Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    The owner of the Software Shop in Worcester has lent me a videotape
    he picked up at the Atlanta Comdex show.  It is a film called 'Infinite
    Loop' produced by Alan Hastings, author of the soon-to-be-released
    Aegis VideoScape3D program.
    
    This film is absolutely fantastic.  It is the most impressive video
    work I've seen yet on the Amiga.  Rather than go into details, just
    let me say that it looks as good as the Sunday Night Movie special
    effects.  There is a lot of panning of the camera viewpoint around
    various scenes, including a spaceship flying through an asteroid
    belt, and then flying through some canyons.  
    
    I wish you could all see this video, as it really knocked my socks
    off!  Unfortunately, I promised to return it to Moe today, and the
    original is rather tattered from use, so I didn't bother to dupe
    it from my second VCR.
    

>    he picked up at the Atlanta Comdex show.  It is a film called 'Infinite
>    Loop' produced by Alan Hastings, author of the soon-to-be-released
>    Aegis VideoScape3D program.

	Was 'Infinite Loop' actually produced USING VideoScape3D, or did
	Hastings use other tools instead/as well ?

	-Art

    The credits at the end of the video go something like...
    
    	Created with an Amiga computer and VideoScape3D
    
    		Production time: 48 hrs.
    
    	Total Production Cost: $3000.00, including cost of computer
    
    I must assume that a good VCR was used to record the loop frame
    by frame, since there is no way that all this scenery would ever
    fit into a 512K Amiga.  'Course, I may be wrong.
    

    I believe that Videoscape 3D can give you three seconds of real-time
    animation at a time.  You can record 'blocks' of animation that
    way.  It will also give you one frame at a time.
    
    The is a demo, albiet rather large, available on PLink that has
    two bi-planes flying around a Videoscape 3D title screen.  It looks
    pretty nice, although it is a brief loop like the Juggler.
    
    Randy
    

 
>    I believe that Videoscape 3D can give you three seconds of real-time
>    animation at a time.  You can record 'blocks' of animation that
>    way.  It will also give you one frame at a time.
    
   I am in the market for a new VCR and am interested in just this sort of
   application:  recording animation generated on the Amiga on a VCR.  My
   questions are, what features are required on a VCR to be able to do this?
   How can you 'stop' things after the 3-second blurb and then start the next
   3-second segment without any noticeable glitches on the recording?  Is any
   special hardware needed, other than the Amiga and the VCR?  In terms of
   getting a visually seamless recording, it would seem that recording frame-
   by-frame would be an even tougher problem (same problems, just compounded
   many times over).
							- Dave

    VideoScape_3D has moved from the realm of Vapor to the store shelves.
    I saw it and touched it at the Software Shop on Saturday.  I forgot
    to ask the price (I'm still recovering from my last spending frenzy).
    
    I has the usual glitzy Aegis packaging.  The back of the box shows
    a multi-windowed frame editor.  Moe had a disk open with several
    demos running on an A500.  There was a cute loop of the Boing! ball
    bouncing along a perspective horizon, and a loop of two triplanes
    circling an Aegis banner.
    
    Any videoheads out there wanna buy it and review it here before
    us hard-working types spend the money?

    Well, I bought Videoscape 3D yesterday.  It is quite a package.
    You get a fat manual, that seems to be pretty well written, three
    disks (not copy protected...thank you Aegis!) and a few short demos.
    
    You can work in overscan mode in all resolutions.  You can work
    in wire frame or solid mode.  You can have an IFF file for a background
    and a forground with the objects you create in the middle.  You
    can set a light source.  
    
    According to the package, you can have unlimited detail on objects
    and surfaces.  I have not had a lot of time to play with it yet,
    but it looks to be a very well designed product and seems to be
    bug free.
    
    You create 3D images one at a time.  They can be stored as IFF files
    and page flipped 24 frames at a time.  It is designed for single
    frame recording.  The easiest way to do this would be to shoot it
    to film one frame at a time (also the cheapest, in terms of hardware).
    
    I believe that objects have a limitation of about 11000 points.
     This might be based upon how much memory you have.  When you start
    the object editor, it tells you what your limits are.  I think that
    it checks how much memory you have first.  I have 1.5 megs.
    
    Pretty neat package.
    
    Randy
    

    Get out that checkbook, Randy...  Some people on Plink have recommended
    2.5 megs for serious work.  One guy has decided that 2.5 isn't enough
    and has ordered an ASDG rack.
    

    re:.7
    
    I would greatly appreciate any more info that you care to share
    with us. Sounds like a great package.
    
    What is the speed of animation?
    How powerful is the 3D editor?
    What is your palette of colors and resolutions available?
    
    etc.
    
    thanks,
    Chris

    Well, I played with it some more last night.  There are some really
    neat objects and animations on the second disk.  There are cars,
    houses, airplanes, and all kinds of other things, ready to be used.
    
    What is the speed off the animation?  Whatever you want.
    
    How powerful is the 3D editor?  I'm not sure.  All objects are created
    with a script file (text commands).  They also include the ROT public
    domain object editor for simple shapes.
    
    How many colors?  A lot.  I know this is a bad answer, but I don't
    remember exactly how many.  You are limited to the colors of the
    different resolutions...i.e. 32 in lo-res, 16 in med and hi-res.
     They also include shaded colors, using a dot pattern to create
    different shades.  These look great in hi-res.
    
    It also uses overscan mode (but I've noticed that it doesn't overscan
    quite enough) to give you full screen images and animation.
    
    There are instruction on how to use the serial port for controling
    recording devices.
    
    The manual makes no reference to the demos.  You have to find out
    about them on your own.  I'm surprised that they do not use them
    as some kind of tutorial.  Maybe I'm missing something.
    
    Wicked neat...
    

    Yep, the more memory, the merrier.  You will need 2 megs to create
    ANIM files in Hi-Res.  The program can use up to 4 megs.  For some
    reason, anything above that makes no difference.  
    
    Anim files are grouped IFF files that are played back with the ShowAnim
    or PlayAnim utility, in real time.  It is kind of clever.  When
    you record a file, it only records the parts of the IFF file that
    is different from the file that came before.  That saves a lot of
    time and disk (or memory) space.  Playback is beautiful...if you
    have enough memory or disk space.  Some things are so big that an
    800K disk is not enough.  Time to get the hard drive...
    
    There are a lot of real neat demos to play around with.  Anim files
    are 'recorded' automatically to disk.  You just start the thing
    and it will display each frame and then record it to disk.  Leave
    the room and come back later.  You can multi-task other activities
    if you want.
    
    I've tried recording some things to RAM:.  They have to be small
    or you will run out of room.  It really speeds the process up.
    
    Still a lot more to discover.
    

    Well I picked it up too! Alot of stuff to learn. I have hit a few
    problems that maybe you can tell me how to get around.
    
    1) The EGG and OCT utilities. When invoked from Workbench, I have
    found now way of aborting the program. The manual says ^C and then
    return, but this only works if you invoke them from the CLI. The
    user interface on these could have been a little bit better. If
    you make a mistake, you can't go back and correct it, you have to
    abort and start over, which isn't all that bad but it is a little
    irritating.
    
    2) I can't figure out how to write an OCT file to any device but
    the Videoscape 3d/geo directory. This is a bit limiting since that
    disk is almost full anyway. Anybody figure this one out yet? Maybe
    I could use a logical.
    
    3) I got the GURU when I put in 0 for the radius of a sphere at
    the pole while using the OCT utility.
    
    Other than those things, this thing seems real powerful. I don't
    think this kind of stuff has ever been available for the home computer
    user before. I'm amazed!
    
    Chris

    I have a similar problem.  If you hit the '.' key on the numeric
    keypad to save a picture as an IFF file, it writes to DF0:.  I have
    found no way around this.
    
    As for OCT and EGG, I guess you have to re-boot.
    
    

    What I have done is ....
    
    1)put in your startup-sequence PATH "VIDEOSCAPE 3D:"
    2)CD df1: or wherever your work disk is
    3)invoke EGG from the CLI
    
    this will write it out to df1: providing you have a GEO drawer.
    The path statement is so that the EGG command is recognized from
    another directory.
    
    I haven't used the IFF option yet. What would be a typical use for
    writing out one of the frames to an IFF file?
    
    Chris

    Writing to IFF is how you create an Anim file, to be played back
    using the PlayAnim or ShowAnim utilities.
    
    By the way, these are limited to 24 scenes, not frames.  That way,
    your animation can be as large as your disk space or memory space.
    
    To create an endless loop, you need duplicate frames at the beginning
    and end of the animation.  When you automatically record a sequence,
    it does not do this.  Using the '.' key allows you to record the
    additional frames needed.
    
    I'm sure that this is all 'greek' to those who don't have Videoscape
    3D yet...
    
    Now for more memory and a hard drive...
    
   

    I am having a problem with Videoscape3d and have a few questions?
    
    First, I bought Videoscape3d about 1 1/2 months ago before I had
    additional memory. Since then, I have aquired a Starboard 2. 
    
    The questions.
    
    1) Has anybody had problems creating anim files? Of course, you
    need additional memory to create these files so when I got my memory,
    I eagerly set down to create some anim files. However, as it turned
    out my system started crashing. I can't seem to find any commonality
    as to when it crashes. Sometimes it will crash when I'm half way
    through recording an anim file, sometimes it will crash when I am
    just playing a scene and not recording it.
    
    2) Is there newer versions of Videoscape3d out? I have version 1.0
    But I have noticed some interesting things. 
    I have found version 3.5 of SHOWANIM on BBS's but mine came with
    version 3.3.
    
    3) Does anyone know the number to AEGIS support? I wasn't able to
    find it in the manual. Is there such a thing?
    
    I have run the diagnostics on my StarBoard and they always come
    up clean. Other programs seem to run fine.
   

    I love this package (except when it crashes). Help Pleeeeease!
    
    Thanks,
    Chris

    I don't know their number, but try directory assistance for Santa
    Monica.  Aegis Development is on Wilshire Blvd.
    
    I have VScape3D, but don't know what is causing your problem.  I
    have made it crash by selecting options on the screen too quickly.
    (Wait for the WAIT to go away first).
    
    
    Randy
    

    I called Aegis Development (thanks Randy!) and this is what they
    told me. This sounds bizarre so you better sit down.
    
    I talked to a guy named Joseph. He told me to run Videoscape3d
    and then run it again. Then go back and quit the original one. He
    said it had something to do with memory, but he didn't really know
    what it was. I will try it tonight and let you know if it works.
    
    Does anyone want to speculate as to why this might be happening?
    It is beyond my feeble comprehension.
   

    Chris