#LightWave better?
12 messages in this thread
A few corrections here:
"There are no cad type displays for the Amiga. Also, the Amiga
flickers The best refresh it and most of the modes are interlaced and
therefore flicker REALLY REALLY bad."
This is incorrect. Depending on the model, large displays can be
attached directly to the Amiga or through a board and will give you
absolutely no flicker whatsoever. If you use a cheap monitor or use
a low end system, then you'd get flicker. Most serious users don't
have to deal with any flicker at all.
Also, there are accelerators available that are faster than the 25 MHz
68040. In fact, NewTek has released "The Screamer" which can do a
reported 340 SPECmarks using RISC chips.
Also, there are 040 accelerators available that are faster than 25
MHz. And finally NewTek has "The Screamer" which can do 340 SPECMarks
for those who need REALLY fast render times from Lightwave. This is
currently in limited release.
Re: Corrections
Can you name one graphics board for the Amiga that does 1024x768x256
or higher at 70Hz or higher refresh non-interlaced? If so, how much
does it cost? How many 2D/3D vectors/sec is it capable of?
The last time I checked, the Screamer was still in concept stage. Can
you name a dealer that has it in stock?
I think I mentioned in my original message that you can get
accelerators with greater than 25MHz '040. But are there any
accelerators, such as an '040/33 or '040/40 for the A4000? There
weren't when I checked about a month ago. If you want AGA graphics,
then you are stuck with the 25MHz chip until somebody releases an
accelerator for the A4000. Any word on the A4000T?
Excuse my jumping in here, but thought I could answer a few
questions.
I believe the Retina board is capable of in the niegborhood of
1280×1024 at 24 bit, although I don't know if it has an hardware
accelerator on it, but it supposedly speeds up screen redraw times
alittle bit. I don't know the what the refresh rate is, but we get
around that problem by using little cards called flicker fixers,
which allow us to use NEC MuliSyncs without any problem. It gives us
a NI display too.
Your right that you can't get accelerators greater than 25mhz for the
A4000. In fact, we don't even use A4000s.
Also, the Screamer is not yet available in stores, but we have one
now, and are sort of beta testing it. NewTek has informed us that it
will be ready for sale sometime in the first qurater of 94.
There are boards that can go up to 1024x768x256 and beyond. I don't
know what the max Mhz rate is, but that's not the point of my
message. You stated that the Amiga flickers "REALLY REALLY bad". I'm
simply telling you that people aren't stuck with the flicker as you
implied.
As I stated, the Screamer is in limited release. There are reports of
it at SeaQuest, but you'll have to ask Greg to confirm that.
The A4000T will be released in November.
The Amiga suffers from a lack of retargetable graphics. There is no official
support for add-on graphics boards, although several companies have found a way
around that, I don't recall if any of them are beyond 1Kx768 resolution.
There's no equivalent of the system of drivers Autodesk has in 3DS and AutoCAD.
And the first proto Screamer went to the seaQuest team, but it's certainly not
in stock at your local Toaster dealer. There are two model A4000s, one has 25
mhz, one has 33 mhz. I don't think anyone has released an accellerator card
for it beyond that. But the typical LightWave user is probably running a
souped-up A2000.
John,
I saw a demo today of a paint program by GVP that was truley incredible! It's
a combo hardware/ software backage, and requiers that you have their 040 card
to make it work, but it runs as fast and does as many things as some SGI stuff
I've seen. Even the interface looks just like the IRIS OS from SGI. THe look
and feel is definatley UNIX, and the speed is incredible. I couldn't believe
how fast this thing could manipulate large 24bit images, and the tools were
very cool. It has a user definable scan frequency rate, supports 24bit up to
1600×1600, and dithered 16dit at 2k x 1.5k if I remember correct. Have you
heard of this one yet?
-GT
Yes, it's called ImageFX, it's been out for at least a year or two. You saw it
combined with their video card.
I don't think it was ImageFX, because the guy doing the demo said that
the hardware card for it will not be available for another week. He
came out to our facility from GVP, and what he showed us was
definately not the same ImageFX program that we now have. It was a
graphics card that would list for about $2500. and you have to have
their 040 card to make it work. Are you sure your thinking of the
same thing?
I remember hearing about a higher-end workstation (like $20K?) for image
processing, maybe that was it.
It's called EGS Paint, from GVP, and it costs about $2500. for the
card ( that is the high end one, with 8 megs of video ram and a
coprocessor) or $600. for the lower end (2 meg ram). Both cards
require that you have a GVP 040 card, and come bundled with the same
paint software. Just verified all this today. The software is
truley incredible, has the look and feel of an SGI, but for alot less
money.
I beleave what you saw was the GVP's EGS 110/24, high end graphics
board. The program was most likely the new EGS paint. They also have
a low end version of this board, coming out now, called EGS Spectrum
28/24, that is a Zoro II/III switchable card, and also comes with EGS
Paint.
That would be the one! I must say that want one, and GVP said they
would even add sequencial image editing to it. A must have.