From kriz Thu Jan 30 20:47:29 1997
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 20:47:28 -0500
From: kriz (Ron Kriz)
To: williges@vt.edu
Subject: Re: Sense8 VR Software
Cc: kriz@wave.esm.vt.edu
Bob:
Thanks for the info. I'll posted it and include
it in the recommendation. Many people also want
Sense8, so be it. I hope someone comes forward
to lead the way on the site license.
Regards,
Ron Kriz
----- Begin Included Message -----
From williges@vt.edu Thu Jan 30 10:45:19 1997
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 10:45:17 -0500 (EST)
Kriz)
From: williges@vt.edu (Bob Williges)
Subject: Sense8 VR Software
Cc: bwillige@vt.edu (Bev Williges), ehrich@cs.vt.edu (Roger Ehrich),
hartson@vtopus.cs.vt.edu (Rex Hartson),
hix@vtopus.cs.vt.edu (Debby Hix), fox@vtopus.cs.vt.edu (Ed Fox),
carroll@vtopus.cs.vt.edu (Jack Carroll),
rosson@vtopus.cs.vt.edu (Mary Beth Rosson),
barfield@vt.edu (Woody Barfield), williges@vt.edu (Bob Williges),
mmcgee@vt.edu (Mike McGee)
Ron, In response to your request for standardized software to use on
development machines for the CAVE, please read the following email I
received from one of my graduate students, Mike McGee.
In the spirit of USABILITY, I recommend that we follow Mike's
recommendation and adopt Sense8 WorldToolKit (WTK) and WorldUp (WU) for the
CAVE. Perhaps you can get a site license for it.
I'm forwarding this email to some of the other HCI folks around campus who
may want to offer they opinions about Sense8 to you by the 1/31/97
deadline. There's a lot to be said for adopting a GUI interface for
campus-wide use across varying degrees of computer expertise.
Hope this helps in your decision process. BobW
---
>Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 12:27:20 -0500
>To: williges
>From: mmcgee@vt.edu (Michael McGee)
>Subject: Sense8 VR Software
>
>Having spoken to Jack Jorman of Sense8 and researched a bit more about
>WorldToolKit (WTK) and WorldUp (WU), I've formed a few opinions about their
>VR software. Sense8 software does support CAVEs, and is continuing to
>modify their products to do so. As I understand it, WTK would be the
>package used for the actual CAVE. WU or WTK would be used to develop VEs
>on nearly any platform that we have around campus (PC, DEC, Sun, Sparc,
>SGI, etc. - no Macs). WU is the newer Sense8 VE development software
>package which has a GUI interface with real-time environment rendering. WU
>(based on Visual Basic) environments are completely compatible with the
>traditional Sense8 product WTK (a C function include library package). The
>saved WU world becomes a one line call in a WTK program. Non-programmers
>can use WU without knowledge of visual basic; however, C is a must for WTK.
>WU is described as having 98% of the functionality of WTK. Many file
>formats can be imported to either package (Direct3D, AutoCAD, VRML, etc.).
>From Jack Jorman, a site liscence would include WTK, WU, and other support
>software, training, etc, for all users on campus for a price slightly more
>than one WTK or one WU package alone. Jack Jorman (a Va. Tech graduate)
>would be happy to come down and discuss Sense8 products with whatever
>groups on campus wanted to learn more. I think this would be an excellent
>idea if time permits. By all accounts WU appears to be an easy to use,
>fully interactive, powerful VE development software package. Additionally,
>WU and WTK are compatible with the equipment we already have (VR Research
>HMDs, FOB head tracking, logitech 3d mouse). Without having actually used
>WU (the true test), I can't make a totally unqualified opinion, but based
>on the above, the site liscence option of WTK and WU seems to be an
>excellent fit for our campus wide CAVE software needs.
>
>Mike McGee
>mmcgee@vt.edu
________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Robert C. Williges
Ralph H. Bogle Professor _ _____ Industrial and Systems Engineering
302 Whittemore Hall \ // +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Virginia Tech \//ECH Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory
Blacksburg, VA 24061-0118
E-Mail: williges@vt.edu Telephone: (540) 231-6270
WWW: http://hci.ise.vt.edu/~williges/ Fax: (540) 231-3322
_________________________________________________________________________
----- End Included Message -----