CompuServe Thread

Hello Michael, Sorry for the delay in responding. I am online only a few times a week it seems, no matter how I try to get here more often. >>>Q. Can the CDK be set up to use more of the color palette, so shading looks more natural, ie. rather than black & white dithering, use the next closest color?<<< The NAVFlyer that you downloaded is made by my company using CDK. The current version in the library only uses the default VESA display that shipped with CDK Rel 1. CDK allows developers to write their own C++ display classes to have whatever capabilities they choose. This default VESA display used some heavy dithering in the method you described, but that is only one possibility. We have written another display for our DOS products that use the rendering library from SPEA. There are other rendering libraries one could use as well to create other VGA displays. The new version of the NAVFlyer, which we will upload sooner or later, (sooner, I promise) has this new SPEA display in it. You might like to check it out. So to answer your question, yes CDK can be set up to make a display do whatever you like. You just have to be a decent C++ coder and understand display technology as it is available today, and learn to read the future of the market for which way to go. Your guess is as good as anyone elses 🙂 …… >>>Q. Does the version 2 CDK use the same shading scheme?<<< No. The VESA display class you saw does not exist in the Windows version of CDK Rel 2. They have another default VGA display using WinG. And They also support Rendermorphics, a great renderer from Reality Labs in England. I believe these have Phong shading, right guys? My renderers are getting mixed up. The SPEA on we have for the DOS version does have Phong. It is slower, but you're right, nice for when you stop moving around… >>>Q. Does it support the same niceties as 3D Studio such as shadow and reflection mapping (maybe it is the same rendering engine for all I know)?<<<< Deffinitely NOT! Realtime renderers don't take the time for such nicities. The renderers supplied with CDK Rel 2 is Autodesk created and uses WinG. In Rel 1, it was the VESA display that you saw in the current NAVFlyer. Nowhere near what 3D Studio can do in terms of rendering quality. But right now, real-time apps are striving for speed, not quality I am afraid. Personally I think this is a shame. Everyone is hung up on speed. I like flying in wireframe to get where I want to go and then get the best rendering possible when I get there. We have this in an ADAPTIVE display mode in the Virtual Environment NAVIGATOR. It is still my favorite display mode. Please check out the NAVSUM.ZIP file in the CDK library also. It describes the full blown NAVIGATOR program in a summary and I hope you find it interesting and informative. Thanks for the interest and I hope NAVFlyer can be of some use to you in learning to create low polygon count models. The mouse control makes it a whole new program and I hope someday when you see the new version, you will consider registering it. Let me know if you have any other questions. Angela Pate MicronGreen, Inc.