Subject: FW: Macintosh polygon rendering package available

From: Jon Blossom <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 17:22:41 PDT

I'm happy to announce the availability of Gossamer 1.0, a polygon-based
rendering system for the Macintosh. It is currently available as a
self-extracting StuffIt archive available for ftp in /pub/VR/source on
ftp.apple.com. It's in BinHex format.

Gossamer 1.0 may be used freely to write programs destined for personal
use or for the public domain. Any commercial applications, including
shareware, must be licensed from me.

REQUIREMENTS:
Gossamer 1.0 requires a 68020 or better Macintosh with a 68881 or
compatible math coprocessor (all math in the first release is floating
point). It supports 1- to 32-bit color, though the simple demonstration
included is limited to 1 to 8 bit palettized devices.

The code was compiled with Symantec's THINK C 5.0, and the libraries
are in that format. I am not sure whether this will work with version
6, but one hopes so...

FEATURES:
Gossamer 1.0 is a pared-down basic polygonal renderer. It uses a flat
shading model with support in the sample for 16 colors of 16 shades
each on an 8-bit device.

Currently, there is no support for multiple object representations,
hierarchical segments, stereo rendering, or spatial partitioning. Also,
Gossamer 1.0 is strictly a rendering engine: there is no direct support
for 3D input devices, though adding such support to the demo
program is trivial. In fact, I'll probably add PowerGlove support for the
Menelli and/or PGSI boxes if someone will tell me how (my PG
connection is one of the "old style" that uses an extremely non-standard
68HC11 EVBU connection).

Gossamer 1.0 is intended to begin enabling Rend386-like applications on
the Macintosh. It is NOT directly compatible with Rend386 source, but
translation should be fairly simple.

THE PACKAGE:
Included is the Gossamer 1.0 library in THINK C 5.0 format, sample
source code for the demonstration program, documentation in Microsoft
Word 5.1 format, and a Samples folder containing objects ported
from Rend386 PLG files. Load them into the demo using the "File:Open"
menu option. Unfortunately, I did not have time to support PLG files
directly, but that's a BIG priority for me in the short term.

I am not releasing the source code for Gossamer 1.0, but I probably will
in the future - as soon as I have fixed the bugs that will no doubt
appear in this release. Call me shy, but I'm afraid of "dropping my pants"
to the world...

RELEASE NOTES:
Gossamer 1.0 is a "first-generation" library. Insert standard
disclaimers here: It may be (it IS) buggy. It may not be everything to
everyone. It may be slower than you'd like. However, these are problems
that we have to deal with knowing that in the future they will be
fixed. What this _is_ is a "proof of concept" and a request for
suggestions and improvements. I just wanted to get _something_ into
the hands of Mac VR-heads - tell me if I was too impatient.

The "next generation" of this library is already under way. I will be
rewriting significant portions in 68020 assembly, converting from
floating point to fixed point, adding some features (segments for
sure), and fixing bugs...

If you have any questions, comments, or bugs to report, please e-mail
me.

Thanks!

Jon Blossom
[email-masked]

Microsoft disclaimer: This is NOT a Microsoft product, nor is it
endorsed or supported by Microsoft in any way.