London-based RenderMorphics Ltd has been busy converting its Reality Lab C-based three-dimensional rendering library to run on the Sony Playstation for the new release. As well as the Playstation it will run under Windows NT 3.5 for iAPX-86, Alpha and PowerPC and WinG. Future versions are planned for the Sega Saturn and other 32-bit games systems. In addition to the 3Dlabs Glint chip, it will have drivers for Matrox MGA Impression, Cirrus Mondello, Alliance Promotion, Microsoft 3DDDI and Intel 3DR. Reality Lab performs real-time three-dimensional modelling on a personal computer. We have spent ages working on the applications programming interface to make it easier for programmers. It is a high level applications programming interface. You don’t need to get down and dirty with the maths, said Kate Seekings, director of sales and marketing. As Reality Lab is object-oriented, every object does not need to be programmed separately, saving the developer’s time. RenderMorphics has a demo of a tree, for example, that spawns more and more branches. Each branch generates six smaller branches and each of those automatically gets its own leaves. It works by having a branch and a leaf object. Reality Lab will carry out real-time lighting. It features an RGB mode that offers different coloured light sources, which can be blended together and reflected onto an object. The new version will also have fog and haze effects. The product has six degrees of freedom, so the viewer can look up or down as well as side to side, providing a sense of depth. Another demonstration showed morphing eggs moving both behind and in front of the branches in the background scene. RealityLab draws the background once and the only live parts are the eggs and the changed regions of the background as the eggs move behind and in front of the branches. Without this, masks would need to be developed to cover the parts of the background that are covered by the eggs as they move. The second release is due at the end of this month.
