Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    What's Vista Pro like as compared to Vista ? How much memory, minimum,
    does it need to run ?
    
    
    Cheers,
    
    
    				Jamie.

    I don't know about Vista but this is off the back of the VistaPro box
    	* Same easy-to-use "point and click" interfaced based upon a
    target/camera model as Vista.
    	* Vistapro displays in 24 bit(frame buffer),high res,interlace or
    ham.
    	* Overscan may be selected in all modes.
    	* Vistapro saves images as IFF,Turbo Silver objects, and in 24 bit
    RGB for frame buffer output.
    	* Script support for 4 different animation modes: IFF, IFF 24, RGB
    and Vistapros propietary VANIM mode. An Animation player for VANIM
    files from hard disk is included.
    	* Scripting preview function shows the path your animation will
    follow through the landscape.
    	* NO MORE TRIANGULAR POLYGON LOOK!!! Gourand shading,combined with 
    higi res and interlace, produces painting quality scene of unparalled
    beauty.
    	* Variable length "camera lens", unlimited number of lighting
    posistions,dithering,roughness,and blend controlls all included.
    	* Vistapro can load and save colormaps.
    	* User-defined palette, night sky, tree line, snow level, waves,
    	haze levels, lakes, rivers, and full aircraft control perspective.
    	* reasonably priced upgrade from standard vista when you upgrade
    your computer to 3 megs.
    
    	The last line indicates a min of 3 megs. As for other differences
    would one of the vista owners care to point them out
    							bill 
    

    Sorry, but I forgot to mention that it comes with the V001 landscape
    disk. 
    							bill

    I have Vista Pro for about 4 or 5 months now but have only generated
    stills.  I tried to create an animation when I first bought the package
    but it wasn't very "smooth" and I had problems with the camera.  It was
    most likely operator error.  VP has a pretty steep learning curve
    although the manual covers all aspects of the program quite well.  I
    think the key to getting the best landscapes is setting the colors
    correctly.  I thought the landscapes generated using the default colors
    looked lousy whether using Gaurrad(sp?) shading and smoothing or not. 
    I generated a couple of pretty good beach scenes and a great Mars scene
    but it took a bit of effort(that was well spent).
    As for differences, I've never seen Vista so I wouldn't be able to tell
    you.  I imported a Vista Pro landscape into Imagine(it was a valley
    that I wanted to fly through) and rendered it.  In order the get the
    surface details I wanted I saved the landscape object in a fairly high
    resolution, consequently the object was HUGE(1.5meg).  
    I have been meaning to get back into Vista Pro, but...so much to do-
    so little time...It is an excellent program but it is also
    sophisticated and requires time and effort to master.
    
    mark

    How does it look when it's dumped to video?
    
    ~Ray
    

I would love to see an Imagine fly through of a good Vista Pro scene...

It might just get me to buy the packages

jg

    I have just recieved MakePath,and TerraForm from Virtual Realities.
    These programs are a must for anyone that uses Vista, Vista Pro.
    	MakePath allows you to pull in a Vista Dem file,and then simply 
    click along with the mouse to make the path. You can modify the pitch,
    banking, add a roll etc, asid from picking the type of craft you want.
    The Default is a glider. I put an animation a friend did out to video
    tape(12 meg) an it looked great.
    	TerraForm allows you to edit,create vista dem files. You can paint
    altitudes, select tools like steamroller,rake,bomb etc to modify the
    scape. I love using the bomb. The tutorial actually takes the hoover
    dam scape, and add Hoover Dam. Endless hours of fun here, but I need an 
    030 card to get the most enjoyment.
    								bill

re: Note 4776.7 by bill
>                                 -< fun stuff >-

Fun stuff indeed.  I just got MakePath and TerraForm the other day.  MakePath 
makes it ridiculously easy to make nice, smooth animations.  I had a test 
flight rendering 10 minutes after I backed it up.  (Alas some disk problems 
aborted the anim at frame 57 of 200 .-( )Of course since the viewpoint is
constantly changing, this is full motion video, so I've ordered another 4Meg
of RAM.  (A birthday present to me.-) 

Haven't played at all with TerraForm yet, but I noticed that they put a tidbit 
on there so you can make a DEM file modelling Lyapunov Space (as seen in 
_Scientific American_ Sep-91, the biggest computer time waster since the 
Mandelbrot Set!)  there was an IFF still file that looked nifty.

So now we can fly around a three dimensional model of a chaotic attractor 
representation!  The mind boggles! 

I *think* the Lyapunov thing is freely distributable.  I'll check, and if it 
is distributable, try to upload it (I've never done that before, so if I can't
manage it, I'd be willing to get a copy to someone in the Shrewsbury, MA area 
who knows how...)

I've been very impressed with Virtual Reality Labs, the folks who put this 
out.

Cheers,

Jim