Virtual Autonomy

I'm currently working on a real-time visualisation of the soon to be built Student Forum at the University of Hertfordshire. It's a big building and it's been difficult to piece together from the resources we've been given. I'm building it inside Unity 3D and, as such, it is available for viewing from inside your web browser.

I had originally intended to make the entire 3D tour seamless as the user moved from one room to another but, due to unforeseen problems (such as file size and having to check all my geometry for errors), I've decided to divide the areas into separate scenes. Moving between the different rooms, whether it be via a map or something as simple as walking up to a door seems to be the ideal solution, provided the transition can still be made seamless.

This area is the 'Style Bar', next door from the 'Auditorium' on the first floor of the Student Forum.

You can see the 3D visualisation by clicking here.

You'll need the Unity 3D plugin to view the content, download it by clicking here.

Video coming soon.

I haven't updated my blog in a while as I've been too busy developing inside Unity. It'll come as no surprise to the reader that this is my current engine of choice as it's quick to use and sports one of the best authoring environments I've yet seen in a browser based 3D package. So, moving on, let's look at what has changed in the world of browser based 3D engines.

Unity 3D authoring environment is now on windows

That's right, as of version 2.5, Unity 3D is now available to work with on windows. It's a free upgrade to any previous 2.x version and contains all the features of the mac version with added 3ds max compatibility (you can now drag and drop .max files into the editor). Just to clarify that last part, it handles importing of the max file much in the same way as it already does with .fbx content. If you want to try the demo of the windows version you can get it by clicking here.

Google release the O3D API - 3D content on the web

While only in an experimental phase, google have released their open source, browser-based 3D engine called O3D. Sporting full hardware acceleration, it runs smoothly and has support for complex shaders. Similar to what Unity released for their tech demo, Google have created a small island, rich with vegetation and impressive water effects. Worth noting is that the demo weighs in at a hefty 17MB. You can see the video below or, if you're willing to install the plugin, view the 3D demos here.

Naturally it has full support for sketchup and since I already use sketchup to develop with for my Unity projects, it's a welcome feature.

As always, here's a video to make life easier.

I'll be investigating O3D more thoroughly in the near future.

The guys over at Stanford University have come up with something very useful; it's an easy and affordable way to embed media inside pre-recorded video footage. While that doesn't sound like much on it's own, when you realise what it can be used for the ramifications become clear. You could be watching your favourite show and, rather than have the flow interrupted by advertisements, they can instead be shown from inside the program you're currently viewing. It's akin to product placement but with more refinement. ; )

They're using a clever means by which, after a physical surface has been manually identified inside existing video footage, another video can be projected on top of it and kept in place, even when the camera moves, through various tracking algorithms.

With the recent introduction of advertisements in youtube videos, I wonder if google are paying attention to this new tech and examining how they can make the process of catering to their sponsors a little less intrusive.

The video below communicates the principle far more eloquently than I can hope to through words.

Once thought of as merely gimmicks, 3D program interfaces are starting to be taken more seriously. This is mainly thanks to GPUs becoming more prevalent in today's hardware (the iPhone has certainly benefited) and advancements in programs, like Adobe Flash 10, which now make it possible to access 3D hardware acceleration from inside a web browser. While that isn't anything new as such (we've been able to use 3D inside web browsers for a few years now), the market penetration of Flash, compared to plugins dedicated to 3D rendering, is enormous (statistics currently showing 97% of all PCs). With this much focus, it's clear that we'll be seeing a lot more invention and research when it comes to finding 3D interfaces which are actually practical and make for an improved work flow. Something creating a lot of buzz is the 3D Wall Pro movie library, created inside Flash with Papervision.

I leave you with some videos of things to come.

How can I not include that Microsoft Table here. ;]

As a ‘new’ and, perhaps, confusing medium, online virtual worlds still lack the standardization we have come to appreciate from games fortunate enough to fit into something resembling a defining category. As an example, first person shooters share a common keyboard layout yet the complications involved with different iterations of the same title appearing on different systems, with their respective interface devices, brings to light the same old problem; that we have not yet found an ideal means through which to interact with the 3D environment.

The key might seem to lie in mimicking our own first person experience through the use of everything from motion to tilt sensors, whether they be strapped to our heads or held, insofar as we might be able to, in our hands. In any case, this makes at least one thing clear when considering how to approach the subject of education in this new form; that there will always be a learning curve associated with the different ‘worlds’ created.

An audience inside Second Life.

Academics love to write about this stuff and some interesting things came to light during the ReLIVE08 conference held at the Open University in Milton Kenes. The key theme surrounding the papers presented was the use of Second Life as a teaching aid, in various subjects, along with the difficulties presented with introducing anything new and controversial to an already established system. As the chief developer of the University of Hertfordshire's Second Life presence, I work in the 'real time 3D' department and am exposed to different technologies on a regular basis, that's part of my job description, to research and keep up to date with developments in this industry. It's not surprising then that I was interested to see why so many people had chosen to work with SL over other engines and how they balanced the time between creating a learning environment specific to one subject and the time spent teaching inside it.

It was good to see that opinions differed (that's always a positive sign of interesting debates coming this way sooner rather than later). Some believed that recreating a traditional teaching environment was almost blasphemous whilst others insisted that the idea had merit. A few even suggested that an advantage of using a virtual world was that you could 'strap people to their seats' and keep them focussed (through camera control) on what was being taught (this is something I have experimented with before in SL and will elaborate on in a future entry).

When I first started building the UH presence inside Second Life, it was in a part-time capacity. A year later, I find myself working in a full time post dedicated to developing in various 3D engines along with teaching and exploring what the medium has to offer with regards to how it can be used to facilitate communication and learning. There are now two other people on the team, both incredibly talented in their respective areas. It's been an interesting ride thus far and I've had some time to reflect on how attitudes have changed.

Visit the UH presence inside Second Life

There has always been a camp who insist that creating something surrealistic is a guaranteed way to keep people interested, that recreating a familiar environment attempts to emulate the limitations of the real, physical world, and that it bores people. It's an interesting point but, given my position, I have had to cater to staff who are not familiar with this medium and are, understandably, confused by it. It goes without saying then, that seating business school members on top of a giant sunflower might not get the desired reaction (admittedly, I haven't tried this approach [it scares me]). I offered to do something more creative than replicate the campus in 3D, I suggested that the presence include a few elements which would be immediately recognisable to staff and students alike, acting as a sort of 'welcome' to the new world whilst other areas would house content more pertinent to using the 3D space for learning.

Reactions were mixed, some complained that despite some areas looking familiar, the other (new areas dedicated to making use of SL), didn't. One crowd stated that they didn't want buildings with roofs and that people should be free to create their own areas. It's been difficult, to say the least. The wonderful thing about it though is that people are talking about the subject and giving their opinion, I couldn't really ask for more. Had we allowed people to create their own learning spaces, they would have most likely kept to themselves, making feedback difficult to obtain. People use the presence as they see fit, taking their students to the outdoor presentation space in order to hold talks while others using 3D for the first time familiarize themselves with the environment, meeting people who can help them understand it in the process.

Another criticism we faced was that there were too few people using the space. This is interesting because it only becomes evident how many people are using the same resource when they can see and talk to each other while they do it. Like visiting a popular web page, there might not be more than a few people using it at any one moment yet over the course of a longer period of time, numbers add up. The exception is when we hold an event; traffic spikes during these times and it draws in people from surrounding regions who are curious to see what's happening.

I promise to write more about this in the future, there's a lot that needs to be said and we, the team, have various results to present. One thing taking up a lot of my time is a new project we're working on in Unity 3D. Fortunately, one of my obsessions is optimizing the work flow in any engine I expose people to, I'll write more as the opportunity arises.