[Development] About 3D desktop.

[Stef Bon]

Hi,

There are various desktop effects which offer 3D effects (kube for example).

I want to know I anyone knows about any plan to create a 3D desktop,
eg a desktop with not only the coordinates height and width, but also
depth.

I want to work on this, maybe start it. It would be awesome.

Stef

[Shawn Rutledge]

> On 6 Aug 2018, at 15:36, Stef Bon <***@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> There are various desktop effects which offer 3D effects (kube for example).
>
> I want to know I anyone knows about any plan to create a 3D desktop,
> eg a desktop with not only the coordinates height and width, but also
> depth.
>
> I want to work on this, maybe start it. It would be awesome.

Yeah, sounds like fun; I wanted to do that too, didn’t get very far with it. There are toys like https://github.com/paulolav/mazecompositor (or my fork which attempted to get Oculus Rift support, but it wasn’t very usable) and https://github.com/evil0sheep/motorcar and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Looking_Glass and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-mhqYBm7Xo (an old Microsoft one). And nowadays maybe it looks like it will be subsumed under AR: you could leave windows open on your walls and they will still be there when you physically go back to that place, perhaps? Or use a VR headset to have virtual desktop space as far as the eye can see, while sitting at your desk as usual?

[Stef Bon]

Thank you both for the info.
I've been thinking about a desktop in the form of a cube, simular like
the 3D cube ysed by KDE. This cube is only activated by the switching
of the desktop (1->2) for example, and the ctrl-F11 key, sooming out
of the cube.
That cube is - I think - the basis for a good 3D desktop. The current
desktop effects disappear when going back to the default state, I want
them to be visible always.
It's required to have a perspective of some kind, and coordinates like:
- x (distand from left under corner horizontally)
- y (distand from left under corner vertically)
- z (depth from the "front")

There are already rules to go from these 3d coordinates (x, y, z) to 2d
(xx, yy).
When doing so, it should be possible to put windows "futher" away, and
get the window closer by moving the window to you, or closer by going
closer yourself, possibly passing other windows.
Other visual effects like a 3d presentation of the network would be
very nice. And I don't think that heavy hardware is required.

Maybe we should start a project somewhere, do you agree?

Stef

[Stef Bon]

Oeps, where I write distand I mean distance. In my language (Dutch) the word for
distance is "afstand", notice the trailing d. But I can safely assume everybody
who read my post did understand it.... ;)

Stef

[Stef Bon]

Thanks a lot for the time.
I'm kind of busy now, but soon (2/3 days) I will come with a response.

We'll build an awesome 3D desktop!

Stef

[Tobias Hunger]

Hi Stef,

in my misspent youth I played with Berlin (later Fresco), which went
into that direction. The website is long gone, but the internet
archive has a copy:
https://web.archive.org/web/20080223200807/http://issues.fresco.org:80/

The code is still also still around:
https://github.com/stefanseefeld/fresco


3DWM is something similar from back then:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239744067_3Dwm_A_Platform_for_Research_and_Development_of_Three-Dimensional_User_Interfaces

Looking Glass from Sun was already mentioned.

That's all I can think of.

Best Regards,
Tobias
On Mon, Aug 6, 2018 at 3:36 PM Stef Bon <***@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> There are various desktop effects which offer 3D effects (kube for example).
>
> I want to know I anyone knows about any plan to create a 3D desktop,
> eg a desktop with not only the coordinates height and width, but also
> depth.
>
> I want to work on this, maybe start it. It would be awesome.
>
> Stef
> _______________________________________________
> Development mailing list
> ***@qt-project.org
> http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/development

[Stef Bon]

Yes the 3D window manager looks a lot at the idea I want to work on.

Any point in the 3D WM (a good name!) has three components:
(x, y, z)

these are projected on the visible 2D screen, suggesting 3D like:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_projection

Very interesting is also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewing_frustum

Also important here is what is called in Dutch a "verdwijnpunt". I do
not know the translation, but the horizon is something like that,
where all parallel lines meet..)

Stef
Op ma 20 aug. 2018 om 14:15 schreef Tobias Hunger <***@gmail.com>:
>
> Hi Stef,
>
> in my misspent youth I played with Berlin (later Fresco), which went
> into that direction. The website is long gone, but the internet
> archive has a copy:
> https://web.archive.org/web/20080223200807/http://issues.fresco.org:80/
>
> The code is still also still around:
> https://github.com/stefanseefeld/fresco
>
>
> 3DWM is something similar from back then:
> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239744067_3Dwm_A_Platform_for_Research_and_Development_of_Three-Dimensional_User_Interfaces
>
> Looking Glass from Sun was already mentioned.
>
> That's all I can think of.
>
> Best Regards,
> Tobias
> On Mon, Aug 6, 2018 at 3:36 PM Stef Bon <***@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > There are various desktop effects which offer 3D effects (kube for example).
> >
> > I want to know I anyone knows about any plan to create a 3D desktop,
> > eg a desktop with not only the coordinates height and width, but also
> > depth.
> >
> > I want to work on this, maybe start it. It would be awesome.
> >
> > Stef
> > _______________________________________________
> > Development mailing list
> > ***@qt-project.org
> > http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/development

[Edward Welbourne]

Stef Bon (21 August 2018 05:36)
> Also important here is what is called in Dutch a "verdwijnpunt". I do
> not know the translation, but the horizon is something like that,
> where all parallel lines meet..)

Searching for it on nl.wikipedia.org I get a page [0] whose pictures
tell me it's what we call a "panishing point" [1] in English.

[0] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijnperspectief
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanishing_point

Eddy.

[Tobias Hunger]

On Tue, Aug 21, 2018 at 5:36 AM Stef Bon <***@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes the 3D window manager looks a lot at the idea I want to work on.

Projecting "normal" 2D applications into 3D space is pretty useless
and full 3D applications do not really make sense for that many
use-cases.

I have used both 3dwm and fresco in a VR environment at the University
of Goteborg once. It was fun to be able to walk around your terminal
windows, but they were also pretty hard to use:-)

Best regards,
Tobias

[Stef Bon]

Hi all,

long no sound from me, but alive and kicking.

To start, we need a location on the Internet, starting with
documentation, where it's easy to write/create (2d at least) drawings
and formulas.

Do you agree?

Stef