Posted by scobleizer // Thu, Oct 13, 2005 4:56 AM
This is one of the coolest applications we've seen at the PDC. Here's a video of the North Face demo that was shown off during Jim Allchin's keynote at the PDC. This demo rocks and it was all done in Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly Avalon).
Tags: Avalon, WinFX, PDC05
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| Clip Length: 00:03:32
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Replies:
30
// Views:
79,356
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so... when can we download this lol
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Probably tomorrow, sorry.
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no need to apologize, the content you offer is amazing and i can only imagine how much footage you got at this event.
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Dear God, the future of the web? I'm stunned.
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Hey all -- There is a white paper on MSDN that explains how The North Face proof-of-concept was designed and built. While the full source isn't available, there are three code samples with the white paper, including one that has a video carousel like what you see in the keynote demo.
Would love to hear more about what people think of the demo, questions they have, etc.
--Karsten
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Karsten:
I'm having trouble with the video carousel demo. When I run it it crashes. The error message comes from Media Event Sink Window, complaining that a location in memory could not be read.
On a side note, I'm having a lot more problems trying to get Channel9 to post my comment. I keep getting unknown errors. Sorry for filling up your error log guys 
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wow, wow and WOW!!!
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Media in Avalon is still rather finicky in this build. If you are on XP, be sure that you are running WMP 10. The other gotcha is video card drivers. If you are running ATI or NVidia, be sure you are running the latest drivers. There are some legacy video drivers that simply won't run Avalon video. Good luck!
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Pretty cool. The concept I am having the hardest time undersstanding is how this NorthFace web site would be rendered in a browser other than IE or on other platforms (Mac, Linux, etc)
Is it even possible? or is this simply web content which will ONLY be available to people running on the new platform?
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 | karstenj wrote:
Media in Avalon is still rather finicky in this build. If you are on XP, be sure that you are running WMP 10. The other gotcha is video card drivers. If you are running ATI or NVidia, be sure you are running the latest drivers. There are some legacy video drivers that simply won't run Avalon video. Good luck! |
XP SP2 with WMP10. I'll try upgrading my video card drivers.
| Zeno wrote:
Pretty cool. The concept I am having the hardest time undersstanding is how this NorthFace web site would be rendered in a browser other than IE or on other platforms (Mac, Linux, etc)
Is it even possible? or is this simply web content which will ONLY be available to people running on the new platform? |
Supposedly there's a technology coming out called Windows Presentation Foundation / Everywhere that will make it cross platform. There's a thread in the Coffeehouse about it.
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WPF/E will probably support animated 2D vector graphics, but I highly doubt that it will support multiple video streams mapped onto 3D surfaces and animated.
You'd need the full WPF on SP2 or Vista to do that, as well as appropriate hardware.
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I know your all busy but I'd really appreciate if I could download this
instead of streaming it. I'd like to include it in a presentation
I'm doing and I don't want to depend on my internet connection.
Thanks again and keep up the good work.
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Tyler Brown
Bullets change governments far surer than votes.
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Any word on being able to download this Scoble? I realize you're probably busy or on vacation as we haven't seen much of you lately, but it'd be appreciated if we could download this by the end of the week if at all possible.
Keep up the good work!
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Massif
Well - if it isn't you again...
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Just joining in with the calls for the Download...
Come on! This one looks interesting, and I can't stream properly at
work. (Not that I'm avoiding work ... oh no, that would never do.)
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Yea, I can't stream movies properly either so I have yet to be able to see this one!
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rhm
Love the OS, hate the advocates.
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It all looks rather pointless to me. The 3D stuff adds nothing to the
sales experience. The 'rotating the product' thing and playing video is
already adequately covered by Flash player and that actually has design
tools so you don't have to learn the horrid XAML syntax for Avalon. Oh,
and Flash works in nearly every browser - Avalon will work in a small
fraction even among Windows users. e-commerce sites would be mad to
waste their time on it.
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rhm,
Of course, you are conveniently overlooking the fact that designer tools are already being developed by Microsoft, and that there are already existing tools (Zam3D, and others) that exist.
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This north face video was great. i believe i saw some other north face video's one of north face's partner sites.
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rhm
Love the OS, hate the advocates.
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| jlongwith wrote:
rhm,
Of course, you are conveniently overlooking the fact that designer
tools are already being developed by Microsoft, and that there are
already existing tools (Zam3D, and others) that exist. |
OK, sure there's always "something new coming" that's going to make
everything better. It is still all pointless. You can't stream four
channels of video from a website so who cares if you can composite them
in 3d? There's still the issue that most users won't be able to view
XAML for a long time to come and that Flash already does all the stuff
in that demo that's actually useful.
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Why are you so bitter? I just pointed out that you "conveniently" left out some details just to make a point. Can Flash do all that WinFX is promising to do? I don't know because I am not a Flash developer. If it can, great. That doesn't mean that WinFX doesn't have it's place. The integration between WinFX design and development is a major reason that I believe WinFX will be around for a long time. Having a common project and build layout between the design layouts and the code is a major plus.
Jason
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Look at the title of the white paper, "The North Face In-Store Explorer Proof-of-Concept: A White Paper". This is not something they use on there internet site, but on there in-store units. Probaly foot stands with a touch screen or something like that.
The power and things that can be done look amazing, and it's just so so cool. Only do you need to use this amount of power for a regular application? It's probaly only a small group of people that will benefit from this power, but maby in the future there will be more...
Seconly, I don't understand this idea. Why in the world would I go watch movies in a store, I don't want to spend that much time to do my shopping. And most of the times the audio experience is bad, because of background noise or bad/turned down speakers.
I would rather see a little less powerfull website, that just gives me a list of movies instead of 3d rotating movies. So I can do some pre-shopping, compare the product with other products from maby other brands, while I am relaxing and feel I got time to do some comparing of products, read users reviews, etc.
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>Why in the world would I go watch movies in a store, I don't want to spend that much time to do my shopping.
Lots of stores are experimenting with retail experiences. Why is this powerful? Well, a plasma screen and sound system costs about $3,000. Add a decently powered PC and you're talking less than $5,000.
They can build a new experience that makes for a nicer store.
Also, many stores are already using Plasma screens to augment their experiences.
I sat next to the CEO of REI, for instance, and he told me that they were thinking of building a whole new concept store with plasma screens there.
Target tells me that stores that have plasma screens installed see higher sales too (I presented to one of their executive teams).
So, watch for more plasma ahead.
By the way, most North Face stores are pretty quiet affairs.
Oh, and if it increases sales of a $350 jacket, it doesn't take too many before that screen and app pay for themselves.
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>I don't want to spend that much time to do my shopping.
You aren't the guys they are trying to reach. Ever go into an Apple store? I have spent hours there studying people. Many people stay in an Apple store for hours. They even give classes in the back of many stores (the SF class always has presentations going).
Here's a hint: you're a geek. You hate shopping. I do too.
But hang out with my wife sometime and see what she thinks of spending time shopping. It doesn't agree with your statement, that's for sure.
And today's shoppers don't want to merely buy stuff. They want to be entertained and educated while in the store. Stores that build these new kinds of retail experiences are more profitable, by the way.
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And all that being said..... how about some downloadage scoble!
*nag nag*
WMP keeps giving me errors when I try to stream a video. It says the protocol isn't supported
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