Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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?"

4 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. 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.
  2. 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..

  3. 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.
  4. 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.)