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From: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: IFF for 3D packages?
Message-ID: <1215@sugar.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Dec-87 13:26:08 EST
Article-I.D.: sugar.1215
Posted: Thu Dec  3 13:26:08 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Dec-87 07:28:55 EST
References: <4VfpM8y00WAKzW005j@andrew.cmu.edu> <4592@well.UUCP>
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 13

Any 3d IFF format should at least support objects that are not polygons.

For ray tracing, for instance, by far the best format to store a sphere
is a center and radius. One of the reasons so many ray traced pictures
use spheres (and spheroids) is because it's easy.

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.
-- 
-- Peter da Silva  `-_-'  ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
-- Disclaimer: These U aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.