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3D Desktops for Linux? 34

Posted by Cliff from the moving-out-of-the-plane dept.
Ryn asks: "I've been looking around for a nice and easy to use 3D desktop/window manager for Linux, and the choice seems to be extremely limited. 3dwm seems to be more of an application framework than anything else. On the Windows side, there are applications like rooms3d and my favorite, 3dtop. Are there any Linux apps like these?"
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3D Desktops for Linux? More

3D Desktops for Linux?

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  • Man, now if someone would only modify the GPL'd Quake or Doom so we could run around in our OS. You could attatch properties to certain areas or rooms, so when you enter them a wall opens up with display properties, mounted filesystems, etc.. Run up to a computer in one of the rooms and get a shell window! And secret walls through which you may walk to access your pr0n!! IDSPISPOPD LIVES AGAIN!!!
  • This may be modded as offtopic, but that is the coolest thing I've ever seen. I didn't even know that something like that existed. Just an idea, but wouldn't it be cool to do some kind of VR on your desktop? This is right up SGI's alley it seems ;-)
    Anyway, thanks again for this question.

    • Re:Cool! (Score:3, Informative)

      by Howie ( 4244 )
      SGI were doing it in at least 1993 - Filesystem Navigator (fsn) was available for free for the SGI Indigo. It's the thing with all the little cubes and spotlights for navigating files that you see in Jurassic Park.

      More recently, there has been a plain-X11 version of a similar thing, but with really nicely done labelling, and good speed (no GL). I wish I could remember what it was called though! I think it was French.
      • there has been a plain-X11 version of a similar thing

        http://fsv.sourceforge.net

      • SGI were doing it in at least 1993 - Filesystem Navigator (fsn) was available for free for the SGI Indigo. It's the thing with all the little cubes and spotlights for navigating files that you see in Jurassic Park.

        More recently, there has been a plain-X11 version of a similar thing, but with really nicely done labelling, and good speed (no GL). I wish I could remember what it was called though! I think it was French.

        There are a number of tools out there to provide 3D views of your machine's filesystem:

        FSV [sourceforge.com] is pretty cool looking, looking something like a model of a city, with directories and files being the "buildings."

        If you want something a little more scifi, check out TDFSB [hgb-leipzig.de], which offers a more first-person view and a tron-esque landscape filled with a wide variety of different shapes (actual images of image files, etc.). Note: you'll be much happier running TDFSB if you have a beefy video card...it sucks to have a visible frame rate when you ls -a :)

  • 3d in 2d (Score:1, Interesting)

    by redhotchil ( 44670 )
    Could someone please explain to me the benifits of a 3d gui shell on a 2d display? Besides the obvious, "h3y my d3kzt0p r 3d d00d!" thing..
    • I said it before and I'll say it again. I definitely won't use it for my daily work, but I will definitely have it installed on my home machine just for this 'Johny Mnemonic can do it, so can I'-feeling. Isn't eye candy something you want every now and then? Aren't you fascinated by aaquake? It's exactly the same thing: Noone will ever really use it, but it's a nice hack.

    • Re:3d in 2d (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Manic Miner ( 81246 )

      The benefits come from shifting your information management away from the flat desk paradigm towards one we are used to using every day - a 3D world.

      Most people know how to navigate a simulated 3D environment because of games such as quake etc. And because a 3D environment maps directly onto our day to day experience I think that it will be much easier to organise data. Just think of it was a virtual office, you have a room which contains printers, your desk with e-mail and word processing, the coffee bar where you go to chat with your friends etc. etc.

      This would provide a use for the emerging 3D technologies such as 3D glasses, headsets etc. Eventually I am sure that someone will come up with a 3D "holographic" style display, at which point a simulated 3D on 2D environment could easily be converted and people would already be used to the interface.

      I for one would find this wonderful. I love the idea of the ability to arrange my work in the same way I organise things in the real world. Roll on 3D, along with decent 3D display's :)

      • Re:3d in 2d (Score:3, Insightful)

        by geekoid ( 135745 )
        But it would be slow.
        "Moving" to the printer room, then clicking on the printer to get its status is way slower then just typing in the command.
        And if you have to make physical motions like in real life, then it become comically slower. What good is vr if I have to move my hands to oen a file cabnet, then wiggle my fingers to shuffle through the papers, etc....
        Not that it wouldn't be cool, in that eyecandy see what I can do kind of way, just not very useful for daily activities.
        The reason why I believe this is because when the Source to quake was released I hacked it to load a different creature depending on varies deamons running, then send kill commands whenevr I shot a particular creature. My co-worker where very impressed, but hunting down a onster take a lot longer then typing the kill command.
  • In order for someone to use a desktop effectively, the user needs to be able to easily visualize the desktop. The biggest problem with a 3d desktop is trying to visualize programs, documents, and mp3s suspended in space, where there's no gravity. If you put gravity, bookshelves, and a desk in 3d, it has a better chance of becoming accepted. For now, though, looking "down" on my 2d desktop is the only way to go!
    • Really? What if it was a house instead. Maybe even a city block. Run up to your room for your home directory (Lift mattress for pr0n, but remember to have your decryption disk in the drive...)!

  • 3D input device (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Xavier Shirin ( 445036 ) on Tuesday January 15, 2002 @01:13AM (#2840344) Homepage
    A 3D windowing environment will not be much use if you have a hard time reaching into the third dimension. The mouse is a nifty input device, but to do 3D with it, it is difficult.

    For everyone that has played Homeworld, they have come the closest that I have seen to true 3d movement with a mouse, but the interface is still VERY annoying to me, I want my ships to attack them from above!
    • You just need a 3D input device like a Spaceball [3dconnexion.com].

      Something that handles moving and turning...

  • Try Berlin (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://www.berlin-consortium.org/

  • Daydreaming... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by piranha(jpl) ( 229201 ) on Tuesday January 15, 2002 @06:50AM (#2841102) Homepage
    After reading a few posts, I was inspired and came up with some ideas for a neat 3D user environment:
    • More or less, this environment would be a virtual-reality sort of thing. The user customizes the layout of the 3D scene that they inhabit on their computer, with both physical elements (like structures; walls, ceilings, trees, whatever), and programmable elements
    • Have an integrated, virtual X server, to run X normal apps and clients. A virtual X server would render the appearance of the clients' windows into dynamic bitmaps. The bitmaps could be placed in the 3D environment as if it were a tile, in ways not possible without the use of a virtual X server (that I can think of), like tilting the window in different directions, or perhaps shaping it to a 3D object, like a convex surface.
    • Programmable elements would allow a user to use this VR environment as their primary interface to the computer (for better or worse). The shape or behavior of objects and structures could change, or new physical elements could be created in the environment, based on internal conditions (user walked to a certain corner of the room), or conditions external to the environment (user has new mail).
    • Have the option of running your own little VR server, so that other people may use their VR client to explore and enjoy your space, or designated areas of your space. The transition to another person's "space" could be very obvious, like explicitly starting your VR client from a shell prompt, and stating the remote person's VR server as an arguement. Or, you could program a portal into your own space; the portal could be animated and mysterious-looking, or could just be represented as the threshold of a door in your space. Perhaps a user and their friends could set up a small network of portals between their spaces.
    • Design the whole thing so people can trade room/environment designs and elements, as well as scripting code, so that people that don't have a lot of time on their hands or don't know the scripting language can still enjoy the system.
    Other possibilities could include some sort of a gaming environment integrated into the system. (It could be a distributed, open-source EverQuest. =) The more open it is and the more effort put into it to ensure expandability, the more possibilities down the road. (As if I or anyone else is going to make it happen, anyway.)
  • Probably not the complete solution you're looking for, but a framework with interesting possibilities.

    http://www.gnu.org/software/maverik/maverik.html
    http://aig.cs.man.ac.uk/

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