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Aug 10, 1998, 12:24pm

Hello,


No, really, and I have spend some time browsing the newsgroups (not enough it
seems).
I have seen on the other hand posting about moving several objects if I am not
wrong.

(eventually several months ago ?, but I am not sure).


I agree.
But as long as I know, grouping are easy to use in Powerpoint, or Toolbooks.
You select several objects, group them, and they just appear as a new object.

Thanks for your answer.


Thierry



[View Quote] > haven't seen it? try Eep 3 times, and many others too :) I think any
> grouping system would have to be easy to use for newbies and oldies alike,
> though... much like Eep's checkboxes-for-actions idea.
>
[View Quote]

Sep 10, 1998, 8:09am

Hello,

I only recently was aware about the new SDK
http://www.activeworlds.com/sdk/
Althought I already had experimented with Hambot (build on top of SDK).

Note: I find Hambot very interesting to start very quickly to build bots
application.


I find the architecture of the new SDK innovative, in particular in that

it allows the design of real distributed applications.


My questions (remark, which), is the following:

How difficult it would be to have a java version of the system ?
Is there any plan in this direction ?

Note:
The idea would be more in a first step to encapsulate the C library into
java rather
than to rewrite this library in java.


I am also wondering if the current approach for supporting multiple
simultaneous instances
==== extract from the documentation ====
Applications that use multiple instances need to keep track of the
instance handles returned by
aw_create and must use aw_instance_set to specifiy which instance each
particular operation
is intended for.
====
could not be a problem if we want to use multithreading in a SDK
application. (java
provides a good support to multithreading).
The idea is to associate a thread to each instance, so as to implement
each bot
as an active object. (an active object is an object with an associated
thread of execution ).

The current aw_instance_set() would make for me multithreading almost
impossible to
implement.

Am I wrong ?
Any other idea ?


Thierry Nabeth ("calt exec" in AWUniverse).
Research Fellow,
INSEAD CALT (the Centre for Advanced Learning Technologies).
http://www.insead.fr/CALT/
Worlds: INSEAD, Virtalun, tibm

Sep 11, 1998, 3:42pm

Hello,

Thank you,
I didn't know about this group.

I believe I didn't browse enough the web site.

Thierry

[View Quote] > There's an sdk newsgroup here (news://news.activeworlds.com/sdk) which this
> would be more fitting for - or at least a crosspost.
>

Sep 23, 1998, 6:54am

Hello,

This seems to be a good idea indeed to go more and more towards "smart"
objects.

I believe that the AW SDK (for creating bots), should help to implement
those ideas.

Note:
A company that is doing some nice work in "intelligent" answering
machine
is General Magic, with Serengeti (I am not sure about the name).
Serengetti is a voice piloted technology that is used to implement
virtual secretary
category of functions.

Thierry Nabeth
INSEAD CALT (the Centre for Advanced Learning Technologies)
http://www.insead.fr/CALT/

[View Quote] > Don't you hate to tell everybody wich are telegramming
> you while you're buzy, that you are N/A for the moment?
> My wish for future versions of AW would be like a gift
> from the gods: The Telegram Answeing Machine..
> A personal assistant wich automaticly sends a
> selected/written message to the authors of all incoming
> messages. That would be great, huh? ((c:
>
> Example:
>
> I'm away from Active Worlds right now.
> Please leave a message after the tone.
> <<< BEEP >>>
>
> I'm also thinking of something like ICQ got. The N/A-,
> Away-, Occupied-, DND- and Invisible-mode!
> A litle logo would replace the green mark in front of your
> name on the contact list, like on ICQ (c:
>
> CyberTwins
> cyber2 at online.no

Nov 11, 1998, 4:58pm

Hello,

We are considering about the possibility for our laboratory to
experiment a little bit with (low cost) HDM, such as for instance the
VFX1. We are doing some research in the use of multi-users virtual
reality for use in electronic commerce. Practically, it consists in the
design of virtual shops where the customer can be helped by a sale
person (a real one represented by an avatar, or a bot), can interact
with other customers, etc. We are currently using the active world
technology (of course !).

The information that I have found on the Internet seem to imply that the
systems needs to have a special support HDM (which mean the systems need
to be custumized specially for HDM).
(http://www.insead.fr/CALT/Encyclopedia/ComputerSciences/VR/vrml.htm)

I am wrong in this assumption ?

Do you know about any experiment in using HDM in Active World ?

Any other suggestions, comments (not too nasty preferably), ideas, etc.

Thank you,

Thierry Nabeth
Research Fellow,
INSEAD CALT (the Centre for Advanced Learning Technologies)
http://www.insead.fr/CALT/
nabeth at insead.fr

Nov 13, 1998, 7:55am

Hello,

Some more information I have found in the Criterion Renderware web site:

====( http://www.csl.com/RenderWare/rwtech.htm )===
RenderWare® V2.1 released May 97.

Support for Stereo

With the impending rush of low cost stereo glasses and headsets onto the market, the
demand
for compatible 3D games is set to soar. Serious game developers need to ensure their
games
offer support for this exciting new area. RenderWare helps you take all this in your
stride.

Support has already been announced for the following stereo and immersive devices:-

* 3D-MAXTM - Kasan Electronics
The world's first low cost stereo, LCD shutter glasses. 3D-MAX makes it possible to
view
dramatic stereo color graphics, in sharp flicker free detail.

* i*glassesTM - Virtual I.O
Ultra lightweight, high quality and high resolution stereo head mounted display with
head-tracking.

* 7th SenseTM - All-Pro Products
A head mounted display, providing a first person immersive experience with advanced
liquid
crystal display and wide angle, high resolution images.

==========( end of extract )========

Still some questions still need to be answered such as:

What do they mean by "Support has already been announced" ?
Does it mean that the support was not yet implemented in May 1997 ?
Has it been implemented end of 1998 ?

Does the support for HDM in Renderware implies, that HDM are automatically supported
in Active Worlds,
or is there something to do ?


work.

We are a research centre, so our objective is to identify/invent approachs that will
work in the future (preferably
a not too far future) rather than exploiting very mature approachs.

I personally believe that 3D ecommerce makes a lot of sense, and in a not too far
future, and I am waiting (and try
to contribute) for the inflection point were many people (and not only early
adopters) will generally consider multi-user
VR for ecommerce an an operationnal solution.

There are still many limitation (technical and not technical), but I also see
solution that are being proposed such as:
* bots technologies. (AW SDK).
* experiments conducted in Outerworld.
* trading of personal and public objects. (such as it has been annouced in the next
release 4.0 of Blaxxun technology).
. I believe this is somethinmg we will see coming somtime in AW.


Concerning our work with HDM, I am still not yet convinced about the value they
generate, since I am personally interested
by solution that can be used by a very large audience (can HDM really be used by a
large audiance ?).
But, experimenting can bring some usefull ideas. HDM can be good just as a promotion
tool (and attract more user),
and perhaps facilitate the building process.

So I will try to collect more information about HDMs, and see if we can use thems.
(this action is not high priority, but will be present in the "back of my head" as
something nice to explore).

Bye,
And thanks for your comments

Thierry Nabeth,
INSEAD CALT
http://www.insead.fr/CALT/




[View Quote] > "we will see" ??? What we have been said here more than a year ago, still waiting
> to see. In the meamtime Klassi is right . At the present time it doesn't work.
>
[View Quote]

Nov 17, 1998, 7:09am

Hello,

Thank you very much for this information.

We were indeed considering to do some experiments with the i-glass.
(a friend of mine will lend us i-glasses for our experiments, before buying
some).

I remind you for those interested that I have collected some information about
HDM at:
http://www.insead.fr/CALT/Encyclopedia/ComputerSciences/VR/vrml.htm

In particular I recomand you to have a look at Stereo3D
http://www.stereo3d.com/

Bye,

Thierry, -- calt
http://www.insead.fr/CALT/

[View Quote] > Currently I am also working on the use of HMD's for AW. I have found so far
> the Virtual I/O glasses have given the best results. It has a SDK driver for
> use specifically for the windows95 & 98 platform. It also allows use of
> mouse emulation and setup of hot keys. This basically means that the Virtual
> I/O can be used now for AW. But.....and there always seems to be a but,
> there are some drawbacks to the Virtual I/O and AW's use of it.
> *1st off...The Virtual I/O's only work in 640x480 res. which to me really
> suxs
> *2nd AW does not currently have a full screen mode which would be needed for
> best results...
> *and 3rd If you use the Virtual I/O's...you cant use the mouse at the same
> time in AW..which keeps you from selecting or activating things that need
> the mouse input.
> As part of my current research, I have been incorporating the use of the SDK
> to make a driver that will at least allow use of the mouse and Virtual I/O's
> at the same time and use of a joystick also.
>
[View Quote]

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