Boing and Avalon 3d Interface for Windows LongHorn

[DonnyEMU]

Anyone interested in the User Interface of the next version of Windows, and it's cool 3d-ness, check out the Boing demo shown off in the middle of this demo, it's less than 30 lines of code apparently.. It's all 3D and you can control speed, gravity, and other environmental variables with it..

I wish the Amiga did all of this in true 3D right now...

AVALON 3D interface (XML examples)

-Don

[Karlos]

Pah, I hate ultra high levelness in programming languages. Your'e completely at the mercy of your implementation :-D

[nyteschayde]

It's nice to see that Microsoft is still blatently copying Apple without mentioning that they're doing it. That being said they are at least offering a new place to use it in. The effect in the first demo is almost identical to the effects that they use in iChatAV for OS X Tiger.

I do like that they're adding it to the browser and CSS but since nobody else has it few to no companies will be able to use it. If they're smart they'll make it as a plugin to browsers that people can download. But we all know that won't happen.

As far as the XAML goes. It's a cool idea. I know Karlos won't be using it but all in all I think many people will like it. It's dangerous for someone like me who wants desperately to learn 3D better since I need to learn it the hard way first.

Thanks for the link. It was interesting.

[Karlos]

@Nyteschayde

Don't get me wrong, I think XAML will be highly useful for rapid development. My principal gripe is that regardless of what people will say, I'm sure such uber-high level approaches (I know XAML is compiled) will give much poorer performing code than something written at the C/C++ level. Or maybe I'm getting too long in the tooth :-D

As always, it's the balance between ease of use and efficiency. They rarely sit together well.

[mikeymike]

Hmm, I guess there's probably a worse language than XML to use for specifying 3D representations, but I can't think of it.

Well, perhaps AmigaBASIC :-P

I've got halfway through this video but I've still yet to see a decent use for a 3D representation for the average application.  Previous demos of Longhorn, with windows 'waving in the wind' when you moved them just seemed like the most pointless waste of system resources.  How does a window waving around when you move it actually of any assistance to anyone?

I've never seen window translucency of any sort come in handy when it comes to multitasking.  It just makes both the foreground window and the background window hard to read.

If you're going to change how the average UI works in most GUIs, you need to change the whole model of thinking.  I don't see how a 3D respresentation on a 2D surface is ever going to be of any use to anyone (in terms of apps usage).

[FastRobPlus]

mikeymike wrote:
If you're going to change how the average UI works in most GUIs, you need to change the whole model of thinking.  I don't see how a 3D respresentation on a 2D surface is ever going to be of any use to anyone (in terms of apps usage).

Exactly!  I want an UI that I have to actually defeat in realtime 3D combat to accomplish tasks!  

MS - make it happen!

[Argo]

Don't know about accomplish, but kill maybe. I once saw a Doom mod that assigned system tasks to creature entities. When you targeted a monster the name of it's associated task displayed next to it.
Wanta kill that telnet session go hunt it down and blow it away!

[HopperJF]

FastRobPlus wrote:

mikeymike wrote:
If you're going to change how the average UI works in most GUIs, you need to change the whole model of thinking.  I don't see how a 3D respresentation on a 2D surface is ever going to be of any use to anyone (in terms of apps usage).

Exactly!  I want an UI that I have to actually defeat in realtime 3D combat to accomplish tasks!  

MS - make it happen!

Are you taking the piss?
They love bloat.

[odin]

And MacOS X is the master of all lean, lightweight, streamlined OS'es eh :-P.

[Akiko]

Is that an Amiga poster i spy on the wall!?! approx 17:50 into presentation. :-o

[DonnyEMU]

Karlos wrote:
@Nyteschayde

Don't get me wrong, I think XAML will be highly useful for rapid development. My principal gripe is that regardless of what people will say, I'm sure such uber-high level approaches (I know XAML is compiled) will give much poorer performing code than something written at the C/C++ level. Or maybe I'm getting too long in the tooth :-D

As always, it's the balance between ease of use and efficiency. They rarely sit together well.

Spoken like a true C++ programmer Karlos.. There are some of us who think we can get good and dare I say it, even GREAT  performance out of C# and VB.NET using the CLR (Common Language Runtime) aka the Microsoft .Net Virtual machine without resorting to their IL code or dare I say it ;-) Managed Code Visual C++, it's certainly portable enough :-)  

Oh and someone else up there was suggesting xaml would be in the browser.. I don't think they plan on that, it will probably just be part of explorer.exe (not iexplore.exe) just for doing windows interfaces.. But I could see the windows UI getting a lot more standardized and a lot prettier with this functionality now as easy for programmers to set up as a web page..

 

[Karlos]

@DonnyEmu

Like a true C++ programmer? Why thanks, that's quite a complimnent :-D

Well, I did say I was getting long in the tooth :-P

When they make a next-generation game engine of the calibre of say Unreal Engine 3 in XAML (completely, not depending on any C/C++ based runtime libraries), without any loss in performance relative to C++ on any given hardware specification, I will concede it is as performance capable as C++. Not before...

*me blows raspberries*


;-)


Seriously, I'm not knocking it, but I think it is a matter of horses for courses. I'm sure XAML will be great for application development, especially the user interface side.

I just don't fancy doing any serious number crunching work in it.

[bloodline]

Akiko wrote:
Is that an Amiga poster i spy on the wall!?! approx 17:50 into presentation. :-o

Well Spotted... I don't think it is, but it certianly looks like it!

[alx]

bloodline wrote:

Akiko wrote:
Is that an Amiga poster i spy on the wall!?! approx 17:50 into presentation. :-o

Well Spotted... I don't think it is, but it certianly looks like it!

I'm positive its an A1000 poster - you can definitely make out  the checkmark and "Amiga" text on the monitor.