When
I think about what it was like to use a computer in the sixties compared
to using a computer today it makes all those little problems we deal
with every day seem kind of small. For instance, in ’64 we had stroke
writer displays, and computers that were built with magnetic core memory
and integrated circuits that had only simple flip-flops. Graphics were
only line drawings and were created either with tedious assembly language
or with arcane Fortran. Only the elite had computer graphics, the primary
applications being CAD and weapons simulation. The systems were time-shared
(one main computer, several terminals); there was (at least one) operator
of the main computer plus tech support for the terminal users. The main
computer was as large as four to six refrigerators; the terminals looked
like giant radar screens and they sat on a special table.
The
screens were monochromatic (white or green), had simple text (dot matrix
style) and only lines for graphics—no images, no fill. A main computer
cost $100,000 to $250,000 (in 1964 dollars—about $2 million in
today’s money). The ARPANET (forerunner to the Internet) wasn’t developed
yet and data was exchanged over distance by a stack of punch cards or
a reel of magnetic tape. Conversational graphics consoles were developed
by General Motors (DAC-1) and MIT Lincoln Laboratories (Sketchpad),
resulting in computer-aided design (CAD). Sketchpad used the first light
pen, developed by Ivan Sutherland, and the IBM 7094 (the first commercial
computer to use semiconductors) dominated scientific computing at the
time; and researchers in England created the first computer with virtual
memory. This computer was capable of 200 KFlops (your mobile phone is
about 100 times more powerful).
Today, on a $1,500 portable PC we can create cinematic-quality
graphics and produce images that are so lifelike they have to be studied
to discern whether they are a photograph or not. These great advances
are due to several influences including the semiconductor revolution
driven by Moore’s Law; the explosion in sales of PCs and associated
devices; the shrinkage in the physical size and price of hard drives
as they simultaneously quadruple in capacity; the abundance of cheap
memory; the widespread use of high-level programming languages like
C++; and the deployment of common user interfaces like Windows and Apple
OS. Today programs and data travel at near the speed of light from and
to anywhere in the world, and even our grandmothers are enjoying high-quality
computer graphics such as games and email animations.
Now of that what is the most significant CG event? Assuming
all of the infrastructure was a given (i.e., we all have low-cost powerful
computers with high-level programming languages, plenty of memory, and
great displays), then the one thing that gave CG a big kick was texture
mapping. It spawned, or enabled mipmapping, anisotropic filtering, bi-
and tri-linear filtering, full-scene anti-aliasing, and new exploitations
of alpha plane techniques. If you asked the graphics chip producers
the question they would, without hesitation, say programmable shaders.
So I guess the answer is two-fold: texture mapping and
shaders. In addition to the super-duper graphics available today to
the masses, we also have video and amazing audio at our disposal. I’m
sitting in the redwoods on the north central coast of California writing
this with just electricity and water as modern conveniences available,
yet I’m not lacking for modern entertainment because I have my trusty
Evo N800w mobile workstation (talk about prying it from my cold, dead
fingers)—I’m playing a CD on it whilst I type, and later we’re
going to watch a DVD movie on a ZD 7000 HP mobile media center. The
screen is a super-wide, high-res, 17 inches, and I can remember as a
kid watching TV on a black-and-white 15-inch screen, so don’t give me
that snotty lean-back argument—this will be just fine, thank you.
And, the scalers in the GPU on this machine will de-interlace and make
the movie look great and run smoothly, and if the electricity goes out
we’ll run it on its batteries. We brought our entire music collection
on a Creative Zen portable audio player and we’ll run it through the
boombox up here. I’m telling you, life ain’t bad; take a moment and
appreciate how far we’ve come and what we’ve accomplished.