From: Eben Gay Subject: Re: MISC: VR thoughts Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 21:48:21 GMT Organization: ERG Engineering, Inc. >Linda Jacobson wrote: > > On Jan 13, 12:02pm, Jerry Isdale wrote: > > > Sometime last year I briefly got involved in a discussion here about the > > best VR platform. I still contend that a PC/3dfx system is much more cost > > effective for a commercial system than the current SGI offerings. I dont > > believe in Face Suckers (HMDs) or body trackers for anything but showcase > > VR projects. ... > > With all due respect for your credits and opinions, Jerry, your > statement above is nonsense, and Silicon Graphics, Fakespace, Virtual > Research, N-Vision, Division, Prosolvia and Multigen have the > customers with the quantified return-on-investment success to prove > it. I'm afraid that I have to side with Jerry on this one. The high-end graphics workstation market is going the way of the main-frame: it's going to be a steady business, but it's not where the explosive growth is. Also, the fancy I/O hardware (HMDs, gloves) doesn't cut it in volume applications. For instance, we're currently developing a commercial medical VR app that is planned to be sold in the tens of thousands per year. It's flat panel display, PC based. There's no place for an HMD in an operating room and there's no need for an SGI in the hospital's budget (sorry!). We've shipped 36 VR projects in the last five years. Two on SGI's, the rest on PCs (although some were Intergraph workstations, which leave regular PCs in the dust (they outrun Onyxes too, for most of our heavily textured applications, and are much less expensive (sorry!))). Unfortunately for SGI, we focus primarily on education (museums, schools, industry), and rarely does our project budget cover a high-end computer. The amazing improvements in PC software and hardware over the last few years have made it possible for us to deliver very nice virtual content on low-end platforms. We're using VRML for a number of our projects and like Cosmoplayer, does that help? SGI has really nice tools and lovely systems, but the PCs have moved up in speed and graphics ability to the point that it is hard to justify the cost. It used to be easier to say "yeah, PCs are cheap, but the SGI environment is so much easier to use that you'll see better productivity that pays for the system." But a lot of that has changed. There are still a few tools that I wish were on the PC (Cosmo creator looks like one of the best VRML environments out there - I am really looking forward to seeing it on NT...) But most of the things I need to do (C++, 3D modeling, Realtime graphics, 3D sound) I can do as well (or better) on a PC these days. Perhaps if I could afford an Infinite Reality engine on my desk (with the software to run on it), I'd have a different opinion. Eben Gay -- Virtual Reality consulting "With imagination you can achieve virtually anything" ERG Engineering, Inc., 2 Moore Road, Southboro, MA 01772 voice: (508) 460-0529 fax: (508) 229-0830 email: eben@ergeng.com web page: http://world.std.com/~erg/