The collected works of foetz - Page 14

seems i forgot the info above so here it is a little later
the 20mb are the / partition if the usr template of fx is used.

dbx is separate but should work correctly anyway.

dbx is the official irix debugger and works fine with up to the r16k

that's definitely one of the worst screenshots i've ever seen

oh i meant the image quality not the content

it's not part of mipspro but still the debugger from sgi hence "official".

welcome to the forum katzmandu. seems it took you a while to finally post something but that's a worthy entry for sure
assuming the system powers up how about hooking up a serial cable and checking hinv?

you might need to set one or more of the 4 boot related prom variables:


to do so hit esc right after pushing the power button so it doesn't boot. instead you're in the "basic" menu now. there press 5 which leads to the intial command prompt.
there you can check and set those variables as needed. check your scsi ids via "hinv" and use "printenv" to see how it's set now. then use "setenv variable blablabla" to set the stuff. it follows csh syntax.

i'd try one board at a time. eventually the same with the ram sets. it's nasty but the only proper way to track down errors

delete kernname and remove the slash from unix


lose the c:

either way, from inside sash try:

obj shouldn't lose anything if your geometry is correct.
anyway the important question is from what to what do you wanna convert? programs i mean.

time for another journey to the pioneer days of cgi


with greets from my 2.1GB scsi1 disk here comes the wavefront advanced visualizer (tav) in version 3.0.1. it's from 1992 and was shipped with a set of 3 ringbook manuals. it's completely coff so the max. irix version it runs on is 5.3 (6.0 with the coff trick might work as well).

tav consists of several independent programs which can however be linked to some extend so that updates made in one of them shows up in the others instantly. the "central" so to say was the director. there one could create and manage global projects and start the individual programs. all programs started from within the director were linked so as soon as something was saved in one of them the others were updated, too. the programs included were:
- model
- preview
- image
- display
- property
- composer
- advanced paint

model should be quite obvious yes, you guessed it, this is the very origin of the famous obj file format which still is the most compatible and supported geometry format in history. model doesn't have a project file but just saves its geometry as obj just like lightwave for example. it's also used for materials and texture placement.
in model the whole workflow is built around groups. there is no object level but you only have either point or element (polygon) groups. all operations apply to the currently active group. the feature set was quite impressive for its time and the selection of features is well thought through meaning it pretty much has exactly what you need. in addition it has a quick preview render feature with region support, quad or single 3d viewports and very well designed hidden line and shading modes. from poly to nurbs, all curve and geometry types are supported.

preview is a sort of misleading name because it's actually the scene setup and animation program. once you're done in model head over to preview and load your obj files. unlike model preview is not based on groups but objects (once more like lightwave). for that there is a central objects list which takes a bit to get comfy with at first. and again as prisms preview does everything else via channels which need to be saved before switching the tool otherwise the changes are not kept. to make that easier there's an auto save function for channels.
unlike most of the other tav programs preview has its own project file which is what you load into the renderer (image) once you're ready for a first try.

image which also might make you rather think of an imageviwer is the actual renderer. just load the preview project file and set the options. it's an enhanced scanline renderer with raytracing and a few other extras. it's very fast and the results are pretty smooth looking.

display is actually what one would think: display images. not much to tell here. select the pic, set the options and push the button

property is the material, light, atmosphere and background editor. it produces not only the well known mtl files but also extra files for all 4 sections. regarding the options and features i'd say it standard. nothing great but not much missing either. and of course, as the other programs it's damn fast. no idea why i didn't make a pic of that but i'll add one later.

composer and advanced paint are not original parts of tav but have been added later. advanced paint outlived tav and was later supplied with a number of Alias|Wavefront apps called "viz paint". that one was different from the other tav programs and sort of unique to handle. no standards in operations as you might know them from other programs so it took a bit to get into it.
composer is not really a shared program like the others but only offers a rendering option for image (and later TDI explore (which wavefront bought)). however despite the lack of integration it's a great compositing program which looked already like everything looked like later after sgi bought and merged wavefront technologies and alias research. iirc it was the last survivor of all wavefront heritage and has even been renamed to "maya composer" once maya was out. late versions had the OptiFX stuff from alias included so it's a good way to get the neat glows, lights and lens flares from alias without having to render them out in poweranimator or maya.

just like prisms tav programs could be run completely in command mode. that was either possible from within the graphical program or in pure terminal mode. for every button there's also a command and the user is free to use whatever he prefers. that also goes for entering values which is done in a quite neat way. for example when you scale or translate something you can either use the mouse or just type ahead and press enter no matter where your cursor is. that gives a very free and creative feeling.
tav was quite picky when it came to folders. some loading procedures did not allow changing the dir or use a full path so you had to start the programs from within your project root to be on the safe side. it also supported a high number of env. variables. probably more than most other programs i used so a properly set up shell was mandatory.
one of the strong points of tav was and still is the ui. i've never seen a more elegant and faster one. it's not only extremely fast but also very smooth and has that noble style. that also includes the interactive behavior of the menus and whatever else is involved. back when it was current and thinking of the prices those things did cost including the sgi machine; somebody starting it after spending so many bucks did really feel like they had something very posh.


i guess that should do it for now. hope you liked the little blast from the past
will see what else i got and post a little more about the other stuff as well ...


EDIT: property pic added. it's not from version 3.0.1 but it's almost the same so should be okay to get an impression.

yeah things from before everybody had internet are not so well known. it was axed around 1996 or so in favor of the alias product line which a number of users regretted. as mentioned composer and viz paint lived on for a little longer under the Alias|Wavefront label.

it's been asked for in the first post of this thread btw but the OP wasn't here for 3 years unfortunately hehe

first of all, is "urchin" unix?

that sounds pretty much like an external issue. how about adding more servers to your resolv.conf?

before this turns into a "which cad do you like best" thread, how about posting a few pics and some info about an old irix cad program?

the only real change was GI which could be simulated by clever light placement before to some degree (much faster rendering as well).
the big difference are the textures; those were often smaller and not so detailed but an old program with today's textures looks just as nice as a "modern" app.
poweranimator's renderer for example is still better than maya's might ever be so as usual it's up to the artist and not so much depending on the software.

assuming skills are there you can produce the 90s look with modern apps and a modern look with old apps and so on ...

yeah mental ray is better. i meant maya's default renderer. however mental ray is so slow so it's not a real option

most 3d packages are something like 200-300MB depending on what you install (additional bonus textures, plugins with deps and stuff).
but those are the fat ones already. older or smaller ones don't cross the 3 digit MB mark at all.

hehe with other renderers those are even faster. mental ray is slow in comparison, no matter where you run it.

my words exactly


not always but i find myself thinking that more and more often

well the other renderers don't look bad either. each has its pros and cons.

it's not the monitor but the vpro. i noticed it right after getting my first one back then. the monitor settings don't matter. i had a number of different setups and switched between different platforms; still always the same result: looks best on the vpro.
never digged deeper but for some reason stuff on the vpro just looks extra nice. as hamei said it's not something specific but the overall look.

i also had several cases where clients said that it looked much better when they've seen it at my place.

haha, no worries, i meant other renderers for irix

yeah i still have it. an ir2e to be precise.
well as i said, vpro looks best but in certain cases the fill rate of the ir is just amazing. but if it's only about display quality the award goes to the vpro. never seen a more vibrant output and by that i don't mean vibrant as used in regard to tfts but natural, great colors and overall looks. hooking up the ir to the same monitor it looks a bit dull in comparison. far from bad but just not as neat as the vpro.


haha yeah the pic nails it

nice just like mine only you got more ram

heheeh that's usually the case for everyone

anyway it gets nasty when you're testing materials or lights and need a test render often.

hehe again, it's about relative speed. i only said that mental ray is slow in comparison hence it doesn't matter how many cpus you use because other renderers will always be faster.

did you try to include sys/types.h in the file in question?

try moving it up in the include list or copy the parts you need from the include file and copy them in the affected files.

yeah, however under certain circumstances that can happen even if the files are not wrong per se. i encountered that on different operating systems in the past

comes to mind indeed:-/

terrific


ha congrats! great to have one more addition to the arsenal, especially one that's not plug & play.

what window manager is that btw? looks sort of wrong lol

this one is really nice: http://www.infoworld.com/print/151276

no doubt vi is *the* standard.
as for sudo, the idea itself of becoming root without having the root password is really silly so i totally agree with the article.

great stuff as always