Extreme Graphical Representation: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Computer''': Since I'm such an advanced computer, I can make Pegasus's computer systems look like a really boring video game!|''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]''}}

 

 

 

The opposite of [[Our Graphics Will Suck in the Future]] is Extreme Graphical Representation, where every operation that takes place in the computer is represented by flashy, often "futuristic" animations on the screen. These fantastic light shows have no connection to whatever might be taking place, and real computer professionals invariably find them impractical and implausible. I mean really, does anyone seriously think that a computer has to flash a picture of each fingerprint in the database on its screen while it's searching for a match?

 

 

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.

== 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.

** Funnily, an episode of ''[[Beast Wars]]'' plays this straight. Tigatron hacks Megatron's ship, by connecting himself to the computer. The interface turns into a Virtual reality not unlike that seen in ''[[Hackers]]'' (complete with Tigatron doing the movements in needs to do in the simulation with his real hands), with a rubix cube of ''Megatron's head'' as the password. Now, this raises questions as Transformers are robots to begin with, couldn't they come up with more efficient interfaces than virtual reality for their own ships?

* ''[[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.

* 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.

* Inverted in ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]''. The computer banks seen during the game appear to run a form of DOS that occasionally displays images by ASCII art.

** 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.

*** 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.

** The [http://www.compiz.org/ Compiz] window manager, available for most Linux distributions, allows the user to install plugins to alter the appearance and behavior of most everything on their desktop. Some of these [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhHCl8j_RbU plugins] are very [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6cQozuoS5I trippy].

* 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.