Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!milton!hlab
From: esz001@cck.coventry.ac.uk (Will Overington)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Teleutopia of Virtual Reality Objects
Message-ID: <1991Apr30.003040.27200@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 29 Apr 91 16:08:09 GMT
Sender: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu (Human Int. Technology Lab)
Organization: University of Washington
Lines: 197
Approved: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu



29th April 1991

Will Overington
Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering,
Coventry Polytechnic,
Priory Street,
Coventry CV1 5FB,
England.

[Could you please consider this piece for publication in sci.virtual-worlds.]
[Perhaps under a new stream heading, namely

Teleutopia of Virtual Reality Objects

]

In order to have a go at trying to get a teleutopia going, here
is a short first try at a specification document for files
describing objects.

If there is interest I will try to extend it, taking into account
any comments that I get.

Teleutopia Of Virtual Reality Objects

All objects are defined to lie in a three dimensional space which
has integer coordinates, each from 0 to 999999999, namely from 0
to (1 less than a billion), in each direction.

In order to allow objects to be rotated without going outside
this space, please centre designs around
(500 million, 500 million, 500 million)
or, if objects are standing on a base, around
(500 million, 500 million, 0)
Along those axes where data is centred around 500 million, please
keep within the limits 250 million to 750 million.  This should
ensure that simple rotation of any point about the centreing
point will keep it within the space.

Please imagine a simple handler for files of information having
the following pascal data items.

vvvx,vvvy,vvvz: longint;
vvvstack: array[1..3,1..size_of_stack] of longint;
vvvstackindex: integer;


The basic system uses eight keywords.

vvvzero has no parameter and initializes the vvvstackindex to 0.

vvvx has one integer parameter and sets vvvx to that value.

vvvy has one integer parameter and sets vvvy to that value.

vvvz has one integer parameter and sets vvvz to that value.

vvvpush has no parameter, increments vvvstackindex by 1 and puts
the current values of vvvx, vvvy and vvvz into vvvstack at that
location.

vvvfill3 has no parameter, draws a 3 sided shape using the top
three points on the vvvstack and fills it. The contents of the
vvvstack are not affected, nor is vvvstackindex.

vvvfill4 has no parameter, draws a 4 sided shape using the top
four points on the vvvstack and fills it. These points must all
lie in the same plane.  The contents of the vvvstack are not
affected, nor is vvvstackindex.

vvvend has no parameter, ends an object description.

For example,
vvvzero
vvvx 500000000
vvvy 500000000
vvvz 500000000
vvvpush
vvvx 600000000
vvvpush
vvvx 500000000
vvvy 700000000
vvvpush
vvvfill3
vvvend

At this early stage I also define vvvcopy with a single integer
argument, herein called i, that increments vvvstackindex by 1 and
then performs
vvvstack[1,vvvstackindex]:=vvvstack[1,i];
vvvstack[2,vvvstackindex]:=vvvstack[2,i];
vvvstack[3,vvvstackindex]:=vvvstack[3,i];

For example,
vvvzero
vvvx 500000000
vvvy 500000000
vvvz 500000000
vvvpush
vvvx 600000000
vvvpush
vvvx 500000000
vvvy 700000000
vvvpush
vvvfill3
vvvy 500000000
vvvz 550000000
vvvpush
vvvfill3
vvvcopy 1
vvvfill3
vvvcopy 2
vvvfill3
vvvend

This introduction, which is deliberately intended to be short, is
trying to see if there is any interest in forming a collection of
virtual reality objects as an informal group activity, with a
view to eventually producing a shareware style disc, though also
available on archive-servers and this groups's archive.

The whole teleutopia concept is also being tried here as a first
active experiment.  I hope to gain experience of whether
teleutopias are a workable concept, as such, and to gain
experience of the best way to try to get one going and of what
sort of problems arise.

So, if anyone is interested to design an object within these
rules, and/or suggest extensions, please do!

+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+
Will Overington
Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering,
Coventry Polytechnic,
Priory Street,
Coventry CV1 5FB,
England.
+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+
Putting forward new ideas is like being a quarterback.
First of all you will loose a few yards by even starting the
play.
Then there will be people trying to put you down.
Sometimes it's best to hand the football to someone who is better
at running, sometimes it's best to forward pass in a controlled,
planned way, but at times, the only thing to do is just hurl it
up in the air in a long forward pass attempt, and hope that
someone out there catches it and RUNS!
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