Need info on Display Postscript support on HP hosts
Chris Lilley
In article <C7Jr0...@fc.hp.com>, str...@fc.hp.com (Mike Stroyan) writes:
>Chris Lilley (lil...@v5.cgu.mcc.ac.uk) wrote:
>: Certainly agree with that. Then again, the HP X server does not seem to be
>: standard - they use PowerShade instead of PEX, for example. ...
>That's a bad example. The HP 700 series does have a PEX product available
>for the HP-UX 9.0 release. Also, PowerShade is not a programming interface.
>It is an optional software product that provides lighting and hidden surface
>removal for Starbase, PHIGS, and PEX APIs.
Oh, does that mean that HP PHIGS can be persuaded to emit PEX and talk to non-HP
servers? Our experience so far has been that the new PHIGS can display over X -
but only to an HP server. Workstation or X terminal, either will work - but HP
PHIGS will not talk to a DEC or SGI or NCD or ... server.
If so, how do you tell HP PHIGS to emit PEX?
Also, if the HP PEX product gets HLHSR support from PowerShade, presumably that
means it is a full PEX product and not just a rejigged SI ?
I have cross posted this to the PEX group as it seemed relevant.
--
Chris Lilley
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Technical Author, ITTI Computer Graphics and Visualisation Training Project
Computer Graphics Unit, Manchester Computing Centre, Oxford Road,
Manchester, UK. M13 9PL Internet: C.C.L...@mcc.ac.uk
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Mike Stroyan
: In article <C7Jr0...@fc.hp.com>, str...@fc.hp.com (Mike Stroyan) writes:
: >Chris Lilley (lil...@v5.cgu.mcc.ac.uk) wrote:
: >: Certainly agree with that. Then again, the HP X server does not seem to be
: >: standard - they use PowerShade instead of PEX, for example. ...
: >That's a bad example. The HP 700 series does have a PEX product available
: >for the HP-UX 9.0 release. Also, PowerShade is not a programming interface.
: >It is an optional software product that provides lighting and hidden surface
: >removal for Starbase, PHIGS, and PEX APIs.
: Oh, does that mean that HP PHIGS can be persuaded to emit PEX and talk to
: non-HP servers? Our experience so far has been that the new PHIGS can display
: over X - but only to an HP server. Workstation or X terminal, either will
: work - but HP PHIGS will not talk to a DEC or SGI or NCD or ... server.
So far HP PHIGS does not know how to emit PEX protocol. The HP PHIGS 2.3
release can emit normal XPutImage protocol of drawn images. To do this,
configure a PHIGS workstation to use the HP VMX driver. There is a
full chapter on using HP VMX it in the "HP-PHIGS Workstation Characteristics
and Implementation" manual.
This HP VMX driver constructs the complete picture in a memory buffer,
then sends the result to the X server. The current release of the HP VMX
driver only works with 8 bit visuals. A different visual depth might
have caused the trouble that you had directing it to the non-HP X
servers. If you get the visual right, there shouldn't be any other
problem working with non-HP X servers. (Of course, there might be
peculiarities of some X servers that the HP VMX software didn't account
for.)
: Also, if the HP PEX product gets HLHSR support from PowerShade, presumably
: that means it is a full PEX product and not just a rejigged SI ?
The HP PEX product is a new implementation with support to use the
hardware features of the CRX graphics family. In particular HP PEX
supports lighting, shading and hidden surface removal. The first
release of HP PEX requires the PowerShade software. (PowerShade is
bundled with the CRX24Z and CRX48Z display systems.)
--
Mike Stroyan, mike_s...@fc.hp.com