RE: FF Alternatives

["MacBeth, Bill" <bill.macbeth@compaq.com>]

Nathan,
I have found the capabilities of Filter Formula to be far in excess of
Filter Factory.  The features that I like most about it are the use of
commented 'C' code, and the fact that source code is not embedded in the
filter so it can not be reverse engineered.  Your intellectual property is
protected.  Its architecture permits some types of filters to be written so
that they execute up to five times faster than the same filter in Filter
Factory (by actual timing on some of my filters), and also permits some
types of filters to be created that simply are not possible within the
architecture of FilterFactory.

I have not used Filter Meister, but that is due to my time limitation and
not a comment on the product.

Here are my thoughts about these filter creation programs versus the
expectation that you might have from using the native filters in Photoshop.
Most of the filters that I've seen published largely fall into the "image
generation" or color mapping category.  The other category (and my area of
interest) is photo-finishing, which has a unique set of requirements:
  - The preview window should zoom to +8:1 to permit the effect of the
    filter to be seen at the pixel level.
  - The effect of the mask should be reflected into the preview window,
    i.e., only the selected areas of the image should be filtered in
    the preview window.
Unless I've missed a product along the way, all of these filter creation
programs fall short of meeting these two requirements, yet Adobe's filters
operate in this manner, and it is my expectation.  I don't know if this due
to an inherent limitation of the program interface that Adobe makes
available, or if it just a matter of no one making the effort to implement
it properly.  Comments from other members of this group???

Regards, Bill

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	nathan c [SMTP:carnes10@hotmail.com]
> Sent:	Saturday, July 24, 1999 6:13 PM
> To:	ff@aurdev.com
> Subject:	FF Alternatives
> 
> Hello all! I haven't been paying much attention to the goings on in this 
> group for the past several months, and I was wondering what some of the 
> alteratives to Filter Factory were (i.e. FiFo, etc.), which ones cost
> what, 
> and were I could locate their respective homepages. Thank you!
> 
> Nathan
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Cyclone Graphics
> http://cyclonegraphics.hypermart.net
> 
> 
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