From: dstamp@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Dave Stampe-Psy+Eng)
Subject: Re: TECH: REND386: adding motion
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 02:45:26 GMT
Message-ID: <1992Feb6.024526.17916@watserv1.waterloo.edu>
Organization: University of Waterloo



fontenot@ravl.rice.edu (Dwayne Jacques Fontenot) writes:

>You have just described PHIGS (Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive 
>Graphics System). 
>
>Well, to be correct, you have just described the general idea behind
>hierarchical graphics systems, of which PHIGS is one. I mention this
>because a) you mentioned standards, and PHIGS is an ANSI/ISO standard,
>and b) I happen to work in PHIGS.
>
>I too am working on shared VR worlds, in PHIGS, so I guess we are
>working on similar projects.

There will be substantial differences between REND386 and PHIGS.  We don't
try and support everything, and we do everything with speed in mind.
The slant is quite VR-ish, with a general low-level interface in mind.
On top of this you can add whatever you need.  

I believe the motion system I described is indeed PHIGS (also GL)-like,
but this is after all one of the best ways to do object animation.
But where we go from here may not be at all PHIGS-like.  We want to 
end up with a set of libraries, along with suggested "standard" 
data interfaces, which would support motion programs, object updates, 
and synchronization from other net nodes.  Perhaps the standard would
allow you to "map" new bodies on characters and still use data from
a distant node to move it.  I dunno: these are just some of the ideas being 
tossed around.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| My life is Hardware,                    |                              | 
| my destiny is Software,                 |         Dave Stampe          |
| my CPU is Wetware...                    |                              | 
| Anybody got a SDB I can borrow?         | dstamp@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca |
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