3D Desktop by Nghia Nguyen

CSC 471 Graphics I

Spring 2005

Project Description:

The objective of this project is to capture features of what a 3D desktop should have. I took inspiration of the qualities of a 3D desktop from the open source project “The Looking Glass” (http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/) for Solaris and Linux headed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. and another product, SphereXP (http://www.hamar.sk/sphere/version.htm) for the WindowsXP desktop. After viewing demos of each, I took from SphereXP the encapsulation of the viewing world within a sphere and from “The Looking Glass,” the rotation of windows for reducing the footprint each window had on the screen. Transparency was included for inactive windows so that the content of windows could be seen although they would be partially covered by other windows. Virtual desktops is simulated by rotating a camera by 90 degrees for a total of 4 virtual desktops.

Windows were simulated with a 3D slab with the front face textured with the resemblance of a typical window.

Rotation is performed on the windows by rotating about the Y axis on the outer edge. That is, the edge closest to the sides of the screen. Centered windows are considered to be a part of the working set and are automatically made to face the user when centered.

Future Work:

Since starting this project, I have looked into current 3D desktop implementations and have developed an interest in the area. I hope to take part in the open source development of the “The Looking Glass” over the summer.

Controls:

'm' make window

'n' select a window

't' perform translation

Menu: the above commands can also be performed by using the menu

'switch' switch to next desktop

'rotate' rotate one window

'rotate all' rotate all windows

'scale' make window larger

'transparency' make the active window transparent

Not Fully Functioning:

'minimize' minimize a window