11 Oct
2016
11 Oct
'16
8:07 p.m.
It's not bad. I have it on an Indy, which is where
I played it originally
(wasting time at the Salk Institute as an undergrad -- we used the SGIs for
visualization of X-ray crystallography). There is also a decent SGI port of
Quake.
When I worked at NASA they had a copy of Cave Quake. It could run on SGI
Onyx2 (16 processor full rack with 4 graphics outputs.) The graphics
outputs hit fiber converters that fed the video downstairs to 4 fiber
receivers, then into 4 Electrohome CRT projectors. Left front and right
walls were rear projected, 4th projector was overhead hitting bounce
mirror then floor. It was running 120hz I believe, 60hz per eye with IR
xmitters for crystal eyes LCD shutter glasses. The CRT projectors were
special with fast phosphor CRTs.
There was some sorta spatial tracked controller as well -- it was
tethered by cable as I recall. It was kind of neat but the game showed
weakness since you could look to the right and see the monsters walking
towards you but caught on the edge of the wall -- had to advance a bit
then they would come for you. I remember it was strange seeing the medical
kit clipping through my leg.
--
Ethan O'Toole