CompuServe Messages

Rick, (This is for the benefit of the populace at large; I know you already know this stuff.) The Cray has two other advantages over the Amiga: (1) Color palette; and (2) Resolution. Now, resolution isn't much of a factor because the Cray's graphic output has to be scaled down for broadcast purposes to NTSC (or PAL) anyway. (The Amiga outputs NTSC (or PAL) straight from the box, which isn't necessarily a performance advantage tho it should make interfacing with other NTSC (or PAL) devices easier.) That leaves color palette. A larger palette makes for a smoother, more realistic image. In my view, the 16-level RGB (4096 color) palette is the weakest link in Amy's graphical chain. Programs like Sculpt-3D use dithering algorithms to compensate, but this results in a grainy-looking image. The difference between the Cray's output and Amy's (for you photography buffs) is sort of like the difference between Kodachrome 25 and Koda- color 1000. Of course, you can photograph the same scene with both types of film. Thus, Amy should be able to render any image or ani- mation sequence that the Cray can render. But Amy's overall quality won't be as good. I'm looking forward to seeing the up-coming 3rd-party frame-buffers, like the one from Mimetics. Those gizmos should boost Amy's graphical performance considerably. Dave