August 26, 2004
MuGen 3D File System Browser
Ilmari Heikkinen's MuGen is a simple 3D file browser with great aesthetics:
Screenshot #2 (root directory)
Screenshot #3 (selection box)
Check out his Wiki, some bad-ass UI mockups, and a Half-Life 2 Skin for Media Player 9.
Posted by Devon at 08:52 PM | Comments (0)
August 25, 2004
Real Doom?
Check out GeoVector's Real Doom. It's a a GPS-equipped PDA that plays augmented-reality Doom.
Posted by Devon at 08:30 PM | Comments (0)
August 23, 2004
Graphics at the 2004 Olympics
I was watching the diving events and saw a cool technology called DiveMotion. It's an imaging system that superimposes time-lapsed snapshots of a diver in freefall. Several of these composites are superimposed to show differences between divers.
The market for augmented reality sports broadcasts is about to pick up steam. Check out Sportvision, GeoVector, and Virtual Spectator for a whiff of the ground floor.
Posted by Devon at 10:44 PM | Comments (2)
August 21, 2004
Web App for Personalized Portrait Icons
Yo, check it. You can use Abi-Station's Portrait Illustration Maker to make personalized icons. For example, I present this stunning example of computer-assisted self-portrait artistry:
It's me. At the beach. Playing video games.
Posted by Devon at 05:17 PM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2004
Celebrity sighting: Paul Steed
I went across town to a presentation and spotted Paul Steed sitting in the corner. For those who don't know, Steed's the guy who made all the character models for Quake 3.
Posted by Devon at 06:24 PM | Comments (0)
August 15, 2004
Flash dialect for REBOL
David Oliva's Flash dialect for REBOL is a cool way to generate SWF files on-the-fly. It's a declarative language in the spirit of Laszlo and Flex. Chris Langreiter used this to build his Yahoo vs. Google Flash app. Check out more examples here.
There's also an SVG Dialect available. This article explains the concepts behind REBOL's dialects feature.
Posted by Devon at 06:19 PM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2004
Flash SWF player embedded in Doom 3?
A few months ago there was a rumor circulating that the in-game UIs in Doom 3 were going to be based on Flash/SWF/ActionScript. Apparently this was off-base, but only by a little. The shipped product sports a proprietary markup language for creating interactive in-game GUIs.
If Carmack had gone the route of implementing a SWF player then the authoring experience would have been much richer than what's provided. Just imagine the best Flash site you've seen on the web and then imagine it on a textured surface in the game.
The Radiant Wiki-FAQ has some initial documentation for the markup syntax. Ze Fernando has posted some great tutorials on Doom 3 World.
Posted by Devon at 03:43 AM | Comments (0)
Upgrading for Doom 3
Played Doom 3 at NVidia's SIGGRAPH booth and decided it was time to get that upgrade I've been delaying. Being the tightwad skinflint money-McSave-a-lot that I am, the upgrade quest turned into hours of brushing up on the latest PC hardware jargon and building an internal model of the precedences of various technologies, then off to Fry's to buy components on sale.
As compared with the last time I did this (spring of 2002), some things were better, others were worse. Most noticeable changes: my motherboard now screams like a banshee with whiplash in the back of a speeding ambulance if anything's misconnected. It took me about ten minutes to figure out how to silence the beast (the CPU fan was reporting an error even though it was spinning just fine). The power-on-self-test LED is a welcome addition. The CPU came pre-lubed with silver thermal paste (had to apply it myself last time--not difficult but time-consuming). Overall, the process was simpler but I kept feeling like the CPU was going to melt when the power was switched on.
Last upgrade took me way above the at-the-time current generation of game graphics (Quake 3), and this lasted until the middle of last year. This time around, I forked over more cash, ran into more problems, and ended up further behind the curve. Either I'm older and dumber or PC self-assembly is becoming more difficult. I prefer to believe the latter, since it means there's room for improvement in basic PC hardware design. I can imagine chip manufacturers solving these problems by scouting out HCI experts and usability engineers to figure out how to improve the "user experience" of DIY PC assembly.
Posted by Devon at 03:25 AM | Comments (0)
August 13, 2004
Back from SIGGRAPH
And what a SIGGRAPH it was! Sam and I rocked a mic like a phantom while attending many a session. In other words, a good time was had by all.
I'm still collecting all the pictures and notes together to put online. Until all that's ready, check out beat-box harmonica by way of drew from LJ.
Posted by Devon at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)
August 05, 2004
SIGGRAPH 2004
Going to SIGGRAPH in LA next week. It'll be my first time--I'm already geeking out after adding my profile on the SIGGRAPH wiki, next to Eric Haines, Scott Draves, and other graphics celebrities. There's also a SIGGRAPH blog but not much content up there yet.
Posted by Devon at 06:57 PM | Comments (0)
Installed Movable Type
Woot!
Secret Robot is finally CMS-ized thanks to Movable Type and a very helpful tutorial by Ehsan Mazloomi.
I feel a context explosion coming on!
Posted by Devon at 05:04 AM | Comments (0)
