Early Star Wars 3D

00Zero

hey, im looking for a video i saw a few months ago. you know the 3d vector sequences in star wars: a new hope where they show a crappy vector 3d visiualization of the death star trench to all the rebel pilots.

there was a video on how they created that in 3d back in the day using a pen to set points in 3d space to create the varous shapes. then theyd turn all these knobs and stuff to manipulate the objects.

i really need this video for a presentation, does anybody know where i can still find it?

Wheel

Here ya go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMeSw00n3Ac

Valandar

What makes me snicker is they had to point a movie camera at the monitor to get it on film.

And the hardware - wow. Talk about having come a long way in 33 years or so...

Peris

im actually surprised they could render that in realtime back then. I also like how he made the trench, I would do it pretty much thesame way today , make some modular bits and copy paste! He's even using some primitive wacom for it! I want a vector screen now..

Talk about having come a long way in 33 years or so...

haha, i see more similarities than differences really... show this to someone who's not into 3d and then show him/her a video of someone poly modelling, he/she wont see much difference i think.

SHEPEIRO

aw i want that analogue input

Darth Tomi

I heard a rumor a few years ago that they were gonna re-release Star Wars in 3D for the Imax. Would have been cool to put it out for the 30th anniversary. But noooooooooo, Lucas put out this dumb Clone Wars movie instead.

Tumerboy

ya I'm amazed that they could see it in real time too.

I suddenly don't hate max as much as I thought I did.

Slum

Peris wrote: »

haha, i see more similarities than differences really... show this to someone who's not into 3d and then show him/her a video of someone poly modelling, he/she wont see much difference i think.

Yeah thats actually pretty surprisingly similar to how things are done now. The main difference being you dont digitize a paper image, you just use ortho planes in your 3d app.

I absolutely love seeing stuff like this, especially old tech. If anyone has any more videos like this, please post

Daaark

A lot of 3d stuff done now was actually invented in the 70s.

I'd say the 70s and the 2000s were probably the 2 decades with the highest output for 3d tech advances. But someone with more knowledge of the history might say the 1990s instead of the 2000s.

JasonLavoie

Really cool!

Peris

hah, after seeing this i've been doing some internet research . There apparently was realtime 3d editing already in 1959

"General Motors and IBM start developing the "DAC-1" system (Design Augmented by Computers). This system was presented in the Computer Detroit conference of 1964, and allowed a user to input a 3D description of an automobile, and then rotate it and view the image from different angles (first industrial CAD system used)"

look at this guy and his cintiq

lots more on this page: http://sophia.javeriana.edu.co/~ochavarr/computer_graphics_history/historia/

Daaark

Very hard to read, but very interesting.

Tumerboy

huh. . . so am I crazy then? I could swear I've talked to "old school" programmers who describe having to manually input a series of points, with no visual aids, and then actually PRINT out the result to see what they've made. Were they pulling my leg? Were they just dirt poor and couldn't afford 1959 tech? Was it all a dream?

Daaark

Tumerboy wrote: »

huh. . . so am I crazy then? I could swear I've talked to "old school" programmers who describe having to manually input a series of points, with no visual aids, and then actually PRINT out the result to see what they've made. Were they pulling my leg? Were they just dirt poor and couldn't afford 1959 tech? Was it all a dream?

PCs didn't standardize until the 1980s when IBM clones started making up the 'PC compatible' market. Before that, there were tons of machines, all with different internal layouts ans capabilities, with their own software. It depends on what you need, and what you have available. It would take longer to write the software in most cases than it would to just plot the points manually.

What you describe there was my work flow for creating DOOM 2 levels as late as 1995 (which I continued until 2000). I had to use a primitive point to point vector drawing to make a basic outline of an area, and from there align textures, surface heights, and do lighting with only a mental image of what I was working on. To see what I made, I had to wait through a BSP compile and load up the results in game. (oh fuck, I aligned that stairway texture off by a few pixels! Wash / Rinse / repeat).

Vrav

Heh, the story of the Utah teapot almost reads like folklore. I like the speed at which he's modeling the death star canal here. Modular set pieces were the way to go.

00Zero

Wheel, you rock. thanks.

Peris

Daaark wrote: »

What you describe there was my work flow for creating DOOM 2 levels as late as 1995 (which I continued until 2000). I had to use a primitive point to point vector drawing to make a basic outline of an area, and from there align textures, surface heights, and do lighting with only a mental image of what I was working on. To see what I made, I had to wait through a BSP compile and load up the results in game. (oh fuck, I aligned that stairway texture off by a few pixels! Wash / Rinse / repeat).

i miss sectors =(. Was so much fun making maps for duke nukem with seperate rooms being at thesame physical space and create weird portal like levels.

Daaark

Peris wrote: »

i miss sectors =(. Was so much fun making maps for duke nukem with seperate rooms being at thesame physical space and create weird portal like levels.

Pfft. Duke Nukem 3D editing was for pussies. YOU COULD SEE WHAT YOU WERE WORKING ON IN REAL TIME!

I had a lot of fun making Doom and Duke Levels. It's so different now. I don't just type a command in DOS and have 1 program running, with the image of what I'm working on stuck in my head, and nothing else to distract me. :poly142:

EarthQuake

where can i get me some of them dials?

Daaark

EarthQuake wrote: »

where can i get me some of them dials?

Don't those puck things work something like that?