1997 Macromedia's User Conference

1997 Macromedia's User Conference


The keynote speech was given by Steve Jobs, which, for me was worth the price of the conference. He demonstrated QuickTimeVR, which was essentially stitching spherical video/images together for the purpose of creating games and interactive content for spherical experiences. It was amazing.

Macromedia also introduced Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks, which were all state of the art tools for Web development at that time. Suddenly, the ability for a good designer to work intuitively, instead of having to code, became a reality again. I say again because for a brief moment in the world of design, coding was the only way, and thousands of graphic designers had to become HTML programmers overnight. It was true of course that many designers had already been coding using HyperCard, and eventually Macromedia's Director, which was awesome, btw... In fact, Director, and the entire design foundation it was built upon was brilliant. A logical timeline, a "stage", and a solid programming language, Lingo, (which was awfully similar to HyperScript. HyperCards's scripting language.). Ultimately, Director was the industry standard for a long time for authoring interactive CD-ROM content. And it was fast. Not withstanding MYST, which was actually done with Strata Studio Pro for 3D and HyperCard...so fricken cool and efficient. Doing so much, with actually so very little. The exact reason why I am compelled to write this article.

The industries that rely on design technologies today forget where they have come from. Leaving it upon the user to increase RAM, or buy a new super expensive state of the art graphics card, or even a new system, sometimes costing 3-6k. What I mean by that is, often the reckless over use of system memory, and computer resources as a basic requirement is actually insane. My old Mac 512 had only a 3.5" floppy disc, and no hard drive, leaving me to constantly swap discs to even save my file, while creating it. Although often inconvenient, this was programming. Everything was running from 512k or memory, and a 400k floppy! Guys and gals programming all of the early applications we used back in the day, like MacPaint, and MacDraw were amazing to say the least. The most efficient programmers of the modern age by far. Bill Atkinson, to name a favorite.

The point is this, as VR and AR technologies mature, and the hardware matures, it remains imperative that it costs the consumer no more than it did "back in the day". Otherwise, all of the hype, hardware, and pretty pictures, studios around the globe are delving into, will evaporate like disco. Currently the costs are prohibitive on a mass scale, which does not equate into mass adoption of the tech. This is bad. Efficient methodologies are still very valid in development of hardware and software, and without them, the tech required to run the gear is simply too expensive for the average joe, which, by the way, is your market. My 2 cents.

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