From: rick@xing.unocal.com (Richard Ottolini)
Subject: "More virtual than reality": Report on SIGGRAPH
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1991 20:27:33 GMT
Organization: Unocal Corporation



Summary:

Virtual Reality systems were widespread at this year's SIGGRAPH in Las Vegas.
On the exhibit floor, almost every major workstation vendor was displaying
some system--IBM, Sun, Silicon Graphics, and probably a few I forgot to 
mention.

And there were vendors just selling I/O components and system houses, the main
being VPL and E&S.  Several of the Electronic Theater film clips were VR.
A special exhibit room, called Tomorrow's Realities, was devoted to 
applications of VR and multimedia.

Things I liked:

I was interested in innovative applications of VR.  I have a professional
interest in scientific data analysis.  The Fake Space Systems / NASA exhibit
in the Tommorrow's Reality room had some nice examples, such as airflow around
the space shuttle.  One moved one's head to see various perspectives of the
shuttle and moved ones hand to study a particular airflow path.

There were several virtual-sports demos-- two surfboards and one bicycle that
were somewhat interesting.  I didn't see a whole lot of games.  Some people
were showing hybrid arcade games, e.g. half physical and half-electronic
pool games.

Things I disliked:

--VPL clones.  Come on guys, get creative.

--Floating worlds.  It is time we get some gravity and solidity into VR.  After
  a while, the floating worlds start looking the same.

Question:

Who had the highest performance VR system?

I noticed a substantial variation among Silicon Graphics based systems.  The
NASA demos seemed realtively high resolution and smooth while some of the
others were choppy.

E&S may have the highest polygon rate.