Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds Subject: Re: TECH: REND386: adding motion Message-Id: Date: 7 Feb 92 17:20:52 GMT References: <1992Feb5.184904.13481@rice.edu> <1992Feb6.024526.17916@watserv1. waterloo.edu> Sender: news@crl.labs.tek.com Organization: Software Technology Research Laboratory, Tektronix Inc. Lines: 26 In article <1992Feb6.024526.17916@watserv1.waterloo.edu> dstamp@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Dave Stampe-Psy+Eng) writes: > > I believe the motion system I described is indeed PHIGS (also GL)-like, > but this is after all one of the best ways to do object animation. I can't agree with this statement. Yes, PHIGS is a good way to do rendition and (some kinds of) animation of the rigid objects found in traditional CAD applications, but I don't think it does well with things like human figures, snakes, rubber bands, tether balls, clothing, hair, and other things which in the past have needed physical modelling software to be animated (by which I mean that there may be other and faster ways to render these sorts of objects than physical modelling). The strictly hierarchical approach that PHIGS takes is just too limited for the sorts of things we will be wanting to do very soon in VR. -- "The end cause ... is too often handed off as an afterthought to harried interface designers who follow programmers around with virtual brooms and pails." - Brenda Laurel in "Computers as Theatre" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Speaker-to-managers, aka Bruce Cohen, Software Technology Research Lab email: brucec@strl.labs.tek.com Tektronix Laboratories, Tektronix, Inc. phone: (503)627-5241 M/S 50-662, P.O. Box 500, Beaverton, OR 97077