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100 Million Pixels of Virtual Reality

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the holodeck-wannabe dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "It's ironic that Iowa State University (ISU) announced a big upgrade of its C6 virtual reality (VR) room the same day as SGI filed for bankruptcy. Back in 2000, this 10x10x10 foot room was powered by SGI Onyx2 computers. The new version of this six-sided VR room will use 96 graphics processing units from Hewlett-Packard. And with its 24 Sony digital projectors, the researchers at ISU will immerse themselves into images of about 100 million pixels in the most realistic VR room in the world. Of course, this upgrade is not cheap. But with this $4 million addition, this new C6 should lead to new advances in urban planning, genetics, engineering or unmanned aerial vehicles."

12 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Thats not all it will lead the field in by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 4, Funny

    (insert obligatory pr0n reference here)!

    100 million pixels of virtual pr0n... nope, no way to hide that at work!

    --
    stuff |
  2. New Advances in Genetics, eh? by bwcarty · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is that their slang for VR porn?

    1. Re:New Advances in Genetics, eh? by ill_conditioned · · Score: 2, Funny

      Mod parent "-1 spoilsport" :( Went off and crushed my hopes and dreams...

    2. Re:New Advances in Genetics, eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      For: "No, this concerns real genetics - primarily agricultural typing and visualization. And, yes, I am here at ISU."

      Read: "Yup, that's why we've got wipe clean floors. I'm here at ISU until I've got forearms like Popeye."

  3. Drool by GmAz · · Score: 2, Funny

    Can I get some play time of World of Warcraft in there?

    --
    Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
  4. Nice picture of the room in TFA by plover · · Score: 2, Funny

    "That's no moon!"

    --
    John
  5. Re:That's not irony by spun · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, irony is kind of like bronzey or goldy, only with iron. Ironic is when you write a song about irony where none of the situations mentioned are in fact ironic at all.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  6. Poor quality by plumby · · Score: 5, Funny

    For 100 million pixels, the graphics of those planes look pretty crap.

    1. Re:Poor quality by momerath2003 · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's all about the gameplay.

      --
      I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
    2. Re:Poor quality by Skreems · · Score: 2, Funny

      In the C6, you can drag a web browser over the portion of the shared desktop that shows the various screens. The window shows only as an outline until you release the mouse. I once dropped the goatse image 6 feet tall across the front screen when demoing an app for some friends.

      I'm a bad, bad person :-( / >:-)

      --
      Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
      The Urban Hippie
  7. Re:At least ISU is spending wisely by shudde · · Score: 5, Funny

    Such as spending 3k for Graphics design computers for use as word processors.

    Good to see your university is getting ready for Vista.

  8. Re:Ames Sucks by corngrower · · Score: 2, Funny
    Ames, Iowa is the most boring, backward place in Iowa,

    You're obviously not very familiar with Iowa. There are plenty of other places that make ames look like NYC.