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Software galaxies

anvaka.github.io

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Re: Software galaxies

#51

Post by HPsquared »

zbendefy wrote: post #11
omoikane wrote: post #9

This looks very nice, but a 2D visualization might have been more practical. For example, the fact that the dot size represents the total number of dependents is obscured by the fact that the dot sizes are also a function of camera distance.

Reminds me of the 3D file browser user interface in Jurassic Park, which was an actual application. Looks cool but its not good to use (I mean the 3d file browser, not this software galaxies, which i found quite good). 3D interfaces rarely plan out, wonder if something like a vision pro or quest could make a 3D user interface work better than a 2D counterpart.

In VR, there was a wave of that kind of thing (3D productivity apps, file browsers etc.) None really took off though as far as I can tell.

Re: Software galaxies

#52

Post by p_l »

aphrax wrote: post #15
zbendefy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of the 3D file browser user interface in Jurassic Park, which was an actual application. Looks cool but its not good to use (I mean the 3d file browser, not this software galaxies, which i found quite good). 3D interfaces rarely plan out, wonder if something like a vision pro or quest could make a 3D user interface work better than a 2D counterpart.

IIRC it was an SGI application - very cool but not terribly practical!

There was a bunch of "demo" applications bundled in Irix, some more some less useful, that were used to showcase the capabilities of the systems. File System Navigator was, afaik, one of them (similarly there was bundled "dogfight", a networked flight simulator game).

Re: Software galaxies

#53

Post by martin-adams »

wiz21c wrote: post #47

When you imagine that each dot is a program and that behind each of these dots, there is at least on person, it gives a very good appreciation of how complex each of these projects are. These are pretty big human architectures..

[flagged]

Re: Software galaxies

#54

Post by gluke77 »

KolmogorovComp wrote: post #21

It seems cool but is completely unusable on mobile. It still amaze me how today people do not think about designing mobile-first website. The gap between devs and users is far from closed yet.

How users (who are non-devs) are planning to use this piece, I wonder. Also is there any well established web-native way to navigate in 3d space, that works on mobile? Personally, quake-style keyboard only navigation on my desktop works like a charm.

Re: Software galaxies

#55

Post by BoppreH »

The gyroscope aiming on mobile is fantastic!

I've never seen a demo with such small latency and responsive to small movements. Even more impressive by being a web page and not a native web.

Re: Software galaxies

#56

Post by bregma »

yayr wrote: post #48

just to be a bit astronomically nitpicky ... ;-) they are more like star clusters than galaxies. Galaxies usually have a lot of mostly circular momentum with arms forming etc. might be even the better marketing term "Software star clusters" not to mention the widely accepted hypothesis that galaxies require dark matter to be held together... we don't want to dive into the analogy here for software, or do we? ;-)

But really it's the dark web that binds us all?

Re: Software galaxies

#58

Post by _kb »

zbendefy wrote: post #11
omoikane wrote: post #9

This looks very nice, but a 2D visualization might have been more practical. For example, the fact that the dot size represents the total number of dependents is obscured by the fact that the dot sizes are also a function of camera distance.

Reminds me of the 3D file browser user interface in Jurassic Park, which was an actual application. Looks cool but its not good to use (I mean the 3d file browser, not this software galaxies, which i found quite good). 3D interfaces rarely plan out, wonder if something like a vision pro or quest could make a 3D user interface work better than a 2D counterpart.

https://fsv.sourceforge.net

There's a great write up at https://scifiinterfaces.com/2023/11/27/jurassic-park-1993/

Re: Software galaxies

#60

Post by dcminter »

surfingdino wrote: post #17
aphrax wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC it was an SGI application - very cool but not terribly practical!

To be fair, it was all new back then and people were playing with ideas, so a 3d file browser seemed like a cool idea. A bit like the metal roller on the Paris Metro ticket machines https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=9SjBfRA3YzA

The discoverability on those things is definitely lacking. I think it took us five or so broken touch-screens before my wife noticed that you could use that to select menu options instead! I guess once you know it's fine though? Feels a bit dated compared to the typical touch & go card payments elsewhere in Europe now though.
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