lishka@uwslh.slh.wisc.edu (a.k.a. Chri) (11/06/90)
Nearly two months ago I posted a message requesting information on
several VR issues, including VR servers, databases, and modeling. I
received many replies. Unfortunately, all but two of the replies were
requests for any replies I received. In order to spread the
information I received (and because I was swamped with so many
requests for replies) I am posting the two actual replies. My thanks
go out to Kent Paul Dolan and Bernie Roehl for their interesting
letters.
I would also like to apologize for taking so long to post this
information. I hope this hasn't inconvenienced anyone too much. If
you have anymore information on references in the VR server, database,
and modeling area, I would love to hear from you.
.oO Chris Oo.
Christopher Lishka 608-262-4485 "Dad, don't give in to mob mentality!"
Wisconsin State Lab. of Hygiene -- Bart Simpson
lishka@uwslh.slh.wisc.edu "I'm not, Son. I'm jumping on the bandwagon."
uunet!uwvax!uwslh!lishka -- Homer Simpson
The replies follow:
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Kent Paul Dolan replied:
Well, you'll have to chase it down yourself, but a couple of years back
I ran into a discription of "Logo-worlds", little self contained realities
in the Logo language designed for use by children.
Logo is a lisp-like language with a powerful graphics paradigm, called
turtle graphics, that has a substantial cult following and is ported to
all the major microcomputers.
Since you have a .edu tag on your site ID, a library search should be
possible to you. A good starting point is Seymore Papiert (sp?) the
author of Mindstorms, and originator of the concept of Logo.
I hope this helps. I think an implementation for children to use in
programming will have to have solved, without noticing, a lot of the
problems we find so perplexing in sci.virtual.worlds.
Kent, the man from xanth.
<xanthian@Zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <xanthian@well.sf.ca.us>
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Bernie Roehl replied:
In article <7460@milton.u.washington.edu> lishka@uwslh.slh.wisc.edu (a.k.a. Chri
) writes:
> * Virtual world servers. I am thinking of building a world
> "daemon", with software "ports" that allow an outside agent
> (either a real user or some sort of software agent) to
> experience and interact with the world. Note that different
> types of ports (for different virtual senses) are desired here
> as well (i.e. a user could experience the world through three
> ports: "sight", "sound", and "touch", or even others such as
> "smell" and "infrared sight").
The protocol ideas I posted in a previous article mesh quite nicely with this
concept; they are the protcol that would be spoken over the software "ports"
you describe.
Real-world example, circa a few years from now:
I sit down at my computer at home, slip on a PowerGlove derivative and plug
it into my serial port. I also don a pair of eyephones and a pair of
earphones, both plugged into a board in my computer (which does the hard
work of rendering). This headpiece also has a microphone.
My computer opens an ISDN connection to your virtual world server. Actually,
two connections; one B-channel for audio and one for data, each bidirectional.
The audio channel uses existing data compression to fit two 15 khz channels
(for stereo) into one 64kbit data stream from the host; my own outgoing audio
is mono, and is mixed (in software) with any other sounds my computer has
stored in digital form that might emanate from my virtual persona.
(If I want to enter a room with a choir of angelic voices, why not?)
The data channel uses something like the protocol we were discussing some
articles back to relay information about me and mine to a port on your
virtual room server, and to accept (and, using the special board, display)
information about you and yours and the other occupants of the room from
you. Your server does the appropriate summing of everyone's audio and sends
it to me as a stereo signal.
A single board that has the rendering hardware, the eyephone/earphone/micro-
phone connection and a standard ISDN interface should be off-the-shelf
hardware in a few years.
In fact, why not throw in a small processor, case and power supply and
sell is as a self-contained unit? No computer-literacy needed... it's the
next Nintendo. You put on the headgear and glove, plug it into your ISDN
jack, and off you go...
The key here (as has been mentioned in previous articles) is a standard
protocol, simple and extensible and public domain. That way free competition
and market forces will keep the price down and make the box available to
everybody (and lead to better, more powerful boxes).
--
Bernie Roehl, University of Waterloo Electrical Engineering Dept
Mail: broehl@watserv1.waterloo.edu OR broehl@watserv1.UWaterloo.ca
BangPath: {allegra,decvax,utzoo,clyde}!watmath!watserv1!broehl
Voice: (519) 885-1211 x 2607 [work]
--
Christopher Lishka 608-262-4485 "Dad, don't give in to mob mentality!"
Wisconsin State Lab. of Hygiene -- Bart Simpson
lishka@uwslh.slh.wisc.edu "I'm not, Son. I'm jumping on the bandwagon."
uunet!uwvax!uwslh!lishka -- Homer Simpson