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VistaPro

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VistaPro
Developer(s)Hypercube Engineering, Monkey Byte Development
Stable release
4.2 / 2005
Operating systemAmigaOS,MS-DOS,Windows,MacOS
PlatformAmiga,IBM PC,Macintosh
TypeScenery generator
LicenseProprietary

VistaProis 3Dscenery generatorfor theAmiga,Macintosh,MS-DOS,andMicrosoft Windows.It was written by John Hinkley as the follow-up to the initial version,Vista.[1][2]Theabout boxdescribes it as "a 3-D landscape generator and projector capable of accurately displaying real-world andfractal landscapes."It was published byVirtual Reality Labsand developed byHypercube Engineering.[3][1]The latest versions were published and developed byMonkey Byte Development.[4]

Graphics Generation

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Vista operates similarly to aray tracerin that light paths are generated. The user specifies light sources, and camera angles. The ground may be colored to create different ground styles. Vista has water, tree and cloud effects, making some images almostphotorealistic.The ground itself may either be generated from a random (or user inputted) number, or it may useDEMlandscape files for real-world views, the software having come with a number of maps ofMarsandEarth.[5][6]

Vista can load and save output images inPCX,BMP,JPGandTargafile formats. PCX files can also be imported as elevations and ground colors to allow third-party creation of landscapes in otherimage editors.

Trees can be placed on landscapes as either2Dor3Dobjects. In 2D, the trees always face the camera and are fast to generate. 3D trees are created using fractals and can be given a variable bending of the branches to make them look more complicated.

Releases

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ForAmiga:

  • Vista v1.00
  • Vista v1.20 (1990, reviewed by Amiga Format issue 15, released on cover disk of Amiga Format issue 33)[1][2]
  • Vista v1.21 (PAL, 1991)
  • VistaPro v1.0 (released in 1991)[3][1]
  • VistaPro v1.022 PAL (1991-07-09)
  • VistaPro v2.02 (released in 1992)[7][8][1]
  • VistaPro v3.0[9][10](released in 1993 withAGAsupport)[11][12][1]
  • VistaLite v3.01 (version for smaller memory Amiga computers)[12]
  • VistaPro v3.3b
  • VistaPro v3.04b
  • VistaPro v3.05
  • VistaPro v3.10o (unreleased)[13]

ForMS-DOSandMicrosoft Windows:

  • VistaPro v1.0 (released in 1992, MS-DOS)[14][1]
  • VistaPro v3.0 (released in 1993, MS-DOS)[15][16][1]
  • VistaPro v3.05 (released in 1993, MS-DOS)[15]
  • VistaPro v3.12 (released in 1994, Windows)[17][1]
  • VistaPro v4.00 (released in 1997)[18]
  • VistaPro v4.11[19]
  • VistaPro v4.2.4 (released in 2004)[20]
  • VistaPro Renderer v4.2 (released in 2004)[21][22][1]

ForMacintosh:

  • VistaPro v1.08 (released in 1991)[23][1]
  • VistaPro v3.00 (1995)[24][1]
  • VistaPro v4.00 (2005)[1]

Compatibility

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The Amiga version of Vista works on all models of Amiga, however due to the low processor speeds generation of landscapes take a long time to complete. It was not unusual for a landscape generation to take several hours on a stock68000based computer. Later versions, for 32-bit Amigas, support theMC68881/68882FPU,speeding up rendering considerably when such a chip is present.

The PC version runs inMS-DOSfor the earlier versions, and from 4.00 onwards it runs on all versions of 32-bitMicrosoft Windows.

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Its most famous use was for the landscape used in the opening credits ofThe Chart Show.This sequence involved a silver spaceship flying through a series of valleys that had been generated using VistaPro (Vista did not support generating animations until the Pro version was released). Vista was also used (both PC and Amiga versions) for the book byArthur C. ClarkecalledThe Snows of Olympus,a picture book about terraforming Mars.[25][26][27]The 1994 albumLandscapesbySusumu Hirasawa's experimental groupShunwas inspired by and used images created in the software.[28]

See also

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Notes and references

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  1. ^abcdefghijklmWilliams, Will (2017)."Counting Virtual Sheep – Stepping Into Other Worlds".countingvirtualsheep.Retrieved2022-12-16.
  2. ^ab"Coverdisk 33a (Amiga Format Collection no. 1)".Amiga Format.No. 33. April 1992.
  3. ^abBroomfield, Mat (July 1991)."Topographic Oceans and Fractal Phantasies".CU Amiga.pp. 30–31, 33.
  4. ^"VistaPro For Mac Released".The Mac Observer.October 4, 2001.
  5. ^"Vista Pro 1 rendered image of Olympus Mons caldera".Facebook.
  6. ^"Tharsis region, render by John Hinkley using Vista".
  7. ^Tucker, Richard."digital landscapes".Richard Tucker FRPS.Retrieved2023-03-21.
  8. ^van Hove, Karel (July 1992)."Vista Pro 2.0".Amiga Magazine.No. 16. pp. 21–22.
  9. ^"Vista Pro 3.0".The Centre for Computing History.
  10. ^"Coverdisk: Vista Pro 3.0 Full Program".Amiga Magazine.September 1997.
  11. ^Brunet, David (2021)."Dossier: Histoire de l'Amiga - année 1993".Obligement.
  12. ^abMoreu, Gonzalo (July 1994)."VISTA PRO: Tutorial".Amiga World España.No. 56. Archived fromthe originalon 2016-03-04.
  13. ^"Latest Vistapro for Amiga".forum.amiga.org.
  14. ^"Vistapro 1.x (DOS)".WinWorld.Retrieved2022-12-09.
  15. ^ab"Vistapro 3.x (DOS)".WinWorld.Retrieved2022-12-09.
  16. ^Saint-Moulin, Benoît (September 24, 2016)."3D landscapes and natural environments softwares".TDT3D - 3D Design, Visualization & Realtime.Archived fromthe originalon 2016-09-24.
  17. ^"Vistapro 3.x (Win)".WinWorld.Retrieved2022-12-09.
  18. ^"Vistapro 4.x (Win)".WinWorld.Retrieved2022-12-09.
  19. ^"VistaPro 4.11 Review".Creative 3D.2004. Archived fromthe originalon 2007-04-06.
  20. ^"Vistapro 4.2 Create your own stunning, realistic 3D landscapes".Software Informer.Retrieved2022-12-09.
  21. ^roninthetall."VistaPro Renderer 4.2".Renderosity.Archived fromthe originalon 2022-08-30.
  22. ^VendorNation (2004)."New VistaPro Renderer 4.2 Released!".
  23. ^Cohen, Peter (August 22, 2001)."MonkeyByte releases Mac version of VistaPro".Macworld.
  24. ^"Landscape Generator Shootout Vista Pro 3.0 vs Bryce 1.0".Shadis Magazine(23): 90. 1990-01-01.
  25. ^The Snows of Olympus - A garden on Mars, Gollancz, 1994
  26. ^"Arthur C. Clarke Book on the Terraforming of Mars - Vista rendered image of what Eos Chasma might look like in 2500 AD".Beastrabban\'s Weblog.2017.
  27. ^"Sir Arthur C Clarke - Amiga User - Sci Fi Giant: RIP".SPOnG.2008.Retrieved2022-12-16.
  28. ^Olivas, Diego."Syun ( tuần ): Landscapes (1994)".Found Sound.Retrieved31 July2021.
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