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Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: PHIGS User Group Conference
Message-ID: <1993Apr28.091818.2962@ug.eds.com>
From: hamlin@ug.eds.com (Griff Hamlin)
Date: 28 Apr 93 09:18:16 PDT
Reply-To: hamlin@ug.eds.com (Griff Hamlin)
Distribution: world
Organization: EDS Unigraphics, Cypress CA
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                FIRST ANNUAL PHIGS USER GROUP CONFERENCE

          The First Annual PHIGS User Group Conference was held March 21-24
          in Orlando, Florida.  The conference was organized by the Rensse-
          laer Design Research Center in co-operation with  IEEE  and  SIG-
          GRAPH.   Attendees  came  from five countries spanning three con-
          tinents.   A  good  cross-section  of  the  PHIGS  community  was
          represented  at this conference with participants including PHIGS
          users, workstation vendors, third-party PHIGS implementors, stan-
          dards  committee  members,  and  researchers  from  industry  and
          academia.  The opening speaker, Dr. Richard Puk, challenged PHIGS
          users  to  "take  charge of your PHIGS" by participating in PHIGS
          standardization activities and communicating their needs to PHIGS
          implementors.    The   closing  speaker,  Dr.  Andries  Van  Dam,
          described his vision of the future of graphics standards  "beyond
          PHIGS".

          Technical paper sessions in the conference covered the  following
          topics:  PHIGS  and  X, Application Toolkits, Application Issues,
          Texture Mapping, NURBS,  PHIGS  Extensions,  and  Object-Oriented
          Libraries and Frameworks.  Panel sessions on PHIGS and PEX, PHIGS
          Non-Retained Data, Real-World CAD Applications Using  PHIGS,  and
          Portability  Issues generated enthusiastic discussions and formed
          a good forum for exchange of ideas, needs, and experiences.   The
          conference  also included a day full of tutorials on topics rang-
          ing from mathematics for 3D  graphics  to  object-oriented  tools
          based on PHIGS.

          Next year's conference is planned for March, 1994.

          PHIGS EVERYWHERE

          At the conference, PHIGS  vendors   described   and  demonstrated
          PHIGS  products  that  run on all types of computers, from PCs to
          mainframes.

          Megatek Corporation demonstrated their PHIGS extensions including
          conditional traversal, composite logical input devices, texturing
          and translucency.

          Template Graphics  Software  launched  FIGARO+  PRO,  the  Photo-
          Realistic  Option  for  PHIGS+.  FIGARO+  PRO  is designed to add
          advanced rendering to the existing PHIGS+ API, with features like
          ray   tracing,  materials,  anti-aliasing  and  texture  mapping.
          Radiosity support is also planned.

          FIGARO+ is an example of how TGS continues to add newly  emerging
          graphics  features to their products.  FIGARO+ supports immediate
          mode extensions to PHIGS and also supports SUN XGL,  HP  Starbase
          and SGI GL/OpenGL. FIGARO+ for NT will be released this summer.

          TGS also demonstrated the latest versions of FIGraph, a  powerful
          "2-call"  charting  system  based on PHIGS+, and FIGt, an object-
          oriented utility library for PHIGS/PEX developers.

          G5G and Gallium Software demonstrated a new version of GPHIGS  on
          Silicon  Graphics  workstations. Scheduled for summer, 1993, Ver-
          sion 3.0 of GPHIGS, the company's  PHIGS+  library  for  worksta-
          tions,  will include an advanced PHIGS debugger that allows PHIGS
          developers to display and browse PHIGS structures and other PHIGS
          internal  state.  G5G  also  described  their Non-Duplicated Data
          Store that stores pointers to application data in the GPHIGS  CSS
          for  more  efficient  use  of  memory. In addition, G5G described
          their application GSE that allows application callback  functions
          during  GPHIGS traversal.  GPHIGS and PHIGURE, G5G's data visual-
          izer and application development toolkit, are currently available
          on  all  major  workstations  that support GL, X Windows, PEX, or
          Starbase.

          Wise Software presented a slide show of  Z-PHIGS  for  MS-Windows
          and ARENA, a PHIGS based modeller/render. Z-PHIGS implements most
          of the PHIGS+ primitives.  In addition Z-PHIGS has built in  many
          advanced  rendering features like texture mapping, shadow genera-
          tion, area quick updates and ray tracing. A demo disk of  Z-PHIGS
          or ARENA is available on request.

          ATC exhibited GRAFPAK-PHIGS, their full-featured PHIGS  implemen-
          tation  based  on  DEC  PHIGS. GRAFPAK-PHIGS is available on most
          workstation platforms with C, FORTRAN and Ada bindings and incor-
          porates PEX support.

          Within the booth sponsored by Advanced Technology Center, Digital
          Equipment  Corporation demonstrated DEC PHIGS V2.4 running on the
          DEC 3000/400 AXP PXG. ATCs' GRAFPAK-PHIGS is a port of DEC PHIGS.
          DEC  PHIGS  V2.4 contains most PHIGS and PHIGS PLUS features with
          support for PEX V5.1  protocol.  DEC  PHIGS  also  contains  most
          GM/EDS   PHIGS  extensions  including  post-to-view  as  well  as
          proprietary extensions to support immediate  mode  rendering  and
          the use of PHIGS in an X11 environment.

          AXP, DEC, and DEC PHIGS are trademarks of Digital Equipment  Cor-
          poration.  GRAFPAK-PHIGS and ATC are trademarks of Advanced Tech-
          nology Center. PEX and X11 are trademarks of Massachusetts Insti-
          tute of Technology.

          The IBM exhibit featured a GTO accelerator attached to an IBM 340
          workstation running graPHIGS and PEX.

          Hewlett Packard and SHOgraphics demonstrated at the conference. A
          Hewlett  Packard  machine was coupled to display on a SHOgraphics
          PEX terminal. HP showcased their latest  PHIGS  product  enhance-
          ments.


          PHIGS USER GROUP

          The PHIGS Users Group was formed to aid the development of  PHIGS
          applications  and provide user feedback to PHIGS implementors and
          PHIGS standards bodies.  For more  information  about  the  PHIGS
          Users Group, send e-mail to:

                    phigsug@cadrt10.me.vt.edu

          or write to:

                    Sankar Jayaram
                    Virginia Polytechnic Institute
                    114 Randolph Hall
                    Blacksburg, Va. 24061-0238
                    FAX: 703-231-9100


          VENDOR CONTACTS

          Megatek Corporation
          TEL (619) 455-5590
          FAX (619) 453-7603

          Template Graphics Software
          TEL (800) 544-4847
          FAX (619) 452-2547

          WISE software GmbH
          TEL +49-451-3909-413
          FAX +49-451-3909-499

          G5G - North American Sales
          TEL (800) 267-2626
          FAX (613) 592-1278

          Advanced Technology Center
          TEL (800) 999-5711
          FAX (714) 583-9213

          Digital Equipment Corporation
          TEL (603) 884-5111

          International Business Machines Corporation
          TEL (800) 426-3333

          Hewlett Packard Company
          TEL (303) 229-3800

          COPIES OF THE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

          Copies of the conference proceedings may be obtained by  contact-
          ing Mary Johnson at:

                    Johnson, Mary
                    Design and Manufacturing Institute
                    Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
                    110 Eighth Street
                    Building CII, Room 7015
                    Troy, NY  12180-3590
                    Tel:  (518)276-6754
                    Fax:  (518)276-2702
                    Email:  mjohnson@rdrc.rpi.edu


          The cost is $75.00 per binder.

