Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!crash!jcs
From: jcs@crash.cts.com (John Schultz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: 3D Movies
Message-ID: <3174@crash.cts.com>
Date: 15 Jun 90 17:31:46 GMT
References: <137344@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Organization: Crash TimeSharing, El Cajon, CA
Lines: 26
X-Local-Date: 15 Jun 90 10:31:46 PDT

In article <137344@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> cmcmanis@stpeter.Eng.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) writes:
>I'm trying to figure out what the format of the "Combat Films" are
>that the game "Their Finest Hour : The Battle of Britain" uses.
>
>The goal is simple, given such a file I would like to write a converter
>that generated object motion files for a set of VideoScape 3D objects.

  I've seen BoB on the PC: great simulation (best of its kind).  As you
have probably noticed, the aircraft appear to be tabled bitmaps, and not
3D generated objects. Further, it would take a great deal of storage
(depending on frame rate and scene complexity) to save each frame to
memory. Not the bitmaps, but the transformed points.  Since you can 
replay from different views, it would appear that at least 3D position
points and table indices are being stored, as well as frame to frame
deltas, perhaps similar to run length encoding.  If this is the case,
then using the output for VideoScape input won't work. Of course you
could write a second program to generate the necessary info...Perhaps
suggest the idea to LucasFilm Games.

  If you want to save your dogfights for posterity, just video tape the
output, digitize it, delta compress (etc), make an anim from the resulting
frames. There you go :-). Actually, just leaving it on video would be best.



  John