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From: hull@hao.ucar.edu (Howard Hull)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: IFF for 3D packages?
Message-ID: <994@hao.ucar.edu>
Date: Sat, 5-Dec-87 17:43:32 EST
Article-I.D.: hao.994
Posted: Sat Dec  5 17:43:32 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Dec-87 20:02:44 EST
References: <4VfpM8y00WAKzW005j@andrew.cmu.edu> <4592@well.UUCP> <1215@sugar.UUCP>
Organization: High Altitude Obs./NCAR, Boulder CO
Lines: 23
Summary: should support any mathematical object

In article <1215@sugar.UUCP>, peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes:
> Any 3d IFF format should at least support objects that are not polygons.
"At least" is hardly a strong enough objection.  A mathematical function
is something a computer should find rather straightforward to manage.
Perhaps it takes a lot of cycles to render some of them, but I wouldn't
want to find, for instance, that the Mandelbrot set was _excluded_ as a
terrain-like object.
> 
> I was terribly disappointed to learn that Sculpt-3d didn't support spheres
> as atomic objects. Instead of one of the easiest objects to trace, they're
> now among the hardest. Pretty strange, considering Eric Graham's original
> juggler was entirely built from spheres.
With 68020s and 68881s becoming more and more prevalent in single-user
computers, some things that were outrageously slow a few years ago are now
within tolerable limits.  Tomorrow it will be even better...
> -- 
> -- Peter da Silva  `-_-'  ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
> -- Disclaimer: These U aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.
							Howard Hull
"Scientific American  October 1987 - "The next revolution in computers, the
 subject of this issue, will see power increase tenfold in 10 years while
 networks and advanced interfaces transform computing into a universal
 intellectual utility."  		Remember, IFF is an interface!