[remh]

Started watching the show, it is way too dramatized but still interesting.

The actual demo of Terravision is indeed mind blowing if you remember how powerful computers in 1994 were: http://www.joachimsauter.com/img/big693.mp4

[ehsankia]

> Started watching the show, it is way too dramatized but still interesting.

I don't mind dramatization, but 4.5h seems quite steep for such a simple video that seems like it could be covered in a 20m Youtube video. Do you have a rough review if you ended up watching more of it if it's just really dragged on or actually contains a lot of content?

[brabel]

I actually found it quite appropriate, specially after it picked up pace from the end of the first episode... didn't feel at all like it was dragging on.

[smudgy]

If you just want the tech stuff, it's very sparse but I greatly enjoyed the connection between the two protagonists.

It was also a nice way of teaching my wife about what the world of computers was like in the 90's.

[the-rc]

That didn't run on a PC, it ran on Onyx servers, which had over 10 graphic processors.

[cik]

We ended up taking our Onyxes, years later and turning them into fish tanks. I miss those days.

[unixhero]

If true, well that was fucking stupid.

[piceas]

Flight sim 5.0 ran on the PCs of the day and wasn't that far behind.

[LordOfWolves]

This is quite impressive for ‘94, thank you for sharing.

I found it funny - in a “how ridiculous/silly” kind of way - that at 4:40 we get to look inside a building by entering through its windows, but here we are in the 21st century with that exact capability. Individuals providing photos and/or footage of the interior of their commercial space does not seem so silly these days.

[jcun4128]

I was thinking it's funny the literal globe interface you use and then this knob you turn that's held by this arm.

[cma]

> knob you turn

That's a 6-dof spacemouse, still widely used today in CAD and 3d modeling.

[matheusmoreira]

https://youtu.be/AX7yS4q6kZY

What an interesting input device.

[iamacyborg]

It always makes me laugh that the ship controls in The Expanse are literally one of these things.

[jcun4128]

oh wow, I had to watch a video to see how that works, I have seen them before but thought it was just rotating on a plane.

[ur-whale]

> mind blowing if you remember how powerful computers in 1994

In 1994, SGI workstations could pull off this kind of stuff rather effortlessly, the only "tricky" part was to get the LOD algorithm right.

So not that mind-blowing in practice.

It would only amazing if Terravision ran on a stock PC (did it?).

[the-rc]

Jones and Tanner created clip mapping, first in SGI hardware, then in software. That's what made Keyhole and thus Google Earth possible on consumer machines. Is the allegation that it was all stolen? They could have invalidated SGI's patents. And no, Terravision didn't run on a stock PC, it ran on Onyx hardware. Plus it relied on an ATM connection! Even then, the demo has a bunch of glitches and gaps, plus the zooming is so slow, all of which doesn't look like superior technology for Intrinsic/Keyhole to copy.

[ur-whale]

> Onyx hardware

Yeah, IIRC, those were the high-end of the SGI line, very beefy machines for that time, especially for I/O and graphics, so I stand by my comment.

[EDIT]: And thanks for clip mapping reference. For anyone interested in dynamic LOD algorithms, here's the paper:

https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1145/280814.280855

[Genego]

I tried hard to enjoy it. I did like the characters, but the dramatized story really didn't work for me. I guess it was a win though, because previously I had never heard about Terravision.

[jeffrallen]

Also, check out the bow tie on the guy doing the demo. Snappy.