MacFormat 1996 September/macformat-041.iso/mac/Shareware City/Graphics/MacSPD/Sources/README.MAC

Text File | 1995-04-22 | 7.3 KB | 190 lines | [TEXT/MMCC]

SPD Update 3.6 - April 3, 1995
==============================

Macintosh SPD
Document by Eduard Schwan ([e-mail])

[The Macintosh version is no longer distributed with the regular SPD, but is
in its own SIT file.  I leave these notes here FYI. - EAH]

Introduction
------------

SPD is a suite of raytracer scene generators, which can be used as benchmark
databases for timing tests.  For a full description, see the file README.

The SPD source code is being distributed as "Public Domain".  These Macintosh
applications are also being distributed as public domain, no copyrights, no
guarantees, no restrictions on their use or distribution.

The Macintosh port of SPD contained in the archive MACSPD.SIT contains
the SPD Mac Source code (for Symantec C, MPW C, Metrowerks) and the SPD
Mac Applications ready to run.

There are also IBM PC versions of these archives available.

This document will describe the Macintosh-specific information for these
SPD archives.

These Mac programs were written to be very simple.  There are no frills, and
not much error checking.  They are meant to quickly crank out source files for
raytracers.  Specifically, the "Display to Screen" code for the Macintosh is
not very robust.  It works as a simple previewer on color Macintoshes, but it
does not buffer offscreen, nor does it check for Color Quickdraw unless
calling the screen display routines.  Be forewarned!  :-)


Requirements
------------

The software requires a minimum Macintosh hardware and software configuration
to run:
- System 7.0 or later.
- 68020 or higher CPU, does not require an FPU (Mac LC and Centris work
  fine.)  Not PowerMac native.
- At least 4 MB RAM is recommended, leaving 1.5 MB RAM for the application.
- Color Quickdraw*.

* Color QuickDraw is not required if writing to an output file, only if
  displaying the image to the screen.


Features
--------

The Mac SPD is relatively MultiFinder friendly, letting you switch out on
large file generations.  SPD will continue to work in the background.
However, please see the Bugs section for some cosmetic annoyances with
switching out.  It is a straight Macintosh application, with an initial
dialog box to gather input (i.e. command line) information.


How to Use
----------

To run any one of the SPD applications:
(1) Double-click the application you want to run.
(2) Select the output raytracer format from the popup menu.
(3) Type in a number for the size,
    -or-
    Select an input file for the READxxx style applications.
(4) Click the OK button, and the scene will be generated.
    - If it is to the screen, the scene will be displayed immediately, in a
      window.
    - If it is for a specific raytracer, it will create a textfile in the
      same folder as the application, called APPNAME.out (e.g., the
      application "rings" would create a file called "rings.out".)
(5) Now run your favorite raytracer, and display and time the image.

NOTE:  POV-Ray Macintosh 2.x cannot open main scene files larger than 32k bytes,
and many SPD files will be much bigger than this.  To get around this, create
a small POV-Ray file whose sole purpose in life is to include the large .OUT
file (e.g.  create "rings.pov" which simply includes rings.out.)  If you want
to edit the .OUT file, you will need to use a "real" text editor or word
processor that doesn't have the 32k limitation.


Bugs
----

MacSPD does not set the file creator to anything useful.  The output file is
indeed of type text, but is owned by Metrowerks. As a generic text file,
you should probably not double-click it to open it.  Instead drag-n-drop it
on your favorite word processor, or run the word processor and open it from
the file menu.

If you switch out while drawing to the screen, and then switch back, the
image display window is not refreshed.

Low memory conditions are not gracefully handled.  If you get an error, try
increasing the application memory size from the Finder's "Get Info" window.

Color Quickdraw is not explicitly checked for on program startup.  If your run
an SPD program on a non-Color Quickdraw Mac, it will run OK as long as you
write to a file, but if you try to display to the screen, it will show an error
dialog and quit.


Notes
-----

Larger size values may require that you increase the Application Memory Size.
If you have limited memory and only want to create small sized files, you can
get away with lowering the Application Memory Size, probably down to about 800K.

Currently, the only raytracers I know about for the Macintosh that the SPD
programs support are:
  POV-Ray
  RTrace
  RayShade
  Renderman
The Macintosh versions of these raytracers can be found on the internet (ask
Eric Haines at [e-mail] for addresses), and POV-Ray can also be found on
CompuServe (GO GRAPHDEV) and on America Online (Keyword:PGR, Company Support.)
MacRenderman is a commercial application, and is available from Pixar.


Source Notes
------------

MPW:
To compile under MPW 3.x, just type the following:
  BuildProgram MacSPD
That's it, every program will be created.

Symantec:
To compile under Symantec C 7.x, you will need to create a project for each
app.  An empty project file for the Balls application is supplied, ready to
go.  To create the other project files, just duplicate this project file &
rename it for the next application, then remove the "balls.c" source file and
add the new source file in its place.  Compile the project and change its
output application file name from "Balls" to the new application name. For
example, to create the "Gears" application, do the following:
1. Duplicate Balls.π, and rename the copy to Gears.π
2. Open Gears.π, Remove the "balls.c" file, and Add the "gears.c" file
3. Build the Application, and when prompted for an app. file, type Gears
4. Do steps 1 through 3 for each application (balls, gears, lattice, mount,
   readdxf, readnff, readobj, rings, sample, shells, sombrero, teapot, tetra,
   tree)
Note that I have created an "ANSI-NoConsole" library for these to link to.
You will need to do the same.  Instructions on how to do this are in the
Symantec manual, sorry for the cop-out on instructions.
The project info is:
  Creator: SPDm
  Partition: 800K
  Size Flags: 58C0
  Separate Strs: ON

Metrowerks:
I've created an empty CW 5.5 project for each application.  You should be able
to open each project, and "Make" it, creating the applications.


Credits & Information
---------------------

Eric Haines wrote the original SPD software.

Alexander Enzmann added the additional Raytracer support and did the original
port to the IBM PC and the Macintosh (in Think C 5.)  He also created the
SAMPLE and READDXF (was showdxf) data bases.

Eduard Schwan updated the Macintosh code to work with MPW C as well as
Symantec C 6 & 7 and Metrowerks CodeWarrior, added the initial dialog box to
prompt for the "command line parameters", added the READNFF database, and
created the PLATFORM_XXX stuff to make the code even more portable, and broke
the lib.c file into several smaller pieces so as to be more grokkable by
humans and toy Symantec compilers.

If you have any comments, questions or bug reports for the Macintosh version
of these applications, please feel free to contact me.  General questions on
SPD should be directed to the original author, Eric Haines.

Enjoy!

Eduard [esp] Schwan
  CompuServe: 71513,2161
    internet: [e-mail]

[eof]