HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Subject: RayTracing GUI 
Distribution: world
Organization: Haveland-Robinson Associates
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 22:51:42 +0000


In article <1992Nov10.160611.22859@gserv1.dl.ac.uk> g.coulter@daresbury.ac.uk writes:

>Hi Everyone
>
>I am currently  thinking about writing a graphical  user  interface
>front end for the  use with script  based raytracing  programs. Can
>anyone out there tell me which of  these script based PD raytracers
>provides  the best results. I  want to run the final code  on a DEC
>station  running ULTRIX,  but I am  doing the development on  a SUN
>SPARCstation. 
>
>What would be great  would be the name of  a raytracer/s that  will
>run on  the above platform, and also a FTP site where I can get the
>source and some sample scripts. I have heard about something called
>POV but i'm not up on raytracing outside the Amiga (I use Real3D).
>
>
>Thanks for Any help.

In the absence of in-depth knowledge of rayshade et al I would suggest
POV and Vivid.

You surprise me as POV was originally written for the Amiga!
You can get the source POVAMI.LZH by ftp alred.ccs.carleton.ca

Good luck!
Andy.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| 54 Greenfield Road, London     |        ahaveland@cix.compulink.co.uk |
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+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
>>>> Those that can, use applications. Those that can't, write them! <<<<
> Some dream of doing great things, while others stay awake and do them <
From: thfore@vader.cc.emory.edu
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: How to generate a UPC Bar Code?????
Date: 11 Nov 1992 17:47:56 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu
X-Unparseable-Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 19:34:57 GMT-0500

I need to generate a UPC code for the front page of the newspaper  
where I work. We have an existing one but all our copies are really  
scummy. Is there an easy way to do this? I seem to remember (vaguely)  
an article somewhere on how to do this. Can anyone help?

Please resond via email and I will summarize to the net. Thanks.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Howard Fore                                thfore@vader.cc.emory.edu
"At Apple, Quality is Job 1.1.1!" - anonymous Apple systems engineer
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
From: orourke@sophia.smith.edu (Joseph O'Rourke)
Subject: Re: polyhedron/polyhedron intersection
Keywords: 3d graphics, intersection
Organization: Smith College, Northampton, MA, US
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 13:51:07 GMT

In article <1992Nov11.002123.27579@kpc.com> hollasch@kpc.com (Steve Hollasch) writes:
>    ... Trivial Reject ...  Trivial Accept ...
>    If neither of these tests succeed, then you must test each vertex of P
>to see if it lies within Q, and then you have to test each vertex of Q to
>determine if it lies within P.

	These tests are not sufficient to detect intersection, as two
polyhedra may intersect without any vertex of one being inside the other.
From: francis@ircam.fr (Joseph Francis)
Newsgroups: comp.desktop,comp.graphics
Subject: HP Scanjet IIC/Unix
Date: 5 Nov 92 11:57:56 GMT
Organization: Inst. de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique, Paris

I have an HP Scanjet IIC that I will need to connect soon to a SPARC
machine via SCSI, and granted the original machine and driver and
whatnot was for an IBM machine, with a special SCSI port, can anyone
make suggestions as to how I would go about getting a driver for the
scanner for Solaris 1.01 for the SCSI port? Company names or personal
contacts?

Thanks.




-- 
| Le Jojo: Fresh 'n' Clean, speaking out to the way you want to live
| today; American - All American; doing, a bit so, and even more so.
Xref: sparky comp.graphics:11527 comp.graphics.visualization:1704 comp.org.acm:942
From: rsc@altair.csustan.edu (Steve Cunningham)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics,comp.graphics.visualization,comp.org.acm
Subject: Change in SIGGRAPH leadership
Summary: Judith R. Brown is new SIGGRAPH Chair
Date: 5 Nov 92 17:13:59 GMT
Organization: CSU Stanislaus


                    Change in ACM SIGGRAPH Leadership

JIM THOMAS has resigned as ACM SIGGRAPH chair effective October 26, 
1992, citing "increased demands at work, a need to focus on family, and 
personal health" as his reasons. He goes on to say: "This was obviously 
not an easy decision but after a recent review of the status of 
SIGGRAPH, I am confident it is the right decision."  He notes that 
SIGGRAPH has improved its financial planning and its volunteers' 
spirit, energy, and enthusiasm are alive and well.

JUDITH R. BROWN has assumed the position of SIGGRAPH chair, as provided 
by the SIGGRAPH bylaws.  Judy has been vice chair since 1989 and also 
serves on the ACM SIG Board.  She has contributed to SIGGRAPH activities 
as co-founder and vice chair of SIGGRAPH's Education Committee in 1983-
89, chair of the educators' courses at SIGGRAPH '87 and '88, co-editor 
and project chair for the 1989 Computer Graphics Career Handbook, 
SIGGRAPH '91 Educators' Program committee member, SIGGRAPH '92 
Fundamentals Seminar speaker, and guest editor of the August 1992 issue 
of Computer Graphics with focus on scientific visualization.  She is a 
visualization specialist and manager of Advanced Research Computing 
Services at Weeg Computing Center, The University of Iowa.  Speaking of 
SIGGRAPH's directions, Judy says:

"The field of computer graphics continues to grow and diversify.  
Through our membership, SIGGRAPH represents research, education, 
industry, science, the arts, and collaborations, and we support many 
activities in all these areas.  We're looking forward to further 
innovations at SIGGRAPH '93 in Anaheim, August 1-6, where we will 
celebrate the  twentieth anniversary of SIGGRAPH conferences."

WAYNE CARLSON has been appointed SIGGRAPH vice chair by the SIG Board 
chair, Randy Dipner, on the recommendation of SIGGRAPH chair Judy Brown.  
Wayne is Director of the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and 
Design and an associate professor in the Department of Industrial Design 
at Ohio State University, was a SIGGRAPH director in 1990-92, and has 
contributed to several SIGGRAPH technical programs, panel sessions, and 
film shows.

Jim Thomas has been active in SIGGRAPH for many years.  Among his many 
accomplishments, he was a SIGGRAPH director in 1976-78, technical 
program chair of SIGGRAPH '80, co-chair of SIGGRAPH '87, and vice chair 
for conference planning, 1987-89.  He has always given SIGGRAPH a very 
high priority in his life, and we wish him the best.

The terms of office for both the SIGGRAPH chair and vice chair positions 
expire on June 30, 1993, and Judy and Wayne will serve until that date. 
The upcoming elections will determine their successors.

For more information, contact:
	Alyce Kaprow, SIGGRAPH director for communications
	e-mail:	kaprow@siggraph.org
	phone:	617 - 969 - 0288
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
From: r0506048@csman.csie.ntu.edu.tw (Chun-Hung Lin)
Subject: Re: Need GIF/PCX  to Colour PostScript converter
Reply-To: r0506048@csman.csie.ntu.edu.tw
Organization: Communication & Multimedia Lab, NTU, Taiwan
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 12:37:48 GMT

In article 24OCT199221352684@reg.triumf.ca, advax@reg.triumf.ca (A.Daviel) writes:
>In article <wcsintdb.719878369@cunews>, wcsintdb@alfred.carleton.ca (Mark Kluepfel) writes...
>>Hello Graphics Wizards,
>>Does anyone have, or now where I can find a gif/pcx to Colour postscript
>>converter. I have pbmplus but it appears only to work in ps black and
>>white. Since I work on Unix systems I could use the source if posible.
>> 
>>Does anyone have any sugestions ???
>
>Try xv version >= 2.21. I have tried this and it works. I can't remember
>exactly where I got it from; probably ftp.uu.uunet.com. There are lots
>of sites; try using archie to find it. Version 2.00 does *not* support 
>ps or jpeg. I have seen a note to the efect that jpeg *saved* from xv 2.21
>is a bit grotty due to some extraneous smoothing, and the 2.22 is better.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------
> Andrew Daviel, Vancouver, Canada

You can find xv in directory /contrib on export.lcs.mit.edu(18.24.0.12).

=================================================================
Chun-Hung Lin                     
r0506048@csman.csie.ntu.edu.tw    
Communication & Multimedia Lab.
Dept. of Comp. Sci. & Info. Eng.
National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
From: ads@canon.co.uk (Adam Billyard)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Drawing in the background.
Date: 11 Nov 92 11:00:43 GMT
Reply-To: ads@canon.co.uk
Organization: Canon Research Centre Europe Ltd

martin@cs.curtin.edu.au (Martin Dougiamas) writes:

> gelinas@CAM.ORG (Daniel Gelinas) writes:
> 
> >I was wondering if any of guys guys could help me out with something 
> >that I would like to try.  The goal of my program( in C) is to draw
> >4 laser beams(one from each corner of the screen) shooting out and
> >spelling a word.  My only problem is when I try to do this normally
> >I have to use 1 function to draw a line in green, and then I use the
> >same function to draw another line in black.  This way the laser beam
> >s can move around.  That's all fine and dandy but it won't work with
> >4 laser beams because when I write over them in black it also writes
> >of everything else on the screen.
> 
> A better way to do it would be to write the lines both times using 
> some sort of "Exclusive Or" mode... where it adds the line's pixels
> to the screen using XOr logic.  Then, just do exactly the same thing
> again (ie call your same line-drawing routine) to REMOVE the line.
> 
> On a Macintosh at least, it was very easy to to specify the drawing 
> mode and the system would do the logic for you.  I'm sure there must
> be something equivalent on most other systems.


But if you want true loveliness, pats on the back from fellow workers,
fame, fortune, all the gold you can eat etc etc, then you should use XOR
but draw each of your 4 "laser lines" in a different logical (and
bitwise) colour (eg 1,2,4 and 8).  Then arrange your colour lookup table
entries to be set up with colours such that the additive colours created
as lines cross are the colour chosen for the "laser" colour. 

Put it another way, logical colour #0 should be (say) black, and logical
colours #1 thru #15 should be a shade of laser green. 

Oh yes! 

	Adam.
	

-------------
Adam Billyard, Graphics Division,
Canon Research Centre Europe,
17/20 Frederick Sanger Rd, Surrey Research Park, Guildford, Surrey, GU25YD, UK.
ads@canon.co.uk, ads@canon.uucp, ..!ukc!canon!ads
Tel: +44 (0) 483 574325 Fax: +44 (0) 483 574360
Newsgroups: comp.graphics,comp.graphics.visualization,comp.graphics.animation
From: mbabu@euler.Berkeley.EDU (Madhu Babu)
Subject: Re: FTP Site for 3D objects now OPEN!
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 02:51:14 GMT


If you know of an algorithm/code that takes
a polygonal mesh and breaks it into convex polyhedra
I would be most interested.  Please email:

thanx, madhu

mbabu@euler.berkeley.edu

Newsgroups: comp.graphics.explorer
From: srfergu@rufus.erenj.com (Scott Ferguson)
Subject: PseudoColor image make anything but black???
Organization: Exxon Research & Engineering Co.
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 17:45:46 GMT

Does PseudocolorImage from the Developer's Forum CD do anything useful?
I'm trying to run a 2D lattice through it, and it does a beautiful job
of turning the picture black.

Note: The data values range from 1.2e+07 to 1.5e+07. I've set these
numbers in the min and max of the GenerateColormap module, but still
(you guessed it) black picture.

Is this another module that assumes life occurs between 0 and 255?
Thanks

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott Ferguson                        Exxon Research & Engineering Co.
Project Engineer                      New Jersey
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Always bark at a dog."
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.explorer
From: scheitln@ncar.ucar.edu (Tim Scheitlin)
Subject: Special Symbols
Reply-To: scheitln@ncar.ucar.edu (Tim Scheitlin)
Organization: Nat'l Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR); Boulder, CO
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 22:13:33 GMT

Hi Folks,

I am trying to use the Explorer geometry API: 

   cxGeoTextDefine(text_string, X_font_name); 

to add annotation to a scene.  Specifically, I would like to use the call
to print numeric and math symbols like a temperature value followed by
a degree sign.  

The problem I am having is that the cxGeoTextDefine call only seems
to support characters with an ASCII value between 0 and 127 even if the
X font I have chosen supports characters outside this range. Unfortunately, 
some of the characters I want to use (like the degree sign) have a value 
greater than 127.

Can anyone tell me how to add annotation which includes "special symbols"
like the degree sign for instance?

Thanks for any pointers.

Tim Scheitlin
scheitln@ncar.ucar.edu
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.explorer
From: mduerst@ifi.unizh.ch (Martin J. Duerst)
Subject: Conditionals in dscribe templates? (was: dscribe and images)
Keywords: explorer
Organization: University of Zurich, Department of Computer Science
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 15:45:43 GMT


In article <13447@ecs.soton.ac.uk>, mnn@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Mufeed Na'eem Ni'man) writes:
> I have images in a BIORAD format(.PIC) and i am trying to import them
> into explorer with the aid of dscribe, is that possible or am i
> wasting my time. Is it possible to import any image format into
> explorer or does it only take special formats(TIFF)? If it does take
> any formats where can i find the information about that?
> 
dscribe has no problems with varible-length data with complicated structures.
So it is not difficult to read in images using dscribe if you know your
image format and it has a fixed structure.
However, until now I didn't find any possibility to make a dscribe template
depend on some condition, i.e. some flag in the imput data (e.g. if the
flag is A, then the data is row major 2D data with 4 data values per point
in binary format, but if the flag (at the beginning of the file) is B,
then the data is 3D ascii data, or something in that style).
Are conditionals/switches possible in dscribe, or is there introduction
planned?
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.explorer
From: rousculp@physics.ucla.edu (Rousculp)
Subject: Re: Printing Render and or Scenario files
Organization: UCLA Department of Physics
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 92 21:24:20 GMT

In <Bx95yA.A97@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu> adfernan@cayley.uwaterloo.ca (Andrew D. Fernandes) writes:


>I was wondering if there was any way to print off those beautiful Render
>images without having to convert to a bitmap on the way.  The internal
>"save" option of the module saves the scenes in something called
>a Scenario file format (I'm supposing that SGI knows about this considering
>they copyrighted it!)... and it looks like something awaiting direct 
>translation to colour postscript.

>So: question: am I stuck with either taking pictures of the screen or 
>rasterizing to rgb or tiff files to get my data in full colour onto the
>pages of "Nature"? Or can I make use of the scenario file format... or was
>that to be supported in "the future"?

>Thanks,
>-Andrew. (andrew@platinum.uwaterloo.ca)

I have had sucess in printing the scenario files with Inventor.
A couple of modifications were necessary though.
1) put "#Inventor V1.0 ascii" as the first line
2) replace occurances of "cxGeoObj" with "Separator"
save the file and read into Inventor's SceneViewer. The print
command under the File menu converts the graphics to PostScript
and prints or saves to a file.
From: robertl@cwi.nl (Robert van Liere)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.explorer
Subject: Re: dscribe and images
Date: 11 Nov 92 10:46:59 GMT
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam



> I have images in a BIORAD format(.PIC) and i am trying to import them
> into explorer with the aid of dscribe, is that possible or am i
> wasting my time. Is it possible to import any image format into
> explorer or does it only take special formats(TIFF)? If it does take
> any formats where can i find the information about that?


Quoted from the documentation of ReadImage :

         "This module reads an image file and converts it into an
          Explorer lattice.  The image types recognized are SGI (.rgb
          format), FIT (SGI tiled format), and TIFF.  The module will
          automatically recognize the image type from information
          early in the file, and read it accordingly."


There is also a module on the ftp site which can imports various
foreign images formats. Quoted from the documentation of
ImportImage :

       "Currently ImportImage knows about the following formats....

          Format    Description
          -------   ----------------------------------------------
          gif       CompuServe Graphics Image Format File
          hdf       Hierarchical Data Format File
          icon      Sun Icon and Cursor file
          iff       Sun TAAC Image File Format
          mpnt      Apple Macintosh MacPaint file
          pbm       Portable Bit Map file
          pcx       ZSoft IBM PC Paintbrush file
          pgm       Portable Grayscale Map file
          pic       PIXAR PICture file
          pict      Apple Macintosh QuickDraw/PICT file
          pix       Alias PIXel image file
          pnm       Portable aNy Map file
          ppm       Portable Pixel Map file
          ras       Sun RASterfile
          rgb       Silicon Graphics RGB image file
          rla       Wavefront raster image file
          rle       Utah Runlength-encoded image file
          rpbm      Raw Portable Bit Map file
          rpgm      Raw Portable Grayscale Map file
          rpnm      Raw Portable aNy Map file
          rppm      Raw Portable Pixel Map file
          synu      Synu image file
          tiff      Tagged Image File
          x         Stardent AVS X image file
          xbm       X11 Bit Map file
          xwd       X Window Dump image file"


-- 
Robert van Liere, Department of Interactive Systems,
Center for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI)
Kruislaan 413,  1098 SJ  Amsterdam,  The Netherlands
email: robertl@cwi.nl | tel: +31-20-592-4118 | fax: +31-20-592-4199
From: foulser@homebrew.asd.sgi.com (David Foulser)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.explorer
Subject: Re: Problem with Shape Language in LatFunction
Keywords: LatFunction, Shape
Date: 5 Nov 92 18:55:48 GMT
Reply-To: foulser@homebrew.asd.sgi.com (David Foulser)
Organization: sgi

This is, once again, the most frequently encountered LatFunction bug. We
shipped LatFunction such that it gets irretrievably wedged once it attempts
to fire with an empty Program File filename. Your best bet is to get the
new LatFunction2 from the ftp site.

An alternative is to enter the Program File name, then duplicate the module.
The duplicated module will work. 

If you have other problems, then contact me.

Dave

-- 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
David Foulser					foulser@sgi.com 
MS 1L-545
Silicon Graphics, Inc   			415/390-5338 
2011 N. Shoreline Blvd. 			415/390-6056 FAX
Mountain View, CA 94039-7311 			
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.explorer
From: mduerst@ifi.unizh.ch (Martin J. Duerst)
Subject: Problem with Shape Language in LatFunction
Keywords: LatFunction, Shape
Organization: University of Zurich, Department of Computer Science
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 92 16:39:53 GMT



I am pretty new to explorer, but find it quite easy to work with.
After connecting some modules, I tried Data Scribe to construct
a module that read in my own image file format (actually just
raw images, so there is a slider to set the size).
Now I set for an experiment with LatFunction before trying to write
my own module(s). However, I got the impression that LatFunction,
resp. the Shape Language it interprets, is somewhat buggy.
In fact, I boiled my program down to the very simplest Shape program,
which just reads:

First_Out := First_In;

I then get the error message

LatFunction: [undound symbol: First_In]

If I turn on the debuger, I see LatFunction read in my code, then the prelude
and the postlude. It then starts working on the prelude, but quickly
gets some errors saying

LatFunction: [unbound symbol: lat_data]
and
LatFunction: [unbound symbol: lat_ccord]

The Explorer Module Writer's Guide says on page 4-33 that these things
are defined on startup of the LatFunction Module, but obviously they
are not.

Am I missing something, or is this a known bug? How can I fix things?

Many thanks in advance for useful answers.

Yours sincerely,	Martin J. Du"rst.
From: rlb@lavalite.asd.sgi.com (Robert Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.explorer
Subject: Re: baby explorer
Date: 5 Nov 1992 16:23:42 GMT
Organization: sgi
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: lavalite.asd.sgi.com

In article <13378@ecs.soton.ac.uk>, mnn@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Mufeed Na'eem Ni'man) writes:
|> In <13355@ecs.soton.ac.uk> mnn@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Mufeed Na'eem Ni'man) writes:
|> 
|> I have just started using explorer and I would be grateful of any help
|> especially on the mbuilder program(I do not have a manual on that).
|> >Thank you.(my email adress is:mnn@uk.ac.soton.ecs)
|> >Keywords: explorer

The PostScript files for the "Module Writer's Guide" are available
on the Edinburgh FTP site -- it would be very difficult to use the
module builder without that manual.  The full manual set is also
available from SGI as product M4-EXPLR-1.0 for around $195.

Also, SGI teaches a 4-1/2 day course on explorer every quarter.  Mountain
View is a long and expensive ride from where you are, though, but I am
expecting that sometime a course will come to the UK, either from SGI
or from another group.

Bob
---------------
Robert L. Brown
Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.explorer
From: adfernan@cayley.uwaterloo.ca (Andrew D. Fernandes)
Subject: Printing Render and or Scenario files
Organization: University of Waterloo, Chemistry Department
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 17:01:21 GMT


I was wondering if there was any way to print off those beautiful Render
images without having to convert to a bitmap on the way.  The internal
"save" option of the module saves the scenes in something called
a Scenario file format (I'm supposing that SGI knows about this considering
they copyrighted it!)... and it looks like something awaiting direct 
translation to colour postscript.

So: question: am I stuck with either taking pictures of the screen or 
rasterizing to rgb or tiff files to get my data in full colour onto the
pages of "Nature"? Or can I make use of the scenario file format... or was
that to be supported in "the future"?

Thanks,
-Andrew. (andrew@platinum.uwaterloo.ca)
From: mnn@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Mufeed Na'eem Ni'man)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.explorer
Subject: dscribe and images
Summary: Is it possible to import images with the aid of dscribe into explorer.
Keywords: explorer
Date: 10 Nov 92 09:41:40 GMT

I have images in a BIORAD format(.PIC) and i am trying to import them
into explorer with the aid of dscribe, is that possible or am i
wasting my time. Is it possible to import any image format into
explorer or does it only take special formats(TIFF)? If it does take
any formats where can i find the information about that?

Please hurry up in answering me before i pull my hair off and become a
bold man for the rest of my life!!!!!

my email adress is:
(mnn@uk.ac.soton.ecs)