#Opinions
5 messages in this thread
I'm looking for some feedback on a program I have. My program converts DXF
files to Amiga 3D graphics formats. I don't sell a rendering program, you
can buy those separately for about $200. On the Amiga, with my program, you
can convert a DXF 3D drawing (normally rendered in AutoShade) into an
overscan 350 by 420 pixel, 4096-color full ray-traced image, suitable for
NTSC video output. With this same rendering program, you can do animations
and walk-throughs through the scene, too. You can also do shaded polygon
renderings and animations. I did the X-29 object in 16 shades of grey, 640
by 400 pixels, in about ten minutes. All this on a $1000 computer system.
The Amiga has great color hard-copy output options, too. So, I'm looking for
opinions on how this product might fare in the AutoCAD third-party market.
Would AutoCAD users buy a cheap Amiga system just to do great renderings,
animations and video titling of AutoCAD 3D drawings?
It all sounds really interesting. I think it could be something some would
go for, but having a whole other computer system may inhibit a majority of
your targeted market. It also competes with AutoShade & AutoFlix directly
and I would think the total costs may inhibit most from going that route
when they could do it all on the single workstation. Who knows?
Jamie
I agree, it is hard to imagine that people would buy Amigas to get a
AutoShade-like rendering system, but there are a number of things that could
make it appealing. The NTSC video-out on the Amiga means you can lay these
animations to video tape without extra hardware, and you can do excellent,
TV-quality video presentation graphics with the Amiga. What are some of the
limitations of AutoShade? How fast does it render a particular object – I
could benchmark it. What limits does it in output colors? How many frames
are in a given animation, and how big is the file? Is there an ARC in the DLs
with a DXF object and the resulting animation that I could use to compare
things?
I think I'll shoot for "the people who own Amigas but use AutoCAD or DXF", as
my first market. I'm not looking forward to marketing in the PC market,
seeing as I'd end up selling Amigas as well as my own product. I'm planning
on going to the AutoDesk expo in Chicago. Perhaps I should render some 3D
objects on the Amiga, and then post them as GIF files. GIF only supports 256
colors, right? We'd lose a few, coming from 4096, but it might look OK. Any
particular 3DFACE-type objects you'd like to see ray-traced? I'd love to get
more 3DFACE objects for rendering, do you know of a good source? Anyone out
there willing to send me a disk or two? I've grabbed a few from the
libraries already.
Use the RM Function to read
this message.
I've converted the X-29, and it's ray-tracing now on my second Amiga. It
says it has a few hours to go, but I turned the antialiasing way up, and my
conversion isn't optimized as best as it could.