CompuServe Thread

#IPAS "cracked"?

18 messages in this thread
#154840From: SyndesisFeb 22, 1995 1:07 AM
I heard a rumor on the Internet that Visual Software, makers of the Visual Reality modeling and animation program for Windows, have "cracked" the IPAS format, and that their next version will be able to use IPAS routines, even under Windows.
#154845From: Aaron W. OstlerFeb 22, 1995 1:51 AM
I hope what you've heard is right, but I've met and talked with the founders of Visual Software and they've expressed absolutely zero interest in IPAS so I really doubt the validity of those rumors. Besides, their product isn't really aimed at the serious professional market. And their programmers are very UNIX/X-Windows fixated, so I don't know where they would have dug up the DOS guru to pull off a stunt like that <g> Aaron
#154905From: Yost GroupFeb 22, 1995 9:28 AM
That's a good one. Well, I heard a rumor lately that little aliens from the dog star landed in my computer and are using the IPAS interface to make intergalactic coffee. Both rumors are equally plausible. – G
#154924From: John EllisFeb 22, 1995 10:33 AM
>> are using the IPAS interface to make intergalactic coffee. << So that's what's been keeping you up late at nights! And I thought it was just the excitment of NT, silly me. <G> John
#154956From: Jeffrey LererFeb 22, 1995 1:49 PM
John, Gary said dog star (rats god) someone else said WNT (VMS). Every time I run the DISPLACE IPAS the aliens Coffee.bat is launched! Coffee's great, but the shakes make accurate "face lift" dubious. Jeffrey
#155043From: John EllisFeb 22, 1995 8:10 PM
>> Coffee's great, but the shakes… << Yeah it sounded kinda strong, maybe if one could get a pastry with it. John
#154964From: SyndesisFeb 22, 1995 2:28 PM
Are you Sirius? 🙂
#154974From: Yost GroupFeb 22, 1995 3:25 PM
Isn't he an editor at Mondo2K? – G
#155162From: SyndesisFeb 23, 1995 8:31 AM
Uhm, "Sirius" is the "dog star", isn't it? Geez, I thought that pun was so obvious, you were just playing straight man! R.U. Sirius is one of those balding-but-Wired kinda writers, yes. Mondo 2000 is the magazine that once explained that LED "segments" were 64K organizations of memory… or was it the other way 'round?
#155177From: Yost GroupFeb 23, 1995 9:50 AM
I'm just a stream-of-consciousness-kind-of-straight-man, I suppose. RU and Queen Mu were the founders of Mondo, if my recollection serves me right. – G
#155004From: Ian ChristieFeb 22, 1995 6:12 PM
Java IPAS… I'd like to get that one. Ian.
#155049From: Tim c BrananFeb 22, 1995 8:28 PM
How difficult would it be to crack if you had the 3ds and IPAS toolkits, anyway?
#155073From: Yost GroupFeb 22, 1995 9:49 PM
If you were writing a DOS application that used the same version of Phar Lap that we used, it would only take an ordinary super-genius. Under any other OS conditions, even attempting it would be so unstable as to make it unusable.
#155472From: SyndesisFeb 24, 1995 11:05 AM
When I was chatting with O.S.G.-certified Grubba about this a couple days ago, I got the impression that an IPAS .EXE is a pure 32-bit application, not really linked with any PharLap-specific code. So what does PharLap have to do with it? I'm not trying to imply that the effort involved with reproducing the functionality of the 3DS side of IPAS would be minimal. 🙂 But then any Windows/WinNT-based DLL plug-in scheme would be much easier to decipher. Let's see, all the companies planning plug-ins for Windows 3D programs: 3D Studio, trueSpace, LightWave, Ray Dream, Strata, etc. What happens to the plug-in market when it becomes easier and easier to port a plug-in from one 3D mother-program to another, not to mention the possibility of making magic glue code that makes it possible to use a plug-in designed for one program to be used after-market by someone with a different program?
#155480From: Yost GroupFeb 24, 1995 11:37 AM
Heck, eventually we'll have 3D operating systems in which applications exist as plug-ins and they ALL work together. We should all live so long. Regarding specific technical questions, I just don't have the time to address them right now (especially today). I'm getting ready to leave town for the next four days (until Wednesday), so I'm busier than usual and am trying to wrap things up. Take care, – G
#155504From: SyndesisFeb 24, 1995 1:03 PM
But that's not what the Inventor and QuickDraw 3D evangelists told me! 🙂
#154932From: Aleksey PopelyukhinFeb 22, 1995 11:14 AM
Hi, John! I think, that what you've heard was related to the fact that some companies are creating tools for porting some IPASes to Windows as plug-ins for their programs. The most recent development in this area is the tool from RAZOR (kind of Adobe Premiere but WAY better with built-in PAR support), which allows you to recompile IXPs as RAZOR plug-ins. You can get more info on RAZOR from Digimation. Regards, Alex, Video International
#154965From: SyndesisFeb 22, 1995 2:30 PM
Or more likely, marketroids are using the term "IPAS" in the general sense as if if the word now means "plug-ins," and some over-eager customer heard what they wanted to hear.