Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!coil!andrey
From: andrey@coil.caltech.edu (Andre T. Yew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Better Amiga Graphics and HDTV
Summary: interactive graphics for the Amiga
Keywords: interactive programs, graphics
Message-ID: <1990Jul15.183009.21518@laguna.ccsf.caltech.edu>
Date: 15 Jul 90 18:30:09 GMT
References: <3525@crash.cts.com>
Sender: news@laguna.ccsf.caltech.edu
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 42

In article <3525@crash.cts.com> seanc@pro-party.cts.com (Sean Cunningham) writes:
>In-Reply-To: message from seh@pmafire.UUCP
>
> 
>To me, a 32bit graphics board over a 24bit graphics board, or graphics
>standard for that matter, isn't too important...the final image from either
>would look the same, and would be made up of only 24bits.  What WOULD be more
>practical, would be a 32bit, or 48bit standard which used the uper 8bit/24bits
>as a Z buffer for hidden surface removal when working with 3D.
> 
>There are systems from Appolo and other workstation manufacturers with some 64
>and 96 bits of information PER PIXEL...but all are only 24bits for color
>information.
> 
>Sean

	Has anyone seen the Silicon Graphics Powervision series?  I've heard
that some machines have up to 268 (268 -- not a typo) bits per pixel.  Now,
what would one want to use 268 bits per pixel for?  Well, I assume some of
it goes to Z-buffering, but the more interesting uses I've heard for it are
hardware texture mapping, hardware fog, and hardware motion-blur.  All of these
probably become real-time effects, too.  I think the overriding thing here is
real-time, and hence interactive.  A board with such a big memory for its
screen can probably have a real effect on Amiga programs.  For example, 
instead of passively watching the next BADGE Killer Demo contest winner,
we can also adjust the camera position and lighting real-time, or grab a corner
of a room in the demo, and spin the whole scene around while the demo is still
playing.  IMHO, Amiga demos are neat right now, but they seem to be mostly
the same -- passive -- and those demos I've seen that are interactive aren't
really very interesting (press this button to make your figure jump), so 
if you want some neat ideas, find somebody with a SGI, and go bother them to
let you play with it for a while.  You might want to try the Jello demo first;
it's sort of like Boing! except you have an icosohedron made out of Jello in
a transparent cube that you spin around, and watch the Jello fall, jiggle, 
bounce, and roll around.
	I know, I know, this is pretty unrealistic, expecting an Amiga to
compete, on the very least, with a $32.5K machine, but I feel that current
Amiga applications could go so much farther if programmers had more to look
at for inspiration.

						- Andre
						  andrey@tybalt.caltech.edu