For me, a computer program is only worth programming when it produces some kind
of graphical output and it is even more fascinating when this is in three dimensions.
So, in 1984, on my first computer, a Color Genie, I coded rotatable 3D
wireframe models when everybody else had serious problems to write something 2D on a C64.
My machine had just 16 k memory, four differnet colors, and
worked with Basic, but had a perfect manual and a complete set of graphics
functions, i.e. for points, lines, circles and rectangles. That was a wonderful time,
a huge, unexplored land full of aesthetic and secret things lay in front of me
ready to be uncovered. I wrote games, Mandelbrot's Apple Man, physics simulations,
displayed various mathematical graphs, and
I even used the computer for my mathematics tests during my engineering study. That
was not explicitly prohibited, because it was so new.
Then I bought my first used PC, with more graphics power and Turbo Pascal to write
programs. Later, as an aerospace engineer I loved to make the initial design of
spacecraft with Catia, a very sophisticated 3D CAD program.
 The Crac des Chevaliers, a castle in Syria. Built with IronCAD. If you happen to have a VRML browser like the Octaga Player, click on the picture to take a view in 3D. Maybe your internet browser will display a warning, ignore that. With the right mousebutton you can select different movement options and a new viewpoint. The Enter viewpoint is the starting point for a walk through. |
 Hachum, my first 3D village. I was baptised at this church. |
In 1995, the Virtual Reality Modeling Language ( VRML) appeared, a 3D language for the internet, which allows to display and manipulate any thinkable 3D content. It just has some 60 different commands, is perfectly designed, and the Cosmoplayer, a browser from SGI, rendered all that without any flaw. Now I was able to build a castle, an entire village, simulate space missions and huge amusement rides. I even built a walkable model of my new house at Süderwalsede.
 The model of my house. At this, you can open and close the doors, walk though all rooms, switch levels on and off, and you can even uncover the underground piping. Great for deciding how to place the furniture. |
 And this is the original. A lovely, 200 year old design with oak beams. |
After disappearance of the Cosmoplayer I looked for a new tool for my planned 3D content and found 3D Gamestudio, an inexpensive Game Engine from Germany, which is complete, well designed, exceptionally clearly documented, and pure fun after understanding the concepts. It has any software gadget imaginable, pre-rendered lighting, multiplayer, shaders, particles, and physics. Meanwhile, I can show anything with this engine.
 Spaceball, the first game I tried to sell. You sit in a ball shaped, weightless craft which has one big thruster for acceleration and smaller ones for change of attitude. You fly inside a room with two goals at the ends, a weightless ball and an opponent with a similar craft. It is like billard with spacecrafts. |
 Another game is of 3D Jetfighter combat. Not real-time, not first person view from the cockpit - more like a 3D chess game of smart manoeuvre and outguessing. |
This is the last game I worked on. Real 3D manoeuvering of spacecraft
in a weightless environment. There is gravity at the planets, you can even go
into a stable orbit. Nearly nobody tried this before.