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From Your Street Corner to the Dunes of Mars, Virtual Environments in Vertical Applications Bruce Damer USC School of Cinema/TV, Robert Zemeckis Center January 12, 2005. Itinerary. Introduction I. Origins of the Visual Interface II. Early Applications of Virtual Worlds
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From Your Street Corner to the Dunes of Mars, Virtual Environments in Vertical ApplicationsBruce DamerUSC School of Cinema/TV, Robert Zemeckis CenterJanuary 12, 2005
Itinerary Introduction I. Origins of the Visual Interface II. Early Applications of Virtual Worlds III. Evolution of Dimensional and Community Cyberspaces IV. Experiments in Early Internet-based Virtual Worlds V. Industrial Applications: NASA VI. Team Distance Learning in Virtual Worlds: FIT Ratava’s Line VII. Darwin@Home! VIII. Acknowledgements and Resources
Introduction This tutorial will cover the commercial and educational use of virtual environments from industrial simulations for NASA to collaborative learning to fashion design. A history of the virtual environments field will be given to set today's context where we see some successful application of the medium. Detailed implementations of some vertical applications built using the new Adobe Atmosphere platform will be provided.
Origins of the Visual Interface • Bush (Memex), Nelson • Engelbart’s vision • SRI: NLS • 1968: Mother of all Demos • E&S, Imlacs 60s–1970s • Xerox PARC • Cray • Other early hardware
3D interfaces - evolution • 1970s wireframe to solid to ray traced – SIGGRAPH, ’74 • Maze War • Alvy Ray Smithframe buffer • 80s SGI • Real time rendering • Immersive VR • Commodity Virtual Worlds/Internet – 90s-2000s
Evolutionary Tree of Visual Computing Systems(DigiBarn Computer Museum)
II. Early Applications of Virtual Worlds • Simulation – weather, aerodynamics, cold war, Shuttle program • Render to film – Hollywood and TV • Experimental informational interfaces • Art/Experience - placeholder
Geographical Information Systems • Geographical Information Systems - GeoFusion textured 3D model of earth with real satellite imagery
Geographical Information Systems • Progressive texturing – Swiss Alps
Artistic and Pedagogical applications • Art/Experience – Placeholder, Osmose, Ars Electronica, SIGGRAPH, Krueger • Experimental Pedagogy – cyberfora @ ArtCenter- Vlearn SIG
Artistic and Pedagogical uses VLearn3D SIG and annual cyberconference
Experimental Frontiers of 3D environments • Evolutionary virtual worlds (Sims, Biota.org) • Modeling the large and the small scale (cosmology, quantum dynamics) • Tele-immersion
III. Evolution of Dimensional andCommunity Cyberspaces • The original Maze War - ARPANET • 1970s-80s DOD simulation and training • 1980s - MUDs, MOOs text-based virtual worlds • 1990s – Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM • 2000s Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming
Killer App Driving Evolution - GamesEverQuest • 75,000 to 100,000 users online at any one time • Feature film level budget and box office
GamesThe Sims Design and run your own “soap opera”, households, towns, businesses, in a sort of “puppet theater”
GamesVenture rush into the virtual worlds medium • There.com • Linden Labs “Second Life” • Star Wars Galaxies • Never Winter’s Night (DandD) • 20 other projects in the works • 3D Chipsets, automatic shaders, real-time rendering, George Lucas: game chip short film project
IV. Experiments in early Internet-based Virtual Worlds (1995-2002) • Contact Consortium: Silicon-Valley based nonprofit • DigitalSpace: commons-based for-profit corporation • Building and community experiments • Learning spaces • Collaboration spaces • Cyber-conferences
1995: Worlds Chat First net-based real time avatar space (Worlds Inc.)
1995: Alphaworld cityscape –a public building space on the net300,000 users as “avatars” 1 Billion objects placed since 1995
1996: Building and Community experimentsin Alphaworld and Active Worlds Sherwood Forest Towne
1996: Sherwood Towne construction experiment(featured at Ars Electronica 1997) Anthropology-driven experiment in virtual community construction
1996: User-created emergent social structures &activities – wedding Emergent space, experience, bottom-up contributions from community
1997: Generative Virtual SpacesBiota.org Nerve Garden, Siggraph
1998-99: Experimental Learning SpacesVirtual walk on the moon with Apollo IX astronaut Russell Schweickart
Experimental Learning SpacesVirtual walk on the moon with Apollo IX astronaut Russell Schweickart
1998: Experimental Collaboration SpacesDatafusion “war room”
1998: Experimental Collaboration Spaces Datafusion “war room”
1998-2003: AVATARS Cyber-conferencesAnnual festival of the avatar commons“the Burning Man of Bits”
1998-2003: AVATARS Cyber-conferences Avvy Awards
1998-2003: AVATARS Cyber-conferences Mixture of physical and virtual venuesCybertradeshow created by database
Case: Avatars2001 a cyberspace odyssey Multiple worlds, staging of attendees
Case: Avatars2001 a cyberspace odyssey Film/Story Reenactment
Case: Avatars2002 a merry cyber party Novel/Story Reenactment
V. Industrial Applications: NASA Drive On Mars (www.driveonmars.com) Mars Planetary Fractal Model BrahmsVE: FMARS Analogue Habitat PSA Robot aboard a Virtual Space Station
Drive On Mars Goals: Build on the positive experience from Pathfinder/1997 and offer a high fidelity yet low bandwidth 3D interactive experience of the MER/2004 surface operations and support a wide range of public outreach goals. 3D virtual terrain modeled from real MER data, simulation of vehicles making traverses, driving the virtual rovers through alternate traverses.
Drive On Mars • Inspired by Pathfinder/Sojourner experience in 1997: QTVR and VRML rich media • Virtual worlds are highly effective outreach tools, much lower bandwidth than video, higher interactivity, full distributability (a la SETI@Home) • Based on 4 years of platform development at Ames/RIACS and Digital Space: BrahmsVE platform
Apollonaris Volcano and Gusev Crater Mars Planetary Fractal Model
View to Gusev and Apollonaris (exaggerated scale) Mars Planetary Fractal Model
BrahmsVE: FMARS Analogue HabitatA virtual environment for discrete agent work practice simulation • Collaboration between RIACS and Digital Space • Begun in 2000, simulates “day in life” aboard FMARS