That was a compelling monologue. You brought us from the pits of 
computational hardship all the way to the clear mountaintops of current 
home computing. Good job!

Invisible wrote:
> Then there were ground-breaking AF coverdisks like Imagine 2, Real3D, 

Ugh, not Real3D! That was my *first* introduction to 3D graphics, and 
let me tell you I was *not* impressed. Back in '97-'98 it had no 
raytracing support, and the other features were all very disappointing. 
'Refraction' was simply an environment map applied to the inside of an 
object... no attempt was made to distort pre-rendered objects behind the 
refractive one. And then there was the problem of surfaces shadowing 
themselves. Strange, dark-gray lines running along a surface when you 
want it to be smooth can really piss you off, especially when it takes 
so long for the program to compute and render the image in the first place.

> - Sophisticated image processing software such as The GIMP can be 
> obtained *for free*!
> 
> - 3D graphics rendering requires nothing more than a copy of POV-Ray. 

> 
> - Complex sound editing software such as Audacity is *free*.

Thank goodness for the open-source movement!

> In fact, it seems that only high-end, professional audio and video tools 
> actually cost money any more. (I'm thinking... Cubase, Cakewalk, 
> Photoshop, Renderman, and so forth.)

Since you mention Cakewalk in your list of commercial apps, let me 
mention JazzWare as a free alternative to it. ModPlugTracker is another 
one, though it's quite different.

Sam

Post a reply to this message