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- Subject: (4 Nov 94) Computer Graphics Resource Listing : BIWEEKLY [part 4/6]
- Newsgroups: comp.graphics,comp.answers,news.answers
- From: nfotis@theseas.ntua.gr (Nick C. Fotis)
- Date: Fri, 4 Nov 1994 21:04:32 GMT
-
- Archive-name: graphics/resources-list/part4
- Last-modified: 1994/11/04
-
-
-
- Computer Graphics Resource Listing : BIWEEKLY POSTING [ PART 4/6 ]
- =====================================================
- Last Change : 4 November 1994
-
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Subject: 10. Scene generators/geographical data/Maps/Data files
- ===============================================================
-
- DEMs (Digital Elevation Models)
- -------------------------------
- DEMs (Digital Elevation Models) as well as other cartographic data
- [huge] is available from spectrum.xerox.com [192.70.225.78], /pub/map.
-
- Contact:
- Lee Moore -- Webster Research Center, Xerox Corp. --
- Voice: +1 (716) 422 2496
- Arpa, Internet: Moore.Wbst128@Xerox.Com
- [ Check also on
-
- ncgia.ucsb.edu (128.111.254.105), /pub/dems
- glis.cr.usgs.gov (152.61.192.54) (telnet.. login as guest)
- resdgs1.er.usgs.gov (130.11.52.55) (lots of DEM files in /DEM)
-
- -- nfotis ]
-
- ---
-
- Also, there's a World Wide Web (WWW) site for DEM, DLG, and other
- digital data supplied by the USGS. The agency is called EROS and
- their home page is at http://sun1.cr.usgs.gov/eros-home.html.
- The page for the digital data is at
- http://sun1.cr.usgs.gov/doc/edchome/ndcdb/ndcdb.html. They
- use imagemap to let users select data by clicking on various maps of the
- US, which is a lot better than using the name of the 7.5 minute quads
- to find digital data. They've also got other stuff there, but you
- might want to check it out yourself.
- + If you want to weed through the respective FTP site, here it is:
- +
- + ftp://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/
-
- ---
-
- Many of these files are also available on CD-ROM selled by USGS:
- "1:2,000,000 scale Digital Line Graph (DLG) Data". Contains datas
- for all 50 states. Price is about $28, call to or visit in offices
- in Menlo Park, in Reston, Virginia (800-USA-MAPS).
-
- ---
-
- The Data User Services Division of the Bureau of the Census also has
- data on CD-ROM (TSO standard format) that is derived from USGS
- 1:100,000 map data. Call (301) 763-4100 for more info or they have
- a BBS at (301) 763-1568.
-
- ---
-
- [ From Dr.Dobbs #198 March 1993: ]
-
- "The U.S. Defense Mapping Agency, in cooperation with their counterpart
- agencies in CANADA, the U.K., and Australia, have released the Digital Chart
- of the World (DCW). This chart consists of over 1.5 gigabytes of reasonable
- quality vector data distributed on four CD-ROMS. .... includes coastlines,
- rivers, roads, railrays, airports,cities, towns, spot elevations, and depths,
- and over 100,000 place names."
-
- It is ISO9660 compatible and only $200.00 available from:
-
- U.S. Geological Survey
- P.O. Box 25286
- Denver Federal Center
- Denver, CO 80225
-
- Digital Distribution Services
- Energy, Mines, and Resources Canada
- 615 Booth Street
- Ottawa, ON
- K1A 0E9 Canada
-
- Director General of Military Survey
- (Survey 3)
- Elmwood Avenue
- Feltham, Middlesex
- TW13 7AH United Kingdom
-
- Director of Survey, Australian Army
- Department of Defense
- Campbell Park Offices (CP2-4-24)
- Campbell ACT 2601 Australia
-
-
- ------
-
- Earth Coastlines
- ----------------
- These files are available by anonymous FTP from the SimTel Software
- Repository primary mirror site OAK.Oakland.Edu (141.210.10.117) and
- its mirrors.
-
- Directory pub/msdos/autocad/
- Filename Type Length Date Description
- ==============================================
- wrldmaps.zip B 64300 930826 Create maps in AutoCAD using WORLDMAP data
-
- Directory pub/msdos/worldmap/
- Filename Type Length Date Description
- ==============================================
- africa.zip B 52788 880514 World Maps for Africa - 1 of 7
- antarcti.zip B 18702 880514 World Maps for Antarctica - 2 of 7
- asia.zip B 110208 880514 World Maps for Asia - 3 of 7
- australi.zip B 23215 880514 World Maps for Australia - 4 of 7
- europe.zip B 95439 880514 World Maps for Europe - 5 of 7
- northame.zip B 203291 880514 World Maps for North America - 6 of 7
- southame.zip B 61503 880514 World Maps for South America - 7 of 7
-
- Look also at the directory msdos/mapping
-
- Fractal Landscape Generators
- ----------------------------
-
- Public Domain:
- -------------
-
- Many people have written fractal landscape generators. for example
- for the Mac some of these generators were written by
- pdbourke@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Paul D. Bourke).
- Many of the programs are available from the FTP sites and mail
- archive servers. Check with Archie (a well known example is Fractint -
- besides fractal images, it generates height fields)
-
- Commercial:
- ----------
-
- Vista Pro 3.0 for the Amiga from Virtual Reality Labs -- list price
- is about $100. Their address is:
- VRL
- 2341 Ganador court
- San Luis Obispo,
- CA 93401
- Telephone or FAX (805) 545-8515
-
- Scenery Animator 4 (also for the Amiga) is of the same caliber with
- Vista Pro 3, plus animation support (VistaPro needs separate programs in
- order to make animations).
- Check with:
- Natural Graphics
- P.O. Box 1963
- Raklin, CA 95677
- Phone (916) 624-1436
-
- Don't forget to ask about companion programs and data disks/tapes.
- Both of these programs can read USGS DEMs, etc.
-
- Vista Pro 3 has been ported to the PCs.
-
-
- CIA World Map II
- ----------------
- [ NOTE: this database is quite out of date, and not topologically structured.
- If you need a standard for world cartographic data, wait for the
- Digital Chart of the World. This 1:1M database has been produced from
- the Defense Mapping Agency's ONCs and will be available, together with
- searching and viewing software, on a number of CD-ROMs later this summer. ]
-
- Check into SEPFTP.STANFORD.EDU and UCSD.EDU (see ftp list above)
- The CIA database consists of coastlines, rivers and political boundaries
- in the form of line strokes. Also on sepftp.stanford.edu is a 720x360
- array of elevation data, containing one ieee floating point number for
- every half degree longitude and latitude.
-
- A program for decoding the database, mfil, can be found on the machine
- pi1.arc.umn.edu (137.66.130.11).
- There's another program, which reads a compressed CIA Data Bank file and
- builds a PHIGS hierachical structure. It uses a PHIGS extension known as
- polyline sets for performance, but you can use regular polylines. Ask
- Joe Stewart <joes@lpi.liant.com>.
- The raw data at Stanford require the vplot package to be able to view it.
- (was posted in comp.sources.unix). To be more exact, you'll have to
- compile just the libvplot routines, not the whole package.
-
- NCAR data
- ---------
- NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) has many types of
- terrain data, ranging from elevation datasets at
- various resolutions, to information about soil types, vegetation, etc.
- This data is not free -- they charge from $40 to $90 or more, depending
- on the data volume and media (exabyte tape, 3480 cartridge, 9-track tape,
- IBM PC floppy, and FTP transfer are all available). Their data archive
- is mostly research oriented, not hobbyist oriented. For more information,
- email to ilana@ncar.ucar.edu.
-
- UNC data tapes with voxel data
- --------------
- There are 2 "public domain" tapes with data for the comparison and
- testing of various volume rendering algorithms (mainly MRI and CT
- scans). These tapes are distributed by the SoftLab of UNC @ Chapel Hill.
- (softlab@cs.unc.edu)
-
- The data sets (volume I and II) are also available via anonymous FTP from
- omicron.cs.unc.edu [128.109.136.159] in pub/softlab/CHVRTD
-
- NASA
- ----
- Many US agencies such as NASA publish CD-ROMs with many altimetry data
- from various space missions, eg. Viking for Mars, Magellan for Venus,
- etc. Especially for NASA, I would suggest to call the following
- address for more info:
-
- National Space Science Date Center
- Goddard Space Flight Center
- Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
- Telephone: (301) 286-6695
- Email address: request@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
-
- The data catalog (*not* the data itself) is available online.
- Internet users can telnet to nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.10.4) and log
- in as 'NODIS' (no password).
-
- You can also dial in at (301)-286-9000 (300, 1200, or 2400 baud, 8 bits,
- no parity, one stop). At the "Enter Number:" prompt, enter MD and
- carriage return. When the system responds "Call Complete," enter a few
- more carriage returns to get the "Username:" and log in as 'NODIS' (no
- password).
-
- NSSDCA is also an anonymous FTP site, but no comprehensive list of
- what's there is available at present.
-
- GOES images
- -----------
- From: steve@NETSYS.COM (Steve Eigsti)
-
- We have the directories reorganized and the ftp is back up for digital
- GOES images. These are received with the SignaLink 200 Weather Receiver,
- which can now be configured for GOES, Meteosat, or GMS, and in the near
- future a TIROS version will be available.
-
- The images are in Sun rasterfile format. I changed the titles slightly
- so we could accomodate multiple sectors of the same resolution. The
- picture names are in a 8.3 DOS style format: the first 3 numbers are
- the day (000 to 365), the next 4 numbers are GMT, followed by i for
- infrared or v for visible. The extension has 2 letters of the sector
- name (e.g. 'CA' for California, etc.) and the last number is supposed to
- be the km resolution of each pixel; 0 means greater than 8 km (the visible
- full disk is 16 km/pixel) so we can keep the name to 8.3 size.
-
- The files with .001 are the latest raw data files and won't mean that
- much; the 'oa_table.dat' is orbit and attitude data from GOES. The
- IR images (10 bits raw data) are converted to the traditional 'ZA' curve
- and are 8 bits. Visible images are 6 bits -- we left justify and add
- 64 to brighten up a bit.
-
- As in the past, get the images with anonymous ftp to 'ftp.netsys.com'
- and they are in the /images directory. The /west directory has info
- about our systems, along with images of hurricanes Andrew (fl... files)
- and a 1 km shot of Iniki as it went across the island of Kauai.
-
-
- Earth Sciences Data
- -------------------
-
- There's a listing of anonymous FTP sites for earth science data, including
- imagery. This listing is called "Earth Sciences Resources on Internet",
- and you can get it via anonymous FTP from csn.org [128.138.213.21]
- in the directory COGS under the name "internet.resources.earth.sci"
-
- Some sites include:
- aurelie.soest.hawaii.edu [128.171.151.121]: pub/avhrr/images - AVHRR images
- ames.arc.nasa.gov [128.102.18.3]: pub/SPACE/CDROM - images from
- Magellan and Viking missions etc.
- pub/SPACE/Index contains a listing of files available in the whole
- archive (the index is about 200K by itself). There's also an
- e-mail server for the people without Internet access: send a letter
- to archive-server@ames.arc.nasa.gov (or ames!archive-server). In the
- subject of your letter (or in the body), use commands like:
-
- send SPACE Index
- send SPACE SHUTTLE/ss01.23.91
-
-
- (Capitalization is important! Only text files are handled by the
- email server at present)
-
- vab02.larc.nasa.gov [128.155.23.47]: pub/gifs/misc/landsat -
- Landsat photos in GIF and JPEG format
- [ It was shut down - nfotis; anyone has a copy of this archive?? ]
-
- Others
- ------
- Daily values of river discharge, streamflow, and daily weather data is
- available from EarthInfo, 5541 Central Ave., Boulder CO 80301. These
- disks are expensive, around $500, but there are quantity discounts.
- (303) 938-1788.
-
- Check vmd.cso.uiuc.edu [128.174.5.98], the wx directory carries
- data regarding surface analysis, weather radar, and sat view pics in
- GIF format (updated hourly)
-
- pioneer.unm.edu [129.24.9.217] is the Space and Planetary Image Facility
- (located on the University of New Mexico campus) FTP server. It provides
- Anonymous FTP access to >150 CD-ROMS with data/images.
-
- A disk with earthquake data, topography, gravity, geopolitical info
- is available from NGDC (National Geophysical Data Center), 325 Broadway,
- Boulder, CO 80303. (303) 497-6958.
-
- EOSAT (at least in the US) now sells Landsat MSS data older than two years
- old for $200 per scene, and they have been talking about a similar deal
- for Landsat TM data. The MSS data are 4 bands, 80 meter resolution.
-
- Check out anonymous FTP to ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in
- UNIX/PolyView/alpha-shape for a tool that creates convex hulls
- alpha-shapes (a generalization of the convex hull) from 3D point sets.
-
- The GRIPS II (Gov. Raster Image Processing Software) CD-ROM
- is available from CD-ROM Inc. at 1-800-821-5245 for $49.
- Code for viewing ADRG (Arc Digitised Raster Graphics) files is
- available on the GRIPS II CD-ROM. The U.S. Army Engineer
- Topographic Labs (Juan Perez) code is also available via FTP
- ( adrg.zip archive in spectrum.xerox.com )
-
- NRCC range data
- ---------------
- Rioux M., Cournoyer L. "The NRCC Three-Dimensional Image Data Files",
- Tech. Report, CNRC 29077, National Research Council Canada,
- Ottawa, Canada, 1988
- [ From what I understand, these data are from a laser range finder,
- and you can a copy for research purposes ]
-
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Subject: 11. 3D scanners - Digitized 3D Data
- ============================================
-
- Cyberware
- ---------
- Cyberware manufactures a variety of color 3d scanners. The scanners
- are used to scan both live subjects and inanimate objects. Your whole
- body, face or fingerprint can be scanned in seconds. Machine parts,
- sculpture, implants, models and other objects are easily scanned as well.
- Most scanners also generate a color texture map.
-
- The CG models are provided in many popular formats, both polygonal and
- NURBS based. Software tools allow many scans to be combined, reduced
- in complexity, and converted for efficient modeling in your favorite
- animation, modeling and CAD software. Rapid prototyping is supported.
-
- Several service bureaus, including one at the factory in Monterey,
- offer scanning services. They can scan models and faces for you.
-
- Distributors and support worldwide. Contact for more information:
-
- Cyberware
- 8 Harris Court #3D
- Monterey, California 93940
- U.S.A.
-
- Phone: +1-408-373-1441
- Fax: +1-408-373-3582
- E-Mail: daddle@netcom.com
-
- SGI demo software and datasets available via anonymous ftp from:
- taurus.cs.nps.navy.mil [131.120.1.13] in pub/dabro/cyberware_demo.tar.Z
-
-
- Polhemus
- --------
- Polhemus makes a 6D input device (actually a couple of models)
- that senses position (3D) and *orientation* (+3D) based on electromagnetic
- field interference. This equipment is also incorporated in the
- VPL Dataglove.
- This hardware is also called ISOTRACK, from Keiser Aerospace.
-
- Ascension Technology makes a similar 3D input device.
- There is a company, Applied Sciences(?), that makes a 3D input
- device (position only) based on speed of sound triangulation.
-
- Viewpoint
- ---------
- A company that specializes in digitizing is Viewpoint. You can ask
- for Viewpoint's _free_ 100 page catalog full of ready to
- ship datasets from categories such as cars, anatomy, aircraft,sports,
- boats, trains, animals and others. Though these objects are
- quite expensive, the cataloge is nevertheless of interest for it
- has pictures of all the available objects in wireframe , polygon mesh.
-
- Contact:
- Viewpoint DataLabs
- 625 S. State St.
- Orem, Utah 84058
-
- ph# 801-224-2222
- ph# 801-229-3000
- # fax# 801-224-2272 (or 801 229 3300 ??)
- 1-800-DATASET (328-2738)
-
- Perceptron
- ----------
- They're marketing a scanning laser radar, which raster scans an area and
- returns both intensity and range data for each point.
-
- Contact:
-
- Perceptron
- 23855 Research Drive
- Farmington Hills, MI 48335
- U.S.
-
- Phone: (313) 478-7710
- FAX: (313) 478-7059
-
-
- Immersion
- ---------
- They make the Immersion Personal Digitizer. The company just went into an
- agreement with Mira Imaging Inc. to make a bundle with the HyperSpace
- digitizing software. The software allows you to edit points, edges, and
- surfaces and exports files in standard file formats including DXF,
- Wavefront, Symbolics, Softimage, Alias, Super 3D, and Swivel 3D.
- Modeling tools supported include reflection, extrusion, surfaces of
- rotation, surfaces patches, auto-smoothing, auto-welding of vertices, and
- auto-lofting of surfaces. Models can be created as vertices, lines,
- polygons, and splines.
-
- Features of the Personal Digitizer:
-
- - pen-sized stylus is easy to manipulate
- - 6 degree of freedom system reports both POSITION and ORIENTATION of stylus
- - System can be used as high resolution digitizer or 3D Mouse
- - Includes Foot Pedal for Hands Free Data Entry
- - Self Calibrating system is easy to use: just turn it on and Digitize
- - Objects being digitized can rest on the large base provided, eliminating
- the need for complicated calibration procedures.
- - Noise Free: digital sensors provide noise free data
- - Accuracy: 0.035" (0.89 mm)
- - Resolution: 3600 points per square inch
- - Interface: Standard RS232 (serial), speeds up to 115.2kbps
-
- Contact:
-
- Immersion Corp.
- immersion@starconn.com P.O. Box 8669
- (415) 960-6882 Palo Alto, CA 94309-8669
- (415) 960-6977 (FAX)
-
-
- PHOTOGRAPHIC SYSTEMS
- --------------------
- [ Not exactly 3D digitizers, but this technology could serve similar
- needs -- nfotis ]
-
- PhotoModeler
- ------------
-
- This package does 3D data reconstruction from various photographic sources.
- It runs under Microsoft Windows.
-
- To produce a 3D model with PhotoModeler involves six steps:
- 1) plan a modeling project,
- 2) take the photographs,
- 3) mark features on the photos,
- 4) cross-reference these marks,
- 5) generate a 3D model, and
- 6) export the model as a DXF file.
-
- All these step can take from 10 minutes (a small six sided box captured with
- a monochrome low resolution digital camera and measured on a 33Mhz 486 class
- machine), to (typical) 10 hours (to measure and model a detailed historic
- school house with eight high resolution photographs and 400 primitives),
- plus the time to process and scan the film.
-
- Accuracy varies with many factors, but [from the text they sent me] sounds
- reasonably good.
-
- You're advised to contact the company for much more information:
-
- Eos Systems Inc.
- 2040 West 12th Ave.
- Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6J 2G2
- Tel: (604) 732-6658
- Fax: (604) 732-4716
- Internet: info@eosvcr.wimsey.com
-
- 3D Express
- ----------
- From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu (chris williams)
-
- 3D Express by Synthonics. It's a Windows program, you load two
- images, shot from between 30 and 60 degrees apart at the same height
- with a right angle reference in both pictures (say a carpenter's angle.)
- After establishing the reference from the angle you can deposit points
- in one image, and match it in the other image. The interface has four
- images, two full size and matching zoomed in images. It works pretty
- well, and has a lot of clever shortcuts to speed up model building.
- Now it is limited to the range of the two photos, but you can put one
- or more thick reference lines, shoot photos all around your head and
- stitch the models together. I'm not sure what it's price is, but it
- was selling at a Siggraph show special price of (US) $199.00.
-
- Here's their info:
-
- Synthonics Inc.
- 2801 Townsgate Road Suite 201
- Weatlake Village, CA. 91361
- (818) 707-6000 (voice)
- (818) 707-6016 (fax)
- (800) 497-0787 (orders)
-
-
- ==================================================
- Some addresses for companies that make digitizers:
- ==================================================
-
- Ascension Technology
- Bird, Flock of Birds, Big Bird: 6d trackers
- P.O. Box 527,
- Burlington, VT 05402
- Phone: (802) 655-7879, Fax: (802) 655-5904
-
- Polhemus Incorporated
- Digitizer: 6d trackers
- P.O. Box 560, Hercules Dr.
- Colchester, Vt. 05446
- Tel: (802) 655-3159
-
- Logitech Inc.
- Red Baron, ultrasonic 6D mouse
- 6506 Kaiser Dr.
- Freemont, CA 94555
- Tel: (415) 795-8500w
-
- Shooting Star Technology
- Mechanical Headtracker
- 1921 Holdom Ave.
- Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5B 3W4
- Tel: (604) 298-8574
- Fax: (604) 298-8580
-
- + Spacetec IMC (Interactive Motion Control) Corp.
- + [ New name for Spaceball Technologies, Inc. ]
- Spaceball: 6d stationary input device
- 600 Suffolk Street
- Lowell, MA, 01854
- Tel: (508) 970-0330
- Fax: (508) 970-0199
- Tel in Mountain View: (415) 966-8123
-
- Transfinite Systems
- Gold Brick: PowerGlove for Macintosh
- P.O. Box N
- MIT Branch Post Office
- Cambridge, MA 02139-0903
- Tel: (617) 969-9570
- email: D2002@AppleLink.Apple.com
-
- VPL Research, Inc.
- EyePhone: head-mounted display
- DataGlove: glove/hand input device
- VPL Research Inc.
- 950 Tower Lane
- 14th Floor
- Foster City, CA 94404
- Tel: (415) 312-0200
- Fax: (415) 312-9356
-
- SimGraphics Engineering
- Flying Mouse: 6d input device
- 1137 Huntington Rd. Suite A-1
- South Pasadena, CA 91030-4563
- (213) 255-0900
-
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Subject: 12. Background imagery/textures/datafiles
- ==================================================
-
- First, check in the FTP places that are mentioned in the FAQ or in the FTP
- list above.
-
- 24-bit scanning:
- ----------------
- Get a good 24-bit scanner, like Epson's. Suggested is an SCSI port for
- speed. Eric Haines had a suggestion in RT News, Volume 4, #3 :
- scan textures for wallpapers and floor coverings, etc. from doll
- house supplies.
- So you have a rather cheap way to scan patterns that don't have
- scaling troubles associated with real materials and scanning area.
-
- Books with textures:
- --------------------
- Find some houses/books/magazines that carry photographic material.
- Educorp, 1-619-536-9999, sells CD-ROMS with various imagery - also
- a wide variety of stock art is available.
- Stock art from big-name stock art houses, such as Comstock,
- UNIPHOTO, and Metro Image Base, is available.
-
- In Italy, there's a company called Belvedere that makes such books
- for the purpose of clipping their pages for inclusion in your
- graphics work. Their address is:
- Edition Belvedere Co. Ltd.,
- 00196 Rome Italy,
- Piazzale Flaminio, 19
- Tel. (06) 360-44-88, Fax (06) 360-29-60
-
- Texture Libraries:
- ==================
-
- Mannicin Sceptre
- -----------------
- Mannikin Sceptre Graphics announced TexTiles, a set of 256x256 24-bit
- textures. Initial shipments in 24-bit IFF (for Amigas), soon in 24-bit
- TIFF format. Algorithmically built for tiled surfaces. SRP is $40 / volume
- (each volume = 40 images @ 10 disks). Demo disks for $5 are available.
-
- Contact:
- Mannikin Sceptre Graphics
- 1600 Indiana Ave.
- Winter Park, FL 32789
- Phone: (407) 384-9484
- FAX: (407) 647-7242
-
- ESSENCE
- -------
- ESSENCE is a library of 65 (sixty-five) new algorithmic textures for Imagine
- by Impulse, Inc. These textures are FULLY compatible with the floating point
- versions of Imagine 2.0, Imagine 1.1, and even Turbo Silver.
- Written by Steve Worley.
- [ They have put out a second volume of procedural textures ]
-
- For more info contact:
- Essence Info
- Apex Software Publishing
- 405 El Camino Real Suite 121
- Menlo Park CA 94025 USA
-
-
- TEXTURE CITY
- ------------
- Texture City publishes CD-ROM and disk-based collections of 24 bit,
- real world scanned images of a variety of natural textures, all of which are
- scanned at a resolution of 752x480. Three sets of textures are available,
- two on Amiga disks in JPEG format, and one on CD-ROM in a variety of file
- formats.
-
- "PRO-60 #1" and "PRO-60 #2" are two separate collections of 60 images each,
- on Amgia disks. Images are 24 bit color, 752x480 resolution and are in JPEG
- format. An image browser, viewer and decompressor is included. All images
- are of real world textures, and are not algorithmically generated. Images
- come in 13 categories including animal skin, scenic, quarry marble, metals,
- hand blown glass, special effects, and many more.
-
- "PRO-100 #1" is a CD-ROM for use with IBM-PC, Macintosh, Amiga, and SGI
- systems. The CD-ROM contains 100 images, each one in 24 bit color at 752x480
- resolution, each one in four file formats: Targa, TIFF, PCX, and IFF-24.
- Images are real-world textures, including metal, stone, plants, space, wood,
- textile, marble, special effects, and much more.
-
- Pricing is as follows:
-
- PRO-60 #1 and #2 on Amiga disk: $99.95 each
- PRO-100 #1 on CD-ROM: $199.95
-
- There is a special price for INTERNET users: PRO-100 #1 CD-ROM for $100.00.
-
- All three of the above collections are available direct by mail from the
- address and telephone number shown below.
-
- Texture City
- 3203 Overland Ave. # 6157
- Los Angeles, CA 90034
- (310) 836-9224
-
-
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Subject: 13. Introduction to rendering algorithms
- =================================================
-
- a. Ray-Tracing:
- ---------------
-
- I assume you have a general understanding of Computer Graphics. No? Then read
- some of the books that the FAQ contains. For Ray-Tracing, I would
- suggest:
- An Introduction to Ray Tracing, Andrew Glassner (ed.), Academic Press
- 1989, ISBN 0-12-286160-4
- Note that I have not read the book, but I feel that you can't be wrong
- using his book. An errata list was posted in comp.graphics by Eric Haines
- (erich@eye.com)
-
- There's a more concise reference also:
-
- Roman Kuchkuda , UNC @ Chapel Hill: "An Introduction to Ray Tracing", in
- "Theoretical Foundations for Computer Graphics and CAD", ed. R.A.E.Earnshaw,
- NATO AS, Vol. F-40., pp. 1039-1060. Printed by Springer-Verlag, 1988.
-
- It contains code for a small, but fundamentally complete ray-tracer.
-
- b. Z-buffer (depth-buffer)
- --------------------------
-
- A good reference is:
-
- _Procedural Elements for Computer Graphics_, David F. Rogers,
- McGraw-Hill, New York, 1985, pages 265-272 and 280-284.
-
- c. Radiosity
- ------------
- There are two excellent graduate-level texts available:
-
- Cohen, M. F. and J. R. Wallace 1993. Radiosity and Realistic Image
- Synthesis, Cambridge, MA: Academic Press Professional,
- ISBN 0-12-178270-0
-
- and:
-
- Sillion, F. and C. Puech 1994. Radiosity and Global Illumination,
- San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, ISBN 1-55860-277-1
-
- Neither of these texts include source code, and the reading can be
- pretty tough going at times. Another book (that includes C++ source code)
- is the:
-
- Ashdown, I. 1994. Radiosity: A Programmer's Perspective, New York, NY:
- John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-30444-1
-
-
- d. Others:
- ----------
- ???
- [ More info is needed -- nfotis ]
-
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Subject: 14. Where can I find the geometric data for the:
- =========================================================
-
- a. Teapot ?
- -----------
-
- "Displays on Display" column of IEEE CG&A Jan '87 has the whole
- story about origin of the Martin Newell's teapot. The article also has
- the bezier patch model and a Pascal program to display the wireframe
- model of the teapot.
-
- IEEE CG&A Sep '87 in Jim Blinn's column "Jim Blinn's Corner" describes
- an another way to model the teapot; Bezier curves with rotations for
- example are used.
-
- The OFF and SPD packages have these objects, so you're advised to get
- them to avoid typing the data yourself. The OFF data is triangles at
- a specific resolution (around 8x8[x4 triangles] meshing per patch).
- The SPD package provides the spline patch descriptions and performs a
- tessellation at any specified resolution.
-
- b. Space Shuttle ?
- ------------------
-
- Tolis Lerios <tolis@nova.stanford.edu> has built a list of Space Shuttle
- datafiles. Here's a summary (From his sci.space list):
-
- model1:
- A modified version of the newsgroup model (model2)
-
- 406 vertices (296 useful, i.e. referred to in the polygon descriptions.)
- 389 polygons (233 3-vertex, 146 4-vertex, 7 5-vertex, 3 6-vertex).
- Payload doors non-existent.
- Units: unknown.
-
- Simon Marshall (S.Marshall@sequent.cc.hull.ac.uk) has a copy. He
- said there is no proprietary information associated with it.
-
- model2:
- The newsgroup model, in OFF format. You can find it in
-
- gondwana.ecr.mu.oz.au , file pub/off/objects/shuttle.geo
-
- model3:
- The triangles' model.
-
- This model is stored in several files, each defining portions of the model.
-
- Greg Henderson (henders@infonode.ingr.com) has a copy. He did
- not mention any restriction on the model's distribution.
-
- model4:
- The NASA model.
-
- The file starts off with a header line containing three real numbers,
- defining the offsets used by Lockheed in their simulations:
-
- <x offset> <y offset> <z offset>
-
- From then on, the file consists of a sequence of polygon descriptions
-
- 3473 vertices.
- 2748 polygons (407 3-vertex, 2268 4-vertex, 33 5-vertex, 14 6-vertex,
- 10 7-vertex, 8 8-vertex, 8 12-vertex, 2 13-vertex, 2 15-vertex,
- 17 16-vertex, 2 17-vertex, 2 18-vertex, 3 19-vertex, 8 24-vertex).
- Payload doors closed.
- Units: inches.
-
- Jon Berndt (jon@l14h11.jsc.nasa.gov) seems to be responsible for the model
- Proprietary info: unknown
-
- model5:
- The old shuttle model.
-
- The file consists of a sequence of polygon descriptions.
-
- 104 vertices.
- 452 polygons (11 3-vertex, 41 4-vertex).
- Payload doors open.
- Units: meters.
-
- We have been using this model at STAR Labs, Stanford University, for
- some years now. Contact me (tolis@nova.stanford.edu) or my supervisor
- Scott Williams (scott@star5.stanford.edu) if you want a copy.
-
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Subject: 15. Image annotation software - Paint Programs
- =======================================================
-
- TOUCHUP
- -------
- Touchup runs in Sunview and is pretty good. It reads in
- rasterfiles, but even if your image isn't normally stored
- in rasterfile format you could use screendump to make it a
- rasterfile.
-
- IDRAW
- -----
- Idraw (part of Stanford's InterViews distribution) can handle some
- image formats in addition to being a MacDraw like tool. I'm not
- sure exactly what they are.
- You can ftp the idraw's binary from interviews.stanford.edu.
-
- TGIF
- ----
- Tgif is another MacDraw like tool that can handle X11 bitmap (xbm)
- and X11 pixmap (xpm) formats. If the image you have is in formats
- other than xbm or xpm, you can get the pbmplus toolkit to convert
- things like gif or even some Macintosh formats to xpm.
- Tgif's sources are available in the pub directory on cs.ucla.edu
- (Version 2.12 of tgif at patchlevel 7 plus patch8 and patch9)
-
- Editimage
- ---------
- Use the editimage facility of KHOROS (see under the Visualization tools).
- This is just one utility in the overall system- you can essentially do all
- your image processing and macdraw-type graphics using this package.
-
- PBM+
- ----
- You might be able to get by with PBMPlus. pbmtext gives you text output
- bitmaps which can be overlaid on top of your image.
-
- ICE
- ---
- 'ice' requires Sun hardware running OpenWindows 3.It's a PostScript-based
- graphical editor,and it's available for anonymous ftp from Internet host
- eo.soest.hawaii.edu (128.171.151.12). Requires Sun C++ 2.0 and
- two other locally developed packages, the LXT library (an Xlib-based
- toolkit) and a small C++ class library. All files (pub/ice.tar.Z,
- pub/lxt.tar.Z and pub/ldgoc++.tar.Z) are available in compressed
- tar format. pub/ice.tar.Z contains a README that gives installation
- instructions, as well as an extensive man page (ice.1).
- A statically-linked compressed executable pub/ice-sun4.Z for
- SPARC systems is also available for ftp.
-
- All software is the property of Columbia University and may not
- be redistributed without permission.
-
- ice means Image Composition Environment and it's an imaging tool that
- allows raster images to be combined with a wide variety of
- PostScript annotations in WYSIWYG fashion via X11 imaging
- routines and NeWS PostScript rasterizing.
-
- ImageMagick
- -----------
- Use ImageMagick to annotate an image from your X server. Pick the
- position of your text with the cursor and choose your font and pen
- color from a pull-down menu. ImageMagick can read and write many
- of the more popular image formats. ImageMagick is available as
- export.lcs.mit.edu: contrib/ImageMagick.tar.Z or at your nearest
- X11 archive.
-
- BIT
- ---
- bit is an interactive full color image viewer and editor based on
- Silicon Graphics GL. It's an image viewer, an image editor/processor,
- and can serve as a launch pad for other applications via key bindings.
- It has also built-in editing/annotate capabilities
-
- Xpaint
- ------
- From: koblas@netcom.com (David Koblas)
-
- XPaint is a color image editing tool which features most standard paint
- program options. It allows for the editing of multiple images simultaneously
- and supports various formats, including PPM, XBM, TIFF, etc.
-
- Available at:
- export.lcs.mit.edu as contrib/xpaint-?.?.0.tar.Z
- netcom.com as pub/koblas/xpaint-?.?.0.tar.Z
-
- ezd
- ---
- A small bitmap collaging utility. It does things like: put image 1 at x,y,
- put image 2 at x2,y2, and have image 2 overlayed on image 1, etc.
- The commands to do the previous example are: (bitmap 10 10 "image1.xbm"),
- (bitmap 11 11 "image2.xbm").
-
- Available on gatekeeper.dec.com: pub/DEC/ezd
-
-
- ========================================================================
-
- End of Part 4 of the Resource Listing
- --
- Nick (Nikolaos) Fotis National Technical Univ. of Athens, Greece
- HOME: 16 Esperidon St., InterNet : nfotis@theseas.ntua.gr
- Halandri, GR - 152 32 UUCP: pythia!theseas!nfotis
- Athens, GREECE FAX: (EECS Dept.) (+30 1) 77 84 578
-
-