#Add depth …
Jim,
>> What platform did it run on? <<
Originally it ran on a 286 as that was what was available. It had a special
card for floating point calculations, called a Definicon which had a high speed
Motorola chip. Later with the advent of the 386 they added "transputers" which
are parrallel processors. The last time I was heavily associated with DGS
directly they were working on a deal with Rank Cintel to provide even more
advanced parrallel processing.
At one point they tried porting the code over to the Mac. Big mistake. Then
they started porting the code over to the SGI and they had a working "renderer"
at last years Siggraph but R2 devastated the market in terms of ease of use and
price/performance. As a result of the porting, the PC platform was neglected.
All those factors conspired to cause its ultimate demise. With R2 the writing
was on the wall and that was when I switched over professionally even though I
had "played" with R1.
Lyon-Lamb the parent company is now defunct although another company has taken
over its product line.
>> Is it now a dead product? <<
That's a tough question to answer. <g>
They have a number you can call where you get a recorded message. However the
lead software developer has caught the "Hollywood" bug and is doing work in
L.A. Another one of the developers works for HSC.
>> Did it compete with Topas? <<
In a manner of speaking but it was the premiere animation package for the PC.
Topas was priced at $7500 and DGS $10000. Before the 3DS revolution. <g>
>> Are there still a bunch of loyal users out there? <<
In the European market its still used quite a bit, not so much in the US. Its
too labor intensive for American tastes. There is one guy in SD who still uses
it and has had a programmer write his own compositing modules.
I still have it loaded on one of my systems but not for rendering as I've been
totally spoiled by 3DS especially with R3.
FWIW I loved the look but it basically had one look, not like 3DS and I have
found ways to create a similar look in 3DS. Add to that the sheer power and
ease of use of 3DS and its no contest.
We are so fortuneate to have 3DS in so many ways. I think everyone should learn
DGS or POV and _graduate_ to 3DS. You'd never _ever_ hear a complaint. <G>
-JE
P.S. Speaking of "plastic looking" have you seen any renderings on Topas? <BG>
Funny thing though, alot of Americans like that high gloss look. No problem as
its obviously easy to create in 3DS as well. 🙂