Post #2098591
2026-03-27 14:54 UTC
Anyways, sometime around 1992, computational power had increased to a point where we started to do a lot more of our simulation work in 3D. For example, running molecular dynamics simulations on a 250x250x250 atom cube of some material.
This had nothing to do with xv, but it had a huge impact on all of the other tooling related to data visualization. Specifically, dealing with large datasets, interactive exploration, and even being able to reason about what you were looking at. 6/n?
Replies (1)
-
@dabeaz@mastodon.social 2026-03-27 15:08
Of course, nobody was able to visualize a 15 million point 3D dataset on their SPARCStation. Naturally, the "CS" solution to this problem was to throw infinite money at it. So, at some point, a shiny million dollar SGI showed up over the computer center and you could go use that (which we did). Of course, they put it behind glass in the computer room where people could gawk at it along with the nearby Connection Machine. 7/n?