original annotation text! (gathered from the Annotations Restored extension- go get that extension, seriously!) 01:32 - "Two animation processor machines existed this was a "game" to show off multi-user capabilities. Music was synthesized by Joe Pasquale" 02:53 - "This is from Carl Christensen (RIP) in from of [sic] the AP machine (note sliders in back with LEDs). Joystick was custom built with buttons around base." 03:25 - "This is me (Sandy Ressler) with way more hair then [sic] currently have." 03:45 - "Sliders could be attached to directly control values of graphic matricies [sic], resulting in real time manipulation." 04:18 - "Time warping effect was implemented using a frame buffer that also could associate a Z value. Probably one of the first ever Z buffer pieces of hardware." 04:50 - "An implementation of a Rubik's Cube game (before SGI's famous demos.) Couldn't figure out how to solve so implemented solve function by remembering all steps then playing backwards." 06:16 - "Cute demo of human figure climbing over graphics in the Z buffer, was used for a TODAY show clip once in 81 or 82 show about Bell Labs." 06:43 - "Human figure demo with some dance moves just for the fun of it." 07:20 - "A visualization of how matrix multiplication works. First the multiplication then the summing up to the resulting new vector XYZW prime." 07:42 - "Real time matrix multiplication visualization. Center 4x4 is being manipulated by physical sliders. Vectors to right show results. Easy to show translation, rotation, scale and perspective manipulations. Multiple rotation values changed via joystick input directly to the 4x4." 08:38 - "The effect of manipulating the 4x4 matric [sic] upon a cube object." 09:32 - "Crude simulation of a robotic arm. Music by Liquid Liquid (went to school with member)" 10:23 - "A computer graphic editing system created for the Animation Processor ("An Object Editor for a Real Time Animation Processor" S Ressler, proceedings Graphics interface 82, Toronto Canada." 11:15 - "Two views of the same object being edited. Very difficult at the time ;-)" 11:46 - "A sign language demo, actually a prototype for Disney it spells out "Welcome to EPCOT" " 12:27 - "All titles generated by zooming in on a CRT and using EMACS ;-)"
On first glimpse the graphics capabilities look like Amiga 1000 (or the "I Robot" Atari arcade game from 1983), but the CAD part shows that it had a z-buffer, which remained unusual until much later. (E.g. "Hard Drivin" or "Ridge Racer" and even the 1st PlayStation had none.)
Ahead of it's time! The "rubics cube" and "industrial robot" demos look nearly identical to demos for mid to late 80's SGI workstations. Did people from this project end up at SGI?
Funny you should say that...one of the summer student's was Marc Hannah (a Stanford PhD) whom I remember. He went on to be one of the founders of SGI... pretty sure they got the Rubic's cube idea from me ..(but it was quite the rage back then) I remember seeing it at the first SIGGRAPH where SGI had a hotel suite and wasn't on the floor..I was thrilled to see it..twas a cool demo ;-)
The original intent was actually to do games. The idea was to build 2 machines (which they did) and have them communicate with each other via phone lines (this was AT&T Bell Labs...so they like phones). We did do one multiuser game with some starwars demo as I recall.
This is awesome. Incredible for its date. Whenever I see old demos like this one I can't help but think things were going in a different, better, direction then. Then it's as if somebody in the late 1980s put a stop to it. What happened? Can anybody explain what went wrong? What's the awesome digital music playing at the 8:00 minute mark? It doesn't seem to be any of the songs credited. What more can you tell us of the system used? The hardware and software?
Nothing went wrong real time computer graphics was/is supported by game industry. Music at 8:00 I think is from Don Slepian and old computer music pioneer: donslepian.com/ The hardware/software of the system was custom graphics hardware probably similar in design to what wound up in silicon on SGI (this was shortly before SGI). The custom graphics hardware was on harware cards plugged into the bus of PDP 11/23 running UNIX (I think System V). My boss wrote a graphic language using yacc/lex and I would generally program it with that language and C. Was a great job!
