From: dstampe@psych.toronto.edu (Dave Stampe)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Needed: REND386 Worlds for publication!
Date: 9 Oct 92 15:54:01 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Oct10.174219.17303
Organization: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
Originator: hlab@stein.u.washington.edu



WANTED-- REND386 WORLDS, FOR PUBLICATION

Now that Release 4 of REND386 is (finally) out, we are working on a
book based on REND386.  For this, we need 10-15 worlds, in addition to
the few that we've thrown together for test purposes.  We'd like to
invite you to create worlds for inclusion.

The catch is that we really need them by November 15 at the latest.

You won't have to program to create the worlds-- just create object
(.plg) and world (.wld) script files with an ASCII text editor.  All
these file formats are documented in the DEMO4.ZIP file available by
FTP from sunee.uwaterloo.ca, along with a sample world.

Now to set some ground rules: you can use the room5.wld file and all
the objects in it as starting points, but please don't bother with
simple variations on that world.  We need DIFFERENT worlds: such as
outdoor scenes, cityscapes, 3D "oddity", and anything else you can
think of.  Let's show off the possibilities of VR!  Try and make the
worlds interesting, with several manipulable objects, interesting from
all angles, etc.

I think it would also be helpful to create an archive of .plg objects
for use in the worlds.  If you have neat objects, mail them to
broehl@sunee.uwaterloo.ca, and he'll archive them.  (Also, has anyone
gotten a .dxf translator going yet?)  Objects with less than 50 polys
are best and you can do neat things with 20 or so.  We need to keep
world poly counts at about 500 or less, so that the program will run
at a decent speed and won't run out of memory on some machines.

The worlds should all use the standard world scale (1.0 mm per unit)
unless you WANT some sort of minification or you want to do an
outer-space type scene.  You should also use the standard color set,
and assume 256 colors and lighting available (you can use flat colors
for objects as well).  The .wld file docs describe these and other
things.

Now, a very important point: animation and custom tasks.  In the
present DEMO4 release, there is only one real task: the "sculspin",
which just rotates an object.  Because the version for the book can be
different, we'll entertain suggestions of additional simple tasks,
such as sensor-dependent motion, linear motion with limits, etc.  We'd
try to keep a current list of accepted tasks so you can design them
into your world as well.  Let's set a deadline of, say, Oct. 17 for
new task proposals, and hope to have a book-version with them out by
Oct. 20 or so.

Additional things to be added to the world files might include text
pop-ups with world titles or mobile light sources, or loading and use
of multiple resolution objects.  Suggestions are welcome, but keep the
deadlines in mind!

If you have ANY questions, or need help in getting something to work,
please contact 

                        dstampe@psych.toronto.edu.

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| My life is Hardware,                    |         Dave Stampe          | 
| my destiny is Software,                 | dstampe@psych.toronto.edu    |
| my CPU is Wetware...                    | dstampe@sunee.uwaterloo.ca   | 
| Am I a techno-psychologist, or just an engineer dabbling in psychology?|
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