A Critical Look at Inforcom's Book "Dynamic Graphics"

NEWS IN LATVIA

And so, news in Latvia. You might ask, what could possibly be new in good old Latvia? If this section were intended for reviewing new games or other new software, I would say quite a lot, but that is not the case, and therefore this will include not only a review of the latest hardware. It will also feature reviews of various new books and magazines, as well as a brief review and description (deeply subjective) of hardware already available on the market.

And so, in this issue there will be a review of the third part of the book PERSONĀLAIS KOMPJŪTERS "ZX SPECTRUM" by the company INFORCOM.

The title of the third part is DINAMISKĀ GRAFIKA. This part of the book includes the following chapters:

1. Animation on a plane or sprite graphics.
2. Animation in space or vector graphics.
3. Tips.

Next follows a brief review of each chapter.

In the first chapter, several sprite animation routines are provided. The strangest thing is that the authors of the book link all their routines to BASIC. The question arises: are they really that naive to think that a dynamic program can be made in BASIC? And in general, reading this chapter gives the impression that all the routines are stolen from some LASER BASIC.

All of that would be fine, but then I read that the authors recommend the XOR principle as the best sprite plotting method (it is clear to any fool that all serious programs use sprite plotting with a mask). Of course, it must be mentioned that the XOR method is faster, but what good is speed if the sprite ends up full of holes when passing over a sprite or image already present on screen?

All of the above is still nothing compared to the fact that all sprites must be of a fixed size, and having to enter them byte by byte is just absurd. However, despite all these shortcomings, some routines can still be used.

The second part of this book is about vector graphics. One could say that in this part of the book there are virtually no routines except a few, but those are in BASIC and intended solely for demonstration. Mostly, various formulas and their explanations are given. All formulas can be divided into two parts:

1. Formulas intended for recalculating the vertex coordinates of rotating figures.
2. Formulas intended for transitioning from one coordinate plane to another.

It should also be mentioned that all formulas are well explained with the help of various examples and drawings.

The third chapter is tips. Tips are given on how to create animation. As an example, the authors suggest giving the game's main character a large head so that the mood of the protagonist can be expressed through facial expressions.

And wrapping up the review of this book, it should also be said that an appendix is included at the end, providing various sprite templates in bytes. About this section, one can only say one thing: WHAT FOR!

In conclusion to this section, let's take a look at the rising prices of floppy disks. Only one thing can be said about this: keep it up, sellers, and soon we'll be able to switch from MAXI DATA to DYSAN disks, and later maybe even to VERBATIM and 3M disks; it's just that then nobody will buy your MAXI DATAs anymore.

In the next issue, there will be news (if there is any) and a review of ZX-compatible computers available at the LATGALES market.

INFO

Section: Jaunumi.
Article: Jaunumi Latvijā.
Author: Rihards (WORLD SOFT).
Date: 28.07.95.

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