Extreme Graphical Representation: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

 

This is [[Truth in Television]] as many home computers have blinking lights on it, mostly around the 'on' switch. And verbose modes and system monitors are bound to be used more than it's really necessary. That way if neither disk light blinks nor progress bar moves, the user can confirm the growing suspicion that the program quietly hung five minutes ago and he's just sitting there, waiting for nothing. Modern user interface design explicitly states humans need these kinds of cues. Also, routers and such have tons of blinking lights on them. Legends say that the [[All There in the Manual|manuals tell you]] what the blinking lights on the router means. However, these myths are unconfirmed, as <s> almost</s> nobody reads those things. The same goes for the system beeps when you start up your pc, which tell the user that the pc is indeed starting up correctly without any circuitry problems when you turn it on.

 

See also: [[Viewer-Friendly Interface]], [[The Aesthetics of Technology]], [[Beeping Computers]], [[Billions of Buttons]]

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

 

* ''[[Serial Experiments Lain]]''. In fact, you can find on Sourceforge.net the [http://lainos.sourceforge.net/ LainOS Project], a (apparently abandoned) project to create an operating system with as much pizzazz as the computers from ''Serial Experiments Lain''.

* An extreme example of this is Chisame's artifact in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''. She's a hacker to begin with, so her artifact lets her actually enter the computer system, Tron style, for super-hacking. Some of the extreme graphics include viruses that look like jellyfish, [[Magical Girl]] anti-virus programs (actually two of her classmates, dragged into the computer with her), and [[Clothing Damage]] to represent data being destroyed. [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v17/c154/7.html Observe.]

* Ed, of ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' fame utilizes some rather trippy fish decor on whatever terabyte, terahertz-chugging OS she uses. But [[Cloudcuckoolander|she's just like that.]]

* While the [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|original series]] had some flashy displays, ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]]'' has super orgasmovision 5d parallax screens for everything, even the monitors that more or less say: "Power Switch: On" or the ones that show where the Evas and Angels are in relation to each other.

** Apparently this was not just for the benefit and amusement of the audience either, as the other characters are also looking on with the same confused face as the viewers themselves.

** And he [[Genre Savvy|knew it would be Kaiba]].

 

== Film ==

 

** The program is called FSN (for File System Navigator). It's no longer available on SGI's site, but someone has made a similar program called [http://fsv.sourceforge.net/ FSV].

* In ''[[The Matrix]]'', ''real world'' computers use the flashy scrolling green characters of the "Matrix code", but in the virtual world, to the glee of many - shall we say - ''security analysts'', a [http://nmap.org/movies.html real hacking program] was used.

** Seeing how whenever a non- POV character used a computer, they used a plain- looking OS (it's a bit hard to catch on [[Rewatch Bonus|your first watch]]), it might even be [[Handwaved]] as some sort of hybrid between [[Rule of Cool]], [[The Rashomon]] and [[Rule of Perception]], as that's probably how the OS looked [[Fridge Brilliance|to the experienced hackers]].

** Additionally interesting example as this takes place when the 14.4 kbps modem was standard, although one computer is said to have a 28.8 kbps modem. This means all these cool graphics were streamed across a 14.4 kbps connection on computers with processors slower than 100 [[M Hz]] and with less than four MB of RAM.

* ''[[District 9]]'' features alien vehicles controlled via a holographic panel, as demonstrated towards the end of the movie. But then, it's ''alien'' technology; you shouldn't expect them to be using any kind of real-world OS.

** The lead alien {{spoiler|uses a bunch of human computer components to build a temporary diagnostic system for his ship}}, but it also seems emulate the alien OS. With little apparent success, since it's actually supposed run its display as a hologram. But hey, he makes it work somehow.

* Hugh Jackman building his worm in ''[[Swordfish]]''. I mean, sure, watching 9 monitors worth of text in a C compiler (or more probably an assembler, seeing as how the data was supposed to be stored on a tape drive kept in a basement. See [[Everything Is Online]] and [[Computer Equals Tapedrive]]) while he compiles the various components would be boring, but [[wikipedia:Autocad|autocad]]? Really?! AUTO-FREAKING-CAD?! Yes, autocad technically has applications in programming languages like LISP and C++, but unless he's making a pretty, user-friendly interface for his CASH GRABBING SUPER VIRUS, I fail to see the point.

** Well folders, noticeboards and sheets of paper create clutter and can't be easily updated without some eraser marks.

* The Sandra Bullock film ''[[The Net]]''. Actually not as gratuituous as one might think, but the effects of a computer virus are shown as pixels slowly degenerating and floating away.

 

* In the new ''[[V-2009|V]]'' series, the Visitor holographic computers are like this.

* Computer screens on ''[[Andromeda]]'' are filled with scrolling text and rotating graphics, none of which appear to mean anything, and would seem to make it difficult or impossible to see what's really going on.

** The fact it's all in a [[Fictionary|fictional language]] instead of English doesn't help matters.

** The newer shows have smooth black panels, backlit with meaningless blinking lights. They do have labels, but close shots reveal most of them are just random numbers and letters. Some of the panels contain in-jokes or even easter eggs (e.g. the Enterprise-D Master Systems Display in engineering.)

*** [[Wil Wheaton]] says that he assigned meanings and functions to the buttons on his LCARS touchscreen. (He ''is'' [[One of Us]].) Years later, when the Enterprise-D set was on tour and open to the public, he was able to sit down at his (character's) console and remember most of the commands he'd invented.

**** The LCARS is an actual interface standard, and people have even written DOS frontends that use it. And also an entire separate distribution of Linux (for the non-Linux-users, that's like a whole different version of Windows), which is not going to just be a "skin" for a Windows-like interface, but will actually implement the real LCARS interface (with touch-screens!). The fake TV future is here!

**** How about a ''fully functional LCARS tricorder app'' for Android? The one concession to Rule of Cool is a somewhat useless mode displaying pictures of the sun and proton/electron output over the past 64 days. (Search for "tricorder" on market.android.com.)

* Parodied in [http://www.somethingawful.com/d/feature-articles/ditch-your-os.php this] ''[[Something Awful]]'' article about "MoFOS" (Movie Fake Operating System).

* Generally any crime drama on TV will show computers with a ludicrous unnecessary graphic interface. ''[[CSI]]'' especially seems to love it.

** Various supplimentary media (like the website) have stated that Torchwood's computer is some sort of alien being hooked into their system instead of having any kind of CPU. The spiralling tentacle-like screen saver running in the background is meant to represent the creature's new virtual body as it manipulates a VR environment. When they access the server outside the hub in ''Children of Earth'', the desktop appears. Still fits the trope though as there is no reason the characters would have to see what the creature sees.

* [[Profit]] has an overblown 3D/avatar system to navigate its corporate network, although it's unclear if this is the actual interface or just represents what the users are doing with it.

* Many modern videogames have all sorts of flashing, rotating icons, blinking window popups, scrolling transitions, and all that sort of graphical pizzazz. These are real, actual user interfaces, the effects are somewhat moderate, but are still flashy.

* A slightly more low-key (but still flashy) interface is found in the computer game [[Uplink]]. Of course, the game is a simulation of the Hollywood version of hacking, so something would be amiss if it had a realistic interface.

*** Happy new year! Now, where is my Uplink Computer interface, all I see is Windows 7...

** Uplink's semi-sequal Subversion looks to be all over this.

* ''[[Mass Effect]]'', both in-game and its user interfaces. Starting a new game uses the in-game fiction of sending your name and a photo over a secure tunnel connections has a flashy loading screen.

* Averted in ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' as computer and mobile phone interfaces for most parts look pretty lifeless, like in real life. The PDA interface in ''[[Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars]]'' is closer to playing the trope straight, but is still rather modest against other examples of this trope.

* The [[Show Within a Show|fake TV]] you get to watch at the beginning of ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4'' is obscenely decorative. Markers with unreadable text pop up to accompany every little action.

* ''[[Ripper]]''`s vision of the 2040s has everyone have to go into a virtual reality world in order to access the internet, and access websites via huge floating icons.

** Lampshaded in the accompanying Aperture Science site; one of the workers complains about having to run an obsolete OS from the early 80s when the guys in charge get state-of-the-art graphics. (Note: said OS is GLaDOS.)

* ''[[.hack GU Games|.hack]]'' is an interesting example. There is quite a bit of standard fare in the game within the game, what with inactive virus data looking like crystals and the game's code being visible behind "cracks" in the graphics of glitched areas, but the main characters' desktops (which you visit whenever you log off) look believable enough, if more limited than an actual desktop.

* The entirety of ''[[Ray Crisis]]'' is a hacker's attempt to subdue an evil AI, done in shmup form.

* The whole point of ''[[Rez]]''.

 

== Western Animation ==

** A real CM was used as the backdrop of the "control room" in [[Jurassic Park]].

*** They didn't use the whole thing, just the front panel.

* Modern computers are filled with things which don't actually indicate progress, but instead are just there to give users something to watch while they wait for the machine (this is considered bad GUI design):

** The "animated hourglass", "spinning beachball", "ticking watch", "running dog", and similar cursors on both Mac and Windows.

** For the matter, the hard drive activity light. While useful back when computers really only did one thing at a time and unreliable, modern computers and their software tend to always be doing something - usually completely unrelated to what the user is doing.

*** They are now again quite useful for solid state disk, due to the lack of auditory feedback. Otherwise, you just wouldn't ''know'' when it's the disk that slows your system to a crawl.

* Parodied by [[Stephen Colbert]], who described defragmenting your hard drive: "A program where your computer moves a bunch of rectangles around to make you feel better." Tragically, Vista's defragger has lost the colored rectangles, and 7's didn't bring them back.

** [http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/ Third-party applications] [http://www.piriform.com/defraggler save the day]!

* It's been said on a recent ''Frontline'' special that the computers in one of Bernie Madoff's accounting offices relied on this in order to make clients and SEC officials believe that ''stuff'' was going on, and that the computers were actually doing what they were supposed to be doing. All the while, a much smaller office just below that one did the * real* "accounting" work.

* Most routers have an activity light to indicate that they are transmitting or receiving something. Many older ones did this simply by wiring an LED into the transmit circuit. The actual 1s and 0s of the bitstream were far too fast to be seen by humans, but were decodable by pointing a high-speed camera at the light, giving a way to tap the wire without being near the wire, and avoiding most of the security systems in existence. Modern routers generally don't have the LED on the actual circuit anymore, but some home models might still do this.

** It was even worse than that. At low data rates, the signal can be decoded by a photocell. Decent equipment can read it from over . Attempts to mask the signal put out by the light by stretching the highs still have recovery rates of up to 80%, more then enough to decode plain text. Of course, there is a simple fix with some tape. Modern equipment, with transmission rates of 10 billion bytes/sec is not capable of this, as the light would only be a dull blur to humans, so an the activity light is faked.