Looking Glass - 3D Desktop from Sun

[Rakido]

watch the demo on the site, there's some cool stuff.

http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/




Rakido

[GNEP]

Hmmm... I'll remain a sceptic on this one for now. When using computers, most of my time is not spent with the operating system - it's spent with applications (as indeed it should be - the UI of the operating system should IMHO be so slick as to make the operating system itself virtually un-noticable).

So what we actually need, if we are to make use of this high-end 3d hardware in anything other than games, is APPLICATIONS that make proper use of 3d. Now DVD players and mp3 players are never going to be these apps (think about it...) - perhaps a media library at a stretch, but again, something like a media library should be so intuitive you don't notice the interface.

This leaves us with real apps. What I have in fact wanted for a long time was a 3-d spreadsheet - heck, most of my models and data exist in more than 2 dimensions - why should I be stuck with Excel in 2.5d or Adaytum in n-d (badly)? And even then only ever a 2-d "slice" of the model... So spreadsheets & modelling tools are prime candidates to "go 3d".

Document-editing tools - well until we move into a world where all publishing is electronic and multi-dimensional, it's not going to happed.

CAD/design software - of course, but then of course this often already is primarily 3d.

Picture/media editing - potentially a use here, but again would be a paradigm-shift for the users to coin a phrase - to be truly successful would need to make the whole process substantially easier for someone without experience to pick up, rather than adding complexity. Useful perhaps in managing layers or bits of film being cut together fully 3-dimensionally, but again limited by the fact that the final output is most definitely restricted to 2d.

Sound editing - can see some real potential here, but probably only because I am not and never will be musical and instead think of sound in terms of 3d fourier representations

Databases - oh yes plenty of scope here - see spreadsheets above

Presentation stuff (admit it a large part of computers' time around the world is taken up with production of crap powerpoint slides ) - well I think that less is more here and the less we allow people to "play with the 3rd (& 4th of time) dimension" the better. Might actually end up with sensible simple slides that get the message across easily and quickly for once...

Games - we're already there and the interfaces have nothing to do with the UI of the operating system.

Just my collection of random thoughts. If I could (a) program (b) make the time (c) organise myself and (d) get funding I would have put together at least a rudimentary 3-d or 4-d version of Excel years ago using proper hardware accelerated "cubes" of numbers

[Jammrock]

Looks pretty interesting. THough many MURCers won't be able to watch it since they won't install eVil RealOne player.

Too bad it will only ever be for Sun Java Desktop.

[leech]

Sweet! I get to be the first one on here to say that looks like it'll kick some major ass! Though I don't know about the windows being Transparent helping (There's a program out there called WindowFX that does that, and frankly in a lot of cases, it makes it harder to read stuff. Though for Dialog boxes I thought it was pretty handy (Especially those ones that insist on being over everything else))

Leech

P.S. We almost all posted at the exact same time!

You can add one more to what could be useful here. File management. I think THAT would be the most useful to be 3D

[TransformX]

I'm still unconvinced.
Most information we need is 2D, whether it's books or whatever.

3D apps, great thing !
3D desktop ? Maybe when I'll have a real 3D computing environment (unlike my 2D screen) and a 3D pointing device.

[GNEP]

Thanks TX - that reminds me of the one other bit that I forgot to mention - we need a proper, common, cheap 3d interface device to replace the mouse - a "space-ball" or whatever it was called with 6 degrees of freedom.

[TransformX]

Originally posted by GNEP
...a "space-ball" ...

May the Schwartz be with you...

[leech]

Or those cool cyber gloves like in Johnny Mnemonic. Manipulating Data as 3D objects could be interesting.

There are already several 3D 'desktop's out there. www.3dwm.org is one... at least they were working on it... don't know how far it got..

Leech

[cjolley]

Here we go again.

http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45781

chuck

[magician]

Well... it seems that this'll make Matrox cards basic *cough* 2D *cough* graphic adapters again.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

i wonder if longhorn will be like that...

very cool. I am speechless

[Sasq]

Oh god please bring on decent 3D db interfaces, please....

[rugger]

3d desktop interfaces are a big fat lie. They are like many linux desktop interfaces ... they make nice screenshots, but beyond that, are unlikely to be easier or more useable then a simple 2d desktop.