HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: seawasp@unixd1.cis.pitt.edu
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: TECH: Number-generating steam plant simulator wanted
Date: 6 Apr 92 19:26:23 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Apr8.051500.4534
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu





        I'm hoping there are a few wizards out there who can help me 
with the following problem.

        I need a program which will simulate, NUMBER-wise (the displays
will be driven by the numbers -- display program already exists) the
operation of a simplistic steam plant: i.e., boiler with water, steam to 
turbine, turbine spinning, generating power from the spin, condensing
the water, and returning the water to the boiler for another cycle.

        The inputs which are to be able to be adjusted by the user
(possibly by running this program as a subprogram) are :
        1) Fuel flow to boiler
        2) Water to boiler from condenser -- obviously with controls to prevent
overfilling boiler or allowing water to come from condenser when there
is none
        3) A makeup pump (for possible lost water), only on/off in nature.
I'd like, however, to be able to possibly modify the amount of water that
the makeup pump delivers when on, not while running the program but to
be able to set it at different levels.

        The outputs are to be the boiler water level and the speed of
the turbine.

        Concealed inputs (ones that the USER won't control, but which
will be passed to the simulator from the external program) will be
the load on the generator and "trip" inputs -- booleans which will trigger
a FAILURE in some part of the system, either a boiler leak, a steam leak,
or a condenser leak.

        The program is to be run on a Sun SPARCstation. The other programs
it is to work with are written in C, so obviously it's got to be compatible
with the other programs.

        One thing it does NOT have to do is be mathematically/physically
perfect. It DOES have to be good enough so that an engineer could watch
the behavior of the system and say "close enough", but it doesn't have
to do thermodynamic modeling of a steamplant cycle if simpler mathematics
will do.

        I'm SURE some such programs exist -- it's a relatively elementary
problem in engineering; I'm looking for a good source program, one that
has been tested (hopefully) and I can get working quickly.


                        Thanks,

                                        Ryk E. Spoor
                                        SEAWASP@vm2.cis.pitt.edu
                                     or seawasp@unixd1.cis.pitt.edu
From: machin@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Dave Machin)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: TECH: VR Studio Demo?
Date: 7 Apr 92 21:08:11 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Apr8.164512.1788
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



I'm glad you asked about the VRS demo adventure...

 I can find 4 gold bars:
  
  1 by the head whos mouth moves.  (Go through the center building and down
                                    the trap door in the rear)
  1 by the tree on the cliff
  1 in the water by the lighthouse (Get the rope from the room with moving
                                    blocks and then click on the sign on the
                                    cliff to climb down)
  1 on the roof of the building    (Click the first triangle on the left, then
                                    click the cube which appears on the right,
                                    then click the middle and lower triangles)

I can't find the last one and its making me mad  :-)..anyone know any more?
From: sorrow@oak.circa.ufl.edu
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: TECH: Synchronized communications between various machines
Date: 6 Apr 92 09:18:00 GMT
Organization: The CIRCA Underground
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu


|>Treat your system of interlinked machine as one system and have the 
|>faster machines do the number crunching and the slower machines all the 
|>other processes,  then feed this information onto your buses with an
|>indectification for each different type of data.  Like packet 
|>I think.  That way you should get a FASTER system as a whole than a 
|>slower system.
|>
|>Each machine would be fed it's share of the programs when it 'logs on'
|>so the more machines there are the more power you have.
|>
|>Each machine would have a base program,  every machine would have 
|>this, to run the world and the communications then other programs to
|>be run as subroutines  (turbo c like) when they log on.

I thought of this method, however it seemed to me when I did some
offhand calculations that the speed of the transfer would be SLOWER
than if the client machine had just done the math itself!  For example,
would it be faster to send a 4x4 matrix of 32-bits ( 512-bits ) for
the rotation and translation, for 1024 bits, plus about ten bytes of
other data.  This works out to about 1100 bits.  If I want to support
a serial line, for two machines for now, this would be about 1100 bits
for every update.  Thus each update could be transfered at about 1/8th
or so of a second.

So, I guess the question still is:  will calculations, on the average,
for the 4 x 4 matrices be faster than about 120msec?  I think so.  So
that leaves us at our original problem -- having faster machines
synch to slower machines without having them bog down.

Any suggestions or corrections are welcome.
From: 092133@adpdp2.lanl.gov (092133)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: JOBS: Collaborating on NLP and Similar Applications of VR
Date: 6 Apr 92 21:10:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: adpdp2.6APR199214100573
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory, EMVAX
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu


I am looking for one or two technical collaborators (coauthors and developers)
to do a paper/proposal for prototyping NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) and
other similar applications of VR technology.  The audience for the proposal are
human potential/motivational businesses and individuals and NLP organizations. 
These people a)pride themselves on staying on the cutting edge of new learning
technologies and b) have the ability to fund VR development in this area.  The
objective of the proposal is to receive funding for prototyping one or more of 
the proposed applications.  An additional objective is to become published.

I believe VR has a real and profitable future with those technologies of the
mind that rely on visualization and multisensory learning experiences. 
Currently, the human potential business is a 200 to 400 billion dollar 
industry. It is predicted that this industry will become one of the top ten of 
the 90s. It is already one of the fastest growing.

I bring to this project a background in computer technical writing and
experience with and contacts within the motivational business.  If you have a
background in a variety of VR applications, believe what you think you are you
are, and are willing to work with a quick-learning, enthusiastic novice,
contact me at either my EM address:

palmer_mary_m@allin1.adpdp2.lanl.gov

or my mailing address:

Mary Margaret Palmer
2376 Camino Capitan #2
Santa Fe, NM 87505 
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: 092133@adpdp2.lanl.gov (092133)
Subject: TECH: Lawnmower Man Graphics
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory, EMVAX
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 18:01:00 GMT


Xaos Inc., a San Francisco computer animation firm whose name is pronounced
chaos, is making is offbeat handle know for combining artistic vision and
high-tech gymnastics for television and movies. 

Xaos is known in the small but highly competitive industry for the look of its
graphics, described as "organic" or "painterly" in contrast with the
sharp-edged appearance common to much of computer animation.

"It's a very, very unique look -- flowing motion, everything blending
together," said Andrew Barauskas, spokesman for the National Computer Graphics
Association.  The trade group earlier this month awarded Xaos first prize in
its annual computer animation competition for its water-in-a-bottle opening for
the 1991 MTV series "Liquid Television."

Creating the unique look is Xaos' goal.  By writing its own software, the
company has exclusive tools to put its ideas on the canvas of TV or movie
screens, said Xaos co-founder Arthur Schartzberg. [The other co-founder is
Michael Tolson.] 

Most of the animators and programmers on Xaos' 23 member staff have fine-arts
backgrounds said Mark Mahlberg, the company's artistic director.  "That's our
thing -- creativity and doing things that are driven more by aesthetics than
money," he said. 
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: cyclone@netcom.com (Bill Sheppard)
Subject: Re: TECH: VR Studio Demo?
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 02:11:31 GMT


machin@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Dave Machin) writes:
>I'm glad you asked about the VRS demo adventure...

> I can find 4 gold bars:
>  
>  1 by the head whos mouth moves.  (Go through the center building and down
>                                    the trap door in the rear)
>  1 by the tree on the cliff
>  1 in the water by the lighthouse (Get the rope from the room with moving
>                                    blocks and then click on the sign on the
>                                    cliff to climb down)
>  1 on the roof of the building    (Click the first triangle on the left, then
>                                    click the cube which appears on the right,
>                                    then click the middle and lower triangles)

>I can't find the last one and its making me mad  :-)..anyone know any more?

I have found a fifth bar by leaving the boat, which puts me on an island. 
Unfortunately I can't get off the island.  Please help - I'm going insane!

Bill
-- 
***************************** cyclone@netcom.com  ******************************
*                           Witty Signature Pending                            *
*                       Applications Now Being Accepted...                     *
********************************************************************************
From: andrews@magstim.njit.edu (John Andrews)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: APPS/CONF: Virtual Reality in Medicine
Date: 15 Apr 92 12:34:54 GMT
Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, N.J.
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu


I am involved in the planning of the 1993 NorthEast
Bioengineering Conference (IEEE-EMBS sponsored)
and am interested in possibly adding a special
session on Virtual Reality in Medicine.

At this point I need comments and pointers from
anyone with a background in VR and knowledge of
medicial applications, research into such applications,
and/or ideas about such applications.

Virtual Reality is new and especially new to 
the biomedical engineering community, so this special 
session should include invited speakers on VR in
overview, VR applications as they are realized today,
the directions of VR research into medical applications,
and, if possible, discussion of actual research into
specdific medical applications going ontoday.

The 1993 Confrence will be held in March at the 
New Jersey Institute of Technology, in Newark, New Jersey.

Thanks for any and all comments.


                                                -=john


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
john f andrews                SYSOP           The Biomedical Engineering BBS
    24 hrs             300/1200/2400/4800               (201) 596-5679
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTERNET andrews@MagStim.njit.edu                              CIS 73710,2600
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: parkhill@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Robert Parkhill)
Subject: Re: APPS: VRS Demo 
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: U. of Calgary Computer Science
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 02:38:06 GMT


I've seen o lot of talk on this VR studio demo here, but I have no
idea
what it is, where I can get it, and what is involved in running it!
Can someone please help me out and clue me in?
Thanks
                Rob Parkhill
                parkhill@cpsc.ucalgary.ca

[Moderator (Mark): The VR Studio demo is a 3D adventure game that runs
        on a PC with VGA graphics-- it is now available in our FTP 
        archive-- that's milton.u.washington.edu, in the directory
        ~ftp/public/virtual-worlds/cheap-vr/, filename is VRSdemo.zip.
        More info on what the VR Studio is lies therein.]
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: alan@pluto.jpl.nasa.gov (Alan Quan)
Subject: CONF: SpaceOps 92 Demonstrations
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 20:31:59 GMT



*************************************************************

    Call for Participation - SpaceOps 1992 Demonstrations

                    November 17-20, 1992
                 Jet Propulsion Laboratory
                    Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

*************************************************************



As space missions have become increasingly diverse, complex, and
expensive, mission operations and ground systems have emerged as
critical factors in the success of those missions.  Future success in
space will depend upon the people and systems that control spacecraft
from the ground.

SpaceOps 92, the Second International Symposium on Ground Data Systems
for Space Mission Operations, will provide a unique opportunity for the
people who perform space mission activities to exchange information,
discoveries, and plans for the future.  SpaceOps 92 will focus on a
number of key activities:

        o  Mission control and data management
        o  Space mission navigation
        o  Space vehicle health and trend analysis
        o  Data acquisition systems
        o  Science planning and data analysis
        o  Operations system architectures and concepts
        o  Automation and emerging technologies
        o  Mission and science activity planning, programming, and sequencing


DEMONSTRATIONS
--------------
In addition to formal papers, SpaceOps 92 will feature demonstrations.
Demonstrations show how an organization has approached a particular
problem related to the symposium theme.  Demonstrations may take the
form of "show and tell" at workstations or consoles, videotapes,
multimedia presentations, or live demonstrations.  Demonstrations
should showcase recently developed applications, not commercial tools.

If you would like to perform a demonstration of your space mission
operations related software or hardware, please submit a 250-word
description of the proposed demonstration via EMAIL or FAX,
by April 17, 1992 to:

    Ursula Schwuttke
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory
    phone:  (818) 354-0914

    email:  ursula@nereid.jpl.nasa.gov
    FAX:  (818) 393-4089

Please do not reply on USENET.  Please include your phone number, FAX
number (if available), and email address.
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: <LRM104@psuvm.psu.edu>
Subject: Re: TECH: VR Studio Demo?
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 14:26:12 GMT


There's a coconut on the tree which you can eat to regain health.  In addition,
the coconut contains a wooden key, which I presume is used to open the wooden
chest.  My problem is, every time I pick up the key, the demo acts as if I did,
but my inventory shows nothing and I can't manipulate the chest lock.  Also,
when you walk around on the island, the demo beeps at a certain location as if
you have walked over an object, but there is nothing there.  This location is
close to the shaded area on the ground by the tree (I haven't been able to
decide whether this shaded area is a shadow, rock, buried boat, etc.).  Also,
could anyone do anything useful in the lighthouse?

Lance Miller
"Dangerous in my silence, deadly to my cause..." - Tate, Wilton
From: briancom@u.washington.edu (Brian Weaver)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: CULTURE: Lawnmowerman
Date: 11 Apr 92 18:33:01 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Apr12.001247.1441
Organization: University of Washington
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu


Dear folks;
        The current issue of the American Cinematographer (April 1992) has
an article on the movie.
        Highlights of the article are that the movie contains 20min of digital
based effects as well as other postproduction work.
        The movie used a number of companies in the production work that were
seeking "a showpiece". Companies enlisted were XAOS, inc. in SF, Angel Studios
in San Diego and The Gosney Company, Homer & Associates in LA.
        Mark Malmberg of XAOS reports that various software imagry
programs were created in-house as well as images generated from scratch with
live-action transferred from film to D-1 and then manipulated.
        There is no discussion of workstations used in the film.
        The same magazine has an article called "The Dawning of the Digital
Age" by Bob Fisher, that discusses the use of digital effects in
production and post-production as well as digital sound. Companies
discussed are: Boss Film, ILM, Ultimatte, Eastman Kodak, R/Greenberg &
Associates, Digital Productions, Apogee Productions, Rhythm & Hues, and
Pacific Title & Art.
        It's clear from the article that like Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer;
" You ain't seen nothin' yet!"
        Digital imaging is altering the movies as much or more than
the industry was altered in the '20's by the advent of sound.
        Further: It is clear that from now on the use of the photo and film as
evidence is over. 
        Example: That nice flying motorcycle with Arnold on board in T2 was 
done by the use of heavy cables. The cables were simply digitally painted
out in post-production. Investigation of the film itself does not reveal this.
        We could claim: It really did happen!
                
        
                                                        Aloha
                                                    Brian Weaver
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: jcnpc!jcn@cis.ohio-state.edu (James C. Nugen)
Subject: Re: TECH: Using TI340x0
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: Homebrew Virtual Reality Labs
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 01:55:02 GMT


(montefus@hp1.sm.dsi.unimi.it) writes: 
> I have just one question: if the i860 is SO good in rendering, why does
> ProVision use, for the graphic boards, the i860 (for 3D trasformations) and
> a Toshiba HSP Polygon Processor for the Gouraud rendering?

Because the Toshiba Gouraud Shading Processor (GSP) is much faster at
rendering polygons than the i860.  A single GSP can do 8M Gouraud-shaded
pixels/sec.  You can use four GSP's in parallel to get 32Mpixels/sec.
However, the GSP does have a problem!  Because the GSP only has two 16-bit
interpolators, one for Z depth and one for intensity, it is necessary to
use two GSP's in a special configuration to get RGB.  But as a bonus you
could use 48-bit color! :)

James Nugen
jcn@jcnpc.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J Eric Townsend)
Subject: Re: ADMIN: of PowerGlove lists and FAQs
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: UH Dept of Math
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 19:49:50 GMT


"James" == James Gustave <speth@cats.UCSC.EDU> writes:
James> way to get on the list was to send a message to
James> listserv@karazm.math.uh.edu with a message of: subscribe
James> glove-list your_name Then to mail posts to
James> glove-list@karazm.math.uh.edu.  Is this correct?  I tried
James> posting tests, but never received them.

In theory, that should work.  In practive, the daemon that handles
the mailing list crashes on a regular basis, so I have to run it by
*hand*.  THe problem is I occasionally forget to run it for a few
days.  I suspect that when crashing, it also fails do deliver some
mail.

Sorry,

--
J. Eric Townsend - jet@uh.edu - Systems Wrangler, UH Dept of Mathematics
Note! New vox number: (713) 743-3466  '91 CB750, DoD# 0378
     Want to report illegal or corrupt activities by a federal agency?
        Call the Federally-sponsored Whistleblower BBS: 202.225.5527
From: reha@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Reha Elci)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: PHIL: Escape into the artificial world (Was Re: SOC: Social
Date: 15 Apr 92 21:43:51 GMT
Organization: Columbia University
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



>  Virtual Reality is the latest attempt of Western White man to turn away
>  from the natural world into an artificial one, since he can't hack it
>  with the former.  HE has lost it and he is totally lost...

Ok. Let us suppose that we have advanced to the "holodeck" stage where we
can create artificial worlds using "programs" and interact with this world
with full sensory feedback. In fact, it is at a point where we cannot
possibly differentiate it from the real thing.

So why would we care about "reality"? Isn't it better to live in a completely
controlled domain? In fact, it would be a lot safer, a lot more accomodating
and a lot more efficient in the sense that context switching from a redwood
forest to "home" would be in milliseconds rather than 10 hours of travel time.

There is no pride in "hacking it" in the real world -- the real world is a
very inefficient place with needless physical boundaries where valuable
human time is lost for absolutely no reason. The sooner we get rid of it
the better!

Reha Elci

PS: how is that for a controversial position?
From: LRM104@psuvm.psu.edu
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: PHIL: Escape into the artificial world (Was Re: SOC: Social
Date: 15 Apr 92 18:13:28 GMT
Organization: Penn State University
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu


It is possible, however, that these Western White addiction-prone escapist etc
etc people (myself definitely included) are NOT increasing the destruction of
our environment or ignoring important cultural issues BECAUSE they are escaping
into TV, VR, or any other dirty two lettered technological worlds.  The truth
may be that this inferred downward-spiralling existance of ours is repulsive or
at least less interesting or magnetic than the artificial realities offered by
technology (or sex, drugs, or even (gasp) rock-n-roll for that matter).  We,
and you, sir, are merely escaping because we are unsatisfied by the reality we
were dealt.  It is my firm belief that there is NO harm in this (the effect may
actually be theraputic) as long as we remember which reality is truely ours,
and possibly spend some time trying to improve IT.  =:-(

Lance Miller
"Dangerous in my silence, deadly to my cause..." - Tate, Wilton