CompuServe Thread

1) VP renders terrain. It uses all sorts of little tricks to get as much realism as it can out of small data sets. Cliff algorithms. Recognition of the different behavior of snow and trees when given a mountain valley to play in. Random fractalization of surface normals for added roughness. Detail invention between data points. There is a program called dem23d which will take VP data and create a 3DS mesh for you. I have not tried using VP data in 3DS yet, so can not comment on how well this works. Since VP does all sorts of clever stuff between data points on the grid when rendering, you can not expect your 3ds rendering of VP's data to look as good as VP does. You can render in VP from way up high and save the resultant image for use as a texture map. I do not know how well this works. I used VP once to render an image with hills in the background and a devil's tower in the foreground. This I split up and applied to near and far items in 3DS and had a robot run around in this scenery. Like theater 'flats'. Looked pretty good. You can use it to render terrain made out of a 2d picture of your own. I draw terrain with a white airbrush on black in Fractal Paint and then bring it into VP. Works OK, but has some trouble that I plan on writing a solution for. 2) I bought mine at my local Egghead. 3) Just got VP for Windows with the CD of data for Mike a couple days ago. Cost $70+. Less than $80 before tax. 4) I forget if VP needs a 386 or math. But you probably want these anyway. I ran it well enough with 8meg. It runs happier with 20. VP has 4, I think, different sizes of terrain data grid. The largest gets very big and slow. 2050×2050 I think. Math coprocessor _may_ not make a difference. I don't know. Anybody? Any questions? – gruhn

1.) I have used it for creating fun great looking landscapes to use as backgrounds for models, or as actual .dxf land masses in 3DS. You can also translate USGS DEM data, and it comes with dozens of DEMS, including many state and national parks, and a large amount of Mars data. It can also be used for 3D diplacement mapping for interesting "raised surface" graphics. 2.) You can buy it direct from VRLI at (800) 829-VRLI. 3.) $149.95 retail. Better yet, buy Inside 3DS (at least R3 version, not sure of R4) which comes with Vistapro v.1 for free. Upgrade to v.3 for $69.95. V.3 is much better, with much better looking trees, for example. 4.) 386 or greater, 4MB RAM (more is better), VGA or SVGA (VESA compatible) card, DOS 3.0 or better, etc. Paul S.

Robert: Which are you referring to, the software landscape generator VistaPro, or the video board Vista Pro? With regards to the landscape generator, it was written by John Hinkley and published by Virtual Reality Labs, Inc. There is a demo version over in the VRLI section of the GraphicsA Vendors Forum (GO VRLI), which will give you a good idea of the capabilities of VistaPro. Most of the larger dealers like EggHead or CompUSA carry it, or it can be purchased direct if you can't find a local dealer. You can send me email if you want further info on ordering. I will let the VP users list the various uses, but anything which requires a background landscape of real or fractal locations is a start. There are several configurations/platforms where it's available, MS-DOS, Windows, Mac, PowerMac and Amiga. There are CD-ROM versions available on the PC and the Mac. On the PC, hardware requirements are 386 or higher processor, 4 megs of memory (or more, the more the merrier), plenty of disk space for animations and a MicroSoft compatible mouse.