Conference hydra::amiga_v1

3870.0. "Vista - from Virtual Reality Labs" by SHARE::DOYLE () Thu Jun 21 1990 12:40

Description                           Manufacturer            Suggest ABEL'S
                                                              Retail  PRICE!

Vista ------------------------------- Virtual Reality Labs. - $ 99.95 $ 58.54

     Explore "virtual reality" landscapes with Vista, the most advanced and
powerful reality simulation software available for personal computing. VISTA
is not just a collection of pictures, it is a collection of "virtual
realities," each of which contains an endless number of landscape
perspectives. With the power of virtual reality, you can use your computer to
explore Yosemite, or Crater Lake, or the cauldera of Mons Olympus - Mars, as
if you were actually there. And VISTA makes it easy with its fast true
perspective 3-D projection engine, Phong shading, shadows, and up to 130,000
polygons per landscape! If you prefer an imaginary landscape, VISTA contains 4
billion fractal landscapes to explore!

     Virtual reality landscapes included: Mt. St. Helens before and after 1988
eruption. Hald Dome and El Captain in Yosemite. Crater Lake and the cauldera
area of Mons Olympus - Mars. Also included: 4 billion built in fractal
landscapes, Mandelbrot set, and Julia set!

     Coming soon: Expansion disks for undersea exploration, additional
interesting sites for solar system exploration, and additional geologically
interesting sites on our home planet!

                                 ************
                                 * Features *
                                 ************

* Easy To Use "Point And Click" Interface Based Upon A Camera/Target Model.
  User Has Full Control Of Camera Position, Bank, Heading, And Pitch. Camera
  Can Be Placed Anywhere In The Landscape!
* Automatic Coloring Of Landscapes With User Control Of Haze, Tree Lines, Sun
  Position, Color Palette, And Wide/Zoom Camera Angles!
* User Controlled Creation Of Rivers And Lakes, And Erosion Function To
  "Smooth" Landscapes!
* Internally Draws In 32,000 Colors And Displays In 4,096 Color HAM Mode!
* Saves Images As Standard IFF Files, Landscapes As Turbo Silver Object Files!
* Quick "Preview" Modes, Slower "Full Resolution" MOdes, With Scriptfile Mode
  Allowing Unattended Generations Of Scenes!
* Sound -- Each Landscape Produces Unique Sounds As It Is Being Drawn!
* Support For 640x400x16,000,000 Color Frame Buffers; 500,000 Polygon Larger
  Landscapes, And Animations Are Available!

                           /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
                           | About The Developers |
                           \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

     Hypercube Engineering, the developer of VISTA, is currently comprised of
Brick Eksten and John Hinkley. Brick and John are equally at home engineering
an accelerator board or writing a program that takes advantage of all the
considerable processing power in the Amiga!

     Another side of the developers of VISTA is reflected in their strong
support of The Nature Conservancy -- a great love and respect for the natural
world. To get the landscape colors and shading right, John takes notes on the
play of color and light on the hills surrounding his northern Valifornia
office. Or, on his way back from a week-long set of two major computer shows,
Brick still noticed how well a view from VISTA of Yosemite compared with the
real thing as his plane banked over the National Park!

     The developers of VISTA are first rate engineers and programmers, but
they are also avin environmentalists and cutting edge computer artists. VISTA
reflects their broad range of interest and extraordinary talent -- it not only
"pushes the envelope" of home computing capability, its refined color,
texture, reliance on real landscape data, true perspective and programming
virtuosity significantly expand the definition of home computing!

                    **************************************
                    * About Virtual Reality Laboratories *
                    **************************************

     Virtual Reality Laboratories, Inc. is located in San Luis Obispo,
California, the southern terminus of the scenic Route 1 coastal highway. The
company was founded in 1989 to develop and publish virtual reality
applications for personal computers!

     VISTA is VRLI's second product, Our first product, Diatant Suns is
distributed throughout the world and is translated into German. Distant Suns
was released in November, 1989 and VISTA was released in June, 1990!

Manufacturer: Virtual Reality Laboratories.

[VISTA] Has anyone tried/seen this yet? It sounds real neat.

I saw a segment on 60 minutes (or was it 20/20) on Virtual Reality (ex except
they had the special goggles and glove!) and was intrigued.

john

     I'm going to order this, it sounds like a great animation
    tool.
     I'll let you know when I get it.
    						Ed

    re. .2
    
    Ed,
    
    Could you please generate and dump a couple of overscan HAM frames to 
    TAPE when you get this program?  I know that there are a few of us who 
    would like to see the results of the rendering.  For myself, I wonder if 
    the renderings have enough detail for use as backgrounds for TurboSilver?
    
                                 
                                  Bob.

    Could the author or a moderator please change this note's title to one
    which is more indicative of its contents, e.g., "VISTA - Virtual
    Reality".  This will make it infinitely easier to locate in the future.
    
    Thanks,
    Rich

    re -1
    
    Can do..done.
    
    Re -2
    
    As soon as I get the product I'll put up some sample Iff's.
    
    								Ed
    

	Hi,

	I just discovered this note, the product sounds really interesting,
	but there was no feedback, no samples etc.

	What's about it ? Did it die away, is it available, is it worth its
	money ?

	Please elaborate.
	Thanks
	Helmut

    I have Vista Pro myself. Vista is still available but I opted for the
    Pro version. There is a note on Vista Pro I believe. I can generate 
    a landscape from the data files that came with the disk if you like.
    								bill

    I will upload a couple of IFFs generated from Vista Pro.  One is from a
    valley in California that I flooded with water(Vista Pro is great). 
    And the other is a view of the Mons Olympus crater on Mars.  No effort
    was made within VP to make them really look good. i.e. I didn't
    customize the palette, dithering, etc...
    
    mark

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I rendered Big Sur last night. I used the standard settings except I
    set blend,and shade. I then pulled the 24bit data into ADPRO and output
    a HAM,16 color Hres, Hres grayscale,and a lineart I will try to upload
    them today. the file will be big_sur.lzh on tape: .
    							bill
    

    I uploaded a couple of basic pictures.  One of Mars and one of a
    modified Crater Lake in CA.  These examples are straight from Vista
    Pro's renderer.
    
    mark