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&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>&quot;
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<!-- What is a Graphics Muse? -->
<FONT size=4><B>muse:</B></FONT>
<OL>
<LI><I>v;</I> to become absorbed in thought
<LI><I>n;</I> [ fr. Any of the nine sister goddesses of learning and the
arts in Greek Mythology ]: a source of inspiration
</OL>
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/w.gif" ALT="W" ALIGN="left"
HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="36" HEIGHT="28">elcome
to the Graphics Muse! Why a "muse"?
Well, except for the sisters aspect, the above definitions are
pretty much the way I'd describe my own interest in computer graphics:
it keeps me deep in thought and it is a daily source of inspiration.
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[<A HREF="#mews">Graphics Mews</A>]
[<A HREF="#musings">Musings</A>]
[<A HREF="#resources">Resources</A>]
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/t.gif" ALT="T" ALIGN="left"
HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="26" HEIGHT="28">his
column is dedicated to the use, creation, distribution, and discussion of
computer graphics tools for Linux systems.
<P clear=both>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
I'm sort of taking a break from the Muse this month. Work is really
gearing up and I've been quite busy there. I'm also not confident
enough in my knowledge of RenderMan Shaders that I feel I could do
the topic justice this month. So I'm postponing the 2nd in the three-
part series one month. I <I>will</I> be doing the next two articles,
I just need a little more time to get them right.
I'll also still be doing the HF-Lab review. The POV-Ray tips I'm
not certain I'll do myself. I may see if I can talk someone from
the IRTC-L mailing list into writing something up there. I haven't
been using POV-Ray 3.0 in awhile. My attention has been focused on
BMRT.
<BR clear=both>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
So, all there is this month is a few announcements taken from the
various newsgroups and info that's been passed to me directly.
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&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Disclaimer:
Before I get too far into this I should note that any of the news items I
post in this section are just that - news. Either I happened to run
across
them via some mailing list I was on, via some Usenet newsgroup, or via
email from someone. I'm not necessarily endorsing these products (some of
which may be commercial), I'm just letting you know I'd heard about
them in the past month.
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<H4>Gifmap Image Navigator</H4>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Gifmap is a package which supports making image collections available on
the Web. It recurses through directory trees, building HTML pages,
imagemap files, and client-side/server-side maps to allow the user to
navigate through collections of thumbnail images (somewhat similar to
xv's Visual Schnauzer) and select the image to view with a mouse click.
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Obtain gifmap from
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.wizards.dupont.com/pub/ImageMagick/gifmap">
ftp://ftp.wizards.dupont.com/pub/ImageMagick/gifmap</A>
or via the Web from the Gifmap web page at
<A HREF="http://www.cyberramp.net/~bfriesen/gifmap/">
http://www.cyberramp.net/~bfriesen/gifmap/</A>.
The Gifmap web page
contains some sample pages you can browse through to give you an idea of
what Gifmap can do. It also contains the gifmap documentation.
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Gifmap is written in PERL and is compatable with PERL versions 4 and 5.
Gifmap uses the ImageMagick package and therefore requires that the
ImageMagick package be installed. ImageMagick version 3.8.0 or later is
recommended.
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<H4>
MPEG file player v0.2
</H4>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
There was a very brief announcement for this package on
<A HREF="news:comp.os.linux.announce">
comp.os.linux.announce</A> which stated that
the program can work with Pentium-60 32MB machines.
I don't know why it wouldn't work with other systems, but
that's what the announcement said.
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
This file player supports MPEG layer 1, 2, 3 and Wave files
and uses pthreads (thus it requires libpthread.so).
Check
<A HREF="http://adam.kaist.ac.kr/~jwj95/">
http://adam.kaist.ac.kr/~jwj95/</A>
or
<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/splay-0.2.tar.gz">
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/
<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;apps/sound/splay-0.2.tar.gz</A>.
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<H4>
Microform has rev'd their VARKON package
</H4>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
VARKON is a high level development tool for
CAD and engineering applications developed by
Microform, Sweden. It was first reported in last month's
Graphics Muse. Mircoform has since rev'd the
package to 1.14F and added new demo applications.
The new version is available at:
<A HREF="http://www.microform.se">
http://www.microform.se</A>.
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<H4>
MpegTV Player 1.0
</H4>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
MpegTV Player 1.0 is a realtime software MPEG Video Player
with audio/sync.
<BR clear=both>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
This major release has many improvements over earlier
versions, including better performances, better image
quality, better error resilence, improved GUI and new
features.
<UL>
<LH>Key features:</LH>
<LI>High performances on Pentiums (25 frames/sec on P6-200)
<LI>Support for 8-bit, 16-bit and 24-bit display.
<LI>High Audio and Video quality
<LI>Fast random access
<LI>Frame capture
<LI>Takes advantage of multiprocessor platforms
<LI>Handles errors gracefully
<LI>Works in streaming/network environment
<LI>VCR-like graphic front-end (using the Xforms library)
<LI>Graphic front-end can be customized
<LI>Player can be controlled by any application via a simple API
</UL>
MpegTV is a commercial application, but a free evaluation copy
is available from
<A HREF="http://www.mpegtv.com/download.html">
http://www.mpegtv.com/download.html</A>. More information
is available from
<A HREF="http://www.mpegtv.com/player.html">
http://www.mpegtv.com/player.html</A>.
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<H4>
The GS4500 scanner driver has been updated to Version 2.0
</H4>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
The GS4500 scanner driver is a device driver (loadable module)
for the Genius handheld scanners GS4500 and GS4500A (and
probably the GS4000). Version 2.0 includes much improved
support for the GS4500A.
It also includes serious bug fixes. So everybody with a 2.0.x
kernel should update. (If you still run a 1.2.x kernel stay with
version 1.4 !)
<BR clear=both>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Also included is a modified version of xscan. Like the name suggests
it lets you scan under X11 with your GS4500.
You can get it from
<A HREF="http://swt-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~1willamo/linux.html">
http://swt-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/
<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;~1willamo/linux.html</A>.
It should also be in the Sunsite and tsx-11 archives by now.
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<H4>
ImageMagick rev'd yet again - 3.8.3.
</H4>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
No word as to what this release is for, however. It's nice to
see such ongoing development on this very fine set of tools. I
just wonder if monthly releases are really necessary.
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<H4>Did You Know?</H4>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
John Bradley has now got an official home for xv on the web:
<A HREF="http://www.trilon.com/xv/">
http://www.trilon.com/xv/</A>. There isn't very much there
yet except the xv source distributions and links to some patches,
but that will probably change over time.
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No Musings this month. I'll have some stuff for next month, though.
I promise.
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<A NAME="resources">
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<BR clear=both>
The following links are just starting points for finding more information
about computer graphics and multimedia in general for Linux systems. If
you have some application-specific information for me, I'll add them to my
other pages or you can contact the maintainer of some other web site. I'll
consider adding other general references here, but application or site
specific information needs to go into one of the following general
references and not listed here.
<BR clear=both>
<P>
<A HREF="http://www.csn.net/~mjhammel/linux-graphics-howto.html">
Linux Graphics mini-Howto
</A>
<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.csn.net/~mjhammel/povray/povray.html">
Unix Graphics Utilities
</A>
<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.digiserve.com/ar/linux-snd/">
Linux Multimedia Page
</A>
<P>
Some of the mailing lists and newsgroups I keep an eye on, where I get a lot
of the information for this column:
<P> <A HREF="http://www.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/~gimp/">
The Gimp User and Gimp Developer Mailing Lists</A>.
<BR> <A HREF="http://www.povvray.org/irtc">
The IRTC-L discussion list</A>
<BR> <A HREF="news:comp.graphics.rendering.raytracing">
comp.graphics.rendering.raytracing</A>
<BR> <A HREF="news:comp.graphics.rendering.renderman">
comp.graphics.rendering.renderman</A>
<BR> <A HREF="news:comp.os.linux.announce">
comp.os.linux.announce</A>
<br>
<P>
<A NAME="future">
<H2>Future Directions</H2>
</A>
Next month:
<UL>
<LI> BMRT Part 2: Shaders
<LI> Height Fields with HF-Lab
</UL>
<BR>
<A HREF="mailto:mjhammel@csn.net">
Let me know what you'd like to hear about!</A>
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<center><H4>Previous ``Graphics Muse'' Columns</H4></center>
<p>
<A HREF="../issue11/gm.html">Graphics Muse #1, November 1996</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue12/gm.html">Graphics Muse #2, December 1996</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue13/gm.html">Graphics Muse #3, January 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue14/gm.html">Graphics Muse #4, February 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue15/gm.html">Graphics Muse #5, March 1997</A>
<P><HR><P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1997, Michael J. Hammel <BR>
Published in Issue 16 of the Linux Gazette, April 1997</H5></center>
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