Nvision08 – Nvidia’s 3D Future Showcased

Day Two is a warmer day in San Jose, but still very pleasant. The “must see” keynote event starts at 9 AM and it includes astronaut Eileen Collins, NASCAR DRIVER Kyle Busch, Lorne Lanning creator of Oddworld series, and Bernard Charles of Dassault Systemes. Kyle Busch was scheduled at 11 AM for a meet and greet at the same venue afterward, so everything moved quickly and smoothly. The second keynote started a little late with a local San Jose tech reporter introducing astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot and command the space shuttle.

Eileen described how visual computing has changed the way the astronauts train for missions.  She said the early simulators of the 90s were quite primitive compared to today’s and it took far more training just to learn the shuttle controls back then.  The simulators also give what a space shuttle landing does not; a second chance at a landing!  In a space shuttle landing there is little room for error and there is no way to abort a landing in progress.  They must get it right on a single try and she said the simulators really helped with getting these kinds of situations perfect in actually piloting the shuttle.  She also said the detail of the simulations have become lifelike.

Astronaut Collins went on to give us NASA’s vision of establishing a human colony on Mars and said it also depends on accurately visualizing 3D and using programs to create simulations from calculating real distances and the interaction of orbits in space.  We here on earth will also be able to use these new tools to get a much better 3-D picture of our solar system and even further out.

We got to see some details about the Mar’s Rover’s navigation system and how they safeguard it by projecting the likely terrain a few minutes ahead of it.  It takes time for our signals to travel between Earth and Mars, and we cannot tell the Rover to do anything “suddenly”.  In that time-lag time, for example, the Rover could otherwise drive off a cliff.  We also got to see how the photos were analyzed 3-dimensionally to prove that there was in fact water in the trench that the Rover was analyzing.  They also calculate the perfect time for when to actually take the photos so that shadows do not interfere.  The space shuttle program is being phased out to be replaced by the Constellation program in just a couple of years.  Again, using 3D graphics, astronauts can make much quicker sense of what is happening then being forced to interpret numbers as in the past.  It looks like we humans are heading to Mars!

Bernard Charles of Dassault Systemes was next, and he talked about his 3D software programs that were creating the future of shopping online in a supermarket or mall exactly as we do in real life – but using rendered 3D in a virtual world complete with aisles and products we can “handle” and zoom in on.  That way we can easily read the very finest print on the package itself.  He did not mention that we should also be able to look inside the package – an advantage in his 3D world that we cannot have in real life shopping.  This kind of 3-D virtual interaction will have great impact on our lives and on the way we shop.  I could not help but think about our own site, AlienBabelTech, as a fully-interactive 3D world someday.

Of course, this 3D visualization is also changing the way designers develop and design products.  These products can be created and virtually assembled to ensure each part fits perfectly with the others and the tools to repair them, for example, will be well-thought out and visualized by their designer.  This projecting in 3D saves much money and time on mock-ups or retooling things that do not work out in practice.  This type of 3D interaction may someday lead to customization unheard of today – even to ordering automobiles like we order tailor-made clothes today.  Of course, this will require setting industry standards and also major industry cooperation to fulfill this potential.

Lorne Lanning, Creator of Oddworld series fame, is up next.  He talks about and demonstrates digital fine art.  Artists are digitally demonstrating what they visualize as art.  He showed us the micro world being used as the basis for art and also the art of manipulating fluids, physics and altering dynamics 3-dimensionally in a way that is otherwise impossible, to create aesthetically pleasing results.  He demonstrated a clip from Beyond Good and Evil 2 and made the bold statement that our children of the future probably won’t be typing reports – rather they will be composing video for school projects , perhaps even to recreating 3D battles from the Civil War graphically to create a video report for high school.

Kyle Busch of NASCAR was up next.  He commented that while simulators were much better than before, they still lacked the “feel” of the real thing.  He tried to appear enthusiastic about them but pointed out that the simulators lacked the tactile responses of the real thing but were great for actually designing race cars.  He also said some of the professional drivers really liked the driving games.  We got to see a demonstration of the racing simulators both on-stage – where Windows XP embarrassingly crashed, and later, if you were patient, you could actually try one out in the exhibition area to perhaps race against someone else.

The Keynote ended and we were left to do as we pleased until the U2-3D movie at 2PM.  I much preferred U2’s concert film to the animated 3-D Fly Me to the Moon.  With a great sound system and the illusion of 3D, the concert took on a more real and immersive experience.  Not bad.  I look forward to further 3D movies – now.

Nvision Concert was playing across from the main Convention center twice that Tuesday, and it showcased music from video games.  At the center itself, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht video-blogged Dignation to the delight of their fans.  If you chose, you could learn some really cool Photoshop tips and techniques in a workshop with Colin Smith.  All the while, the trade show was in full swing with new products being showcased.  The Electronic Sports World Cup competition was heating up and the Guinness World record attempt was in its second day – trying for 36 hours of gaming continuously.  Lots of coffee!

It was a very busy and overall good, second day.  I also got into the Spore Procedural demonstration of creating vehicles, buildings and creatures by the originators of the game ,and I videotaped it in its entirety.  Many other demonstrations of video game programming were also in session and free to explore.