Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!olson From: olson@sax.cs.uiuc.edu (Bob Olson) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Next machine as animation platform Message-ID: Date: 14 Nov 90 20:27:45 GMT References: <85866@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News) Followup-To: comp.graphics Organization: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Lines: 30 In-Reply-To: velasco@beowulf.ucsd.edu's message of 14 Nov 90 15:44:38 GMT In article velasco@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Gabriel Velasco) writes: I am not at all familiar with NeXTdimension's JPEG compressed images. What type of algorithm do they use? Is it delta modulation? Run length encoding? Send only changes from one frame to the next? Selective color mapping? I believe that the problem he may be talking about (ie lower resolution with JPEG) is that JPEG is a "lossy" compression algorithm -- you lose data when doing the compression. It seems to me also that you could get as good of quality if you don't use compression. If NeXTdimension is using 32 bit color (mentioned later in the article) then isn't that *better* than what production houses are using? HDTV is only 24 bit color. How are the 32 bits divided into the three colors? There are actually only 24 bits of color. There is another 8 bits of alpha channel - transparency information. It makes for cool images: an image of a Porsche where you can actually see *through* the windows. What is the resolution of the NeXTdimension video? 1120x832 --bob Bob Olson University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign Internet: rolson@uiuc.edu UUCP: {uunet|convex|pur-ee}!uiucdcs!olson UIUC NeXT Campus Consultant NeXT mail: olson@fazer.champaign.il.us "You can't win a game of chess with an action figure!" AMA #522687 DoD #28