Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!bu.edu!dartvax!eleazar.dartmouth.edu!npw
From: npw@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Nicholas Wilt)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Rendering/Ray Tracing Software for MS-DOS and Macs?
Keywords: ray tracing, rendering, MS-DOS, Macs, PD
Message-ID: <1991Apr26.133953.27228@dartvax.dartmouth.edu>
Date: 26 Apr 91 13:39:53 GMT
References: <707@aos.brl.mil>
Sender: news@dartvax.dartmouth.edu (The News Manager)
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Lines: 61

In article <707@aos.brl.mil> hinkle@vim.brl.mil (Gerald Hinkle ) writes:
>
>Please forgive my typing- I'm stuck in EDit. (Don't ask! :-) )
>
>Recently, someone posted a request for info about (PD?) rendering and
>ray tracing programs for MS-DOS machines, and I believe someone else
>asked for similar programs for Macs.  I would be interested in that
>information as well.  I checked the FAQ post- no packages listed.
>
>Names of packages, features in brief, req'd hardware, and availability
>would be super.  Names and locations/dealers would be adequate for my
>"shopping".  In case it isn't obvious, I'm just starting in 3D graphics.

I have written a ray tracing package in Turbo C++ with the following
features:

Ray tracing:
	Primitives are box, bounding box, polygon, quadric, sphere
	Limited support of OFF standard (specifically, the ray tracer
	  will read the OFF files included with vort 2.0 :-).
	Any object may have any transformation applied to it - translation,
	  rotation about X, Y, or Z axes, yaw-pitch-roll rotation, scaling
	  and combinations of the above
	A large number of approaches to reduce the number of intersection
	  tests
	Unusually flexible shading model:
		- Specular and reflective components all have vectors for 
		  attenuation
		- Light sources may be attenuated not at all, linearly,
		  by the square of the distance or a combination of all
		  three

Display:
  I have implemented median-cut color quantization in C++, and I have a
display program which will use the SVGA capabilities of an ATI VGA
Wonder.  I plan to turn this program into a GIF converter, so that all
those SVGA/8514 GIF viewers will support it.

Input language:
	Powerful and easy to understand
	Include files supported
	Vectors, transformation matrices, colors, or objects may be 
	  assigned to variables and instantiated later

Hardware required is an IBM PC.  You need at least VGA to display the
pretty pictures, but you don't need any special hardware to crunch the
images (although a coprocessor helps a _LOT_).


I plan to release version 1.0 beta not long from now.  I have to finish
testing the input language, polish the documentation, and fix the median-
cut quantizer so it outputs GIF instead of displaying on an ATI VGA 
Wonder.

If you are interested in a copy of the beta release, please email me.

--Nick
  npw@eleazar.dartmouth.edu

PS - vort can be ported to IBM PCs.  I compiled it without incident 
     with Microsoft C, but I haven't checked it out beyond that.