Apple's CoreAnimation vs. Sun's Looking Glass

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
After watching the WWDC keynote and looking at CoreAnimation I began to ponder.



Something tells me that we will see CoreAnimation enabled at the Finder level and even application level.



I think we will even see the dock take advantage of this in some way.



For anyone who has not watched the keynote I would recommend to do so and then check out Sun's Project Looking Glass website here: http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/ . They even have a demo. What Sun demos is basically what was demo?d with CoreAnimation.



This alone would warrant ?Top Secret? as this would be huge and would pretty much steal Vista?s thunder for sure.



Your thoughts?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    I agree. Core Animation is going to be Apple's Secret Sauce for the next generation of Apps and OS releases. I can't even think of all the cool ways Apple will integrate it into their iLife apps and pro Apps. Not to mention the finder and other integrated Apps. Apple is in an amazing position. They have clean code which will be completely optimized for the new Intel Architecture, control over the GPU's and Core systems to allow for platform wide integration. I cannot wait to see what Apple has locked up in their Vaults in Cupertino.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    feynmanfeynman Posts: 1,087member
    Exactly my thoughts.



    When I first saw Looking Glass my job dropped.



    When I first saw CoreAnimation I thought Looking Glass for Mac OS X is becoming a reality!



    Apple would be very wise to intergrate CoreAnimation in this fashion into the Finder.



    I sure hope we will see another more feature rich demo of Leoperd at Macworld SF 2007!
  • Reply 3 of 7
    kim kap solkim kap sol Posts: 2,987member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Feynman


    Exactly my thoughts.



    When I first saw Looking Glass my job dropped.



    When I first saw CoreAnimation I thought Looking Glass for Mac OS X is becoming a reality!



    Apple would be very wise to intergrate CoreAnimation in this fashion into the Finder.



    I sure hope we will see another more feature rich demo of Leoperd at Macworld SF 2007!



    When I saw Looking Glass, my head dropped...into my hands...in disappointment. I really hope people don't go overboard with CoreAnimation making pseudo-3D interfaces. Layers of animations are cool...keep them in 2D space when it comes to interfaces, k thx.



    I find the TIme Machine interface cheezy. I hope it's not an indication of things to come.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kim kap sol


    When I saw Looking Glass, my head dropped...into my hands...in disappointment. I really hope people don't go overboard with CoreAnimation making pseudo-3D interfaces. Layers of animations are cool...keep them in 2D space when it comes to interfaces, k thx.



    I find the TIme Machine interface cheezy. I hope it's not an indication of things to come.





    Agreed. There are interesting ways to use animation and 3D space to leverage screen real estate, such as the "flippable" widgets.



    But if you really want to go crazy you need to rethink some of the fundamental ways users interact with their computers, not just add a lot of "rotating panels in the distance" stuff to the existing desktop.



    A whole new UI based on smoothly animated "3D" space could be amazing. Aqua with a bunch of spinning and receding planes would be headache inducing and the final triumph of flash over substance.



    OTOH, Apple might have some great ideas here, ways of genuinely improving usability, but, like Kim Kap Sol, the TM interface that is being shown doesn't fill me with optimism. I dunno, maybe it's just the cheesy "vortex in space" thing..... well, that, and the completely unnecessary 3D "I am laying down in the plane pointing at the vortex" treatment of the bottom frame.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    dacloodacloo Posts: 890member
    I agree. The stars are corny. I want a minimalistic, abstract interface. It's inconsistent with the rest of the OS. But, the layers of animation here are IMHO the first example of useful 3d in an OS.

    So, if they just replace the stars with the desktop background, I'm happy
  • Reply 6 of 7
    msanttimsantti Posts: 1,377member
    Well, I suspect you will be able to turn the 3D interface either on or off.



    If someone could do it right, it would be Apple.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by msantti


    Well, I suspect you will be able to turn the 3D interface either on or off.



    If someone could do it right, it would be Apple.



    Here's hoping.



    At the very least I'm assuming you can pick your background, and not be stuck with the vortex in space (which, I have to say, strikes me as very "un-apple" looking).



    On another note, is it time to start worrying about apps that "make the desktop go away" with groovy sliding animations?



    Dashboard and now Time Machine, doing their thing in some kind of ill-defined nether world--much more of that and things could very weird.
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