#VistaPro
24 messages in this thread
I've missed this — what is VistaPro?
Evan
Evan,
Vistapro is my rendering package that renders landscapes with clouds, rivers,
trees and stuff. It outputs 8 and 24 bit images. The landscapes can be
fractal or real. It comes with about 30 real landscapes (things like Yosemite,
Olympus Mons on Mars, Mount St. Helens before and after the eruption) and
thousands more are available at nominal cost from my publisher, Virtual Reality
Labs, Inc. (VRLI). Vistapro can also generate animations as a series of Targa,
Windows bitmap, or PCX files, or in AutoDesk's FLC format.
If you want to see some images (many people are using them as backgrounds for
3D Studio) there are some GIF files over in the VRLI section of GraphAVen (GO
VRLI). Look for the newest files since I think there are still lots of images
from older versions of the program.
If you do any 3D rendering (and since you're hanging around here you probably
do), it's a package you would probably like to have. There will even be a
functional demo version over in VRLI sometime soon. Retail price is $129.
John.
Are there any limits to the output resolution? I do still illustrations
at 2000×3000.
Ian.
Ian,
Vistapro can render at resolutions up to 4096×4096 in full 24bit color. At that
resolution it wants at least 48MB of RAM or disk space. At 2000×3000 it would
only need 24MB. If you have enough memory to render entirely in RAM it will
run faster. The more it has to swap to disk the slower it gets. You actually
CAN render at the highest resolutions on a 2MB 386SX16 as long as you have
enough free disk space — I wouldn't recommend it though. If you're happy with
8 bit output it runs in 1/4 those amount of memory.
Vistapro uses lots of fractal algorithms to generate 2D and 3D textures, and
L-Systems to generate 2D and 3D trees. It automatically (with manual control
too) synthesizes more detail as the image size gets larger.
The current version of Vistapro has no antialiasing. What I recommend to
people is to render an image twice as large as they want and shrink it down
with an image processing program that will antialias — most do. I uploaded a
program called HALFTGA.EXE, which does that for Targa-24 files, to VRLI's BBS
for Vistapro users.
You can import images and convert them into landscapes as if they were
topographic maps. Similar to what lots of people do with FRACTINT and POV —
what they call height fields.
I like to think of Vistapro as "Computer Aided Art". It lets anyone create
nice pictures of landscapes without any artistic talent. And it's lots of fun
just going exploring…
I guess that was more than you asked for, but I thought of a few things that I
forgot to mention earlier…
John.
Sounds interresting. I expect that JAG, the apres-rendering anti-aliasing tool
may help with the lack of anti aliasing.
Ian.
>>… I expect that JAG, the apres-rendering anti-aliasing tool…
"apres-rendering" — I really like the sound of that! How 'bout we get Gary to
rename "Video Post" to "Apres Video"?
Dave
Apres-video… tres chic!
Ian.
John:
The demo of VistaPro 3.0, VP3DMO.EXE is now in Lib 15 of GraphAVend,
as is VPANIM.EXE, your sample animation and image selection.
Clint <VRLI>
Hello, Clint and John. I have followed the discussions of converting DEMs to
3DS-compatible format and heard that the number of polygons would simply
overwhelm 3DS if that were done. HOWEVER, (you knew there was one of these
coming) it would be nice to be able to define a PORTION of a DEM to export in
3DS format. I have an animation using a VistaPro landscape that I want to put a
3DS structure (a rather com-pill-icated one) into and move around. To integrate
the structure into the landscape would be much easier if I could bring the few
thousand square yards it will occupy into 3DS for placement. It would also be
nice to be able to tell the exporting file how detailed or averaged to be.
Thanks for considering the idea and, if you can think of a workaround, let me
know?
David Taffet
David:
I am not very familiar with 3DS (I'm still primarily an Amigoid
<grin>), but if I could get the format for the type of object that you
want, I'd put the task on my ever growing stack. <grin> I still have
VistaPro->DXF to do whenever I can get my head above water. But I am
willing to put it on my "to-do" list if I can get the info that I need on
the 3DS format.
Clint <VRLI><Chaocity>
Clint – The DXF format would work just fine for what I want. My suggestion had
to do with reducing the amount of information going to 3DS by specifying a
*portion* of the DEM to export, rather than necessarily doing the whole thing,
which I gather could potentially swamp 3DS with polygons. If the DXF thang is
already on your list, I'll just shut up and get out of the way. Of course a DXF
export would open doors to MANY peices of software on a variety of
platforms….
DT
David:
I was thinking of doing the VistaPro->DXF (or 3DS) in a manner
similar to how the VistaPro->TurboSilver works on the Amiga. We place a
16×16 grid over the landscape, and the user can select which portion to
turn into objects. This reduces the polys/object to 512, which is alot
more manageable.
Clint <VRLI><Chaocity>
Clint – Yer *way* ahead of me. Lookin' forward to it!
David Taffet
David,
PMJI. Caught your comment on VistaPro->3DS. I haven't quite kept up with this
thread, but do you need to export the VP terrain into 3DS? If so, I've done
that a time or two and can look up the details if you'd like. Just ignore this
if it doesn't apply – I've been running on Empty lately… <g>
JKJ
John! Now that you JI, I recall that you had a tekni-kew for doing this and
that I printed it out. (I keep important messages, but in hard copy – thus I
can't find anything…) If it's not a hassle for you to resurrect the method,
I'd be most appreciative!
DT
David,
Here is a repeat of my VistaPro->3ds conversion, un-Easy method. Sure would
like to find the Easy method!
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
#: 44267 S3/Autodesk 3D Studio
20-May-93 01:10:24
Sb: #44170-Fractal Grafics 3D & 3DS
Fm: John K. Jordan 71174,711
To: Foo Katan 100013,2760
Hello Andy,
Do you want to transfer a VistaPro v3 landscape into 3DS? (as a mesh only, no
textures or paths) I've done this thru the convoluted:
Save the VistaPro file as a PCX (DEM to PCX)
(may be able to skip the next two steps with the
/p option on GIFDXF below (?))
Load the PCX into Corel PhotoPaint
Load the grey scale palette, GREYS.PAL
Edit as required
Convert the PCX to GIF
Convert to DXF using GIFDXF (avail on this forum)
Load into 3DS
One small problem is GIFDXF makes all interior lines hidden, so if you want to
animate your mesh, it's hard to work with in the keyframer. No problem in the
editor. I wrote and uploaded a little program a while back, DXFUH.ZIP I
think,
which will fix this.
There may be a much easier way, but I don't know it.
JKJ (in constant search of hard ways to do things)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
>> end of repeat <<
Hope this helps. I'm off to the mountains with the kids for some camping – be
back Sunday if you have any questions.
JKJ
PS. If you only have one and don't have the other software required, E-MAIL
your VistaPro file and I'll convert the section you need.
Thanks for the regurgitation, John. I don't have Corel PhotoPaint, but I have
Photostyler and PhotoShop, so I think I'll be able to make do with those. If
somehow not, I may take you up on your offer. Have a good time in the
mountains. Jeez, I haven't been camping in over a decade! I miss it. I used to
backpack in the Marble Mountain Wilderness Area in northern California all the
time. It's thoroughly gorgeous, straddling the Pacific Crest Trail and going
for miles and miles off toward the ocean. I found places there that could have
been the models for Japanese gardens (not counting those semicircular bridges,
of course…Bears and deer rarely make constructions of that sort where people
are likely to find them <g>).
Dave:
>> I used to backpack in the Marble Mountain Wilderness Area in northern
>> California all the time.
Wow, brings back great memories! Four of us went up to Sky High valley last
summer, some of the greatest fly-fishing ever! Took pack horses up, stayed
for a week. Absolutely incredible!
Greg Pyros
Some things about Wisconsin are great, but the outdoors isn't one of them. It's
so moist here in the summer that the "mesquitos" (Eee-Haaaa…western
variety…never mind) are like a fog. Go out at dusk, wait 2 minutes and you've
got a little jacket and pants made of blood suckers. (Helmet, too) So, for 10
years I have not been able (willing) to camp or pack at all. Waaa-a-a-ah!
DT
(P.S. Got the copy of Manequin. Opened the package in the kitchen, in my
eagerness, got bumped by a couple of wrassling dogs and the documentation and
disks (with disks on the bottom, of course) went into the sink. Did the sink
have dishes and water standing in it? Ho, ho! Silly question! Of COURSE! I was
able to rescue everything and dried out the disks and got it installed and
everything is OK…Whew!)
David:
That's a good one! Too bad it wasn't the computer itself! <g>
Greg
>> VistaPro, Corel, etc…
If I can help, just holler (does that mean hit the keys real hard?).
>> Camping in the mountains…
Just got back… Had the experience of a lifetime. We had a close encounter
with a red wolf! The park service has been trying to re-establish the
endangered red wolf in the Great Smoky Mountains and have two families with
cubs this year. Sightings are extremely rare. My two little fellows and I
were way off the tourist track watching a doe in a field when something caught
her attention. We watched a large male red wolf (wearing a radio tracking
collar) crawling thru high grass stalking the deer. The doe left quickly, and
the wolf turned and passed us about 30 feet away. Of all the times to leave
the video camera home!
JKJ
The video camera is ALWAYS home at times like that. Must have been intense.
Congrats. My wife and I spent a very rainy day in a large park hereabouts, when
most sane persons are indoors, and were able to watch a fox for many minutes as
it stalked some very fat woodchucks. It was tres cool. I didn't even know we
*had* foxes around here.
I got the conversion of DEM -> DXF to work just fine. I used Photostyler, which
does not allow saving as a GIF (grrr), but output the grayscale as a PCX, took
it into Animator Pro and saved as a GIF from there. Now I just need to
experiment with the Z parameter of GIFDXF to get approximate elevations to what
VistaPro has. I also had to tesselate the landscape (I imported just a portion
of it) in order to see it in the Editor when working at all closely. That will
slow me down, slightly, in redraws, etc. but I'll delete it in the final
rendering and it will allow me to place my structures in the right places, so –
I'm happy!
D {happy, happy, joy, joy} T
P.S. I think "holler" means you drink beer 'till you're really stupid, then
make sweeping gestures and statements at the top of your voice, heavily
punctuated with epithets and threats directed at whomever crosses your mind (or
what remains of it) at the moment.
Glad you got DEM datums converted. Have you tried PaintShop Pro? – general
purpose (Windows) shareware for graphics format conversion, scaling, color
depth conversion, custom image processing, cropping, capture, gamma correction,
printing, etc, etc. >>the Z parameter… I think I just 2D scaled the mesh
vertically in 3DS till it looked right.
>> "holler"…
Great definition! I drank my last beer about 7 years ago. I finally
discovered I had a natural talent for exhibiting excesses of stupidity,
gestures, loud threats and much more without ANY outside help!
JKJ (also 28 in '78)
Evan:
There is a demo of VistaPro 3.0, VP3DMO.EXE is now in Lib 15 of
GraphAVend, as is VPANIM.EXE, a sample animation and image selection.
There is also a text file detailing the features, but I can't remember the
name off hand.
Clint <VRLI>