Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!dptg!att!mcdchg!ddsw1!corpane!sparks From: sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: 3D Applications Message-ID: <926@corpane.UUCP> Date: 3 Aug 89 13:07:36 GMT References: <4288@amiga.UUCP> Reply-To: sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) Organization: Corpane Industries, Inc. Lines: 82 In article <4288@amiga.UUCP> jimm@amiga.UUCP (Jim Mackraz) writes: >Application 1: Low-end architectural walk-throughs. > >I'm sure you can do this, and I suspect that there is a market out >for affordable low-end tools. Hmm thanks for the idea ;-) >Are the tools there? Are the economies there? How much would the >SEAP need to charge for the service, and who pops for it? Does the >contractor do it to be cool and help the client decide? Does the >contractor offer it as an extra-cost service to the curious client? >Is it realistic to hope that the model setup time could be short, >but the rendering and subsequent recording might go on all weekend? The hard part is making the objects, and having enough memory to render them all. I do CAD at work all the time. But trying to make these objects on an Amiga is a real pain. We need something like AutoCAD for designing 3D objects. >I'd say that a standard, morphable set of chairs/tables/sofas would >be great objects to include with a 3D modeler. Could you design >a table to real physical inches in today's modelers, or is that >too much a CAD thing? I'd like to be able to grab a simple table >and stretch it to precisely the right dimensions, if not the exactly >right style, for playing with furniture layout. You can do it with a program such as 3Demon, but it is difficult. I use AutoCAD at work to design the objects, then dump them to a .DXF file and convert them to sculpt animate objects with a program called ACAD Translator. It works great. My only problem is that I only have 512K so I can't make complex objects. Once the object is in sculpt-animate you can move them around, stretch them, bend them whatever. Then you can specify a path for motion of objects and camera and output a animation. Again, memory is a major limitation, and so is the processor. A 68020 would be nessesary for any professional work, in order to get it done on time. Getting HAM to work in 640x400 would be a GREAT boost. 320x400 is ok, but a bit hard to see any details. I made a model of my attic that I converted into an office, I put in a desk and chair and played around with it a bit. looked ok. nothing spectacular. > >The impact of a video tape would be prominent. A furniture dealer >had somebody make us a sketch of a chair with a particular fabric. >If both fabric and chair shape were in a database (or easy to >generate), why wouldn't it have been just as easy (cheap) to >hand us a video tape of a various views of the chair with several >different fabrics? And for a room with lighting issues, it would >be even more dramatic. I haven't seen anything other than DBW render that could handle surface mapping such as placing different fabrics on a chair. And DBW render can't do objects such as a chair. Or rather, to do a chair would be so difficult that it wouldn't be worth the trouble. Again, the 320 x 400 HAM resolution is a barrier to this, because you wouldn't get much detail of the fabric at low res. > >It seems to me that a person could at least pay for a nice 030 Amiga >and a hot-shit VCR doing this stuff on the side. at least a 020 amiga. With at least 8 meg and a large hard drive. But to do it correctly you would need it to begin with. Maybe a loan, buy the equipment and HOPE you make enough to pay off the loan. And maybe the AT bridgeboard so you can run Autocad on the same machine, to produce the 3d shapes. But we are talking big bucks now! $3500 for amiga 2500 with hard drive $1300 for At bridge card $2500 for AutoCAD $ 500 for Amiga software -------- $7800 Whew!!! -- John Sparks | {rutgers|uunet}!ukma!corpane!sparks | D.I.S.K. 24hrs 1200bps ||||||||||||||| sparks@corpane.UUCP | 502/968-5401 thru -5406 As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error.