From: hcooper@javelin.sim.es.com (Harrison Cooper)
Subject: TECH:The platform of choice
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1992 15:43:24 GMT
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation



OK, I have been reading with interest the discussions dealing with the
different hardware that can be used for VR and VR research.

Some people scoff at using inexpensive hardware.  But if it solves the
requirement, why not use it.  It seems that almost all of the commercial
stuff out (meaning these  'games' ) use some sort of Amiga or other low
cost PC.  And I suppose that to the masses, the graphics it produces are
accepted.  And that is just fine and dandy.

However, there is the other side - high resolution graphics.  And to get this
you have to EXPECT to pay more than $1500 for hardware.  In this realm, there
is us (my company) and them (the other unnamed competitor).  What we give is
the years of experiance of real-time image generation, and 4 channels of        
seperate video from a single box (2 stereo channels).  OK, our hardware costs
alot, but in comparison to the video produced by a PC, there is NO comparison.


My PC at home is an XT type processor.  It does what I need it to do.  Might not
be as fast as my 386 here at work, but it gets the job done.

Thats what its all about.  Some people don't have the budgets for good hardware,
but innovation gets them by.  In my opinion, PC bases VR will have its place
in the industry.  It will allow more people to gain access to the ideas of VR,
and then be able to move on to some real power hardware.  IN my opinion, the 
bottle neck to VR is display technology, not image generation.  If the display
can only to 640x480, but the IG can do 1024x1280, what good does this do?

Well, enough of my thought.  Good luck to all in the field.

HCooper