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T-626-VIEN and T-723-VIEN, Virtual Environments, Spring 2008

Basic Info

  • Contact: Office at Kringlan 1, 559-6323, hannes@
  • Classes When: Mondays and Thursdays 13:00-14:35, Tuesdays 10:55-12:30
  • Classes Where: Kringlan 1, Room K22

Description

This is a comprehensive course in both the theory and practice of Virtual Environments (VEs). Virtual Environments are simulations that engage the senses of users through real-time 3D graphics, audio and interaction to create an experience of presence within an artificial world. VEs are used in a variety of settings, including training, education, health, online collaboration, scientific visualization and entertainment. Their use is becoming more and more pervasive as hardware gets more capable of simulating reality in real-time (including graphics, physics and intelligent behavior). As part of the theoretical overview, the course will introduce the history of VEs, what kind of problems VEs have proven to be best at addressing, what are their shown limitations, what models of human-computer interaction apply to VEs and how these models are evolving and pushing the state-of-the-art in interactivity. The technical portion of the course will lead students through the construction and population of VEs in a very hands-on manner, covering topics such as world representation, real-time graphics and simulation issues, networked environments, avatars and interactive characters, event scripting and AI control, special real-time visual and aural effects and intuitive user interfaces.

Goals

On completion of the course students should:

  • On the theoretical side, acquire understanding of the benefits and limitations of VEs in a historical context, and be able to develop new VE based solutions that incorporate well structured interaction models.
  • On the technical side, learn to construct interactive VEs using a range of state-of-the-art technologies and tools.

Exam

The final exam contributes 30% towards your final grade in the course. Please find all the information about the exam on the Final Oral Exam page. It now includes the final exam schedule and location information.

Coursework Overview

During the semester, students should complete two programming assignments and a final programming project. These are all group projects. Students discuss final project ideas with instructor in week 5, present a proposal to the class in week 8, demonstrate final project in weeks 11 and 12, and turn in a final project report at the end. In addition, student participation in classes, online discussion and lab exercises counts towards the final grade. Everything that has to be turned in, should arrive no later than at 23:59 on the due date, or else incur 10% penalty for each additional day, including weekends and holidays.

Assignments

AssignmentCodeDescriptionMaterialAssignedDueWeight
Program 1PROG1First Programming Assignment Weeks 1-3Thu Jan 17Sun Feb 310%
Program 2PROG2Second Programming Assignment Weeks 1-5Thu Feb 07Sun Feb 2410%
ProposalFP-PROPPresentation of Final Project Proposal All - Thu Feb 285%
Final ProjectFPFinal Programming Project with Demo All - Mar 24 / Mar 2530%
Final ReportFP-REPWritten Final Project Report FP - Mon Mar 315%
Total 60%

Discussion Questions

After every theory lecture, the instructor will post a discussion question on an online forum and the students will be required to contribute to the discussion of that topic until the following lecture. The discussion takes place on an external forum page at the following address. Note that the students have to register on this forum to post their replies (simply go to the address below to register).

HostForum NameAddressDiscussion Questions
ProBoardsVirtual Environmentshttp://ve2008.proboards101.com/Read Questions

Schedule

WeekTheoretical Topic (Mondays)Practical Topic (Tuesdays)Lab Work (Thursdays)Due
Context
1 (07.01) - Introduction to the class
- The illusion of reality
- Introduction to Python
- Introduction to Panda3D
- Lab 1 Materials
2 (14.01) - The history of VEs
- Current applications of VEs
- The Scene Graph
- Lighting
- Lab 2 Materials
Immersion
3 (21.01) - Presence and Immersion
- (Ijsselsteijn and Riva, 2003)
- Blender Model Import
- Texture and Terrain
- Lab 3 Materials
4 (28.01) - Action
- Cinematography
- (Tomlinson et al., 2000)
- Task and Event Handling
- Collision Detection
- Event and Collision Demo
- Lab 4 Materials PROG1 (10%)
Interaction
5 (04.02) - Actors and interaction - Actors
- Finite State Machines
- Actor and FSM Demo
- Lab 5 Materials
6 (11.02) - Avatars and levels of control
- (Vilhjalmsson, 2004)
- Text and HUD
- User Interface
- Text and GUI Demo
- Lab 6 Materials FP-IDEA
Special Topics and Projects
7 (18.02) - Visual Realism and Shaders - Shader programming - Lab 7 Materials PROG2 (10%)
8 (25.02) - [NO CLASS] - Torfi F. Ólafsson (CCP Games) - Students present FP-PROP FP-PROP (5%)
9 (03.03) - Character Animation - Animating using Blender [ BWiki ] - Lab 8 Materials
10 (10.03) - Online Virtual Worlds
(Morningstar and Farmer, 1990)
- Review of Assignment 2 - Work on Previous Labs
11 (17.03) - Alternative input/output devices - Work on Final Project [EASTER BREAK]
- (24.03) - [EASTER BREAK] [EASTER BREAK] - Work on Final Project
12 (31.03) - Students Present FP - Students Present FP - Final Oral Exam FP(30%)

Grading

Part of CourseTotal Weight
Programming Assignments (x2) 20%
Final Project Proposal 5%
Final Programming Project 30%
Final Project Report 5%
Attendance, Discussion Questions and Lab Work 10%
Final Oral Exam 30%
Total 100%

Books

There is no single textbook for the course. Reading and support materials will be handed out in class or posted on MySchool. These will mostly be in the form of research papers. The course is also to some extent inspired by the following books:

  • Bergeron, B. “Developing Serious Games”, Charles River Media, Inc., 2006.
  • Pimentel, K., Teixeira, K., “Virtual Reality: Through the new looking glass”, Windcrest Books, 1993.
  • Slater, M., Steed, A., Chrysanthou, Y. “Computer Graphics and Virtual Environments”, Addison-Weseley, 2002.
  • Stuart, R., “The Design of Virtual Environments”Barricade Books Inc., 2001.
  • Laurel, B., “Computers as Theatre”, Addison-Wesley,1993
  • Cooper, A., Reimann, R., “About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design”, Wiley

Useful Resources

NOTE: Arnar has posted information about his Mac OS-X installation of Panda on the course discussion board
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