*A:M User* Roger Posted November 10, 2012 *A:M User* Share Posted November 10, 2012 Stumbled on this today and thought you guys might get a kick out of it: http://imgur.com/a/srtUw#0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted November 10, 2012 Hash Fellow Share Posted November 10, 2012 A lot of cool work got done with those primitive million-dollar workstations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyGormezano Posted November 10, 2012 Share Posted November 10, 2012 A lot of cool work got done with those primitive million-dollar workstations! The image I've uploaded is state of the art (1980ish) for the digital/computer image generators (DIG or CIG) used on the space shuttle simulator (2nd) done by Link Flight Simulators (located in Sunnyvale, Ca, headquarters Binghampton, NY). I was the real-time systems lead software engineer for this project. Among other projects, I also worked on the first CG simulators for the F111B, apache ah-64, the Harrier, and the stealth B2 bomber (Project/system lead for all image generation software (real time, database, etc)). Take a peek at this video (starting around 7:08ish), describing the DIG system for the apache ah64. The video was recorded in 1984, and Frank Lewandowski (Lead R&D staff scientist at Advanced Products division of Link Flight Simulators) describes the state of the art for real-time image generation for Flight Simulators. Each DIG system went for about $5 million. Smooth shading was still "all the rage", and texture was yet to be done in real-time. "Real-time" means that a new image was recomputed at 30 hz, or every 33 msec. Extremely sparse imagery. The stick-input to image response lag was about 4 frames. Above that and it would make pilots vomit (disorientating). Eventually we went to 60 hz, and did head tracking, and eyetracking (foveaL & perpheral) as well, with the imagery projected onto a dome display (complicated mapping). I worked very closely with Frank Lewandowski (now deceased). He was quite the crazy character, but manages to pull off looking very straight in this video. Put a suit on him and he cleaned up really well. Makes me chuckle to remember how he REALLY was. This video is from "Computer Chronicles", a nerdy local TV program in Silicon Valley, predating Tech TV, ZDTV, and now G4TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bigboote Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 Fascinating, Nancy. Did you ever work with the Symbolics computers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyGormezano Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 Fascinating, Nancy. Did you ever work with the Symbolics computers? No - mainly DEC PDP-10, pdp-11's, and interdata 8/32 (Perkin Elmer). The DIG hardware was designed by LINK as special purpose (not off-the-shelf). I also worked on Illiac IV (affectionately known as NASA's Vietnam) with John Warnock (one of founders of Adobe, who hired me on Illiac IV) and Charles Simonyi when he was still a grad student at Stanford. Yes the very same Charles, the brilliant bazillionaire at Microsoft, and civilian astronaut (paid $20 mil to go in space) The above braggadocioness nonesense must make me incredibly brilliant by association. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 Very cool background info Nancy! I knew you were retired from government work but this is some really interesting detail! In a completely unrelated anecdote, when I started working at CBS as a board artist, pre-computers, back in 79, we all worked at big drafting boards that were set on top of desks, with boxes or whatever was handy to prop them up at an angle. Of course I was uninterested in what held my board up for the first couple of years there, but one day I decided to do a deep cleaning/straightening/uncluttering around my workspace. I noticed for the first time that what was propping up my board was two large flat boxes which contained large 35mm movie film spools. I unspooled a few feet out of curiosity and it turned out my board was balanced on CBS's copy of the first moon landing videos. I wonder if they ever went looking for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*A:M User* Roger Posted November 12, 2012 Author *A:M User* Share Posted November 12, 2012 Nancy mentioned PDP-10s, if I recall correctly the CG portions of TRON were rendered on a custom PDP-10 called the Super Foonly F1 (not sure how the name came about). Ran across a neat site for it the other day but now can't find it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted November 12, 2012 Admin Share Posted November 12, 2012 The image I've uploaded is state of the art (1980ish) for the digital/computer image generators (DIG or CIG) used on the space shuttle simulator (2nd) done by Link Flight Simulators (located in Sunnyvale, Ca, headquarters Binghampton, NY). I was the real-time systems lead software engineer for this project. Among other projects, I also worked on the first CG simulators for the F111B, apache ah-64, the Harrier, and the stealth B2 bomber (Project/system lead for all image generation software (real time, database, etc)) Seriously impressive. In watching the video you posted I can see how some folks thought that we'd never see impressive graphics on a personal computer but I can also see where others thought that was worth pursuing to the nth degree. We are enjoying the fruits of the labors of folks who saw these things in the earliest of stages and say, "That is the way of the future and I want to be a part of that." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyGormezano Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 I can see how some folks thought that we'd never see impressive graphics on a personal computer but I can also see where others thought that was worth pursuing to the nth degree. At that time - there was some very beautiful impressive graphics work being done (eg Evans & Sutherland, Catmull, James Blinn et al). But that imagery took HOURS and hours to render 1 frame on mainframes. You've seen it - the shiny balls, the teapot, etc. Our special problem was that we had to compute a new scene every 33 milliseconds. We had to create a scene with 20 mile visibility, 120 degree FOV, with weather conditions (um...ok...clouds that looked like big hard rocks in the sky), and real world terrain and culture (digitized from defense mapping agency data, as well as by hand), specific airports with specific lighting, and all in varying levels of detail based on proximity to the aircraft/viewer, and their "whimsical" tendency as to where they would fly next. Also at that time, we did not have the luxury of a z-buffer sorting algorithm to determine the occulting priority (which objects are in front of others) for the imagery. So for the fixed database (ie things that would not move, eg terrain, buildings) we used a semi-apriori method which involved making sure every object was convex, and used a "separating plane" tree method that determined the viewing priority - ie what was in front of what, based on the current POV. The problem at the time for the space shuttle was inserting moving models (cargo payloads) into the fixed model data (shuttle bay) in real-time. I came up with an algorithm: the GORME method of Occulting - or General Ordering Rules for Moving Entities. It was a combination of traversing the separating plane tree and then doing a topological sort for the moving models with the fixed model data, once it was determined which "pocket" the moving model was in. Eventually that software method got refined further and implemented into special purpose hardware. Some of my co-workers (hardware engineers) did go on, after LINK folded, to work at Intel to shepherd many of the features found in today's graphics cards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted November 12, 2012 Admin Share Posted November 12, 2012 I came up with an algorithm: the GORME method of Occulting - or General Ordering Rules for Moving Entities. It was a combination of traversing the separating plane tree and then doing a topological sort for the moving models with the fixed model data, once it was determined which "pocket" the moving model was in. Eventually that software method got refined further and implemented into special purpose hardware. Some of my co-workers (hardware engineers) did go on, after LINK folded, to work at Intel to shepherd many of the features found in today's graphics cards. I was just about to to say... that sounds like something that would still be very useful still today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted November 12, 2012 Hash Fellow Share Posted November 12, 2012 GORME Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyGormezano Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 GORME Oh yes, took me at least a whole day, ruminating in my regulation-sized cubicle, to come up with that acronym. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*A:M User* Roger Posted November 13, 2012 Author *A:M User* Share Posted November 13, 2012 GORME Oh yes, took me at least a whole day, ruminating in my regulation-sized cubicle, to come up with that acronym. So, is that pronounced "gourmet" or "gorm"? I'm curious. It really is amazing how much things have changed. When I was in college, I spent about $2500 hard-earned dollars on a PC clone for doing 3d. You can buy one of those Raspberry Pi boards that has the same performance level for about $35. It's a shame housing and cars don't see the same price/performance curve. I could get a Bugatti Veyron for $500 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyGormezano Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 GORME Oh yes, took me at least a whole day, ruminating in my regulation-sized cubicle, to come up with that acronym. So, is that pronounced "gourmet" or "gorm"? I'm curious. Mais oui, bien sur...Gormé...comme Le Gourmet. More silly factoids: Eydie Gormé (nee Edith Gormezano) is a distant cousin (famous OLD singer, ). I have corresponded with her on family tree matters. This association of course, explains my quirky talent for singing, as evidenced by my enigmatic performance as Mrs Yoop singing "Lonely" in the A:M community project Tin Woodman of Oz. Also, my parents owned restaurants and did catering in the NY/Brooklyn area - They called their business: Catering by Gormé. Yes indeedy. I REALLY needed to make that acronym work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bigboote Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 too funny! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*A:M User* Roger Posted November 14, 2012 Author *A:M User* Share Posted November 14, 2012 Gorme - not sure how I missed that before...lol. Clever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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