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State of 3d Graphics on Wireless Devices
An anonymous reader writes "This
Computer Graphics World Magazine article
discusses the current and future state of 3d graphics on wireless platforms. Apparently Japan is ahead of the game with a relatively standardized 3d render engine. Seems like the main use is for 3d virtual pets and the standard sort of games one might expect. What I'm waiting for is what I believe to be the next step; the one described in, oh, so many sci-fi novels... a personality for my handheld! Imagine, if you will, a
personalized avatar or something that can interact with you and perhaps assist you in your daily endevours (with a touch of attitude?).."
How about they build reasonable networks in the US first! Half the time when I ask "Can you hear me now?" I get a "what?" in reponse.
Keep your 3d graphics, give me a phone that works well and consitantly first.
Until computers/processors begin to approach the complexity of the human brain, you can forget about ...a personality for my handheld! unless you're willing to settle for a souped-up 3D cousin to Clippy(tm).
The level of present 'chatterbots' doesn't even live up to their lowly title.
See www.chatterboxchallenge.com and cry for real AI
until I get a personality like the guy in Mona Lisa Overdrive, or at least the librarian from Snowcrash.
...no one seems to really understand the complexity of what they're asking for. I hear this kind of talk daily, so the author is not to blame; but without even getting into philosophical issues, the idea of AI is so far beyond anything we actually understand right now, that it shouldn't really even be mentioned. Now an interesting and far more feasible idea would be a 3D GUI for our cellphones AND computers. That is both within our reach, and reasonable for increased productivity. Why limit our usage to the flat plane of the screen? There are already 3D GUIs in the works -- a good one would revolutionize computing far more than a cellphone that cracks jokes.
"Owning a computer is like having your very own TV -- with a built in radio!" - Ed Helms
My sister works on the Avatar technology that is mentioned in this article (at Haptek), and I must say that it is pretty stunning in real life. I haven't seen it on the handhelds, but using it on the PC is pretty damn good looking - much higher res and more believable mouth movement for speech than I have seen anywhere else. And I must say that it is always fun to have it try and pronounce impossible words :) When I first saw it, it definitely made me flash to "Snow Crash".
First Falcon-1 to orbit, then Falcon-9. Then I can die a happy man.
Apparently Japan is ahead of the game with a relatively standardized 3d render engine.
OpenGL is perfectly suited to 3D rendering on handelds, with the caveat that software rendering for OpenGL, which is to say, Mesa, has not been seriously optimized for this purpose. This is only because there hasn't been much manpower focussed on the job, to date. What's needed is some more thinking like this.
After all, it's just a matter of programming.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
The push on Cell Phones almost seams contradictary at times. I have a Sprint PCS vision phone, with a list of features as long as my arm, and I know how to use three of them. Maybe. It's not that I can't figure it out, it's that the phones are not condusive to such things.
3D graphics wouldn't be so hard to do in this environment, assuming they stick with the little screens and the bad interfaces. I know that my phone can actually have some pretty cool games, but the actual buttons on the phone, or the "control stick" as well, are about as accurate as using a half-chewed pretzel on an older PDA. Especially if you have fingers larger than your average six-year old.
I'd have to agree that it'd be nice to see work done on the networks. My phone has a habit of wandering out of it's calling coverage (a tower less than a mile away) if held sideways or at an angle (say, against your ear. But how often will that happen). The push for more features that would imply something a little larger and nicer is in opposition to a smaller package you're finding phones in. Unless they all start to look like PDA's, or better yet, Game Boys, I just see this as another feature to add $5 to my bill that I'll never use.
We all want this because we have no friends.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --