>It had passed through our new modeling tools, through two different intermediate converter programs, had been loaded up as a complete database, and been rendered through a fairly complex scene hierarchy, fully textured and lit (though there were no lights, so the triangle came out looking black). The black triangle demonstrated that the foundation was finally complete the core of a fairly complex system was completed, and we were now ready to put it to work doing cool stuff.
Wow, talk about big design up front! This sounds like the opposite of today's "MVP first, get something into the customer's hands RIGHT NOW and iterate later" way of doing software development: YAGNI, KISS, etc. Nice reminder of how things used to be done (and still are done in some verticals). I'm having trouble recalling any projects I worked on recently where a "Black Triangle" moment was even possible, given the usual focus on early, customer-visible wins.
Wow, talk about big design up front! This sounds like the opposite of today's "MVP first, get something into the customer's hands RIGHT NOW and iterate later" way of doing software development: YAGNI, KISS, etc. Nice reminder of how things used to be done (and still are done in some verticals). I'm having trouble recalling any projects I worked on recently where a "Black Triangle" moment was even possible, given the usual focus on early, customer-visible wins.