From: miket@tcs.com (Michael Turner nmscore Assoc.)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: PHIL: 2D vs. 3D (Was Re: INDUSTRY: FLASH! "VPL . . .")
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 00:49:05 GMT
Organization: Teknekron Communications Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: stein.u.washington.edu
Originator: hlab@stein.u.washington.edu



In article <1992Dec18.163738.6920@u.washington.edu>
dani@cs.ualberta.ca (Dani Beaubien) writes:


>[Stuff omitted by Moderator, relating to "Why VR...?"
>I will try to answer this question with a story. In the mid to late 1800's
>someone invented the "bicycle". This bicycle did not look anything like it
>does today. It consisted of two metal wheels and a board between them, kind
>of like a skateboard with large wheels. You would sit on the board, grab
>the handle, and use your legs to propel the device.
>
>Just think what would have happened if someone said that this device
>was not worth developing because it was very limiting, only available
>to a small number of indivduals, wasn't practicle, it didn't do anything
>usefull. If the people of the time listened to the critics of that day, then
>we wouldn't have automobiles of anysort, the "horseless carriage" comes
>directly from this wooden vehicle.
>
>What make the bicycle so great is that people didn't let what it was at any
>given time limit what it was to become.

The problem I have with this analogy is this: what it sounds like to
me is that the crudest bicycle was actually DID look somewhat like
bicycles do today (two wheels, a frame) and WAS quite useful, and that
therefore the process of refinement of bicycles started (and continues
today).

VR, by contrast, started with umpteen million dollar flight simulators
(as the major application, anyway), and was useful to a very small
market that would either have had to pay much more or take much
greater risks to get a similar degree of utility out of any other
scheme.

Thus my gripe with VR: where the hell is my crude-bicycle version of
it that I can use to get around?

And let's not forget another thing: get around WHERE and via WHAT?
The ultimate technology of civilization was not the WHEEL, which was
invented and reinvented for use in toys by countless generations in
many civilizations long past, without getting used for real work.
Civilization (civitas="City" -> "City-ization") comes about when you
have ROADS.  The wheel is but a refinement step on the civil
engineering accomplishment of the built road.

You can have 30 zillion polygons-per-second in your VR apparatus and
all your really doing is sniffing at a pseudo-psychedelic blossom
growing out of your walking stick as you travel down the muddy goat
path of the current VR infrastructure.

High connectivity coupled with object-representation standards is
needed to bootstrap this VR infrastructure.  This doesn't require
real-time 3D binocular rendering at the terminus.  You can, instead,
use an already widespread "bicycle" technology -- the personal
computer.  --- Michael Turner miket@tcs.com


[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  Gee, Mike, will you not be so wishy-washy:  speak
right up! :-)  Actually, there's a lot the average personal computer
cannot do...and why on earth would anyone want to travel a muddy goat
path?  Perhaps the onset of sci.virtual-worlds.apps will help to dispel
some notions...speaking of which, it's ALMOST here. -- Bob Jacobson]