>textures exhisted for Imagine. I was under the impression that Impulse
>hadn't released info on the file format for their textures. Have they
>released this info to the public domain also? If so, why aren't there
>any public domain procedural textures around?
Impulse didn't release anything. The programmer behind Essence, Steven P. Worley, reverse engineered the textures included with imagine, and designed his own from what he learned that way. According to Steve (who also wrote the incredible manual "Understanding Imagine 2.0"), Impulse was VERY uncooperative in helping him with essence. Nonetheless, Essence is incredible, and should be gotten at any cost if you run the FP version of Imagine. (Essence will not work on integer systems.)
The textures are all morphable, and Steve developed a way to allow you to put more tha 4 on an object. Some examples I have see/heard about are a sun with sunspots that swirl and collapse and a corona that flickers and wavers (Amazing! The textures work in true 3D), growing rust across a metal can, a worn, pitted, marble pillar, etc. In a conversation with Steve, he told me he used something like 6 derivitives per control point for 3D motion within the texture. It is quite a package, and as soon as I
get a Floating Point Amiga, it will be the first thing I buy.
--
"And somewhere he was laughing, in a white painted loft, distant
fingers caressing the deck, tears of release streaking his face."
-William Gibson, NEUROMANCER
"Juvenile delinquincy is always rooted in adult delinquincy."
-Ministry
"Now is the only thing that's real." -Skinny Puppy
"Smashed up my everything, smashed up all that was that was true,
gonna smash myself to pieces, I don't know what else to do!"
