CAPTAIN KIRK AND HTFLDS

From           kcarring@cln.etc.bc.ca (Ken Carrington)
Organization   The Education Technology Centre of British Columbia. (Canada)
Date           Tue, 12 Mar 1996 23:35:43 GMT
Newsgroups     comp.graphics.rendering.raytracing
Message-ID     <1996Mar12.233543.1191@news.etc.bc.ca>
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Stardate: 12.03.96
Galaxy  : Milky Way
Planet  : Earth
DataMode: World Wide Web, The Internet


Captains Log : Captain James T. Kirk


 While questing through a databank known on Earth as the UseNet,
I discovered word of a most promising new Terraforming utility. I had
posted a message on recent progress that Scotty and I had made in regards
to using imagery for the sake of terraforming a new planet, when a
most kind Earthling redirected my search to a new URL known as:

http://jump.stanford.edu:8080/beale/gforge

Immediately I took interest. It claimed that contrary to Scotty's
and my own beliefs - we had been working in an 8 bit system and the
true 16 bit system was only a download away. To recap the conversation:

Kirk>   "If theres a better way - than we had better get a hold of the
         data."


Scotty> "I'm tryin sir, but the lines 'er all busy, and we've
         such a slow connection, sir."


Later that evening a connection was established and we began our search.



Scotty> "Captain, I think you'd better have a look at this, sir."

Kirk>   "What does it all mean, Scott?"

Scotty> "What it means, sir, is we're onta a better system. This chap
         is way ahead of us on this stuff sir. I believe he's discovered
         a series of intahrelated algerithms for 16 bit height fields,
         sir. With this, sir, It might be quite be possible to harness
         the powers of terraformation on a mere PC."

Kirk>   "Well download the data and have it on my machine in my quarters
         in 2 minutes."

Scotty> "But Captain, your talkin' as if we've a T1 connection - its simply
         not possible - I need a half hour."

Kirk>   "Alright then Scott - a half hour."



I returned to my quarters, and shortly after the new program was in my
machine loaded - ready to go. What a relief! It was a command line program
- just like the old ones I was so used to and comfortable working with.
No huge graphical help files to pour through and mouse driven menus to hide
its power. Within minutes after typing help - It became evident that it would
only take one word - a single word to release its power,,,,,,,


                             GFORGE


So I typed it. The program churned away for a few seconds then did nothing.
Remembering the help file - I typed:



                              VIEW



Suddenly a 3D view of a 16 bit heightfield poured down the screen. It nearly
continued on to tear the scalp from my head!!! Amazing!!! There were so many
other possibles as well - cratering, scaling, joining fields together. All
compatible with our onboard renderer - PoV Ray. Now the terraformation could
take new leaps and bounds....Silently Scott watched behind me - I didn't even
know he was there...


Kirk>   "Scotty!!! This is fantastic. What do you make of all this?"

Scotty> "Well... It looks very, very interesting - sir."

Kirk>   "Scott you sound unsure of something, what is it?"

Scotty> "Well the program looks great sir. So powerfull and flexible...
         but I almost sure we're going to need more RAM sir. We simply
         don't have the power."




+++++++++++Thats it folks! check it out its great!++++++++++++++++++=

Kyle Carrington
kcarring@clnetc.bc.ca