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3D Desktops for Linux?

Posted by Cliff on from the moving-out-of-the-plane dept.

Ryn asks: "I've been looking around for a nice and easy to use 3D desktop/window manager for Linux, and the choice seems to be extremely limited. 3dwm seems to be more of an application framework than anything else. On the Windows side, there are applications like rooms3d and my favorite, 3dtop. Are there any Linux apps like these?"

34 comments

  1. You're our only hope! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In what way do you find 3D desktops more productive than the normal 2D desktops?

    Also, you have the source to any number of window managers, couldn't you code this up yourself? Viva la Open Source!

  2. Two words... by bihoy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Ximian Desktop. It's *better* than windows.
    That and Ximina Evolution has finaly allowed
    me to ditch windows. Oh yeah, gotta love it.
    www.ximian.

    1. Re:Two words... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is this Offtopic. The discussion *is*
      about linux desktop managers and Ximian Desktop
      *is* a linux desktop manager.

    2. Re:Two words... by danielrose · · Score: 1

      This discussion is about *3D* window managers. Last time I checked Ximian was 2D, bubba.

      --
      i hate pansy republicans
  3. I've seen the future, and it is Doom. Good doom. by DarrenBaker · · Score: 1

    Man, now if someone would only modify the GPL'd Quake or Doom so we could run around in our OS. You could attatch properties to certain areas or rooms, so when you enter them a wall opens up with display properties, mounted filesystems, etc.. Run up to a computer in one of the rooms and get a shell window! And secret walls through which you may walk to access your pr0n!! IDSPISPOPD LIVES AGAIN!!!

  4. Cool! by finity · · Score: 1

    This may be modded as offtopic, but that is the coolest thing I've ever seen. I didn't even know that something like that existed. Just an idea, but wouldn't it be cool to do some kind of VR on your desktop? This is right up SGI's alley it seems ;-)
    Anyway, thanks again for this question.

    1. Re:Cool! by Howie · · Score: 3, Informative

      SGI were doing it in at least 1993 - Filesystem Navigator (fsn) was available for free for the SGI Indigo. It's the thing with all the little cubes and spotlights for navigating files that you see in Jurassic Park.

      More recently, there has been a plain-X11 version of a similar thing, but with really nicely done labelling, and good speed (no GL). I wish I could remember what it was called though! I think it was French.

      --
      "don't fall into the fallacy of believing that Perl can solve social problems. Maybe Perl 6 can, but that's a ways off"
    2. Re:Cool! by innocent_white_lamb · · Score: 2

      there has been a plain-X11 version of a similar thing

      http://fsv.sourceforge.net

      --
      If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
    3. Re:Cool! by jonesvery · · Score: 2

      SGI were doing it in at least 1993 - Filesystem Navigator (fsn) was available for free for the SGI Indigo. It's the thing with all the little cubes and spotlights for navigating files that you see in Jurassic Park.

      More recently, there has been a plain-X11 version of a similar thing, but with really nicely done labelling, and good speed (no GL). I wish I could remember what it was called though! I think it was French.

      There are a number of tools out there to provide 3D views of your machine's filesystem:

      FSV is pretty cool looking, looking something like a model of a city, with directories and files being the "buildings."

      If you want something a little more scifi, check out TDFSB, which offers a more first-person view and a tron-esque landscape filled with a wide variety of different shapes (actual images of image files, etc.). Note: you'll be much happier running TDFSB if you have a beefy video card...it sucks to have a visible frame rate when you ls -a :)

      --

      * * *
      It is a dada story -- it has no moral.

  5. Sure, its cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    But what functionality REALLY do you get out of having a bunch of icons in 3d space for a desktop? Just make your icons smaller if you want to fit more on your desktop.

    Me, I usually kill all my desktop icons and prevent that horrific beast of a program, Nautilus, from starting up.

  6. Re:I've seen the future, and it is Doom. Good doom by Phork · · Score: 3, Interesting

    last year someone modified quake to do something like this. It was just for killing proccecess. Each proccess was a character, and you could really kill them.

    --
    -- free as in swatantryam - not soujanyam.
  7. 3d in 2d by redhotchil · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Could someone please explain to me the benifits of a 3d gui shell on a 2d display? Besides the obvious, "h3y my d3kzt0p r 3d d00d!" thing..

    1. Re:3d in 2d by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You will at last be able to use the depth of the monitor. The question is: what will we do with our 3D desktops when LCD flatscreens are commononplace?

    2. Re:3d in 2d by Rentar · · Score: 2

      I said it before and I'll say it again. I definitely won't use it for my daily work, but I will definitely have it installed on my home machine just for this 'Johny Mnemonic can do it, so can I'-feeling. Isn't eye candy something you want every now and then? Aren't you fascinated by aaquake? It's exactly the same thing: Noone will ever really use it, but it's a nice hack.

    3. Re:3d in 2d by Manic+Miner · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The benefits come from shifting your information management away from the flat desk paradigm towards one we are used to using every day - a 3D world.

      Most people know how to navigate a simulated 3D environment because of games such as quake etc. And because a 3D environment maps directly onto our day to day experience I think that it will be much easier to organise data. Just think of it was a virtual office, you have a room which contains printers, your desk with e-mail and word processing, the coffee bar where you go to chat with your friends etc. etc.

      This would provide a use for the emerging 3D technologies such as 3D glasses, headsets etc. Eventually I am sure that someone will come up with a 3D "holographic" style display, at which point a simulated 3D on 2D environment could easily be converted and people would already be used to the interface.

      I for one would find this wonderful. I love the idea of the ability to arrange my work in the same way I organise things in the real world. Roll on 3D, along with decent 3D display's :)

      --
      If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let'em go, because, man, they're gone.
    4. Re:3d in 2d by geekoid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But it would be slow.
      "Moving" to the printer room, then clicking on the printer to get its status is way slower then just typing in the command.
      And if you have to make physical motions like in real life, then it become comically slower. What good is vr if I have to move my hands to oen a file cabnet, then wiggle my fingers to shuffle through the papers, etc....
      Not that it wouldn't be cool, in that eyecandy see what I can do kind of way, just not very useful for daily activities.
      The reason why I believe this is because when the Source to quake was released I hacked it to load a different creature depending on varies deamons running, then send kill commands whenevr I shot a particular creature. My co-worker where very impressed, but hunting down a onster take a lot longer then typing the kill command.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  8. Re:I've seen the future, and it is Doom. Good doom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Doom as a tool for system administration

  9. Why it won't work by NightShift6 · · Score: 1

    In order for someone to use a desktop effectively, the user needs to be able to easily visualize the desktop. The biggest problem with a 3d desktop is trying to visualize programs, documents, and mp3s suspended in space, where there's no gravity. If you put gravity, bookshelves, and a desk in 3d, it has a better chance of becoming accepted. For now, though, looking "down" on my 2d desktop is the only way to go!

    1. Re:Why it won't work by newton34 · · Score: 0

      So Are you saying that the 2d desktop is liken to te old zelda. I really like the sudo 3d desktops with just 3d looking icons.

      --
      look my sig changes!!! nrrt mf oci jdabi.o!!! z..a ir kot gh-ntbk{{{
    2. Re:Why it won't work by autocracy · · Score: 3, Funny

      Really? What if it was a house instead. Maybe even a city block. Run up to your room for your home directory (Lift mattress for pr0n, but remember to have your decryption disk in the drive...)!

      --
      SIG: HUP
  10. 3D input device by Xavier+Shirin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A 3D windowing environment will not be much use if you have a hard time reaching into the third dimension. The mouse is a nifty input device, but to do 3D with it, it is difficult.

    For everyone that has played Homeworld, they have come the closest that I have seen to true 3d movement with a mouse, but the interface is still VERY annoying to me, I want my ships to attack them from above!

    --
    We do not cater to idiots.
    1. Re:3D input device by newton34 · · Score: 0

      balck and white has a great inerface with the mouse. It is very intuative. When I play it I forget that I am working With a 3d world

      --
      look my sig changes!!! nrrt mf oci jdabi.o!!! z..a ir kot gh-ntbk{{{
    2. Re:3D input device by Rui+del-Negro · · Score: 2, Informative

      B&W is essentially a 2D game. Everything happens at ground level. It's also a terribly boring game, but that's a different matter.

      I agree Homeworld / Cataclysm have the best 3D interface out there (you *can* make your ships attack from above, actually), and I also agree that to make full use of a 3D "desktop" you need a 3D input device.

      But it would be rather strange to use a "power-glove" outside the screen to move things that are inside the screen (I know, people do that with the mouse, but they're not looking at the mouse - it's harder to ignore your hand when you're moving it in 3D space in front of you).

      I think 3D environments will only become really useful when we manage to put high-resolution displays in eyeglasses, or project the image directly into the eyes. When that happens you'll actually be able to put your (computer-generated) folders on top of your (real) desk. :)

      RMN
      ~~~

    3. Re:3D input device by Chris+Hiner · · Score: 2

      You just need a 3D input device like a Spaceball.

      Something that handles moving and turning...

  11. Re:I've seen the future, and it is Doom. Good doom by spongman · · Score: 3, Interesting
    great quote:
    after I took the screenshot of myself being attacked by csh, csh was shot by friendly fire from behind, possibly by tcsh or xv, and my session was abruptly terminated.
  12. Re:I've seen the future, and it is Doom. Good doom by kilrogg · · Score: 1

    last year? That was in 1999. Time flies.

  13. Try Berlin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.berlin-consortium.org/

  14. Daydreaming... by piranha(jpl) · · Score: 3, Interesting
    After reading a few posts, I was inspired and came up with some ideas for a neat 3D user environment:
    • More or less, this environment would be a virtual-reality sort of thing. The user customizes the layout of the 3D scene that they inhabit on their computer, with both physical elements (like structures; walls, ceilings, trees, whatever), and programmable elements
    • Have an integrated, virtual X server, to run X normal apps and clients. A virtual X server would render the appearance of the clients' windows into dynamic bitmaps. The bitmaps could be placed in the 3D environment as if it were a tile, in ways not possible without the use of a virtual X server (that I can think of), like tilting the window in different directions, or perhaps shaping it to a 3D object, like a convex surface.
    • Programmable elements would allow a user to use this VR environment as their primary interface to the computer (for better or worse). The shape or behavior of objects and structures could change, or new physical elements could be created in the environment, based on internal conditions (user walked to a certain corner of the room), or conditions external to the environment (user has new mail).
    • Have the option of running your own little VR server, so that other people may use their VR client to explore and enjoy your space, or designated areas of your space. The transition to another person's "space" could be very obvious, like explicitly starting your VR client from a shell prompt, and stating the remote person's VR server as an arguement. Or, you could program a portal into your own space; the portal could be animated and mysterious-looking, or could just be represented as the threshold of a door in your space. Perhaps a user and their friends could set up a small network of portals between their spaces.
    • Design the whole thing so people can trade room/environment designs and elements, as well as scripting code, so that people that don't have a lot of time on their hands or don't know the scripting language can still enjoy the system.
    Other possibilities could include some sort of a gaming environment integrated into the system. (It could be a distributed, open-source EverQuest. =) The more open it is and the more effort put into it to ensure expandability, the more possibilities down the road. (As if I or anyone else is going to make it happen, anyway.)
  15. Re:Enjoy The Silence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hey! i was listening to that the other night! good choice!

    -txr

  16. Re:I've seen the future, and it is Doom. Good doom by DJK · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, it was actually DooM which was modified.

    I took what Dennis (the original author) did and improved upon it with the sourceforge project psdoom.

    Unfortunately, I have had very little time to work on it in the past year and a half or so. :-( I'll try to eventually put the rest of my modifications on sourceforge (mostly updates to the tcl/tk frontend and an update to a more recent XDoom source base). I don't have access to my new code right now, though, so it may be some time before that happens.

    WRT Quake, I *was* contacted by someone who pointed me towards the QuakeForge project (quakeforge.net) with a suggestion to make psQuake, but I knew that I didn't have the time to invest in learning Quake code, too.

  17. Re:I've seen the future, and it is Doom. Good doom by geekoid · · Score: 2

    intresting, I wish I had known about this sooner. I did something similiar when Quake was first 'opened'(97/98?). I would have loved to collaberate with this guy. I had to incorporate some pretty nasty stuff to get this to work from an Windows enviroment.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  18. Maverik by wfrp01 · · Score: 2

    Probably not the complete solution you're looking for, but a framework with interesting possibilities.

    http://www.gnu.org/software/maverik/maverik.html
    http://aig.cs.man.ac.uk/

    --

    --Lawrence Lessig for Congress!