From: lawtonj@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (Kaleidoscope)
Subject: Re: CULTURE: Lawnmower man
Date: 6 Mar 92 15:34:38 GMT



Disturbingly the only press shots I've seen from the film are of the virtual
sex scene, and indeed that's all that the press have picked up on - the plot
seems to be that a disabled guy becomes a cyber-stud when released from his
physical constraints. And in the future everyone will be represented by flowing
glass versions of humans that can change shape at will. Don't ease on the
rendering problems lads by having opaque objects.....

I don't think it's going to change peoples perceptions that much - afterall
everyone's mental picture of cyberspace is based on Tron anyway. The only
thing that will CHANGE perception will be a film about VR using a near-real
world VR (probably best achieved ironically by filming, rather than computer
generated graphics - perhaps using simpified lighting & object shapes, and
a limited amount of computer graphics overlaid for the 'un-real' elements of
the reality (virtual pieces of paper/files)). Unfortunately that isn't as
techno-sexy & unlikely to sell.

A good fantasy variation of a legitimate use of VR may owever be an update on
'the Fantastic Journey', with a VR environment replacing the miniturised 
submarine. Or a virtual space exploartion film - anything where the VR techno-
logy is USED, rather than an end in itself for groovy cyber-battles.

Thought: Imagine how popular a film it might have been if it featured a
virtual sex scene using conteporary VR graphics techniques, rather than
advanced frame-by-frame rendering :-).

J.

Julian Lawton - Member of the Pop Kid Internationale
`There is no such thing as good music in a vacuum -
 Only good listeners' - Everett True - 1991
-------------lawtonj@p4.cs.man.ac.uk-----------------


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