We used WCS as one of our 'reference points' when producing GenesisII. It's
a good product, but suffers somewhat in that it's not sure if it's trying to
do visualization for artists or scientists and consequently falls between
two poles. In my opinion these are two distinct markets with different
requirements - there is of course some degree of communality, but the
primary aim of each group is very different.
What we tried to do with GenesisII is focus firmly on practical
visualization, particularly for GIS systems. Whilst coding we came to the
conclusion that producing spectacular mountains and soforth was relatively
easy - the difficult bit is producing accurate images of more
pastoral/farmland/mixed scenery - like the one on our front page at
http://www.geomantics.com. With GII you can get this from MI within half an
hour or so - I don't think it's possible without a great deal more work in
WCS - if at all. GenesisII also includes an overlay renderer for a similar
reason - for practical applications this is almost a required tool.
If you're after spectacular effects and prepared to spend time getting them
then something like Bryce is difficult to beat - although this is strictly a
3D artist's tool. There also seems to be something of a perception in this
area that WCS is not as good as WorldBuilder (animatek -
http://www.animatek.com) - my favourite quote on this was in a recent
newsgroup "WCS is good, but you ain't seen nothing tilll you've seen
WorldBuilder's trees sway in the breeze" :-)
Which of course means that there are other Visualization products out
there - but what we've tried to do with GenesisII is produce a product that
focuses on practical requirments.
Kevin
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Bill Thoen
> Sent: 05March1999 15:03
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: MI 3D Photorealistic Visualization for GIS
>
>
> Kevin Woolley wrote:
> >
> > The first commercial release of GenesisII is now available. Download
> > a demo at http://www.geomantics.com
>
> This is a rather good one, but an even more eye-popping package is World
> Construction Set at http://www.questarproductions.com/.
>
> - Bill Thoen
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