Subject: (3 Oct 94) Computer Graphics Resource Listing : BIWEEKLY [part 4/6]

From: [email-masked] (Nick C. Fotis)
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 17:20:07 GMT

Archive-name: graphics/resources-list/part4
Last-modified: 1994/10/03

Computer Graphics Resource Listing : BIWEEKLY POSTING [ PART 4/6 ]
=====================================================
Last Change : 3 Octomber 1994

Subject:
10. Scene generators/geographical data/Maps/Data files
======================================================

DEMs (Digital Elevation Models)
-------------------------------
  DEMs (Digital Elevation Models) as well as other cartographic data
  [huge] is available from spectrum.xerox.com [192.70.225.78], /pub/map.

  Contact:
  Lee Moore -- Webster Research Center, Xerox Corp. --
  Voice: +1 (716) 422 2496
  Arpa, Internet:  [email-masked]
[ Check also on

 ncgia.ucsb.edu (128.111.254.105), /pub/dems
 glis.cr.usgs.gov (152.61.192.54)   (telnet.. login as guest)
 resdgs1.er.usgs.gov (130.11.52.55)  (lots of DEM files in /DEM)

-- nfotis ]

---

+  Also, there's a World Wide Web (WWW)  site for DEM, DLG, and other
+  digital data supplied by the USGS.  The agency is called EROS and
+  their home page is at http://sun1.cr.usgs.gov/eros-home.html.
+  The page for the digitial data is at
+  http://sun1.cr.usgs.gov/doc/edchome/ndcdb/ndcdb.html.  They
+  use imagemap to let users select data by clicking on various maps of the
+  US, which is a lot better than using the name of the 7.5 minute quads
+  to find digital data. They've also got other stuff there, but you
+  might want to check it out yourself.

---

  Many of these files are also available on CD-ROM selled by USGS:
  "1:2,000,000 scale  Digital Line Graph (DLG) Data". Contains datas
  for all 50 states. Price is about $28, call to or visit in offices
  in Menlo Park, in Reston, Virginia (800-USA-MAPS).
 
---

  The Data User Services Division of the Bureau of the Census also has
  data on CD-ROM (TSO standard format) that is derived from USGS
  1:100,000 map data. Call (301) 763-4100 for more info or they have
  a BBS at (301) 763-1568.

---

[ From Dr.Dobbs #198 March 1993: ]

      "The U.S. Defense Mapping Agency, in cooperation with their counterpart
agencies in CANADA, the U.K., and Australia, have released the Digital Chart
of the World (DCW). This chart consists of over 1.5 gigabytes of reasonable
quality vector data distributed on four CD-ROMS. .... includes coastlines,
rivers, roads, railrays, airports,cities, towns, spot elevations, and depths,
and over 100,000 place names."

It is ISO9660 compatible and only $200.00 available from:

U.S. Geological Survey
P.O. Box 25286
Denver Federal Center
Denver, CO 80225

Digital Distribution Services
Energy, Mines, and Resources Canada
615 Booth Street
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0E9 Canada

Director General of Military Survey
(Survey 3)
Elmwood Avenue
Feltham, Middlesex
TW13 7AH United Kingdom

Director of Survey, Australian Army
Department of Defense
Campbell Park Offices (CP2-4-24)
Campbell ACT 2601 Australia

------

Earth Coastlines
----------------
  These files are available by anonymous FTP from the SimTel Software
  Repository primary mirror site OAK.Oakland.Edu (141.210.10.117) and
  its mirrors.
  
  Directory pub/msdos/autocad/
   Filename   Type Length   Date    Description
  ==============================================
  wrldmaps.zip  B   64300  930826  Create maps in AutoCAD using WORLDMAP data
  
  Directory pub/msdos/worldmap/
   Filename   Type Length   Date    Description
  ==============================================
  africa.zip    B   52788  880514  World Maps for Africa - 1 of 7
  antarcti.zip  B   18702  880514  World Maps for Antarctica - 2 of 7
  asia.zip      B  110208  880514  World Maps for Asia - 3 of 7
  australi.zip  B   23215  880514  World Maps for Australia - 4 of 7
  europe.zip    B   95439  880514  World Maps for Europe - 5 of 7
  northame.zip  B  203291  880514  World Maps for North America - 6 of 7
  southame.zip  B   61503  880514  World Maps for South America - 7 of 7

Fractal Landscape Generators
----------------------------

Public Domain:
-------------

  Many people have written fractal landscape generators. for example
  for the Mac some of these generators were written by
  [email-masked] (Paul D. Bourke).
  Many of the programs are available from the FTP sites and mail
  archive servers. Check with Archie (a well known example is Fractint -
  besides fractal images, it generates height fields)

Commercial:
----------

  Vista Pro 3.0 for the Amiga from Virtual Reality Labs -- list price
  is about $100. Their address is:
	VRL
	2341 Ganador court
	San Luis Obispo,
	CA 93401
	Telephone or FAX (805) 545-8515

  Scenery Animator 4 (also for the Amiga) is of the same caliber with
  Vista Pro 3, plus animation support (VistaPro needs separate programs in
  order to make animations).
  Check with:
	Natural Graphics
	P.O. Box 1963
	Raklin, CA 95677
	Phone (916) 624-1436

  Don't forget to ask about companion programs and data disks/tapes.
  Both of these programs can read USGS DEMs, etc.

  Vista Pro 3 has been ported to the PCs.

CIA World Map II
----------------
[  NOTE: this database is quite out of date, and not topologically structured.
  If you need a standard for world cartographic data, wait for the
  Digital Chart of the World. This 1:1M database has been produced from
  the Defense Mapping Agency's ONCs and will be available, together with
  searching and viewing software, on a number of CD-ROMs later this summer. ]

  Check into SEPFTP.STANFORD.EDU and UCSD.EDU (see ftp list above)
  The CIA database consists of coastlines, rivers and political boundaries
  in the form of line strokes. Also on sepftp.stanford.edu is a 720x360
  array of elevation data, containing one ieee floating point number for
  every half degree longitude and latitude.
 
  A program for decoding the database, mfil, can be found on the machine
  pi1.arc.umn.edu (137.66.130.11).
  There's another program, which reads a compressed CIA Data Bank file and
  builds a PHIGS hierachical structure. It uses a PHIGS extension known as
  polyline sets for performance, but you can use regular polylines. Ask
  Joe Stewart <[email-masked]>.
  The raw data at Stanford require the vplot package to be able to view it.
  (was posted in comp.sources.unix). To be more exact, you'll have to
  compile just the libvplot routines, not the whole package.

NCAR data
---------
  NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) has many types of
  terrain  data, ranging from elevation datasets at
  various resolutions, to information about soil types, vegetation, etc.
  This data is not free -- they charge from $40 to $90 or more, depending
  on the data volume and media (exabyte tape, 3480 cartridge, 9-track tape,
  IBM PC floppy, and FTP transfer are all available).  Their data archive
  is mostly research oriented, not hobbyist oriented.  For more information,
  email to [email-masked].

UNC data tapes with voxel data
--------------
  There are 2 "public domain" tapes with data for the comparison and
  testing of various volume rendering algorithms (mainly MRI and CT
  scans). These tapes are distributed by the SoftLab of UNC @ Chapel Hill.
  ([email-masked])

  The data sets (volume I and II) are also available via anonymous FTP from
  omicron.cs.unc.edu [128.109.136.159] in pub/softlab/CHVRTD

NASA
----
  Many US agencies such as NASA publish CD-ROMs with many altimetry data
  from various space missions, eg. Viking for Mars, Magellan for Venus,
  etc. Especially for NASA, I would suggest to call the following
  address for more info:

     National Space Science Date Center
     Goddard Space Flight Center
     Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
     Telephone: (301) 286-6695
     Email address:  [email-masked]

  The data catalog (*not* the data itself) is available online.
  Internet users can telnet to nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.10.4) and log
  in as 'NODIS' (no password).

  You can also dial in at (301)-286-9000 (300, 1200, or 2400 baud, 8 bits,
  no parity, one stop). At the "Enter Number:" prompt, enter MD and
  carriage return. When the system responds "Call Complete," enter a few
  more carriage returns to get the "Username:" and log in as 'NODIS' (no
  password).

  NSSDCA is also an anonymous FTP site, but no comprehensive list of
  what's there is available at present.

GOES images
-----------
From: [email-masked] (Steve Eigsti)

  We have the directories reorganized and the ftp is back up for digital
  GOES images.  These are received with the SignaLink 200 Weather Receiver,
  which can now be configured for GOES, Meteosat, or GMS, and in the near
  future a TIROS version will be available.

  The images are in Sun rasterfile format.  I changed the titles slightly
  so we could accomodate multiple sectors of the same resolution.  The
  picture names are in a 8.3 DOS style format:  the first 3 numbers are
  the day (000 to 365), the next 4 numbers are GMT, followed by i for
  infrared or v for visible.  The extension has 2 letters of the sector
  name (e.g. 'CA' for California, etc.) and the last number is supposed to
  be the km resolution of each pixel; 0 means greater than 8 km (the visible
  full disk is 16 km/pixel) so we can keep the name to 8.3 size.

  The files with .001 are the latest raw data files and won't mean that
  much; the 'oa_table.dat' is orbit and attitude data from GOES.  The
  IR images (10 bits raw data) are converted to the traditional 'ZA' curve
  and are 8 bits.  Visible images are 6 bits -- we left justify and add
  64 to brighten up a bit.

  As in the past, get the images with anonymous ftp to 'ftp.netsys.com'
  and they are in the /images directory.  The /west directory has info
  about our systems, along with images of hurricanes Andrew (fl... files)
  and a 1 km shot of Iniki as it went across the island of Kauai.

Earth Sciences Data
-------------------

  There's a listing of anonymous FTP sites for earth science data, including
  imagery. This listing is called "Earth Sciences Resources on Internet",
  and you can get it via anonymous FTP from csn.org [128.138.213.21]
  in the directory COGS under the name "internet.resources.earth.sci"

  Some sites include:
  aurelie.soest.hawaii.edu [128.171.151.121]: pub/avhrr/images - AVHRR images
  ames.arc.nasa.gov [128.102.18.3]: pub/SPACE/CDROM  - images from
        Magellan and Viking missions etc.
        pub/SPACE/Index contains a listing of files available in the whole
        archive (the index is about 200K by itself). There's also an
        e-mail server for the people without Internet access: send a letter
        to [email-masked] (or ames!archive-server). In the
        subject of your letter (or in the body), use commands like:

        send SPACE Index
        send SPACE SHUTTLE/ss01.23.91

        (Capitalization is important! Only text files are handled by the
        email server at present)

  vab02.larc.nasa.gov [128.155.23.47]: pub/gifs/misc/landsat -
	Landsat photos in GIF and JPEG format
[ It was shut down - nfotis; anyone has a copy of this archive?? ]

Others
------
  Daily values of river discharge, streamflow, and daily weather data is
  available from EarthInfo, 5541 Central Ave., Boulder CO  80301.  These
  disks are expensive, around $500, but there are quantity discounts.
  (303) 938-1788.

  Check vmd.cso.uiuc.edu [128.174.5.98], the wx directory carries
  data regarding surface analysis, weather radar, and sat view pics in
  GIF format (updated hourly)

  pioneer.unm.edu [129.24.9.217] is the Space and Planetary Image Facility
  (located on the University of New Mexico campus) FTP server. It provides
  Anonymous FTP access to >150 CD-ROMS  with data/images.

  A disk with earthquake data, topography, gravity, geopolitical info
  is available from NGDC (National Geophysical Data Center), 325 Broadway,
  Boulder, CO  80303.  (303) 497-6958.

  EOSAT (at least in the US) now sells Landsat MSS data older than two years
  old for $200 per scene, and they have been talking about a similar deal
  for Landsat TM data. The MSS data are 4 bands, 80 meter resolution.

  Check out anonymous FTP to ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in
  UNIX/PolyView/alpha-shape for a tool that creates convex hulls
  alpha-shapes (a generalization of the convex hull) from 3D point sets.

  The GRIPS II (Gov. Raster Image Processing Software) CD-ROM
  is available from CD-ROM Inc. at 1-800-821-5245 for $49.
  Code for viewing ADRG (Arc Digitised Raster Graphics) files is
  available on the GRIPS II CD-ROM. The U.S. Army Engineer 
  Topographic Labs (Juan Perez) code is also available via FTP
  ( adrg.zip archive in  spectrum.xerox.com )

NRCC range data
---------------
  Rioux M., Cournoyer L. "The NRCC Three-Dimensional Image Data Files",
  Tech. Report, CNRC 29077, National Research Council Canada,
  Ottawa, Canada, 1988
  [ From what I understand, these data are from a laser range finder,
   and you can a copy for research purposes ]

==========================================================================

Subject:
11. 3D scanners - Digitized 3D Data
===================================

Cyberware
---------
  Cyberware manufactures a variety of color 3d scanners.  The scanners
  are used to scan both live subjects and inanimate objects.  Your whole
  body, face or fingerprint can be scanned in seconds.  Machine parts,
  sculpture, implants, models and other objects are easily scanned as well.
  Most scanners also generate a color texture map.

  The CG models are provided in many popular formats, both polygonal and
  NURBS based.  Software tools allow many scans to be combined, reduced
  in complexity, and converted for efficient modeling in your favorite
  animation, modeling and CAD software.  Rapid prototyping is supported.

  Several service bureaus, including one at the factory in Monterey,
  offer scanning services.  They can scan models and faces for you.

  Distributors and support worldwide.  Contact for more information:

  Cyberware
  8 Harris Court #3D
  Monterey, California 93940
  U.S.A.

  Phone:   +1-408-373-1441
  Fax:     +1-408-373-3582
  E-Mail:  [email-masked]

  SGI demo software and datasets available via anonymous ftp from:
  taurus.cs.nps.navy.mil [131.120.1.13] in pub/dabro/cyberware_demo.tar.Z

Polhemus
--------
  Polhemus makes a 6D input device (actually a couple of models)
  that senses position (3D) and *orientation* (+3D) based on electromagnetic
  field interference.  This equipment is also incorporated in the
  VPL Dataglove.
  This hardware is also called ISOTRACK, from Keiser Aerospace.

Ascension Technology makes a similar 3D input device.
There is a company, Applied Sciences(?), that makes a 3D input
device (position only) based on speed of sound triangulation.

Viewpoint
---------
  A company that specializes in digitizing is Viewpoint. You can ask
  for Viewpoint's _free_ 100 page catalog full of ready to 
  ship datasets from categories such as cars, anatomy, aircraft,sports,
  boats, trains, animals and others. Though these objects are
  quite expensive, the cataloge is nevertheless of interest for it
  has pictures of all the available objects in wireframe , polygon mesh.

  Contact:
+    Viewpoint DataLabs
+    625 S. State St.
+    Orem, Utah 84058

#  ph# 801-224-2222
+  ph# 801-229-3000
  fax# 801-224-2272 
#  1-800-DATASET (328-2738)

Perceptron
----------
  They're marketing a scanning laser radar, which raster scans an area and
  returns both intensity and range data for each point.

  Contact:

  Perceptron
  23855 Research Drive
  Farmington Hills, MI 48335
  U.S.

  Phone: (313) 478-7710
  FAX:   (313) 478-7059

Immersion
---------
  They make the Immersion Personal Digitizer.  The company just went into an
  agreement with Mira Imaging Inc. to make a bundle with the HyperSpace
  digitizing software. The software allows you to edit points, edges, and
  surfaces and exports files in standard file formats including DXF,
  Wavefront, Symbolics, Softimage, Alias, Super 3D, and Swivel 3D.  
  Modeling tools supported include reflection, extrusion, surfaces of
  rotation, surfaces patches, auto-smoothing, auto-welding of vertices, and
  auto-lofting of surfaces. Models can be created as vertices, lines,
  polygons, and splines.  

  Features of the Personal Digitizer:

  - pen-sized stylus is easy to manipulate
  - 6 degree of freedom system reports both POSITION and ORIENTATION of stylus
  - System can be used as high resolution digitizer or 3D Mouse
  - Includes Foot Pedal for Hands Free Data Entry
  - Self Calibrating system is easy to use: just turn it on and Digitize
  - Objects being digitized can rest on the large base provided, eliminating
    the need for complicated calibration procedures.
  - Noise Free: digital sensors provide noise free data
  - Accuracy:  0.035" (0.89 mm)
  - Resolution: 3600 points per square inch
  - Interface: Standard RS232 (serial), speeds up to 115.2kbps

  Contact:

  Immersion Corp.
  [email-masked]              P.O. Box 8669
  (415) 960-6882                      Palo Alto, CA  94309-8669
  (415) 960-6977 (FAX)

PHOTOGRAPHIC SYSTEMS
--------------------
[ Not exactly 3D digitizers, but this technology could serve similar
	needs -- nfotis ]

PhotoModeler
------------

  This package does 3D data reconstruction from various photographic sources.
  It runs under Microsoft Windows.

  To produce a 3D model with PhotoModeler involves six steps:
    1) plan a modeling project,
    2) take the photographs,
    3) mark features on the photos, 
    4) cross-reference these marks,
    5) generate a 3D model,  and
    6) export the model as a DXF file. 

  All these step can take from 10 minutes (a small six sided box captured with
  a monochrome low resolution digital camera and measured on a 33Mhz 486 class
  machine), to (typical) 10 hours (to measure and model a detailed historic
  school house with eight high resolution photographs and 400 primitives),
  plus the time to process and scan the film.

  Accuracy varies with many factors, but [from the text they sent me] sounds
  reasonably good.

  You're advised to contact the company for much more information:

  Eos Systems Inc.
  2040 West 12th Ave.
  Vancouver, B.C., Canada  V6J 2G2
  Tel: (604) 732-6658       
  Fax: (604) 732-4716
  Internet: [email-masked]

3D Express
----------
From: [email-masked] (chris williams)

  3D Express by Synthonics. It's a Windows program, you load two
  images, shot from between 30 and 60 degrees apart at the same height
  with a right angle reference in both pictures (say a carpenter's angle.)
  After establishing the reference from the angle you can deposit points
  in one image, and match it in the other image. The interface has four
  images, two full size and matching zoomed in images. It works pretty
  well, and has a lot of clever shortcuts to speed up model building.
  Now it is limited to the range of the two photos, but you can put one
  or more thick reference lines, shoot photos all around your head and
  stitch the models together. I'm not sure what it's price is, but it
  was selling at a Siggraph show special price of (US) $199.00.

  Here's their info:

  Synthonics Inc.
  2801 Townsgate Road Suite 201
  Weatlake Village, CA.  91361
  (818) 707-6000 (voice)
  (818) 707-6016 (fax)
  (800) 497-0787 (orders)

  ==================================================
  Some addresses for companies that make digitizers:
  ==================================================

  Ascension Technology
  Bird, Flock of Birds, Big Bird: 6d trackers
  P.O. Box 527,
  Burlington, VT 05402
  Phone: (802) 655-7879, Fax: (802) 655-5904

  Polhemus Incorporated
  Digitizer: 6d trackers
  P.O. Box 560, Hercules Dr.
  Colchester, Vt. 05446
  Tel: (802) 655-3159

  Logitech Inc.
  Red Baron, ultrasonic 6D mouse
  6506 Kaiser Dr.
  Freemont, CA 94555
  Tel: (415) 795-8500w

  Shooting Star Technology
  Mechanical Headtracker
  1921 Holdom Ave.
  Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5B 3W4
  Tel: (604) 298-8574
  Fax: (604) 298-8580

  Spaceball Technologies, Inc.
  Spaceball: 6d stationary input device
  600 Suffolk Street
  Lowell, MA, 01854
  Tel: (508) 970-0330 
  Fax: (508) 970-0199
  Tel in Mountain View: (415) 966-8123 

  Transfinite Systems 
  Gold Brick: PowerGlove for Macintosh
  P.O. Box N
  MIT Branch Post Office
  Cambridge, MA 02139-0903
  Tel: (617) 969-9570
  email: [email-masked]

  VPL Research, Inc.
  EyePhone: head-mounted display
  DataGlove: glove/hand input device
  VPL Research Inc.
  950 Tower Lane
  14th Floor
  Foster City, CA 94404
  Tel: (415) 312-0200
  Fax: (415) 312-9356

  SimGraphics Engineering
  Flying Mouse: 6d input device
  1137 Huntington Rd. Suite A-1
  South Pasadena, CA 91030-4563
  (213) 255-0900

========================================================================

Subject:
12. Background imagery/textures/datafiles
=========================================

 First, check in the FTP places that are mentioned in the FAQ or in the FTP
list above.

24-bit scanning:
----------------
  Get a good 24-bit scanner, like Epson's. Suggested is an SCSI port for
  speed. Eric Haines had a suggestion in RT News, Volume 4, #3 :
  scan textures for wallpapers and floor coverings, etc. from doll
  house supplies.
  So you have a rather cheap way to scan patterns that don't have
  scaling troubles associated with real materials and scanning area.

Books with textures:
--------------------
  Find some houses/books/magazines that carry photographic material.
  Educorp, 1-619-536-9999, sells CD-ROMS with various imagery - also
  a wide variety of stock art is available.
  Stock art from big-name stock art houses, such as Comstock,
  UNIPHOTO, and Metro Image Base, is available.

  In Italy, there's a company called Belvedere that makes such books
  for the purpose of clipping their pages for inclusion in your
  graphics work. Their address is:
	Edition Belvedere Co. Ltd.,
	00196 Rome Italy,
	Piazzale Flaminio, 19
	Tel. (06) 360-44-88, Fax (06)  360-29-60

Texture Libraries:
==================

Mannicin Sceptre
-----------------
   Mannikin Sceptre Graphics announced TexTiles, a set of 256x256 24-bit
   textures. Initial shipments in 24-bit IFF (for Amigas), soon in 24-bit
   TIFF format. Algorithmically built for tiled surfaces. SRP is $40 / volume
   (each volume = 40 images @ 10 disks). Demo disks for $5 are available.

   Contact:
   Mannikin Sceptre Graphics
   1600 Indiana Ave.
   Winter Park, FL 32789
   Phone: (407) 384-9484
   FAX: (407) 647-7242

ESSENCE
-------
   ESSENCE is a library of 65 (sixty-five) new algorithmic textures for Imagine
   by Impulse, Inc. These textures are FULLY compatible with the floating point
   versions of Imagine 2.0, Imagine 1.1, and even Turbo Silver.
   Written by Steve Worley.
	[ They have put out a second volume of procedural textures ]

   For more info contact:
   Essence Info
   Apex Software Publishing
   405 El Camino Real Suite 121
   Menlo Park CA 94025 USA

TEXTURE CITY
------------
  Texture City publishes CD-ROM and disk-based collections of 24 bit,
  real world scanned images of a variety of natural textures, all of which are
  scanned at a resolution of 752x480.  Three sets of textures are available,
  two on Amiga disks in JPEG format, and one on CD-ROM in a variety of file
  formats.
  
  "PRO-60 #1" and "PRO-60 #2" are two separate collections of 60 images each,
  on Amgia disks.  Images are 24 bit color, 752x480 resolution and are in JPEG
  format.  An image browser, viewer and decompressor is included.  All images
  are of real world textures, and are not algorithmically generated.  Images
  come in 13 categories including animal skin, scenic, quarry marble, metals,
  hand blown glass, special effects, and many more.
  
  "PRO-100 #1" is a CD-ROM for use with IBM-PC, Macintosh, Amiga, and SGI
  systems.  The CD-ROM contains 100 images, each one in 24 bit color at 752x480
  resolution, each one in four file formats: Targa, TIFF, PCX, and IFF-24.
  Images are real-world textures, including metal, stone, plants, space, wood,
  textile, marble, special effects, and much more.
  
  Pricing is as follows:
  
  	PRO-60 #1 and #2 on Amiga disk:	$99.95 each
  	PRO-100 #1 on CD-ROM:		$199.95
  
  There is a special price for INTERNET users: PRO-100 #1 CD-ROM for $100.00.
  
  All three of the above collections are available direct by mail from the
  address and telephone number shown below.
  
  	Texture City
  	3203 Overland Ave. # 6157
  	Los Angeles, CA  90034
  	(310) 836-9224

==========================================================================

Subject:
13. Introduction to rendering algorithms
========================================

a. Ray-Tracing:
---------------

  I assume you have a general understanding of Computer Graphics. No? Then read
  some of the books that the FAQ contains. For Ray-Tracing, I would
  suggest:
   An Introduction to Ray Tracing, Andrew Glassner (ed.), Academic Press
     1989, ISBN 0-12-286160-4
  Note that I have not read the book, but I feel that you can't be wrong
  using his book. An errata list was posted in comp.graphics by Eric Haines
  ([email-masked])

There's a more concise reference also:

  Roman Kuchkuda , UNC @ Chapel Hill: "An Introduction to Ray Tracing", in
  "Theoretical Foundations for Computer Graphics and CAD", ed. R.A.E.Earnshaw,
  NATO AS, Vol. F-40., pp. 1039-1060. Printed by Springer-Verlag, 1988.

It contains code for a small, but fundamentally complete ray-tracer.

b. Z-buffer (depth-buffer)
--------------------------

A good reference is:

        _Procedural Elements for Computer Graphics_, David F. Rogers,
        McGraw-Hill, New York, 1985, pages 265-272 and 280-284.

c. Others:
----------
???
[ More info is needed -- nfotis ]

========================================================================

Subject:
14. Where can I find the geometric data for the:
================================================

a. Teapot ?
-----------

"Displays on Display" column of IEEE CG&A Jan '87 has the whole
story about origin of the Martin Newell's teapot. The article also has
the bezier patch model and a Pascal program to display the wireframe
model of the teapot.

IEEE CG&A Sep '87 in Jim Blinn's column "Jim Blinn's Corner" describes
an another way to model the teapot; Bezier curves with rotations for
example are used.

The OFF and SPD packages have these objects, so you're advised to get
them to avoid typing the data yourself.  The OFF data is triangles at
a specific resolution (around 8x8[x4 triangles] meshing per patch).
The SPD package provides the spline patch descriptions and performs a
tessellation at any specified resolution.

b. Space Shuttle ?
------------------

Tolis Lerios <[email-masked]> has built a list of Space Shuttle
datafiles. Here's a summary (From his sci.space list):

model1:
A modified version of the newsgroup model (model2)

406 vertices (296 useful, i.e. referred to in the polygon descriptions.)
389 polygons (233 3-vertex, 146 4-vertex, 7 5-vertex, 3 6-vertex).
Payload doors non-existent.
Units: unknown.

Simon Marshall ([email-masked]) has a copy. He
said there is no proprietary information associated with it.

model2:
The newsgroup model, in OFF format. You can find it in

gondwana.ecr.mu.oz.au , file pub/off/objects/shuttle.geo

model3:
The triangles' model.

This model is stored in several files, each defining portions of the model.

Greg Henderson ([email-masked]) has a copy.  He did
not mention any restriction on the model's distribution.

model4:
The NASA model.

The file starts off with a header line containing three real numbers,
defining the offsets used by Lockheed in their simulations:

<x offset> <y offset> <z offset>

From then on, the file consists of a sequence of polygon descriptions

3473 vertices.
2748 polygons (407 3-vertex, 2268 4-vertex, 33 5-vertex, 14 6-vertex,
 10 7-vertex, 8 8-vertex, 8 12-vertex, 2 13-vertex, 2 15-vertex,
 17 16-vertex, 2 17-vertex, 2 18-vertex, 3 19-vertex, 8 24-vertex).
Payload doors closed.
Units: inches.

Jon Berndt ([email-masked]) seems to be responsible for the model
Proprietary info: unknown

model5:
The old shuttle model.

The file consists of a sequence of polygon descriptions.

104 vertices.
452 polygons (11 3-vertex, 41 4-vertex).
Payload doors open.
Units: meters.

We have been using this model at STAR Labs, Stanford University, for
some years now. Contact me ([email-masked]) or my supervisor
Scott Williams ([email-masked]) if you want a copy.

========================================================================

Subject:
15. Image annotation software - Paint Programs
==============================================

TOUCHUP
-------
  Touchup runs in Sunview and is pretty good.  It reads in
  rasterfiles, but even if your image isn't normally stored
  in rasterfile format you could use screendump to make it a
  rasterfile.

IDRAW
-----
  Idraw (part of Stanford's InterViews distribution) can handle some
  image formats in addition to being a MacDraw like tool.  I'm not
  sure exactly what they are.
  You can ftp the idraw's binary from interviews.stanford.edu.

TGIF
----
  Tgif is another MacDraw like tool that can handle X11 bitmap (xbm)
  and X11 pixmap (xpm) formats.  If the image you have is in formats
  other than xbm or xpm, you can get the pbmplus toolkit to convert
  things like gif or even some Macintosh formats to xpm.
  Tgif's sources are available in the pub directory on cs.ucla.edu
  (Version 2.12 of tgif at patchlevel 7 plus patch8 and patch9)

Editimage
---------
  Use the editimage facility of KHOROS (see under the Visualization tools).
  This is just one utility in the overall system- you can essentially do all
  your image processing and macdraw-type graphics using this package.

PBM+
----
  You might be able to get by with PBMPlus.  pbmtext gives you text output
  bitmaps which can be overlaid on top of your image.

ICE
---
  'ice' requires Sun hardware running OpenWindows 3.It's a PostScript-based
  graphical editor,and it's available for anonymous ftp from Internet host
  eo.soest.hawaii.edu (128.171.151.12). Requires Sun C++ 2.0 and
  two other locally developed packages, the LXT library (an Xlib-based
  toolkit) and a small C++ class library. All files (pub/ice.tar.Z,
  pub/lxt.tar.Z and pub/ldgoc++.tar.Z) are available in compressed
  tar format. pub/ice.tar.Z contains a README that gives installation
  instructions, as well as an extensive man page (ice.1).
  A statically-linked compressed executable pub/ice-sun4.Z for
  SPARC systems is also available for ftp.

  All software is the property of Columbia University and may not
  be redistributed without permission.

  ice means Image Composition Environment and it's an imaging tool that
  allows raster images to be combined with a wide variety of
  PostScript annotations in WYSIWYG fashion via X11 imaging
  routines and NeWS PostScript rasterizing.

ImageMagick
-----------
  Use ImageMagick to annotate an image from your X server.  Pick the 
  position of your text with the cursor and choose your font and pen 
  color from a pull-down menu.  ImageMagick can read and write many
  of the more popular image formats.  ImageMagick is available as
  export.lcs.mit.edu: contrib/ImageMagick.tar.Z or at your nearest
  X11 archive.

BIT
---
  bit is an interactive full color image viewer and editor based on
  Silicon Graphics GL. It's an image viewer, an image editor/processor,
  and can serve as a launch pad for other applications via key bindings.
  It has also built-in editing/annotate capabilities

Xpaint
------
From: [email-masked] (David Koblas)

  XPaint is a color image editing tool which features most standard paint
  program options.  It allows for the editing of multiple images simultaneously
  and supports various formats, including PPM, XBM, TIFF, etc.

 Available at:
 export.lcs.mit.edu      as      contrib/xpaint-?.?.0.tar.Z
 netcom.com              as      pub/koblas/xpaint-?.?.0.tar.Z

ezd
---
  A small bitmap collaging utility. It does things like: put image 1 at x,y,
  put image 2 at x2,y2, and have image 2 overlayed on image 1, etc.
  The commands to do the previous example are: (bitmap 10 10 "image1.xbm"),
  (bitmap 11 11 "image2.xbm").

  Available on gatekeeper.dec.com: pub/DEC/ezd

========================================================================

End of Part 4 of the Resource Listing
-- 
Nick (Nikolaos) Fotis         National Technical Univ. of Athens, Greece
HOME: 16 Esperidon St.,       InterNet : [email-masked]
      Halandri, GR - 152 32   UUCP:    pythia!theseas!nfotis
      Athens, GREECE          FAX: (+30 1) 77 84 578