Re: Thoughts about Second Sight

[spector@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article ug0a@rzstud1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Alexander Siegfried) writes...
>
>Michael Spector wrote:
 ^^^^^^^
	Actually, that's "Mitchell". :)

>>>...board, the same goes for GS artists (are there any?) to
>>>create cool GS specific graphics.
> 
>>Well I'm here, but being only one person and not having
>>the tools to create new graphics (ie, an SS aware paint
>>program) doesn't help. Hmmm, I wonder if Dave Seah is still
>>around and using a IIgs...
> 
>Well, me too. Saw the Ninjaforce Megademo? Now got a "clue" who
>I am? So you may see why I am a bit negative about SS. I see it
	
	Most definately so, your work has been excellent! There are
quite a few IIgs graphic artists around, Shinya Nagashima is yet
another example for anyone who's seen his F1 Racing stack or T.G.C.
I'm sure I'm forgetting others who are still out there...		

>coming: There is the SS, but there will never be a powerful GS
>paint program that could make use of the SS anymore.

	Perhaps not right away, but RezTek promised supporting the
Second Sight with software, and they _did_ have a paint program 
completed for the ill-fated TurboRez (I wonder if they have plans
to make it SS compatible). I wonder if companies like Seven Hills
or ByteWorks would have interest in creating a fresh paint/draw
program that supported the Second Sight.

>Quality said they won't do a SS version of Platinum Paint, which
>doesn't suprise me that much. Version 2.01, which is over two
>years old, is FULL of bugs, but it seems they are not
>interested in fixing them (I send them a bug report, but
>NOTHING happended). So if there will ever appear games

	The two top paint programs, IMO, are Platinum Paint 2.0
and DreamGrafix. Unfortunately _both_ these programs have bugs 
and missing features, so I've been forced to work between the
two. I often draw an image with PP 2.0 and then import it into 
DreamGrafix for colorization. Quality Computers seems uninterested
in supporting Platinum Paint, and DreamWorld has left the IIgs.
Not the most ideal situtation with a new video-board just being
released. :/

>Well, don't expect too much. I expect Wolf 3-D to be unplayable
>on an unaccelerated GS, and even on an accelerated GS it won't
>be smooth (remember the GS version of Out Of This World?).

	I expect Wolfenstein 3-D will be simular to OOTW. Virtually
unplayable without an accelerator, and just barely cutting it with a
mid-range accelerator (ie, 8/16). Speaking of Wolf 3-D, I've heard
there is currently no music support in the game! Personally I think we
should convince Bill to add music as it plays should a major role in
any game (compare OOTW on the Amiga/PC/Mac with the IIgs/SNES ports,
the added music made all the difference!).

>Personally, as I already wrote, I will wait and see. Read some
>reviews about SS, and monitor comp.sys.apple2 about it. On the
>other hand, it depends on my dear coder Jesse Blue if I will
>ever buy the SS. We get it both, or forget about it.

	Yes that, but more importantly I'll be watching for software
that supports it. Right now "SecondView" and the _possiblity_ of an
update for SuperConvert and Spectrum hardly make it worth investing
$200. I want to be sure this isn't going to be another "SuperSprite-16", 
for those that follow Apple II history... :) 

>Christopher

Mitchell Spector
m_spect@vega.concordia.ca / spector@vax2.concordia.ca