philipj Posted May 2, 2010 Share Posted May 2, 2010 Here's a neat little article I ran into a few weeks back... Does anyone remember this article and has anyone ever done any Raytracing on the 8-bit computers at all? I know I've seen some 3D demos on youtube, but has anyone ever did any kind of raytracing? Hard Wired Raytracing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted May 2, 2010 Share Posted May 2, 2010 Here's a neat little article I ran into a few weeks back... Does anyone remember this article and has anyone ever done any Raytracing on the 8-bit computers at all? I know I've seen some 3D demos on youtube, but has anyone ever did any kind of raytracing? Hard Wired Raytracing I did some raytracing on some workstations for a computer graphics class in college but never attempted it on an 8 bit. It took long enough on the workstations. You could do it on an 8 bit but it would take forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CharlieChaplin Posted May 2, 2010 Share Posted May 2, 2010 (edited) Well, I know many raytracing demos for the A8 but only one raytracing (calculating?) program. It is called "Atari Raytracer" by Karl Pelzer. I never used this program, thus I am not sure if it really calculates raytracing stuff or if it simply uses pre-calculated / converted pictures. Anyways, most A8 raytracing demos were converted from the ST or Amiga and do require XRAM (128k, 320k or even 1MB), only a few demos work on 64k Atari XL/XE computers... Ray1MBxx: (where xx is disk and side number): This demo uses various Gr. 15 screens converted from Amiga or Atari ST, it requires 1 Megabyte of XRAM though (think there are better demos which do require less RAM)... Ray320k: This one uses Gr. 8 screens and requires 320k memory (256k XRAM, blocks 8ACE as in AM/TOMS/Newell/Rambo/etc.), the effect is quite simple but okayish... RayAnim: There are three different animations by Karl Pelzer in Gr. 8 resolution, type a) 1,2 or 3 to choose the animation then type b) 1, 2, 3 or 4 to choose the speed; should run on 64k or 128k machines... Ray128k: A raytracing demo named "Landscape" by Karl Pelzer with Gr. 9+11 (256-colour) pictures, it uses only 4 pics for the animation; alas, the graphics have quite some high flicker and the ani requires a 128k machine... Shiny bubbles: A raytracing demo with 10 animated pictures, requires 128k to run... Demos14: Raytracing XL, a raytracing demo ripped from the C64, thus 64k RAM is enough... Demos15: Shiny Bubbles with half screen resolution, therefore runs on a 64k machine... WAF-Demo: Side B, boot without Basic, press START for the next part - there is one raytracing part, that uses Gr. 9+11 and requires 128k to run... Raytracx.ATR: Atari-Raytracer by Karl Pelzer, written in TB XL and german language, works on 64k or 128k machines (includes some sample pics)... Besides these, I also created lots of TIP-Animations that show raytracing (but like the name says, these are only 256-colour pictures converted from GIF animations into TIP animations)... -Andreas Koch. atari_raytracer.zip ray_demos.zip tip_ani_raytracing.zip Edited May 2, 2010 by CharlieChaplin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted May 3, 2010 Share Posted May 3, 2010 Now that I think about it, you'd need a lot of memory to render a picture of any complexity. Not something 8 bits are good at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philipj Posted May 3, 2010 Author Share Posted May 3, 2010 Here's a neat little article I ran into a few weeks back... Does anyone remember this article and has anyone ever done any Raytracing on the 8-bit computers at all? I know I've seen some 3D demos on youtube, but has anyone ever did any kind of raytracing? Hard Wired Raytracing I did some raytracing on some workstations for a computer graphics class in college but never attempted it on an 8 bit. It took long enough on the workstations. You could do it on an 8 bit but it would take forever. I could only imagine... I remember reading books about how old raytracers would take up to 2 and 3 days to render stuff. Well, I know many raytracing demos for the A8 but only one raytracing (calculating?) program. It is called "Atari Raytracer" by Karl Pelzer. I never used this program, thus I am not sure if it really calculates raytracing stuff or if it simply uses pre-calculated / converted pictures. Anyways, most A8 raytracing demos were converted from the ST or Amiga and do require XRAM (128k, 320k or even 1MB), only a few demos work on 64k Atari XL/XE computers... Ray1MBxx: (where xx is disk and side number): This demo uses various Gr. 15 screens converted from Amiga or Atari ST, it requires 1 Megabyte of XRAM though (think there are better demos which do require less RAM)... Ray320k: This one uses Gr. 8 screens and requires 320k memory (256k XRAM, blocks 8ACE as in AM/TOMS/Newell/Rambo/etc.), the effect is quite simple but okayish... RayAnim: There are three different animations by Karl Pelzer in Gr. 8 resolution, type a) 1,2 or 3 to choose the animation then type b) 1, 2, 3 or 4 to choose the speed; should run on 64k or 128k machines... Ray128k: A raytracing demo named "Landscape" by Karl Pelzer with Gr. 9+11 (256-colour) pictures, it uses only 4 pics for the animation; alas, the graphics have quite some high flicker and the ani requires a 128k machine... Shiny bubbles: A raytracing demo with 10 animated pictures, requires 128k to run... Demos14: Raytracing XL, a raytracing demo ripped from the C64, thus 64k RAM is enough... Demos15: Shiny Bubbles with half screen resolution, therefore runs on a 64k machine... WAF-Demo: Side B, boot without Basic, press START for the next part - there is one raytracing part, that uses Gr. 9+11 and requires 128k to run... Raytracx.ATR: Atari-Raytracer by Karl Pelzer, written in TB XL and german language, works on 64k or 128k machines (includes some sample pics)... Besides these, I also created lots of TIP-Animations that show raytracing (but like the name says, these are only 256-colour pictures converted from GIF animations into TIP animations)... -Andreas Koch. Thanks a bunch... I'll give them a try on an emulator. It's neat to see someone one have tried their luck raytracing with the 8-bits. I've got any old 1200XL (keyboards' broken) and a 130XE (no power supply) I found at a local flea market, but I know very little about it's history in 3D usage. I'd like to try my luck with them someday. Now that I think about it, you'd need a lot of memory to render a picture of any complexity. Not something 8 bits are good at. I know... I was just curious if anyone tried their hand in raytracing for the old 8-bits. But I can certainly imagine how memory can all but detour someone from doing any serious raytracing. I guess the raytracing question was asked out of nostalgia, but still it seem like more would've evolved from the article. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted May 3, 2010 Share Posted May 3, 2010 Here's a neat little article I ran into a few weeks back... Does anyone remember this article and has anyone ever done any Raytracing on the 8-bit computers at all? I know I've seen some 3D demos on youtube, but has anyone ever did any kind of raytracing? Hard Wired Raytracing I did some raytracing on some workstations for a computer graphics class in college but never attempted it on an 8 bit. It took long enough on the workstations. You could do it on an 8 bit but it would take forever. I could only imagine... I remember reading books about how old raytracers would take up to 2 and 3 days to render stuff. That was on 16/32 bit processors that support megabytes of RAM. It would be worse on 8 bits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted May 3, 2010 Share Posted May 3, 2010 I remember reading books about how old raytracers would take up to 2 and 3 days to render stuff. I have done CGI for televisions with Amiga and waited weeks to render stuff... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philipj Posted May 3, 2010 Author Share Posted May 3, 2010 I remember reading books about how old raytracers would take up to 2 and 3 days to render stuff. I have done CGI for televisions with Amiga and waited weeks to render stuff... Yea I've been there too... I did a three minute architectual walk through using about 16 workstations on campus. Of course this was back in 2005 using 3D Viz (a watered down version of 3D Max) with radiocity turned on. I remember the room would get so hot, I'd had to step out of there because it was a summertime... All of the fans in the PCs were running. It took about a good 2 or three weeks to render, I was a work-study student so I could render things when classes weren't in session including weekends, but I figured I had too many details 3D house like furniture and other little details. Of course I can't imagine an 8-bit to do anything like that... That's just unrealistic. But to see some kind of 3D work done on an 8-bit is a novelty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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