From: Joshua Larson-Mogal Subject: Re: ANNOUNCE: Silicon Graphics appoints VR Evangelist Date: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 12:31:59 -0800 Organization: Silicon Graphics Inc., Mountain View, CA From: Joshua Larson-Mogal To help clear the air, I feel the need to respond to Bob's comments on our announcement on Linda Jacobson coming to Silicon Graphics as our Virtual Reality Evangelist. Robert Jacobson wrote: > > I've got some bones to pick with this otherwise promising statement > of intent.... > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > > In article <9602061627.ZM2291@vrguru.asd.sgi.com>, > Linda Jacobson wrote (in excerpts): > > >"In keeping with Silicon Graphics defacto position as the leading > >supplier of VR technology," said David E. Orton, vice president and > >general manager of Silicon Graphics' Advanced Systems Division, "we > >are extremely pleased that Linda Jacobson has come on board to drive > >our VR strategy and untangle public confusion about what VR is and > >what it isn't." > > Hooray! It's about time. But what's this "public confusion" that SGI > is taking upon itself to clear up? Have the rest of us not been doing > our jobs very well? Being defensive is not productive, but frankly, the answer is "no". The "rest of us" is a pretty broad term, but the fact of the matter is that there is little clarity about what VR is and isn't. Is Apple's QuicktimeVR really VR? Is Virtus Walkthrough really VR? This is not to question the value of these tools and products, only that many products have been associated with VR when in fact they are only 3D graphics tools. Interactive Graphics is Interactive Graphics...we've been doing that at SGI for almost a decade and a half. But Interactive Graphics is not VR - it's necessary, but not sufficient - to use a term for proofs of theorems. All that Linda and SGI want to do is to help set some clearer boundaries so that we can all talk with a common language rather than VR being whatever anybody wants it to be to serve their own needs. > > >The position of Evangelist is a first for Silicon Graphics. There is > >no comparable position within the company to serve as a reference for > >Ms. Jacobson's role. Virtual reality is a field full of hype, > >confusion, and much misinformation. At the same time, it is a user > >interface technology that promises to make human interactions with > >computers more natural, effective, and powerful. > > Why the emphasis on the hype rather than the technology's power? I > noticed the other day I was cringing making some claims for the value > of network-based VR and my prospective customer, a large travel firm, > looked at me oddly and said, "If *you* feel that ambivalent, why > should *I* be talking with you? I'm here because *I* believe!" Yes, but while we all believe in the PROMISE of VR, the technology available today is adequate only for certain applications - not all. There are serious health and safety issues associated with VR systems that do not perform adequately. This is why people buy high-end SGI systems. Not because SGI is some guru on the mountain or because we have positioned ourselves as the be-all end-all of VR, but because they need the performance that only a RealityEngine or InfiniteReality can provide. This performance IS critical for people creating serious applications for Surgical Simulation, Physchological treatment, Manufacturing and Design. If it could be done cheaper, it would be...and WILL be. Nobody is working harder at bringing the cost of a serious VR graphics engine down. But also note that we will not say that a low-cost low-end system is good enough when it's not. > > Good point. We either sh*t or get off the can, as they say in the > more remote regions of Seattle. Please be an evangelist for hope and > promise, not negativity and caution. Always. We wouldn't HIRE an evangelist if we didn't believe that the future of VR is extremely bright. But honesty is critical, and if someone doesn't have the budget to do it right, we're not going to encourage them to do it anyway. If their project fails to deliver on the vision that they had set forth, they will have nothing nice to say about VR or us. That is the danger of hype. That is why we must temper enthusiasm and evangelism with realism and introspection. > We're in the marketplace and > must start delivering, not tinkering in the lab to achieve the 99th > percentile of perfection. My clients want to hear "can do!", whatever > we have to do get there. We may even have some early failures: the > price of success. When we really "can do" what they want, nobody is more enthusiastic or supportive than we are her at SGI, but also believe strongly that heading off failure with honesty up front makes happier customers than luring them in with unrealistic and unachievable goals and having them end up disappointed. I would much rather tell a customer that what they want to do is unrealistic and to wait until the technology is ready and thereby lose a sale than slap them on the back and say "sure, we can do anything we set our minds to" and have them spend alot of money, work really hard, then end up disillusioned. > > >While very exciting, VR hype has far exceeded the ability of the > >current technology to deliver, resulting in tremendous concern about > >the practicality and safety of this new technology. > > Does it help to keep reiterating this point? Haven't we been contrite > long enough? It's time for some strokes for what we have accomplished. > And we do. SGI has published articles and created a number of brochures with success stories from our customers who have really utilized VR technology successfully. But there are still people out there who are pushing solutions that are not safe due to performance and other reasons. As a result, we feel it is our responsibility, as the largest vendor of VR technology, to communicate widely what the issues are and how the industry as a whole is moving to address them. In this way, we hope to avoid more negative articles in the broader media about the dangers of VR. Open communication and honesty is critical. Denial could kill the industry before it gets a real chance. > >Now, with Ms. Jacobson as Silicon Graphics emissary, no company will > >have more of an impact on bringing virtual reality technology into the > >mainstream of computing, safely and effectively. > > Linda is an asset, but we're no longer a one-company industry. > Worldesign, for example, has gotten a lot of good support from Sun in > partnership with Netscape on the Net-based VR front and HP seems eager > to continue its developments with Division. Intergraph's Pentium box > is a hot performer in the 3D computing field and even beleaguered > Apple, for goodness sake, seems committed to knocking down a few > low-end barriers with its various new versions of Quicktime VR. And > there are other developments in the works of which we are all aware, > software implementations of great power that are platform-independent. It is messages like this that we feel the need to address. Intergraph's Pentium box is a great desktop interactive graphics machine for many applications. It is not, however, a suitable machine for serious VR applications which need to render 10's or 100's of thousands of polygons per frame at 30 or 60 frames per second. This is also true of Apple's new QuickDraw3D board, and with Sun's new CREATOR graphics. This is not to put down any of these products. They are all good and have their place. VR is just not that place. And QuicktimeVR? Seriously Bob, this is simply a clever rendering trick based upon the use of texture mapping. It is known technically as Plenoptic Rendering. Is it cool? Yes. Did Apple do a great job with it? Absolutely. Is it VR? Not really. This is some of the confusion Linda hopes to clear up. SGI is is dedicating substantial resources to supporting her efforts. Efforts which we believe will help the industry as a whole, not just Silicon Graphics. Josh -- Joshua Larson-Mogal Manager, Enabling Technologies Group Advanced Systems Division Silicon Graphics Inc. 2011 North Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94039-7311 M/S 800 Tel: (415) 933-1460 Fax: (415) 964-8671 E-mail: mogal@sgi.com