VistaPro 2.0 is here!
32 messages in this thread
Attention VistaPro Users!
————————_
VistaPro 2.0 is here at last!!!
——————————-
Virtual Reality Laboratories, Inc., is proud to announce the release of
John Hinkley's latest Masterpiece! The same Vistapro that created those
remarkable pictures you saw in February Amiga World and Info is now
available! Here is a _brief_ list of new features:
o – Polygon texturization, 3 levels of detail.
o – 4 kinds of fractal vegetation. Pine, Oak and Palm trees and Cactus.
o – Expanded topographic region. Now handles landscapes up to 1024
data points on a side. Interlocking landscapes for large area
rendering and animation.
o – Greatly expanded script language. 143 script commands to control
almost all features available from the control panel and menus.
o – ARexx interface with all script commands available.
o – Direct support of HAM-E, DCTV and Firecracker24.
o – Add buildings and roads to your landscapes.
o – User selectable Image size. Up to 2000 x 1500 x 24 and larger.
o – Enlarge and add detail to interesting portions of your landscape.
o – Wire-frame preview of camera point of view.
o – Add background and foreground images.
o – Clouds. Set density, texture and color. From summertime cirrus
to winter storms. Comes with script file to make lightning storm.
VistaPro 2.0 is both a professional tool for the serious graphic artist,
and a wonderful toy for many evening's enjoyment. 'Normal' (258×258)
landscapes at standard Amiga resolutions will work nicely in 3 megs. Larger
landscapes and image sizes will take more memory.
VistaPro List $99.95 – Upgrade from VistaPro 1.0 $35.00 – from Vista $50.00
Call us at (805) 545-8515 for more information.
Clint <VRLI>
Clint,
Ah, sounds marvelous! Many thanks to John for putting in the Clouds
feature…rendering bliss awaits. 8^)
-Dave-
I am very excited about your Vista Pro 2.0! I am going to send in my $35
to get a hardware upgrade on disk!!! NewTek has taught me that software is
really hardware. 🙂
Great job guys… could you upload those pictures that were in the
advertisements?
-mark=
– whappity whap whap… whap whap!!
Mark:
I'll try to upload some pics this week. Is JPEG OK? You really need 24
bits to do them justice.
Clint <VRLI>
Sniffle…
Alas, I have no 24 bit display device, nor do I have a program that will
deal with JPEG. Sniffle. I am staying with HAM until Commodore releases a
new chip set or until I give up and decide to go to the PC.
The current 24 bit boards and display enhancers are either too expensive or
require a seperate monitor (or not produced anymore!).
-mark=
– whappity whap whap… whap whap!!
Mark:
OK, I'll put up a couple of HAM's too (and maybe a slab of Bacon)
<grin>, but the results aren't nearly as spectacular as you would see in 24
bits. It may be a few days before I get stuff uploaded, as we're swamped
with orders (over 300 backorders) and getting more each day than we can
fill, so I'm dropping everything and going over to package and ship for a
few days until we can get caught up.
Clint <VRLI>
Clint, I just got my 2.0 upgrade today. GREEAT! Can't wait to get my
FireCracker!
Doug:
I'm glad you like it. There is a minor bug in the Hard Disk
Installation script, missing a 'ram:' in front of one of the 'lharc'
commands so it looks in the c: directory, and if it isn't there it
complains. I'll be uploading fixed versions of the script if I can figure
out which library to put it in.
Clint <VRLI>
Clint,
I ordered my 2.0 upgrade a couple weeks ago. Whatdaya figure the timetable
is for delivery? Any idea?
Pete
Pete:
We started shipping last Thursday. Orders are still coming in faster
than we can ship backorders out. We have 3 temporary shippers working their
tails off trying to catch up. That's about as many as we can train at a
time. I am hoping that we can get all of the original backorders out this
week, and possibly get completely caught up by Sunday night. We were
prepared for a 'normal' product launch, we were totally unprepared for the
overwhelming response that VistaPro 2.0 has received. We thank the Amiga
community for responding in this way, but alas, we also have to beg your
patience, we're shipping just as fast as we can get product together and
packaged.
I will check in the morning and see if yours has already been shipped
or where it is in the process and leave you email.
Clint <VRLI>
Thanks, Clint. Ain't it great, though? A lot better than launching the
product and having to beg for orders, eh?
From what I've seen, it looks like a dymamite product. It deserved nothing
less than this response.
Pete
Pete:
The last of the pre-release orders will go out tomorrow (upgrades) and
Saturday (new packages). We should be through last Friday's mail and phone
orders by the end of the day tomorrow. Saturday should see us into
Tuesday's mail, and Sunday into Wednesday's. (Wednesday was a _big_ day
that'll take about a day and a half to fill). Starting next week we should
be only about 3-4 days behind. <grin>
Clint <VRLI>
Clint, I can't seem to get VistaPro to unghost the HAM-E selection….I've
tried it booting with the machine using my HAM-E, and several permutations.
Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong? I plan to get a Firecracker in about
two weeks anyway, but you know……
Douglas:
There are some (1 or 2) libraries associated with HAM-E. I don't
recall the library names, but will ask John tomorrow and post tomorrow
night. John looks for them (it?) and if he can't find them, he ghost's the
menu item.
Clint <VRLI>
I have the hame.library….maybe it's an older version? I'll cruise
through the BBS in AmigaVendor and see if there's a new one.
Clint, I uploaded the latest version of the hame.library from AmigaVendor,
and all is well now. Guess I have to keep on top of things more!
Doug:
Glad it works OK.
Clint <VRLI>
Clint,
Hmmm, as long as you are on the line here let me pop in. I installed the
2.0 upgrade last night (Sunday night I installed my Resolver, that came
first 🙂 ) and was playing a bit with it. Did you darken the palettes or
something? All my renderings seem unusually dark, even if I put the light
nearly overhead. I don't remember that being the case with version 1.
Tonight I manually lightened a palette and saved it as a colormap. I loaded
another scape then overloaded the .cmap and it did seem to lighten up the
scape. Is that how I was supposed to do it? Please twist the arm of your
programmer and get SAGE.library/Resolver support ASAP!!!
– via Whap!
Scott:
Try lightening the Exposure and Contrast. Some of the scapes had
these 'colors' set abnormally high. It wasn't as important on VP1, but has
a larger dynamic range with VP2. We will be contacting Digital Micronics in
the next few days, but realistically, the earliest you might see results
would be this summer. Oh yes, also set the 'Shadow' and 'Exager' buttons in
the 'Light' control panel.
Clint <VRLI>
Clint,
"…but realistically, the earliest you might see results would be this
summer."
Given the fact that you JUST released a major upgrade, I can understand
that 🙂 But if enough developers support SAGE.library it will rapidly
become a standard and EVERYBODY will have to support it as at least one of
their options. After all, VP2 supports, what, 3 advanced color devices? I
would be nice to only have one.
– via Whap!
Scott:
True, but remember VP2+ is only one of several programs that John is
trying to support/enhance almost single-handedly right now. Although he
_has_ met Arthur C. Clarke in person, he _is_ still human. <grin>
Clint <VRLI>
Clint,
What else is he supporting??? If you mean Makepath and Terraform, they
are important but obviously of secondary importance. If there is something
else, what is it? DS is not his is it?
– via Whap!
Scott:
I know this is the Amiga forum, but there _is_ a PC version of
VistaPro out there (and associated programs) which are now one revision
down from the Amiga version. That is a major piece of work for John of
equal magnitude to the Amiga upgrade he just completed. When that is
complete, he can turn his attention back to the Amiga for VP 3.0. We think
it only just to have something ported from the Amiga to the PC for a
change. <grin>
Clint <VRLI>
Yeah,
One of those upgrades is _MINE_!!!! 🙂
It is nice to have piles of money coming in isn't it? Thanks for sending
up some HAM versions of the pictures.
-mark=
– whappity whap whap… whap whap!!
Mark:
I've made some nice renderings using TerraForm landscapes that I'll
upload to Arts tonite. A little demonstration that VP is good for more than
landscapes. <grin>
Clint <VRLI>
Can you upload that picture on the cover of the VistaPro 2.0 manual? In
JPEG would be cool. Also can you tell us exactly what you did to get that
picture? What mountain is it?
Nick
Nick:
I'll try to upload it tonite. (I may already have, I think it's the
one JPEG that I did upload here, but I'm not sure.) The scape is
Tuolumn2.dem from the set I002. My Target is set at X=4590, Y=2940, Z=1404,
and my Camera is set to X=90, Y=2790 and Z=1674. I have Zoom set to either
64 or 128, Pine trees selected at the default setting, and SkyHaze set to
an orange-red. Haze is set to 100. Texture is set to H, Shadow is On,
Exager is On, Azimuth 130, Declin 60, GShade is On and Blend is On, Poly is
set to 1. All else is default.
Clint <VRLI>
Mark:
I just uploaded 3 VistaPro 2.0 HAM renderings to the "Original Art"
Library over in AmigaArts. The SYSOP may move them over to "Derived Art" as
an argument can be made for both sides as to whether it is original or
derived. I think you'll like the images. They show another side of VistaPro
that people don't normally think of.
Clint <VRLI>
I want to thank you guys for the great job you are doing!
I started to use Scenery Generator and now I am back to Vista Pro. I love
competition.. 🙂
-mark=
– whappity whap whap… whap whap!!
Mark:
You are very welcome! I hope you have alot of fun with VistaPro.
Natural Graphics has given us a tough fight every step of the way. Brett is
a very talented programmer. I expect we'll be competing for quite some
time.
Clint <VRLI>
Clint,
And JUST to keep you honest, NG is releasing 2.0 of Animator in a
couple of months! I was just talking to them today and that's what I
heard.
– via Whap!
Scott:
Why am I not surprised? <grin>
Clint <VRLI>