page_title: Vector monitor
hierarchical_section_title: Vector monitor
caption_attribution_description: English: A free software Asteroids like video game played on an oscillograph configured as a vector display.
context_page_description: A vector monitor, vector display, or calligraphic display is a display device used for computer graphics up through the 1970s. It is a type of CRT, similar to that of an early oscilloscope. In a vector display, the image is composed of drawn lines rather than a grid of glowing pixels as in raster graphics. The electron beam follows an arbitrary path tracing the connected sloped lines, rather than following the same horizontal raster path for all images. The beam skips over dark areas of the image without visiting their points.
  In 1963, Ivan Sutherland at MIT first used a vector graphic display for Sketchpad, his pioneering CAD program. In 1968, he and his team again used a vector monitor to display wireframe images of 3D models. This time the display was head mounted. The obviously heavy system was held up by a support arm structure called The Sword of Damocles. The system is widely considered to be the first computer-based virtual reality.
  In 1970, at the UK Farnborough Airshow, Sperry Gyroscope exhibited the first ever vector graphic video display from a UK company.
context_section_description: A vector monitor, vector display, or calligraphic display is a display device used for computer graphics up through the 1970s. It is a type of CRT, similar to that of an early oscilloscope. In a vector display, the image is composed of drawn lines rather than a grid of glowing pixels as in raster graphics. The electron beam follows an arbitrary path tracing the connected sloped lines, rather than following the same horizontal raster path for all images. The beam skips over dark areas of the image without visiting their points.
  In 1963, Ivan Sutherland at MIT first used a vector graphic display for Sketchpad, his pioneering CAD program. In 1968, he and his team again used a vector monitor to display wireframe images of 3D models. This time the display was head mounted. The obviously heavy system was held up by a support arm structure called The Sword of Damocles. The system is widely considered to be the first computer-based virtual reality. 
  In 1970, at the UK Farnborough Airshow, Sperry Gyroscope (Bracknell, England) exhibited the first ever vector graphic video display from a UK company. It featured an analogue monochrome display with special electronics, designed by Sperry's John Atkins, that allowed it to draw vectors on screen between two pairs of coordinates. At Farnborough the display was used to demonstrate the capabilities of the new Sperry 1412 military computer - it was shown running software that drew, in real time, a wire-frame rotating cube that could be speed-controlled in any of its three dimensions. That demonstration created significant interest in the Sperry 1412 computer, which then went on to be at the heart of a number of major projects for the French Navy and the Royal Navy during the period 1972 to 1992.
  Some refresh vector displays use a normal phosphor that fades rapidly and needs constant refreshing 30-40 times per second to show a stable image. These displays, such as the Imlac PDS-1, require some local refresh memory to hold the vector endpoint data. Other storage tube displays, such as the popular Tektronix 4010, use a special phosphor that continues glowing for many minutes. Storage displays do not require any local memory. In the 1970s, both types of vector displays were much more affordable than bitmap raster graphics displays when megapixel computer memory was still very expensive. Today, raster displays have replaced nearly all uses of vector displays.
  Vector displays do not suffer from the display artifacts of aliasing and pixelation—especially black and white displays; color displays keep some artifacts due to their discrete nature—but they are limited to displaying only a shape's outline (although advanced vector systems can provide a limited amount of shading). Text is crudely drawn from short strokes. Refresh vector displays are limited in how many lines or how much text can be shown without refresh flicker. Irregular beam motion is slower than steady beam motion of raster displays. Beam deflections are typically driven by magnetic coils, and those coils resist rapid changes to their current.
  Notable among vector displays are Tektronix large-screen computer terminals that use direct-view storage CRTs. (The CRT has at least one flood gun, and a special type of display screen, more complicated in principle than a simple phosphor.) But that permanent image cannot be easily changed. Like an Etch-a-Sketch, any deletion or movement requires erasing the entire screen with a bright green flash, and then slowly redrawing the entire image. Animation with this type of monitor is not practical.
  Vector displays were used for head-up displays in fighter aircraft because of the brighter displays that can be achieved by moving the electron beam more slowly across the phosphors. Brightness was critical because the display needed to be clearly visible to the pilot in direct sunlight.
  Vector monitors were also used by some late-1970s to mid-1980s arcade games such as Asteroids, Tempest, and Star Wars. Atari used the term Quadrascan to describe the technology when used in their video game arcades.
  Hew
caption: A free software Asteroids-like video game played on an oscillograph configured in X-Y mode
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "The Teensy now runs \"Space Rocks\", which is similar to another game you might have played on a vector display.", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS M", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2013:06:04 22:47:53", "Image ExifOffset": "342", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1600", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:06:04 20:56:16", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:06:04 20:56:16", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "9328/1901", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5357/1482", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "22", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "06", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "06", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2183", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2058", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "202953/35", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "104201/18", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}