The Amiga 3000 - a VR pioneer

Chip Ram (2megabytes!). AGA graphics.. I think..
I didn't realise that there was so much work being done in VR with the Amiga in those days.
It sure was a great computer. Thanks for your reminder.
Great work.

Amiga 3000 did not have AGA but was still amazing, however like the modern computers today it needed a dedicated 3d graphics system. The Amiga would handle all sensor input, OS functions and sound generation, probably titles as well. Amiga 1000 could do 3D animation in real time, but not this amount.

The thing that made 3d difficult on the amiga was that it's graphics subsystem used planar storage.
On modern pc gfx cards, pixels have their bits stored consecutively in memory. On the amiga, bits are stored in separate bit planes. In the most common mode: 5 bit colour (32 colours), each pixel is spread over 5 different memory locations. Each of those locations has 8 different pixels sharing the same byte.
It could do a lot of cool stuff with sprites, but 3d is very planar unfriendly. Well, textured 3d in particular. Flat colour was possible.

I never owned an Amiga, but I did produce my first computer art on one at classes I was taking in Chicago. Deluxe Paint, of course. Wish I had saved the textbook for that class--would have been a collectors item today. Still have printouts of some of the art I created though. 

When I went to college I convinced my totally clueless parents that I needed a new Amiga 500 computer to help with my schoolwork.  So obviously I spent all my nights playing video games and when I needed something to write my papers on I just went down to the PC lab like everyone else.  Oh well, I did eventually earn my CS degree and had a fruitful career in the computer industry so I forgive myself of this little embezzlement.  :)

I still have two A500s :) Do you guys know that the earlier Babylon 5 series SFX were created on A3000s ? Now that was cool!

Marrukkah said:

I still have two A500s :) Do you guys know that the earlier Babylon 5 series SFX were created on A3000s ? Now that was cool!

Star Trek Next Gen too, if i remember right!
I've spend 6 years with my Amiga 500 (from 1990 to early 1996) producing music
with Noise Tracker and the 4 DMA Stereo channels!

kwild said:

Marrukkah said:

I still have two A500s :) Do you guys know that the earlier Babylon 5 series SFX were created on A3000s ? Now that was cool!

Star Trek Next Gen too, if i remember right!
I've spend 6 years with my Amiga 500 (from 1990 to early 1996) producing music
with Noise Tracker and the 4 DMA Stereo channels!

Christ, yes I remember!!! Oh the demos and everything else!!! Old names :)

Thanks for the link, Nice article .. enjoyed it.