From: pepke@scri1.scri.fsu.edu (Eric Pepke)
Subject: We need a teapot
Date: 15 Oct 91 17:20:47 GMT
Organization: Florida State University, but I don't speak for them




All this talk about low-end VR, clever depth sort algorithms that can sort 
all the atoms in a star in a millisecond, and positive feedback loops that 
involve humans wildly gesticulating at 10 Hz, makes me think of one thing:

We need a teapot!

That is, we need a small, standard test case that can easily be applied to 
many different VR techniques and algorithms.  It should contain polygon 
combinations that test most of the common difficulties with 3-D graphics 
algorithms.  It should contain a variety of grasping, activating, and 
moving tasks.  There should be fairly well defined ways to produce a 
variety of graphical representations, from wire frame to two-way solutions 
of the Rendering Equation.

I'm thinking along the lines of a room with a chair and desk, a vase on 
the desk, drawers that can be opened, objects that can be moved, and a 
light switch on the wall.  Of course, this is prejudiced by the kinds of 
VR that interest me personally.

Besides, we need an icon that we can laugh at and ridicule in five years' 
time.  (Note: This is a straight line.)

Does anybody have suggestions?


Eric Pepke                                    INTERNET: pepke@gw.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute MFENET:   pepke@fsu
Florida State University                      SPAN:     scri::pepke
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052                    BITNET:   pepke@fsu

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