Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!shelby!eos!prevost
From: prevost@eos.UUCP (Michael Prevost)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: apes, wizards, kids and SIGGRAPH
Summary: SIGGRAPH review
Keywords: SIGGRAPH
Message-ID: <7042@eos.UUCP>
Date: 15 Aug 90 15:59:57 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, California
Lines: 26

This years SIGGRAPH was great! I took the radiosity course and found it very 
informative. I thought Jed Lengyel paper on Real-Time Motion planning was great.
Jed was able to use the graphic hardware to assist in generating legal paths. 
We shouldn't forget that we can get Cray-1 performance if you can transform the
problem into something the hardware can understand. Haeberli's papers on his
paint program and the one on the accumulation buffer were also good. 

I attended the VR panel session. I was impressed by the number of people who
were also interested. It was probably the best attended session. About 1/3 to
1/2 the audiance claimed to have tried VR.

The thing I didn't like about the conference was the circus like atmosphere of
the exhibits. As I walked in I was handed a pen from I person in an ape costume.
There was a wizard presenting the magical rendering of images. There was a 
dwarf doing I don't know what. There was a juggler at another boot. And when
I get to the SGI boot theres an 11 year old child actor showing how easy it is
to use there system. Now I don't want to sound like some old stick in the mud
but this is getting ridiculous. Less Hype and more meat.

mp...

Mike Prevost
NASA-AMES
MS 239-9
Moffett Field Ca.
prevost@eos.arc.nasa.gov