                              === TSIPP 3.2.0-b1 ===

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                Beta-1 release
This is TSIPP 3.2.0 beta-1 release.  Please send bugs, comments and ideas
to markd@grizzly.com ASAP for consideration for the final release.  This
release is compatible with Tcl 7.6, Tk 4.2 and TclX 7.6.0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    TSIPP (Tcl TSIPP) provides a 3D image specification and rendering toolkit
for use with Tcl and Tk.  It is based on SIPP, the SImple Polygon Processor, a
library for creating 3-dimensional scenes and rendering them using a scan-line
z-buffer algorithm.  Tcl is an easy to use, powerful, interpretive programming
language, that is designed to be imbeddable in applications.  Tk is a X11
toolkit programmed in Tcl.

    TSIPP is a set of Tcl commands used to programmed SIPP without having to
write and compile C code.  Commands are used to specify surfaces, objects,
scenes and rendering options.  Scenes may be rendered to files in the PPM
format or in Utah Raster Toolkit RLE format.

   Tk interactive applications may also be developed that do rendering to the
Tk photo image.

   This interface greatly speeds the development of scenes because no compile
and link phase is required.  Data is represented in a simple ASCII form.
This is particularly useful when for producing 3D scenes from ASCII data
generated by other programs.  Since most of the work in creating a scene is
still done in libsipp, the is only a small performance penalty in programming
in Tcl.

This version is compatible with Tcl 7.6, Tk 4.2 and TclX 7.6.0

BUILDING AND INSTALLING
=======================

   See the file unix/INSTALL for details on how to build and install.


NEW FEATURES
============

   Integration with Tk 4.0 has generated some incompatibilities with the
previous release of TSIPP.  On the heals of this incompatibility,
a couple of others were introduced without providing the old interfaces.
I hope this isn't too much of a problem.

The following new features have been added in this release.  

   o Integration with Tk 4.0 photo item.  The photo widget, on which the
     photo item is based, is no longer part of this distribution.  Note
     that photo items are initially transparent while photo images were
     initially black. This might require setting the background color of
     the widget the photo item is displayed to get the desired appearance
     before an image is displayed. (Potential Incompatibility)

   o Tk photo images may now be copied to another image.

   o Added the SippColor command to convert between SIPP colors and X11 color
     specifications.

   o Added trapping of matherr calls and SIGFPE signals and reporting the
     errors as Tcl errors.

   o Added general purpose commands for manipulating image comments. Eliminated
     the RLE and PixMap specific commands. The new commands are argument
     compatible, so it should be a simple command rename.  (Potential
     Incompatibility)

   o A subset of the Utah Raster Toolkit RLE library is now included in the
     distribution.  This allows TSIPP RLE support to be built without
     getting and building the entire RLE library.

THE FUTURE
==========

  Potential future work on TSIPP may include the following.  Any input
on these or other changes is very welcome:

   o Pick functionality.  Ability to translate an pixel location to an
     object.

   o Support for an alpha channel.  This would allow for the merging of
     rendered images and for transparent backgrounds in photo items.
     
   o Support for reading and writing TIFF files.

   o Support for reading PBM/PPM files.

   o Export and document internal C functions so programmers can link
     in their shaders and object primitives.

   o Switching to Tk style objects-as-commands.  Objects, surfaces, shaders,
     handles would all become commands.  Operations on them would then be
     dome by calling the command with an action.  

LATEST VERSION
==============

The latest version of TSIPP should always be available from:

        ftp.neosoft.com:/pub/tcl/tclx-distrib/tsipp*.tar.gz


TSIPP AUTHOR
===============

   Mark Diekhans - <markd@grizzly.com>

Please send all bugs, questions or comments to this address.

AUTHORS OF OTHER SOFTWARE IN THIS DISTRIBUTION
==============================================

The SIPP 3D rendering package was developed by:

   Jonas Yngvesson <jonas-y@isy.liu.se>
   Inge Wallin <ingwa@isy.liu.se>

of Linkoping Institute of Technology, Sweden

Parts of the Utah Raster Toolkit RLE library developed by:

   Spencer W. Thomas and others

Thanks for the great software!!!
