We could also enter 3D models manually. I measured coordinates on a model of a WWII German King Tiger tank and then punched cards with the vertex coordinates and polygon vertex lists. There's a photo on the NCSU web page listed in this video's description.
These videos of vector graphics from the early 70s totally freak me out. I didn't realize there were systems capable of this type of stuff around that time period.
Wow, you really must feel proud be a pioneer of the 3D industry. I can only imagine how frustrating it must have been to do that wire frame line by line. I think you should get a better film to video conversion done considering the value of what you're showing here.
'73 is a little before I got into it (was 12 at the time and my brother was trying to explain 'latches' to me :)
I lived with a girl that worked at Adage back around '83/'84. IIRC, at the time she was there, they were working on the first generation of processors to use Z-buffering entirely on-chip.
Hard to believe we're talking almost 3 decades; it seems like another lifetime . Thanks for the walk down memory lane, though ;)
I never owned a color TV for the purpose of watching TV. I eventually bought a portable color TV to use as a monitor on my Apple IIe. After a few weeks, I decided that since I had a color TV, I may as well connect and antenna to it. I watched TV for an hour or so, and then went back to using it with the Apple... far more interesting even back then.
We start off connecting computers to TV's, graduate to using our fancy high-tech computer monitors, and now here we are, connecting our computers to TVs again. LAL.
Thanks for the complement - This work was shown at the first SIGGRAPH conference in July 1974 (Eastman, J. F., "An Efficient Scan Conversion and Hidden Surface Removal Algorithm") and as I recall was running well before then. We had one of the very earliest labs with a color display system. I joined the lab in 1972 and Glen Williamson and Jeff Eastman got the color display system running in 1972 that year. We put together the 3D modeling program and created some models in 1973 I am pretty sure.
@Drwhofanindatardis I guess you mean the model that looks somewhat like the USS Enterprise from Star Trek? We wrote a simple interactive modeling program that ran interactively on the AGT-30 vector display system. You could create a solid of revolution like a cylinder and then duplicate and/or move it around to create compound objects made of several cylinders or other geometric figures. So "starships" were a natural thing to create this way. Crude, but fun and showed that the renderer worked.
@Pinkergloop The vector graphics were done on a 30-bit computer, an Adage AGT-30 built in 1969. It had a special hardware matrix multiplier for 3D transformations. The matrix multiplier was called the hybrid array because it used both analog and digital processing to provide the necessary speeds. The polygons were passed via a custom 16-bit parallel interface to a 16-bit minicomputer, a Varian 620, which performed the hidden surface computation (Watkins algorithm).
Then the Varian 620 wrote scan-line segment run-length codes via another custom 16-bit parallel interface to a buffer which wrote one scan line at a time onto a 3-track analog video disc, which in turn drove RGB video to the display.
He must be running SLI to get that kind of framerate.
lilgoomba 4 months ago
fallout 3?
heroiclegendxxx 7 months ago
We could also enter 3D models manually. I measured coordinates on a model of a WWII German King Tiger tank and then punched cards with the vertex coordinates and polygon vertex lists. There's a photo on the NCSU web page listed in this video's description.
pylon256 7 months ago
Wow, that's USS Enterprise on Star Trek
declaration963 8 months ago
Dam take that long to render something that doesn't have reflections, ooh, wonderful animation in the 70s though.
quangluu96 8 months ago
Forget about the year, what's the star date?
KenfromDublin 10 months ago 9
These videos of vector graphics from the early 70s totally freak me out. I didn't realize there were systems capable of this type of stuff around that time period.
20YrBillionaire 11 months ago
was this crysis for 73?
flamingarse1 1 year ago
Wow, you really must feel proud be a pioneer of the 3D industry. I can only imagine how frustrating it must have been to do that wire frame line by line. I think you should get a better film to video conversion done considering the value of what you're showing here.
TVperson1 1 year ago
Boldly designing what no man had designed before...
WebVMan 1 year ago
it is possible but it must as take incredible pc power
SuperDave341 1 year ago
lol its that startreck spaceship
MrCupcakescankill 1 year ago
Nice.
'73 is a little before I got into it (was 12 at the time and my brother was trying to explain 'latches' to me :)
I lived with a girl that worked at Adage back around '83/'84. IIRC, at the time she was there, they were working on the first generation of processors to use Z-buffering entirely on-chip.
Hard to believe we're talking almost 3 decades; it seems like another lifetime . Thanks for the walk down memory lane, though ;)
JonP1961 1 year ago
Although I never involved myself in the topic, I always thought 3D graphics were developed in late 90's... Strange.
Max0Inq 1 year ago
@Max0Inq
have you never seen TRON?
HipHop1981 1 year ago
@HipHop1981 I have seen Tron but I never checked when was it made.
Max0Inq 1 year ago
Star Trek makes everything epic.
ratkinzluver33 1 year ago
I never owned a color TV for the purpose of watching TV. I eventually bought a portable color TV to use as a monitor on my Apple IIe. After a few weeks, I decided that since I had a color TV, I may as well connect and antenna to it. I watched TV for an hour or so, and then went back to using it with the Apple... far more interesting even back then.
sbalogh53 1 year ago
We start off connecting computers to TV's, graduate to using our fancy high-tech computer monitors, and now here we are, connecting our computers to TVs again. LAL.
HostageKiller 1 year ago
I'm glad Star Trek and Computer Animation are paired together like this, it seem appropriate to have such revolutionary things together :)
lieutenantValera 1 year ago
STAR FOX!
baneskrbic 1 year ago
@baneskrbic DO A BARREL ROLL!
ratkinzluver33 1 year ago 11
1973?? Looks too good for '73.
justin76pa 1 year ago 7
Thanks for the complement - This work was shown at the first SIGGRAPH conference in July 1974 (Eastman, J. F., "An Efficient Scan Conversion and Hidden Surface Removal Algorithm") and as I recall was running well before then. We had one of the very earliest labs with a color display system. I joined the lab in 1972 and Glen Williamson and Jeff Eastman got the color display system running in 1972 that year. We put together the 3D modeling program and created some models in 1973 I am pretty sure.
pylon256 1 year ago 5
@pylon256 May I ask, what was that model at 0:09 ? Please reply, I'm very interested in this.
Drwhofanindatardis 7 months ago
@Drwhofanindatardis I guess you mean the model that looks somewhat like the USS Enterprise from Star Trek? We wrote a simple interactive modeling program that ran interactively on the AGT-30 vector display system. You could create a solid of revolution like a cylinder and then duplicate and/or move it around to create compound objects made of several cylinders or other geometric figures. So "starships" were a natural thing to create this way. Crude, but fun and showed that the renderer worked.
pylon256 7 months ago
@pylon256 That thing HAS to be at least a 32-bit computer!
Pinkergloop 7 months ago
@Pinkergloop The vector graphics were done on a 30-bit computer, an Adage AGT-30 built in 1969. It had a special hardware matrix multiplier for 3D transformations. The matrix multiplier was called the hybrid array because it used both analog and digital processing to provide the necessary speeds. The polygons were passed via a custom 16-bit parallel interface to a 16-bit minicomputer, a Varian 620, which performed the hidden surface computation (Watkins algorithm).
pylon256 7 months ago
Then the Varian 620 wrote scan-line segment run-length codes via another custom 16-bit parallel interface to a buffer which wrote one scan line at a time onto a 3-track analog video disc, which in turn drove RGB video to the display.
pylon256 7 months ago
@justin76pa Good? Are you kidding? Watch Tron to see what they did in 1982.
hluizr 1 year ago
@hluizr No, I am quite serious. Keep it in the proper context. 1973, that's friggin' good.
justin76pa 1 year ago
LOL RENDERING
BranislavDJ 1 year ago 3
Computers connected to TV´s! Those were the times. Nice.
ChrisRamses1973 2 years ago
thats cool!
smashupdriver 2 years ago
Magic! :)
shivayavoda 2 years ago
USS ENTERPRISE!
COOL
Carthsting 2 years ago