
TAGL 2.2 (ThreeDee Advanced Graphic Library) ANNOUNCEMENT
=========================================================

Yet a new release of TAGL with texturing functions !

TAGL is a library that provides a subset of Open-GL functionalities. 
Its main purpose is to be portable and extensible. 
It has been developped under Linux, but it can compile under whatever Unix 
system with X. 
On other systems, it requires a little bit of work, but not much. The 
SVGAGraphicPort (for Linux SVGALib) and the DOSGraphicPort 
(for MicroSh*t DOS and djgpp) have been written within an hour.


Author:
-------

Bruno Levy
bruno@ensg.u-nancy.fr

I haven't been releasing anything for a long time since I am at the
army now. It might take a long time for me to answer your e-mail
since I don't have always an internet access.

My new e-mail is bruno@ensg.u-nancy.fr
I won't be there very often before September 1996, 
please mail comments/bug-reports/suggestions to "cahouch@univ-mlv.fr" 
before the end of Sept. 1996, he is a friend of mine who will transmit to me.
Mail flames to "/dev/null", he is also a friend of mine who will transmit.


What does it do ?
-----------------

It provides all primitives for easily animate 3D objects in real time.
It can handle ZBuffer, Gouraud shading and dithering, texturing
in RGB or colormap mode. It works for 8bpp, 15bpp, 16bpp, 24bpp 
and 32bpp displays.

All is dynamic, this allows to determine at run-time the type of the display.
It means that the same executable may run at any display depth, under X11
and SVGALib without recompiling.

Now, it can use dynamic linking, to load drivers at run time. This will allow
to use new driver with old executables.

A few demonstration programs are included in the distribution.

Rotate: rotate objects in 'off' format. Read 'ipcol' files (countains colors).
vtga:   A non-compressed targa viewer (very usefull for povray)

Where to get:
-------------

sunsite.unc.edu
/pub/Linux/libs/graphics/tagl22src.tgz

Requirements:
-------------
o  - A Unix environment with X11/XShm                or 
   - Linux with X11 and/or SVGALib                   or
   - a PC running MicroSh*t's Dirty Operating System or
   - whatever machine you are able to write a GraphicPort for.
o A lot of RAM (Double buffer + ZBuffer = much,much RAM).
o A C++ compiler.
o A good processor (I got a 486 DX 33, a Pentium is suitable 
  for a good framerate when texture mapping is activated.
  An Alpha, a R4000 or an HPPA are better !).


OpenGL ?
--------

For the moment, it's not compatible with OpenGL. There will be a gateway, that
will try to implement some of the primitives of OpenGL. 
Compared to Mesa, the stuff will be much less compatible, but will run much 
faster. The classes for matrix transforms and event queuing are under work, 
the gateway will be started when it's ready. 

What's new in 2.2 ?
-------------------

        - Textures !
	- Compatibility with X toolkits
	  (rendering in a given window).
	- Several bug fixes.
	- More demo programs.
	- A little programmers guide.
	- A Tcl/Tk interface for launching demo programs.

Future work
-----------

	- Built-in lighting (for the moment, 'rotate' uses
                             it's own lighting functions).
	- Fonts, text output. (almost ready)
        - Events qeueing
	- OpenGL gateway.


Have fun with it !

-- Bruno.

