Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Mac OS X 3D File Browser

Posted by pudge on from the shades-of-project-x dept.

A user writes "A development team at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana has released a 3-dimensional file browser called 3DOSX as a test of the feasibility of the technology. This program uses OpenGL to render a file system as a series of floating 'platters' interconnected by semi-translucent beams of light." I tried this on my old PowerBook G3/400, first from the source and then from the disk image, and then realized I don't have the required OpenGL-accelerated video card. Doofus am I! Be not like me! (However, it does work, albeit very slowly, on a new iBook/600). J adds: Nice and fast on an old G4/500 with a Radeon.

22 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Screen Shots by cjhuitt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It looks interesting, that's for certain. I don't know that I would want to use it all the time yet, at least because I couldn't drag-and-drop a file between platters.

    For those who are curious what it looks like, I took a couple of screenshots. At the risk of slashdotting my school's server, they are here:

    Platters View.

    A welcome return of Labels.

    The Get Info window.

  2. So finally it's true! by Toraz+Chryx · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know this, this is a UNIX system, they tell you everything!!

    1. Re:So finally it's true! by bwulf · · Score: 3, Informative

      The original: http://www.sgi.com/fun/freeware/3d_navigator.html
      The re-implementation: http://fsv.sourceforge.net/

      I really should get to try out the SGI version some time, though it claims to run on 5.3 and less only.

  3. Erm, right... by Fweeky · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So, for 100x the CPU and memory usage, I can see fewer of my files at once, and do less with them, and have them represented in a totally unintuitive and unfamiliar way?

    Right, that's very good. What next? Text editors with words represented as different coloured 11 dimensional hypercubes? :)

    1. Re:Erm, right... by Fweeky · · Score: 2

      > Almost all of those arguments ... can be used in discussing the Unix shell environment vs the Macintosh Finder.

      And Explorer, except they at least do it in an environment where it's suitable and manage to do so with what's actually fairly trivial resources (well, let's ignore some of the more, um, advanced features like integrated media player/browser etc for now).

      Frankly, I'd be more impressed if instead of going 3D (or adding built in media players, or intergrating Zip) for the k00l factor, they introduced or reused things in 2D that made it more powerful or intuitive; they are the aims of a user interface, after all, not how-to-add-another-gimick.

      Having the large and flexible toolkit of the Unix shell environment still manages to massively overpower current graphical environments; why don't people try to introduce such concepts to them? You've probably got a similar chance of producing something usable as a 3D environment, but you'll probably learn a lot more (assuming you're wanting to hone your UI skills rather than 3D ones :)

      (NB: For "They", read "people who write file managers" and not "the specific people who wrote this 3D file manager" :)

  4. FSV by Picass0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Or you could use the FSV browser for other unixes.

    Screenshots

    1. Re:FSV by cosmo7 · · Score: 2

      > EXPLAIN TO ME: 50 KARMA +1 FUNNY -1 OVERRATED = 49

      slashdot caps karma at 50 points, so 50 +1 = 50, then 50 -1 = 49. but you knew that already, really.

    2. Re:FSV by robertchin · · Score: 2

      It's possible to port 3DOSX to UNIX via GNUStep. The entire application is written in Objective-C using the Cocoa API, which GNUStep attempts to duplicate (Cocoa is based on NextStep which GNUStep's original goal was to emulate).

  5. Re:Get off your high horse by Fweeky · · Score: 2

    I didn't say it wasn't "cool" or didn't look good, I said it's not a good or interesting file manager concept. Every 6 months one pops up, but none of them seem bothered with becoming a serious usable application.

    Anyway, if people can write useless utilities for fun I can say they're useless and suggest something even more useless and fun :P

  6. Stick with fsv by dh003i · · Score: 2

    This thing looks neat, but it seems even less functional than fsv. A truly useful 3D browser will integrate the feature's that we're already familiar with in 2D browsers -- and which are useful in 2D browsers, into it.

    --
    social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
    1. Re:Stick with fsv by PurpleBob · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm wondering if there can ever be a truly useful 3D browser, at least on an ordinary computer monitor.

      Monitors are 2D. Thus, showing windows, icons, and text in 2D is the optimal use of space. Observe that in a 2D interface, you can read size 8 text with no problem at all. In the 3D interface, the text is generally much larger, but since the vast majority of it is rotated into the background it's harder to read.

      In 2D you can arrange lots of icons in a grid. In this 3D interface you can only see a few icons at a time, and even so they end up on top of each other (the front of the platter vs. the back).

      --
      Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
  7. Finally... by luckbat · · Score: 3, Funny

    When you see a file browser like this, can you doubt that we're now one step closer to navigating the Internet in the manner Johnny Mnemonic insisted we would?

    (I mean just look at those 3DOSX screengrabs. The technology was clearly designed by superintelligent cyborg dolphins.)

  8. Size isn't important by Account+10 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not sure if this Mac one does it or not ... but all previous 3D filemanagers I've seen (including ones linked to in other comments) sort files by size.

    The biggest directory on my system is \winnt\system32 and, in a 3D view dwarfs other directories. How interested am I in system32? Bugger all.

    The files I am interested in ... the ones I want to work with today ... are minute in comparision.

    And this makes 3D filemanagers ... implemented like these ones ... utterly useless.

    1. Re:Size isn't important by Sentry21 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, this is insanely handy when you're having one of those 'where did all my space go?' days. The interface used in Jurassic Park shows large files as large, so it's easy to see a 3 gig logfile, even way off in the distance.

      This would have saved a coworker and I a lot of worry and filled drives several times. *sigh*

      --Dan

    2. Re:Size isn't important by rjrjr · · Score: 2

      You might have found OmniDiskSweeper handy too.

  9. Remember Hot Sauce? by cei · · Score: 2, Informative

    Apple had something similar as a browser plugin years ago. Hot Sauce Meta Content Format. Don't know if it predates the SGI's or FSV or anything.

    --
    This sig intentionally left justified.
  10. Thanks for the feedback guys by Have+Blue · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I am one of the people who wrote 3DOSX (UIUC MacWarriors). In response to everything posted so far:
    • Drag-and-drop support was the #1 feature that didn't make it in time for this release. We are currently deciding whether to continue to work on this (say, for an updated release at MacHack). We would add dragging, more file management functionality like renaming, and themes (support is ready, theme creation tools are not).
    • If you are having performance problems: Make sure that the window is small enough that the dock, and any other translucent windows you may have open, do not overlap the GL context. Also, if you have less than 16MB of VRAM, reduce the window size (preferences) and relaunch the app. OS X appears to fall back to software rendering if the hardware is inadequate.
    Thanks for the comments!
  11. Remember TurboGopher VR? by Infonaut · · Score: 2
    TurboGopher VR actually came out around the time of Mozilla, if I recall properly. It was quite slick, but ultimately not all that useful. I think much of what they learned in implementing TG VR went into the development of HotSauce, which I thought was (like OpenDoc and Cyberdog) essentially ahead of its time.

    --
    Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
  12. I'm a little leery of any product with... by ellem · · Score: 4, Funny

    DOS right in the middle of it. 3DOSX just gives me the willy's!

    --
    This .sig is fake but accurate.
  13. Top View by cappadocius · · Score: 2, Insightful

    My feature recommendation: Since you can shortcut to a platter you can see by clicking on it, there should be a top view option that lets you look down on all the open platers

    --

    omnia tua castra sunt nobis

  14. Features that seem to be missing.......... by ronabop · · Score: 4, Insightful

    1. The same kind of options that 2D browsers have for UI preferences.... some people like sorting alpha, some by creation date/time, some by access date/time, some by size, etc. Rather than force one or another on users, why not let users pick a default, with a custom setting per window?
    2. Storing state. Okay, I quit the app. I launch it 5 minutes later... where is my carefully crafted view? I have to rebuild it?
    3. Okay, I'm looking at a platter with a set of files... but nowhere on the platter is the name. How do I know if this is tuesday's set of these files or wednesdays set? To see the name of the platter (so to speak), I have to go a level "down" or to my "platter" menu.
    4. Maybe a bug, maybe a feature... go to root platter. Click on hard drive. Move out a bit, go back to root. Click on same drive. Move out a bit again. The "Platter" menu now has multiple drive listings.
    5. Font selection?
    6. Pulling platters to their own locations.... this may be a hard one to explain, but it would be nice if I could move a platter I used frequently "away" from the others... say, halfway across the pool.
    7. (Adding on 6), even better, some custom "starting points" beyond the root. Say, two or three starting platters match my working style (/, /Users/username, and /Application...)
    8. Ability to adjust Icon "density" for folders with lots of files. Imagine the dock concept, where, the more objects to represent, the smaller each object becomes.
    9. Dimming/fading/darkening non-active platters... maybe increasing fog intensity for "distant" objects would do the trick?
    10. Some other navigation, non-platter based. How about some keys for 'fly-around" control, so I can get an overhead look, or move around without using platters as the reference point?

    Overall, a great piece of work, though. Much nicer for my working style than my usual 25 stacked windows.

  15. Revenge of the Pie menu... by earthy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It is very interesting to see the fairly old technology of Pie menus implemented yet again. Somehow, one would think that there should be a lot more implementations,
    given that pie menus show up again and again...