Re: [Savannah-hackers] submission of Waves, Clouds, and Sand - savannah.nongnu.org

[Rudy Gevaert]

Fellow hackers, what do you think about this.  I would approve.

On Fri, Feb 21, 2003 at 06:13:17PM -0500, address@hidden wrote:
> 
> A package was submitted to savannah.nongnu.org
> This mail was sent to address@hidden, address@hidden
> 
> 
> M.C. Lewis <address@hidden> described the package as follows:
> License: gpl
> Other License: 
> Package: Waves, Clouds, and Sand
> System name: oceanscene
> Type: non-GNU
> 
> Description:
> OpenGL-based research project for simulating natural phenomenae.  First plan 
> is ocean waves, then clouds, then terrain (sand).  Intend to use latest 
> features of 3D cards such as texture/fragment shaders, register combiners, 
> and vertex programs.  Development on GNU/Linux.
> 
> There are a few \"free\" issues here.  One is that the two video card 
> manufacturers which have extensive OpenGL functionality (ATI and NVidia) have 
> proprietary drivers, which load into the x86 Linux kernel, sometimes FreeBSD, 
> Windows (of course), and that\'s about it.  Unfortunately, no useful Free 
> drivers exist for this hardware.  Hopefully, by making advanced graphics 
> software that runs primarily on GNU/Linux and other free platforms, 3D on 
> Linux will stay current, so that we won\'t just be starting on 3D years down 
> the road when Free drivers become available.
> 
> Second, I may wish to make use of some software with free-looking, but 
> nonstandard, licensing.  E.g., GLVU:
> http://www.cs.unc.edu/~walk/software/glvu/
> // GLVU : Copyright 1997 - 2002
> //        The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
> //------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> // Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute and sell this software and its
> // documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that
> // the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that 
> copyright
> // notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation.
> // Binaries may be compiled with this software without any royalties or
> // restrictions.
> //
> // The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill makes no representations
> // about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided
> // \"as is\" without express or implied warranty.
> 
> Also, OpenEXR:
> http://www.openexr.net/
> 
> Which uses the modified BSD license:
> http://www.ilm.com/opensource/ilm-bsd-lic.html
> 
> Since I will be using the GNU GPL for my software, I am not sure if I can 
> \"swallow\" some of the software, meaning release it under the GNU GPL if 
> compatible; or if I can only link against it.
> 
> Part of the issue is that there are numerous re-implementations of common 
> items like 3D vectors, matrices, etc.  They all essentially say the same 
> thing; dot products are simply math!  GLVU uses a vector basis camera; its 
> LookAt() function is virtually identical to the GLU (GL Utility library)\'s 
> version (http://mesa3d.org), except in C++.  I am quite confused as to 
> copyright issues on classes that simply implement straight math, where any 
> implementation is virtually indistinguishable from another, except for 
> formatting!
> Most of these classes need to be compiled into the program, not just linked, 
> because of inlined function speed.  
> 
> Third, I have downloaded an extensive set of research papers describing 
> graphics techniques, some of which are hard to find; I am not sure how much 
> of these I can excerpt for tutorials on a technique.
> 
> Fourth, Intel has a very fast \"approximate math library\", which seems to be 
> under a rather onerous license.  They know how to write a faster sqrt(), 
> seeing as they made the chips.  Probably any independent implementation of 
> some of these functions using SSE2 would result in identical ASM code.
> http://www.intel.com/design/Pentium4/devtools/
> 
> As an example of the usefulness of fast math in 3D, POVray doubled in speed 
> just from a better sqrt() on the Alpha:
> http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/alpha/9601.1/0046.html
> 
> I\'m currently working through research papers; no code yet, but I will 
> likely be using a good deal of GLfx++, a GNU GPLed project at:
> 
> http://www.mpi-sb.mpg.de/~bg/software/GLfxpp.shtml
> 
> 
> Other Software Required:
> URLs given above; possibilities include:
> GLVU
> GLfx++
> OpenEXR
> 
> 
> Other Comments:
> This is planned to be A (one of many) client for my other project, MOFO, 
> hosted here at Savannah.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Savannah-hackers mailing list
> address@hidden
> http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/savannah-hackers

-- 
Rudy Gevaert                address@hidden              
Web page                    http:/www.webworm.org
GNU/Linux for schools       http://www.nongnu.org/glms
Savannah hacker             http://savannah.gnu.org