This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (394 messages)
Paul, I'm getting out of the business. I went back to my software development job at Intergraph a few months ago and plan to stick with what I am good at. I am neither an artist nor a business man, so freelance animation is not for me. Bailey
#3DSR3 and Stuff for Sale
Message #117659
I have a bunch of animation-related video and PC hardware and software to sell. All of this stuff is in mint condition. The 3D Studio and Animator Pro licenses are transferable through Autodesk. I bought 3DS R2 second-hand and transferred the license then upgraded to R3 with no problems, so…
John, I think the Speedstar Pro is the one with the Cirrus part. Here is my version of the Diamond lineage: Speedstar Tseng ET4000 Speedstar 24 Tseng ET4000 Speedstar 24X WD90C31 Speedstar Pro Cirrus 5428 Stealth S3 911(early boards)/924(later boards) Stealth 24 S3 801(ISA)/805(VLB) Stealth Pro S3 928 Viper Weitek…
Brian, Thanks. Bailey
Mitch, MS is working on OpenGL for Win32. Perhaps they want SoftImage to lead the way for SGI apps to be ported to their OS. Bailey
Paul, Thanks for clearing that up. It's a comfort to know that SGI didn't make a huge architectural blunder like that. I think someday hw rendering will be good enough for broadcast work. Bailey
aawin fullscreen how?
Message #84413
Jonas, Would it be possible for me to find out what aaplay is doing to get from the Widows desktop to fullscreen vga 320x200x256 and back? I posted a question about this in the windows forums and nobody has a clue. I found an undocumented windows function that should work…
John, I, too, somtimes wonder how there could be enough demand for the ultra high end stuff to justify the development costs. But there must be, or else they wouldn't make the stuff. Bailey
John, I was thinking scan conversion too, but it would be more useful to be able to grab the data straight from the RE framebuffer. Bailey
John, I'm wondering why you can't use the RealityEngine to render a frame, then copy that frame from the RE's framebuffer, process it some, and either save it to disk or send it to another (video) framebuffer in the same machine for recording to tape. Heck, you could even send…
#83951-
MGA video card
Message #84116
Jonas, Yes, please do take it as a wishlist item. Bailey
Chuck, I think the ads are trying to refer to the realtime flat shading (Garoud too?) the higher end MGA boards are capable of. I've seen this work in Autocad. I wish there were a way to use this in 3DS. I wish Autodesk would incorporate some sort of hardware…
Does the RE support GetImage() or at least GetPixel()? If it does (and I'm going to laugh at SGI, right in their face, if it doesn't) then why can't you render to the RE, copy the image into ram and do whatever NTSCish things you need to do to it,…
Joseph, I've been using Watcom C/C++32 and the Rational extender that came with it with Autodesk fliclib with no problems. Bailey
Gary, Thanks. I can hardly wait! Bailey
Flics
Message #83571
I didn't read your original question, but it seems that you are looking for a royalty free dos extender. Watcom C/C++32 comes with one. It is a version of the Rational Systems DOS4G/W extender that supports virtual memory but is limited to 32 megs. Rational will sell you the 10…
John, Is the R3 kit out yet? Bailey
Marion, It's too early to say, but I doubt the Pentium is not 486 compatible. You're font program is probably doing something nasty that it its just happening to get away with on the 486 but not on the Pentium. I remember a while back, there was problem with running…
Stealth 24 and Vibrant
Message #82668
Spencer, I'm glad it's working now. Thanks for the compliment. Bailey
slave 3ds3 under Os/2
Message #82659
Baback, It sounds like the problem may be that your 3DS slave session is not being allowed to run in the background under OS/2. Try having the slave run with MAIN-DISPLAY=VESA and if that doesn't work then try MAIN-DISPLAY=VGA. Make sure the render output is to file only. Also, make…
#81613-
Stealth 24 and Vibrant
Message #81726
I really don't know what you can do if you can't set the wait state of the card. Are you sure you can't set it via some software setup program? If it is an ISA card, then maybe the problem is your bus is running at some higher clock (16MHz)…
Spencer, The ISA version of the Stealth24 uses the S3 801 chip, and the VLB version uses the S3 805 chip. Alot of graphics boards from different vendors use the newer S3 chips (the 801, 805, and 928) and usually the drivers are interchangeable among the boards/chips. If you see…
Martin, Re: mouse droppings The most common cause of these mouse droppings is that you are running your graphics board with too few wait states. If there is a dip switch that lets you set the wait state, try increasing it (probably from 0 ws to 1 ws). Bailey
Supendered in OS/2
Message #80226
Mike, Whether or not OS/2 will let a fullscreen dos session using an SVGA mode keep going in the background depends on the graphics card/drivers you're using. If you are using a card with an s3 801/805 or 928 chip and the OS/2 drivers written by IBM, the you can…
John, Re: how FP bound is 3D? The only thing I can thing of is to look at the experiences people have had with the Weitek Abacus and the Pentium. The 486 verion of the Weitek Abacus (the 4167) was supposedly about twice as fast as the 486DX's FPU for…
Gus, I agree that POV isn't a perfect benchmarking tool. However, I think that while 3DS's critical areas have probably been hand optimized for the 486, that when it is ported to other CPUs there will probably be little or no hand optimization. The likelihood of cpu specific hand optimization…
John, Comparing brand X rendering software running on an R4400 vs. brand Y running on a Pentium is not a good way to compare the R4400 vs. the Pentium. Comparing POV-Ray running on an AXP vs. POV-Ray running on a 486DX2/66 (the same source code compiled for each machine) is…
#78979-
#Cyrix M1
Message #79193
John, Yes, Cyrix wimped out on the floating point, and I think that will render the M1 uninteresting to 3DSers and CAD people. That's kind of weird since Cyrix was originally known for its math co-processor knockoffs. I wonder why Weitek doesn't do a Pentium-beater? What we really need is…
Marion, Thanks for posting this! I hope this idea you had before R3 makes it into R4! Bailey
#78984-
#micron p60
Message #79191
Jeff Bowermaster reported here that, when running raytracing benchmarks on code he recompiled for Alpha on his 150MHz AXP, that it was running 2.4-3.5 times faster than on his 486DX2/66. I was going to try to keep my opinions to myself and not rag on Alpha (and RISC processor's in…
Ana, Jeff Bowermaster reported here that, when running raytracing benchmarks on code he recompiled for Alpha on his 150MHz AXP, that it was running 2.4-3.5 times faster than on his 486DX2/66. I was going to try to keep my opinions to myself and not rag on Alpha (and RISC processor's…
#78495-
#micron p60
Message #78926
James, ALR was charging $400 for the 386sx module and something kile $2K for the 486 module. Yes, the 486 upgrade was a joke. You did not anything near real 486 class integer performance with it (more like a cached 386DX/25), though the floating point performance was not bad compared…
John, Arrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I was looking for this over in DDJ last week, but they don't have "FLIC" or "FLC" or "FLI" in the keywords. Uggggh!
Gus, I too, am interested in a PAR API. Maybe a callable library for Borland and/or Watcom? I just need to be able to toggle recording on/off from my own program (wierd project). Bailey
I think NT will become really interesting when and if MS provides OpenGL for it.
John, I've really had no problems running 3DS under OS/2. It has been a big productivity boost for me since I have only one fast computer. I'm saying OS/2 will run 3DS better than Windows. Don't run OS/2, then run Windows under it, then run 3DS under that. Run 3DS…
Jeff, I cannot believe the amount of confusion being caused by these RISC vendors (such as DEC). There is no way their AXP, even at 200 MHz, can run Intel binaries faster than a Pentium at 60 MHz. A 60 MHz Pentium is 1.8 to 2.5 times faster than a…
Ara, 3DS cannot run under NT now, much less on an AXP machine. Even if it did run on an AXP machine, the overhead from emulation would make it run slower than on a Pentium. If you are primarily a 3DS user, then definitely go with the Pentium(s). Bailey
John, OS/2 for Windows is really OS/2 with the Windows code removed. It uses the Windows already installed on your system to run Windows programs. You would be running 3DS under OS/2, which works great for some people, like me, but not for everybody. What kind of graphics card do…
Richard, I'd go for it with the Ultra. Try using IBM's 8514/a OS/2 driver. Bailey
I really like 3DS under OS/2. I did a long render (like 15 minutes) under OS/2 and DOS bakc to back and the DOS one took .98 times as much time as the OS/2 one, so there is about a 2% penalty. The most important thing is to have the…
Please post the complete title of the FLIC file developer's kit and the number to call at Autodesk to get it.
Mike, Make sure, in your dos settings, that DPMI is enabled and that DPMI limit is 64MB. Are you using the s3 drivers written by IBM? I am not sure if they support the older s3 911/924 chips like the Stealth VRAMs used to use. You may need to get…
#MAX vs. PAR on capture
Message #76862
Ang, (and Greg, John, anyone else who's listening) How good are the PAR and the MAX at video capture? Specifically, how well do the grab CG type stuff coming in on an s-video input? I'm assuming the PAR has s-video input. Have you seen either of these systems capturing high…
For rendering in the background, I (and others) have found that and s3 card with the IBM-written s3 drivers works best. You have to set 3DS to use the VESA driver (not the Vibrant vesa driver but MAIN-DISPLAY=VESA) for rendering to work in the background. You can use the Vibrant…
#PAR vs. MAX
Message #76616
I've got two questions I hope someone can answer: What resolution(s) does the PAR support? Does the Ilpro/Max have a square pixel resolution (like 640×480). Which is better for capturing video to disk? I keep seeing people asking about jpeg artifacting of computer graphics, but I've seen no answer (sorry…
Don, Sorry to jump in like this, but what resolution(s) does the PAR use? Bailey
#VideoVGA et al
Message #76613
I have a friend who wants to display some realtime SVGA graphics to video, preferably S-VIDEO. He wants to be able to use 320x200x256, 640x480x16, 640x480x256, and, hopefully 640x480x32K or 64K colors. My guess is that the Truevision VideoVGA16 is what he wants. Does it have s-video out? Also, does…
#76500-
3D-Studio and OS/2 2.1
Message #76612
Ed, You need R3 to run under OS/2. You will run it from a DOS virtual machine (kind of like a Windows dos session, but more robust), and set will work as before. The most important thing for 3DS and OS/2 is the graphics card. I think the people with…
#FLIC file format?
Message #76525
Where is the .FLC file format documented? Do I need some sort of developer's kit from Adesk? If so, how much does it cost and how do I order it? Thanks. Bailey
Page 1 of 8