CompuServe Messages

Patrick: VistaPro 3.0 is great on the Amiga. Now, it be unfair not to mention that there's a similar VistaPro package now available for the PC, but on an AGA-based Amiga this software really shines. First of all it multitasks and you can do other things while it renders, if you have sufficient memory. The Amiga version can also play back full-screen, full-speed 3D animations with 16.7 million color palettes, using the built-in AGA capability of the A1200 and A4000 or a graphics adapter such as the low-cost DCTV unit. Your 486 probably would render scenes faster than an A1200, actually, but playback should be as good or superior on the 1200. The A4000/40 probably would offer superior performance in both respects. One thing you can do on the Amiga version that the PC version may lack is mapping DEM elevation files by scanning in a printed elevation map. A third-party utility called Scapemaker permits this. That means you can create landscapes of any place where there the US Geological Survey has done a topographical map, regardless of whether the dataset is available in computer form. (For instance, your hometown!) All that said, I think Scenery Animator 4.0 for the Amiga is even better than VistaPro on either PC or Amiga. You can import 3D objects from packages like Videoscape, so, for instance, you can overlay an object like a jet fighter, spacecraft or hot air ballon on a moving landscape. Really great looking results, and a bit easier to use than VistaPro. About the same street price (around $70). Furthermore there are at least three other, lesser known landscape animation packages on the Amiga, including one that I believe is shareware or PD (can't think of its name, though). Also, the Amiga's inherent video capabilities mean you can get this stuff out to tape more easily and cheaply than on a PC. Also, third-party animation utilities that can integrate landscape animations into presentations, videos, etc., now abound. I'll let other folks talk about the latest Amiga's overall capabilities. Suffice to say they are impressive. The A1200 is an especially cool machine for a very low price. Bear in mind that your A500 basically is circa-1985 technology, when an IBM PC-AT was the boss MS-DOS machine. There are ways to expand and power up the A500 (there are even outboard 24-bit boards such as DCTV — which is really ideal for landscape animation in real time — and 68040 accelerators; but it's probably more cost effective to buy an AGA-based Amiga, at this point. There is a special Amiga UNIX model — the A3000UX. And it's pretty spiffy. However, Commodore apparently is discontinuing that rig. The good news, however, is that Creative Computers is blowing them out right now at a really low price. The Amiga UNIX implementation is fairly robust. But except in some very limited uses, such as scientific workstations and engineering, Amiga UNIX hasn't taken hold. I think it may be possible to buy a third-party UNIX and run it on an A3000 or A4000, however. There is a third-party, Amiga-based, X-Windows package. — Ron Legro from Milwaukee via AUTOPILOT (The only way to fly)