From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 92 12:17:11 EDT

WANTED-- REND386 WORLDS

Now that Release 4 of REND386 is (finally) out, we are working 
on a book based on REND386.  For this, we need 10-15 worlds, in 
addition to the few that we've thrown together for test 
purposes.  We'd like to invite you to create worlds for 
inclusion.
The catch is that we really need them by November 15 at the 
latest.  

You won't have to program to create the worlds-- just create 
object (.plg) and world (.wld) script files with an ASCII text 
editor.  All these file formats are documented in the DEMO4.ZIP 
file available by FTP from sunee.uwaterloo.ca, along with a 
sample world.

Now to set some ground rules:  you can use the room5.wld file 
and all the objects in it as starting points, but please don't 
bother with simple variations on that world.  We need DIFFERENT 
worlds: such as outdoor scenes, cityscapes, 3D "oddity", and 
anything else you can think of.  Let's show off the 
possibilities of VR!  Try and make the worlds interesting, with 
several manipulable objects, interesting from all angles, etc.

I think it would also be helpful to create an archive of .plg 
objects for use in the worlds.  If you have neat objects, mail 
them to [email-masked], and he'll archive them.  
(Also, has anyone gotten a .dxf translator going yet?)  Objects 
with less than 50 polys are best and you can do neat things with 
20 or so.  We need to keep world poly counts at about 500 or 
less, so that the program will run at a decent speed and won't 
run out of memory on some machines.

The worlds should all use the standard world scale (1.0 mm per 
unit) unless you WANT some sort of minification or you want to 
do an outer-space type scene.  You should also use the standard 
color set, and assume 256 colors and lighting available (you can 
use flat colors for objects as well).  The .wld file docs 
describe these and other things.

Now, a very important point: animation and custom tasks.  In the 
present DEMO4 release, there is only one real task: the 
"sculspin", which just rotates an object.  Because the version 
for the book can be different, we'll entertain suggestions of 
additional simple tasks, such as sensor-dependent motion, linear 
motion with limits, etc.  We'd try to keep a current list of 
accepted tasks so you can design them into your world as well.  
Let's set a deadline of, say, Oct. 17 for new task proposals, 
and hope to have a book-version with them out by Oct. 20 or so.

Additional things to be added to the world files might include 
text pop-ups with world titles or mobile light sources, or 
loading and use of multiple resolution objects.  Suggestions are 
welcome, but keep the deadlines in mind!

If you have ANY questions, or need help in getting something to 
work, please contact [email-masked].

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| My life is Hardware,                    |         Dave Stampe          | 
| my destiny is Software,                 | [email-masked]    |
| my CPU is Wetware...                    | [email-masked]   | 
| Am I a techno-psychologist, or just an engineer dabbling in psychology?|
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