Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#41

Post by khedoros » Wed, Jun 01, 2016, 3:40 AM UTC

carlob wrote: post #9

I fondly remember my Star Trek CD-ROM that would let you explore the TNG Enterprise using QuickTime Vr http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Gener... FWIW the article claims that QuickTime VR was unveiled in 1995, but it was actually 1994.

I had the Star Trek Omnipedia as a kid (actually, still do; 2 versions of it, complete with janky voice recognition), and I was embarrassingly jealous of a friend that had the Tech Manual. As far as I was concerned, he could tour around the Enterprise whenever he wanted.

Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#42

Post by WayneBro » Wed, Jun 01, 2016, 2:42 PM UTC

azinman2 wrote: post #3

NTripleOne wrote: post #2

Personally, I'm happy to forget anything that has quicktime in the name...

Why? QuickTime is one of the best media stacks out there.

For programmers or for users?

As a user - the QuickTime UX sucked like most other Apple software and I'm glad that nobody uses it anymore for things that I need to look at.

Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#43

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 01, 2016, 2:47 PM UTC

shiggerino wrote: post #7

dingo_bat wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that true? I've always associated Quicktime with lag and bugs. Also, one of the rare instances of non-driver software causing BSODs, which is quite a mean feat.

I can't even remember ever being able to seek in a Windows Media file without breaking the entire playback. Never had any problems like that with QuickTime.

[deleted]

Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#44

Post by WayneBro » Wed, Jun 01, 2016, 2:51 PM UTC

shiggerino wrote: post #7

dingo_bat wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that true? I've always associated Quicktime with lag and bugs. Also, one of the rare instances of non-driver software causing BSODs, which is quite a mean feat.

I can't even remember ever being able to seek in a Windows Media file without breaking the entire playback. Never had any problems like that with QuickTime.

No, QuickTime only has problems opening, exporting, crashing and doing other things -

https://www.google.com/search?q=quicktime+crash+error+site%3...

Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#45

Post by micheljansen » Mon, Jun 06, 2016, 12:00 PM UTC

azinman2 wrote: post #32

micheljansen wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On Windows it's always been terrible. The Mac frameworks are pretty solid.

Guessing you never directly programmed such frameworks. Back in the day, writing multimedia for Windows was a nightmare... especially if you wanted to do things like play multiple videos in sync with a common master clock. QuickTime was the only way to do it reasonably.

Nope, I thankfully never had to do this for Windows, but I can imagine your pain!