3D File Manager on Linux Wins NSF Prize

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3D File Manager on Linux Wins NSF Prize

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday September 13, 2003 @02:02AM from the new-ways-of-looking-at-old-stuff dept.

MadFarmAnimalz writes "Science Magazine's reporting on the results of the NSF's Science and Engineering Visualisation Challenge and the first prize in the Illustrations category has been claimed by the Innolab 3D File Manager, which was developed on linux. Apparently this involves arranging data in a ferris wheel type structure." The data is arranged by its relationship with its content, rather than by its physical position on a hard drive or its file system.

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ferris wheel type structure by bathmatt · 2003-09-13 02:05 · Score: 5, Funny

Apparently this involves arranging data in a ferris wheel type structure.
Does this mean that you have to wait for your files to get back down to the bottom to be able to read them???
1. Re:ferris wheel type structure by natefanaro · 2003-09-13 02:22 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  But that shouldn't be a problem with a 7200rpm drive!
OT: 3d file manager by ArmorFiend · 2003-09-13 02:06 · Score: 5, Interesting

No, I didn't RTFA, and I'm sure I'll get modded Offtopic, but the thought occurs to me:

Why are we, the free software community, busting ass to integrate pseudo-3d technologies to the desktop (AA-fonts, SVG-icons, real alpha blending), while it seems obvious that the next step is going to be a fully 3d-enabled desktop, with 3d icons placed in the current 2d-metaphor? Already new computers with new accellerators can push so many polys that the overhead is not measurable by users.
1. Re:OT: 3d file manager by rabidcow · 2003-09-13 06:11 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Never underestimate the power of 0d!!!
  
  You have a point there.
Re:3D GUIs? by slug359 · 2003-09-13 02:14 · Score: 5, Informative

The Jurassic Park Park GUI is actually a real filemanager for IRIX called FSN.
3D File System Navigator for IRIX 4.0.1+
Another Linux 3D file manager by Krunch · 2003-09-13 02:15 · Score: 5, Informative

I just found another 3D File manager for Linux. From the page:
Quake style controls enable the user to navigate their file system.
Yeah I can now frag my /mnt/windows directory.

--
No GNU has been Hurd during the making of this comment.
1. Re:Another Linux 3D file manager by Nooface · 2003-09-13 02:50 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  My site has been collecting 3D UIs for some time.
  
  Here are links to some of the 3DUIs that are available today:
  
  - FSN (pronounced "fusion") produces a cyberspace rendering of a file system. This was the original 3D file system navigator shown in Jurassic Park ("Hey, this is UNIX. I know this!").
  [Screenshot] | [Download] (IRIX)
  
  - FSV is modelled after FSN, but runs on Linux. FSV lays out files and directories in 3D, geometrically representing the file system hierarchy to allow visual overview and analysis.
  [Screenshot] | [Download] (Linux)
  
  - Xcruise lets you fly through a filesystem in 3D as if it were interplanetary space. Directories are represented as galaxies, files are represented as planets (whose mass is determined by the file size), and symbolic links are represented as wormholes.
  [Screenshot] | [Download] (Linux)
  
  - TDFSB is a 3D filesystem browser for Linux. Take a walk through your filesystem!
  [Screenshot] | [Download] (Linux)
  
  - Visual File System is a 3D file system visualizer for Windows. The tool scans a drive selected by the user, and then models the contents of the drive in 3D, based on the directories that are selected in a tree browser on the side of the display.
  [Screenshot] | [Download] (Windows)
  
  - 3Dtop is an extension for Windows that represents desktop icons in 3D, letting you to fly around your desktop. You can create coloured spotlights, background and floor textures, "paintings" (bitmaps), clocks, and "flags" that represent shortcuts.
  [Screenshot] | [Download] (Windows)
  
  - ROOMS turns a Windows desktop into a 3D world. You can see the world either through a first person perspective or with a map view, and you can populate the world with sounds, animated images, and 3D icons.
  [Screenshot] | [Download] (Windows)
  
  - CubicEye organizes windows into a navigable cube. Cubes can be arranged by thematic or functional subject matter, and can be explored either individually or collectively as part of a more comprehensive structure of multiple cubes representing various areas of interest.
  [Screenshot] | [Download] (Windows)
  
  - Vizible WorldViewer distributes windows across the exterior and interior surfaces of spheres, providing the means to visualize and navigate large numbers of web pages and data sources simultaneously.
  [
  
  --
  
  Nooface
  In Search of the Post-PC Interface
Pretty-printing by ewn · 2003-09-13 02:17 · Score: 5, Interesting

This is more pretty-printing than real innovation. They claim to arrange data by relation but the thing still knows active folders, parent folders and subfolders. And the color scheme (subfolders are blue) focuses on the hierarchical structure of the folders and not the relation of the data. So they took one way of organizing and presenting files that works for most people most of the time but has a few big shortcomings, pretty-printed it in a somewhat confusing way and added relational sugar that can only add to the confusion.

Pretty, but not impressive.
Dock by igabe · 2003-09-13 02:19 · Score: 5, Insightful

In Mac OS X you can set the dock to magnify the programs your mouse is over.

This is how I am guessing this new 3D navigation works, by magnifying as you move around.

I turned my dock's magnification off. :-) The fact that list view has been here for so long should say something. People like lists where everything looks the same. Having things pop up from unreadable sizes out of nowhere seems a little unnatural.

I am inclined to say that the revolutionary idea that will change how we look at our computer desktop has not yet come.

--
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Secret of Mana Anyone? by Mister+G · 2003-09-13 02:20 · Score: 5, Interesting

Does this look like a souped up ring interface from the classic Secret of Mana published by Square-Enix (nee Square)?

It does to me...
uh, why the excitement? by jpr1nd · 2003-09-13 02:27 · Score: 5, Insightful

i don't see the big hubbub... this is an illustration prize. no one said this is a useful or even remotely useable filemanager. The screen snapshot the team submitted from the program is "visually striking," says panel of judges member Boyce Rensberger. the judging was on how their screenshot looked as far as i can tell. the runners up were a watercolor painting of a macrophage and the cover of a book. whoopee, a pretty filemanager.
Re:it's still overhead by ArmorFiend · 2003-09-13 02:39 · Score: 5, Funny

I run OpenBox to avoid the overhead of KDE or GNOME, as well as for its better interface.
You use graphics and windows? Ugh, the bloat! The overhead! I used to only program using the linux console. No pesky bloated bitmapped graphics there, no sir-e-bob! But then I realized I was wasting countless processor cycles redrawing a 2d grid of characters. That's when I stepped up to a truly responsive system - the line editor! Its the shit, man! I can get 1,400,000 frames per second on my Pentium4/3200mhz with Geforce4 Pro Titanium Ultra. It is RESPONSIVE!!!
Re:Can it be downloaded and taken for a test drive by Anime_Fan · 2003-09-13 03:29 · Score: 5, Informative

It seemed to draw massive CPU, but here it is. Note that the reason it wasn't so responsive was because I was compiling openoffice-ximian in the background. And I was running the XFree nvidia driver, instead of their proprietary... Maybe you'll have better luck.

http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/sf/subcat/in/ in nolab/3dfm-1.0.tar.gz

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