From: jcs@crash.cts.com (John Schultz) Subject: Re: Plea for help Date: 20 Jan 91 08:51:23 GMT Message-ID: <7081@crash.cts.com> Organization: Crash TimeSharing, El Cajon, CA In <1991Jan18.183937.14561@lavaca.uh.edu> jet@karazm.math.uh.edu ("J. Eric Towns end") writes: >In article bigdaved@tz.wimsey.bc.ca (Big Dave Dio d >e) writes: >>I represent a team of undergrad engineering physicists who are currently at >>work building a cheap demonstration of artificial reality. We plan to use >>a fast 80386 based micro running MS-DOS, a Mattel Powerglove, and a pair of >>Sega LC shutter glasses. Unfortunately, we're having a difficult time getting >>parts and information, and any help anyone out there can provide would be >>much appreciated. >Why not get an Amiga with a 50Mhz 68030 and a set of Haitex LCD glasses? >They work together out of the box? The PowerGlove is going to be a hack >no matter what CPU you use... And the Amiga has a hardware blitter >that lets you run pre-computed screens at 30-60fps.. Virtual reality, by definition (virtual) doesn't lend itself very well to precomputed scenes. Further, a 25Mhz 68030 is 2-3 times faster than the Amiga's blitter for filling polygons. The blitter can still be used to clear the screen, though. A fast 80386 will be much cheaper and more marketable then a 50 Mhz Amiga. The best way to go would be i486/i860 for price/performance max, or i386 or i486 with a TMS34020. >I don't understand this idea of using machines w/o hardware graphics >support for graphics... Well, as stated, if the graphics hardware is slower than the processor, why use the graphics hardware? John PS: I'm a Motorola fan, but the standard Amiga graphics hardware is way behind the times. There are TMS34020 boards coming soon to remedy this, however...