Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!spdcc!m2c!ulowell!page From: page@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: IFF for 3D packages? Message-ID: <2077@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu> Date: Mon, 30-Nov-87 12:28:52 EST Article-I.D.: ulowell.2077 Posted: Mon Nov 30 12:28:52 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 3-Dec-87 06:29:47 EST References: <4VfpM8y00WAKzW005j@andrew.cmu.edu> Reply-To: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) Organization: University of Lowell, Computer Science Dept. Lines: 39 mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi) wrote: >format for describing three-dimensional objects has not surfaced. I asked Harriet Tolly (of Syndesis, the people who have Interchange) why they didn't publish their internal format as an IFF 3D spec. She said their format is "memory based" and contains all kinds of hairy graphs, trees, networks, linked lists, etc, all interconnected in funny ways, and trying to describe it in a text file would be really hard. I don't know how much I believe this (they have to define C structures in Interchange, right?); I suspect the real reason is they want to make a buck out of the lack of 3D standards. I don't blame them, but I think somebody is eventually going to come up with a IFF 3d format. She also mentioned some new avenues for Interchange; they wanted it to be more than a format converter, and were thinking about having it do some manipulations the 3D packages don't do now. I didn't get the whole gist of the idea, but something like: Now, you have a Sculpt-3D file, want to do something to it that Sculpt doesn't let you do, so you convert it to Videoscape format, change it, then convert it back to Sculpt format. With the "new and improved" Interchange, you'd just say "do this transformation to this file" and it gets done without having to convert it many times. Anyway, that was just my impression; I may have totally misunderstood what she was talking about. She *did* say they wanted Interchange to be more than a converter, but didn't commit to anything. BIX is discussing IFF formats and standards in amiga.dev/iff -- where most of the developers are, and probably where any decisions get made, so if you're really interested in IFF standards, you should put in your 2c over there. ..Bob -- Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. page@ulowell.edu ulowell!page "I've never liked reality all that much, but I haven't found a better solution." --Dave Haynie, Commodore-Amiga