4 ms·

> Foveated streaming! That's a great idea. Back when I was in Uni, so late 80s or early 90s, my dad was Project Manager on an Air Force project for a new F-111

by bigiain 11mo ago

> Foveated streaming! That's a great idea. Back when I was in Uni, so late 80s or early 90s, my dad was Project Manager on an Air Force project for a new F-111 flight simulator, when Australia upgraded the avionics on their F-111 fighter/bombers. The sim cockpit had a spherical dome screen and a pair of Silicon Graphics Reality Engines. One of them projected an image across the entire screen at a relatively low resolution. The other projector was on a turret that pan/tilted with the pilot's helmet, and projected a high resolution image but only in a perhaps 1.5m circle directly in from of where the helmet was aimed. It was super fun being the project manager's kid, and getting to "play with it" on weekends sometimes. You could see what was happening while wearing the helmet and sitting in the seat if you tried - mostly ny intentionally pointing your eyes in a different direction to your head - but when you were "flying around" it was totally believable, and it _looked_ like everything was high resolution. It was also fun watching other people fly it, and being able to see where they were looking, and where they weren't looking and the enemy was speaking up on them.

zeroq 11mo ago
I'll share a childhood story as well. Somewhere between '93 and '95 my father took me abroad to Germany and we visited a gaming venue. It was packed with typical arcade machines, games where you sit in a cart holding a pistol and you shoot things on the screen while cart was moving all over the place simulating bumpy ride, etc. But the highlight was a full 3D experience shooter. You got yourself into a tiny ring, 3D headset and a single puck hold in hand. Rotate the puck and you move. Push the button and you shoot. Look around with your head. Most memorable part - you could duck to avoid shots! Game itself, as I remember it, was full wireframe, akin to Q3DM17 (the longest yard) minus jump pads, but the layout was kind of similar. Player was holding a dart gun - you had a single shot and you had to wait until the projectile decayed or connected with other player. I'm not entirely sure if the game was multiplayer or not. I often come back to that memory because shortly after within that time frame my father took me to a computer fair where I had the opportunity to play doom/hexen with VFX1 (or whatever it was called) and it was supposed to revolutionize the world the way AI is suppose to do it now. Then there was a P5 glove with jaw dropping demo videos of endless possibilities of 3D modelling with your hands, navigating a mech like you were actually inside, etc. It never came.
- m463 11mo ago
  Maybe something like this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_(product) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_(product) I think I played with the 1000CS or similar in a bar or arcade at some point in early 90's
  - zeroq 11mo ago
    Yes! The booth depicted on the 1000CS image looks exactly how I recall it, and the screenshot looks very similar to how I remember the game (minus dragon, and mine was fully wireframe), but the map layout looks very similar. It has this Q3DM17 vibe I was talking about. Isn't this crazy, that we had this tech in ~'91 and it's still not just there yet? On similar note - around that time, mid 90s, my father also took my to CEBIT. One building was almost fully occupied by Intel or IBM and they had different sections dedicated to all sorts of cool stuff. One of I won't forget was straight out of Minority Report, only many years earlier. They had a whole section dedicated to showcasing a "smart watch". Imagine Casio G-Shock but with Linux. You could navigate options by twisting your wrist (up or down the menu) and you would press the screen or button to select an option. They had different scenarios built in form of an amusement park - from restaurant where you would walk in with your watch - it would talk to the relay at the door and download menu for you just so you could twist your wrist to select your meal and order it without a human interaction and... leave without interaction as well, because the relay at the door would charge you based on your prior selection. Or - and that was straight out of Minority Report - a scenario of an airport, where you would disembark at your location and walk past a big screen that would talk to your watch and display travel information for you, prompting question if you'd like to order a taxi to your destination, based on your data.
    - intrasight 11mo ago
      > Isn't this crazy, that we had this tech in ~'91 and it's still not just there yet? Not really, because feeding us ads and AI slop attracted all the talent.
    - m463 11mo ago
      I remember a guy I know went to japan/asia around 1985ish and came back with a watch. It had hands, but also a small LCD display. You could draw numbers on the face with your finger, like 6 then X then 3 then = and the LCD would show the values, and finally 18 This is completely uninteresting now, but this was 40 years ago EDIT: I think Casio AT-552 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aQHnyZdgF4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aQHnyZdgF4
m463 11mo ago
I remember there was a flight simulator project that had something like that, or even it was that. it was called ESPRIT, which I believe was eye slaved programmed retinal insertion technique.
usefulcat 11mo ago
That’s reality cool. My first job out of college was implementing an image generator for the simulator for the landing signal officer on the USS Nimitz, also using SGI hardware. I would have loved to have seen the final product in person but sadly never had the chance.

by bigiain 11mo ago

zeroq 11mo ago

I'll share a childhood story as well. Somewhere between '93 and '95 my father took me abroad to Germany and we visited a gaming venue. It was packed with typical arcade machines, games where you sit in a cart holding a pistol and you shoot things on the screen while cart was moving all over the place simulating bumpy ride, etc. But the highlight was a full 3D experience shooter. You got yourself into a tiny ring, 3D headset and a single puck hold in hand. Rotate the puck and you move. Push the button and you shoot. Look around with your head. Most memorable part - you could duck to avoid shots! Game itself, as I remember it, was full wireframe, akin to Q3DM17 (the longest yard) minus jump pads, but the layout was kind of similar. Player was holding a dart gun - you had a single shot and you had to wait until the projectile decayed or connected with other player. I'm not entirely sure if the game was multiplayer or not. I often come back to that memory because shortly after within that time frame my father took me to a computer fair where I had the opportunity to play doom/hexen with VFX1 (or whatever it was called) and it was supposed to revolutionize the world the way AI is suppose to do it now. Then there was a P5 glove with jaw dropping demo videos of endless possibilities of 3D modelling with your hands, navigating a mech like you were actually inside, etc. It never came.

m463 11mo ago
Maybe something like this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_(product) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_(product) I think I played with the 1000CS or similar in a bar or arcade at some point in early 90's
- zeroq 11mo ago
  Yes! The booth depicted on the 1000CS image looks exactly how I recall it, and the screenshot looks very similar to how I remember the game (minus dragon, and mine was fully wireframe), but the map layout looks very similar. It has this Q3DM17 vibe I was talking about. Isn't this crazy, that we had this tech in ~'91 and it's still not just there yet? On similar note - around that time, mid 90s, my father also took my to CEBIT. One building was almost fully occupied by Intel or IBM and they had different sections dedicated to all sorts of cool stuff. One of I won't forget was straight out of Minority Report, only many years earlier. They had a whole section dedicated to showcasing a "smart watch". Imagine Casio G-Shock but with Linux. You could navigate options by twisting your wrist (up or down the menu) and you would press the screen or button to select an option. They had different scenarios built in form of an amusement park - from restaurant where you would walk in with your watch - it would talk to the relay at the door and download menu for you just so you could twist your wrist to select your meal and order it without a human interaction and... leave without interaction as well, because the relay at the door would charge you based on your prior selection. Or - and that was straight out of Minority Report - a scenario of an airport, where you would disembark at your location and walk past a big screen that would talk to your watch and display travel information for you, prompting question if you'd like to order a taxi to your destination, based on your data.
  - intrasight 11mo ago
    > Isn't this crazy, that we had this tech in ~'91 and it's still not just there yet? Not really, because feeding us ads and AI slop attracted all the talent.
  - m463 11mo ago
    I remember a guy I know went to japan/asia around 1985ish and came back with a watch. It had hands, but also a small LCD display. You could draw numbers on the face with your finger, like 6 then X then 3 then = and the LCD would show the values, and finally 18 This is completely uninteresting now, but this was 40 years ago EDIT: I think Casio AT-552 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aQHnyZdgF4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aQHnyZdgF4

m463 11mo ago

I remember there was a flight simulator project that had something like that, or even it was that. it was called ESPRIT, which I believe was eye slaved programmed retinal insertion technique.

usefulcat 11mo ago

That’s reality cool. My first job out of college was implementing an image generator for the simulator for the landing signal officer on the USS Nimitz, also using SGI hardware. I would have loved to have seen the final product in person but sadly never had the chance.