A HistoryofComputer Graphicsnote: dates are approximate15-463Paul HeckbertBig Bang - 1960-300, Euclid: geometry codified1400, Brunelleschi et al: perspective illustration rediscovered1600, Rene Descartes: analytic geometry, xyz1660, Leibniz, Newton: calculus Gauss, Fourier, Hermite…1850, Sylvester: matrix notation1930’s, Schoenberg: B-splines for applied mathematics1940’s: first computer1950’s: SAGE air defense system (CRT’s & light pens)1960’s: State of the Artprocessor: IBM Computer with a few K memorydisplay: noneperipherals: punch cards, line printer, and roll-paper plotterOS: none to speak oflanguage: FORTRAN or assemblergraphics: Snoopy calendars, function graphs1960’sHardware:1966, Doug Englebart: mousemid 60’s, Evans & Sutherland and General Electric: real time raster(specialized flight simulators)late 60’s: head-mounted displaysSoftware:1963, Ivan Sutherland: Sketchpad, interactive design (w. light pen)1965, Jack Bresenham: digital line drawing algorithm1967, Larry Roberts: homogeneous coords, 4x4 matrices, hidden line alg.late 60’s, Steve Coons: parametric surfaces, early CAGDlate 60’s, Pierre Bezier: Bezier curves & surfaces (car design)also FFT algorithm, ARPANET1970: State of the Artprocessor: IBM 360 Computer with 64K memorydisplay: Tektronix 4014 storage tube (or vector display with lightpen if you were very lucky)peripherals: punch cards, line printer, and roll-paper plotterOS: none to speak oflanguage: FORTRANgraphics: wireframe perspective, for defense contractor1970’sHardware:Evans & Sutherland Picture System: dynamic vector display (persp., clip)1974?, Xerox PARC: Alto (first personal computer)1977: Apple II (commercial personal computer)1979: Dec VAX (mainframe that dominated the 80’s)arcade video games: PONG, Pac Man; early home game consolesSoftware:keyframe animation for 3-D graphics1974, Xerox PARC: paint program1974, Ed Catmull: parametric patch rendering, z-buffer algorithm, texturemapping1979, Turner Whitted: ray tracingBASIC, PL/I, UNIX, C, Pascal, ADA, ...1980: State of the Artprocessor: DEC VAX with 2 MB memory, 256MB diskdisplay: 24x80 terminal; dynamic vector display, or 24-bit rasterframe bufferperipherals: dot matrix printer, early film recorderOS & libraries: UNIX or VMS, custom graphicslanguage: C or FORTRANgraphics: hidden line drawings or shaded raster for flying logos &TV advertising1980’sHardware:1981: IBM PCearly 80’s: Sun Workstation1984: Apple Macintosh1985: Apple Laserwriter (earlier invented by Xerox PARC)mid 80’s: microprocessors take offmid 80’s, PC’s take off (Intel x86, but still toys)mid 80’s, workstations take off (Motorola 680x0)late 80’s: Silicon Graphics Workstation (real time raster lines, then polygons)data gloveVLSI for special purpose graphics processors, parallel processing, fear ofJapanese domination1980’sSoftware:1980, Jim Blinn: blobby models1980: BSP trees (mostly a curiosity at the time)1980, Loren Carpenter: fractals for computer graphics1985: PostScript1986, Cook: stochastic sampling for computer graphicsPhotoshoparcade video gamesdesktop publishing, character animation, radiosity, lotsa ray tracing, scientificvisualizationUNIX, X Windows, C, C++, but MS-DOS rising...1990: State of the Artprocessor: SGI Workstation with 16MB memorydisplay: 24-bit raster with real-time Gouraud shading & z-buffer (notex. map.);the terminal is the frame bufferperipherals: laser printer, single-frame video recorderOS & libraries: UNIX, X Windows, SGI GLlanguage: Cgraphics: shaded raster for special effects in moviesmeanwhile, PC’s are getting decent, but still no 3D graphicshardware, so people use software scan conversion, Painter’salgorithm, and tricks to get real time1990’sHardware:Intel 486: PC’s get passable floating pointmid 90’s: laptops1994: Silicon Graphics Reality Engine (real time texture mapping)Nintendo 64 game console: Reality Engine-like graphics for the masseslate 90’s: PC graphics cards (3dfx, Nvidia, …)Pentium: PC’s almost as fast as workstationsmid 90’s: scanners (Cyberware)late 90’s: motion capturePC market takes off, supercomputers waning, Microsoft Research growing,Apple collapses, SGI collapses, new startups, …1990’sSoftware:Internet1990: MPEG compressed video standardearly 90’s: dynamics (collisions, gravity, friction)1992: OpenGL1993: World Wide Web, Mosaic web browser1994: subdivision surfaces rediscoveredlate 90’s: image based modeling & rendering3-D video games take off: DOOM (BSP), Quake, Mario, Nintendo 64Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, Toy Story, Titanic, Star Wars Ivirtual reality, VRMLPDA’s, Palm Pilot, flat panel displaysLinux, open source software2000: State of the Artprocessor: Intel PC with 256MB memory, 10GB diskdisplay: graphics board/chip with real time texture mappingperipherals: flatbed scanner, color laser printer, digital videocamera, DVD, MPEG encoder/decoderOS & environment: Windows/Linux, Netscape, OpenGL/Direct3Dlanguage: C++, Javagraphics: real-time humanoid characters, web commercereal time 3-D graphics on home PC’s2000’s (predictions)Hardware:2000: Sony Playstation 2HDTVgestural input devicesubiquitous computingSoftware:transparent conversion of model formats3-D modeling & video editing tools for the massescomputer vision for facial expression capturevoice recognitionrealistic face, hair, waterC++ loses
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