LiveCD Lets You Try Out Project Looking Glass 397
remember_beos writes "Sun created Project Looking Glass (LG3D) as a 'proof of concept' not long ago. It is an environment for Linux, like KDE or Gnome, but with some really great 3D functionality. More than just eye-candy, LG3D provides functional use of an extra spatial dimension on your desktop. Now there is a LiveCD for us all to try it out."
Video link (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Video link (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Video link (Score:2, Funny)
You leave my file server out of this! Seriously it's named Saturn, I'm smart enough to put it on an exanet, has no connection to the internet and I lose my internet connection when I switch to that network.
Kidneys man, kidneys.
The Sun is Out (Score:3, Interesting)
They're claiming this is "Java-based". Never heard of this kind of stuff running any way except as native code. A breakthrough in VM technology, or more abuse of the Java "brand"?
The Schwartz demo provoked lots of applause, but I was pretty underwhelmed. There are a few cool-looking visual effects, like turning a window over so you can write on the back. But no
Re:The Sun is Out (Score:3, Informative)
Take a look at the actual project [java.net]. You'll find it's all Java code, and that it uses Java 3D as an generalisation layer to control the video card. So actually a vindication of the virtualisation concept, yes.
Re:Video link (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Video link (Score:5, Informative)
Try BBC Edition (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Video link (Score:2, Funny)
You sure got that right, what the heck did you just say?
Finally... the wait is over (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Finally... the wait is over (Score:2)
Re:Finally... the wait is over (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:Finally... the wait is over (Score:2)
Re:Finally... the wait is over (Score:2)
o_0
Dude, two things:
1 - It's not a Mac, it has no 'lickable' interface on it
2 - Does your screen have a few nasty looking smudges on it or anything? *shiver* Ewww...
Soko
Re:Finally... the wait is over (Score:2, Funny)
Probably not anymore.... double-eww.
Re:Finally... the wait is over (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Finally... the wait is over (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Finally... the wait is over (Score:5, Informative)
Acknowledgements in TFA (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Acknowledgements in TFA (Score:3, Funny)
Worth it? (Score:3, Insightful)
Isn't it rough on the video card to have it 3D rendering at any point the the OS is loaded?
Re:Worth it? (Score:5, Interesting)
Isn't this what video cards or for? You might as well ask if it's rough on the CPU.
Re:Worth it? (Score:3, Insightful)
It is rough on video cards (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Worth it? (Score:2)
Re:Worth it? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Worth it? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Worth it? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Worth it? (Score:2)
besides, some accelration is already used during the normal usage, and on macs it's used quite a bit for fancy effects too.
you should be able to leave a windowed 3d app running for any amount of time without the computer crapping out if the computer isn't broken.
Re:Worth it? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Worth it? (Score:2)
I don't think you
Re:Worth it? (Score:3, Informative)
I can write windowing systems, WYSYWIG editors, and 3D graphics engines that will run on a 268 with a few MB of ram.
If you want to know how to write a WYSYWIG editor in a few Mb than I'll tell you, I'll also tell you why as soon as you get a little more complex you use tens of MB and even more complex and you start hitting hundreds.
Here's a simple walk through or a rendering system.
1: all your textures ar
Re:Worth it? (Score:2)
A hardcore UI with nonstop animation and dozens of windows opening and closing every second wouldn't even come close to matching the rendering complexity of Quake2, which renders hundreds of moving animated objects at a time, many with complex models and dynamic lighting, some with alpha-channels, all cleanly zbuffered, clipped, and
Re:Worth it? (Score:4, Insightful)
UIs are fantastically simple compared to games. They rarely contain more than a few thousand screen elements, only a small fraction of which are active at any time.
Have you noticed that XWindows (as it stands now) can easily handle dozens of windows without depleting main memory? I have 18 maximized windows running right now at 1280x1024x32 resolution. Guess how much main memory X is using? 27MB -- rather than the 90MB your naive calculations would suggest. And I can activate any one of those windows so quickly that I don't perceive the time it takes to drag the windows contents up from the swap space.
You don't seem to really understand how graphics systems work. The only things that need to take up video card memory are the pixels visible on screen. ANYTHING else in video memory is there simply to speed things up a little and take the burden off of the system bus. UI elements rarely change, most of them aren't visible, most of them aren't animated, and most of them are so ridiculously simple that the video cards texture compression algorithms (available on EVERY video card manufactured since 1998) can squeeze them down to practically nothing. UIs can afford much higher latencies than the 60fps necessary to convincingly render a video game.
I could go on and on. The point is, UIs are painfully, appallingly simple from a 3D standpoint. That's why people want to windowing to the video card in the first place. Any video card that can handle Quake2 can eat the most complex GUI imaginable for breakfast.
Re:Worth it? (Score:2, Informative)
For games, frame rendering usually begins by clearing the frame buffer since the whole screen usually needs redrawing but for regular apps, updating only active windows when changes occur should be far less expensive in rendering time - these would consist mainly of mapping 2D surfaces on some polygons, something even the oldest 3D cards should be able to do decently fast.
Now My Desktop can be like my apartment (Score:5, Interesting)
In all seriousness though this is really a neat concept. I use a lot of space for my video editing programs. They require a title program, an animator, a sound mixer, a couple of editors, etc. Now this will take my ordinary 15 inch screen and give it dimenssion which will make my life a lot more producitve and a lot oless facinating.
Re:Now My Desktop can be like my apartment (Score:2)
This is exactly where things need to go.
I like the idea of being able to flip windows over and interact with the metadata in the file. In Tiger, Apple is debuting the ability to do this (it was actually in a Mac OS 8.5 beta but was removed) I just hope that it will be implemented at the Window Manager level and not require application updates.
Maintenance Notice (Score:5, Funny)
What speed are you guys getting at the moment? Looks like the "maintenance" has come early.
Re:Maintenance Notice - update (Score:2, Funny)
I got your screen shots right here (Score:4, Informative)
Check it out, very cool looking
Re:MOD PARENTS DOWN -- IS REDUNDANT (Score:3, Informative)
So the post is redundant because the first link contains info about the demo movie and the screenshot link.
I'm already Karam: Excellent... (Score:2)
Re:MOD PARENT DOWN! (Score:2)
I dunno.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, is this a window manager akin to Gnome or KDE, or does it run on top of either one? The window decorations and stuff look pretty fugly IMHO.
Re:I dunno.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I dunno.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps a head position sensor would provide intelligent focusing for the extra dimensions? I can see something like this being useful in any window manager. You could do it with a camera and some custom recognition software perhaps, so no extra sensor would be required.
I personally would really like it if I could scroll a document or switch desktops (or the view of a very large desktop) with slight head gestures.
Re:I dunno.... (Score:4, Insightful)
And the first thing a new user would do would be to get on the internet to find out how they can turn that goddamn crap off.
Sheesh. The last thing I want to do when using a PC is to have to ensure that I remain absolutely motionless lest my GUI start flipping windows all over the place.
I suggest you pitch that idea to the folks at Redmond ASAP. It might be just what we need to start turning people away from their Windows boxen in droves.
Perhaps you meant (Score:2)
How you interact Wi
How does it work? (Score:2, Informative)
The site just loaded and I'm am too lazy to use my backspace key, so I'll share what I can see before it is completely slashdotted. It uses GamesKnoppix and let
Longhorn (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Longhorn (Score:2)
Desktop (Score:2)
Re:Desktop (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.stardock.com/video/june2004/longhorn/l h 4074_6.jpg [stardock.com]
Thats about the only 3D effect thats in Longhorn, you must be thinking of the Task Gallery research project or SphereXP.
Longhorn uses the 3D accelerator to render everything, Avalon the new presentation system is built on Direct3D, but so far theres not much
every time... (Score:2, Funny)
a plague upon your servers, sun!
ISO link (Score:5, Informative)
http://66.194.210.2/lg3d.iso [66.194.210.2]
Not going very fast... torrent anyone??
Torrent Available (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.titaniumforums.com/torrent/software/bt
Forget the LiveCD (Score:4, Interesting)
Can I do that? I can't find any information about doing just that.
A LiveCD is good, because it shows people what a properly set-up environment can do, but why not let us set it up, ourselves?
Licensing issues perhaps? Whatever the reason, a note on the page would be nice.
Re:Forget the LiveCD (Score:2, Informative)
Even if you aren't running Gentoo, I'd imagine it would point you in the right direction to install it on other distros.
I am lost, will you help me (Score:2)
https://lg3d-livecd.dev.java.net/servlets/Proje
Re:I am lost, will you help me (Score:5, Funny)
You're too late - somebody's already downloaded it
This is offtopic... (Score:2)
It seems that Netcraft cannot find the site! How can a curions Slashdotter know with certainity, what a particular site is running?
Re:This is offtopic... (Score:3, Insightful)
http://lg3d-livecd.dev.java.net was running Apache on Solaris 9 when last queried at 2-Mar-2005 21:56:28 GMT - refresh now Site Report
Try out the Netcraft Toolbar! FAQ
OS Server Last changed IP address Netblock Owner
Solaris 9 Apache/2.0.50 (Unix) mod_auth_svn/0.1 SVN/1.0.1-dev mod_jk/1.2.0 mod_auth_mda/2.0 DAV/2 mod_ssl/2.0.50 OpenSSL/0.9.7b 2-Mar-2005 64.125.133.206 COLLABNET
however.. i think there m
Re:This is offtopic... (Score:3, Informative)
would do the trick.
I'll mirror it (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Bittorrent (Score:2)
Re:It isn't illegal to ignore your mail (Score:3, Interesting)
Apple v. Sun (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Apple v. Sun (Score:3, Interesting)
Workstations are one of the few pieces of Unix kit that you can be assured will be replaced as quickly as you can get new tech out the door. In typical graphic and video shops they upgrade their kit every year if there is a speed boost. I have a friend that owns a local design firm and if
System Shock 3? A True Sequel to Thief?! NO! (Score:3, Insightful)
Damn. RIP, Looking Glass Studios.
Value not yet realized? (Score:4, Insightful)
Honest /. recommendation (Score:5, Insightful)
Wouldn't it be a decent idea to set up a torrents.slashdot.org and if possible, before releasing a story with a large 'attachment', set up a torrent for it?
Then again, I don't know how hard this would be logistically, considering that one must obtain a copy of the file ahead of time. However, IMHO I think it's worth a shot.
Re:Honest /. recommendation (Score:2)
Re:Honest /. recommendation (Score:2)
Re:Honest /. recommendation (Score:3, Insightful)
1. Slashdot cannot assume it has the right to distribute potentially copyrighted material
2. Slashdot must respect the target site's right to control their content - whether that means registering users, displaying ads before or alongside the content, or charging a fee to view content.
For example, if someone posts a rev
Re:Honest /. recommendation (Score:5, Informative)
It is not nearly as large as the amount of bandwidth needed to distribute your data but it is still quite significant. Don't take my word for it, set one up and try it yourself.
Re:Honest /. recommendation (Score:4, Insightful)
An argument might be that if you give readers a direct link to the file, then they won't visit the site. However,
Re:Honest /. recommendation (Score:2)
Sure, it's a great idea, but it has a lot of implications. For example, commercial sites rely on their banner ads to generate revenue. If I cache one of their pages, this will mess with their statistics, and mess with their banner ads. In other words, this will piss them off.
Of course, most of the time, the commercial sites that actually have income from banner ads easily withstand the Slashdot Effect. So perhaps we could draw the line at sites that don't have ads. They are, after
Re:Honest /. recommendation (Score:3, Funny)
Any guesses as to the second rule?
Humane Interface (Score:3, Insightful)
Coincidentally, with the passing of Jef Raskin recently, there is fear that the concepts of his Humane Interface [slashdot.org] will go largely ignored and unnoticed, despite there being a desperate need to simplify the user experience while being intuitive without being intrusive, and still allocating the option of low-level interaction demanded by hackers.
While drawing the connection between Raskin and Project Looking Glass may seem distant, it is surely a nice example to see such a major organization funding open revolts against the norm and doing so in a public arena.
Managing the location and size of Windows (Score:5, Insightful)
Managing their rotation axis and depth is more waste of time.
Windows should either be auto-maximized or auto-tiled by the windowing system, with the user and application cooperating to define which parts in the visible output of the application are important to the user at every given moment so that those are automatically displayed to the user. Simple example: Newly created messages about errors or events should not be placed on top of some text I am reading, but on some of the all-gray or all-white area that the screen almost always contains. For this to happen, it must know that text is more important than "dead" areas that contain nothing.
This silliness of attributing physical traits to non-physical entities is counter-productive, even if it is very visually appealing.
Lets let go of the overlapping windows crap and solve the division of screen-space problem in a more intelligent way.
Will no one post a torrent? (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, if anyone here has downloaded the iso, torrent it pronto.
Managed to connect, but this is a worry: (Score:2)
Do I really want to spend 40 hours downloading a 600MB file only to risk finding out it got munged because its MIME type is given as "text/plain". I do not think so.
Regarding live versions 'for us all' (Score:2)
I am psyched about trying the 3d desktop, I am downloading it, I am happy that they did it. I am just sad they had to!
I went into a couple #linux places and I got some great advice, but the overwhelming advice was, have you tried slack? debian? red hat? do you get this problem in puppy linux? slax
Sure I wanna play... (Score:2)
Might be better if we had something other than a mouse for navigation.
Looking Glass is nausea inducing (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, Looking glass is like when you give Windows a resolution the display can't handle, it just shows you part of your desktop and now you have to scroll the desktop to go to each corner, imagine this concept in 3D, you have Looking Glass...
I cannot wait to download this.... (Score:2)
TORRENT IT NEXT TIME!!
Shutter Glasses? (Score:2)
(Shutter glasses are the 3D tech IMAX uses, vs. the polarization method from Captain EO, T2 3D, etc...)
3d OS + /. effect == (Score:2)
spawn-kill processes...
My idea of a computer is an optical device that projects a virtual desktop any chape and size... projects it into your mind as if it is on the side of a building, the newspaper you are looking at... a particularly sexy ass on the subway...
also a virtual keyboard you can type on... just don't type when chekcing out a lasses chest...
I BRING LOVE AND TORRENTS (Score:3, Informative)
Re: TORRENT ISO IS BROKEN - DONT WASTE YOUR TIME (Score:4, Insightful)
Torrent Now up... (Score:4, Informative)
Here is the site that i found serching through the sun forms..
Get it while its up. lg3d.iso.torrent [titaniumforums.com]
Bad idea (Score:3, Insightful)
What they claim is efficient way to organise the workspace in 3D is a big fat lie. It's just an ugly and useless hack that doesn't even have the "wow" factor.
There are proven GUI technologies that work. These are
1) Expose
2) Virtual desktops, which you can switch between
3) Smoothly scrollable desktop, preferably with a zoom feature.
If someone implemented these (rather simple) ideas in one window manager, that would be almost a perfect environment, without any need for 3D (other than to use the 3D card acceleration and for cool visual effects). It doesn't make sense to rotate windows or workspaces, when you can zoom and scroll.
Re:but will it run all my sweet windows apps!?! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Torrent (Score:2)
Re:Torrent (Score:2)
Re:Conflict of interest (Score:5, Insightful)
And having their own servers Slashdotted sets a better example?
Re:Slashdotted (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:why no torrent (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Reminds me of something (Score:2)
Re:Java? (Score:2)