Using Excel As a 3D Graphics Engine

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."

Explains the flight simulator in Excel 97?

[TheCycoONE]

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]

I wish that when articles such as this get out of

[davidsyes]

the firehose that knowledgeable people offer up whether Star Office or OpenOffice.org can do similar feats. I realize that eventually SOMEone will figure out how to do it, but since this is not a time-critical article (no expiration date) it would be nice if Slash's submission engine had a "references/external interesting and relevant" sites/alternative products" field/array to encourage submitters to balance things out -- if references and alternatives are indeed available. Otherwise, we might not as quickly inform others that OO.o and SO can or cannot do these things. Just my opinion.

Programming Languages for 3d simulation and games - Martin Baker
http://www.euclideanspace.com/software/language/ [euclideanspace.com]

xkcd View topic - Dinosaur PC fun
http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=11550&start=40 [xkcd.com]

I mean, REALLY, (to be honest about my position) why bolster Excel any more than necessary when Open Source and Linux/FreeBSD/*nix platforms are slowed mainly *because* ms office is so dominant? Any and every chance to level the playing field should be seized, exploited, and disseminated.

Re:A true geek...

[Anonymous Coward]

Relatively easy. Just create a vba and load some com components...

Its kinda fun to create a button in word which executes a vba app that creates an excel chart based on data in an access database and embeds it in a cad drawing then prints that to pdf and sends an email through outlook. Makes peoples heads explode even though it is very basic programming.

Re:One can only ask...

[Anonymous Coward]

The central thesis appears towards the end of the article. The idea is that something like Excel represents a different coding paradigm that hasn't been seriously considered, where you basically lay out what your stuff is supposed to do, i.e. declare it instead of coding it sequentially. By doing this, you increase comprehension of what's going on, b/c it's easier to visualize the algorithm (at least for 3d manipulations) by viewing the tables, instead of trying to decipher a sequential piece of code. It's basically advocating using a declarative programming paradigm (like Prolog) for games, except using a comical venue to show it.

Tim Sweeney's POPL talk had some similar ideas too.

Re:One can only ask...

[damburger]

Spoken like someone too young to remember the Amiga demo scene. For some people, the challenge of seeing just how far you can push a piece of software/hardware is irresistible.

Open source, closed mind

[Anonymous Coward]

"Does this guy not know another tool besides a spreadsheet? Maybe he should try learning Python..."

Open source, closed mind.

I strongly disagree. Just because he chooses to use one tool, which conveniently happens to be made by the folks that the Slashdot hive mind loves to hate, it seems to bring out the "Tool Nazis" out of the closet. Instead of suggesting that this fellow drop what he's doing and join our side, perhaps we should open our minds and give it a fair look.

To the point of Python, if it's so easy, show us some code. Put up or shut up, it's the open source way.

n-dimensional source

[g4b]

what I really find interesting, is the claim, that sourcecode may be n-dimensional in the future. Actually, this is the most important aspect of the whole 3d excel show, and should have been mentioned in the article abstract, because it's a thought on programming itself.

While I don't really know if I would agree on this "breakthrough of programming style", it is interesting to read it on pages 4 and 5 of the article.

I wished some comments would have commented on that.

I myself find code to be standing on different positions on the screen not very unusual, since it will be executed "one after the other" anyway, and is common in GUI/java development to have more than one window open. But if the code is not just "displayed" next to each other, and it has some new sense to arrange it like excel does, it might be interesting in the future (especially now on the edge of leaping into mainstream multiprocessor development)

Re:One can only ask...

[sm62704]

Actually "Deep Thought" [wikipedia.org] was a play on "deep throat" [wikipedia.org], which was the code name for Deputy Director of the FBI William Mark Felt, Sr., the guy that narked on Nixon. Oddly, the term originated in the name of a porn movie starring Linda Lovelace [wikipedia.org], and the very first computer programmer was Ada Lovelace [wikipedia.org], who wrote programs for Charles Babbage's Anylitical Engine [wikipedia.org], the world's first programmable computer that wasn't actually built until late in the 20th century.

I've read that England spent so much money on the thing that wags quipped that the only thing it would be good for was computing its own cost.

Babbage's engines were among the first mechanical computers, although they were not actually completed, largely because of funding problems and personality issues. He directed the building of some steam-powered machines that achieved some success, suggesting that calculations could be mechanized. Although Babbage's machines were mechanical and unwieldy, their basic architecture was very similar to a modern computer. The data and program memory were separated, operation was instruction based, the control unit could make conditional jumps and the machine had a separate I/O unit.

Re:Quick Summary of Article - Breathless Hype

[mpeg4codec]

Check out Befunge [wikipedia.org]. It's the only language I know of that explicitly uses the two-dimensional spatial structure of code for flow control.

I did this years ago

[robvangelder]

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]

Re:compressed:

[glittalogik]

I'm shouting into the storm here, I know, but this is NOT true. Both of my female housemates and several of my female friends ONLY date/shag geeks. This whole "geeks can't get laid" is entirely "geeks (don't want/are too scared to try) to get laid."

As to WHY these girls like geeks, it's generally a combination of the following:
a) They have a mother complex that makes them want to care for and nurture the most socially inept/awkward partner they can find.
b) They're geeks themselves, and stick to their own kind.
c) They have a fetish for crying boys sobbing "thank you, thank you, thank you!" over and over.

Excel Tetris

[rapidmax]

A while ago I was very bored and coded a tetris clone in Excel.

The timer I used is too slow but it works... http://www.knitter.ch/src/snipplets/excel-tetris/ [knitter.ch]

Cheers, Andy