Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!caen!news.cs.indiana.edu!news.nd.edu!shillelagh.cse.nd.edu!flynn
From: flynn@cse.nd.edu (Patrick J. Flynn)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: NFF previewer?
Keywords: NFF wireframe fast el-cheapo
Message-ID: <1991Mar5.143437.5214@news.nd.edu>
Date: 5 Mar 91 14:34:37 GMT
Sender: news@news.nd.edu (USENET News System)
Reply-To: flynn@cse.nd.edu
Organization: Computer Science and Engineering, Univ. of Notre Dame
Lines: 28

Has anyone implemented a `previewer' for NFF files?  By `previewer', I mean
a program that eats a NFF scene description and QUICKLY spits out a wireframe
(or some other inexpensive) drawing of the scene.

ASIDE{ 
  Why is such a beastie useful?
  For students, it provides a quick way for them to verify that they've
specified
  their view parameters correctly, that their objects are in the desired
  configuration, etc.  I'm teaching graphics to 40 students this semester and
  would like (both for their sake and mine) to give them some nice tools
  to start with, so they can do something interesting rather than simply
  hack code all the time.  MTV's ray tracer is a great teaching tool, and
  an `el-cheapo' NFF renderer would be a great addition, for those situations
  (`prototyping' a scene or sequence of scenes) when speed is more important
  than realism.
}

It shouldn't be too hard to write this previewer; I'll probably do it
myself (*gulp*) if nobody else has already, but I thought I'd query the
net before diving in.

Send e-mail or follow up if you have code/suggestions/brickbats.

TTFN
--
Patrick J. Flynn, Computer Science & Engineering, University of Notre Dame
flynn@cse.nd.edu