this post was submitted on 02 May 2026
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Science Memes

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top 48 comments
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[–] Hupf@feddit.org 2 points 6 hours ago
[–] Impractical_Island@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

Anyone want to see the greebles on my dick? There are four distinct types!

[–] Themosthighstrange@lemmy.world 13 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

i like the star trek borg cube texture instead personally

[–] Themosthighstrange@lemmy.world 22 points 17 hours ago (2 children)
[–] LogicalDrivel@sopuli.xyz 15 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Its the physical manifestation of the old pipes screen saver from windows 95.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

they changed it in voyager somewhat.

[–] Spezi@feddit.org 1 points 4 hours ago

Wow, they named a spaceship after a lemmy client?

/s

memory unlocked

[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago

It's like a kind of reverse greeble.

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

As far as I know it's also considered greeble, the term was just coined later

[–] Infinite@lemmy.zip 3 points 14 hours ago

It was coined by ILM in the 70s, a smidge before the Borg.

[–] MoonMelon@lemmy.ml 75 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Back in the days where they used miniatures to do spaceships sometimes the vfx dept. would take model kits and glue the entire plastic sheet, sprues and all, to the miniature. You know, like this.

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago

The definitive greebled cube.

[–] AnchoriteMagus@sh.itjust.works 84 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Forgiveness for my pedantry, but pretty sure a greeble (or greeblie) is the individual plastic details that they would glue on to create the texture, not the texture itself.

You wouldn't say a texture is "greeble".

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 48 points 1 day ago

It seems to use a similar naming convention as stucco, where the thing that is applied shares the name with the resulting texfure.

[–] orvorn@slrpnk.net 18 points 21 hours ago

To be pedantic in return - in 3D modeling you absolutely can add greebling as a bump map or tessellation texture.

[–] RustyNova@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Blender modeler here. We often do grebble in geometry nodes. Not sculpting

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 19 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

You could also theoretically do it in the texturing step with a displacement modifier using the new(er) dynamic scaling.

[–] RustyNova@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

Oh yeah. Forgot it was stabilised

[–] inconel@lemmy.ca 10 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

I get where you're coming from but texture in layman term is (microscopic) characteristic of the surface. You wouldn't appreciate crisp 16bit RGBA pixels in your mouth when you bite an apple.

[–] Klear@quokk.au 7 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

It's texture as in surface quality, not the meaning used in computer rendering.

[–] artifex@piefed.social 4 points 21 hours ago

In the late 1990s I wrote an Alias|Wavefront plugin called greeble that built a bump field + height field from texture so artists could paint greebles on by hand, so whether or not that’s the proper way to do it, it’s been a texture thing for a long time.

[–] HAL_9_TRILLION@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

Huh. I thought it was the invisible things that only cats can see that makes them kinda crazy.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 6 hours ago

cat

,maybe they can see the invisble cubes.

[–] TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works 6 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

it is. this is just word theft. ;p

[–] SirSamuel@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

The term "greeblies" was coined by George Lucas in the 1970s to describe details on model ships used in the production of Star Wars

;-P

[–] TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

well George stole it from cats. I don't have proof but it's what cats would want.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 4 points 18 hours ago

“kinda”

[–] crank0271@lemmy.world 13 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

So in the future, have they also solved the problem of "dust"? Those poor cleaners...

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 13 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

No dust in space because vacuum.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 28 points 18 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Commander_Keen@reddthat.com 10 points 17 hours ago (1 children)
[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

That's @Kolanaki@pawb.social you're taking to there.

[–] Mesophar@pawb.social 3 points 10 hours ago

No, it's MegaMaid. She's gone from suck to blow

[–] SirSamuel@lemmy.world 8 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Is there a special name for electronic doodads in sci-fi? Like the control panels in the Millennium Falcon or Luthen's radio switchboard in Andor. Shoot, Mother's room in Alien is another example. It's like the electronic version of greebles on a starship model. Do they have a special name as well?

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 11 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

That whole aesthetic is cassette futurism, as distinct from the glass touchscreens of Star Trek TNG.

[–] SirSamuel@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Oh yeah! I forgot that was a thing. Tx ^^

[–] Vieric@piefed.social 4 points 18 hours ago

The Great Greeble Assimilation was a very important milestone for the Borg.

[–] Smoogs@lemmy.world 13 points 23 hours ago

And here I was calling it the Borg

[–] jaaake@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)
[–] FryHyde@lemmy.zip 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I knew Ron Thornton for awhile. He said nurnies were digital and greebles were physical, but most other people I've known have used them interchangeably.

[–] jaaake@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

Both of these statements match my understanding

[–] CorvidCawder@sh.itjust.works 1 points 15 hours ago

There was even a pretty cool plugin for Cinema4D with that same name IIRC.

[–] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.

[–] ClassIsOver@hexbear.net 3 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

They're half the reason people buy Nothing phones.

[–] vala@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Frigg@hexbear.net 1 points 23 hours ago

Greebles! An important part of making miniature models, here's a great video with examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otvDWcDVeac