Xref: utzoo rec.arts.startrek:15123 comp.graphics:3319
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!oberon!skat.usc.edu!ahoffman
From: ahoffman@skat.usc.edu (Alan M. Hoffman)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek,comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Star Trek II graphics: "The Genesis Effect"
Keywords: star trek graphics genesis
Message-ID: <12672@oberon.USC.EDU>
Date: 8 Oct 88 09:14:02 GMT
References: <277@pte.UUCP> <523@epicb.UUCP>
Sender: news@oberon.USC.EDU
Reply-To: ahoffman@skat.usc.edu (Alan M. Hoffman)
Organization: University Computing Services--U.S.C.
Lines: 21

An interesting sidebar to the "Genesis Effect" article is that all of those
funky "particle" sequences--the random "flames" and the wave effect--were
generated using fractical math.

Fractals, as you know, are the hot new computer technique that "randomly"
produces realistic-looking mountains, vegetation, coastlines, and
other real-world pictures.

The reason each frame takes so long is that EVERY POINT in the array need
to be calculated in relation to surrounding points, and then a ray traced
back to the "observer" which determines whether it can be seen, what color
it is, and what kind of surface it has.  Last I heard, they were using a
version of the Cray 2 called an XMP, designed especially for graphics work,
to do the number crunching.  The final image is printed on a film recorder.

Wish I could do that on my XT!

-----------------------------------  OOO  OOO   OOOOO   OOOOO  ----------------
    Alan M. Hoffman                 OOO  OOO  OOO     OOO   
    ARPA:  AHOFFMAN@skat.usc.edu   OOO  OOO     OOO  OOO  "The Rose Bowl 1989!"
---------------------------------  OOOOOO    OOOOO    OOOOO  ------------------