[Bf-committers] Re: A contribution

[GSR - FR]

dan@harthinian.com (2004-07-03 at 0018.47 +0100):
> .zpic - Output by softImage from what I can tell and importable into
> AfterEffects, Combustion, and Photoshop. This is just a headerless
> file of floats, 1 per pixel. I didn't find any more info than that
> such as the range used and orientation but I will keep looking.

All that other info must be derived from the PIC that has the colour
data, so getting PIC info should help figuring orientation and such:
http://www.softimage.com/community/xsi/discuss/Archives/sisdk.archive.0006/msg00004.htm

---8<---
 Subject: RE: Zpic file format                         
 From: Halfdan Ingvarsson <>                        
 Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 12:57:54 -0400

> Are there any information about SoftImage Zpic file
> format.

A raw format, no headers or anything. Basically a list of floats in
big endian. The number of floats is determined by the dimensions of
the PIC image that was outputted with it.

To read (on SGI):

float *readZPic(FILE *file, int xSize, int ySize)
{
  float *img = malloc(xSize * ySize * sizeof(float));
  if(fread(img, sizeof(float), xSize * ySize, file) != xSize * ySize) {
    free(img);
    printf("Couldn't read the whole image.\n");
    return NULL;
  }
  return img;
}

That's it.

Ciao,
  H. 
--->8---

And about PIC:
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/dataformats/softimagepic/

> .eiz - Output by ElectricImage and importable into the same apps as
> above with plugins. I couldn't find any info at all on the file
> format for this except that it can support multiple images for
> animations.

http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/ sadly is the EIZ app lacks source
while most there have it.

> The Maya (.iff) and 3ds max (.rla superceded by .rpf) formats save the depth 
> internally along with image and alpha data.

I wonder if that IFF relates to the Amiga one.

I found the "specs" (in the source of an image lib, named imtools) of
RLA saying that there origin in Wavefront (Alias, SGI...). About RPF,
there seems to be source code to read:
http://cvs.lysator.liu.se/viewcvs/viewcvs.cgi/mpeg_z/rpf_read/?root=aquamarijn

Reference list of (old, pro) formats here for the curious:
http://www.qarl.com/menu/class/cs323_fl98/mrmanual_2.0/functionality.html

[...]
> I will carry on looking for any specifications for both of them.

That is the never ending history... anybody got latest TIFF specs, btw?

GSR