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Using Excel As a 3D Graphics Engine

Posted by kdawson on Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:50 PM
from the right-tool-for-the-job dept.
Entertainment Games
simoniker writes "Obviously whimsical but slightly mind-blowing — an Eastern European coder has published video and the Excel tables to get full 3D wireframe running in Microsoft Excel. He even has solid polygonal graphics running. This isn't an Easter Egg by the Excel creators. Rather, he's using formulas to output the graphics, using two different methods, and showing all the variables on-screen in real time as the 3D is created."
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Submission: Using Excel For A 3D Graphics Engine? by simoniker (40)
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  • This explains it (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 06 2008, @12:56PM (#22665240)
    The DNF team has been waiting for the excel rounding errors to be fixed before release.

  • Obligatory Joke.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Matt Amato (2494) on Thursday March 06 2008, @12:59PM (#22665286)
    Apparently he's using Excel as his web server too...

  • Explains the flight simulator in Excel 97? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TheCycoONE (913189) on Thursday March 06 2008, @12:59PM (#22665288)
    So that's it, Excel is actually a 3d programming environment. The Excel 97 flight simulator then was a demo. http://www.eeggs.com/items/718.html [eeggs.com]

  • A cool trick, straight from the textbook (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jandrese (485) <kensama@vt.edu> on Thursday March 06 2008, @12:59PM (#22665290) Homepage Journal
    Back when I took graphics in college, it was made abundantly clear that all modern graphics are just large math problems solved in realtime. We did all sorts of work messing with transformation matrices and doing the math (sadly, since this was done by the CS department we did a lot less of the useful stuff and a lot more of the theoretical underpinnings that you don't technically need to know when actually programming something).

    Anyway, the point is that Excel is reasonably well set up for doing the kind of math you need to do when making computer graphics and has vector output capabilities. It's a neat trick and something that would likely be useful in teaching the underpinnings (watching what happens as you tweak variables in a transformation matrix in realtime would have been very nice when I was taking my class).

  • Not to worry ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by gstoddart (321705) on Thursday March 06 2008, @01:03PM (#22665334) Homepage
    I'm sure someone has either already done this in emacs, or soon will.

    Those guys have a mode for everything. :-P

    Cheers

  • skip right to the video (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 06 2008, @01:04PM (#22665342)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV6uiZj0FHM [youtube.com]

    and

    http://www.youtube.com/user/GamasutraOfficial [youtube.com]

  • Not impressed (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rufus211 (221883) <<gro.hsikcah> <ta> <todhsals-sufur>> on Thursday March 06 2008, @01:06PM (#22665384) Homepage
    I won't be impressed until Excel can pull of something as simple as a flight simulator.

  • Oblig. (Score:4, Funny)

    by BlackPignouf (1017012) on Thursday March 06 2008, @01:08PM (#22665422)
    Nice, but could it display a 2D rectangle whose dimensions are 850 & 77.1?

  • 65,535 (Score:4, Funny)

    by TBerben (1061176) on Thursday March 06 2008, @01:09PM (#22665448)
    Hopefully, no formula outputs that value. Who knows what 3d image you'd get?!

  • big whoop (Score:5, Funny)

    by FranTaylor (164577) on Thursday March 06 2008, @01:25PM (#22665678)
    This was possible on a 7 MHz 68000 back in the day of the original mac. At 3 GHz he should be able to raytrace in Excel.

    • Re:big whoop (Score:4, Funny)

      by jschen (1249578) on Thursday March 06 2008, @01:46PM (#22665968)
      I've heard of overclocking. But why would you want to underclock your 8 MHz Mac? I guess in this discussion, the correct answer would be "because you can".

  • Eastern European? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jabber (13196) on Thursday March 06 2008, @03:22PM (#22667388) Homepage
    "Eastern Europe" is not some nebulous region with fuzzy borders on a map, with "Here there be coders" written in illuminated calligraphy in the very middle of a vast, blank area.

    This guy's email address is in Hungary which means he's probably Hungarian. That's a country directly between Austria and Bulgaria, south of Poland and north of Greece (indirectly) which, depending on where you draw the Eastern boundary of Europe, may or may not be in "Eastern" Europe. It lies almost precisely between the western border of France and the Eastern border of Ukraine, the northern border of Poland and the southern border of Greece (excluding Cyprus), making this guy more of a Central European.

    French coders are French, German coders are German. What makes a Hungarian coder "Eastern European"?

    • Re:Eastern European? (Score:5, Funny)

      by autophile (640621) on Thursday March 06 2008, @03:50PM (#22667956)

      What makes a Hungarian coder "Eastern European"?

      Not so much that he's from Hungary, but for what he did. You see, we Westerners think of the old Soviet-era Eastern Europe as a windswept expanse of cold, grey concrete buildings. All the people are huddled inside, shivering over a fire made out of rolled-up Pravda, because the Central Committee didn't come through with the oil for the 15th year running. Smartly-dressed politzei wearing fur hats patrol the streets with vicious attack dogs.

      So it's pretty natural that if you see a 3D render in Excel, you have to think: "My God, what God-forsaken country do you have to be in to have to do 3D renders in Excel?!" And then you picture that guy hiding in a monk's hole, giggling to himself, swilling tea made from thrice-used teabags heated by Pravda fire, with a dash of bootleg Stolichnaya for kicks, and it couldn't happen anywhere except Eastern Europe, that fictional colorless country where it snows all the time.

      --Rob

  • I did this years ago (Score:5, Interesting)

    by robvangelder (472838) on Thursday March 06 2008, @03:37PM (#22667666)
    3D graphics in Excel: http://vangelder.orcon.net.nz/excel/convex3d.html [orcon.net.nz]
    Fractal Generated Landscpare Excel: http://vangelder.orcon.net.nz/excel/terrain.html [orcon.net.nz]

    • The source of progress (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dazedNconfuzed (154242) on Thursday March 06 2008, @01:13PM (#22665518)
      Strange how much human accomplishment and progress comes from contemplation of the irrelevant. - Scott Kim.

    • I hope you are not serious (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Fëanáro (130986) on Thursday March 06 2008, @01:26PM (#22665706)
      I might be missing the joke and taking this way to seriously, but I really cannot stand that attitude. I guess it's easy to push my buttons.

      In wich deranged moral system is there some sort of duty that forces smart guys to spend all their available time on things useful for society?

      (And who decides what is beneficial for society anyway?)

      If his hoby was playing chess or collecting stamps or climbing mountains, would you say that he should spend his time on more useful things? If he could afford to spend a lot of time on those hobbies, why shouldn't he?

      So why is it that every time someone does something cool and strange and for all purposes harmless, someone else always has to say "THIS GUY HAS WAY TOO MUCH FREE TIME"? Someone who, I might add, spends his time on slashdot?

      Envy?
      (I know I am envious, I wish I had the time and the determination to do a lot of these things. Considering that I am wasting time on slasdot, determination is what I am lacking more of)

        • Re:I hope you are not serious (Score:5, Insightful)

          by abigor (540274) on Thursday March 06 2008, @01:59PM (#22666130)
          It's his life, and his definition of fun. This was done 100% for himself, and I'll bet he had a blast. I think it's awesome.

          As far as "useless" goes, the best times I've ever had in my life have been essentially "useless" under your definition - sex, travel, rockclimbing, programming for fun, and so forth - though never all of these at once, it must be said.

          Work less, enjoy more.

        • Re:I hope you are not serious (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Fëanáro (130986) on Thursday March 06 2008, @02:02PM (#22666162)

          On a serious note, let me ask, to what end is this pursuit? Of what practical use is it?
          For one thing, what he does is by any metric infinitely more useful than us complaining and arguing about it on slashdot.

          I'm in my 40s now, and time is so precious and I just see something like this as a sad waste. Here's a guy who is obviously intelligent but he devoted an amount of his finite time on planet earth doing something basically useless to himself and others. Were his energies properly "self-directed" think what he could have done for himself!! Think about the lost potential in the form of dedication, intelligence, and time!!!
          Ok, now you are obviously trolling.

          A "sad waste" would be if you lived your life without ever doing anything just because you liked doing it.
          And dedication or intelligence is not some limited resource that gets less each time you use it on something you enjoy, quite the opposite.
          Same for time, unless you somehow manage to live your live without any free time (which brings us back to the "sad waste")

    • Re:Quick Summary of Article - Breathless Hype (Score:5, Insightful)

      by rilister (316428) on Thursday March 06 2008, @01:54PM (#22666070)
      nah, man - I think you missed something. I'm no programmer, but he makes the point that what he's doing here is a different type of programming. It allows him to lay out his program structure in two dimensions. Most (all?) code is laid out as a vertical thread of logical progressive statements, so this does seem different: Excel allows you to visually lay out the relationships between variable in a spatial way.

      It not like he's claiming to have discovered this: this is the fundamental reason why spreadsheets have been used for well over a decade - they give you a logical map. You could lay out a spreadsheet as a single list of mathematical operations, but it would obviously suck in comparison to a a spreadsheet. He's just pointing out this is interesting to think of in terms of a programming paradigm.

      (YAY! I used 'paradigm' and didn't sprout horns or anything!)

      Cheers!

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