Subject: Re: New Logitech Device

From: LE CATES JEFFREY COOK <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1993 21:24:49 -0600 (MDT)

On Tue, 24 Aug 1993, Chris Hand wrote:

> Jason Barile said:
> > Has anyone tried out the new Logitech "Cyberman" 6 DOF input device?  I
> > haven't seen a price for it, but are there plans for drivers for Rend386?
> > IT seemed to be fairly nice, with a vibrator built into the handle for
> > feedback.  
> 
> This sounds a lot like the GLOBAL 3-D controller, which is sort of the
> "poor man's spaceball".  It has "binary resolution" (ie. on/off) in
> 6 degrees of freedom as well as a vibrating device programmable to
> 15 intensity levels.  Supposedly GLOBAL are expecting to mass produce
> these for US$100 by Sept/Oct 93.

Chris, please don't take this as a flame, but...

	The Logitech Cyberman is available for US$129. Logitech can be
reached at (800) 231-7717. My info. comes from page 34 of the Sept/Oct
issue of WIRED magazine. It basically repeats Jaso Barille's post.

	According to the August '93 issue of AI EXPERT - The mag of
artificial intelligence in practice - Global Devices' Global 3D Controller
is "A 3D graphics controller that translates full 3D input from the user's
hand to control 3D graphics or move the user through any virtual
environment.  The Global 3D Controller has true
six-degrees-of-freedom function and can translate all possible combinations 
of linear and rotational vectors of the x, y, z-coordinate system.  The
Global 3D Controller includes 32 levels of active tactile feedback within
the handle, which vibrates upon software command."----Price: $249 US

	Global Devices
	6630 Arabian Circle
	Granite Bay, CA  95661

	(916) 791-3533
              791-4358 FAX

***Check out the Virtual Reality Resource Guide in the back of AI Expert
for listings of all available hard & software dealing with VR.The
Virtual Reality Special Report: Spring '93 Edition can be ordered for
$9.95 through AI Expert as well.  Mines on the way.***

				The Blue Stain

---

From: Russell Webb <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 00:58:57 -0400 (EDT)

Could someone clarify how the Global 3D and Cyberman devices operate?
If the Global unit is 'binary', does this mean there are simple
switches inside the unit that respond to rotation and translation,
without magnitude?  (I'm imagining mercury-like mini-switches,
but maybe this is way off base.)

If this is so, is the Cyberman device any different from the Global
unit?  That is, does it use an external sensor (like infrared or
ultrasonic) to measure position, or is it self-contained?  Self-
containment would be nice (fiddling with the Powerglove ultrasonic
L is pretty contraining), but magnitude would certainly be a big
win (assuming self-contained-ness inhibits this).

ObRend386: I'm very much looking forward to the VRCreations book.
Will the book focus more on the guts of Rend386, or will it be more
along the lines of "here's how to make a data file"?  And what exactly 
is it on the cover?  It looks almost like a red-blue stereo picture 
of a swimmer.  
-- 
-Russell Webb
[email-masked]

rom twisto!bangate.compaq.com!Steve=Cox%model=shop%Mat=[email-masked]  Wed Aug 25 08:28:06 1993
From: Chris Kwasnicki <[email-masked]>
Subject: REND386 - how should I...?
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 19:01:18 -0400 (EDT)
Content-Length: 1179      

Greetings all - since this is my first time talking on this list (actually
any list :) I'll be polite and introduce myself.  I'm Chris Kwasnicki from
NYC.  During the day I'm a UNIX administrator at a large Wall St. firm. 
I'm very interested in VR because it's cool and I think full immersion VR
can be a great tool in the right situations, and fun in most others.  I've
been a lurker on Compuserve for the past year+, on the nets for the past 3
months.  I've spent this year working on a homebrewed render before
deciding that I was just duplicating work, so I've been working with
REND386 for the last couple of months.

Now that I've wasted bandwidth :) , here comes some questions.  What is
the future trend for REND386 worlds - to be entirely coded using the
animation language (which is pretty good but obviously isn't as
general/efficent(?) as C), or to use some combination of the animation
language and C, or just C?  Should I be thinking about creating worlds via
extending the animation language (new keywords), as against just creating
a new executable?  Would new keywords slow down the system? When is the source
code for V5 becoming available?  

Thanks,

Chris