Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!coplex!dean
From: dean@coplex.UUCP (Dean Brooks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: DumpToIFF (DKB) crashing (again)
Message-ID: <194@coplex.UUCP>
Date: 18 Sep 90 14:28:48 GMT
References: <1529@hslrswi.UUCP> <1547@hslrswi.UUCP>
Organization: Copper Electronics Inc.; Louisville, Ky
Lines: 45

J-B.Boichat@hslrswi.UUCP writes:

>In article <1529@hslrswi.UUCP> jean@pogo.UUCP () (ME) writes:
>>
>>The DKB (ray tracer) software is (slow but) great! .........

With respect to the source code, DKB is among one of the fastest public domain
ray tracers I have seen...

>Some additional notes:

>4) DKB on a slow PC is not recommended
>   (> 5 hours for simple1.dat on a 8086 8 Mhz machine)
>   I will start today to compile it here on UNIX (SUN)

Yeech...  Ray tracing is slow on a 25MHZ 80386; can't imagine it on an
XT. With proper use of the render-quality option "-q" (for previewing)
and correct implementation of the BOUNDED_BY keyword, faster ray
tracing can be achieved...

>5) My next step (perhaps last?) is to work on a DumpToIFF
>   for UNIX. Perhaps the author could help me by indicating
>   how to bypass the Amiga functions especially the screen
>   interface.

Definitely.  We are runnnig DKB on our UNIX RISC station, and are dependent
on FBM to produce our IFF files.  Unfortunately, FBM doesn't produce as good
results as Dump2IFF.  Haven't looked into the reason, but will probably
get to it one day (-;

>6) What is the format of the *.dis files? Is it something
>   recognizable by Digiview (I will buy soon the package)?

They are either in QRT (another raytracer format) format or in TARGA format.
Both are basically 24bit RGB files.  If you need conversion utilities, grab
a copy of the Fuzzy Bitmap Manipulator package that was posted to
comp.binaries.amiga a while back.  It has all sorts of conversion utilities
that allow you to convert QRT to IFF, HAM, Sun Raster, GIF and others.  Also,
utilities for color remapping, picture splicing etc. are included as well.

--
dean@coplex.UUCP   Dean A. Brooks
                   Copper Electronics, Inc.
                   Louisville, Ky
UUCP: !uunet!coplex!dean