dtroup@uunet.UU.NET (David C. Troup) (11/08/90)
In article <10769@milton.u.washington.edu> warren@debra.doc.ca (Warren Baird) wr ites: > Taking several steps back, the > entire bridge lies before me, about a meter long. I stamp my > feet several times, and an earthquake starts. I watch > carefully when and where the bridge begins to fail, rebuild it, > and repeat until the bridge reaches whatever standards I set. I don't mean to nit pick, but there are alot of variables associated with earthquakes. The 2 or 3 types of waves involved with movement in the earth's crust, the soil content and density, the location of the epicenter in relation to the building/bridge. Is your bridge in water? This would have a substanstal effect on what would happen to it. Would'nt it make sense to select a VR icon for earthquake instead of stamping your feet? What if you were marching? Would your VR start into earthquake mode? A quick 3-D ckets of a bridge would hardly due justice to a VR/ simulation of an earthquake, since all major and minor trusses, supports, guy-wires or whatever will all effect the final outcome. Gee, world modeling is a real pain.... :-) See ya... -- David C. Troup is dtroup@carroll1.cc.edu|414.336.7467|414.433.3527| | ________________________________________|414.336.2631| work |Skunk Works| |____________|____________|___________| "Things like polyester, pants and shoes, don't make it easy to remember."
edow@harriett.ncsa.uiuc.edu (Ernst Dow) (11/10/90)
In article <10871@milton.u.washington.edu> uwm!carroll1.cc.edu!dtroup@uunet.UU.N ET (David C. Troup) writes: > > >In article <10769@milton.u.washington.edu> warren@debra.doc.ca (Warren Baird) w r >ites: >> Taking several steps back, the >> entire bridge lies before me, about a meter long. I stamp my >> feet several times, and an earthquake starts. I watch >> carefully when and where the bridge begins to fail, rebuild it, >> and repeat until the bridge reaches whatever standards I set. > > I don't mean to nit pick, but there are alot of variables > associated with earthquakes. The 2 or 3 types of waves Ahh, this is just like trying to make fantasy role playing games realistic... I suppose you could have a "beginner" mode that would do a "standard" earthquake. In the "advanced" mode, different stomps could be different types of earthquakes. Of course it would be customizable for each user with lots of AI. I just hope no one sneaks up on you when you are in the middle of building your bridge. Rumble, rumble, crash! :-) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ernst Dow std disclaimers... edow@harriett.uiuc.ncsa.edu 88GSX-R750, Nishiki Linear tc64566@indylly.bitnet Kerma 322, Trek 8000 Work to buy toys, but they let me compute on toys at work. Life is good. :-) -- Ernst Dow std disclaimers... edow@uiuc.ncsa.edu 88GSX-R750, Nishiki Linear rx64566@indylly.bitnet Kerma 322 Work to buy toys, but they let me compute on toys at work. Life is good. :-)
robertj@uunet.UU.NET (Young Rob Jellinghaus) (11/11/90)
In article <10923@milton.u.washington.edu> edow@harriett.ncsa.uiuc.edu (Ernst Do w) writes: >Ahh, this is just like trying to make fantasy role playing games realistic... Yep! In fact, it seems to me that if any present-day activity is useful training for virtual reality, role-playing gaming is it. >I just hope no one sneaks up on you when you are in the middle of building >your bridge. Rumble, rumble, crash! :-) What if someone does? What do you think Undo is for? Just watch the bits rise out of the river and fit together again! Certainly, any reasonable VR construction simulation will let everyone define their own interfaces to various things. One person might want to be a mag- ician flying around and conjuring bridge parts, another person might just want to sketch blueprints in the air and watch them solidify, and if you want to stamp to start a quake, no problem! >Ernst Dow std disclaimers... -- Rob Jellinghaus | "Next time you see a lie being spread or Autodesk, Inc. | a bad decision being made out of sheer robertj@Autodesk.COM | ignorance, pause, and think of hypertext." {decwrl,uunet}!autodesk!robertj | -- K. Eric Drexler, _Engines of Creation_
cirby@vaxb.acs.unt.edu ((C. Irby)) (11/12/90)
In article <10959@milton.u.washington.edu>, autodesk!robertj@uunet.UU.NET (Young Rob Jellinghaus) writes: > In article <10923@milton.u.washington.edu> > edow@harriett.ncsa.uiuc.edu (Ernst Dow) writes: >>Ahh, this is just like trying to make fantasy role playing games realistic... > > Yep! In fact, it seems to me that if any present-day activity is useful > training for virtual reality, role-playing gaming is it. I agree... and this also brings up some other thoughts. Computer games have introduced a lot of innovative ideas to the state of the art in software. Other people may have thought them up, but the game designers are usually among the first to drop new ideas into actual products. Vector graphics for simulation? _Spacewar_ used them (back in the Dark Ages, I think...) Sound as an important part of the program interface? Until I saw games on an Apple ][+, I'd never heard sound which made a difference (not the beeps and boops of Pong- important sounds. Warning buzzers, engine noises, and other outputs... stuff that was significant in *itself*, not as a pointer to a screen event). Music? See above. Input/Output Options. The "I-J-K-L-M" or "W-A-S-D-X" choices were in many computer games back in the late 70s. How many 'serious' programs let the user make any *real* choices in what the interface is? [Note: I'm skipping over the influence of flight simulators, since there weren't that many out there- and the ones that were in use were owned by the government or the airlines. Most of them didn't even use real computer graphics... just controllers.] ###### Most of what I see in current virtual reality is demonstrated in game-like terms. How many nifty demos do you see? How many of those look like a video game? How many Power Gloves were bought by VR researchers this year? If you want to see where VR is going to be in five years, you might want to look in places other than Autodesk, MIT, or HITL. Look at Atari... Sega... Nintendo... and the software companies. I know of one (smaller) company that's halfway ready to start working on a VR "home game" *right now*... for single or networked machines. And how much of that game will end up in the 'serious' products the year after? Hmmmmmmm.... -- C Irby || Internet: cirby@vaxa.acs.unt.edu || "It's a long story. It involves Bitnet: cirby@untvax || phlegm. You wouldn't want to Compuserve: 71541,770 || hear it..." || --Judge Harold T. Stone