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1993-09-03
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For those who have a 386+387 (or 486) machine it is now possible to
produce images with a good level of realism. The source code is
available to anyone to look at, study, use, etc.
Installation is:
0. Define a variable GO32 if you don't have a 387
dos> set GO32=emu DRIVE:/PATH/emu387
If you have a SVGA card, you can preview the image being traced
in colors or in grey-scale. The variable GO32 should define the
graphic driver suitable for your SVGA card.
For a GRD driver, do:
dos> set GO32=... driver DRIVE:/PATH/DRIVER gw 800 gh 600
For a GRN driver, do:
dos> set GO32=... driver DRIVE:/PATH/DRIVER gw 800 gh 600 nc 256
where DRIVER is one of *.GRD or *.GRN drivers (please check the
DRIVERS archive).
The steps to follow to create images are:
1. Create using a text editor a file with the scene description
(view point, lights, objects, etc).
Look at the .scn files for an example; the format description
is in the file scn2sff.lst.
CPP (or M4) macros and so on can be used...
2. Next, process the .scn file (let's suppose it is called demo.scn)
using CPP (or M4) and then by SCN2SFF converter, to obtain the
input file for the ray-tracer program (demo.sff).
Example:
dos> cpp -P demo.scn | scn2sff - > demo.sff
3. Run RTRACE with chosen arguments (look in rtrace.txt).
Example:
[Resolution 256x256, no antialiasing, with textures]
dos> rtrace w256 t1 demo.sff demo.pic >demo.log
or
dos> rtrace w256 t1 O1 demo.sff demo.ppm >demo.log
Wait a moment... Done.
To preview the image, please add option V-1 (grey-scale) or
V-2 (colors, approximate).
4. To view the image (file demo.pic or demo.ppm), it is necessary to
convert it to a standard format like GIF or any other.
Use the PIC2RAW program to convert to input file for shareware
program ALCHEMY (demo.raw). ALCHEMY reads the .ppm files directly.
Or convert with PIC2RGB to a raw format that PICLAB understands
and do the manipulation with this program (very good).
I recommend to produce PPM files, because many programs read them
directly (another good image manipulation program is in DISP153.ZIP
-- also compiled with the GNU C compiler for DOS like this ray tracer).
Example:
dos> pic2raw demo
With ALCHEMY it is possible to convert to many other formats
(GIF, Targa, PCX, etc).
It is also possible to view in a VGA card with ALCHEMY.
To display, use ALCHEMY, PICLAB, CSHOW or others...
There are many .scn and .sff available...
Description:
logo.scn - logo of my institute, INESC
h2so4.scn - molecule H2SO4
vitam_a1.scn - vitamin A1
header.h - include for previous 2
balls.scn - balls
csg.scn - a CSG object and 3D text
(try scn2sff csg.scn|rtrace w400 p1 t1 m0 V-1 - nul)
Hope you like it,
Antonio Costa
(acc@asterix.inescn.pt)
-----
All this stuff is available by anonymous ftp at:
asterix.inescn.pt [192.35.246.17] - pub/RTrace (UNIX, DOS, MAC)
wuarchive.wustl.edu - Graphics/graphics/ray/RTrace