==================================================== From: madd@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Jim Frost) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin Message-ID: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: 1 Mar 88 22:54:25 GMT Reply-To: madd@.UUCP (Jim Frost) Organization: Boston University Distributed Systems Group Lines: 213 RAY TRACING JELL-O BRAND GELATIN Copyright 1988 ACM Reprinted with permission from \fICommunications of the ACM\fR, February 1988. \fINew technology is presented for imaging a restricted class of dessert foods.\fR Paul S. Heckbert Ray tracing has established itself in recent years as the most general image-synthesis algorithm [10]. Researchers have investigated ray-surface intersection calculations for a number of surface primitives. These have included checkerboards [Whitted 80]; chrome balls [Whitted 80]; glass balls [Whitted 80]; robot arms [Barr 82]; blue abstract things [Hanrahan 82]; more glass balls [Watterberg 83]; mandrills [Watterberg 83]; more mandrills [Sweeney 83]; green fractal hills [Kajiya 83]; more glass balls [SEDIC 83]; aquatic blobby things [Kaw 83]; more chrome balls [Heckbert 83]; pool balls [Portner 84]; more glass balls [Kajiya 86]. Unfortunately, \fInobody\fR has ray traced any food. So far, the most realistic foods were Blinn's classic orange and strawberry images, but these were created with a scan-line algorithm [2]. The \fIDessert Realism Project\fR at Pixar is addressing this problem. This article presents new technology for ray tracing a restricted class of dessert foods, in particular Jell-O(1) brand gelatin. We believe this method may have application to other brands of gelatin and, perhaps, pudding as well. This article is divided into three parts: methods for modeling static Jell-O, simulation of Jell-O motion using impressive mathematics, and ray-Jell-O intersection calculations. JELL-O SHAPE To model static Jell-O, we employ a new synthesis technique wherein attributes are added one at a time using abstract object-oriented classes we call \fIingredients\fR. Ingredient attributes are combined during a preprocessing pass to accumulate the desired set of material properties (consistency, taste, torsional strength, flame resistance, refractive index, etc.). We use the RLS orthogonal basis (rasberry, lime, and strawberry), as shown in the figure below, from which any type of Jell-O can be synthesized [9]. Ingredients are propagated through a large 3-D lattice using vectorized pipeline SIMD parallel processing in a systolic array architecture that we call the \fIJell-O Engine\fR. Furthermore, we can compute several lattice points simultaneously. Boundary conditions are imposed along free-form surfaces to control the Jell-O shape, and the ingredients are mixed using \fIrelaxation\fR and \fIannealing\fR lattice algorithms until the matrix is chilled and \fIready-to-eat\fR. JELL-O DYNAMICS Previous researchers have observed that, under certain conditions. Jell-O \fIwiggles\fR [8]. We have been able to simulate these unique and complex Jell-O dynamics using spatial deformations [1] and other hairy mathematics. From previous research with rendering systems, we have learned that a good dose of gratuitous partial differential equations is needed to meet the paper quota for impressive formulas. Therefore, we solve the Schrodinger wave equation for the Jell-O field J: .nf _2 2m V J + -- (E - V)J = 0. h .fi Transforming to a spherical coordinate system [7], .nf _ dJ 1 dJ 1 dJ VJ = E -- + E - -- + E ----- -- x dr y r dO z rsinO dP 2 _2 1 d 2 dJ 1 d dJ 1 d J V J = -- -- (r --) + ------ -- (sinO --) + ------- --- 2 dr dr 2 dO dO 2 2 2 r r sinO r sin O dP .fi [Many of the symbols used don't appear in ASCII -- ed] Fuller has given a concise and lucid explanation of the deviation form here: The "begetted" eightness as the system-limit number of the nuclear uniqueness of self-regenerative symmetrical growth may well account for the fundamental octave of unique interpermutative integer effects identified as plus one, plus two, plus three, plus four, respectively; and as minus four, minus three, minus two, minus one, characterizing the integers five, six, seven, and eight, respectively [3]. In other words, to a first approximation: .nf ---------------------------------------- | J = 0. | | The Jell-O(r) Equation | ---------------------------------------- .fi RAY-JELL-O INTERSECTION CALCULATION The ray-Jell-O intersection calculations fortunately require the solution of integral equations and the simulation of Markov chains [6], so they cannot be computed efficiently. In fact, we have proved that their solution is linear-time reducible to the traveling-salesman problem, where \fIn\fR is the number of Jell-O molecules, so we can be sure that ray tracing Jell-O will be practical only on a supercomputer [5]. IMPLEMENTATION A preliminary implementation has been completed on a VAX 11/780 running the UNIX(2) operating system. To create a picture using the full Jell-O Engine simulation, we estimate that 1 CPU eon of CRAY time and a lot of hard work would be required. We made several simplifying approximations, however, since the article is due today. As a first approximation, we have modeled a gelatin cube governed by the first-order Jell-O equation with judiciously selected surface properties; that is, color = (0, 255, 0). The frontispiece for this article was created with this model. Work is underway on a complete Jell-O Engine implementation using Lisp \fIflavors\fR. We will shortly begin computing a 100-by-100 image of a bowl of lime Jell-O using a roomful of Amigas [4]. The picture should be ready in time for SIGGRAPH with hours to spare. CONCLUSIONS Jell-O goes well with a number of other familiar objects, including mandrills, glass balls, and teapots. The composition and animation possibilities are limited only by your imagination (personal communication by Lance Williams, 1980). The Dessert Foods Division is generalizing the methods described here to other brands of gelatin. Future research areas include the development of algorithms for ray tracing puddings and other dessert foods. Another outstanding problem is the suspension of fruit in Jell-O, in particular, fresh pineapple and kiwifruit. Jell-O is: * visually appealing * futuristic * hydrodynamically captivating * tasty * goes well with other objects. \fIAcknowledgements\fR. Thanks to Paul Haeberli for tipping back a few with me on this research and to H. B. Siegel for key observations. The SIGGRAPH technical committee also deserves thanks for recognizing that \fI"there's always room for Jell-O."\fR. (1) Jell-O is a registered trademark of General Foods. (2) UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories. REFERENCES 1. Barr, a. H. Ray tracing deformed surfaces. SIGGRAPH 86 Proc. 20, 4 (Aug. 1986), 287-296. 2. Blinn, J. F. Computer display of curved surfaces. Ph. D. thesis. Computer Science Dept., Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, 1978. 3. Fuller, R. B. \fISynergetics\fR. MacMillan, New York, 1975, p. 125. 4. Graham, E. Graphic scene simulatons. \fIAmiga World\fR (May-June 1987), 18-95. 5. Haeberli, P., and Heckbert, P. A Jell-O calculus. ACM Trans. Graph. (special issue on ray tracing moist surfaces). Submitted 1872. To be published. 6. Kajiya, J. T. The rendering equation. SIGGRAPH 86 Proc. 20, 4 (Aug. 1986), 143-150. 7. Plastock, R. A., and Kalley, G. \fISchaum's Outline of Computer Graphics\fR. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1986. 8. Sales, S. \fIThe Soupy Sales Show\fR. 1966. 9. Weller, T. \fIScience Made Stupid\fR. Houton Mifflin, Boston Mass., 1985. 10. Whitted, T. An improved illumination model for shaded display. Commun. ACM 23, 6 (June 1980), 343-349. CR Categories and Subject Descriptors: C.1.2 [Processor Architectures]: Multiple Data Stream Architectures (Multiprocessors) -- \fIarray and vector processors\fR; I.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: Three-dimensional Graphics and Realism -- \fIcolor, shading, shadowing, and texture\fR; J.3 [Computer Applications]: Life and Medical Sciences -- \fIhealth\fR General Terms: Algorithms, Design, Theory Additional Key Words And Phrases: Food, gelatin, Jell-O, lattice algorithm, ray tracing Author's Present Address: Paul S. Heckbert, Dessert Foods Division, Pixar, San Rafael, CA 94913-3719. Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the Association for Computing Machinery. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or specific permission. ==================================================== Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!degas.Berkeley.EDU!ph From: ph@degas.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Heckbert) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin Message-ID: <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: 2 Mar 88 02:41:04 GMT References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: ph@degas.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Paul Heckbert) Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 20 In article <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> madd@.UUCP (Jim Frost) writes: >RAY TRACING JELL-O BRAND GELATIN > >\fINew technology is presented for imaging a restricted class of >dessert foods.\fR >... Please get this garbage off the net! We're carrying on a serious technical discussion here and we don't need this sort of facetious drivel tying up the phone lines and wasting my tax dollars!! What I want to know is: (1) Does anyone have an implementation of GKS for the EGA board in 8008 assembler? (2) I just bought an Apple II and I want to know how to get NTSC video out of it so I can make great films like Luxo Jr. (3) What's the formula to convert RGB to luminance? I've been using sin(R)+atanh(G)*log(B), but I'm getting strange results. ==================================================== Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!phri!roy From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin Message-ID: <3170@phri.UUCP> Date: 2 Mar 88 15:41:39 GMT References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY) Lines: 13 ph@degas.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Paul Heckbert) writes: > > \fINew technology is presented for imaging a restricted class of > > dessert foods.\fR > > Please get this garbage off the net! We're carrying on a serious technical > discussion here and we don't need this sort of facetious drivel [...] The more interesting question is do you want to see this sort of drivel in a supposedly well-respected academic journal? If anybody doesn't know what I'm talking about, take a peek at the latest CACM. -- Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 ==================================================== Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!ogg!spencer From: spencer@ogg.cgrg.ohio-state.edu (PROCEED) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin Message-ID: <1109@ogg.cgrg.ohio-state.edu> Date: 2 Mar 88 19:41:03 GMT References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <3170@phri.UUCP> Organization: YOUR OWN RISK. Lines: 25 In article <3170@phri.UUCP>, roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes: > > The more interesting question is do you want to see this sort of > drivel in a supposedly well-respected academic journal? If anybody doesn't > know what I'm talking about, take a peek at the latest CACM. > -- It first appeared in the 1987 ACM SIGGRAPH proceedings. Good for a chuckle or two, but, like you said, not really what is expected of an academic journal. How about "The Journal of Irreproducible Results"?? -- "I feel like I'm stranded on a sandbar..." Stephen Spencer, Graduate Student | The Computer Graphics Research Group | {cbosgd,ucbvax}!osu-cis!ogg!spencer The Ohio State University | spencer@ogg.cgrg.ohio-state.edu 1501 Neil Avenue, Columbus OH 43210 | ==================================================== Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!ut-sally!utah-cs!cai.utah.edu!b-davis From: b-davis%cai.utah.edu@utah-cs.UUCP (Brad Davis) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin Message-ID: <5304@utah-cs.UUCP> Date: 3 Mar 88 02:09:22 GMT References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <3170@phri.UUCP> <1109@ogg.cgrg.ohio-state.edu> Sender: news@utah-cs.UUCP Reply-To: b-davis%cai.utah.edu.UUCP@utah-cs.UUCP (Brad Davis) Organization: University of Utah VCIS Group Lines: 20 In article <1109@ogg.cgrg.ohio-state.edu> spencer@ogg.cgrg.ohio-state.edu (PROCEED) writes: >In article <3170@phri.UUCP>, roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes: >> >> The more interesting question is do you want to see this sort of >> drivel in a supposedly well-respected academic journal? If anybody doesn't >> know what I'm talking about, take a peek at the latest CACM. >> -- > >It first appeared in the 1987 ACM SIGGRAPH proceedings. Good for a chuckle >or two, but, like you said, not really what is expected of an academic >journal. How about "The Journal of Irreproducible Results"?? Oh, come on. The ACM seems to be the only professional organization (academic or otherwise) that can laugh at itself and its industry. Now if the IEEE could do something with its elections :-) P.S. Displaying realistic foods is difficult. Brad Davis {ihnp4, decvax, seismo}!cs.utah.edu!cai.utah.edu!b-davis b-davis@cs.utah.edu, b-davis@cai.utah.edu One drunk driver can ruin your whole day. ==================================================== Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ptsfa!pacbell!att-ih!ihnp4!ttrdc!ttrde!ttrdf!kosugi From: kosugi@ttrdf.UUCP (Irving C. Moy) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin Message-ID: <336@ttrdf.UUCP> Date: 3 Mar 88 15:57:16 GMT References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <3170@phri.UUCP> Organization: AT&T, Skokie, IL Lines: 32 Summary: Maybe you had to be there... In article <3170@phri.UUCP>, roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes: > ph@degas.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Paul Heckbert) writes: > > > \fINew technology is presented for imaging a restricted class of > > > dessert foods.\fR > > > > Please get this garbage off the net! We're carrying on a serious technical > > discussion here and we don't need this sort of facetious drivel [...] > > The more interesting question is do you want to see this sort of > drivel in a supposedly well-respected academic journal? If anybody doesn't > know what I'm talking about, take a peek at the latest CACM. > -- > Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy > System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute > 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 This paper was presented at SIGGRAPH '87 in Anaheim, CA and the audience (including myself) thought it was rather amusing. Maybe it's funnier after you've been sitting in a dark arena for what seems to be eons, listening to *serious* papers being presented. Kinda' breaks up the routine, ya' know. :-):-):-) I admit that its publication in CACM may have been a mistake since the humor is not readily apparent in that context. Maybe the editors were trying to "lighten-up" the tone of CACM. Oh well, at least they tried. Irv Moy mail address: UNKNOWN since I am changing employers Disclaimer: If I knew what I was doing, I'd be dangerous. Besides, do you really think AT&T would let ME represent them??? ==================================================== Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!tekcrl!tekirl!peterh From: peterh@tekirl.TEK.COM (Peter Hildebrandt) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin Message-ID: <1184@tekirl.TEK.COM> Date: 4 Mar 88 01:39:47 GMT References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Reply-To: peterh@tekirl.UUCP (Peter Hildebrandt) Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR. Lines: 29 In article <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> ph@degas.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Paul Heckbert) writes: >In article <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> madd@.UUCP (Jim Frost) writes: >>RAY TRACING JELL-O BRAND GELATIN >> >>\fINew technology is presented for imaging a restricted class of >>dessert foods.\fR >>... > >Please get this garbage off the net! We're carrying on a serious technical >discussion here and we don't need this sort of facetious drivel tying up the >phone lines and wasting my tax dollars!! > I disagree with your pompus attitude. I enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed the presentation of the same paper at Siggraph '87 during the course on ray-tracing. We computer graphics people often spend our day pouring over one boring paper after another, and occasionally need some relief from the tedium. Comic relief should be as much a part of your day as eating lunch. I'm delighted that our company spends money to keep the research from going to our heads. So lighten up, friend. Peter Hildebrandt Tek Labs ...tektronix!tekirl!peterh peterh@tekirl.TEK.COM p ==================================================== Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!batcomputer!sun!dave From: dave@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Dave Goldblatt) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin Message-ID: <480@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> Date: 2 Mar 88 15:59:31 GMT References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Reply-To: dave@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Dave Goldblatt) Followup-To: /dev/null Organization: Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY Lines: 46 In article <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> ph@degas.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Paul Heckbert) writes: >In article <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> madd@.UUCP (Jim Frost) writes: >>RAY TRACING JELL-O BRAND GELATIN >> >>\fINew technology is presented for imaging a restricted class of >>dessert foods.\fR >>... > >Please get this garbage off the net! We're carrying on a serious technical >discussion here and we don't need this sort of facetious drivel tying up the >phone lines and wasting my tax dollars!! > Considering you're on the Internet, the lines would be tied up anyway. That's what they are there for. What do your tax dollars have to do with it? I for one found the posting to be quite amusing, and would like to thank Jim for posting it! :-) > >What I want to know is: > Is that a question or a statement? > (1) Does anyone have an implementation of GKS for the EGA board > in 8008 assembler? God, I hope not. I haven't seen an 8008 machine in 10 years. Didn't even know they have EGA support on them! Send all responses to /dev/null. -dg- Internet: dave@sun.soe.clarkson.edu BITNET: dave@CLUTX.Bitnet uucp: {rpics, gould}!clutx!dave Matrix: Dave Goldblatt @ 1:260/360 "All the world's indeed a stage And we are merely players Performers and portrayers Each another's audience Outside the gilded cage" -- "Limelight", Rush ==================================================== Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!Edwin_V_Post From: Edwin_V_Post@cup.portal.com Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin Message-ID: <3662@cup.portal.com> Date: 4 Mar 88 18:11:15 GMT References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <3170@phri.UUCP> <1109@ogg.cgrg.ohio-state.edu> <3464@watcgl.waterloo.edu> Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 10 XPortal-User-Id: 1.1001.2858 Paul Heckbert -- for a while, I thought that "Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin" was the funniest thing that's hit computer graphics since "The Fun of Interactive Computer Graphics" by Foliage and Pan-Am a few years back. I was wrong. The funniest thing is your "get this drivel off the net" article -- pure artistry. I especially like the outraged responses which defend you against yourself. Keep up the good work. By the way, I'm the only person in the world who knows the real point-in- polygon algorithm, and I'm not telling. -Ed Post ==================================================== Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!agate!saturn!skinner From: skinner@saturn.ucsc.edu (Robert Skinner) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin Message-ID: <2201@saturn.ucsc.edu> Date: 4 Mar 88 16:47:34 GMT References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <1184@tekirl.TEK.COM> Organization: U.C. Santa Cruz, CIS/CE. Lines: 40 Summary: Pay Attention! In article <1184@tekirl.TEK.COM>, peterh@tekirl.TEK.COM (Peter Hildebrandt) writes: > In article <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> ph@degas.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Paul Heckbert) writes: > >>\fINew technology is presented for imaging a restricted class of > >>dessert foods.\fR > >>... > > > >Please get this garbage off the net! We're carrying on a serious technical > >discussion here and we don't need this sort of facetious drivel tying up the > >phone lines and wasting my tax dollars!! > > > > I disagree with your pompus attitude. > > So lighten up, friend. > Lighten up yourself. (You were at Siggraph, you should know.) If you look closely you will see that Paul Heckbert WROTE the ray-tracing Jello article and PRESENTED it at Siggraph. If you had read all of his article, you could see that it was obviously tongue-in-cheek. (intensity = sin(R)+atanh(G)*log(B) !?!?!?, come on) I guess that Paul presumed he didn't need the smiley faces, because people would be more alert. While I'm talking about it, I thought that the Jello article was well done, and the presentation well done and humorous. I wonder though, if it displaced anyone who would have presented a serious and valueable paper. A paper that someone worked hard on to finish by the Siggraph deadline. I also wonder if the same paper/presentation would have been accepted if the author had not been well known and had not worked for Pixar. I enjoyed all the Jello stuff. I just think that there was a more appropriate place for it at Siggraph. Its almost sure to start a trend, what will be the selection criteria for humorous articles? --------------------- Robert Skinner skinner@saturn.ucsc.edu ==================================================== Article 1880 of comp.graphics: Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!dciem!king From: king@dciem.UUCP (Stephen King) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin Message-ID: <2690@dciem.UUCP> Date: 9 Mar 88 18:05:53 GMT Article-I.D.: dciem.2690 Posted: Wed Mar 9 13:05:53 1988 References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Reply-To: king@dciem.UUCP (Stephen King) Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada Lines: 50 Summary: In article <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> ph@degas.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Paul Heckbert) writes: >In article <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> madd@.UUCP (Jim Frost) writes: >>RAY TRACING JELL-O BRAND GELATIN >>... > >Please get this garbage off the net! We're carrying on a serious technical >discussion here and we don't need this sort of facetious drivel tying up the *****FLAME ON*** Go soak your head. I got a real laugh out of the referenced posting and I resent you making yourself out to be some net-god with comments like those above. Rendering substances such as Jello creates problems which have real- world significance. A light hearted, even outlandish, approach can stimulate thought and sometimes leads to novel solutions. *****FLAME OFF*** > (1) Does anyone have an implementation of GKS for the EGA board > in 8008 assembler? ^^^^ 8088 assumed. Why spend so much effort on a machine with such miserable graphics performance? Get a REAL graphics engine instead. > (2) I just bought an Apple II and I want to know how to > get NTSC video out of it so I can make great films like Luxo Jr. You will never get Luxo Jr. quality with this approach. NTSC resolution is too low (you need AT LEAST 1k x 1k resolution, preferrable 2k x 2k or even 4k x 4k, available from Dicomed film recorders etc.) Furthermore, the Apple would probably take a great deal of time to render a single frame. For the sake of argument, let's say 24 hours per frame (it may be 2x or 3x this). At motion picture frame rate (24fps), that's 24 days to render one second of playback time. Thus, a fifteen second short would require almost a year of constant computing to produce. Hardly worth the effort. > (3) What's the formula to convert RGB to luminance? E'y = 0.30E'r + 0.59E'g + 0.11E'b E' denote gamma-corrected signals y represents luminance r - red, g - green, b - blue > I've been using sin(R)+atanh(G)*log(B), but I'm getting strange results. No wonder. -- * Defence & Civil Institute * {decvax|ihnp4|watmath}!utzoo!dciem!king * of Environmental Medicine * or uwbeaver!utcsri!dciem!king - Simulation & Training Group - or uunet!mnetor!dciem!king (may or may not endorse my opinions) or dciem!king@zorac.arpa ==================================================== Article 1885 of comp.graphics: Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!gatech!udel!burdvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!cadovax!gryphon!richard From: richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin Message-ID: <2808@gryphon.CTS.COM> Date: 8 Mar 88 18:01:09 GMT References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <1184@tekirl.TEK.COM> Reply-To: richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) Organization: Trailing Edge Technology, Redondo Beach, CA Lines: 31 Keywords: Gullible imps, arn't they Paul ? In article <1184@tekirl.TEK.COM> peterh@tekirl.UUCP (Peter Hildebrandt) writes: >In article <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> ph@degas.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Paul Heckbert) writes: >>In article <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> madd@.UUCP (Jim Frost) writes: >>>RAY TRACING JELL-O BRAND GELATIN >>> >>>\fINew technology is presented for imaging a restricted class of >>>dessert foods.\fR >>>... >> >>Please get this garbage off the net! We're carrying on a serious technical >>discussion here and we don't need this sort of facetious drivel tying up the >>phone lines and wasting my tax dollars!! >> > >I disagree with your pompus attitude. I enjoyed reading this article as I agree with Paul. More pompousity. >much as I enjoyed the presentation of the same paper at Siggraph '87 during >the course on ray-tracing. I see. And who presented the paper you heard, Peter ? (And peter...the guy who took your ticket was Robin Wiliams) -- "...(alright Nils, alright)..." richard@gryphon.CTS.COM {ihnp4!scgvaxd!cadovax, rutgers!marque, codas!ddsw1} gryphon!richard ==================================================== Article 1887 of comp.graphics: Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!att-ih!pacbell!ames!hao!husc6!bbn!rochester!PT.CS.CMU.EDU!andrew.cmu.edu!cc4b+ From: cc4b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Christopher Brian Cox) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin Message-ID: Date: 9 Mar 88 16:06:22 GMT Organization: Carnegie Mellon University Lines: 16 In-Reply-To: <480@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> >. . . >> (1) Does anyone have an implementation of GKS for the EGA board >> in 8008 assembler? > >God, I hope not. I haven't seen an 8008 machine in 10 years. Didn't even >know they have EGA support on them! > . . . Things must be pretty bad when you get serous replies to joke questions. Please, re-read that response to the article. Note the author (of the response). Look familiar? I too found the post amusing, and already thanked Paul Heckbert for writing it. -Chris Cox ==================================================== Article 1889 of comp.graphics: Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!att-ih!pacbell!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!degas.Berkeley.EDU!ph From: ph@degas.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Heckbert) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin Summary: death to :-) Message-ID: <23252@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: 9 Mar 88 22:45:29 GMT References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <1184@tekirl.TEK.COM> <2201@saturn.ucsc.edu> Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: ph@degas.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Paul Heckbert) Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 41 Keywords: In <2201@saturn.ucsc.edu> skinner@saturn.ucsc.edu (Robert Skinner) writes: > I guess that Paul presumed he didn't need the smiley faces, because > people would be more alert. Yes, we're all intelligent readers here, right? (yuk yuk). I don't understand why some USENET folks are so fond of their :-)'s and those silly *stars*, anyway. I find these "netiquette" affectations simply repulsive. The English language is perfectly adequate as is. If I had used the oral equivalent of :-)'s during my presentation of the Jell-O paper at SIGGRAPH it would have spoiled a lot of the fun. For example, a Japanese guy came up to me at a reception the evening after the talk and said "I enjoyed your talk today, but I didn't follow your derivation of the Jell-O Equation". I had to explain that the whole thing was a joke. Seriously! > ... I wonder though, if it displaced anyone who would have presented > a serious and valueable paper. No, I did not want to displace a serious paper. The SIGGRAPH technical committee waited until all of the other papers were selected before deciding on mine. They accepted it only after long debate, apparently, on the strict conditions that I hold the printed version to 2 pages and the presentation to 10-15 minutes (both of which I adhered to). The best surprise was the limited-edition Jell-O t-shirt that Turner Whitted presented to me after the talk. On the back it said (what else?): "There's always room for Jell-O". I've heard that one joke paper was submitted to SIGGRAPH this year, but I don't know what its chances of acceptance are. Paul Heckbert ph@degas.berkeley.edu PS: If you enjoy allegorical parodies like the Jell-O paper, be sure to check out the books by Tom Weller: "SCIENCE MADE STUPID" and "CVLTVRE MADE STUPID". I used the former for style reference while writing Jell-O. PPS: As Tom Weller would say: OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR. ==================================================== Article 1892 of comp.graphics: Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!dciem!king From: king@dciem.UUCP (Stephen King) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Jell-O (I must be stupid) Message-ID: <2692@dciem.UUCP> Date: 10 Mar 88 13:15:16 GMT Article-I.D.: dciem.2692 Posted: Thu Mar 10 08:15:16 1988 References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <3170@phri.UUCP> <1109@ogg.cgrg.ohio-state.edu> <3464@watcgl.waterloo.edu> Reply-To: king@dciem.UUCP (Stephen King) Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada Lines: 10 Summary: In article <3464@watcgl.waterloo.edu> ksbooth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Kelly Booth) writes: >4. People do realize that the first complaint on the original posting >was made by Paul Heckbert, the author of the article in question? > AARGH. Do I feel dumb. Apologies to all. I missed the best part of the joke. -- * Defence & Civil Institute * {decvax|ihnp4|watmath}!utzoo!dciem!king * of Environmental Medicine * or uwbeaver!utcsri!dciem!king - Simulation & Training Group - or uunet!mnetor!dciem!king (may or may not endorse my opinions) or dciem!king@zorac.arpa ==================================================== Article 1932 of comp.graphics: Path: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!pixar!bp From: bp@pixar.uucp (Bruce Perens) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: the joke's on Paul (was Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin) Message-ID: <1562@pixar.UUCP> Date: 13 Mar 88 20:16:27 GMT References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <3170@phri.UUCP> <1109@ogg.cgrg.ohio-state.edu> <3464@watcgl.waterloo.edu> <3662@cup.portal.com> Sender: news@pixar.UUCP Reply-To: bp@pixar.uucp (Bruce Perens) Organization: Pixar -- Marin County, California Lines: 3 Long after everyone's forgotten all of Paul's serious professional papers, "Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin" will live on. I guess the joke's on him. bp ==================================================== 1/1/00 copied this file from http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/cwis/research/graphics/CGRG.FUN/jell-o.saga -ph