[JackNet]

Wanted to share this video on how D:exclamation::exclamation::exclamation::exclamation:y Imagineering used SGI tech for their VR research back in the mid 90s.
Video title states this particular demo was filmed in Epcot back in '94 (but the description also states this was shown at SIGGRAPH Orlando that year). I still wasn't born yet at the time (1999, but at least I didn't miss anything from the 2000s).
I sorta remember the Aladdin VR ride from D-quest back when I visited it in 2007. Was the only time I've been there, honestly. My parents weren't so fond of D-quest as there was no way to view the outside. Not counting the N64, this ride is pretty much my answer to Irinikus' thread on first SGI encounters.

The demo shown in the video, according to its description, had each HMD hooked into an Onyx with three graphics pipes. The final version used in D-quest was an Onyx2 with one graphic pipe driving four HMDs simultaneously, which sacrificed the output resolution for the sake of cost I presume?

The engine used in the VR labs spun off into its own game engine: Panda3D
Yeah, D made their own game engine out of this. Not for long, however. Ever since they shut off their MMOs that used it (ToonTown Online, for instance) and basically left the games industry, they handed the tech over to Carnegie Mellon. CMU specifically since they helped incorporate the BSD license in favor of D's semi-proprietary license. Apparently there is still a use base for it and just recently the project had its branding revamped.

If only Epcot was still cool. Kids these days don't appear to be interested in how tech has changed over the years, but in reality has tech really gotten any cooler? Either way, Epcot's latest innovation exhibits weren't so great as sponsorships both fell out of favor (D was in a dire financial situation throughout the 90s; sponsorships were keeping em afloat) and honestly don't offer anything interesting.

[JackNet]

Tell me about it. Was there in 2013. Much of what it once had was gone and the lineups were awful. Ended up being rather of a money waste. Please people do not ever go there - atleast until they make serious changes.

Pretty sure there's not gonna be the "serious changes" we hope should happen, but yeah I'd honestly agree that the park's no longer representative of a vision of tomorrow's tech. The Innoventions centers now are just baby STEM exhibits with simple science experiments that I've already seen in primary school. Not to mention that one of the attractions is gonna be replaced with a rollercoaster that honestly doesn't hint at having educational value whatsoever (I don't even like riding coasters as much, even though I love creating them).
The world cultures aspect doesn't fare better either. My dad used to love the viking ride in the Norway pavilion, but now it's just fangirl garbage Frozen and Frozen and more Frozen.
There's also the ol' fireworks show that's supposedly gonna be replaced with one about Epcot's legacy. Which would've been an awesome addition, if only it wasn't temporary as they set up for some more IP trash.
This era of IPcot needs to be seriously addressed. D----y fanboys (and notably execs) are okay with it for some odd reason, but I'm honestly not and neither is anyone who remembers the times when the park was cool.

I know I'm sorta going off-topic with this, but like there should be more proper representation of tech exhibits in the future section of park. Maybe get those centers up again and show current technologies vs the ones that were displayed then and show how tech progress led us to it. Why not turn them into a tech museum? But nope, all we get is just lazy execs doing stupid moves.

[jwcotejr]

Interestingly enough, Panda3D's source code even to this day still has trace references to SGI through both in-code comments as well as actual checks for SGI hardware. I somewhat doubt that it would easily build on SGI systems in its current state, but it's still somewhat neat to see. I am rather familiar with the Panda3D game engine, having worked with it since 2013 at this point, and I actually learned about SGI systems through working with Panda3D. Being born in 1999 myself, I never really had much exposure to the world of SGI until long after their heyday, but I suppose it's good enough that I at least eventually learned about them.

Epcot's Innoventions also featured a tech demo known as Toon Tag, which was part of the larger Disney's Internet Zone exhibit, that was built using Panda3D on SGI machines and was deployed from 1997 until sometime in the early 2000s when Disney's Internet Zone was phased out. Of course, the idea of Toon Tag would later become Toontown Online, which shut down in 2013. Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold (a DisneyQuest attraction) was also built using Panda3D on SGI machines and was deployed from 2000 to 2017 I believe. There are various other examples I believe, that I cannot remember off the top of my head.

It's pretty sad to see that Epcot is in rather bad shape nowadays. Says quite a bit when multiple pavilions have been sitting empty for years in Epcot, and the current attractions are more-or-less lackluster at this point. Ah well.

[JackNet]

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Interestingly enough, Panda3D's source code even to this day still has trace references to SGI through both in-code comments as well as actual checks for SGI hardware. I somewhat doubt that it would easily build on SGI systems in its current state, but it's still somewhat neat to see. I am rather familiar with the Panda3D game engine, having worked with it since 2013 at this point, and I actually learned about SGI systems through working with Panda3D. Being born in 1999 myself, I never really had much exposure to the world of SGI until long after their heyday, but I suppose it's good enough that I at least eventually learned about them.

Epcot's Innoventions also featured a tech demo known as Toon Tag, which was part of the larger Disney's Internet Zone exhibit, that was built using Panda3D on SGI machines and was deployed from 1997 until sometime in the early 2000s when Disney's Internet Zone was phased out. Of course, the idea of Toon Tag would later become Toontown Online, which shut down in 2013. Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold (a DisneyQuest attraction) was also built using Panda3D on SGI machines and was deployed from 2000 to 2017 I believe. There are various other examples I believe, that I cannot remember off the top of my head.

It's pretty sad to see that Epcot is in rather bad shape nowadays. Says quite a bit when multiple pavilions have been sitting empty for years in Epcot, and the current attractions are more-or-less lackluster at this point. Ah well.

I just searched through the Panda source code ( https://github.com/panda3d/panda3d ) and did find mentions of SGI. They seem to show up in regards to the SGI image filetype, use of VRML code, and some comments in the pipeline code regarding the use of Silicon hardware.

And yeah, I also remember the Pirates of the Caribbean game in D-Quest. There was another game based on the Alien Encounter attraction (the scary as hell one) and the jungle cruise ride and maybe the coaster ride that recorded your reaction to video tape still, those probably also used Panda SGI. The versions they used for these attractions were still rather early and slightly unstable versions of the engine, hence why it relied on SGI tech even throughout their lifetime instead of getting em to work with more modern and stable versions on cheaper hardware. Some other experiences appeared to use classic Windows in between as well. Yeeahhhhh, D-Quest got out of date quick. I'm unsure as to whether the SGI machines are kept in storage or just e-wasted at this point; probably the latter as is common for any company to do these days. Even if they did survive in the hands of a collector, for sure they've been put into continuous use and components might've gotten worn out. Still, I'd like to hear something, even if the disappointing e-waste scenario would end up being the case.

As for Epcot, yeah pavilions are empty. I'd really love the Innoventions space to be turned into a tech museum of sorts; to learn from our past. I'd even let em integrate their IPs somehow. Just something that's not quick science demos anyone can do to a 3 year old and pointless exploiting of IP.

(Edit: Yay, HTML broke)

[adlihajarat]

My first encounter with SGI was at the university of Northern Arizona in the year 1991 I was a student then enrolled for a computer graphics course.
They bought Personal Iris I and Personal Iris II on which we studied Xwindows and GL.
We used to write programs in C to draw things on the 21" graphics screen.
Since then I wanted to have an SGI machine, that is why my first SGI machine was a Tezro, followed by Indigo R3, then Octane I and II followed by 5 O2s and Indigo I and II and recently got a couple of Altix 350s and 2 fuel systems.
I finally grew up and got Altix ICE 8200 and ICE 8400 racks, and one rack of Altix UV1000 and a double slot Altix UV100.
I forgot to mention the six racks of Altix 4700, and a couple of Origin 350 and finally 4 Infinite Reality systems with Dmedia pro.
The last Tezro was a flame system with all bells and whistles.