Slashdot Mirror
Simon Phipps Looks At 'Looking Glass'
CitizenC writes "Simon Phipps, chief technology evangelist for Sun Microsystems, describes his experiences using Project Looking Glass, Sun's prototype three-dimensional computer desktop, in this post on his weblog. He mentions a couple of demo videos too."
Sun graphics hardware uses intelligent FBRAM (framebuffer RAM). The transparency calculations are handled by the video memory chips themselves, so you need only write the alpha you want, then pixblt the data to memory instead of the read/blend/write cycle.
You might want to read the paper titled FBRAM: A new Form of Memory Optimized for 3D Graphics
The other link in the blog posting is to a better video in MPEG-4...
From the video (yay, I managed to snatch it before /. wave propagated), it runs really smooth - they have netscape and two movie players running and it all happens with no lagging as the guy rotates the whole thing around in 3D (and when you look at it from the back, the movie is mirrored and still plays smooth). I wonder what kind of machine it is the whole thing is happening on.
Another thing i'm impressed by is that it didn't seem ackward the way they were using it - i remeber trying some other 3D wms on X, and they were all pretty bad from usability point. This introduces 3D in a way where it solves problem of organizing apps on the desktop instead of creating new problems. I'm amazed and think this is a step in the right direction.
You do realize that 3D filesystem program actually exists, right?
My English teacher once told me that two positives don't make a negative. Two words for her: Yeah, right.
Just get Real Alternative - play real files without the mess.
http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/mirror.htm