From: galt@dsd.es.com (Greg Alt - Perp)
Subject: Re: Low end VR 
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 91 21:49:51 GMT
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp., Salt Lake City, UT


In article <1991Oct1.193045.3213@milton.u.washington.edu>, twkingsb@eos.ncsu.edu (TIM WINTHROP KINGSBURY) writes:
> In this news group, I have seen numerous discussions on how to create
> economical eyephones... But very little on how to create economical rendering
> to drive these HMDs when they are completed.  I was wondering what sort of
> approaches people had in mind for doing this.  I assume that when we say
> low-end virtual reality, we are thinking in terms of Macs, PC's and Amigas.
> 
> Without first achieving a reasonable frame rate, it seems like there is very
> little point in playing with home-made eyephones and Nintendo power gloves... 
> 
> Perhaps a better starting point might be to find a clever way to do some very
> fast rendering directly to the screen.
> 
> Is there someone who has already accomplished this?

Well, I was planning on using wireframe only, and I'm sure that I can get
as many lines as I need on a 386+387.  If you want polygons, then you are
going to have problems.  If you do only flat shaded polygons, you might be
able to get a reasonable rate, but I think you can only get a few hundred 
flat shaded polygons per second. 

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