HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jew5001@venus.tamu.edu (WILLIAMSON, JOHN EDWARD)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: TECH: Software for those without anonymous ftp: America On Line
Date: 21 Aug 92 19:01:40 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Aug21.194930.21694
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



Rend386 as well as several SEGA drivers and a half dozen worlds
created with Virtual Reality Studio are available on America On Line
(AOL).  This is a commercial BBS like compuserve or Prodigy and you
can get 5 free hours if you look in your favorite computer magazine
for one of their ads.  This BBS will allow those of you with out
access to anonymous ftp sites (and there are a whole bunch of you) to
get some of the PC software discussed here on sci.virtual-worlds.
There is also a special interest group on virtual reality forming and
at least 25% of this group's members have constructed either the SEGA
or Powerglove interface.

John W.
From: William.Welch@A.GP.CS.CMU.EDU
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: HUMOR (I think!)  (Was: Re: ADMIN: 1st Call for Vote:
Date: 18 Aug 92 15:46:28 GMT
Organization: University of Washington
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



I don't think sci.virtual-worlds.apps will cut it finely enough
to get rid of the annoying traffic. I'd propose the following
additional special-interest groups:

sci.virtual-worlds.why-read-the-literature
        Many interesting standards discussions could take place here.

sci.virtual-worlds.>10frames-sec-who-needs-it
        For the Autodesk crowd. 

sci.virtual-worlds.experience
        Posts to the tune of "we built foo and here's what it's like."
        A very low-traffic group.

-- will
From: 73317.646@CompuServe.COM (Dan D. Gutierrez)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: PUBS: BOING BOING (Was Re: PUBS: MONDO 2000)
Date: 21 Aug 92 16:02:03 GMT
Organization: University of Washington
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



I really like MONDO 2000, but as has been pointed out, it can be a bit
obtuse.  I've discovered another periodical that is more down to
earth. BOING BOING is a cyberpunk tabloid with all anyone could desire
when pondered against the new technobabble that's becoming pervasive
these days.  Check it out...

_ddg
From: cjp@robots.oxford.ac.uk (Christopher Patmore)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: INDUSTRY: W Industries current address?
Date: 11 Aug 92 13:38:38 GMT
Organization: Programming Research Group, Computing Laboratory, Oxford, UK.
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



In article <1992Aug10.164648.22231@u.washington.edu> 
csg078@cck.coventry.ac.uk (~Zebedee~) writes:

>Does anyone know the address of Leicester (UK) based VR company W-Industries?

I've never tried this out but I think it's correct.

        W Industries Ltd.
        ITEC House
        26-28 Chancery Street
        Leicester LE1 5WD
        England

        Telephone: (44) (533) 542 127
        Fax:       (44) (533) 548 222


Chris Patmore
From: clarke@acme.ucf.edu (Thomas Clarke)
Subject: Re: INDUSTRY: Nintendo & Sega?
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: University of Central Florida
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 17:22:56 GMT



In article <1992Aug17.062955.23669@u.washington.edu>
76130.2225@CompuServe.COM (John Eagan) writes:

> The thing _I_ want to know about is this: in an edition of Cyberedge
> (November?) there was a report about a joint effort between AGE (the
> Powerglove folks!) and Texas Instruments to develop a "home" HMD, sort
> of in the same way as AGE adapted the VPL Dataglove to a cheap "home
> version", I guess. The thing that got my attention (besides the
> obvious) was a line about something like "using a new optical chip to
> provide resolution comparable to HDTV" (paraphrased...something close
> to that wording). This particular notice sure caught MY attention!
> Unfortunately, that's the last I heard about it. What is the story
> here? What's happening now? What exactly IS this "new optical chip"??
> I want DETAILS!. :-)

This must be the MMD (Moveable Mirror Device) chip being developed at
TI with funding from DARPA.  Its a micromechanical way of spatially
modulating light.  Think of a memory chip where the insulation under
the bit storage capacitors has been etched away.  Storing voltages on
the capacitor array using the usual row and column addressing scheme
then makes the electrodes move in response to the voltage stored on
each.  With proper optics, the electrode motion turns into reflection/
non-reflection of a light source and hence an image.  Mechanical
response delays are not a problem since what matters is the frame to
frame time scale, not the pixel clock; individual electrode voltages
only change between frames.

I think this technology has big promise.  A, nowadays measely, 1 Meg
ram chip potentially becomes a 1024 by 1024 display device that fits
on your thumb nail.

It seems only a few have been made to date though, and you have to
have connections to get one.  We have government contracts and even so
had to pull all sorts of strings to get a primitive (on-off, 128 by
128) MMD for some infrared experimentation.  Your information seems to
imply things are moving along. 
 -- 
Thomas Clarke 
Institute for Simulation and Training, 
University of Central FL 
12424 Research Parkway, Suite 300, 
Orlando, FL 32826 
(407)658-5030, FAX: (407)658-5059, 
clarke@acme.ucf.edu
From: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu (Human Int. Technology Lab)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: CONF: 2nd Virtual Reality and Disabilities Conf., Los Angeles, Mar 93
Date: 20 Aug 92 19:53:53 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Aug20.200632.17060
Organization: HIT Lab, Seattle WA.
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



California State University, Northridge (CSUN), announces its Second
Annual Virtual Reality and Persons with Disabilities Conference for
March 17-20, 1993, at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel as a
part of its Eight Annual Conference on Technology and Persons with
Disabilities.  CSUN's 1992 conference derw 2,200 participants, 276
speakers, and 102 exhibitors, according to Dr. Harry J. Murphy,
Conference Director.
 
A single copy of the PROCEEDINGS from the first Virtual Reality and
Persons with Disabilities Conference is available at no cost from
CSUN.  It includes a dozen papers, including a Keynote Address by
Jaron Lanier, Founder and Chief Scientist of VPL Research, Inc.

Speakers applying virtual worlds technology to the problems of people
with disabilities are invited to be speakers at the next conference.

For more information, contact:

        Dr. Harry Murphy
        Conference Director
        Technology & Persons with Disabilities
        California State University, Northridge
        18111 Nordhoff Avenue, DVSS
        Northridge, CA 91330 USA

        +1-818-885-2578 phone
        +1-818-885-4929 fax
From: jtt@icf.hrb.com (Jack Taylor)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: DESIGN: doors between worlds
Date: 12 Aug 92 13:51:35 GMT
Organization: HRB Systems, Inc.
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



How about when I initially connect to the "router" I get placed in a
"waiting room" (Can't you picture it, plants, some dog-eared old
magazines, elevator muzak), which contains portals for all the worlds
that router knows about. From there I can select the world I want to
enter. World creators don't necessarily know about all the other world
creators in a manner which would allow them to simple attach worlds
arbitrarily.

Portals really have to have some defined graphical representation so a
traveler always knows when he/she sees one. I hate the door analogy
but it just might be the best one. How about just a strechy hole? I
can reach my hands in and pull it open and look "inside". How about a
phone booth with a "directory"? Dial a world!

--------------------------------------------------------------
| Jack Taylor      |                                         | 
| HRB-Systems      |                                         |
| jtt@icf.hrb.com  |                                         |
--------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: dstamp@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (Dave Stampe-Psy+Eng)
Subject: Re: TECH: Maximum lag time?
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 17:07:11 GMT



In article <l8j4l1INN4ev@news.bbn.com> pjm@bbn.com (Paul J. Metzger) writes:

>Many helmet display systems we've seen have a fairly large lag time
>associated with them with an end result being images that appear to
>slosh around.
>
>Our question for the net is: What is the maximum acceptable lag time
>from when a position/orientation sensor detects new data to when a
>computer generated image is displayed, such that the "perceived" lag
>is negligible?

I don't have my sources handy, but as I recall anything below 50 mS is
considered negligable, anything over 250 mS is quite nasty.  500 mS or
more is almost unusable.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| My life is Hardware,                    |                              | 
| my destiny is Software,                 |         Dave Stampe          |
| my CPU is Wetware...                    |                              | 
| Anybody got a SDB I can borrow?         | dstamp@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca |
__________________________________________________________________________
From: scholkows@cc.curtin.edu.au
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: MISC: Looking for VR people in Western Australia!
Date: 11 Aug 92 07:16:13 GMT
Organization: Curtin University of Technology
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



HI,
        I study at Curtin University in Western Australia.  The university
is starting a VR project.  What Im looking for is some other people/groups
in WA who are doing similar research and want to swap notes.

Any interested people should Email me..

MArtin

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Internet: SCHOLKOWS@cc.curtin.edu.au
 Bitnet: SCHOLKOWS%cc.curtin.edu.au@cunyvm.bitnet
 UUCP  : uunet!munnari.oz!cc.curtin.edu.au!SCHOLKOWS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: doelz@comp.bioz.unibas.ch (Reinhard Doelz)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: CONF: Molecular Graphics and the Design of Bioactive Compounds,
Date: 14 Aug 92 00:01:54 GMT
Organization: University of Washington
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu


Crossposted from news.announce.conferences


                   Preliminary Announcement:



       /--\                    ================================
       \--/
        ||    ...                 Molecular Graphics Society
   \   /  \  :   :
    \ /    \. ... :                 12th Annual Conference
     |      . .  :
     |      . ...:             ================================
    / \    / :    :
   /   \  /   :..:
        ||                        Interlaken, June 8-11, 1993
       /--\                             SWITZERLAND
       \--/




   Molecular Graphics and the Design of Bioactive Compounds


The conference will focus on molecular graphics applied to the design of
bioactive compounds. Methods, applications, and the most recent research
in this exciting area of computational chemistry will be presented.  The
preliminary program will be distributed in the 1st Circular October '92.

Interlaken is a beautiful place located in the swiss alps. Besides  the
scientific program, touristic facilities are provided.


Contact: Dr. H.P.Weber                              Tel. +41 61 324 4343
         Sandoz Pharma AG                           Fax. +41 61 324 2686
         CH 4002 Basel
         SWITZERLAND            electronic Mail  mgs@comp.bioz.unibas.ch
+----------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
|    Dr. Reinhard Doelz            | RFC     doelz@urz.unibas.ch         |
|      Biocomputing                | DECNET  20579::48130::doelz         |
|Biozentrum der Universitaet       | X25     022846211142036::doelz      |
|   Klingelbergstrasse 70          | FAX     x41 61 261- 6760 or 267- 2078
|     CH 4056 Basel                | TEL     x41 61 267- 2076 or 2247    |
+------------- bioftp.unibas.ch is the SWISS EMBnet node ----------------+
               -----------------------------------------
From: twatson@hfnet.bt.co.uk (Toby Watson)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: SCI: Voxels vs. Polygons
Date: 21 Aug 92 08:12:28 GMT
Organization: BT Laboratories
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



From article <1992Aug20.181228.9880@u.washington.edu>, by bobp@hal.com
(Bob Pendelton):
  
>> How do you define rotation with voxel-objects, it seems that any
>> inaccuracy (inevitable?) in final coordinates would randomize the
>> voxel-object after significant rotations?
> 
> I haven't done this, so this could be pure ****, but I suspect that
> the shearing based rotation techniques that work for pixmaps can be
> generalized from 2 to 3 dimensions. Cumulative rotations might have
> nasty end results. But, if you keep track of the total rotation and
> always generate the rotated object based on the base object and the
> total rotation, instead of doing incremental rotations, you should get
> good results. And, I doubt that it is cheaper to use incremental
> rotations.

  Voxel objects can be rotated, you use the same maths that you use
  for polygon vertice rotations. On the issue of cumulative errors,
  this is the same as 2D texture rotation, you have to keep track
  of calculation accuracy and ensure that the sample frequency is
  high enough to avoid spatial aliasing. Easy enough and voxels will
  be a part of VR someday....but not on a PC !

----------------
Toby Watson - I really must get a signature sorted out...
----------------
From: fuller@aedc-vax.af.mil
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: APPS: MIS VR Application?
Date: 14 Aug 92 07:21:12 GMT
Organization: Arnold Engineering Development Center
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



Greetings.  My name is Sean Fuller.  I work for the Arnold Engineering
and Development Center on the Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee.  I
am a database administrator there.  Concurrently I am pusuing a
Masters degree in Computer Science at the University of Tennessee
Space Institute with an emphasis in Artificial Intelligence.  I just
recently found this news group and I am very enthusiastic.  I have
been following the developments in Virtual Reality for several years
now.

Now that I have the introduction over with, you may ask yourself,
"What is a Database Administrator doing in a VR news group?"  Well,
I'll tell ya.  I have been trying for some time now to interest some
of the budgeting powers that be to turn loose of some money to try to
do something with this new technology, and I am looking for ideas
about how VR can be applied to areas that are a lot different from the
typical CAD/Scientific stuff.

I would like any ideas I can get about how VR can be used for MIS type
applications.  If I can find one, I just may be able to create a real
project here.  Any input I get would be great.  We'll just consider
this a big electronic brain-storming session.  Please mail your
responses directly to me, and I will summarize them and post to this
group.

My primary concern is with the mapping between a typical MIS
application and VR.  Typical applications include; budgeting, accounts
receivable, inventory tracking, work management, project planning,
executive information systems, etc.

Thank you for your replies.


Sean Fuller
Database Administrator
Arnold Engineering and Development Center
FULLER@aedc-vax.af.mil
(615)454-5312
From: zharman@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (Raven Zachary)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: PUB: New Cylinder Introductory Posting
Date: 12 Aug 92 04:29:22 GMT
Organization: University of Washington
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



                                   CYLINDER

               the society for the philosophy of tools and space


   We are an interdisciplinary and "multinational" organization, small
but growing, dedicated to thoughtful discussion about and research
into issues concerning tools and space.  Currently, we maintain a
membership list and circulate a short newslwetter.  But our future
plans call for expansion - a number of conferences and a journal are
possible in the next few years.  Within the scope of our society,
members have raised diverse and fascinating issues for consideration,
including but not limited to the following:

- The role of equipment in Heidegger: the tool and truth in _Sein und Zeit_
- Bergson; Levinas and the concept of hypostasis
- Baudrillard & Virilio: speed, the simulacrum and "crystal revenge"
- Marx: from use- to exchange-value; the deterritorializing adventure of
  capital and surplus-value
- Deleuze/Guattari: desiring machines, paranoid machines, miraculating
  machines, celibate machines
- The mechanics of the dreamwork in psycho-analysis
- Poetics of space a la Bachelard
- Figural and rhetorical aspects of the tool in literature; the delirious
  machines of Poe, Kafka, Ballard, and Borges
- bolo'bolo and other political theories of reterritorialization
- Architectural theory and practice
- Media theory
- Virtual reality: the emergence of simulacra in social space
- Transit technology and urban planning
- Infrastructure catastrophes: the Chicago freight tunnel flood
- The iconology of computers, especially the Macintosh
- A philosophy of toys
- The tool/toy of language and its (dys)function: the Zen koan, the joke

Membership is free.  Just send your name and address to be placed on our list.

                                   CYLINDER
                         c/o Graham Harman, secretary
                      Philosophy Dept., DePaul University
                                Chicago IL, USA
                                     60614
                           email: cylinder@uiowa.edu



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Cylinder:  The International Society for the Philosophy of Tools and Space
         Raven Zachary, Director of Information   <cylinder@uiowa.edu>        
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: d3g450@tnp_op.pnl.gov
Subject: Re: DESIGN: doors between worlds
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs, Richland, WA
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 18:59:21 GMT



In article <1992Aug12.085135.19434@icf.hrb.com>, jtt@icf.hrb.com (Jack
Taylor) writes:

|> How about when I initially connect to the "router" I get placed in a
|> "waiting room" (Can't you picture it, plants, some dog-eared old
|> magazines, elevator muzak), which contains portals for all the worlds
|> that router knows about. From there I can select the world I want to
|> enter. World creators don't necessarily know about all the other world
|> creators in a manner which would allow them to simple attach worlds
|> arbitrarily.
|> 
|> Portals really have to have some defined graphical representation so a
|> traveler always knows when he/she sees one. I hate the door analogy
|> but it just might be the best one. How about just a strechy hole? I
|> can reach my hands in and pull it open and look "inside". How about a
|> phone booth with a "directory"? Dial a world!
|> 

Howdy...

   I've only been following this for a little while, but it seems to
me that there's going to be some difficulties with a portal system...

   1) if you have hundreds, or thousands of worlds you may end up with so
      many portals that a user might not be able to tell the
      differences between them (overload -o- information)

   2) The portal system needs to have some degree of intelligence. What
      happens if I want to travel to a world with a particular type of
      information... it may be easier just to specify what info I'm
      interested in, and get a choice of portals...

   3) Portals are old... as old as doors... how about a new representation?
      Opening a wormhole, or a temporary connection to other worlds, and
      then travelling though it. You close the connection afterwords, so
      that other users who aren't interested in your routes don't have to
      deal with them.

   4) Portals don't have to be represented as doors. Why not have some
      routing worlds which contain spatial representations of other worlds.
      This way you could travel to a central location, figure out what
      world you need to go to, and enter it from there.

   5) As far as I can see, a portal could be a mousehole, a coke can, a
      hole in the ground, aa walkman, or anything else that might help
      to clarify what it represents... You could simply move into it and
      be in a new world...

   Well that's just some food for thought I suppose... I also believe
that people will probably end up dealing with the same worlds on a
regular basis, so they will probably be able to remember them by name.
Imagining being able to open a wormhole, say a world name and be
there... Much better than fumbling around trying to find a portal
which connects...

-Marc
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: jimh@surreal.asd.sgi.com (Jim Helman)
Subject: Re: TECH: 3D modeling software: Has it been benchmarked anywhere?
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: Home for Degenerate Physicists
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 21:17:34 GMT



I wish there were more modelers suitable for creating high quality VR
databases.  A reasonable modeler for VR should support a number of
things:
        
        1) Texturing.
                a) associating textures with geometry
                b) mapping texture coordinates to polygon vertices
                c) cleanup and edge matching of texture images
                d) specification of multiple textures per polygon,
                e.g. RealityEngine allows detail textures (concrete)
                on top of a base texture (road marks and stripes).

        2) Level of detail models, i.e. specifying different models
        for different ranges or apparent sizes of the object on the
        screen, so that an object can be rendered as 50 polygons 
        when 200 pixels high and as a few polygons when 5 pixels high.

        3) Billboards, i.e. geometry which tracks the eyepoint.  When
        combined with transparent texturing, this provides a cheap way
        (few vertices to xform, minimal pixel fill) for doing low
        level-of-detail, single polygon models of things like trees or
        lamp posts.

        4) Priority of coplanar polygons, i.e. the ability to decal
        one polygon on top of another (a painting on a wall or stripes
        on a runway).

I imagine most modelers support parts of #1 and #4.  But I don't know
of any generally available ones which currently support all of them
directly.  No doubt more will in the future.

Software Systems' Multigen modeler directly supports most of #1 and
all of #2-#4.  For SGI users, the sample database loading code which
comes with IRIS Performer (SGI's new real time graphics toolkit) groks
Multigen files.  At SIGGRAPH, the databases for three of the four IRIS
Performer VR demos, i.e. the town (photorealistic buildings right down
to the 7-11 and the pawn shop), the skycycle game pod (redwood trees)
and the submarine demo (sub, sea floor and James Bond's Lotus), were
all modeled in MultiGen.

Unfortunately, Multigen is not only powerful, but also expensive by
most PC and workstation standards.

rgds,

-jim helman

jimh@surreal.asd.sgi.com
415/390-1151