Monthly Archives: March 2013

Reading 7

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For class 3/12/13
Post Comments by 11:59 PM on 3/10/13

Disney’s Aladdin: first steps toward storytelling in virtual reality
Randy Pausch, Jon Snoddy, Robert Taylor, Scott Watson, Eric Haseltine
http://ivizlab.sfu.ca/arya/Papers/ACM/SIGGRAPH-96/Storytelling%20in%20VR.pdf

Serious games continuum: Between games for purpose and experiential environments for purpose
Tim Marsh
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875952110000224

Note: This article requires you to be on campus. You can log into sight with your netid through this link: http://sfx.wisconsin.edu/wisc?sid=google&auinit=T&aulast=Marsh&atitle=Serious+games+continuum:+Between+games+for+purpose+and+experiential+environments+for+purpose&title=Entertainment+computing&volume=2&issue=2&date=2011&spage=61&issn=1875-9521

Discussion:

Disney’s Aladdin: first steps toward storytelling in virtual reality (Pick 3)

Do you feel like storytelling in VR has evolved to the author’s hope?  If why, what do you think has slowed it’s growth.  If yes, descibe examples that you think show this evolution.

Are you surprised by the lack of head rotation?  What did you think contributed most to this result?  Would you expect the same type of head rotation profile in the CAVE?

Which of the general observations do you find most useful for trying to design a project?  In what ways could you use this insight for your project?

In the survey, pick either a result the you found interesting or a question you found curious and briefly discuss.  Do you think it made sense to present the results grouped by gender?

Do you feel like the research challenges are still relevant or have been solved?  Choose one of the  challenges that you think would be interesting to try to explore.  Discuss one idea of how you might start to attempt to undertake this challenge.

Serious games continuum: Between games for purpose and experiential environments for purpose

Do you agree with the author’s definition of serious games (p 63)?  Do you agree with the continuum on Figure 1?  Can something be a game and have no gaming characteristics for experience?

Choose one of the examples listed in section 3.x.  Find and list a  video or external reference for the example.  Discuss how you would position this example on the continuum.

Do you agree with the author’s discussion point that serious gaming is a form of cost-effective VR?  Do you think all of VR could be considered a form of serious gaming?

 

Assignment 3

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Due for Class 3/12/13

This is assignment is to give a pitch for a project you would be interested in pursuing.  You will give a 5 minute presentation in class.  Things you should cover in your presentation:

  • What you are trying to do
  • Why you think this would be interesting
  • Things you think you know how to do
  • Things you don’t think you know how to do

After you finish the presentation we will open up for questions.  Pay attention to everyone  presentations.  After class I will have you email me:

  • Two to three projects you would be interested on working on
  • Projects you would definitely not want to work on

 Addition Info: I have had some questions about the specifics about what I am looking for.  Here is kind of an FAQ

How should I try to frame what I am pitching?

Think of trying to pitch an experience you would like to create.  For instance, “I want to create the experience of being in a sea battle with pirates.”  As an example, here are the project pages from the class from two years ago

http://graphics.cs.wisc.edu/WP/virtualreality11/2011/03/30/what-the-space-muffins-are-all-about/

http://graphics.cs.wisc.edu/WP/virtualreality11/2011/03/30/jc-project-desc/

http://graphics.cs.wisc.edu/WP/virtualreality11/2011/03/31/netcave-overview/

http://graphics.cs.wisc.edu/WP/virtualreality11/2011/03/30/the-galaxy-map-project/

Do I need to know how to do what I pitching?
At this stage we will work a very conceptual level.  Don’t worry if you have no idea of how to implement your idea.  That type of thinking will be for when we split up into teams.

How would the ideas of designing environments turn into an interesting project?
Here are some ideas that come to my mind.

Impossible Environments

In virtual reality we can make environments that aren’t physically possible.  What would it be like to experience something like the infinite staircase?

In virtual reality we can change ideas of scale.  What would it be like to be a very small or very large.

Environments that change as you interact with them.

Those are just a handful of ideas.  Please email if you would like to bounce ideas for projects.  Remember that this project pitch is not the final declaration of what you will be doing for the final project, that will be decided on a team by team basis.  At the end of the day the goal is to come up with cool project ideas and to have fun.