From: Norman St. John Polevaulter Subject: Re: VR: Low-End 3D -- Big in U.K., Why Not the U.S.? Date: Monday, 14 Oct 1991 13:53:50 EDT Organization: The Universe In article <1991Oct14.034241.11786@milton.u.washington.edu>, trpw@cix.compulink.co.uk (Tim Watson) says: >I am a little confused about the "Low End 3D" postings on sci.virtual-worlds. > >I'll explain (in a round about way): > > A few years back I was involved in writing some 3D software for the > PC and on a good day my program could splat about 1000 shaded > polygons per second on the screen of a 25Mhz 386. This program went > on to form the basis of Argonaut Software's game Starglider 2. Jez > San (of whom you may have heard), the head of Argonaut Software, says > (and I've no reason to doubt him) that the routines have been vastly > improved since I left Argonaut. In the past few years I have seen > programs from at least five companies or individuals which overshadow > my efforts. > > The thing about this situation is that almost all the companies and > individuals are British. In fact I have NEVER seen a 3D polygon game > from the US that is anything like as fast or smooth as any one of the > British products. I don't know why this is, other than that we don't > have any money in the UK to build accelarator boards or the like, so > we have to write fast low level code to run on our cheap PCs. > >So given that there is a growing community of programmers in the UK who can >write low-level 3D graphics routines for the PC, I find it a little suprising >that there isn't a similar community in the US. You might imagine that I was >shocked to see someone suggest using C to write their 3D routines. Um. Well, I think the major reason why there is so little 3D programming in the U.S. is that 3D programming is, as a friend of mind called it, "black magic," basically. Nobody here in the United States knows how to do fast, assembly-language 3D graphics, and those who do know (in the UK or wherever) AREN'T TELLING US. Various textbooks are no help, as they are either (a) incredibly dense, mathematical, and unreadable; (b) so vague and broad that they're worthless; or (c) so high-level and general that they're no good for game purposes. You want more people to write 3D graphics in assembly? Ring up Jez San, David Braben and all the other people you mentioned and ask them to help by describing just how it's done! As long as everyone who figures it out keeps it to themselves, 3D programming is going to move very, very slowly. It's sad to think of how many VR-type games we'd have by now if this information was freely available. Sorry to rant and rave on like this, but it's a personal peeve of mine. Right now I'm laboriously trying to write a VR-type game, and am working on the 3D transformation routines. I can move and spin things, but it's slow and clunky. I know that marvelous, speedy techniques are out there for doing exactly what I've spent months trying to work out for myself, but they're not available for us wanna-bes to see! If there was a library of 3D transformation procedures in the public domain, I could actually be building my virtual world now, instead of bogging down moving cubes back and forth... Grumble. >Oddly enough the best starter book for programming 3D routines on personal >computers is written by an American programmer named Bruce Artwick (I >believe he writes flight simulators for Sublogic - he might even run >Sublogic come to that). The good thing about this book is that it presents >a way of writing pared down 3D routines specifically for making real-time >games on a personal computer rather than the heavily mathematical methods >used in other more comprehensive books. Not really. I have Artwick's book, and while it (as usual) has lots of stuff about doing 3D transformations on generic cubes and rotating them about their own centers, it doesn't actually tell you much that you'd really want to know beyond that. Most of his book is concerned with other types of computer graphics. Plus it's ten years old and definitely out of date. ...Or are you thinking about another book? Did he write one that's actually specifically concerned with writing fast games in 3D on personal computers, and nothing else? If he DID... I'd like to know the title! Anyway. Here's my real, helpful suggestion time. Anyone for a new newsgroup: rec.games.programmer.virtual-worlds? Seriously. I believe a lot of people would find it helpful. [Your blood pressure just went up.] "Exciting, isn't it?" "Yeah, any more excitement and I'll need a stretcher." Mark Sachs (mbs110@psuvm.psu.edu, sachs@dol-amroth.endor.cs.psu.edu) // DISCLAIMER: Penn State cares about my money, not my opinions. AMIGA\X/ [MODERATOR'S NOTE: I would subscribe. Are you to be moderator? -- Bob Jacobson]