From: John Eagan <76130.2225@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Re: PUBS REQUEST: Info on "Virtual Reality Playhouse"
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: University of Washington
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 19:10:17 GMT



chand@nyx.cs.du.edu (Chris Hand) writes:

>(re: Virtual Reality Playhouse By Nicholas Lavroff)
>I looked at this in a bookshop recently.
>
>There's nothing in there that you can't get for free from the
>internet.  Just another sad case of people cashing in on other
>people's Public Domain efforts, in my opinion.
>
>You'd do better to put your money towards a powerglove or some LCD
>glasses.  Then get REND386 for free.

There have been a few comments about Virtual Reality Playhouse here,
with a general tone similar to Chris' quote above. I suggest that
perhaps there's a little lack of perspective. Bashing the book for
it's perceived shortcomings in the view of those in this setting is a
bit silly, at best.

I communicate with Mitchell Waite on a fairly regular basis, and while
I wouldn't presume to speak for him, I'd like to offer my comments
about the book, based on my impressions and understanding of the
intentions of the book.

It should be realized, first of all, that the readers and contributors
of this newsgroup are not really the intended audience of the book.
Criticism of "VRP" as being lightweight rather misses the point. It
isn't an intensive analysis of the State of the Art of Virtual
Reality, and never pretends to be as much. It's a book intended for
the general public, for people who have a computer and a certain
amount of curiosity about this "virtual reality" stuff they keep
hearing about, and would like to get at least a general idea of what
it's about. It should be pretty obvious from the title what the book's
nature is.

Most people don't have access to SGI's, Crays, Suns, or other high
performance graphics workstations. Most people don't have access to
the sort of interface devices considered essential to "Real VR" by
some. Most people can't take a trip over to the lab at HITL, or
Wright-Patterson, or Chapel Hill, or wherever, to try out the latest
and greatest hardware.

Let's move down a bit in level. Most people don't have an opportunity
to sit down and crank up software like VREAM or WorldToolKit or Body
Electric or whatever, software that can be used with somewhat more
humble machinery.

Most people don't have access to internet FTP. For that matter, I'm a
little puzzled by the comment about FTP, because as far as I know only
one of the things included on the disk is available by FTP, the glove
code.  (By the way, let's also get rid of this often-stated concept of
internet being "free". Access to internet is not "free". At best, it's
only somebody else paying for it, and not YOU.)

For a lot of people, the book is a chance to get a general idea of
what VR is, get some basic information, and play around with some
software that demonstrates some ideas, using a piece of hardware that
they _do_ have access to, a common PC. With that, they also get a
broad overview of what the higher levels are, and some solid
information on who is doing what at those levels so they can
investigate further if they like. It does what it sets out to do, give
a _glimpse_ of what "virtual reality" is, in a readily accessible way.
There's nothing wrong with that, IMHO.

Certainly, for many of the people who participate here, "Virtual
Reality Playhouse" is slightly redundant, and lightweight. So what? I
wouldn't expect to see a group of Formula 1 drivers standing around
criticising a local go-kart track; I would consider it fairly useless
to see a group of filmmakers or video directors criticising a
public-access video operation. The point is, if you're working
seriously in a subject, there's nothing wrong whatsoever with anything
which gives a large number of people an easy and relatively cheap
glimpse of the subject at some level, and increases public awareness,
interest, and appreciation of the more serious levels of that subject.
Quite the opposite, in fact.  Something to give serious consideration.
A little less condescension here might be a healthy thing. For a lot
of people here, the price of "Virtual Reality Playhouse" might well be
better spent on a powerglove or glasses, but at the same time, those
same people might do well to recommend the book to friends who don't
have the same awareness and involvement in all this, but do have a PC
and a sense of curiosity about this stuff. It might not be for you,
but it does the job it was intended to do.

To bring this little editorial to a close, there's one more thing. I
definitely consider the characterization of Nicholas Lavroff and
Mitchell Waite's efforts as "another sad case of cashing in on other
people's public domain efforts" to be unfair. First, let's get the
facts correct.  If I'm not mistaken, none of the included software is
public domain. Free and public domain are not synonymous terms. Not
meaning to pick nits, but that is a distinction that's often lost. Of
that software, the only authors who I have any personal communication
with are John Swenson and Dave Stampe, and I haven't seen either of
them bitching about the inclusion of their work in the book's disk. As
far as what has been done in the book is concerned, Nicholas Lavroff
and The Waite Group have collected a body of concrete information,
overview explanation, and working software, and put it on the market
for people to pick up at the local bookstore and take home with them
instead of having to search it all out for themselves at the expense
of their own time and effort, at a reasonable price. That's simply
providing a service and getting paid for doing so. I find no fault in
that. I think doing what they have done does considerably more good
for this field as a whole than it does to sit around posting messages
to this newsgroup congratulating each other for being far too
sophisticated to be impressed by such a humble little tome.  Cut these
guys a little slack.


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*John Eagan                         "humans is funny critters.." *
*VR section leader                                   -me         *
*Computer Art Forum                                              *
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Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds