DOS program for 3D graphics

Question

I occasionally find myself in the situation where I need to build a simple 3D image, and this DOS program I remember would come in very handy. I just cannot find it anywhere. I am not sure if it was famous at all.

It had a simplistic interface; it was able to rotate the content on all 3 axes, zoom in and out, and possibly had other functions as well.

The design was done in a text file, just by typing in the parameters of the objects: lines, circles, etc. (I do not exactly remember all the things it could draw; at that time I did not need it much.)

I think it supported animations too, but I never learned how to do that.

I think that the executable file was called something like "acd" (.exe or .com), but I cannot guarantee that.

Answer 1

AutoCAD for DOS I would think. The executable was ACAD.EXE. It supported textual commands for producing drawings, you can find a description of the software here.

Answer 2

I'll suggest Moray, which was a realtime editor of content for POV-Ray, the ray tracer. POV-Ray renders scenes from a formal language and reference documentation is online. Cribbing from some online samples here's a plane, three cylinders and three spheres:

//EXAMPLE OF TRANSPARENT OBJECTS

//Files with predefined colors and textures
#include "colors.inc"
#include "glass.inc"
#include "golds.inc"
#include "metals.inc"
#include "stones.inc"
#include "woods.inc"

//Place the camera
camera {
  sky <0,0,1>          //Don't change this
  direction <-1,0,0>   //Don't change this  
  right <-4/3,0,0>     //Don't change this
  location  <100,0,.5>  //Camera location
  look_at   <0,0,.5>    //Where camera is pointing
  angle 3       //Angle of the view--increase to see more, decrease to see less
}

//Ambient light to "brighten up" darker pictures
global_settings { ambient_light White }

//Place a light--you can have more than one!
light_source {
  <10,-10,10>   //Change this if you want to put the light at a different point
  color White*2        //Multiplying by 2 doubles the brightness
}

//Set a background color
background { color White }

//Create a "floor"
plane {
  <0,0,1>, 0           //This represents the plane 0x+0y+z=0
  texture { T_Silver_3A }  //The texture comes from the file "metals.inc"
   }

//Create three cylinders, giving centers of ends and radus for each
cylinder { <0,-1,0>, <0,-1,2>,  .1 texture{T_Stone1}}
cylinder { <0,0,0>, <0,0,2>,  .1 texture{T_Stone1}}
cylinder { <0,1,0>, <0,1,2>,  .1 texture{T_Stone1}}

//Create three transparent spheres
//Give center and radius,and index of refraction for each
sphere { <2, -1, 1>, 0.5  texture{T_Ruby_Glass} interior { ior 1 } }
sphere { <2, 0, 1>, 0.5  texture{T_Ruby_Glass} interior { ior 1.5 } }
sphere { <2, 1, 1>, 0.5  texture{T_Ruby_Glass} interior { ior 2 } }

Archive.org has captured Moray's late-'90s web page at which point it was Windows software; with thanks to @kouta-kun in the comments below the DOS version looked like:

Archive.org also seems to have captured the final DOS release for download albeit only in the Wayback Machine as far as I can tell, not in its main archive that would make it usable online.

Answer 3

POV (Persistence of Vision) Ray Tracer rendered 3D objects and scenes from a text-based file of instructions.

AutoCAD also produced a 3D graphics generator named 3D-Studio (3DS). The objects were created inside the program using its menus.

Both ran on DOS. The first was popular because it was free and powerful. The second was from one of the major companies.