bytes left on that drive.  I named
it kudzo and tried to get any other program to acknowledge it but no dice.  It
was the last time I ever set the recursive level to 14, let me tell you.

Anyway, Eric asked me to give separating the wheat from the chaff a try and
this is it.  I'd like to add that many other programs are extremely valuable
in their own right and still others are excellent for beginners (ie, folks who
aren't hooked yet...).  I'd like to give a blanket "thank you" to all the
talented and generous programmers who place their programs on line so that
everyone can benefit from them.

--------

Raytrace Utilities List for DOS (and Windows), by Amanda Osborne
    ([e-mail])

[An up-to-date alphabetical list of modeling and rendering software the author
has run across.  Many should be available on oldenburg and mirror sites. -EAH]

--3--
3DSPOV16.ZIP -- Reads 3d studio ascii files. Writes out to Raw, Povray 1
and Vivid. (1992, Anger & Bowermaster)
3DSPOV18.ZIP -- Reads 3d studio mesh files. Writes out to Raw, Povray
(1 & 2), Vivid and Polyray. (1993, Anger & Bowermaster)
3D2POV18.ZIP -- Converts .3D2 files to Povray (1 & 2), Vivid or Raw output.
(1993, Anger)

--A--
ACCEL.ZIP -- Animation utility for DKB 2.12. (1991, Trindle)
ANIMK05G.ARJ -- Animation utility for Povray 1 and Vivid. (1992, Taylor)
AWKANI.ZIP -- AWK script to output Povray animation data. (1992, Farmer)

--B--
BACKMAP.ZIP -- Qbasic program to create a graduated color map from two user
defined colors. The map file created is compatible with Fractint and Vivid.
(1993, Smith)
BOXER1.ZIP -- Object generator for Povray 1 (makes things like bathroom
tiles and such based upon user input). (1993, Miller)
BRANCH1.ZIP -- Tree creator for Povray 1. (1992, Weller)

--C--
CHAIN11.ZIP -- Generates interlocking chain links for Povray 1.0. (1992,
Koehler)
CHEM2DKB.ZIP -- Reads molecular models and writes DKB format. (1991, Farmer)
CHEM2V.ZIP -- A modified version of Chem2DKB, this program reads molecular
model files from the PD program Chemical and writes out a Vivid 1.0 datafile.
(1992, Cox)
CLAY02.ZIP -- Free form modeller; several file formats are supported. (1993,
Hermida)
CM100.ZIP -- CircleMaster utility for working with quadric spheres and
ellipsoids; writes output to Povray 1.0. (1992, Brown)
CMAP11.ZIP -- Interactive color map creator for Povray. (1993, Lutz &
Kretzschmar)
COIL2.ZIP -- Creates coiled objects for Povray 1.0. (1992, Kirby)
COIL2V.ZIP -- Creates coiled objects for Vivid 2. (1992, Kirby & Cox)
CREND15.ZIP -- Interactive texture modifier for Povray (0.5 & 1.0).
(1992, Lutz & Kretzschmar)
CTDS230.ZIP -- Connects a series of xyz dot coordinates. Though this may not
sound like much, this is an extremely helpful utility. Supports Povray, Vivid
and Polyray. (1993, Brown)

--D--
DIAMOND2.ZIP -- Generates diamond shapes for Povray 1. (1993, Koehler &
van den Bos)
DNA09.ZIP -- Interesting modern sculpture "dna strands" are created from
user input. Outputs cleanly (no tweaking necessary) to Povray 2.x.
(1993, Bryerton)
DUST01.ZIP -- Simple particle generator, with output to Vivid, Polyray and
Povray. (1993, Mussetter)
DXF2POV.ZIP -- DXF to Povray 1 conversion program. (1992, Collins, Wells,
Farmer & Gibeson)
DXF2RAW2.ZIP -- DXF to Raw conversion program. (1992, Coy, Barber, Daigle
& Shiffman)
DXF2V22.ZIP -- DXF to Vivid conversion program. (1992, Coy, Barber, Daigle
& Shiffman)
DXF3DS.ZIP -- DXF to 3DS conversion program. (1991, Yost/Autodesk)

--F--
FONT2DAT.ZIP -- Version 1.2 is a Qbasic program that takes a font file and
writes an include file for Povray 1.0. (1992, Koehler & Clark)
FORM.ZIP -- All sorts of shapes can be generated with this program. Form
files consist of both shapes and commands (like twistx and bend) and output
may be Povray 1, 2 or .plg. Interesting program, complementary to LPARSER.
(1993, Rowbottom)
FOUNT04.ZIP -- Fountain particle generator, with bounce. The program creates
a user-defined number of files in Vivid, Povray (1 & 2) or Polyray and has a
good variety of fields to set. Some tweaking involved. (1993, Mussetter)
FRC2POV.ZIP -- This program reads a mandelbrot parameter file from Fractint
and creates a corresponding Povray 2.x mandel texture file. (1994, Grossman)
FRGEN14.ZIP -- Fractal Landscape (and other shapes too) Generator. Though
the program supports Vivid and Povray 1 & 2 directly, by selecting raw
output you can smooth triangles out with RAW2POV to create nice hills and
dales. (1993, Anger)
FS11.ZIP -- Fonts to Shapes: Windows program that creates Povray 1.0 files
from True Type fonts. Unregistered users don't have access to the entire
alphabet. (1993, Peterson, $15.00 shareware)
FWHEEL1.ZIP -- Straightforward and unique animation utility for Vivid and
Povray 2.x. (1993, Brown, $5 shareware)

--G--
GEAR13.ZIP -- Generates gears for Povray 1.0. (1992, Koehler)
GLOB10.ZIP -- Rounded object generator for Vivid. (1993, Sherman)
GTR.ZIP -- General Triangle Reader. Strips away raytrace specific syntax,
writing raw triangular data. (1992, Bowermaster)

--H--
HYPE100.ZIP -- Utility for working with hyperboloids of one sheet; writes
output to Povray 1.0. (1992, Brown)

--L--
LAND.ZIP -- Fractal landscape generator, with output to RAW and Povray 1.0.
(1992, Stanely)
LISS151.ARJ -- Lissajou pattern generator with many (CTDS, Raw, Povray 1 &
Vivid) output formats supported. (1992, Caba & Farmer)
LPARSER2.ZIP -- L-system creator and mutator. This program is particularly
strong in the creation of organic looking forms. Many data files are
included with the program, which can be edited or mutated to interesting
effect. The language of l-systems is not intuitive but the results can be
truly stunning. The l-system file that is read into the program can be
outputted to DXF (both R12 and 3D faces), Povray 2.x, RAW and Renderstar VOL.
A couple of accessory files are included with the main program and are strong
programs in their own right. LVIEWER, a favorite of mine, is a wire-frame
viewer that reads .3DS, .RAW, Fractint .RAY, ARE-24 .POL and Lparser/
Renderstar .VOL files. Rotation, zoom and pan the "camera" position, which
can be saved to a file. This file can then be read into LV2POV. (1993, Lapre)
LV2POVID -- Newer and more powerful than LV2POV, this program reads an
lviewer info file and generates data files in Povray (1 & 2.x) and Vivid
formats. The program's main strength lies in landscape generation. (1993,
van der Mark)

--M--
MESH01.ZIP -- This program modifies a flat triangular mesh in any of a variety
of ways (arc, curl, dome and so on) and can output the resulting mesh to DXF,
RAW, Povray 1.0 or Vivid. (1992, Flores)
MORAY13.ZIP -- Povray 1 & 2.x object modeller and scene creator. Extremely
powerful program, in part because of its wide support of Povray's primitive
shapes. (1993, Lutz & Kretzschmar, $59 shareware)

--O--
OBJ2ASC2.ZIP -- Wavefront object to 3d studio ascii converter. (1993, Knight)

--P--
PDOTS03.ZIP -- Visual modeller of wormy shapes. It can read its own DOT files
as well as CTDS and Worm files. It can also read spline path data from SP03,
in which case it will write out a path file. Other output formats are Vivid,
Polyray, RAW and CTDS. Very interesting. (1992, Mason)
PLANT05.ZIP -- Fractal plant generator. Outputs supported are Povray (1 & 2),
Polyray and CTDS (Connect the dots smoother). (1993, Bryerton)
POLAR1.ZIP -- Pattern generator (circles, ovals and several others). Output
can be fed into CTDS, among other uses. (1991, Hammerton)
POVCAD3.ZIP -- Windows 3.1 program supporting input of DXF (3d faces) and
Raw files. CAD modeller and scene generator for Povray (1 & 2) and Polyray.
Quite a few primitives are supported. (1993, Hermida, $15.00 shareware)
POVGEN11.ZIP -- A mouse-driven surface of revolution generator, with output
to RAW and POV 1.0. (1993, Hermida, shareware)
PREPOV05.ZIP -- An equation and formula solver for Povray 1.0. (1993, ?)
PUDDLES.ZIP -- Creates batch files of raindrops using height fields. The
files created can be rendered in Povray 1.0. (1992, Haveland)
PV3D100.ZIP -- Object modeller and scene creator for Povray and Vivid. The
last time I tried this out the documentation was still a bit strange but the
program itself looked powerful, if not overly easy to use. (1993, Lecointe)
PVMDL1.ZIP -- Object generator for DKB and Povray 1. (1992, Mikelson)

--R--
RAW2PV18.ZIP -- Excellent utility that allows the user to adjust the level
of smoothing to apply to raw data as it is translated to Povray (1 & 2.x),
Polyray or Vivid 2. It can also add a camera and light to the scene, making
things fairly easy for the novice user. (1993, Anger)
RAWMRPH2.ZIP -- Morphs raw triangular data from one dataset into another.
Though it's not real smooth, it's a cool idea, and a lot of fun to play
with. (1993, Cox)
RAYPACK.ZIP -- Hodgepodge of helpful Qbasic programs for use with Vivid. Some
neat stuff here like hexagonal paving and stellated dodecahedron creation.
(1993, Smith)
RAYSCENE.ZIP -- Set of animation utilities, not raytracer specific.
(1991, Jarik & Hassi)
RAYL210.ZIP -- Helpful utility to convert uLathe (an object creator program
for windows) files to RAW, Povray 1 & 2.x or Vivid 2 format. (1993, Koehler)
RTAG21.ZIP -- Ray Tracing Animation Generator (not raytracer specific). A
powerful program with its own language which supports, amongst other things,
spline path generation. (1993, Sherrod, $20 shareware)

--S--
SCULPT2D.ZIP -- Reads in Sculpt Animate 3D files and writes out to DKB.
(1990, Buck and Collins)
SHADE12.ZIP -- Generates lampshades for Povray 1.0. (1992, Koehler)
SHELLGEN.ZIP -- Shell generator for Povray 1.0. (1991, Farmer)
SMOOTH31.ZIP -- Building upon the original Sandpaper code, Smooth provides a
means to calculate surface normals of raw triangular data. In addition, several
small utilities (Center and Scale) are also provided. Though nicely supported
and up-to-date, in version 3.0 at least, there seems to be some syntax errors
in files outputted to Povray 2.x. The first version of this program also
supported many other output formats (something I miss). (1993, Burton, $10
shareware)
SNDPPR2.ZIP -- Smooths out raw triangular data when outputting to NFF, Vivid,
DKB, Povray 1.0 and Rayshade. (1992, Schoenborn, Coy & Cox)
SP03.ZIP -- Spline paths for animations. Many output formats (Povray, Vivid,
Polyray, 3DV, Wire 3D) and acceleration and deceleration are supported as
well. (1992, Mason)
SPHRCL11.ZIP -- Spherecal makes interesting shapes out of spheres based upon
several options. Output to Vivid 2 or CTDS. (1992, Pettyjohn)
SPINGEAR.ZIP -- Animation batch file generator for DKB. (1991, Farmer)
SPIRAL22.ZIP -- 3D coordinate generator with output to CTDS and Vivid. (1992,
Brown)
SPRING12.ZIP -- Generates a series of data files to create a spring
animation using Povray 1.0. (1992, Koehler)
STAR.ZIP -- Starfield generator for Povray 1. (1992, Weller)
STAR12.ZIP -- Generates 3D stars for Povray 1. (1992, Koehler)
SUDS2.ZIP -- Random positioning of lots of spheres (or other objects) based
on a variety of selections. (1994, Farmer, Wegner & Schwan)
SWOOP01.ZIP -- Shape generator (twisted sweeps and extrusions) to RAW output
which can be converted to your tracer of choice. (1992, Otwell)

--T--
TCE20.ZIP -- The color editor for Povray 1. (1991, Farmer)
TCEV20.ZIP -- The color editor for Vivid. (1991, Farmer)
TDDD2ASC.ZIP -- TDDD (Imagine) to 3D studio ascii file converter.
(1993, Knight)
TEXMAKE2.ZIP -- Early version of a utility to assist in texture creation in
Povray 2.x. (1993, Sigler)
TGA2POV2.ZIP -- Converts targa files to Povray 1.0 objects. (1992, Steeves)
TREEBAS.ZIP -- Qbasic program to make trees from l-systems. (1993, Storm &
Audas)
TTG12.ZIP -- Truman's Torus Generator for Povray 1.0. (1993, Brown)
TWISTER.ZIP -- DKB utility to produce ribbon like figures. (1990, Wells)

--V--
VIVTOOLS.ZIP -- A nice set of object generators for Vivid. (1992, Martina)
VTEXT09.ZIP -- Letter generation tool for Vivid. (1991, Coy)
VVFONT18.ZIP -- Borland .CHR fonts to Vivid, Povray or Polyray. Bevelling
and domed letters are supported. (1992, Traylor, $5.00 shareware)

--W--
WORM05.ZIP -- Object creator for wormy shapes. Reads Worm files and writes
Worm, CTDS and Vivid output. (1992, Flores)
WRM2RAY.ZIP -- Converts Worm files to Rayshade compatible output. (1992,
Kirby)

--Z--
ZOOM11.ZIP -- Interpolates steps between two positions for Povray 1.0.
(1993, Brown)

========

One program that doesn't really fit the list but that should be considered is
SCULPTURA by Michael Gibson.  At $99.00, it is really a commercial program but
there is a demo available (with save and rendering disabled).  Windows- based,
this program seems very robust and supports several flavors of files for both
input and output (it can read in more sorts of DXF files than any other
program I've used, for instance).  Output to Vivid and Povray 1 are directly
supported as well, but it's great strength lies in object creation and
manipulation.  And it serves as an excellent way to get True Type fonts into
your favorite tracing program.

I'm sure I've left some things off and made some factual blunders amongst what
I did include.  Please let me know what the goofs are and I shall try to
correct stuff and keep it up to date.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brief Reviews of a Bunch of Useful PC Stuff, by Tim Lister
    ([e-mail])

[I disagree with one or two of the reviews here - povray 2.0 is lots faster
for large scenes, povcad is worthwhile, etc.  But it's another view, and
he hits many of the high points. - EAH]

I've just been putting together a bunch of raytracing stuff, and I've
discovered:

    povray         - povray 2.0, doesn't seem much faster than version
              1.0, but has _everything_ I want, including
              Constructive Solid Geometry & Fractal HeightFields

    mray13        - moray 1.3, a decent modelling tool that makes v2.0
              files ... best of all, it's shareware.

    pv3d        - another modeller, this is crippleware, and I don't
              have the money to invest in a complete version, so
              I can't tell you how good this is.

    povcad        - requires VBRUN100.DLL, which I haven't installed
              yet, so I don't know its quality.  But, consider,
              Basic? Really? Do you write Basic? I know people
              who say great things about Visual Basic, but ...,
              who believes it?

    dmorf        - Dave's Morphing package.  Seems good, uses splines
              for the image segments, produces .TGA files.

    dta18e        - Dave's Targa animator, version 1.8e.  Makes movies
              in .FLI format, interpolates frames, etc.  Requires
              some of the DMORF stuff, so unpack it into your
              DMORF directory.  I also dumped a copy of AAPLAY.EXE
              into the DMORF directory to play my .FLIs.

    piclab        - PICture LABoratory version 1.8.  A command line
              program that handles TGAs and GIFs.  Very fast,
              lots of features.

    neopnt2a    - NEOPAINT version 2a.  Best paint program I could
              find that didn't cost $money.  Good for touch-ups
              of GIFs, change palette, etc., etc.

    pspro2        - PAINT SHOP PRO II.  The only Windows package in this
              list so far.  Has good resizing, capture facilities,
              can batch change files, by type & path.

    So what else is out there? Well ...

    display        - image & FLI editor.  I haven't figured out that
              GO32.EXE shit yet.

    image lab II    - this is HUGE and SLOW.  it seems to have a Smalltalk
              interpreter in the package, and my poor little
              386 DX 33 + maths copro, 4 meg memory, just can't
              cope.  Maybe when I get some $money, sigh.

    pvquant        - a set of utilities in source code form only, seems
              nice, I'll report on this when I get round to it,
              unless some nice person does first.

    rmorf        - another morphing package, produces .FLIs on request.
              However, doesn't use splines, so some transforms not
              easy to define.  I prefer DMORF to RMORF, but both
              are usable.

I'm also chasing movie makers like MPEGXING and so on.  Plenty of players
around, just not very many makers.  This area of R&D seems very volatile &
will probably alter significantly in the near future.  Experts, please keep it
coming!

N.B:  If you're looking for the stuff above, use the ARCHIE substring search
to find a site near you.

  E.G; to find DMORF, type

    archie -sdmorf | more

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tree and Plant Image Generation, by Phil Drinkwater
    ([e-mail]) and Jason Weber
    ([e-mail])

I am a final year student who has been writing a program (as part of my final
year project) to produce realistic images of trees.  I posted some questions
on this newsgroup a few months ago, and would like to thank everyone who
helped me, because I have now finished the program, which runs on a PC.

The reason I am writing is that I have produced some trees and a plant and was
wondering if anyone would be interested in viewing them and giving their
opinions.  I have not seen the output from many other programs, so I have not
really got anything to compare them to.

I have rendered images of a palm tree, a Christmas tree, a few branches, a
willow, a few leafy trees and a plant (like a potted plant with dense
foliage) called a 'tree of heaven'.  If anyone is interested in seeing them,
they are available for anon FTP at princeton.edu in the directory
pub/trees/drinkwater.  They are in JPEG format.  If you have problems
reading/getting them, write to me and I'll mail them to you.  If you receive
them, send them to anyone you want to, to get their comments too.

Before you ask, the code is not available for release just yet.  I think it
will probably be made public in the summer sometime.

----

Jason Weber replies:

I made a few small gif's of our trees and put them on our ftp so that anybody
can take a look at 'em.

They're available via anonymous ftp at belvoir-arl-irisgt.army.mil in
pub/viewtree/images .

I picked out a few interesting trees:

aspen.gif       Quaking Aspen
austrian.gif    Austrian Pine
cactus.gif      Cactus
cotton.gif      Eastern Cottonwood
elm.gif         Rock Elm
palm.gif        Queen Palm
poplar.gif      Defoliated Lombardy Poplar
sassa.gif       Sassafras
tamarack.gif    Tamarack
tupelo.gif      Black Tupelo (my favorite)

They're only 256x340 so they should be pretty easy to display.  They lost a
little in the gif conversion.

I haven't been able able to FTP out for the last couple days, so expect
problems.  When you get a chance, download 'em and tell me what you think.

For those of you with SGI's, the runnable demo is at version 1.09 which
fixes a memory bug.  If you couldn't run it before, you may want to try again.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

POV-Ray 2.0 Released, by Dave Buck ([e-mail])

The POV-Ray team is proud to announce the release of POV-Ray 2.0.  This
program is a freely distributable raytracer which runs on a large number of
different platforms including IBM PC's, Macintosh, Amiga, VAX, many UNIX
platforms, and is portable to a large number of other systems.

The distribution files for POV-Ray 2.0 are now available by anonymous FTP from
alfred.ccs.carleton.ca (134.117.1.1) in the directory pub/pov-ray/POV-Ray2.0.
These files should be appearing very shortly on wuarchive.wtl.edu in the
directory
    graphics/graphics/ray/pov-ray/POV-Ray2.0 and on
    ftp.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de [134.106.1.9].

Please forward questions and comments to Chris Young at
[e-mail].

The remainder of this message contains a description of the changes in
POV-Ray 2.0 from the older 1.0 release.  Enjoy.  We did.

    What's New in POV-Ray 2.0
    -------------------------
    The following is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of every
    new feature, but should give experienced users a pretty good guide
    of what has been changed and what has been added.  Please refer to
    POVRAY.DOC for details.


    General:
    -------
  - Automatic bounding slabs for greatly enhanced rendering speed of
    most scenes.
  - Adding, subtracting, multiplying & dividing of floats & vectors.
  - Clock global variable for external animation support.
  - X, Y, and Z global vector constants.
  - Improved antialiasing routine with new commandline options.

    Commandline options:
    -------------------
  - Version switch for backwards compatibility.
  - Starting/ending column/row switches for trace window.
  - Relative/absolute values for trace window switches.
  - Antialiasing jitter scale value and toggle.
  - Number of antialiasing rays to shoot.
  - Internal "clock" setting for animations.


    Objects:
    -------
  - Soft penumbral shadows from extended area lights.
  - Smoother Bezier patches.
  - New simplified torus syntax.
  - Heightfield water_level now uses range 0-1 instead of 0-255.
  - Heightfields can now be clipped and used in CSG operations.
  - Heightfields can be phong-shaded with the "smooth" option.
  - New, improved finite cylinders, cones, and discs, with
    optional "capping" of cones and cylinders.
  - More versatile CSG unions have replaced the need for composites.
  - CSG texturing has been made much more flexible.
  - New "merge" removes internal boundaries between transparent
    unioned objects.

    Textures:
    --------
  - Hexagon pigment texture.
  - Radial pigment texture.
  - Mandelbrot pigment texture.
  - Texture attributes grouped into 3 independently scalable groups:
    pigment, normal, and finish.
  - TIR (Total Internal Reflection) for more realistic refraction.
  - Fractional Brownian Motion (fbm) turbulence controls.
  - Turbulence can now be used independently with any pigment or normal
    texture.
  - Optional vector-style turbulence values.
  - Background coloring.
  - Color maps can now be declared.
  - Frequency, phase keywords now available for use with color_maps.
  - Filter keyword replaces "alpha", letting us reserve alpha for other
    uses in the future.
  - Less restrictive distribution policy.  See POVLEGAL.DOC for
    details.

    IBM PC Video:
    ------------
  - VESA 1.2 spec implemented for preview graphics in the IBM DOS version.
    Gives VESA support in most 8/15/24 bit modes.
    Should support: 1024 x 768 x 256 color palette
             800 x 600 x  15 bit high color
             640x4 480 x  24 bit true color
  - Diamond 24X 15 and 24 bit mode support added.
  - Preview reduced to fit selected video screen size if necessary.

--------

The POV-Ray 2.0 bug which has been plaguing many UNIX systems (especially Risc
processors) and causing them to crash or to gobble up memory has been fixed.
The problem was a compiler-specific "feature" involving structure copying.  A
corrected version of the offending module has been placed on
alfred.ccs.carleton.ca (134.117.1.1) as pub/pov-ray/POV-Ray2.0/objects.c.fix.

The tests I've performed on this system look promising.  If this patch fails
to fix your problems, please let Chris Young know by EMail to
[e-mail].

--------

POV-Ray 2.1 now available!

POV-Ray 2.1 has now been posted on CIS, probably on the carleton internet site
too.  It is mostly a bugfix release, no new features, but much stabler than
2.0.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

JPEG Texture Maps, by Petri Nordlund ([e-mail])

If you need some good textures, then check out these files:

ptindex.lha          gfx/3dobj  191K  Texture maps / index
ptmisc.lha           gfx/3dobj  545K  Texture maps / miscellaneous
ptorgani.lha         gfx/3dobj  213K  Texture maps / organic
ptston1a.lha         gfx/3dobj  446K  Texture maps / stones 1a
ptston1b.lha         gfx/3dobj  412K  Texture maps / stones 1b
ptston2a.lha         gfx/3dobj  360K  Texture maps / stones 2a
ptston2b.lha         gfx/3dobj  331K  Texture maps / stones 2b
ptwood.lha           gfx/3dobj  218K  Texture maps / woods
StonesWoods.lha      pix/misc   466K  24-bit JPEG stone and wood textures

These textures were created on Amiga, so they have been archived with the LhA
archiver.  Unix sources for LhA should be available at grind.isca.uiowa.du
/unix/arc-progs/lha-1.00.tar.Z.

All textures are in JPEG format.  Stones and woods have been scanned from
various sources and they contain some VERY good wood textures.  The others
have been created with POV-Ray 1.0 on Amiga.

These files should be in any Aminet site, the directory is usually
/pub/aminet, /pub/amiga or /pub/amiga/aminet.  In Wuarchive these files are in
/pub/aminet/gfx/3dobj and /pub/aminet/pix/misc directories.

Here are some Aminet sites:

Scandinavia  ftp.luth.se        130.240.16.3
Germany      ftp.uni-kl.de        131.246.9.95
Germany      ftp.uni-erlangen.de    131.188.1.43
Germany      ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de    130.149.17.7
Germany      ftp.uni-paderborn.de   131.234.2.32
USA         wuarchive.wustl.edu    128.252.135.4
USA         oes.orst.edu        128.193.124.2
UK         src.doc.ic.acuk        146.169.2.1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ArchiCAD Model Translator, and other notes, by Paul D. Bourke
    ([e-mail])

- I would appreciate it if the next issue could contain a mention to a
  translator proving very popular here that converts ArchiCAD models into
  Radiance. ArchiCAD is a Architectural specific "intelligent" modelling
  package on both Mac and PC. The translator does clever things with
  materials so that the first rendering in radiance looks damn good, then
  it only gets better as one plays with Radiance lighting and materials.
  It is on my site as well as Greg Ward's.  The path for mine is
    ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz: mirrors.architec/Translators
  for Greg's it's
    hobbes.lbl.gov: pub/translators

- There wes a mention of BitSurface for 3D text...not really appropriate I
  feel.  BitSurface is a rather crude utility we played with here in an
  attempt to create geometry of maori carvings (native population of NZ) It
  takes a grey (gray in the US I think?)  scale bitmap and generates a surface
  where the height is proportional to the grey level.

- There was a query on 3D trees and their generation, I have done some work on
  this although I have had to put it aside for a while at the moment.  There
  are however some Radiance trees on my FTP site generated with 3D L systems
  by myself and with a preliminary particle type approach being worked on by
  someone else here, and still others contributed from a commercial tree
  generating package.  The models come with rendered examples.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Radiance Version Available, by Greg Ward ([e-mail])

Radiance version 2.3 is now available for downloading by anonymous ftp from
hobbes.lbl.gov (128.3.12.38) in Berkeley, California and soon will be
available from dasun2.epfl.ch (128.178.62.2) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

If you do not have access to ftp, you may request the software on 60 Mbyte 1/4
inch tape cartridge.  For a limited time, I will be providing free media (I
have a lot of tapes I want to unload), so act fast with your request.

I have christened this version 2.3 because there were several 2.2 beta
releases that got out (sometimes without my knowledge or permission), and I
wanted to avoid confusion with these earlier, unofficial versions.  This
release has been a long time coming because, as some of you know, the
Department of Energy has been deciding how to "market" Radiance.  I think they
finally gave up with this idea, which is why they are giving us back control
over distribution.

Be aware that Radiance is copyrighted software, and we ask that you do not
redistribute it without our permission.  If someone wants it, let them write
to us or access one of the official ftp sites themselves.  We do encourage
products based on Radiance, and ask that anyone who is interested in a
developer's distribution license contact us.  We will be setting up a license
fee structure that should be quite reasonable, probably a one-time flat charge
for each new LBL release.

Radiance 2.3 has a couple of major enhancements over 2.1, and many minor
changes.  One major addition is a new executive program called "rad" that
automatically runs oconv, mkillum, rview, rpict and pfilt with sensible
options to produce nice renderings.  Use of this program is documented in a
new version of the Radiance tutorial (ray/doc/tutorial.1).  The other
significant enhancement is the ability to render large and/or complex images
in parallel over the network and/or on a multiprocessing platform.  The main
program to look at for this is "rpiece".

Be sure to poke around in the /pub directory as well -- there are some
interesting new documents in the /pub/doc subdirectory.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Previewer Program for Radiance, by Greg Ward ([e-mail])

Here is the announcement for a previewer program by Peter Apian-Bennewitz of
the Fraunhofer Institute in Freburg, Germany.  It is most compatible with GL
(SGI's graphics library) but can also work under X11 using the VOGL package as
described below.

I have used this previewer myself, and it works quite well.  For ftp'ing
convenience, I have placed a copy of the software in /pub/programs on
hobbes.lbl.gov (128.3.12.38).


README extract:

rshow is an interactive previewer for the RADIANCE synthetic image system.
Conditions of use and copyrights notes are appended in this text.

rshow is available from
    ise.fhg.de    132.230.254.6

rshow reads the scene input files (octrees in RADIANCE dialect) and displays
them on a Silicon Graphics Workstation or a UNIX workstation running X11.
rshow's main use is to check the scene geometry and to select a viewpoint,
however interactive moving of instances and spline interpolation of a camera
path are also supported.  Since rshow uses the original RADIANCE input
subroutines, it is believed to be compatible with RADIANCE's rpict and rview.
See FEATURES for details.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IRIT Solid Modeller Version 4.0, by Gershon Elber ([e-mail])

    IRIT 4.0 is now available.  IRIT 4.0 was fully tested on the following
platforms.  Previous version were tested on other platforms and it is expected
that IRIT will compile on them with minor or no revisions at all.

* SGI4D  (IRIX 4.0.1).
* SUN 4  (SunOS Release 4.1.2)
* HP 730 (HPUX 8.07)
* IBM PC (Window NT 3.1, OS2 2.x)

    Many thanks should go to all the beta testers of this version.  In
particular, I would like to thank Kriton Kyrimis who invested his time to not
only test this program and improve the documentation, but also to port it to
the Amiga environment.

    The distribution locations below have C sources as irit40s.*, images
as irit40i.* and executables as irit40e.* when appropriate.

    You can (or will be able to as soon as they will be installed from the
uploading directories) anonymous ftp IRIT 4.0 from the following locations:

* ftp.technion.ac.il [132.68.1.10], directory pub/supported/cs/graphics
  as irit40s.tar.Z. The is the new homeland for Irit.
  (contact person [e-mail] (Gershon Elber)).

* ftp.uu.net [192.48.96.9], directory /graphics/irit, files irit40s.tar.Z
  and irit40i.tar.

* gondwana.ecr.mu.oz.au [128.250.1.63], directory /pub, files irit40s.tar.Z
  and irit40i.tar. (contact person [e-mail] (Bernie Kirby)).

* ftp-os2.nmsu.edu [128.250.1.63] os2/2_x/graphics/irit40??.zip.
  This has only the executables. Sources should be ftp'ed from one
  of the unix places above.

* It is expected that Kriton Kyrimis ([e-mail])
  will upload the Amiga 68020/68881 executables to aminet. Please
  contact him with Amiga specific questions.

* MSDOS is no longer supported in IRIT 4.0.

Join IRIT mailing list:        [e-mail]
Mailing list:            [e-mail]
Bug reports:            [e-mail]

[some of the new features:  new filters from and to various formats, many
new commands, support for UV texturing, fixes, etc.]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Object-Oriented Graphics: GOOD 0.50, by Ekkehard Beier
    ([e-mail])
    TU Ilmenau, Germany
    Faculty of Computer Science
    Department of Computer Graphics

We want to announce the 0.50 Release of the GOOD project.  GOOD is an object
oriented framework for graphical applications running under X Windows with
special support to SGI GL, PHIGS, etc.

GOOD is free available with all sources.  Everybody is invited to use, modify
and extend GOOD.  Its our aim to provide a public domain framework that should
be helpful to other people.

GOOD consists of three essential parts

    * The Tcl/C++ Raytracer/Shader YART
    [YART was briefly described in RTNv6n3]

    * The Interactive Object Manipulator IOM
    This is Tk based Application Builder for YART with support to
    Spaceball, Mouse allowing real interactions and dialog boxes, tree
    widget, class browser for non-direct interactions.

    * The Module Application Framework MAF
    This is a C++ classlib for dataflow-driven applications including
    ipc, data transfer. Currently MAF is not available, 'cos
    we are reimplementing the prototype.

Additional there is a YART extension available, that implements a lot of stuff
for scientific visualization, especially field simulations, streamlines, color
mapping, etc.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GFX News, by Eric Hsiao ([e-mail])

GFX News, a new magazine with the emphasis on graphics and images (GraFiX).
This debut e-mag comes from the same creators as GIF News, started back in
November of 1988.  Now in 1994, the magazine is reborn as GFX News, bringing
you computer news at the highest speed of the Super Information Highway.
What sets this magazine apart from the run-of-the-mill ASCII text e-mags is
the fact that this mag is all graphics.  Each page is eye-catching, colorful
high-resolution graphics.  And GFX News is FUN to read!  The best part of
course, it is absolutely FREE to you.  You can join the GFX News mailing list
by sending your request and E-mail address to:
    [e-mail]
Or FTP to the official GFX News FTP site:
    128.113.65.38   /pub/gfx-news

Get your copy today and you'll never want to read dull boring ASCII text mags
again.  Unix X/PC/Macs/Amigas/other platform users are all welcome to read
this magazine.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Wavefront Listserv, by George H. Otto ([e-mail])

WAVEFR-L is a forum for the discussion of techniques, ideas, problems and
solutions for users of graphics software from Wavefront Technologies, Santa
Barbara, California.

Our hope is that WAVEFR-L will become an electronic "users group" for
technical discussion and networking among users of software products from
Wavefront; including The Advanced Visualizer, The Video Composer, Dynamation,
Kinemation, Visualizer Paint and whatever else emerges on the horizon of new
product offerings from Wavefront.

WAVEFR-L is not run by Wavefront Technologies.  We are an independent group of
users, who hope to pool collective experience for the benefit of all.
WAVEFR-L will be as successful as it's subscribers are active.  We hope you
will use this forum to pose real-world questions and offer practical solutions
for applying Wavefront software in any discipline.

To Subscribe to the WaveFront Listserv:

>From VM:   tell listserv at psuvm subscribe wavefr-l <your name>
>From VMS:  send listserv at psuvm subscribe wavefr-l <your name>

For Unix: When using mail, your request(s) must be placed in the BODY of the
      note, NOT the headers.  To play it safe, enclose your commands in //
      JOB and // EOJ delimiters.  This will avoid problems of mail systems
      that add some extra text before of after your message.  Send the
      note to the Listserv machine and not to the list.  From the
      Internet, send to [e-mail].

 example:  // JOB
       subscribe wavefr-l <yournamehere>
       // EOJ

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Optimized POV 2.0 version, by Peter K. Campbell ([e-mail])

[A hackerish article, but since I'm making this issue user oriented, I thought
I would include it.  The POV developers have asked that executables of POV
other than theirs not be distributed (so that they don't have to debug
multiple versions), but of course that doesn't stop you from recompiling and
using it yourself. -EAH]

[e-mail] (Francisco J. Diaz) writes:
>Does anyone has an optimized POV v2.0?  I just got the file
>POVFAST.ZIP and it was POV 1.0 fully optimized with WatCom C.
>The problem is that I don't have such compiler (By far the best
>one out there, but also the most expensive!) and would like to
>know if anyone has taken the time to do so work.  Thanks...

Well, the IBM version of POV 2 that the Ray group have released built with the
Intel Code Builder is pretty well optimised already.

The best speed I've been able to get for any tracer is when I recompile things
with djgpp, the port of GCC C/C++ to the IBM by DJ Delores (thanks, DJ).  I
recompiled POV 1 with djgpp, and I sped it up by a factor of _four_ - eg one
of the demo traces was taking 14 seconds on my 486 DX 2 66 MHz 20 Mb RAM
machine (highly recommended for tracing ;-) with the djgpp version, and 48
seconds with the ICB normal version.  (Others pretty much same improvement, I
won't go into details.)

Now, when POV 2 came out the ICB normal version managed the same trace in only
12 seconds, a significant improvement.  I recompiled it with djgpp, and it
drops to 9.5 seconds - 20% better, nothing to sneeze at, but nowhere near as
much an improvement as before.

Now, this version of POV works fine with DOS, but djgpp has this liking for
VCPI memory, whereas you get DPMI under Windows and OS/2.  However, Rainer
Schnitker has developed a package called RSX that allows you to convert djgpp
compiled programs so that they'll run under a DPMI server - most programs only
require you to change the stub on the executables by using exe2aout to get the
executable without the stub, and then bind Rainer's stub on the front of it.

With this package, and Rainer's help (thanks, Rainer), I have now got a
running version of POV 2 that's 20% faster than the standard release, and runs
under DOS, Windows, and OS/2.

There is, however, a catch.  We can't currently get the graphics to work in
OS/2 (maybe Windows as well, have to check that) - Rainer thinks that although
DOS & Windows handle requests for graphics under DPMI ok, OS/2 has a problem
in that regard.  So, if you run the program in an OS/2 DOS session with
display requested, then either OS/2 closes your session, or you get heaps of
memory errors & dropped back on the command line.  (Not brilliant, but at
least it doesn't crash your entire machine like messy-dos & windoze ;-).
However, if you just do a trace with eg verbose output, then everything works
fine.

Mind you, I've found that the VESA display modes don't work too well in OS/2
with the standard program (although VGA is perfectly ok) - they have a bad
habit of screwing up all your other screens while the trace is going on;
probably something to do with bank switching on the graphics card, the Ray
guys are having a look at this.

Now, if people think they'd like the 20% speed increase and don't mind the
lack of display capability in OS/2, then I can upload the djgpp compiled
version to somewhere like carleton or informatik - I use the normal one myself
when I want to see how the pictures turning out, and the djgpp version for
traces of other people's data files, and my final ones.

However, I was hoping to wait until we could get a djgpp version which could
do all the things the ICB version could, only quicker ;-).

Also, Rainer is having a word with a few people about graphics and DPMI, to
see if he can get his package to handle it properly, or at least tell me what
to do to get the graphics working - another reason I want it is for the djgpp
compiled DISPLAY program, which is the best graphics displayer/converter for
DOS I know of - both stills and animation handled, including 24 bit MPEG-1
files (eg the ray-traced "Red's Nightmare" mpeg).  Seeing as it's djgpp it's
very fast, but just won't work in OS/2.

In case you're wondering, I've also compiled POV 2 with EMX (will try gcc/2 on
the weekend).  This has the advantage that you get one executable which will
run in both a DOS and an OS/2 session.  However, it's about 80% slower than
the standard ICB version, and none of the standard graphics routines work.
There is a VGA library for EMX which I might have a play with to see if I can
get the VGA display mode working for OS/2 & DOS, but I don't think it's of all
that much use; only if you want to run an actual OS/2 ray-tracer.  The speed
might be able to be improved by taking advantage of threads or something, but
I haven't done any coding in that area, so I won't be doing anything about
that for a while.

If you have any thoughts on the DPMI graphics routines under OS/2, or know a
bit about using hi-colour/true-colour graphics modes in DOS & WIN-OS/2 when
your OS/2 desktop is only 256 colour and not having one of them with a screwed
palette, I'd like to hear from you.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Errata for "Adventures in Ray Tracing", by Alfonso Hermida
1/26/94
published by QUE

This errata file is also in wuarchive.wustl.edu:
    graphics/graphics/books/erratas/Adventures-In-*

If you find additional errata or have any comments, please contact me at:
CIS: 72114,2060 (also at the GraphDev forum)
or ([e-mail])
Pi Squared BBS [phone], Maryland USA  14.4K bps, 24hrs


p.   3: Last line of item 1. should read
    "A must-have for those of you who like to modify the sample files!

p.  11: Figure 1.5. Delete the <1 0 0> that appears to the right of the
    x axis letter "x".

p.  18: Figure 1.12 is the TOP view

p.  21: The Extrusion direction arrow is missing...it should be pointing
    in the positive Z direction.

p.  25: Figure 1.19 should read "Examples of Boolean Operations"
    Also the operations are (top to bottom)
        - Difference
        + Union
        * Intersection

p.  30: The statement C:\POLY>POLYRAY [PRESS ENTER]  assumes that you have
    already executed the DOS command:   PROMPT $P $G

p.  31: The -a parameter causes degradation or a "blurring" effect on the
    image.

p.  34: The repeated header "Miscellaneous" should be deleted, it
    separates the -t n parameter from its description.

p.  75: Figure 3.8, the Minor radius is really half of what's being
    shown. (remember...it's a radius!)

p.  76: Figure 3.9 shows a smooth triangle as a curved triangle.  The truth
    is that it's still flat - only the normals are not parallel anymore
    and they point as if the surface was curved....but on the other
    hand I liked the idea of showing the triangle curved. :)

p. 103: Figure 3.18 is messed up! It should look like the background in
    Figure 4.4.

p. 123: Figure 4.6, replace "Light Source" with "Incident Light". Also
    "Scattered Light" should point to the transparent hemisphere.

p. 124: Figure 4.7, delete both "Light Source".
    "Mirror Surface" and "Rough Surface" are pointing to the opposite
    surface.  It should be the top surface.

p. 126: The label "Mirror" should be pointing to the top surface.
    "Slightly Rough Surface" and "Extremely Rough Surface" are pointing
    to the opposite surface.  It should be the top surface.

p. 141: There is an excellent utility called CMAPPER......
    Change the word "Introduction" to "Where Can I Find Raytracing
    Software? Section".

p. 175: Figure 5.5 has a white smear.  oops!

p. 186: fmod should read "fmod(fexper,fexper)". (the second fexper was
    misplaced in the next line.

p. 220: Figure  7.8 is correct but mirrored.

p. 236: Figure 7.12 is correct but mirrored.

p. 254: Figure 7.19 is correct but mirrored.

p. 260: Figure 7.23 is correct but mirrored.

p. 263: Figure 7.24 is correct but mirrored.

p. 268: Figure 8.3 (b) and (c) were drawn messy.  Use your imagination :(

p. 269: Figure 8.4, the spheres should be eyes representing the observer.

p. 270: Figure 8.6, the Viewpoint "at" locations' arrow should be pointing
    to the P1,P2,P3....P9 curve.

p. 271: Figure 8.7(a), the puck only moves in the XZ plane. The drawing
    is incorrect or not clear.

p. 281: "Creating the Animation File", second sentence, replace the word
    "Introduction" with "Where Can I Find Raytracing Software? Section".

p. 283: Figure 8.10 has some errors.  Difficult to explain with words.

QUICK REFERENCE:  Functions That Return Vectors:
    The functions dnoise(P, fexper), reflect(vexper1, vexper2) and
    brownian(vexper) are too close to other words, they should be
    separate.

Inside the backcover:
    The author of the ship in space image is Jerry THOMASTON not
    THOMPSON.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
END OF RTNEWS