| Developer(s) | Realsoft Oy |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 1990 |
| Stable release | 7.0.41 / 2010 |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | AmigaOS, IRIX, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X |
| Available in | EN |
| Type | 3D Software |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | http://www.realsoft.fi, http://www.realsoft.com |
Realsoft 3D is a modeling and raytracing application created by Realsoft Graphics Oy. Originally called Real 3D, it was developed for the Amiga computer and later also for Linux, Irix, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows.
It was initially written in 1983 on Commodore 64 by two Finnish brothers, Juha and Vesa Meskanen. The development of Real 3D was really started in 1985, as Juha Meskanen started his studies at the Lahti University of Applied Sciences, Finland. Juha's brother Vesa joined the development and abandoned his university career to start the Realsoft company in 1989.
The first commercial Real 3D version was released on Amiga.
It used IFF REAL for its objects.
It featured constructive solid geometry, support for smooth curved quadric surfaces and a ray-tracer for photo realistic rendering. [1]
1.2 was released in 1990, was already distributed in several European countries.
1.3 was released early 1991.
1.4 was released in December 1991. It was the last version derived from the original Real3D design.
Despite small version number increments, v1, v1.2 and v 1.3 were all major releases, with new manuals and packaging.
It was released in 1993.
Version 2 was redesigned with a new source code base. It introduced groundbreaking features - booleans, CSG primitives, b-spline curves, physically based animation simulation, morph-based animation techniques and phenomenal rendered output. It took full advantage of the multi-tasking abilities of the Amiga - allowing the user to continue editing a scene on another window while it rendered.
Microsoft Windows version was released in 1994.
Version 3.5 was released in 1996.
It was the last version based on v2 architecture. Realsoft had started a new major development project around 1994. The project involved a complete software rewrite, new object-oriented source code, platform independent design, modularity, and adoption of several other state-of–art development methods.
Amiga version 3.5, which is also the last version for this system, is now freely available by AmiKit. [2]
Version 4 was released year 2000. Beginning with this release, Realsoft renamed the product to Realsoft 3D.
It was released on multiple platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Linux and SGI Irix.
4.1 trial version was released in 2001-02-21. [3] Retail version was released in 2001-05-25. [4]
4.2 upgrade was released in 2001-07-19. [5]
Linux (Intel, AMD) and SGI Irix (MIPS) versions were released in 2001-07-24. [6]
4.5 was released in 2002-10-23, [7] which introduced for example caustics and global illumination rendering features. Linux version was released in 2002-11-03. [8] Irix version of 4.5/SP1 (build 26.41b) was released in 2003-06-03. [9]
Windows version was released in 2004-11-15. [10]
It expanded the feature set in all program areas. It was also an important visual leap forward supporting full-color 32 bit icons.
Service pack 1 (5.1) for Windows was released in 2005-02-03. [11]
Service Pack 2 (5.2) for Windows was released in 2005-10-02. [12]
Service Pack 3 (5.3) for Windows was released in 2006-11-01. [13] Mac OS X version was released in 2006-12-18. [14]
Service Pack 4 (5.4) was released in 2007-05-01. [15] Irix version was released in 2007-12-16. [16]
Windows version was released in 2007-12-18. [17] It introduced powerful parametric tools for plant modeling and building construction. 64-bit platforms were supported.
Service pack 1 (6.1) for Windows was released in 2008-05-15. [18]
Linux version was released in 2008-07-01. [19]
Mac OS X version was released in 2008-11-11. [20]
It was announced in 2008-12-13, with projected release date between 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2009. It was released on December 7, 2009, for 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows.
It was released on 2018-12-06, for Linux, Windows and macOS in 2019-12-24 the upgrade was released.
Jeff Paries of Computer Graphics World claimed version 4 is an excellent addition to your toolbox at a reasonable price. [21]
The history of the graphical user interface, understood as the use of graphic icons and a pointing device to control a computer, covers a five-decade span of incremental refinements, built on some constant core principles. Several vendors have created their own windowing systems based on independent code, but with basic elements in common that define the WIMP "window, icon, menu and pointing device" paradigm.
IRIX is a discontinued operating system developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) to run on the company's proprietary MIPS workstations and servers. It is based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. In IRIX, SGI originated the XFS file system and the industry-standard OpenGL graphics API.
OpenGL is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardware-accelerated rendering.
Silicon Graphics, Inc. was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and software. Founded in Mountain View, California, in November 1981 by James Clark, its initial market was 3D graphics computer workstations, but its products, strategies and market positions developed significantly over time.
StarOffice is a discontinued proprietary office suite. Its source code continues today in derived open-source office suites Collabora Online and LibreOffice. StarOffice supported the OpenOffice.org XML file format, as well as the OpenDocument standard, and could generate PDF and Flash formats. It included templates, a macro recorder, and a software development kit (SDK).
Revolution is a software development environment/multimedia authoring software in the tradition of HyperCard and is based on the MetaCard engine. Its primary focus is on providing a relatively accessible development tool set and scripting language that enable the creation of software programs that run across multiple platforms with little or no code modifications. The Integrated Development Environment (IDE) included with Revolution is built partly on the models created by Bill Atkinson and the original HyperCard team at Apple and subsequently followed by many other software development products, such as Microsoft's Visual Basic. Revolution includes an English language-like scripting language called Transcript, a full programming language superset of the HyperCard's scripting language, HyperTalk.
Virtual PC is a discontinued x86 emulator for PowerPC Mac hosts and a hypervisor for Microsoft Windows hosts. It was created by Connectix in 1997 and acquired by Microsoft in 2003. The Mac version was discontinued in 2006 following the Mac transition to Intel, while the Windows version was discontinued in 2011 in favour of Hyper-V.
In computing, Physical Address Extension (PAE), sometimes referred to as Page Address Extension, is a memory management feature for the x86 architecture. PAE was first introduced by Intel in the Pentium Pro, and later by AMD in the Athlon processor. It defines a page table hierarchy of three levels (instead of two), with table entries of 64 bits each instead of 32, allowing these CPUs to directly access a physical address space larger than 4 gigabytes (232 bytes).
In software engineering, a compatibility layer is an interface that allows binaries for a legacy or foreign system to run on a host system. This translates system calls for the foreign system into native system calls for the host system. With some libraries for the foreign system, this will often be sufficient to run foreign binaries on the host system. A hardware compatibility layer consists of tools that allow hardware emulation.
GLX is an extension to the X Window System core protocol providing an interface between OpenGL and the X Window System as well as extensions to OpenGL itself. It enables programs wishing to use OpenGL to do so within a window provided by the X Window System. GLX distinguishes two "states": indirect state and direct state.
The software program VICE, standing for VersatIle Commodore Emulator, is a free and cross platform emulator for Commodore's 8-bit computers. It runs on Linux, Amiga, Unix, MS-DOS, Win32, macOS, OS/2, RISC OS, QNX, GP2X, Pandora, Dingoo A320, Syllable, and BeOS host machines. VICE is free software, released under the GNU General Public License since 2004.
Parallels Workstation is the first commercial software product released by Parallels, Inc., a developer of desktop and server virtualization software. The Workstation software comprises a virtual machine suite for Intel x86-compatible computers which allows the simultaneous creation and execution of multiple x86 virtual computers. They distributed the product as a download package. Parallels Workstation has been discontinued for Windows and Linux as of 2013.
SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) is a Linux-based operating system developed by SUSE. It is available in two editions, suffixed with Server (SLES) for servers and mainframes, and Desktop (SLED) for workstations and desktop computers.
Internet Explorer for UNIX is a discontinued version of the Internet Explorer graphical web browser that was available free of charge and produced by Microsoft for use in the X Window System on Solaris or HP-UX. Development ended with a version of Internet Explorer 5 in 2001 and support for it was completely discontinued in 2002.
This article deals with productivity software created for the Amiga line of computers and covers the AmigaOS operating system and its derivatives AROS and MorphOS. It is a split of the main article, Amiga software.
Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995.
