Early 3D Computer Graphics Lab

Early Computer Graphics - NC State Univ. Signal Processing Lab - around 1973?
Real time 3D modeling on an Adage AGT-30 vector system
Shaded color display on a custom built frame buffer
- SCHSA software scan conversion using Watkins algorithm hidden surface removal
Color animation done 1 frame at a time using a Super 8 film camera
more info at http://www.virhistory.com/ncsu/ncsu_lab.htm

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• 3d graphics
• history
• NCSU

[pylon256]

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.

[ratkinzluver33]

@baneskrbic DO A BARREL ROLL!

[KenfromDublin]

Forget about the year, what's the star date?

[lilgoomba]

He must be running SLI to get that kind of framerate.

[pylon256]

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]

@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).

[Pinkergloop]

@pylon256 That thing HAS to be at least a 32-bit computer!

[heroiclegendxxx]

fallout 3?

[pylon256]

@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.

[Drwhofanindatardis]

@pylon256 May I ask, what was that model at 0:09 ? Please reply, I'm very interested in this.

[declaration963]

Wow, that's USS Enterprise on Star Trek

[quangluu96]

Dam take that long to render something that doesn't have reflections, ooh, wonderful animation in the 70s though.