Subject: Bitmaps, Gossamer/Mac, + Rend descendants

From: Beyer/Nagai <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 01:38:22 -0700 (PDT)

Howdy,

I retrieved and skimmed through the archives for this list and couldn't 
quite find what I was looking for. I'm hoping someone out there can help.

I want to create a 3D space in which 2D (bitmap) and 3D (regular 
REND386-type) objects can be viewed by a "visitor." Ideally this space and 
the objects it contains would be compatible or nearly so with a Macintosh 
tool.

I understand (loosely) the difficulty with realtime handling of a 
"rendered" bitmap ... say a painting (sorry for not speaking the jargon 
correctly yet ...), but I'm wondering if there are tools out there that 
might be less customizable than REND386, but more adapted to the 
application I describe.

At one point in the archives, someone mentioned a couple of games 
(Wolfenstein was one) succeeding in creating "realistic" brick texture 
due to the elimination of planes existing in anything but x,y,z (not 
skewed?) .... (paraphrasing my own) ... and observed that REND386's 
ability to 1) do what it does in real time and 2) rotate in x,y,z made 
the task of correctly/realistically rendering/displaying a bitmap 
impractical.

Any ideas? I've looked a little at VR-386 and AVRIL, but they seem to 
have the same characteristics of REND386 ... being pretty near relatives and 
all. I haven't looked at Gossamer (Mac based, right?) yet, but I 
understand it is or at one time was compatible with REND386 ... or I 
guess the .WLD and .PLG files were/are. Is this still true? Does that 
compatibility carry forward to VR-386 and AVRIL? Are there other tools 
that are compatible with these files as well?

Please point me to a FAQ or another source of information if these are 
"covered" topics. Thanks for any responses. 
------
Paul Nagai:  [email-masked]