[SirCastor]

At Least I think it's cool. There's a Demo of it here:
Looking Glass Movie

And More info at the Website.

Sure some of it is really Eye Candy (I actually almost typed that 'iCandy') but I can see practical application for the way a lot of it works. Certainly a lot more practical than the ugly 3D system I saw Microsoft working on a while back.

What do you guys think?

[effgee]

Originally Posted by SirCastor

... What do you guys think?

Not to crash the party that early on in a thread - but aside from the fact that this (literally) is last year's news, (personally) I can't think of a single significant advantage that this kind of 3d environment would have over the 2d desktops we currently use - especially in light of such doo-dads as Exposé and WindowShade.

Reminds me a bit of Apple's "piles" concept, eye candy for eye candy's sake - not my cup of tea. Then again, might look useless to me only due to a blatant lack of imagination ...

[SirCastor]

I didn't know it was last years news... heh. I've been out of the loop too long.

I think some implementations of 3D have little application. Like a 3D file browser. But in a window management system I see the use for it. Like the guy in the video describes. I suppose it's a different kind of approach than Expose' takes. But accomplishes the same feat. I'd be interested to see how well their 'stickies' concept would take in the public. It's a good note taking system.

Lastly, I think that a 3D system would eventually need to surrender the mouse (If not the current Keyboard) to a more functional tool. What that is? I don't know.

[Hawkeye_a]

OSX 10.2 and beyond have 3D accelerated desktops via Quartz Extreme. Having a 3D desktop in my opinion is the next step in UI. Thats why Apple worked hard to turn Quartz into Quartz Extreme.

It's definately capable.... but the hard part is yet to come. Back in the days of cammand pormpts and 'Dos' ...when GUIs first came around, actually using graphics to enhance UI posed a challenge. I mean think about it....the concept of 'buttons' and 'menus' 'scroll bars' 'radio buttons',etc werent very well defined. Questions like....should the menu bar be at the top/bottom/side, or whats should a single click or double click do ? And then whats harder is figuring out whether it's intuitive or not when people(not developers) start using it. Obviously Microsoft took all that Research that Apple did with the Mac and changed the colors and locations and shapes of things...but the hard work was figuring out and defining all those thing. The same has to be done when jumping into 3D....and i strongly suspect that Apple is working on it right now. The foundation and technologies are already being marketed on OSX right now. So yeah...i wouldnt be surprised if Leopard on a Macintel will explore a 3D desktop....and revolutionize UI yet again...leaving Vista in the dust.

Cheers

[- - e r i k - -]

This calls for a 3d timeline...

[- - e r i k - -]

Oh and there will be no usable 3d-interfaces until we have convenient and practical input and output devices. And I predict that will happen about...never...

VR was a silly little fad. "Oh. I know this. This is a UNIX system"

[Hawkeye_a]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Oh and there will be no usable 3d-interfaces until we have convenient and practical input and output devices. And I predict that will happen about...never...

VR was a silly little fad. "Oh. I know this. This is a UNIX system"

Im a bit more optomistic than that. If there wasnt any potential, why would the likes of Sun, Apple and Microsoft create a 3D accelerated desktop in the first place ? They could have invested those resources into making the 2D drawing APIs(such as Quartz) better, instead of enabling them to be accelerated in 3D.

And, im pretty sure the OSX desktop past 10.2 is a 3D accelerated desktop....it's just that the 3D paridigm isnt exploited to where we actually notice it.

[wdlove]

Sounds as though it would be real cool.

[Webscreamer]

I don't see how it would be an advantage, other than eye candy, over the 2D desktop we have now. For it to be the next big thing, I need to see why and how it would make photoshop, indesign, or FCP better than it is now. If it would make my life easier, than I'm all for it... other wise, it's just neat to look at.

[Hawkeye_a]

Well think of the transition from command prompts to GUIs.... many ppl didnt know how a GUI would help em.... it wasnt a defined paradigm. all ppl probably knew was 'pictures on screens'. obviously it was 'eye candy' and 'cool' but i dont blame em for not knowing it's potential...it took Apple to actually harness that technology in a meaningful way by defining the 'desktop'. Similarily, i reckon someone or company will do the same with harnessing 3D for practical use in home computing (apart from games).

[mitchell_pgh]

It's interesting, but I wonder if it would actually save time, energy, etc. etc.

The thing is, why 3D when your monitor is only 2D?

[BoomStick]

Didn't Apple have ProjectX 10 years ago?

It was a 3d interface for a web browser.

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a

And, im pretty sure the OSX desktop past 10.2 is a 3D accelerated desktop....it's just that the 3D paridigm isnt exploited to where we actually notice it.

Look at widgets. The flipping is a rip-off of Suns Looking Glass ideas.

Compare that with ProjectX (a.k.a. HotSauce) and see why true 3D interfaces suck.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

VR was a silly little fad. "Oh. I know this. This is a UNIX system"

Ha, I remember that line. And the computer with the goofy little file buildings. In the book, they had even fancier technology: a touch screen!

[spatterson]

I don't think that this software is old or anything... atleast its innovative, unlike windoze vista. They have some neat ideas here. Some that apple could incorporate into its OS.