Does anyone know when a patch or update will be available to bring back
the HAM6/8 display mode that was used in POVRay1.0 for Amigas?
    This is a nice chipset because it allows the creation of true 24 bit
images whereas the current settings only truly allow 8 (6?) bit images or
less on a standard Amiga video board.  A return of the DUMP output format
would be also nice as I currently use the tga2gif tool included with POVRay1
to convert the Targa output of POVRay 3.1 into a useable format on the
Amiga.

Post a reply to this message

On Fri, 15 Jun 2001 19:16:58 -0700, N Shomber wrote:
>    Does anyone know when a patch or update will be available to bring back
>the HAM6/8 display mode that was used in POVRay1.0 for Amigas?
>    This is a nice chipset because it allows the creation of true 24 bit
>images whereas the current settings only truly allow 8 (6?) bit images or
>less on a standard Amiga video board. 

What is a "standard" Amiga video board?  The Amiga over in the corner 
of my office only supports 12-bit color in HAM mode, and 6-bit color in
high resolution.

> A return of the DUMP output format
>would be also nice as I currently use the tga2gif tool included with POVRay1
>to convert the Targa output of POVRay 3.1 into a useable format on the
>Amiga.

Doesn't +fs output IFF ILBM anymore?

-- 
#macro R(L P)sphere{L F}cylinder{L P F}#end#macro P(V)merge{R(z+a z)R(-z a-z)R(a
-z-z-z a+z)torus{1F clipped_by{plane{a 0}}}translate V}#end#macro Z(a F T)merge{
P(z+a)P(z-a)R(-z-z-x a)pigment{rgbt 1}hollow interior{media{emission T}}finish{
reflection.1}}#end Z(-x-x.2y)Z(-x-x.4x)camera{location z*-10rotate x*90}

Post a reply to this message

Ron Parker wrote:
> 
> What is a "standard" Amiga video board?  The Amiga over in the corner
> of my office only supports 12-bit color in HAM mode, and 6-bit color
> in high resolution.

Commodore updated the hardware a year before they went belly-up.  The
HAM mode went from 12-bit to 24-bit color.  The A600, A1200, and A4000
had the newer chipset.  One could also buy full-blown video cards that
had 24-bit color.

Regards,
John
-- 
ICQ: 46085459

Post a reply to this message

On Sat, 16 Jun 2001 14:48:41 +0200, John VanSickle wrote:
>Ron Parker wrote:
>> 
>> What is a "standard" Amiga video board?  The Amiga over in the corner
>> of my office only supports 12-bit color in HAM mode, and 6-bit color
>> in high resolution.
>
>Commodore updated the hardware a year before they went belly-up.  The
>HAM mode went from 12-bit to 24-bit color.  The A600, A1200, and A4000
>had the newer chipset.  One could also buy full-blown video cards that
>had 24-bit color.

Yeah, actually I knew that.  I played with an A4000+Toaster for a while, 
but my point was that there isn't a standard anymore, and something that
works with the new graphics chips won't work on the older machines.  And
my older machine is actually a fairly respectable example of an older 
machine, since it has an 030/882 accelerator and a fair bit of RAM.  (It's
a 2000 with a GForce '030 card.)  Unfortunately, time has taken its toll 
on the GForce card, and the SIMMs don't seat properly.  The poor devil
won't boot anymore.

-- 
#macro R(L P)sphere{L F}cylinder{L P F}#end#macro P(V)merge{R(z+a z)R(-z a-z)R(a
-z-z-z a+z)torus{1F clipped_by{plane{a 0}}}translate V}#end#macro Z(a F T)merge{
P(z+a)P(z-a)R(-z-z-x a)pigment{rgbt 1}hollow interior{media{emission T}}finish{
reflection.1}}#end Z(-x-x.2y)Z(-x-x.4x)camera{location z*-10rotate x*90}

Post a reply to this message

> > A return of the DUMP output format
> >would be also nice as I currently use the tga2gif tool included with
POVRay1
> >to convert the Targa output of POVRay 3.1 into a useable format on the
> >Amiga.
>
> Doesn't +fs output IFF ILBM anymore?
Actually on my machine, the +fs argument from command line actually just
hangs the computer and it self reboots.  I have also tried using the file
input box as a place to enter extra arguments for the command line as there
seems to be no other place to do this like you can in the Settings window in
the Windows version.  This method causes the same reboot error.

Another odd fact about the HAM display is that it sort of works when I use
the Old Chip Set (non AGA) boot.  It appears to only have 2 colors, but this
was a small simple scene I tested it with.  The grayscale comes out with
colors in AGA while in OCS, it is just fine.

Post a reply to this message

>    Does anyone know when a patch or update will be available to bring back
>the HAM6/8 display mode that was used in POVRay1.0 for Amigas?

I always wondered why the people who did the amiga port of POVRay
didn't reuse the existing (working) ham6 display code from DKB Render.

>would be also nice as I currently use the tga2gif tool included with POVRay1
>to convert the Targa output of POVRay 3.1 into a useable format on the
>Amiga.

There is a targa file datatype on aminet.  You can view .TGA files
directly.  Kind of handy.  Targa is a great file format because it
is simple and allows an alpha channel and most software on any
platform can read it.  The files do get large, though.  :)

I believe that DKB Render had a CLI tga to ham converter included
in the package, but it's been so long since I used it so I could
be mistaken.

Also; the targa file format is not that difficult parse.  I'de be
surprised if there were not some good freeware converters on aminet
to convert TGA to iff24 or even to ham8.

Pete

Post a reply to this message