Re: Second Sight....

[philip@labtam.oz.au (Philip Stephens)]

Lim Thye Chean writes:

>READ MY SIG! I am NOT Lim Thye! 

  *Blushing from embarrassment*

  Sorry Thye Chean, I should have been alert to the fact that you weren't
using the Western tradition of putting the surname last...being a tutor at
university five years ago should have taught me that.  Please accept my
sincere apologies!  I promise I won't make the same mistake again!

>If you really write one, everybody in the II world will thank you. I will
>get a SecondSight and buy your software.

  If people are interested, I can upload the prototype 3D engine I wrote on
my GS and post it to comp.sources.apple2 and comp.binaries.apple2.  It
isn't all that spectacular since it only draws to the SHR screen in 16
colours, the texture maps are simplistic, the size of the viewport is
only 160x100, and it runs at best 2 fps at the moment, but it'll give a
taste of what is to come.

  Admittedly I'm not sure now whether I will be able to improve the frame
rate enough to make it usable as a real-time game engine, since the GS just
isn't up to doing a lot of fixed point math.  I was hoping that I might be
able to offload some of the math to the Z180 on the Second Sight board, but
since Jawaid has said it's only an 8-bit microprocessor, that might not be
as feasible as I first thought.

  At the very least I should be able to get my code rendering images at
320x200x256 resolution with GIF-based texture maps, meaning the display will
look as good as Doom does, even if it can't render at 12+ fps!

  Actually, it occurs to me that my 3d engine would be *perfect* for the 3D
display in a role playing game like Bard's Tale.  A smaller window would
allow a faster frame rate, enough to give a very nice impression of moving
around a 3D world complete with monsters roaming around.

  By the way, for those of that use Unix and X window, you can download the
current Unix/X version of my 3D engine from:

  ftp://polaris.bocaraton.ibm.com/WebView3D

  Eventually I'm going to have a stab at porting this version to my GS, as
the prototype is lacking many of the features that I added to the Unix/X
version.  

>Until there are more software support. I am waiting to see David Ong's card
>first or read the review or see some support coming before I decide.

  I can understand your hesitation, but let's face it, everyone has been
waiting to *see* the Second sight card before committing themselves to
writing software for it, which is understandable.  Give it time :-)

=========== Philip Stephens, Systems Programmer, Labtam Australia ============
====== Owned by Motor (Mo for short), the power-purrer from Down Under =======
== DS (B+S+O+W)t Y 2.5 X  L W C+++ I T++ A+ E H++ S+ V+ F Q++ P B PA+ PL+++ ==
"Many views yield the truth.  Therefore, be not alone." -- Viggies' Prime Song