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Charander: A text renderer BackSpace Module By: Brian Hobbs (brian@ny.shl.com) Installation: typing 'make install' in the Charender directory installs the backspace module into ~/Library/BackSpaceViews. If you want it in another location, change the entry in the makefile. This little creature came from my first experiences in using Renderman/3DKit. I became intrigued by some of the mesh calls from the Renderman companion (an invaluable resource if you're into this type of thing), and decided to try to use the same bezier control points from postscript objects with them. Works pretty well. Most of the code is a hack; I still have yet to do everything I want with it. The pswrap is a complete mess as well as the way the control points are massaged into the rimesh array (mostly they're reversed on the stack in reverse coordinate order, or something. Like I said, I need to think about it a bit more) but it seems to work. Further features when I get the time: + Even at high resolutions, the characters seem a bit choppy. I don't think all the bezier information is getting through for some reason. (take a look at capital G's in Helvetica and you'll see what I mean) + Character faces! I don't know how to make them yet. I haven't experimented all that much yet. If anyone has any ideas, I'd like to know. + Surfaces! Mattes! Who cares if it's slow, it'll look good! (Actually, I don't think you can do too much of this in Q-Renderman. I'll have to check the release notes. Maybe that could end up as another type of app like Typestry.) All of this is free. Please feel free to use and abuse as you wish. If you DO anything nifty with it, I'd like to know, though. Thanks much. Let me know what you think. NeXTMail me at the above address. Brian
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.