CompuServe Messages

Alan (and all interested parties), I share all of the sentiments you expressed and would like to add some thoughts. It is indeed a very heady time to be involved with 3d game development, and even if you're not, there's a chance you could be in the future. Most of the games I saw had 3d elements – whole scenes, foreground sprites or background images. The games were a real mixed bag visually. My favourite PC games visually speaking were: Lands of Lore II (mostly Lightwave work), Daedelus Encounter (mostly 3d Studio), and Pagemaster (mostly 3d Studio backgrounds with traditional Disney style characters in the foreground). Oh, and there was that "Space Sirens" cyber sex simulator with TFUI (touch and feel user interface) which was very impressive, but I probably can't talk about that here, in fact I didn't <blush>. Arcade games to watch for 3d interest: Virtua Fighter 2 (realtime 3d textured poly characters in true 3d environment), Killer Instinct (2D fighting game using pre-rendered 3d sprite characters and backgrounds). Alias seems to be the hottest SGI software currently, in my estimation and also judging by their current sales. They have the best particle systems (fire, smoke, hair, etc) and lights (volumetric, true 3d) I've ever seen. They had demos of full heads/bodies of hair in the form of a wig, a porcupine, and a yeti creature. The hair has full dynamic properties (gravity, collision, etc) and was quite simply breath-taking. I think this could be done with IPAS, but will anyone take the challenge ….? Who knows. Incidentally, a decent SGI system with Alias would probably set you back a cool $40k and up … kinda brings you down to earth …. although they have a really cool flight simulator that works great with a Reality Engine. Ironically, Autodesk didn't have a booth (nor did Lightwave etc), but 3d Studio probably remains the choice of most game developers 'cos it delivers most of what you want for a decent cost. What you can't do, you fake. Overall, it was a completely bloody brilliant show and I'd recommend it to anyone (except accountants, unless they really want to be liontamers). I won't blab on any more, but if anyone has questions about the show or the game industry in general, or about "Virtua Ferrets" in particular, then I'm sure Alan or I will ignore you completely …. (or not) <g>