An Investigation Into Aspects Of Communication In A Virtual Environment Using Avatars

Honours Project 2000 : M. Oelschig
Supervisor: Shaun Bangay

PROGRESS:
Thursday 27 April 2000
I should have been keeping a weekly record of what i'm doing here...
Up to now i have basically gotten as far as installing the C++ version of the Rhodes VR system, called CoRgi, on my unix box. I'm using Mandrake Linux and the system had not, to my knowledge, been run on a Mandrake box before, so i have spent the past few weeks trying to iron out a whole stack of portability problems. Thanks to the fact that Shaun is a helpful supervisor and heeded my cries of frustration yesterday its now working okay- i can compile things for the first time! yay! I have taken a look at a few demos and at some of the environments designed by previous students and staff. My plan now is to take a closer look at the avatar section of the apps files, and hopefully figure out how to code some simple avatars. I may need to design and create some of my own before i start experimenting with them, or i may be able to start off trying things out with whats there. I haven't taken a close enough look at the existing resources yet. More to come...

Tuesday 23 May 2000
Following an interesting presentation on modelling using 3D Studio Max in a VRSIG meeting a few weeks ago, I decided to install 3D Studio Max as a modelling tool to create some avatars. I've been doing the 3DSMax tutorials in order to familiarise myself with the program. Its very powerful and allows one to play with texture mapping, modelling, animation and so on. I found it as difficult to get the hang of as it was powerful however. Getting it to run properly on my machine has proved difficult too- i am using Windows 98 and 3DSMax seems to crash at regular intervals. I've been trying to keep track of what causes the crashes but have yet to identify an obvious causal factor. The problem is a source of great irritation and i have arranged to use a COE machine running windows 2000 instead, which is much more successful. Shaun suggested a unix-based modelling program called soft-image which I intend on exploring when i have the time.
I was supposed to be finshed at least one avatar by today, but am only about 1/3 of the way. I have found a tutorial example creature in the meantime and will be meeting with Shaun this week to obtain his help in learning how to link a creature into the CoRgi system, and how to set it up so that it can respond to input from polhemus trackers e.g. by moving its limbs. Exams are coming up so after this week i will probably not have much to report until i return from the honours field trip in June.