HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bbrown@infonode.ingr.com (Bailey Brown)
Subject: Re: Computer of choice?
Organization: Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, AL.
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 13:42:24 GMT

spiff@bert.eecs.uic.edu (Jason Leigh) writes:

>>Also keep in mind that IBM recently handed the 386 and 486 processors to the
>>RiSC division

>So what is handing the 486 to the RiSC division going to do for the
>chip?  They'll produce a RISC version of the 486 chip? By the
>definition of RISC, that would mean the 486 will no longer be a 486
>and will no longer be PC compatible unless you're willing to run an
>emulator.  In that case why doesn't IBM just use the RISC chips it
>already uses in its RS6000s?

I don't think you know the current definition of RISC. It no longer
means "Reduced Instruction Set Computer", it means executing one or more
instructions per cycle.  The 486 already executes most instructions in
only one cycle, and it uses pipelining, which is a common feature of
risc chips.  The problem with running code targeted for a 386 or
earlier chip on a 486 is that it has not been optimized to use the
instructions that take only one cycle instead of the ones that take
more than one cycle.  

I think what the RISC division at IBM is trying to do is to make
even more intructions take only one cycle, and maybe get more than
one intstruction per cycle (make it superscalar) with the 486.  I don't 
know why IBM is wasting time on this, since Intel is about to start
producing the 586, which is superscalar.  The 586 can, by using 
duplicate functional units, execute more than one instruction per
cycle even when running code not optimized for the 586 (eg, 386/486
code).  However, it is most optimal when the code is targeted for the 586.

------------
Bailey Brown                               "Above all else, confusion reigns."
Intergraph Corporation                                  
bbrown@casca.b11.ingr.com                              Procol Harum
From: cybercub@milton.u.washington.edu (David Holland)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Drivers for Truecolor and Acecat Digitizer Tablet
Keywords: Driver Tablet Digitizer
Date: 14 Oct 92 07:50:08 GMT
Article-I.D.: milton.cybercub.719049008
Organization: University of Washington

I just recieved an Acecat 5"x5" digitizer tablet the other day, and it's
been working very well.  It can operate in either "relative" (mouse) or
"absolute" (tablet) modes, depending on the driver used and by flipping
a switch on the back of the tablet.  The Windows drivers work well in
either mode (absolute positioning in Windows is WAY cool!)  Buuuuutt...
I would like to try out this gizmo with Autodesk Animator Pro.  AAPro
works when the tablet is in "mouse emulation/relative positioning" mode,
but will not work with the "ADI" drivers included.  Can anybody point me
to a driver for AAPro?  Absolute positioning mode (like the Summagraphics
or Kurta or Wacom tablets) is totally necessary to get my $115 out of
this thing!  :)    While I'm at it, are there available drivers for using
a Highcolor/24-bit card (like the Diamond Speedstar 24X) with AAPro?  The
color palette interface is already geared up for 24-bit color, with 0-255
range sliders for RGB values, etc... hmmm.....!
  
         Thanks for any advice!
  
                     `-_-'   CyberCub
                             cybercub@u.washington.edu
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: justin@mik.uky.edu (justin sullivan)
Subject: Re: Computer of choice?!
    <00961812.0461E1C0@vms.csd.mu.edu>       
    <1992Oct7.053911.16045@cam.compserv.utas.edu.au> 
    <1992Oct8.112025.11292@waikato.ac.nz>
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 05:13:39 GMT

In <1992Oct8.112025.11292@waikato.ac.nz> ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) writes:

>In article <1992Oct7.053911.16045@cam.compserv.utas.edu.au>, scarnie@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au (Stuart George Carnie) writes:

>I hear Microsoft is busy working on AVI (Audio-Video Interleaved), which is
>its answer to Apple's QuickTime. I also hear it'll be able to play back about
>15 frames per second at one-sixteenth (160*120) size on a 33MHz 486 machine.

Oh really? Why then, do all the journals keep telling us that Microsoft
is busy at work implementing QuickTime for Windows?
From: davei@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Mr D Ingles)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: Comparisons of TV-Windows cards?
Date: 15 Oct 92 18:10:18 GMT
Organization: Department of Computing at Lancaster University, UK.

In article <46090001@hpgrla.gr.hp.com> galenr@hpgrla.gr.hp.com (Galen Raben) writes:
>Would anyone know how any of the various "TV/Windows" products for PC-Win3.x
>compare (cost, features, capture quality, video quality, etc...)??  Anyone
>have any side by side impressions?
>
>Looking for:  Creative Labs - VideoBlaster, Hauppage - Win/TV, others??
>Interested in lower end cards (under $500 US).  Does anyone know of

I am currently looking at 'Media Pro Plus' PC-TV card from 'Rombo'.  It
is a full motion video and sound, real time colour capture device. 

Its software supports Windows and DOS, real time motion video, full
audio control, frame/field capture, live video zooming, image printing,
several graphics file formats etc.

It grabs at 688 * 512 at 21 bits per pixel and supports all Windows
screen resolutions up to 1024 * 768. 

It sells over here for 300 pounds sterling and comes bundled with Zsoft
photofinish. 

Davei
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: nwickham@nyx.cs.du.edu (Neal Wickham)
Subject: Re: Computer of choice?
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
	of Denver for the Denver community.  The University has neither
	control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users.
Reply-To: nwickham@nyx.UUCP (Neal Wickham)
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 92 15:34:15 GMT




In article <darkstar.UCSC.EDU> philb@cats.ucsc.edu (Philip Brown) writes:
>
>neil@celia.UUCP (Neil Richmond) writes:
>
>> A typical 30 sec job here can use up
>>from 500 megs to a gigabyte of space. A longer piece can use up a lot
>>more space.
>
>Then that's a fixed cost for a "large" drive, that you're going to have
>to buy, no matter what the system.


Don't forget the file compression factor of Amiga's HAM modes.  A HAM
animation is only going to require a fraction of the drive space of real
24-bit animation. ...unless you fork out the money for some decompression
hardware which still may not be as convienient as HAM or HAM8 which are
built into the hardware and OS of Amiga.

I had the chance to play with the new AGA Amiga 4000 this week.  HAM8 mode
looks as good as my roomates MacFX 24-bit color mode.  Further, regular HAM
in the new high-res mode looks good too. ...much better than dithered 8-bit
color.  I think a lot of animation could be done in high-res regular HAM
mode which has a temendous file size advantage over 24-bit and even a big
file size  advantage over 8-bit color.  Regular HAM has it limmitations but
will have its applications as will Amiga's new 8-bit color modes.

And there's DCTV for Amiga which has its applications as well. 

The other thing about Amiga you have to consider is that it is the DTV
platform of choice.  All the video magazines are recomending it.  There is
a lot of third party DTV hardware available and there is much more on the
way.  And Amiga's mass market coupled with competition is going to drive
the price of Amiga DTV hardware down to lower than what it already is.  And
the big market and competition will improve the quality of things like
modeling software as well, while lowering the price.  

With an SGI, you're getting out of a mass market and into expensive
hardware and software.  With Mac or PC, you're getting into systems that
were never meant to do video.  As one video magazine put it (I think it was
Videomaker): "all discussion about DTV start with the Amiga.  Amiga was
built from the ground up as a video machine." 

One further point is that Amiga's preemptive multitasking OS has many
important advantages over the Mac and PC systems, especially in something
like animation where you can always be doing rendering at a lower priority
in the background. 



                                       NCW
From: fiji@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (Ben Bennett)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: 3D Studio
Date: 8 Oct 1992 20:07:56 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigwpi.wpi.edu

	I am looking for a 3D Studio FTP site with downloadable files to
render.  I am also curious to know if anyone else has had trouble loading
materials with a Diamond Stealth Hi-Color card since when I try to render 
something with a material in it the object just appears white with no
material on it.  Is this a conflict or am I loading the materials incorrectly?
			Thanks,
			  Ben Bennett.
-- 
	This was the opinion of my hands and not necessarily the remainder of
my body.  Ben Bennett (Fiji@wpi.edu) can not be held responsible for anything
that his hands have typed.
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: rowlands@ra.csc.ti.com (Jon Rowlands)
Subject: Re: mis-information? (Pixar, ILM, etc.)
Reply-To: rowlands@csc.ti.com (Jon Rowlands)
Organization: Texas Instruments, SPDC, DSP Technology Branch, Dallas
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 18:35:23 GMT

In article <623@wavefront.wti.com>, hb@wavefront.wti.com (H.B. Siegel) writes:
  For those of you that are keeping count, each and every message
  posted to this newsgroup by a current or former member of Pixar
  has contained exactly one piece of misinformation.
  
  	H.B. Siegel :-)
	^^^^^^^^^^^
So does that mean this isn't your real name?
jr
From: neil@celia.UUCP (Neil Richmond)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: Computer of choice?
Date: 16 Oct 92 15:49:39 GMT
Reply-To: celia!neil@usc.edu (Neil Richmond)
Organization: Rhythm & Hues, Inc., Hollywood

In article <1bmfl5INN73t@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> mmcohen@cats.ucsc.edu (Michael M Cohen) writes:
>
>In article <2032@celia.UUCP> celia!neil@usc.edu (Neil Richmond) writes:
>>In article <justin.718330333@mik.uky.edu> justin@mik.uky.edu (justin sullivan) writes:
>>>graphics. Backup system? Sure, but not for 7K-10K. About $3K for a 5GB 8mm
>>>internal tape backup (large primary drive included in above price). Also
>
>1) You don't have to buy peripherals or memory from SGI.
>   Many 3rd parties sell for much less.

There is a small matter of support.

>
>2) You don't need to buy an expensive package like wavefront
>   to do animation on an SGI. Inventor is pretty inexpensive.
>   Get the development option and write YOUR OWN programs!
>   All SGI machines come with the GL graphics library and
>   superlative rendering hardware.  It's true that you'll have to
>   learn a programming language which I suppose is a big
>   obstacle for some computer wimps... but you'll end up ahead...

This is not a valid solution. Having worked for a number of computer graphics
companies for 8 years, I can tell you that a great amount of work goes into
writing software. I don't think that an animator should expect to write his 
own software. There are people who specialize in writing software like there
are people who specialize in making hardware like there are people who
specialize in video and film production. To learn how to program can take
a lot of time. To write a modelling/animation/rendering system can easily take
two years to write anything that can be productive. For a film/video production
person to do this is a great waste of time. It is re-inventing the wheel be-
cause it is the worst use of their time.

A SGI machine is not a viable option for the independent animator. Even with
revising my prices a usable system with software will still cost $30,000
dollars. That is why I started this thread about the cost of SGI. There are
very functional workstations that can be put together for $10,000 or less
using Amigas, PCs and Macs as a base. There will not be as fast as an SGI, but
it is better than sitting at home on your thumbs, if you want to do production.


neil
>
>-- 
>
>======================================================================
>=   Dr. Michael M. Cohen                   mmcohen@dewi.ucsc.edu     = 
>=   Program in Experimental Psychology     mmcohen@fuzzy.ucsc.edu    =
>=   433 Clark Kerr Hall                    408-459-2655 LAB          = 
>=   University of California - Santa Cruz  408-459-2700 MSGS         = 
>=   Santa Cruz, CA 95064                   408-459-3519 FAX          = 
>======================================================================


-- 
Only 2633 shopping days left till the next millenium! 
Neil F. Richmond         INTERNET: celia!neil@usc.edu
Rhythm & Hues Inc.       UUCP: ...{ames,hplabs}!lll-tis!celia!neil)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: ekins@infonode.ingr.com (Brian Ekins)
Subject: Animation resolution questions
Organization: Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, AL.
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 03:56:50 GMT


I have some questions for some of the professional animators that seem to be
reading this group.

1) At what resolution are most of the frames generated at that are used
   for big screen motion pictures, ie. the pseudopod from The Abyss?

2) At what resolution is the live action footage digitized when it needs
   be digitally enhanced for some reason?

3) When a computer image is added to live footage how is the computer 
   image antialiased into the frame digitized from the live footage,
   or is it composited directly onto the the live footage without the
   live action footage having to be digitized?

4) At what resolution are most of the frames generated at that are used
   on TV, ie. the Listerine commercials?


I was just curious about what size these images were since they are very
clear in the animations and even in the stills you see from the movies.  All
the animations I have done have been generated with the idea of writing them
to NTSC video tape.  I was just curious what the process is in creating some
of the big screen animations.

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|    __  o      Brian Ekins                                                 |
|    _ </-      Intergraph Corp.             205-730-3638                   |
|      />       brian@ekins.b30.ingr.com                                    |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+




Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: rcj2@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (ray.c.jender)
Subject: Re: Sculpt Animate 4D
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 17:06:47 GMT

In article <1992Oct16.005519.5924@bilver.uucp> alex@bilver.uucp (Alex Matulich) writes:
>
>Are you kidding?  Have you tried Imagine (by NewTek, the Video Toaster
>people)?  Sculpt-4D was good in its day, but its been surpassed long ago.
>

	Just a couple of errors here. Imagine is created by Impulse.
	Lightwave 3D is by Newtek.....
	
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: govil@Warren.MENTORG.COM (Shalini Govil)
Subject: Re: Color planes
Organization: Mentor Graphics Corp. -- IC Group
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 15:03:47 GMT

HI..

Can anyone tell me how many bits of color is sufficient to produce good
quality tapes?

I mean, if the no of color bits on the TV monitor is 8 bits, and our system is
24 bits, then I guess we lose color information when transferring from computer
to a VHS tape right?

Thanks
Shalini



Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: rscott@spock.NMSU.Edu (Joseph Good)
Subject: Rayshade 4.0 (Unix) question
Organization: New Mexico State University
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 21:23:44 GMT


I am attempting to generate a 3 minute movie using the Rayshade 4.0
rayshader, and a program I wrote to modify and animate.  

The documentation that came with Rayshade didn't quite cover the 
image mapping in enough detail for me.  One thing I couldn't make out
is the type of file format used.

If anybody out there knows about image maping in Rayshade, could you please
e-mail me and help me learn?

Thanks!

-jdg
--

Joseph Good
+-------------------+ - More than just a band....
| Green Dot Brigade | - It's a whole damn army of dots...
+-------------------+ - And we've declared war on the 7-Up dots...

rscott@nmsu.edu (NeXT mail welcome!!) (main account)

atlantis@acca.nmsu.edu  (Just plain ol' Unix) (seldom used)
From: desilva@taos.ced.berkeley.edu (Deanan Da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: Abekas A60 Digital Disk Recorder, opinions, alternatives?
Date: 7 Oct 1992 20:13:20 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: taos.ced.berkeley.edu


We are using sgi's with alias studio and wavefront advanced visualizer. We have 8mm tape drives 
hooked up to our sun server or we can possibly hook them up to sgi's. We would
also like to do this from pc's and macs. Is it a matter of writing new device drives
or something easier? 

Thanks,

Deanan
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: rdippold@qualcom.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold)
Subject: Re: speculation on synthetic actors
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 21:59:36 GMT

scafati@thor.med.ge.com (Victor-charles Scafati 4-6784 MR Srv) writes:
>While I'm in this thread-  Several years ago I said, after watching the 
>premere of Pixar's "Tin Toy"- "We're going to have a new Humphrey Bogart
>film, partially computer generated, by the year 2000."  We'll see if
>I'm right.

Or maybe they'll start off with something slightly easier... say
Michael Caine.  "What do you bloody mean I'm not in character?"
-- 
You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word.
From: ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: Computer of choice?!
Date: 8 Oct 92 16:03:58 +1300
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <1992Oct8.003025.2482@ludd.luth.se>, pjotr@ludd.luth.se (Peter Sj|str|m) writes:
>
> 	DMI has just started shipping their new 'Digital Editmaster'
> that can both record and play jpeg images with synched sound (using extra
> hardware I think) in 30 fps NTSC or 25 fps PAL, full screen size, 750*550
> or something like that. Source can be any NTSC, PAL or S-VHS source and
> same goes for recording your jpegs live to tape. Images don't have to
> be in any order or so on disk. You do all this using an Amiga capable
> of 900kb/s transfer rate to HD, which any decent Amiga should do.
>
> 	This card has a list price of US$ 2500 approx, if I am not mistaken.
> I have no connections to DMI and speak purely for your information.

SuperMac announced a similar thing for the Mac some months ago. It was shown
at Boston Macworld in August, and may actually be shipping (if a hint from
another press release is any indication). Their price was US$5999, but it
included an accelerated 24-bit video display as well as QuickTime-compatible
real-time JPEG compression/decompression and real-time full-screen frame-
grabbing. And I think sound as well. Oh yes, and a bundled copy of Adobe
Premiere 2.0. This not only does on-screen editing of digital video with
special effects and filters, it can also generate edit lists to drive external
video-editing equipment.

>
> Boys, boys, boys... 15 fps at 160*120... tss tss tss :)

Hey, I know this is low-budget stuff, but it works with low-end off-the-shelf
hardware. *And* with just about any off-the-shelf application. (At least, it
does on the Mac.)

You don't know how much difference it makes to integrate a little digital
video and animation into ordinary everyday word-processing, spreadsheets,
databases and presentations, until you've tried it...

Lawrence
just another VideoBigot
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: pfratar@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (Paul Frattaroli - DCS)
Subject: List of available video digitizing boards (PC ONLY)
Keywords: digitize video board PC pc
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 19:09:29 GMT

I would like to know if someone has a list of video digitizing boards
(specs, cost etc.) for the PC.  I would like a list of boards that
take NTSC input and can digitize the image to some format.  (And
what these format are)  Does anyone have such a beast?  Or know where
to find one?  In FAQ for this group?

If one does not exist, please mail me what type of board you use, and I
will create a summary from responses.

Things I need to know:
    - cost
    - output/input formats and connections
    - PC/ISA/MCA or EISA bus
    - Does it come with a card to do the screen display and is this
      card optional.  ie. Is it a two piece card with one half the
      digitizer, the other half does on-screen video display.  I
      really just need to know about the digitizer portion.

Thanks muchly,
....Paul

-- 
         Paul "vi joe" Frattaroli - Department of Computing Services
          University of Waterloo  Waterloo, Ontario Canada  N2L-3G1
     < pfratar@fpg.UWaterloo.CA >       < pfratar@watserv1.UWaterloo.CA >
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: hounsell@nmerh7.BNR.CA (Rob Hounsell)
Subject: Re: question: Imagine 2.0 on PCs?
Reply-To: hounsell@BNR.CA
Organization: Northern Telecom Canada
Distribution: world,local
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 14:41:51 GMT

In article <00961E3E.035C3AA0@VIOLET.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU>,
i34183289@VIOLET.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU writes:
|>
|> 
|>  I read on this group a week or two ago that Imagine 2.0, the popular
|>ray tracing program for the Amiga, is going to be released on the PC.
|>  Has anyone heard about this from any other source, and if so, what's the
|>price going to be? (It'll probably be jacked up to milk us PC users who 
|>want a good object creation interface...)
|> 
|>    K.S.I.
         
I heard from my Amiga dealer that Imagine 3.0 is due out after Xmas, and
it will be available then for PCs.

Rob
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Rob Hounsell                           BNR WAN:  HOUNSELL@NMERH53           |
| NT Product Performance: OA/M           INTERNET: HOUNSELL@BNR.CA            |
|                                        PHONE: (613) 765-2904                |
|                                        ESN: 395-2904                        |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: justin@mik.uky.edu (justin sullivan)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: Computer of choice?
Date: 10 Oct 92 05:15:52 GMT
    <1aism1INN5db@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> <1992Oct4.023622.22566@bert.eecs.uic.edu> 
    <1anmanINNd34@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> <2031@celia.UUCP> 
    <justin.718330333@mik.uky.edu> <2044@celia.UUCP>
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences

In <2044@celia.UUCP> neil@celia.UUCP (Neil Richmond) writes:

>In article <justin.718330333@mik.uky.edu> justin@mik.uky.edu (justin sullivan) writes:

>The problem is that I am a professional. I know what is possible with a little
>thought and planning. There is no reason why these features in the SGI platform
>software cannot be put in personal computer platforms. A lot of it is there,
>already. There are people who work professional on small platforms like the
>Mac, Amiga, etc. 

If being a professional is a problem, I think you had better switch
careers.. Anyway, you forgot to point out that a lot of professionals turn
out some of the most mundane trash and try and pass it off as 'work.'
Have you seen that spiffy new Listerine commercial with the bottles flying
through the forest? Pixar.. I.e. NOT CHEAP. And you can bet some piddly little
PC, Mac or Amiga couldn't find enough time in the rest of the decade to render
it and bring it in on schedule..
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: jandreas@cs.ulowell.edu (Jason Andreas)
Subject: Re: ILM, Pixar, and mis-information
Organization: University of Massachusetts at Lowell Computer Science
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 03:35:01 GMT

E. Graham, actually Dr. Eric Graham wrote the original version of 
Sculpt-3D, the first commercially available ray tracer on the amiga.