Realistic light points

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Simon Bennett (simonb++at++wormald.com.au)
Fri, 29 Jul 1994 20:04:47 +1000 (EST)

I'm currently evaluating solutions for an up and coming Image
Generator for a CAA Level 5 accredited simulator, and a sticking point
on offering a SGI Onyx RE^2/Performer based solution is the lightpoint
support currently availble in Performer. Size and brightness don't
vary with viewport size or distance from the eyepoint... which is not
acceptable for this particular application. I'd like to think that
this can be done with Performer but whether or not it's feasable for a
large(ish) number of lightpoints I'm not sure of... even at the GL
level it's not possible to change the point size for points within a
single bgnpoint()/endpoint() pair.. and even if it was, the point size
is still in pixels leaving the application to make the viewport and
ranging calculations...

With regard to this I've got some questions:

     i) Does anybody have any clues on what is "coming" for Performer
     lightpoint support in the future? And how far into the future?

     The man page for "pfLightPoint" uses the term "Currently, IRIS
     Performer does not...." indicating to me that, somebody, somewhere,
     is a least *thinking* about it.. If I could get some indication
     this would be a help as the actual implementation of this IG is
     still a ways off.. it's just that I've gotta know whether SGI
     hardware is in the game at all "real soon now"...

     ii) Has anybody out there actually implemented "realistic"
     lightpoints in an SGI/Performer based system or SGI/anything
     based system? In realtime at 30Hz (at least)?

           - this doesn't actually have to have been done with GL
           "points". I'm also interested in other ways of simulating
           lightpoint type effects as long as they aren't too
           expensive and meet the requirements.

     iii) Does anybody know of any other solutions like 3rd party
     hardware that could help with this problem?

     iv) Anything... at all.. that seems like it might be of use?

Copius amounts of thanx in advance to anyone kind enough to assist me in
this matter.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
    Simon Bennett simonb++at++wormald.com.au
    Wormald Technology Advanced Systems Engineering Ph: +61 2 981 0611 (x512)

"Business meetings are really very useful... For one thing they clearly demonstrate
 just how many people the company can do *without*"

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