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1450 lines
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<TITLE>
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Graphics Muse
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</HEAD>
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<BODY text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"
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vlink="#fa3333" alink="#33CC33" link="#0000FA">
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<!--endcut ============================================================-->
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<!-- =============================================================
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These pages are designed by Michael J. Hammel. Permission to
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use all graphics and other content is granted provided you give
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me (or the original authors/artists) credit for the work and this
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copyright notice is not removed.
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(c)1997, 1998 Michael J. Hammel (mjhammel@graphics-muse.org)
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============================================================= !-->
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<TABLE width=560>
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<!-- The title graphics -->
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/gm3.gif" ALT="Welcom to the Graphics Muse"
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ALIGN="left" WIDTH="441" HEIGHT="216" border="0"></td>
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Set your browser to the width of the line below for best viewing.
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<!-- The Copyright -->
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<BR><FONT size=1>
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© 1997 by
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<A HREF="mailto:mjhammel@csn.net">mjh</A>
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valign=bottom align=center colspan=2>
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<HR>
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<TABLE width=560>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/buttons3.gif" ALT="Button Bar"
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USEMAP="#nav-main" border="0"></td>
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<td width=83% align=left valign=top>
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<!-- What is a Graphics Muse? -->
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<FONT size=4><B>muse:</B></FONT>
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<OL>
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<LI><I>v;</I> to become absorbed in thought
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<LI><I>n;</I> [ fr. Any of the nine sister goddesses of learning and the
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arts in Greek Mythology ]: a source of inspiration
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</OL>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/w.gif" ALT="W" ALIGN="left"
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HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="36" HEIGHT="28">elcome
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to the Graphics Muse! Why a "muse"?
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Well, except for the sisters aspect, the above definitions are
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pretty much the way I'd describe my own interest in computer graphics:
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it keeps me deep in thought and it is a daily source of inspiration.
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<!-- Text based navigation -->
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<P>
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<CENTER>
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<FONT size=2>
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[<A HREF="#mews">Graphics Mews</A>]
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[<A HREF="#musings">Musings</A>]
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[<A HREF="#resources">Resources</A>]
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</FONT>
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<CENTER></td>
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</table>
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<TABLE width=560>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
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HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/t.gif" ALT="T" ALIGN="left"
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HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="26" HEIGHT="28">his
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column is dedicated to the use, creation, distribution, and dissussion of
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computer graphics tools for Linux systems.
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<BR clear=both>
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What a month. Actually, two months. Last month I was busily working
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on putting together an entry for the IRTC using BMRT. At the same time
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I was trying to teach myself enough about the RenderMan Interface
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Specification to put together the second of three articles on BMRT.
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I didn't succeed in the latter and ended up postponing the article
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by one month. Because I did this
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I was able to focus more on learning the interface and worry less
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about writing. I think this strategy worked. The scene I rendered for this
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month's IRTC is the best I've ever done and I managed to gain enough
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experience to write a meaningful article on the RenderMan Shading Langauge.
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<BR clear=both>
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One of the reasons I enjoy doing this column is because it exposes me to
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all sorts of people and software. The world of computer graphics for
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Linux is constantly growing and the software constantly improves. I
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hear about new products just about once or twice a week now and I hear
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about updates to existing packages all the time. It's very difficult to
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keep track of all the changes (and the fact that I haven't made any updates
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to the Linux Graphics mini-Howto in some time reflects this), but I enjoy
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the work.
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<BR clear=both>
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Since things change so often I have found it's never clear how many
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announcements I'll have for any one month. It's gone from famine to
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feast - with this month being the feast. Most of the announcements in
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this month's column are from April alone. I don't know what happened -
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maybe all the bad weather around the globe kept people inside and busily
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working and now that the sun's out they're starting to let loose what
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they've done. I only wish I had the time to examine everything, to play
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with them all. But my employer would rather I finish my current project
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first. Has something to do with keeping my salary, so they say.
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<BR clear=both>
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In this month's column, I'll be covering only two related items. The
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first is a case study on learning to use BMRT. When you submit an image in
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the IRTC, you are required to submit an ASCII text file describing your
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image and, to some extent, how you created it. Some people don't put much
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work into this. I just about wrote a book. Since the information I
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provided covered more than just BMRT, I thought it would be relavent to this
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column.
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<BR clear=both>
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The second item is the long-awaited (well, I waited a long time to
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finish it anyway) 2nd article on BMRT that covers the RenderMan Shading
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Language. I think this article came out quite good. I've included quite a
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few samples and some general explanations on what they do. I want to
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say right up front that I couldn't have done this without lots of help from
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BMRT's author, Larry Gritz at Pixar. He was a very willing teacher and
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critic who offered many tips and ideas for my IRTC entry. Most of that
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also ended up in this article. Many thanks, Larry.
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<BR clear=both>
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I know I said I'd do an HF-Lab article this month too, but that IRTC
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entry took more time than I expected. It was quite addicting, trying
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to get things just right. I have started to review HF-Lab once again
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and will make it my first priority for next month's column. I've already
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figured out how to use the output from HF-Lab to produce height fields with
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BMRT. It's quite simple really. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this month's
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articles.
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<BR clear=both>
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Note: I've been asked by a couple of readers about support for 3D
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hardware support in the various X servers. I'm going to contact the
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X Server vendors (Xi Graphics, MetroLink, The XFree Project)
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as well as Brian Paul (the MesaGL author)
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and see what they have to say. If you are connected with these folks
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and have some insight, I'd love to hear what you have to say. Please
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<A HREF="mailto:mjhammel@csn.net">email me</A> if you know if such
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support is forthcoming and I'll include it in an upcoming Graphics
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Muse column.
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<P>
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</td>
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</table>
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<A NAME="mews">
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/mews.gif" ALT="Graphics Mews" ALIGN="left"
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</A>
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<BR clear=both>
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Disclaimer:
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Before I get too far into this I should note that any of the news items I
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post in this section are just that - news. Either I happened to run
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across
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them via some mailing list I was on, via some Usenet newsgroup, or via
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email from someone. I'm not necessarily endorsing these products (some of
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which may be commercial), I'm just letting you know I'd heard about
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them in the past month.
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<P>
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<tr>
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<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
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HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
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<tr>
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<td width="50%">
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<H4>
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Frame grabber device driver for the ImageNation Cortex I video
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capture card - Version 1.1
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</H4>
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This adapter is an 512 by 486 resolution 8bit gray
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scale video capture card. The device can provide data in
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pgm file format or raw image data.
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<BR>FTP site:<BR>
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<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/video/cortex.drv.1.1.tgz">
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ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/
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<BR>
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apps/video/cortex.drv.1.1.tgz</A>
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<BR>Web Site:<BR>
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<A HREF="http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/jennings/cortex.drv.1.1.tgz">
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http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/
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<BR>
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jennings/cortex.drv.1.1.tgz</A>
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</td>
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<td bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
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HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
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<td bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
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WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
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<td width="49%" valign=top>
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<H4>
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3DOM - a new 3D modeller project using OpenGL for Linux
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</H4>
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3DOM is a 3D Modeler for Unix (using HP StarBase or OpenGL/Mesa)
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that is free for
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non-commercial use. Source code is available. Binaries for
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Linux/Intel, SGI, Sparc Solaris and HP-UX are also availalbe.
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<P>
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It's not quite 'ready for prime-time', meaning there is
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almost no documentation
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and there is still a lot of work to do on the user interface.
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<A HREF="http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/cwis/research/graphics/3DOM/">
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http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/
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<BR> cwis/research/graphics/3DOM/</A>
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</td>
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<tr>
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<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
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HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
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<tr>
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<td colspan=4>
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<H4>
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Pixcon/Anitroll R1.04
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</H4>
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I found this in my /tmp directory while getting ready for this month's
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column. I couldn't find a reference to it in any other Muse columns, so I
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guess I must have just misplaced it while preparing for an earlier issue.
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Hopefully, this isn't too out of date.
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<BR clear=both>
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Pixcon & Anitroll is a freely available 3D
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rendering and animation package, complete with source.
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Pixcon is a 3D renderer that creates high quality images by using a
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combination of 11 rendering primitives. Anitroll is a forward kinematic
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heirarchical based animation system that has some support for some
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non-kinematic based animation (such as flock of birds, and autonomous
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cameras). These tools are based upon the Graph library which is full
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of those neat rendering and animation algorithms that those 3D faqs
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keep mentioning. It also implements
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some rendering techniques that were presented at Siggraph 96 by Ken
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Musgrave and was used to generate an animation for Siggraph '95.
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<BR clear=both>
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New features since version 1.03:
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<UL>
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<LI>elimination of a memory leak w/ the polygon class
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<LI>implemented a vector system for fast preview of frames
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<LI>reorganize rendering process to support future parallel processing
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<LI>30-60 % reduction in rendering time and memory usage
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</UL>
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The Pixcon & Anitroll home page is at:
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<BR clear=both>
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<A HREF="http://www.radix.net/~dunbar/index.html">
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http://www.radix.net/~dunbar/index.html</A>
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<BR clear=both>
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Comments can be emailed to
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<A HREF="mailto:dunbar@saltmine.radix.net">dunbar@saltmine.radix.net</A>.
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Pixcon is available either through the above web site or at Sunsite.
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It is currently under:
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<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming/pixcon104.tgz">
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/pub/Linux/Incoming/pixcon104.tgz</A>
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and will be moved to:
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<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/graphics/pixcon104.tgz">
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/pub/Linux/apps/graphics/pixcon104.tgz</A>
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NOTE: there is a file pixcon1.04.tgz in those directories,
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but it's corrupted. Be sure to get the correct files.
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</td>
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<tr>
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<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
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<H4>
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ELECTROGIG 3DGO
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</H4>
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ELECTROGIG
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is a software company specializing in
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3D solid modeling, visualization and animation software.
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The latest version of 3DGO (version 3.2), a modeling
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animation and raytracing package, is now available for
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the Intel Linux platform. A beta version is also available for the
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MkLinux platform.
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Take a look at the benchmarks for Linux
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on the intel platform:
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<A HREF="http://www.gig.nl/products/prodbench.html">
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http://www.gig.nl/products/prodbench.html</A>.
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<BR clear=both>
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3DGO was originally developed for the SGI platform and
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is available for the SGI, SUN and HP platforms.
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<BR clear=both>
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For more comprehensive information about 3DGO, check out the
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WWW-site:
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<A HREF="http://www.gig.nl/products/prodinfo.html">
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http://www.gig.nl/products/prodinfo.html</A>.
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<BR clear=both>
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You can download a demo-version of 3DGO for linux, this version
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has all functionality, except the save functions. Go to our
|
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download area:
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<A HREF="ftp://ftp.gig.nl/demo/">
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ftp://ftp.gig.nl/demo/</A>.
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Please read the .txt files before downloading.
|
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<P clear=both>
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ELECTROGIG Technology
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<BR clear=both>
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<A HREF="mailto:info@gig.nl">
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INFO: info@gig.nl</A>
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</td>
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<tr>
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<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
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HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
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<tr>
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<td width="50%">
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<table>
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<tr>
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<td>
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<H4>
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EZWGL v1.2, the EZ widget and graphics library.
|
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</H4>
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EZWGL is a C library written on top of Xlib. It has been developed on
|
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a Linux system and has been tested on the following platforms:
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SunOS 4.1.4, OSF1 V3.2 Alpha, IRIX 5.3 Linux 1.2 and Linux 2.0.23.
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It should work on all Unices with X11R6.
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This release is the first one that comes with a complete postscript
|
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manual.
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<P>
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For more information, check out
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<A HREF="http://www.ma.utexas.edu/~mzou/EZWGL">
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http://www.ma.utexas.edu/~mzou/EZWGL</A>.
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</td>
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<tr>
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<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
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HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
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<tr>
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<td>
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<H4>
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xfpovray v1.2b
|
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</H4>
|
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A new release of xfpovray, the graphical interface to
|
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POV-Ray, has been released by
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<A HREF="mailto:mallozzir@cspar.uah.edu"> Robert S. Mallozzi</A>.
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xfpovray v1.2b requires the XForms library
|
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and supports most of the numerous options of POV-Ray. You can view
|
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an image of the interface and get the source code from
|
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<BR clear=both>
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<A HREF="http://cspar.uah.edu/~mallozzir/">http://cspar.uah.edu/~mallozzir/</A>
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<BR clear=both>
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There is a link to the XForms home page if you don't yet have this
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library installed.
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</td>
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</table>
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</td>
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<td bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
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HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
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<td bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
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WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
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|
|
<td width="49%">
|
|
<H4>
|
|
libgr V2.0.12
|
|
</H4>
|
|
|
|
A new version of libgr, version 2.0.12, is now available from
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.ctd.comsat.com:/pub/linux/ELF/libgr-2.0.12.tar.gz">
|
|
ftp.ctd.comsat.com:/
|
|
<BR>
|
|
pub/linux/ELF/libgr-2.0.12.tar.gz</A>.
|
|
<UL>
|
|
<LH>Changes to this release:
|
|
<LI> updated pbm, pgm, ppm, pnm from netpbm-94.
|
|
<LI> All the netpbm-94 apps are now included. They are NOT built or
|
|
installed by default, however. You must say make everything, make
|
|
install_everything.
|
|
<LI> Minor mods to compile with bash-2.0.
|
|
<LI> Minor mods to compile with glibc-2.
|
|
</UL>
|
|
<I>libgr</I> is a collection of graphics
|
|
libraries, which includes fbm, jpeg,
|
|
pbm, pgm, ppm, pnm, png, tiff, rle.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<I>libgr</I> will build shared libs on Linux-ELF and on HP/UX.
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4>
|
|
<H4>
|
|
EPSCAN - scanner driver for EPSON ES-1200C/GT-9000 scanners
|
|
</H4>
|
|
|
|
EPSCAN is a scanner driver for EPSON ES-1200C/GT-9000 scanners. It
|
|
includes a driver and a nice Qt-based X frontend.
|
|
It allows previewing, and
|
|
selecting a region of an image to be scanned, as well as changing
|
|
scanner settings. It only supports scanners attached to a SCSI port,
|
|
not to the parallel port.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
EPSCAN can be found at
|
|
<BR>
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming/epscan-0.1.tar.gz">
|
|
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming/epscan-0.1.tar.gz</A>.
|
|
<BR>RPM versions of the binary and source are available from
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/Incoming/epscan-0.1-1.src.rpm">
|
|
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/Incoming/epscan-0.1-1.src.rpm</A>
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/Incoming/epscan-0.1-1.i386.rpm">
|
|
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/Incoming/epscan-0.1-1.i386.rpm</A>.
|
|
|
|
<BR>They're intended destinations are
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/contrib/epscan-0.1-1.src.rpm">
|
|
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/contrib/epscan-0.1-1.src.rpm</A>
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/contrib/epscan-0.1-1.i386.rpm">
|
|
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/contrib/epscan-0.1-1.i386.rpm</A>.
|
|
and
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/graphics/scanners/epscan-0.1.tar.gz">
|
|
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/graphics/scanners/epscan-0.1.tar.gz</A>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
The driver should work for any of the
|
|
ES-{300-800}C / GT-{1000-6500} models as well, but has not been
|
|
tested on these.
|
|
|
|
<UL>
|
|
<LH>Requirements:</LH>
|
|
<LI>Linux 2.x
|
|
<LI>XFree3.x
|
|
<LI>Qt library version >= 1.1
|
|
<LI>libtiff version >= 3.4
|
|
<LI>g++ version >= 2.7.2
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
Author: Adam P. Jenkins
|
|
<<A HREF="mailto:ajenkins@cs.umass.edu">ajenkins@cs.umass.edu</A>>
|
|
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td width="50%">
|
|
<H4>
|
|
Inlab-Scheme Release 4
|
|
</H4>
|
|
|
|
Inlab-Scheme Release 4 is now available for Linux/386 (2.X kernel,
|
|
ELF binary) and FreeBSD.
|
|
|
|
<BR clear=b0th>
|
|
|
|
Inlab-Scheme is an independent implementation of the algorithmic
|
|
language Scheme as defined by the R4RS and the IEEE Standard
|
|
1178. In addition to the language core Inlab-Scheme has support
|
|
for bitmap/greymap processing of several kinds. Inlab-Scheme can
|
|
be used as a general tool for image processing, OCR or specialized
|
|
optical object recognition.
|
|
|
|
<BR clear=b0th>
|
|
|
|
Inlab-Scheme Release 4 reads and writes multipage tiff/G4, XBM and
|
|
PNG graphic file formats. Inlab-Scheme Release 4 has built in
|
|
converters for various patent image file formats (USAPat,
|
|
PATENTIMAGES and ESPACE).
|
|
|
|
<BR clear=b0th>
|
|
|
|
Inlab-Scheme is distributed at
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.munich.net/inlab/scheme">
|
|
http://www.munich.net/inlab/scheme</A>,
|
|
where additional information about the current state of the project,
|
|
supported platforms, current license fees and more is available.
|
|
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
<td bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
|
|
<td width="49%">
|
|
<H4>
|
|
The Linux Game SDK Project
|
|
</H4>
|
|
The new WWW page for the Linux Game SDK is at
|
|
<BR clear=b0th>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.ultranet.com/~bjhall/GSDK/">
|
|
http://www.ultranet.com/~bjhall/GSDK/</A>.
|
|
|
|
<BR clear=b0th>
|
|
|
|
The Linux GSDK Project is a new project which aims to make
|
|
a consistent and easy to use set of libraries to ease game
|
|
developers (professional or not) to make first class games
|
|
under the Linux OS. The GSDK will provide libraries for 2D and
|
|
3D graphics, advanced sound, networked games and input devices.
|
|
It should also improve the development of multimedia applications for
|
|
Linux. See the Web site for more informations.
|
|
|
|
<BR clear=b0th>
|
|
|
|
The GSDK mailing list has moved from linux-gsdk@endirect.qc.ca to
|
|
<A HREF="mailto:linux-gsdk@mail.wustl.edu">linux-gsdk@mail.wustl.edu</A>.
|
|
Additionnal lists have been created for the various teams.
|
|
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4>
|
|
<H4>
|
|
WebMagick Image Web Generator
|
|
</H4>
|
|
 
|
|
WebMagick 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.
|
|
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
 
|
|
WebMagick is based on the "PerlMagick" ImageMagick PERL extension rather
|
|
than external ImageMagick utilities (as its predecessor "Gifmap" is). This
|
|
alone is good for at least a 40% performance increase on small images.
|
|
WebMagick supports smart caching of thumbnails to speed montage generation
|
|
on average size images. After a first pass at "normal" speed, successive
|
|
passes (upon adding or deleting images) are 5X to 10X faster due to the
|
|
caching.
|
|
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
 
|
|
WebMagick supports a very important new feature in its caching subsystem:
|
|
it can create and share a thumbnail cache with John Bradley's 'xv' program.
|
|
This means that if you tell 'xv' to do an update, WebMagick montages will
|
|
benefit and you can run WebMagick as a batch job to update xv's thumbnails
|
|
without having to wait for 'xv' to do its thumbnail reduction (and get a
|
|
browsable web besides!).
|
|
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
 
|
|
WebMagick requires the ImageMagick (3.8.4 or later) and PerlMagick (1.0 or
|
|
later) packages as well as a recent version of PERL 5.
|
|
|
|
<table>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td> Primary-site:
|
|
<td>
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.cyberramp.net/~bfriesen/webmagick/dist/webmagick-1.17.tar.gz">
|
|
http://www.cyberramp.net/~bfriesen/webmagick/dist/webmagick-1.17.tar.gz</A>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td> Alternate-site:
|
|
<td>
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.wizards.dupont.com/pub/ImageMagick/perl/webmagick-1.17.tar.gz">
|
|
ftp.wizards.dupont.com/pub/ImageMagick/perl/webmagick-1.17.tar.gz</A>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td> Perl Language Home Page:
|
|
<td> <A HREF="http://www.perl.com/perl/index.html">
|
|
http://www.perl.com/perl/index.html</A>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td> ImageMagick:
|
|
<td> <A HREF="http://www.wizards.dupont.com/cristy/ImageMagick.html">
|
|
http://www.wizards.dupont.com/cristy/ImageMagick.html</A>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td> PerlMagick:
|
|
<td> <A HREF="http://www.wizards.dupont.com/cristy/www/perl.html">
|
|
http://www.wizards.dupont.com/cristy/www/perl.html</A>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td> Author:
|
|
<td> <A HREF="mailto:bfriesen@simple.dallas.tx.us">
|
|
Bob Friesenhahn (bfriesen@simple.dallas.tx.us)</A>
|
|
</table>
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td width="50%">
|
|
<H4>
|
|
SIMLIB IG - Commercial library
|
|
</H4>
|
|
 
|
|
SIMLIB IG a C library which enables communication with Evans &
|
|
Sutherland graphics Supercomputers (so called image generators).
|
|
It enables the user to communicate with Evans & Sutherland image
|
|
generators (Liberty and ESIG Systems) using a very efficient raw
|
|
Ethernet protocol. There is no need for using opcodes, since
|
|
SIMLIB IG provides an API to the functionality of the image
|
|
generators.
|
|
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
 
|
|
Documentation comes printed in English, and source code
|
|
examples are provided on the distribution media.
|
|
The software is also available for SGI and NT systems.
|
|
|
|
<P clear=both>
|
|
SIMLIB IG for Linux is $2500 (US)
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
SIMLIB IG for all other OS is $5000 (US)
|
|
|
|
<P clear=both>
|
|
<A HREF="mailto:office@knienieder.co.at">
|
|
KNIENIEDER Simulationstechnik KG
|
|
(office@knienieder.co.at)</a>
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
Technologiezentrum Innsbruck
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
AUSTRIA/EUROPE
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
<td bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
|
|
<td width="49%">
|
|
<H4>
|
|
mtekscan - Linux driver for MicroTek ScanMaker SCSI scanners
|
|
</H4>
|
|
mtekscan is a Linux driver for MicroTek
|
|
ScanMaker (and compatible) SCSI scanners. Originally developed for the
|
|
ScanMaker E6, it is (so far) known to also work with the ScanMaker
|
|
II/IIXE/IIHR/III/E3/35t models, as well as with the Adara ImageStar I,
|
|
Genius ColorPage-SP2 and Primax Deskscan Color.
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
|
|
The new version of mtekscan is v0.2. It's still in beta testing,
|
|
but all major options should work without problems. Besides some
|
|
small bugfixes and minor improvements, the new version contains a
|
|
couple of new features, most notably:
|
|
<UL>
|
|
<LI>3-pass scanning support
|
|
<LI>gamma correction
|
|
<LI>loadable gamma correction tables
|
|
<LI>better documentation
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
mtekscan v0.2 is available as mtekscan-0.2.tar.gz from the
|
|
Fast Forward ftp-server:
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://fb4-1112.uni-muenster.de/pub/ffwd/">
|
|
ftp://fb4-1112.uni-muenster.de/pub/ffwd/</A>
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
or from sunsite:
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/graphics/scanners/">
|
|
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
pub/Linux/apps/graphics/scanners/</A>
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4>
|
|
<H4>
|
|
PNG binaries for Netpbm tools now available
|
|
</H4>
|
|
Linux binaries for pnmtopng, pngtopnm, and gif2png are available at:
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.universe.digex.net/~dave/files/pngstuff.tgz">
|
|
http://www.universe.digex.net/~dave/files/pngstuff.tgz</A>
|
|
If you have trouble dowloading that, see
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.universe.digex.net/~dave/files/index.html">
|
|
http://www.universe.digex.net/~dave/files/index.html</A>
|
|
for helpful instructions.
|
|
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
 
|
|
PNG is the image format that renders GIF obsolete.
|
|
For details on that, you can visit the PNG home page at:
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.wco.com/~png/">
|
|
http://www.wco.com/~png/</A>.
|
|
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
 
|
|
The only shared libraries you need are libc and libm; all of the
|
|
others are linked statically.
|
|
The versions of libraries used to build the programs are those
|
|
that were publicly available as of 1997-04-06:
|
|
<UL>
|
|
<LI>pnmtopng-2.34
|
|
<LI>gif2png 0.6 (beta)
|
|
<LI>zlib-1.0.4 (statically linked)
|
|
<LI>libpng-0.90 (statically linked)
|
|
<LI>netpbm-1mar1994 (statically linked)
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4>
|
|
<H4>
|
|
TN-Image Version 2.5.0
|
|
</H4>
|
|
|
|
TN-Image is:
|
|
<UL TYPE=square>
|
|
<LI> Scientific image analysis program for the X Window System.
|
|
<LI> Mouse & menu-based image editing and scientific analysis with
|
|
user-friendly user interface.
|
|
<LI>Freely distributable.
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
It includes a 123-page manual, tutorials, and on-line help.
|
|
The Unix version is highly customizable with regard to fonts,
|
|
colors, etc.
|
|
|
|
<UL TYPE=square>
|
|
<LH> System requirements:</LH>
|
|
<LI> Unix version requires X11R5 or higher and Motif 1.2 or higher.
|
|
Statically-linked version does not require Motif.
|
|
<LI> Binaries are provided for the Linux (x86), Solaris, Irix,
|
|
ConvexOS, and MS-DOS.
|
|
<LI> DOS version requires SVGA card and 4 MB of RAM; handles all
|
|
VESA screen modes including 1600x1200, as well as XGA and XGA-2
|
|
video cards.
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<UL TYPE=square>
|
|
<LH>Some features of TN-Image</LH>
|
|
<LI> Scanner interface for H/P SCSI scanners with preview scan and
|
|
interactive image scanning at 8, 10, 12, 24, 30, and 36 bits/pixel
|
|
(Not available in ConvexOS and MS-DOS versions).
|
|
<LI> Create, cut/paste, and add text labels in multiple fonts and graphic
|
|
elements such as circles, Bezier curves, freehand drawing, etc.
|
|
<LI> Handles up to 512 images of any depth simultaneously. Each image can
|
|
be in a separate window or in a single large window to facilitate
|
|
creation of composite images. Cut/paste works even if images are
|
|
of different depths or in different windows.
|
|
<LI> Prints to PCL or PostScript printer. CMY, CMYK, or RGB formats.
|
|
<LI> Import/export formats: PCX, IMG, TIF (both Macintosh and PC),
|
|
JPEG, BMP, GIF, TGA, IMG, Lumisys Xray scanner, and ASCII images, of
|
|
any depth from 1-32 bits per pixel, color or monochrome, raw binary
|
|
images, 3D images (such as PET scan and confocal images), and
|
|
user-definable image formats. Handles unusual image depths such
|
|
as 12- and 17-bit grayscale.
|
|
<LI> Interconversion of image formats.
|
|
<LI> Solid and gradient flood fill.
|
|
<LI> R, G, and B image planes can be manipulated separately.
|
|
<LI> Adjust color, intensity, contrast, and grayscale mapping. Grayscale
|
|
images deeper than 8 bits/pixel, such as medical grayscale images,
|
|
can be viewed with a sliding scale to enhance any particular intensity
|
|
region.
|
|
<LI> Rotate, resize, warp, flip, invert or remap colors; crop, paint,
|
|
spray paint, etc.
|
|
<LI> Convolution filters: sharpen, blur, edge enhancement, shadow
|
|
sharpening, background subtract, background flatten, and noise
|
|
filter.
|
|
<LI> Interactively create arbitrary colormaps or select from 10,000
|
|
pre-defined colormaps.
|
|
<LI> Macro language and macro editor. Macro programming guide is included.
|
|
<LI> Image algebra function allows multiple images to be subtracted or
|
|
otherwise transformed according to arbitrary user-defined equations.
|
|
<LI> RGB & intensity histograms.
|
|
<LI> 3D images can be viewed interactively as a movie, or each frame can
|
|
be manipulated separately.
|
|
<LI> Many advanced features
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
Contact and archive information:
|
|
<table>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td>Contact:
|
|
</td>
|
|
<td>tjnelson@las1.ninds.nih.gov
|
|
</td>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td>Archive locations
|
|
</td>
|
|
<td>
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu:/apps/graphics/tnimage250.linux.tar.gz">
|
|
sunsite.unc.edu:/apps/graphics/tnimage250.linux.tar.gz</A>
|
|
|
|
<br>
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu:/apps/graphics/tnimage250.linux-static.tar.gz">
|
|
sunsite.unc.edu:/apps/graphics/tnimage250.linux-static.tar.gz</A>
|
|
|
|
<br> <A HREF="ftp://las1.ninds.nih.gov:/pub/unix/tnimage250.linux.tar.gz">
|
|
las1.ninds.nih.gov:/pub/unix/tnimage250.linux.tar.gz</A>
|
|
|
|
<br><A HREF="ftp://las1.ninds.nih.gov:/pub/unix/tnimage250.linux-static.tar.gz">
|
|
las1.ninds.nih.gov:/pub/unix/tnimage250.linux-static.tar.gz</A>
|
|
|
|
<BR><A HREF="ftp://las1.ninds.nih.gov:/pub/unix/tnimage250.solaris.tar.gz">
|
|
las1.ninds.nih.gov:/pub/unix/tnimage250.solaris.tar.gz</A>
|
|
|
|
<BR><A HREF="ftp://las1.ninds.nih.gov:/pub/unix/tnimage250.irix.tar.gz">
|
|
las1.ninds.nih.gov:/pub/unix/tnimage250.irix.tar.gz</A>
|
|
|
|
<br><A HREF="ftp://las1.ninds.nih.gov:/pub/unix/tnimage250.solaris.tar.gz">
|
|
las1.ninds.nih.gov:/pub/unix/tnimage250.solaris.tar.gz</A>
|
|
|
|
<br><A HREF="ftp://las1.ninds.nih.gov:/pub/dos/tnimg216.zip">
|
|
las1.ninds.nih.gov:/pub/dos/tnimg216.zip</A>
|
|
</td>
|
|
</table>
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
VSPACE="5" HSPACE="10" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1"></td>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
VSPACE="5" HSPACE="10" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1"></td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4>
|
|
<!--
|
|
-- Did You Know Section
|
|
-->
|
|
<H4>Did You Know?</H4>
|
|
|
|
...that there is a converter available to turn POV-Ray heightfields
|
|
into RenderMan compliant RIB files for use with BMRT? Florian
|
|
Hars writes:
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
I've worked on my code, now it uses libpgm and has all the necessary
|
|
vector routines included, it is on my page (with some comparisions of
|
|
rendering time and memory consumption):
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.math.uni-hamburg.de/home/hars/rman/height.html">
|
|
http://www.math.uni-hamburg.de/home/hars/rman/height.html</A>
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
Florian also has some pages of general POV vs. RenderMan comparisons:
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.math.uni-hamburg.de/home/hars/rman/rm_vs_pov.html">
|
|
http://www.math.uni-hamburg.de/home/hars/rman/rm_vs_pov.html</A>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
...that there is a freely available RenderMan shader library from
|
|
Guido Quaroni? The library contains shaders from the <B>RenderMan
|
|
Companion</B>, Pixar, Larry Gritz and a number of other places.
|
|
You can find a link to it from the BMRT Web pages at
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.seas.gwu.edu/student/gritz/bmrt.html">
|
|
http://www.seas.gwu.edu/student/gritz/bmrt.html</A>.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
...that there is an FTP site at CalTech containing a large
|
|
number of RenderMan shaders? The collection is similar to Guido
|
|
Quaroni's archive, except the FTP site includes sample RIB files
|
|
that use the shaders plus the rendered RIBs in both GIF and TIFF
|
|
formats. The site is located at
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://pete.cs.caltech.edu/pub/RMR/Shaders/">
|
|
ftp://pete.cs.caltech.edu/pub/RMR/Shaders/</A>.
|
|
|
|
<!--
|
|
-- Q and A Section
|
|
-->
|
|
<P><FONT size=3><B>Q and A</B></FONT>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<I>Q: Where can I get a copy of the Netscape color cube for
|
|
use with Netpbm? How should it be used?
|
|
</I>
|
|
<P>A: The color cube can be found at the web site for
|
|
the text <B>Creating Killer Websites</B> at
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.killersites.com/images/color_cube_colors.gif">
|
|
http://www.killersites.com/images/color_cube_colors.gif</A>.
|
|
The cube can be used in the following manner:
|
|
<CENTER>
|
|
<FONT size=2>
|
|
<table>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td>% giftopnm color_cube_colors.gif" > color_cube.ppm
|
|
</td>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td>% tgatoppm image.tga | ppmquant -m color_cube.ppm -fs | \
|
|
<br>
|
|
ppmtogif -interlace -transparent rgb:ff/ff/ff > image.gif
|
|
</td>
|
|
</table>
|
|
</FONT>
|
|
</CENTER>
|
|
where ff/ff/ff is any set of Red, Green, and Blue values
|
|
to make transparent.
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<I>Q: Where can I get models of the human figure?
|
|
</I>
|
|
<P>A:
|
|
Here are two addresses for human figure models. The first is 3DCafe's
|
|
official disclaimer and the second takes you straight to the human
|
|
figures. Please read the disclaimer first (although you may need
|
|
an asp capable browser, such as Netscape 3.x to do so):
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.3dcafe.com/meshes.htm">
|
|
http://www.3dcafe.com/meshes.htm</A>
|
|
<BR><A HREF="http://www.3dcafe.com/anatomy.htm">
|
|
http://www.3dcafe.com/anatomy.htm</A>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT size=2>From the <I>IRTC-L</I> mailing list</FONT>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<I>Q: Is there a VRML 2.0 compliant browser available for Linux?
|
|
</I>
|
|
<P>A: Yes. Dimension X's Liquid Reality is a fully compliant
|
|
VRML 2.0 browser. The download web page says that there will
|
|
be support as a plug-in for Netscape 3.x soon. This is a
|
|
commercial product with a free trial version available for
|
|
download. See
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.dimensionx.com/products/lr/download/">
|
|
http://www.dimensionx.com/products/lr/download/</A> for more
|
|
details.
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT size=2>From a friendly reader, whose name I
|
|
absent mindedly discarded before recording it. My
|
|
apologies.</FONT>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<I>Q: Can anyone tell me how I would go about defining a height field
|
|
according to a specific set of data points?
|
|
My goal is to be able to take a topographic map, overlay it with a
|
|
rough grid, and use the latitude, longitude, and elevation markings
|
|
as points in a definable 3-D space to create a height field roughly
|
|
equal to real topography.
|
|
</I>
|
|
<P>A: The easiest way is probably to write a PGM file.
|
|
I wouldn't use longitude and latidude because the length of one degree
|
|
isn't fixed and it will give reasonable results only near the equator.
|
|
Use UTM coordinates or superimpose any arbitrary grid on your map
|
|
which represents approximate squares.
|
|
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
P2
|
|
# kilimajaro.pgm
|
|
15 10
|
|
59
|
|
10 15 18 20 21 22 23 23 21 20 19 18 17 16 15
|
|
11 15 19 22 27 30 30 30 29 28 25 20 19 18 17
|
|
13 15 19 21 28 38 36 40 40 35 30 24 20 19 18
|
|
15 16 18 20 29 39 37 44 59 44 38 30 22 19 18
|
|
15 16 18 20 28 30 30 40 50 46 51 48 28 20 19
|
|
15 15 16 17 18 19 20 24 30 35 37 37 30 20 19
|
|
15 15 14 15 16 17 18 19 22 29 30 29 27 20 19
|
|
15 15 14 13 15 16 15 17 18 20 22 20 20 20 18
|
|
15 14 13 11 12 12 12 13 14 15 17 15 15 15 14
|
|
14 11 10 9 9 10 10 10 9 10 13 12 11 11 11
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
|
|
Use it with scale <15,1.18,10> to get an to-scale image and with a
|
|
larger y-scale if you want to see something. The earth is incredibly
|
|
flat.
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT size=2>From Florian Hars via the
|
|
<I>IRTC-L</I> mailing list</FONT>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<A NAME="rib-csg"></A>
|
|
<I>Q: I've been fiddling with some simple CSG using BMRT and have run
|
|
into a problem. I'm trying to cut a square out of a plane that
|
|
was created from a simple bilinear patch. Whatever I use to define the
|
|
square (a box actually) comes out white instead of the background color
|
|
(black in this case). I dont know what I'm doing wrong and was
|
|
wondering if someone might take a peek at this for me.
|
|
</I>
|
|
<P>A:
|
|
There are several problems with your RIB file, as well as your use
|
|
of CSG. The two biggies are:
|
|
|
|
<P>You just can't do this:
|
|
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
ObjectBegin 2
|
|
SolidBegin "primitive"
|
|
TransformBegin
|
|
Translate -1 0 0
|
|
Rotate -90 0 1 0
|
|
Patch "bilinear" "P"
|
|
[ -1 -1 0 1 -1 0
|
|
-1 1 0 1 1 0 ]
|
|
TransformEnd
|
|
... etc.
|
|
ObjectEnd
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
|
|
 
|
|
Transformations just aren't allowed inside object definitions.
|
|
Remember that object instances inherit the entire graphics state
|
|
that's active when they are instanced -- including transformations.
|
|
So all primitives within the instanced object get the very same
|
|
transformation. If they're all bilinears like you have them, that
|
|
means that they will all end up on top of one another.
|
|
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
 
|
|
For this reason and others, I urge everybody to <I>not use instanced
|
|
objects at all</I> for any RenderMan compliant renderer. They're quite
|
|
useless as described in the RenderMan 3.1 spec.
|
|
Yes, I know that <B>RenderMan Companion</B> has an example that does
|
|
exactly what I said is illegal. The example is wrong, and will not
|
|
work with either PRMan or BMRT.
|
|
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
 
|
|
Solid (CSG) operations are meant only to operate on <I>solids</I>.
|
|
A solid is a boundary representation which divides space into three
|
|
distinct loci: (a) the boundary itself, which has finite surface area,
|
|
(b) a (possibly disconnected) region of finite volume (the "inside"),
|
|
and (c) a connected region of infinite volume (the "outside").
|
|
You can't subtract a box from a bilinear patch, since a bilinear patch
|
|
isn't a solid to begin with.
|
|
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
 
|
|
If you want a flat surface with a square hole, there are two methods
|
|
that I'd recommend: (a) simply use several bilinears (4 to be exact)
|
|
for the surface, like this:
|
|
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
+-----------------------+
|
|
| #1 |
|
|
| |
|
|
+======+---------+======+
|
|
| | | |
|
|
| #2 | (hole) | #3 |
|
|
| | | |
|
|
+======+---------+======+
|
|
| #4 |
|
|
| |
|
|
+-----------------------+
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
|
|
Or, (B) if you really want to be fancy, use a single flat order 2
|
|
NURBS patch with an order 2 trim curve to cut out a hole.
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT size=2>
|
|
From Larry Gritz <<A HREF="mailto:lg@pixar.com">lg@pixar.com</A>>
|
|
</FONT>
|
|
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
VSPACE="5" HSPACE="10" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1"></td>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
VSPACE="5" HSPACE="10" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1"></td>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<A NAME="musings">
|
|
<table>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/musings.gif" ALT="Musings" ALIGN="left"
|
|
HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="247" HEIGHT="52">
|
|
</td>
|
|
</table>
|
|
</A>
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
|
|
<TABLE width=560>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=5 valign=top>
|
|
<H4>
|
|
Correcting for display gamma
|
|
</H4>
|
|
<IMG SRC="./gx/hammel/gamma-scale.jpg"
|
|
ALT="Gamma Correction Scale" ALIGN="right"
|
|
HSPACE="8" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="832">
|
|
|
|
This past 2 months I've been hard at work on an entry for this
|
|
round of the IRTC, the Internet Ray Tracing Competition. In
|
|
previous rounds I had submitted entries using POV-Ray, but for
|
|
this round I switched to BMRT, mostly so I could learn the RenderMan
|
|
API and how to write shaders using the RenderMan shading language.
|
|
This month's main article is the second of a three part series on
|
|
BMRT. The BMRT package is written by Larry Gritz, and Larry was
|
|
gracious enough to offer some wonderful critiques and tips on
|
|
my image.
|
|
|
|
<BR>
|
|
|
|
During out email correspondence, Larry noticed I had overlit my
|
|
scenes quite badly. While we tried to figure out what was causing
|
|
this (it turned out to be a misuse of some parameters to some
|
|
spotlights I was using) he asked if I had gamma corrected for my
|
|
display. Gamma correction is a big issue in computer graphics, one
|
|
that is often overlooked by novices. I'd heard and read quite a
|
|
bit about gamma correction but had never really attempted to determine
|
|
how to adjust the gamma for my display. Larry offered an explanation,
|
|
a quick way to test the gamma on my system, and a tip for
|
|
adjusting for gamma correction directly in the BMRT renderer, rendrib.
|
|
I thought this would be a great thing to share with my readers, so
|
|
here it is.
|
|
|
|
<BR>
|
|
|
|
Rendrib produces linear pixels for its output -- i.e. a pixel with
|
|
value 200 represents twice as much light as a pixel of value 100.
|
|
Thus, it's expected that your display will be twice as bright
|
|
(photometrically, not necessarily perceptually) on a pixel of 200
|
|
than one of 100.
|
|
|
|
<BR>
|
|
|
|
This sort of display only really happens if you correct for gamma,
|
|
the nonlinearity of your monitor. In order to check this,
|
|
take a look at the following chart. Display the chart as you'd
|
|
view any image. You'll notice that if you squint, the apparent
|
|
brightness of the left side will match some particular number on
|
|
the right. This is your gamma correction factor that must be
|
|
applied to the image to get linear response on your particular
|
|
monitor.
|
|
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td valign=top width="54%">
|
|
<BR>
|
|
|
|
If your display program uses Mesa (as rendrib's framebuffer display
|
|
does), you can set an environment variable, MESA_GAMMA, to this value
|
|
and it will transparently do the correction as it writes pixels to the
|
|
screen. Most display programs let you correct gamma when you view
|
|
an image, though I've had trouble getting xv to do it without messing
|
|
up the colors in a weird way.
|
|
|
|
<BR>
|
|
|
|
Another alternative is to put the following line in your RIB file:
|
|
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
Exposure 1 <gamma>
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
<td bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<td valign=top width="40%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
|
|
<table>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td valign=top cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
|
|
<A NAME="next-column">
|
|
<U><B>More Musings...</B></U>
|
|
</A>
|
|
<BR clear=both>
|
|
<A HREF="more-musings.html#1">
|
|
My Entry in the March/April IRTC
|
|
</A> - a case study in learning to
|
|
use RenderMan and BMRT
|
|
<P clear=both>
|
|
<A HREF="bmrt-part2.html">
|
|
BMRT Part 2 - The RenderMan Shading Language
|
|
</A>
|
|
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN="left"
|
|
WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1"></td>
|
|
|
|
</table>
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td colspan=5>
|
|
where gamma was what you measured with the chart.
|
|
This will cause rendrib to pre-correct the output pixels for the
|
|
gamma of your display.
|
|
I think it's important to gamma correct so that at least you're
|
|
viewing the images the way that rendrib "expects" them to appear.
|
|
It can't know about the nonlinearities of your CRT without you
|
|
telling it.
|
|
|
|
<BR>
|
|
|
|
Larry has more on the gamma issue on his own pages. You can find
|
|
it at
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.seas.gwu.edu/student/gritz/gamma.html">
|
|
http://www.seas.gwu.edu/student/gritz/gamma.html</A>.
|
|
He also asked me to mention that he got this chart from
|
|
Greg Ward, but we didn't have any contact information for him.
|
|
Hopefully he doesn't mind our using it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Readers should note that the image displayed in this article may
|
|
not provide accurate information for adjusting gamma since your
|
|
browser may dither the colors in a way which changes what the
|
|
actual value should be. Also, this image is a JPEG version of
|
|
the original TIFF image Larry supplied. It's possible the conversion
|
|
also changed the image. If you're interested in trying this out you
|
|
should grab
|
|
<A HREF="./gx/hammel/gamma-scale.tif">the original TIFF image</A>
|
|
(300x832).
|
|
</td>
|
|
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<A NAME="resources">
|
|
<table>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td>
|
|
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/resources.gif" ALT="Resources" ALIGN="left"
|
|
HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="246" HEIGHT="57">
|
|
</td>
|
|
</table>
|
|
</A>
|
|
|
|
<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 alot
|
|
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>HF-Lab - no really, I mean it this time.
|
|
<LI>Possibly a review of Image Alchemy
|
|
<LI>A preview of Gimp 1.0 (unless it's already released, in which
|
|
case it won't be a preview)
|
|
<LI>If I can find the info, I'll report on the future of 3D hardware
|
|
support from Xi Graphics, Metro and The XFree Project.
|
|
<LI>and who knows what else.
|
|
</UL>
|
|
<BR>
|
|
<A HREF="mailto:mjhammel@csn.net">
|
|
Let me know what you'd like to hear about!</A>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<HR>
|
|
|
|
<!--===================================================================-->
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<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><br>
|
|
<A HREF="../issue16/gm.html">Graphics Muse #6, April 1997</A>
|
|
<P><HR><P>
|
|
<center><H5>Copyright © 1997, Michael J. Hammel<BR>
|
|
Published in Issue 17 of the Linux Gazette, May 1997</H5></center>
|
|
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