#Them Poor SGI rndrs:-(
16 messages in this thread
Gary:
The husband of one of the designers in my office is an aeronautical engineer w/
Cessna. She brought in the Wavefront demo tape that her husband had borrowed
from a co-worker. This co-worker has been talking about getting an SGI machine
and doing free-lance animation work (logos, etc). I lent MY co-worker my copy
of the '94 demo reel. Her husband then lent it to HIS co-worker. His response
included "I don't think that all of that tape was done on PC's."
<Errrrrrrrrrr> Wrong!
Anyway, I've put my dealer's card in the pipeline back to this guy, so we'll
see if we can't make a convert! Just thought you'd like to know.
Dave
(ps, Glenn Melenhorst — If you're listening, my co-worker's kids loved your
Austrailian Telecom piece!)
Tell your friend that you don't think all of the Wavefront tape was done with
Wavefront (that's because a lot of it was done with Renderman :-).
– G
Done! In fact, I know this guy has also got a copy of the Black & Veatch
animations from which Conrad Stoltze's section of the '94 3DS SIG demo reel
came, and I think they think it was all done SGI. While the exterior stuff on
the tape may have been (HORRIBLE jaggies on the near-horizontal & near-vertical
edges — I think B&V has TDI) the interior stuff (Conrad's 3DS work) was crisp
& wonderful.
Dave
(By the way, in the other thread about the spotlight mix-up and crappy 3DS
image in PC Graphics & Video, I made reference to crappy images in the article
too. Well, I was confused. The article to which I was referring is in the
August Computer Graphics World ("Rendering On a Network"). The caption reads
"For imagery requiring high-resolution output, animators with game developer
Crystal Dynamics use Alia software on SGI workstations. For lower-resolution
work, the company relies on 3D Studio running on three networked PCs." The
"lower-res" image in question is a 320x200x256 res image that looks like hell,
while all the others are nice & crisp (and true-color). Luckily, there are two
NICE 3DS images from ArchImage on the last page of the article.)
I know. I saw that joke in CGW too.
Give me a break.
– G
I know that sucked… I thought that stuff was reserved for the Amiga people
<g>
This is the kind of crap that somtimes we have to put up with in the industry.
The only way to fight back is to render images that are better, cleaner and
sharper!
Brandon
I just read that today, it wasn't too pretty. I'd like to see some wavefront or
alias images at that res and colour depth too…
If the mag had said the shot was for 320×200 games it would be all right but
no. The high end rendering world has no idea what we have to go through Brandon
Yes, the way they said that "for imagery requiring high-res work" they use SGI,
and 3DS for "lower-resolution" work, is unfair, as we all know. What's not
high-res about the 10,000 x 10,000 pixel images which 3DS will do?
Anyway, some people seem to love spending a lot more money than they need, they
seem to think that this gives them something special. I've known some MAC
people like that as well, before Apple finally smelled the coffee and started
slashing their prices. One guy in our office spent $10,000 (canadian) on the
Mac equivalent of a 486, which I blew out the window with my 486 for $4,000. Oh
well, takes all kinds….
At least we're happy! Bye for now
NRN, Gary
As far as I am concerned, let them propogate this nonsense about 3DS being
low-rez! Let them buy overly expensive hadware and software. Let them get ate
up by little companies like mine that run a tight ship.
Frankly, let them drown. It is the way of competition. And thank CGW for
letting them smile all the way to hell.
— James — MAP —
I don't think Crystal Dynamics is ready to drown quite yet <g>.
John Tissavary (LUNA cie, inc)
Saw that CGW issue too. Also note that they almost never put a single PC shoot
on their "art portfolio" pages or whatever they are calling. Same as computer
artist. It remembers me the old Publish attitude with PCs. They still have a
few bits of the old PC=crap philosophy, but they got the main idea that nothing
will be good just for have a "made in SGI/Apple land" label.
How Adesk can allow this kind of obvious unfair "journalism"? This clearly
damages the image of 3DS and the people using it. Not everybody go to Siggraph
and see the results that 3DS delivers. Is there a Ziff-Davis virus all across
the computers of the "socalled industry experts"? 🙂 These days, most things I
read are tremendously biased to one or other side.
As you said, give me a break.
ana /krazy images
>> How Adesk can allow this kind of obvious unfair "journalism"?<<
Aside from an Autodesk University ad in the August CGW, I did _NOT_ find any
other advertisements, such as one for 3DS.
As a businessman, I can interpret this in one of two ways (or both!):
1) Autodesk does not approve of the way CGW treats their products, so they
choose to _not_ advertise with them.
2) Because CGW does not receive regular advertising from PC companies (namely
Autodesk), they choose to give unfavorable press to PC software.
The person writing the article may well be honest, but the editor answers to
the advertising clients, so he/she makes changes to keep clients happy.
Personally, I would rather pay a dollar more and get straight answer. I, too,
tire of such bias.
— James — MAP —
BTW, I did just notice that one of the 3DS images is on the cover of that
issue.
How cna you say that AutoDesk does not get fair treatment from CGW. Just a few
months ago they did a great article on modeling the best looking "Goose" that I
have ever layed my eyes on! If you read that article Crystal Dynamics uses 3D
Studio to render low rez images because its faster than! SGI.
CSH
ARMATO'S DIGITAL
Interesting question, whether or why there is editorial bias at CGW. A writer
who _used to_ write for CGW told me the pressure on writers to write about and
support major advertisers was very high at that magazine — much higher than at
other ones she still writes for. I have no way to know the history between her
and CGW, so perhaps the comment was some sort of sour grapes. Still, it is one
way to keep from losing advertising dollars.
On the other hand, as someone who has edited (small-time, office) newsletters
and such over the years, I am all to aware that no writer, editor, or reader
knows the whole story. I once got yelled at by a co-worker who was red-faced
with anger because I pointed out that AutoCAD r10 couldn't handle reference
files (it couldn't, can't, and was never intended to; that was added in r11).
He didn't even disagree with the fact. He just though I shouldn't have said
anything 'bad' about AutoCAD. And of course, writers and editors make
mistakes, mis-remember, or interpret phrases differently than their readers all
the time, whether we like to think so or not. It may never have occurred to
the writers or editors at CGW that saying that 3DS was used for lower-res
images would be taken as a slight. It might just be how they do things, for
good reasons or not.
>>(ps, Glenn Melenhorst — If you're listening, my co-worker's kids loved
>>your Austrailian Telecom piece!)
Not only the kids… 🙂
Michael
– Michael Bassier, Written 01-Sep-1994 @ 21:13:25
Using: Windows NavCIS PRO 1.2
Ditto. NRN <g>