CompuServe Messages

Martin, >> As I understand it the whole 48bit picture isn't held in memory at once<< Yes Martin it is. Which is one of the reasons you need more memory in R3 than in R2. And it does gamma correction to whatever values you specify for the framebuffer and the output-file. Now I understand your double gamma correction concerns. I interpreted you statement to mean that the same image was being double gamma corrected, which is not the case, but the image held in memory is gamma corrected for ouput at is goes to the framebuffer and then after that rendering is complete the image is gamma corrected for file-output. Which is why it is better to render to Null and the disk as it is slightly faster. Another animation package I know, DGS works the way you suggest. It doesn't provide for gamma correction during rendering but if you render to the framebuffer that is where the image is being sent. This conserves memory but does not provide framebuffer or display independence. Maybe in the future 3DS will allow you to render directly to the framebuffer thereby freeing up memory. The problem is that this would also force an internal reworking for using Video Post which relies on this internal space for compositing. And then special drivers would have to be developed for each framebuffer to take advantage of the Alpha channel. By not taking this approach 3DS is able to accomadate a wider range of users, everyone from people with an inexpensive 640x480x24 bit display to an expensive high end Framebuffer like Truevision's DVR technology in its many forms. At 37 I'm still asking "why?", (and I hope I always will) because as you suggest, that's one of the ways to learn and understand. That way I don't put myself in the box of having to know everything even if I don't. And I'm always learning something new, which for me is one of the most enjoyable things in life. <g> Regards, -JE