OKay, this is just a light hearted and fun idea.
I propose that some of us join up and work on desktop graphics as a team.
The final images could be rendered into a number of resolutions that may go
so far as to be easily printed on large posters for trade shows or bedroom
ceilings. :-)
I have already made my first kick at the task with my earlier submission. It
was my try at expressing the idea of openess and transparency but lacked the
details that I wanted. Also ... I accidentally stuck the logo and text in
the area where desktop icons generally sit.
We can define some objectives but the primary one is this :
People may describe geometric objects or artistic feelings and then see
those suggestions appear in the desktop graphic. It can be fun and it
can be creative and we can end up with a whole set of desktop graphics
that people can point to and say "there, that was my idea and it
expresses how the kernel schedules tasks". That sort of thing.
Let me give an example :
Suggestion : I want something that expresses mystery and power but
also elegance. I want that transparant glass thing
that Dennis did to actually float in the air but to
have a kernel thingy at its core and to be more ...
...well just more ... mysterious.
Result : http://www.blastware.org/docs/images/quick_test_002.jpg
This is an example of how a feeling or an idea could be taken and then
geometrically mapped out, displayed on a web site somewhere and then the
people involved could say .. change this and change that and submit a new
scene description file to a render engine and then look at the result.
This also implies that we have access to some central render engine that can
crank out tons of CPU horsepower and images from POV-Ray.
I should point out that I am the POV-Ray maintainer for Solaris and I am
presently working on a nice fast version of POVRay 3.6.1 for Solaris. I did
not want to be held back by my not-yet-complete SVR4 software package for
Solaris and thus all images by me thus far have been cranked out by my
PowerPC based Genesi ODW Workstation on my desktop here.
http://www.blastware.org/docs/images/img_2632_sm.png
The process of cranking out an image that is 6400 x 4800 pixels is floating
point intensive[1] and time consuming. Certainly when we add photons and
chromatic dispersion effects and smoke hanging in the air. Its the CPU that
will begin to smoke a little.
Two things that I would like to see happen is that a pile of technical
people get together and try to express "feelings" using images. That alone
is worth the ride. The second thing is that people can really see the
result of their ideas and maybe even see it become a cool poster on a wall.
These are my suggestions. Maybe we can find a way to flounder forwards ?
--
Dennis Clarke
[1] I am cranking out an image based on that "floating glass thing in the
smoke" at 6400x4800 pixels and now would be a good time for a 10GHz
processor.
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