From: dream!Ray_Hines@bikini.cis.ufl.edu (Ray Hines)
Subject: Re: TECH: Amiga VR?
Originator: hlab@stein.u.washington.edu
Organization: DreamStates BBS & CyberNet HQ in G'ville, FL   1-904-331-4317
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 06:14:54 GMT



In a message dated Sun 20 Dec 92 6:33, Dstampe@psych.toronto.edu (dave
Sta wrote:

 DS> Not true.  A 486/50 with ATI VGA Wonder card, 80 meg disk, 2 meg RAM,
 DS> etc., can be got for US$1600 these days.  No video accelerators are

Your 486/50 with 80 megs and 2 megs RAM is not enough for VR work.
That's just a low ball figure which is useless, really.

You should check out the new Amiga 4000s which have the 68040 cpus, 64
bit video bus, pure 32 bit environment, standard 6 megs of RAM (2 of
it being CHIP (like video) RAM) and new AGA graphics.

 DS> Problem with the Amiga is that the segregated chip bus, costom video
 DS> hardware, etc. that made its name 6 years ago (a century in computer
 DS> are now crippling it.  It takes too long to access video memory, and
 DS> too long to program the chip registers to do really fast poly drawing

I'm not sure what you are getting at, but the custom chips (not custom
video hardware - there is no such thing - this makes me wonder if you
have even TOUCHED an Amiga) actually make the Amiga faster with custom
chips to do their thing and let the main cpu do it's own thing.
That's why you see, say a lowly Amiga 500 with a 68000 7mhz cpu do
some graphics just as fast as your basic 486 system.

I recently went to an Amiga dealer in Tampa to check out the new Amiga
4000s -- seeing is believing, you know. :) I was floored.  They had a
full 256 color animation of flying through the grand canyon.  Those
graphics were more than adequate for current VR applications if
desired.  It was so fast it was all just a blur, really.  Very
realistic.  Over 40 fps.  Then we were shown another animation, this
time in 256,000 colors (can't tell the difference between it and 24
bit graphics) and over 20 fps.  It was of two space ships flying and
then rolling off away from a light source.  The detail was incredible
and animation very smooth.

 DS> hardware.  The other problem is the flakiness of the Amiga OS--
 DS> peoplewould rather build their own tools or use those available than
 DS> have the machine crash once an hour.

Many people will tell you that the OS (2.1 up to 3.0) is very stable
and much more so than Windows or OS/2 on the IBM platform.  It's
really how YOU program in it.  If you don't follow programming
guidelines, then naturally, in any environment, your programs will
crash.

 DS> Again, not really true.  The cards I've seen are about $800, and
 DS> painfullyin video access.  You're virtually plugging an entire PC
 DS> memory and

Not true.  You can buy a 386 card for $300 in the right places. 486
cards for $900.

I dunno, but from your article, I can tell you have not either really
touched an Amiga or at least seen the newer models to do it any
justice.

W Industries uses Amiga 3000s equipped with 68040 boards and Texas
Instruments graphic cards to drive their Virtuality systems.  They
certainly wouldn't use them if they had all the so called problems you
described above.  This is a commerical venture -- they wouldn't dare
use crappy equipment.  I think the Amiga has proven itself in the VR
area and will go even further with the new A4000s.
     

-- Via DLG Pro v0.995

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