World of Commodore Amiga Show Report Part 6, Interviews on Show Floor by Dan Zerkle This is part 6 of my report from the World of Commodore Amiga show held in Pasadena, California, on September 10th, 11th, and 12th. This section details interviews I conducted at the booths on the show floor. I will continue to post sections each night or so until I finish. There should be at least two more sections. READER COMMENTS First, some comments from the readers about previous sections of this report. From Yves Perrenoud (pyves@nuga.alphanet.ch) comes this comment about the sound on MPEG discs: ----------- (BEGIN QUOTE) ------------- The sound from the MPEG disks is compressed using a standard similar to the one used for the MiniDisk (ATRAC : Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding). It is based on physiological studies of the human ear (it's sensitivity varies according to frequency). ------------ (END QUOTE) -------------- He had a lot more to say about this. That was the short version. For the long version, contact him at his e-mail address. One of those "three guys" who ended up the the motel with Harv and me wrote to explain who they were: ----------- (BEGIN QUOTE) ------------- Steve Herring - Producer Anthony Fiarito - Grip Chris Hufnagel (me, chuff@ee.pdx.edu) - Grip The show we were taping is called "Cyberspace 3-D" and deals with all aspects of technology (Even Amiga). We did interviews of many people and products at the WOC. Did some taping at JPL. Did a taping at Virtual Worlds (Robotech center) and got cancelled for Foundation Imaging. The show will air in Portland, OR, Virginia (?), New York, and other places. If you need more info let me know and I'll get you the e-mail address of the producer. ------------ (END QUOTE) -------------- PORTAL COMMUNICATIONS Well, Portal didn't have a booth at WOCA. They did, however, send Harv Laser, so I'd better mention them. Portal is an online service. It has file download areas, message areas, and online chat. It offers full-blown access to Internet services such as Usenet, electronic mail, ftp, Internet relay chat, telnet, and so forth. If you are a North American without access to all these, Portal is probably the best way to get them. In addition, a large part of Portal, called the "Amiga Zone," is dedicated to Amiga users. The Amiga Zone has various important Amiga personalities online, and you can "chat" with them online. It also has a vendor area dedicated to companies that sell Amiga products. It has a large collection of Amiga files for download, including the entire Fred Fish collection. Best of all, it carries comp.sys.amiga.announce. Portal costs $19.95 per month, plus a one-time startup charge of $19.95. You can connect to it through Tymnet, Sprintnet, or the Internet (via telnet). There is no "per-minute" fee, except any fee charged by your network. If you do join Portal, mention that it is because of the Amiga Zone. ANTI GRAVITY PRODUCTS I thought that this medium-sized booth was a just a dealer, as they had stacks of products from various companies for sale. I found that they were more when Jeremy Birn saw my badge and started describing their special products. "Snap Maps" are 24-bit IFF texture maps intended to be used in 3-D rendering programs. In addition to coloring polygons, they can cut out shapes of various objects. This saves a tremendous amount of time over modeling these object completely with polygons. There are two Snap Maps packages. the "Fields and Foliage" library has grass, ivy, leafy branches, flowers, and so on. The "Materials and Fabrics" library has cloth, wicker, nets, and other man-made stuff. I saw a couple pictures generated with the Maps. They were used to generate a picture of a fern leaf. It looked pretty good. Along the 3-D line, they also offered the Humanoid Human Animation Designer. This is a kit consisting of four 3-D models of the human form: a man, muscular man, woman, and child. These models are fully articulated and can be used to generate motion such as walking, running, changing facial expressions, and the like. I was quite impressed with the demonstrations of these models. This package contains the most realistic, detailed electronic model of the human body I've ever seen. WARM AND FUZZY LOGIC Warm and Fuzzy Logic had the most controversial product at the show. This product is "LightRave." It is a hardware module that allows you to run NewTek's 3D graphics package, LightWave, without the need for NewTek's Video Toaster. LightRave adds a few features to LightWave. With it, you can render to a normal Amiga screen or to a 24-bit graphics card. There is no trouble using it in PAL mode. It can render directly to GVP's ImageFX image processing program. It is faster than rendering with a Toaster installed. It will work with any Amiga computer with enough memory. Of course, to use this, you have to find a copy of LightWave somehow. EUPHONICS One of the most interesting new products at the show was the Lightworks Graphics Synthesizer from Euphonics. This is a hardware/software combination package that is a little hard to describe. It lets you engage in what I call "performance graphics". Basically, Lightworks lets you display actively changing graphics in conjunction with music. These graphics can be patterns, pictures, or anything you want. The graphics can change in response to scripts, audio input, MIDI input, or an active user. Many of the supplied patterns are intended to be genlocked over live video. The package includes a controller box with eight sliders. These can be used to control almost any part of the display. On display was one fancy geometric pattern changing its pallate in response to audio input. Another was a graphic display indicating the bass, midrange, and treble response to more music. The package is intended for music technicians and disk jockeys. You really have to see it to understand how it works. I have only mentioned a few of the features. In the hands of a capable artist, it could have considerable potential. ADDRESSES Anti Gravity Products 456 Lincoln Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90402 PHONE: 310/393-6650 FAX : 310/576-6383 Euphonics 138 North Main Street, Suite 111 Sebastopol, CA 95472 PHONE: 800/892-3325 Portal Communications Company 20863 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 200 Cupertino, CA 95014 PHONE : 408/973-9111 MODEM : 408/725-0561 V.32BIS : 408/973-8091 SPRINTNET: c Portal Warm and Fuzzy Logic, Inc. 2302 Marriot Road Richmond, VA 23229 PHONE: 804/285-4304