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High-End VR QuakeIII Arena 46
An Anonymous Coward writes: "Saw this over at vrsource.org. Paul Rajlich has released CAVE Quake III Arena (cq3a). cq3a is a Quake3 engine that runs in VR environments from desktop HMDs to high-end multi-wall projection systems like the CAVEs and fully-enclosed C6. The original announcement is here. There is also an article describing what he had to do. The main cq3a page is here at visbox where you can download the code for multiple environment types (VR Juggler, CAVElibs, FreeVR, SDL, GLUT, and GLX). It currently runs on Linux, Irix, Win32, MacOS, and FreeBSD. You also have to check out the cool pictures on the site."
Augmented Reality Quake (Score:2)
Fahrenheit 451 (Score:2)
I wonder if in the future people addicted to this sort of thing will spent a large chunk of their salary on buying one. Just like in the book, and just like people do now with their entertainment centers.
It's eerie how books like this one and 1984 and come true. At least some of the stuff seems cool on the surface tho.
One Crazy Trip (Score:1)
cq3a already in use (Score:1)
This isnt' quake3... (Score:5)
Re:Sorry to hear you wasted your time guys... (Score:1)
C6 (Score:2)
As far as writing code for the VRAC here, all it is, is a special toolkit for c++ that does all the cool stuff for it, and is powered by 6 SGI systems (dont remember what kinda processors). The VRAC team consists of around 5 people, all graduate students with degrees in computer science and computer engineering.
A newly formed game developers club here (I am friends with all the guys that started that) have been talking with the VRAC team to start writting games for the C6, and they were hoping to do Quake 3 (but that has already been done).
I will tell some people today, and I might be able to see it run before the end of the semesters.. (gotta set those hopes high).
(Howe Hall webpage)
http://www.eng.iastate.edu/etrc/
Its not what it is, its something else.
Re:Specs on the C6: (Score:1)
Re:Specs on the C6: (Score:2)
FACTS about VRAC, C6, Open Source Virtual Reality (Score:1)
VR Juggler [vrjuggler.org] is an opensource virtual reality platform. It is the next generation of CAVE software. It runs caves, c6, HMD, powerwall, desktop VR, etc... highly configurable and highly extensible.
For background info: Dr. Cruz wrote the original CAVElib (closed source) at EVL for the original CAVE system she designed. NOTE: that all CAVE(tm) systems are only 4 walls! The C6 at VRAC is the worlds first 6 sided cave-like device.
VR Juggler is her next endeavor, it doesn't suffer from the problems that CAVElib does, and whats best is that VRJuggler [vrjuggler.org] is completely open source (LGPL).
Open Source Virtual Reality for X-Platform Develop (Score:2)
VR Juggler [vrjuggler.org] is an opensource virtual reality platform. It is the next generation of CAVE software. It runs caves, c6, HMD, powerwall, desktop VR, etc... highly configurable and highly extensible.
For background info: Dr. Cruz wrote the original CAVElib (closed source) at EVL for the original CAVE system she designed. NOTE: that all CAVE(tm) systems are only 4 walls! The C6 at VRAC is the worlds first 6 sided cave-like device.
VR Juggler is her next endeavor, it doesn't suffer from the problems that CAVElib does, and whats best is that it is completely open source (LGPL).
Re:Will this be dangerous? (Score:1)
I can only assume we're talking about the angular size of the screen: a 14" screen will produce exactly the same image on your retina as a 28" screen twice the distance away.
'The researchers attributed this change in brain activity to high frequency components in the rapidly changing images at the side of the screen'.
So if you're completely surrounded by screens, there are no edge effects to worry about?
-- Andrem
Re:NCSA Rocks (Score:1)
-Erik
Specs on the C6: (Score:2)
Sorry to hear you wasted your time guys... (Score:1)
But it is patented [delphion.com]
You would not want the Worlds.com [worlds.com] Legal team after you, correct?
Head tracking (i-Glasses)?!? (Score:1)
i-Glasses (Score:1)
I've long expected i-Glasses head-tracking support in Quake *, and am surprised it never happened (a few faltering attempts - one's head is not a joystick).
Re:This isnt' quake3... (Score:1)
Oops...thought it said 'Virtual Immorality' (Score:1)
UT (Score:1)
Re:UT (Score:1)
Just because an engine can do curved surfaces doesn't mean the artists used them to the best of their ability.
Re:UT (Score:1)
VR, that ? (Score:2)
Quotes:
- Petabit communication pipes and perhaps thousands of high-definition cameras will enable someone to manipulate a "soft camera" that will elicit a view from thousands of angles throughout a stadium dome or from down on the field.
- Forget helmets and data gloves. Nanobots, robots the size of a molecule, will travel through the bloodstream of your brain beaming messages to neurons that will enable the simulation of sight, sound, smell and hearing as well as emotion and sexual sensations. You'll also be able to travel to St. Barth's, attend every game of the World Series or engage Al Gore in a debate.
- Virtual immortality will come if the petabyte storage capability provides a "rapid simulated learning environment" that infuses your biological clone with the totality of your experiences. Maybe mind is portable after all.
Ouch, frightening."This will let you watch the Super Bowl from the vantage point of the quarterback"...
--
Re:roblimo ate my balls!! (Score:1)
Nazi skinheads have more hair than brains
I've actually used a CAVE... (Score:1)
Will this be dangerous? (Score:3)
The problem is to do with the way the game engine handle 3d images around the edge of the screen, and the way in which these images are processed by the brain. The researchers measured the EEG (electroencephalogram, "brain waves") of gamers whilst playing 3d games. The researchers noted that the EEG changed from its normal "beta" activity (characterised by 14-60Hz oscillations), and gained a low frequency component (delta waves, in the 0.5-2Hz range, which normally only occur during deep sleep).
The researchers attributed this change in brain activity to high frequency components in the rapidly changing images at the side of the screen in some 3d engines. The effect of these high frequency images on the gamer's peripheral vision caused desynchronisation of the gamers EEG rhythms, leading to headaches, irritability, nausea and (in the worse cases) epileptic attacks. The researchers found that these unfortunate side effects got considerably worse when the games were played on large screens.
My question is, will playing Quake on a huge screen like that in a CAVE be responsible for causing serious health problems in gamers?
--
Cost (Score:1)
Re:Cost (Score:1)
Re:Sorry to hear you wasted your time guys... (Score:1)
Re:Asylum bait (Score:2)
Perhaps when these games are finally marketed, it would be a good idea to sell 'post VR Quake sedatives' or offer therapy for those who have become unhinged after a playing too much.
Yes, they already sell this. It's called "pot."
Re:roblimo ate my balls!! (Score:1)
Re:roblimo ate my balls!! (Score:1)
WireGL (Score:4)
The point of the project is to develop "a new distributed graphics system that is designed to allow an application to render to a large, tiled display." It is an OpenGL implementation that allows a cluster of one or more machines to render to a tiled display with one or more tiles. So the system allows a cluster of N computers to render a single image, and also allows one computer to render to a tiled display, and also allows N computers to render to M displays in a tiled display.
And, of course, it's OpenGL, so you can put together a rad tiled Quake demo just as easily as you can put together a rad JoesStupidOpenGLTestGame demo.
No HMDs, though.
CAVE Quake2 and Visbox (Score:1)
Painting a target on yourself? (Score:1)
Many /. reader (including myself) believe that the recent law suite [slashdot.org] against (big) gaming companies is a money grabbing exercise. But you have to wonder with a project like this...
As "games" became more and more realistic, first in terms of graphics and sounds, and now with CAVE that gives a new meaning to "first person". I think a system like cq3a is great cannon fodder for this sort of anti-game lawsuits. "Your honour, we belive the defendent spent years on SeeQueThreeA to perfect his stalking and killing skills..."
To be honest I am a bit disappointed that promising technology like VR are being used for violence entertaining (and possibly p0rn :-) than in recreating historical places and events; like the holodeck. But then the holodeck always go berserk at least once a season ;-)
Yeah, I don't know what my point is either. Maybe someone can say something really insightful on this.
====
hp-ux too (Score:1)
Anyhow, back to my little hole in the wall...
CAVES are cool! (Score:3)
Boy do they have cool stuff there!
The best part was when I got to play with a CAVE [uic.edu] . It's a cube about 10ft square with 3D projections on three walls and the floor, which really gives you a feeling of immersion. My favorite program was the cathedral, which imitated the interior of a cathedral (who'd have guessed?). You could "walk" around the interior, which was mostly bare, except for a stairway leading up towards the roof. The stairs had no railing, and I had trouble getting up to the top without falling off. The person who was giving the tour told me that most people's favorite thing was to climb to the top, and then jump off, so I tried it. It's almost as good as a roller coaster! I really got a feeling of falling, as I watched the walls go by, and the floor zoom up at me.
Unfortunately, (well, not really) I got offered a job with Hewlett Packard, and decided to buy a house and have a life instead of being a poor student and playing with really cool geek toys.
I have a set of i-glasses [i-glasses.com], but they don't even come close to the CAVE in terms of immersion.
Hmmm. I should pull the i-glasses back out of the box and try playing with them again. The only game I ever liked with them was Descent, because it actually worked in 3D. It was pretty neat to strafe around a corner, and be able to see the corner wall with one eye, and an enemy ship with the other eye.
Do any other /.ers have i-glasses? What games do you like to play with them?
no cause im gone now and access is revoked (Score:1)
Re:I've actually used a CAVE... (Score:1)
i glasses (Score:1)
CAVE (Score:2)
CAVE PORN (Score:2)
NCSA Rocks (Score:3)
Re:Specs on the C6: (Score:2)
Just to run 4 projectors and a wireless glove or two? Good grief. Well, it's running a SGI port of Windows XP and those are the minimal requirements.
Re:Specs on the C6: (Score:1)
Asylum bait (Score:3)
Perhaps when these games are finally marketed, it would be a good idea to sell 'post VR Quake sedatives' or offer therapy for those who have become unhinged after a playing too much.
Seriously though, with a lawsuite against 'violent' video games being started by some of the columbine massacre victim's families and the political reactions to these games, you have to think it will be a matter of time until the first post VR Quake shooting occurs. Sooner or later the line between game and reality will become sufficiently blurred that someone will think reality is one big deathmatch.
Personally I can't wait to give it a go, but I will make sure that all firearms are locked away and secure afterwards! :)