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1995-03-18
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QRT Machine Specific Instructions
The QRT ray tracer is designed to run on any computer with
sufficient graphics capabilities. The machine should have a
resolution of at least 128K dots/screen, and be able to display
color graphics. At least 256 simultaneous colors are needed for
acceptable images; however, it may be possible to display
rudimentary images with as little as 64 colors.
The QRT program itself is the same across computers; only the QRT
post processor differs. QRT computes the image internally with a
much higher color resolution than most computers have (16 million
simultaneous colors), and the post processor maps this image to
the available palette. This document describes the machine
dependent details of the post processor.
On most computers the following naming convention is recommended:
File Suffix Example
QRT input .QRT IMAGE.QRT
QRT text output .OUT IMAGE.OUT
QRT bitmap output .RAW IMAGE.RAW
QRTpost converted file .PIC IMAGE.PIC
QRT Ray Tracer Page 1 Machine Specifics
Commodore Amiga
QRT was designed and written on the Commodore Amiga. Unlike
many machines, the Amiga has a very standard graphics file
format which nearly any graphics program can read. Two steps
are necessary to transform the QRT output file to the graphics
file format (IFF/HAM). First, the QRT post processor is run.
Second, a separate program (RAY2) compresses the post
processor output into IFF file format for viewing with any
"iff-show" type program.
QRT can be run in the background on the Amiga. It should be
run with a low task priority so that it will not interfere
with normal operation of the computer. At least one megabyte
is recommended, and the QRT output file should be sent to a
RAM disk or hard drive. It is possible to send it to a floppy
disk, but the disk will constantly be accessed for the
duration of the image creation time. It will probably be
necessary to increase the default process stack size with the
STACK command. A stack size of 40K or more is recommended to
avoid stack overflow errors.
Color Resolution:
4096 colors from palette of 4096
QRT Output File Size
Approx. 400K bytes
Commands to run QRT
SetTaskPriority -5
run QRT <IMAGE.QRT >IMAGE.OUT
SetTaskPriority 0
Commands to run QRTPost
QRTPost IMAGE.RAW IMAGE.TMP
RAY2 IMAGE.TMP
File Naming Restrictions
Length <= 63 Characters
May include special symbols: ex. '_', '#', etc.
Although the operating system supports imbedded spaces in
files, neither QRT nor QRTPost does.
QRT Ray Tracer Page 2 Machine Specifics
Data General MV10000
The Data General DG1000 terminal has a high display and color
resolution, so the resulting QRT output file is large. QRT
should be run in the background on this machine. The
resulting picture file may be displayed with the DISP program
(G. Radack).
Although the Data General is capable of a resolution of 1280 x
1024, there have been problems allocating this much memory
with the DISP program. Therefore, the DG version of QRT will
not use the entire display. The largest possible bitmap file
size has not yet been determined.
Color Resolution:
256 colors from palette of 16 Million
QRT Output File Size
Approx. 4 Megabytes at full resolution (1280 x 1024)
Commands to run QRT
QRT <IMAGE.QRT >IMAGE.OUT &
Commands to run Post Processor
QRTPost IMAGE.RAW IMAGE.PIC
disp IMAGE.PIC
File Naming Restrictions
Length <= 31 characters
May include special symbols, but not imbedded spaces
QRT Ray Tracer Page 3 Machine Specifics
IBM PC or AT with EGA Graphics
The IBM is capable of a relatively high display resolution,
although the color palette is quite limited. The machine does
not permit background tasks, so the ray tracer should be run
whenthe machine may be left unoccupied for a long time. The
output should be sent to a hard disk or extended memory hard
drive.
The IBM version of QRTPost is not yet complete as of the
writing of this document. The QRT program itself is working
on the IBM, but it should be run on an IBM with at least an 8
mHz 80286 chip. (Otherwise, it will take nearly forever).
Color Resolution:
64 colors from palette of 64
QRT Output File Size
Approx. 800K
Commands to run QRT
QRT <IMAGE.QRT >IMAGE.OUT
Commands to run Post Processor
QRTPost IMAGE.RAW IMAGE.PIC
File Naming Restrictions
Length <= 8 characters with 3 character extension
No special characters may be included
QRT Ray Tracer Page 4 Machine Specifics