VistaPro question

[BuBBoB]

Hi peeps, this forum is to do with rendering so I hope you won't mind a request. I have used all the versions of VistaPro down the years, finally ending with the last PC version. However, the scenery/maps CD has gone bad. Very odd, no errors, no scratches but system reads the disc and it has no files at all (tested on all of my systems at home) while the program disc stored in the same box is absolutely fine. Please could anyone let me buy or make a copy of this disc?

Regards, BubBob.

[Pat the Cat]

Hi peeps, this forum is to do with rendering so I hope you won't mind a request. I have used all the versions of VistaPro down the years, finally ending with the last PC version. However, the scenery/maps CD has gone bad. Very odd, no errors, no scratches but system reads the disc and it has no files at all (tested on all of my systems at home) while the program disc stored in the same box is absolutely fine. Please could anyone let me buy or make a copy of this disc?

Regards, BubBob.

AFAIK all .dem files can be had, but I don't think people supply on CD.

One option if you really do need a file from the CD is to get it polished. It sounds like it has problems reading the directory from the disk, so it could be the internal surface is damaged. Unlikely but it could have died.

The polishing process it necessary sometimes even when you can't see scratches, as the surface can become more clouded over time and the sensor has more trouble reading returns from the laser through the clouded material. There are no guarantees with it but it's better than 80% success rate, worth a try. Don't try it at home, use a professional service. The DIY efforts can work but have a much lower success rate.

In my experience. (oops. That taught me).

[darkage]

Vistapro.   That application knocked my socks off back in the day.. Found  a cool 4k fly by video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48KtJtDqkaM

[B00tDisk]

A little something I rendered a few years ago.  Took a couple days to render on a single core Athlon x64 XP3000.  I think even the "new" versions of VP, which are approaching 20+ years in age on the PC, only do single-threaded, so that's not surprising.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0PAkEIX4xI

[Pat the Cat]

Vista Pro is probably the app I miss the most from my Amiga days. Certainly in terms of usage.

I think I spent months and months doing alien landscapes with the thing. Way more fun than playing games, I found.

I couldn't even look at them properly with a stock A3000. Just saved the 24 bit, converted to S-HAM for an approximation.

[B00tDisk]

Vista Pro is probably the app I miss the most from my Amiga days. Certainly in terms of usage.

I think I spent months and months doing alien landscapes with the thing. Way more fun than playing games, I found.

I couldn't even look at them properly with a stock A3000. Just saved the 24 bit, converted to S-HAM for an approximation.

I think it's like $29.99 or $49.99 on the PC these days.  Does better renders (but is still firmly stuck in the 1990s).

An updated version of VP would be too cool for words, one with grasses, plants, volumetric water etc.

[Pat the Cat]

An updated version of VP would be too cool for words, one with grasses, plants, volumetric water etc.

Very difficult to do an editable flora version... without original source, anyway.

Pretty difficult even if you did have the source, but I agree, would be a massive upgrade.

Even nicer - setup the whole scene in Vista, then export the whole shebang to Lightwave for rendering.

Then perhaps a fauna editor, for doing six legged alien cows or similar... OK, now I'm going off into wild fantasy land. I'll stop now.

[B00tDisk]

Very difficult to do an editable flora version... without original source, anyway.

Pretty difficult even if you did have the source, but I agree, would be a massive upgrade.

Even nicer - setup the whole scene in Vista, then export the whole shebang to Lightwave for rendering.

Then perhaps a fauna editor, for doing six legged alien cows or similar... OK, now I'm going off into wild fantasy land. I'll stop now.

About 14-15 years back (egad!) I wrote the author and asked him about the possibility of doing an updated version.  He said he was always tinkering with it, and even sent me a couple of renders he'd done with an early build that did grass.  Didn't look very good.  His suggestion for undergrowth like that was to shrink trees down or set the treeline variable so that the trees just poked up above the ground.

Honestly, I have never ever seen a 3d package that was so intuitive to use.  Everything you need in it is just...right there.  I tried Bryce and other tools back in the 90s and early 2000s and to be honest none of them were worth a damn.  Bryce's interface seemed to go out of its way to be obscure and confusing (for example).

[darkage]

Yep I definitely miss playing around with Vista Pro.   Use to run it on the a500 standard with 512k ram expansion.   Cant remember how long a scene took to render

Actually I should get my a500 backup and running, then compare  side by side with my a1200 030 w/ FPU.  haven`t ran it on my a1200 yet.

Just bumped into  this about other world rendering applications - http://www.tdt3d.com/articles_viewer.php?art_id=25

[B00tDisk]

Looks like it (VP) is abandonware now.  I don't know if the OP of this thread is out there but if so, pop in and let me know; I'll host up an .ISO of the landscape disk on google drive and you can get the DEMs that way.

[Pat the Cat]

Just bumped into  this about other world rendering applications - http://www.tdt3d.com/articles_viewer.php?art_id=25

Awesome! Thank you!