home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Floppyshop 2
/
Floppyshop - 2.zip
/
Floppyshop - 2.iso
/
diskmags
/
4671-5.790
/
dmg-5059
/
various
/
letter.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1989-12-31
|
14KB
|
279 lines
THE THIRD DIMENSION VR MAGAZINE
LETTERS SECTION
Dear Tony
I received the disks about a week or two ago,the public
domain disks do not work on my system because it is very very
old.It is a pity as i have not yet had chance to read the diskmag
properly.I have enclosed a disk which has issue 1 of Roberts
Ripples on it.In the first issue i teach how to use batch files
and will have a competition in issue 2 for the best batch file
source code.
Before i end this letter there is a question that i must ask
and it is "what do you do for a living?"( Please answer in true
sentences! ).
Yours Sincerely
Robert Green
P.S. Could you put 'Wanted:The National Lottery Number Finder'
in the PD section.Thanks.
Thanks Robert for the first issue of your textfile.It is on this
months disk.If you are having trouble getting things to work on
your PC setup then perhaps it is about time that you upgraded ( if
finances will allow this ) to a more powerful system.
As regards to 'what i do for a living',I am the Managing
Director of probably Yorkshires largest Singles Directory ( a
dating agency for single people ).And here is a fact that you can
tell all of your friends.-One in Five of the single adult population
in Great Britain are in some form of Dating Agency! You may have
noticed that my answer machine has a message on it for the
aforementioned Directory.The best thing of all is that i work
mostly at home.So now you know.If you ever move to Yorkshire and
are single,then i am sure that i can offer you half price
membership.HA!...Tony
------------------------------------------------
Dear Tony
Re:Amiga A12OO Disc Magazine
Thanks for the video.I will let you know my comments after i
have had a good look at the contents.
Just a few notes regarding UFOs and Virtual Reality.
UFOs.Come on Micky ( Pseudonym used by anon writer...Ed )-stop
taking the micky and lets have something better to say.And no
malicious intent,but what a big head you must be not to 'assume'
but to 'know' there is no other life in this vast universe.Surely
you are not still living in the 'flat earth'era.If you are then
you had better take care for you are certain to fall off the edge
someday.
Virtual Reality.
It was satisfying to read that our dear friend Mieke Van Der Poll
is interested in virtual reality-one of my pet subjects-in fact
the real reason i bought the old kit 1 for my Archimedes.
One can well understand the fears of people eventually living in
secluded fantasy lives.But surely there is not too much fear of
this happening.There will,of course,be some who will,like those
today who live their lives in the fantasy world of drugs.There is
no doubt that we will be going forward to whole new ways of
living.Just one instance: virtual reality has already come to
town in Eastleigh,Hampshire where the Nationwide Building Society
have opened their first VR branch as reported recently in
"Express Money" It is all very exciting.The way i can see it
getting out of control is the usual 'greed!'.Lots of people will
leap on the bandwagon seeing it as another easy way to make loads
of money,and i cannot see a way of preventing that happening in
this quickly moving 'materialistic and possessive' world we live
in today.
Cheers,Tony
John Wright..Baldock,Hertfordshire.
Thanks for your comments John.I am sure that Mickey will think
twice before opening his mouth in future.Perhaps he has some more
views to add to your reply.....Tony
----------------------------------------------------------
Dear Sir
Please would you send me issues 8 to 1O of the Excellent
disk magazine 'The Third Dimension'.I enclose the appropriate
amount etc.Thankyou for your time and for the help over the
phone.I have ordered kit2 but since it has yet to arrive,i
cannot as yet say whether i consider it to be much better than
its predecessor.Thanks again and all the best with the future.It
is nice to see someone still supporting the ST/E.
Carl Murray...Warrington
As long as members want an Atari/Falcon version of the diskmag
then they will get one Carl.The Atari is still the computer that
i use for the bulk of the work that goes into producing the
diskmag.When it comes to kit 2 versus kit 1 then i would have to
say that kit 1 is a pure joy to work with and especially when it
comes to selecting objects for a group as you can just select
them all at the same time from the list.It also runs faster and
you dont seem to get a'one second' delay when you press on a
control panel icon.On the other hand kit2 is far superior with
its sphere and flexicube objects,user fades,brushes,more commands
and oodles of other items...Tony
----------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Tony,
Thanks for the last disk magazine and the offer of the
reduced price for the three-hour demo video. £7 is enclosed as
requested. Thanks very much.
This last month has seen me dragging my heels kit-wise and at
the time of writing I haven't yet finished looking through
January's issue!!!
What I did get for christmas though, might be of interest to
3D-Kitters.
It is a book published by Sigma press (a company based in
Wilmslow, Cheshire - so the size and price is reasonable when you
compare it with those American door-stops!) called "C++ Real-
Time 3D Graphics".
This is basically a C++ programming tutorial but specifically
for the creation of 3D Virtual Worlds! Tremendous! I've been
learning straight 'C' for many years on and off, and so far
haven't touched on the later, extended version 'C++'.
To get me started I obtained a public-domain C++ compiler for
the PC from a mail-order library. (Have PC users noticed how
these libraries are slowly disappearing these days due to the
onslaught of CD-ROMs and 650mb of shareware on one disk for
about £20!! I think this is a great shame. A lot of companies
must have gone out of business, or at least been forced to
modify what they sell.)
The book is clearly written (has to be for someone like me!)
and starts off with all the basics, even the dreaded 'pointers
to pointers to pointers to.....' and makes everything very
palatable. Alongside the 'C' commands it offers the 'C++' ones
too which are totally new to me. The future looks rosy and the
books graphical output promises to look very similar to the 3D-
Kit's. There is even a 'Ripple Tank' project which models a tank
of fluid and the real-time interaction of waves of different
parameters!
If this book can take me from first basics to this type of
simulation then I will stick with it and see what I can learn.
There are also ATARI and AMIGA versions of the book available
at £12.95 and £14.95 respectively. The PC version was £16.95.
I'm not sure though if these versions teach C++. They might be
for assembler programmers. Best to check first.
If none are in your local bookshop and they won't order for
you you can buy direct by paying £2 p&p. Sigma's phone number is
0625 531035. The titles are : AMIGA REAL-TIME 3D GRAPHICS and
REAL-TIME 3D GRAPHICS FOR THE ATARI ST.
Not for the casual reader perhaps, but for the interested
these books are still unique as far as I'm aware.
Last week I was off work with this flu bug, or whatever it
is, that has been going round. So it was a nice surprise to get
the tutorial video on Tuesday (I think).
Having so much time on my hands meant that I could settle
down to watch it straight away.
Well, you've certainly put a lot of time and effort into
producing it and some of the graphics sequences are very good
indeed! Just goes to show what you can do with a 'home' computer
when you put your mind to it. But your machine must be just
about worn out by now!
The tutorial started off at a slow pace, 'walking' though the
menu structure - a good idea. I was quite surprised at the minor
differences between the PC and the Amiga/Atari. Especially in
the colour section. The PC allows you to use and modify any of
the 256 colours except for ten it reserves for the menu systems
etc. The trouble is you have to specify a numerical value for
each of the three prime colours, or move a slider very
carefully. Gone in Kit2 for the PC is the useful 'Spread'
function. Strange omission that. And the PC version looks
totally different.
Another thing that fascinated me was you could tell you did
some of the work on an Amiga and some on an Atari. Which was
which a PC user like me couldn't tell, but I noticed one of them
had a little icon on the top menu bar at the far right-hand
side. What does this do? ( That icon on the menu bar in
kit2 is to enable the Amiga to switch ( Multitasking ) between
one program ( in this case its 3D kit2 ) to another and back
again.So you could work on kit2 and have a music program working
in the background.You can even load kit2 twice or more if you
have the memory and work on two environments at the same
time....Tony )
Being fairly proficient in the basics I was watching much of
the tutorial just to see how the different versions of the kit
did things, and how you yourself worked.
The review section was very good, letting us see several of
the complete games in all their glory. I still like War of the
Worlds and Probe, but I really am disappointed us PC Kitters
can't include proper 'samples' in our sound files. If there's
one area that really needs a book writing about it in the PC
kit, then it has to be the Adlib Sound Editor utility. Oh sure I
can fool around with the buttons and produce noises but a proper
tutorial from Incentive/Dimension/Domark would have been nice. I
mean, fancy releasing some software without any proper
instructions!
Then we had the 'quick peeks' of you and Mandy. To be honest
you are still a mystery as all my old video would show me was a
dark sillhouette!!
I remember about five years ago I went to Huddersfiled to see
my brother-in-law who was at Poly there. We went out for a walk
on those hills and I remember a tower and someway off a pub and
car-park. Bloomin' windy I recall, and all closed, but a very
good view over the town. (I'm not sure whether this was the same
hill you were on or not, there may be others with towers on in
the region!!) (yes it was nigel..Tony) I was trying to find
you the name and address of the B & B where we stayed but
alas it has now gone.
So all in all a very useful little video, full of nice ideas.
Perhaps for the next one (!) you'll tackle more complicated
stuff, like geometric maths and its use in programming the FCL.
Brush-animations and external data-file loading (LOADWORLD) etc.
Now that should really wear the little grey cells down!!!!!
Anyway I hope you sell plenty of copies to encourage you to
go further.
Right, just received the latest disk mag. Jolly good as always!
Must dash, going to have a look through it!
Bye for now,
Nigel.
P.S.
Oh and by the way, thanks very much for the 'C' Tutorial disk, I
remember it when it came out in PC Format, but I never read
it so it's much appreciated....Nigel Alefounder.
Thanks for the letters Nigel.I am glad that you and many others
have appreciated the time and effort that went in to producing
the video.It explains far more than the one provided with the kit
disks and encourages me to keep on producing more videos to help
fellow members out.I may be doing a whole series of
videos on the kits and the next one will be on the use of more
advanced features in kit2 including brushanims,user
fades,animations,sound effects,special effects, and a lot
more.The first video was made to give an overall view and insight
into kit2 that is especially useful to beginners,the next will
be in step by step easy form again but aimed at intermediate kit2
users with more features on actual routines shown and explained
and how they work.Tony.
------------------------------------------------------
Dear Tony
Thanks for the two disks you sent me,both of which i find
of much interest.I have had problems with my computer over the
last few weeks resulting in it having to be sent away for repair.
However,it is now back in use and i am working my way ( very
slowly ) through the tutorials.
Many Thanks
Harry Bilboe...Chard,Somerset.
Keep at it Harry and if you get stuck at anytime then there are
plenty of members in our happy band who will be only too pleased
to help you out,myself included....Tony