Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!haven!adm!sem!phil
From: phil@sem.BRL.MIL (Phil Dykstra )
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Raytracer performance on machines?
Message-ID: <751@sem.BRL.MIL>
Date: 26 Sep 89 03:20:19 GMT
References: <6224@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <665@odin.SGI.COM>
Reply-To: phil@brl.mil (Phil Dykstra)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 16

> The whole BRL-CAD package is public domain, ...

The BRL-CAD package is *not* public domain.  It is Copyright
by the U.S.Army in order to control commercialization of it.
We do distribute the source code at no charge however as long
as the recipient agrees, in writing, to the conditions.

> but big, crufty, and pretty ancient as ray-tracing packages go.

Being one of the authors, I had to put in at least two cents worth
of defense.  Big - yes.  Crufty - parts of it.  Pretty ancient -
some of it.  But I wouldn't call things like CSG NURBs, arbitrary
bounding planes, non-uniform space partitioning, parallel *and*
network distributed capability very ancient.

- Phil