3D Desktop/OS

Ok, heres my idea: 3D Operating System based on a 3D FPS game

It would be basically like a 3D FPS game, just without the shooting part. The mouse would replace the crosshair, no guns, etc. You would be able to walk around your desktop using either the arrow keys or WASD or whatever -- look around with the mouse.

So the desktop would the map, any desktop icons/shortcuts would be represented as buildings/signs/any 3d model you want. Folders would be represented by buildings that you would be able to walk into and view the files inside. Files could be represented from anything from a small picture to a billboard. You could even customize you own 3D object.

There would also be 2D windows, of course, not everything can be in 3D. For example: web pages, text documents, movies, etc,

There would probably have to be some sort of toolbar at the top of the screen to switch between the maps that represent different folders. There would need to be a map/folder that provided easy access to the entire filesystem. This could be accessed by holding down the alt key, for example, and clicking on the toolbar with the mouse.

GAMING - If this or a similar idea was implemented in a *buntu distro, because of the entire OS being 3D, there would have to be a lot of support for 3D applications i.e. GAMES. As well as the 3D part of this, there could also be a minimalist part of the OS that would run ONLY required processes, creating an ideal gaming environment.

This idea is far from complete, and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

it sounds like a sweet idea, but when you take performance into consideration....it feels like its lacking. I mean, eyecandy-wise would be 'in-your-face 1337-64M3R', but usability...you'd have to 'walk' to your files or folders, or navigate a 'map'. I dont know, unless i try this, i would be skeptical. But i would love to try this. As for the toolbar, just design it like any FPS, like a HUD. It would be nice to watch a movie at a 3d 'drive-in theater' or delete files by issuing the 'RPG' command to an object (get it?)

I'd try it.

crazyness003 said: it sounds like a sweet idea, but when you take performance into consideration...

Well, Ive though about this a bit more, and your right, this would have terrible performance on some older computers. When I wrote this I was thinking about my computer, which I bought specifically for gaming, and not computers in general. This would probably work better as an optional replacement for Gnome/KDE.

=crazyness003 said: but usability...you'd have to 'walk' to your files or folders, or navigate a 'map'.

As for the walking the files an folders through a map, you would only have to walk your files, if you chose to walk them, as far as you made your desktop, not your entire filesystem. I hadnt thought of this at the time, but there could be an option to zoom out (possibly to a 2D desktop, if necessary) so you could drag and drop your files/folders.

Something like this will only happen when we have more elegant input devices. There are already some devices such as those special VR gloves

http://www.vrealities.com/P5.html

Also, those Emotiv headsets which track facial expressions and brainwaves is a step in the right direction. However, we would need something more robust and more open source.

We also need true 3D displays. Sure holographic displays would be nice, but at least good VR head mounted displays would be necessary. Some of this stuff works on linux, as a recent slashdot post pointed out.

http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/19/1424219&from=rss

I was impressed that some of these things use OLED. I bet the image quality would be very impressive.

Finally, better open source voice recognition technology would likely be necessary. Without multiple modes of input, 3D would be too clunky with just a keyboard and mouse. Compiz is about as 3D as a keyboard and mouse interface can get.

All of this would take quite a bit of re-training to move people away from the standard WIMP model. I'm not saying it shouldn't be done. In fact, I'll be first in line to beta test.

Once it is proven to improve productivity, it will become mandatory in the workplace, and *that* will be the entry way into the desktop market. That likely won't happen until most of the above criteria are met.

@progressive Those are great ideas, but that kind of stuff would take a lot of extra time and resources to integrate. I was thinking about something a lot more simple and tested. This would basically be like a mod of a 3D map editor for a FPS game and the Gnome desktop. You would navigate around your desktop the same way you would in the hundreds of FPS games out there. People are already used to using a keyboard/mouse to move around in a 3D environment and for those who aren't, its as easy as spending a few minutes in a tutorial for the system. Im not saying that those types of input shouldnt be used, but getting it working with using a keyboard/mouse first would be easier and most people wouldnt go out and buy all those extra accessories. Once it's stable those types of things could be integrated into it, but for now it would be much simpler and user-friendly to have it configured for a simple keyboard/mouse setup.

Anonymous111 said: When I wrote this I was thinking about my computer, which I bought specifically for gaming...

Then why are you running Linux?

Kidding aside, this seems like one of those things, like the 3d navigation of the web in the early .com era, that sounds good on paper but really isn't good in practice.

Having a 3D desktop isn't necessarily bad, but I think your idea of having it control like an FPS is a bit much. Think maybe a lot of 2D layers. A program running in the background, is literally in the background, that sort of thing.

Thre's also TWiMU, but I don't know if that's what you want

Apple may be doing something in a 3D sense. I just feel your idea is taking it a bit literally and going down the realm of Microsoft Bob.

http://psdoom.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html

Merk42 said: I just feel your idea is taking it a bit literally and going down the realm of Microsoft Bob.

Without more elegant inputs and interfaces, I totally agree this would likely make productivity worse.

I know it will take a lot of trial and error before such a thing happens, but we should be realistic. It simply isn't practical to use anything other than the WIMP model with a keyboard and mouse.

By the way, that Augmented Reality stuff is getting pretty cool and the more we experiment with it the more elegant our interfaces may become.

Smart Phones are a good step in this direction, but new displays can project images onto your windshields or even your retinas allowing for even more interactivity with the environment. For instance, they have windshields that can trace the outline of the road when it is foggy, and that stuff will only get better.

The wearable displays are even cooler. Imagine if as you walk around your house or in a store, you would be able to discover more information about nearly any object through a wearable visual display, or track where your friends are and get directions, or whatever.

Now THAT would be a 3D interface. You could even customize reality by changing how things look. Anything from real life ad-blockers to changing reality into a cartoon.

merk42 said: ...Thre's also twimu, but i don't know if that's what you want

apple may be doing something in a 3d sense. I just feel your idea is taking it a bit literally and going down the realm of microsoft bob.

or apple may simply be attempting to patent the inside of a box.lol

Anyway, yeah TWiMU is gonna roxor once it get rolling The new home for TWiMU Discussion is here http://apps.sourceforge.net/phpbb/twimu/

I think I missed something here. You said that directories would be represented as buildings, and you walk into a building to see the files. Well, in such a system, what about directories in directories? Would you make them appear like floors in a building? What about the third recursive directory then? Would that be a room? What about the fourth recursive directory then, a file cabinet? A fith directory seems kind of hard to imagine representing then.

Also, I agree with Progressive that such a system would be slower in practical use than the current system.

I wasn't really thinking about that at the time, i was just trying to get my idea down. Your right, the directories wouldn't work in the model i described. It would probably have to be more like just a door, and when you step through it takes you into that folder, which would be represented by a "map".

about 20 years behind the times my friend...

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=315371

Back when I was playing with Windows desktops I ran across this thing called Tactile 3D. I think this program comes closest to a true 3D desktop environment. If your desktop played like the old-school game DESCENT, that's pretty much what it's like. I'm pretty sure the WASD keys and mouse were how you navigated it.

Here's a link of it in action . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1otw1nVqzg&feature=related

As you can see, you start off inside this huge dome, your directories consist of giant spheres and then you can "fly" inside these spheres to see individual files or "fly" into yet another directory.

You can see how easily you can get disorientated with a desktop like that. I tried it for about half and hour and got a headache from it. Pretty neat idea, but not practical--at all.

There was another post I saw recently on here that had a link to a video with a rabbit avatar on a 3D Desktop/webpage and it shot lasers out of its eyes or something to highlight something (at least that's what it looked like to me.)

The main problem I see with 3D desktops is that, while they look great, they're anti-productive. It is so much easier to just left-click on a file or folder, so why on earth would you want to walk to it? Unless 3D desktops implemented shortcuts to reduce or nullify the travel time to your destination I don't see them ever becoming popular.

i had such program for windows xp for a month. i was a shareware demo program. it is not very useable when it comes down to it at all and one more thing is that you work more than you need to do with wrist and hands so its not a good idea for someóne that do not use this program for the fun of walking around in ones computer that way. i almost had my hands getting all numb if i had used my computer for longer than 60 minuttes. and it also provokes more headaches than a regular desktop does. but it is done before and if you have a computer with windows xp then you can maybe find the program somewhere. if you pay for the full version then you can have optional downloads of other "wolds " or " styles " to walk around in. i got it from a cd with a magazine so i tried it for the trial period. and i do not suggest it has a future anywhere after trying this specific program.

heh its like windows bob 3d edition ;) :popcorn: