XGL and Model
This weekend was devoted to two things: getting XGL up and running and getting some lighting tests going on the Enterprise-D.

XGL is really cool. It works extremely well on my desktop's ATI Radeon 9800. It's amazing that all of the window drawing is done in hardware. The desktop feels unbelievably snappy, probably because this prevents programs from having to redraw on window expose events. I suspect that they are always fully drawn, otherwise things like the Apple Exposé work-alike would not be practical. Wobbly windows rock! The desktop cube is awesome! Having used this desktop for most of the weekend, I really feel very good about it. Can't wait until it gets in the mainstrean distributions. Unfortunately, the Radeon in my laptop does not seem up to the task.

The other half of the weekend was spent with the Enterprise-D. I finally finished cutting out all those blasted windows. Later this week I'll finish filling them. In the meantime, I went ahead and wired up one of the nacelles. I'm doing photo tests along the way to make certain everything balances nicely. It looks really, really good with anything as short as a 1/8 second exposure. I also tried lighting the saucer with two white LEDs. I plan to have nine or twelve in there, but I was quite impressed with just two. I ordered a bunch of super-detailed decals online last night. It's all starting to come together. But I won't be satisfied until the moment I remove all of the tiny pieces of masking tape that will cover all of these windows during painting...

Typing this has been hard, as I just sliced open an important finger. Work tomorrow will be a bitch.