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From: fjt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Frederick John Truck)
Subject: Art Com Magazine
Message-ID: <C6BLKI.Jnz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sender: news@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1993 23:36:18 GMT
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/\ ___ ___ ___ ___ __ __
/__\ /__/ / / / / / / /
/ \/ \ / /__ /__/ / / /
_________________________________________________________________
MAY 1993 NUMBER 59 VOLUME 14 NUMBER 1
_________________________________________________________________
Welcome to ART COM, an online magazine forum dedicated to the
interface of contemporary art and new communication technologies.
You are invited to send information for possible inclusion. We
are especially interested in options that can be acted upon:
including conferences, exhibitions, and publications. Proposals
for guest edited issues are also encouraged. Send submissions to:
artcomtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Back issues of ART COM can be accessed on the Art Com Electronic
Network (ACEN) on the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL),
available through the CompuServe Packet Network and PC Pursuit.
To access the Art Com Electronic Network on the WELL,
enter g acen at the Ok: prompt. The Art Com Electronic
Network is also accessible on USENET as alt.artcom.
For access information, send email to: artcomtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
*Guest Editor: Fred Truck, fjt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Editor: Carl Eugene Loeffler
*Systems: Fred Truck and Gil MinaMora
ART COM projects include:
ART COM MAGAZINE, an electronic forum dedicated to contemporary
art and new communication technologies.
ART COM ELECTRONIC NETWORK (ACEN), an electronic network dedicat-
ed to contemporary art, featuring publications, online art gal-
leries, art information database, and bulletin boards.
ART COM SOFTWARE, international distributors of interactive video
and computer art.
ART COM TELEVISION, international distributors of innovative
video to broadcast television and cultural presenters.
CONTEMPORARY ARTS PRESS, publishers and distributors of books on
contemporary art, specializing in postmodernism, video, computer
and performance art.
ART COM, P.O.B. 193123 Rincon,San Francisco,CA,94119-3123,USA.
WELL E-MAIL: artcomtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
TEL: 415.431.7524 FAX: 415.431.7841
_____________________________________________________________________
Abstraction in Virtual Reality
by Fred Truck
When I was constructing my computer 3D model of Leonardo da
Vinci's flying machine, I was concerned with what to include and
what to delete. Leonardo's drawings of his flying machines, some of
them almost Zen-like in their use of ink blobs and sketchy
scribblings, while others visually specific, included a wealth of
detail, were my basic source. Against this, I held the technologically
imposed standard of the polygon count.
What is the polygon count?
_____________
| /|
| / |
| / |
| / |
| / |
| / |
| / |
| / |
| / |
| / |
|/__________|
This figure is a 2 dimensional rectangle. It is divided into 2
polygons. This kind of arbitrary division often occurs in CAD
(computer aided design) software, unknown to the artist until the
polygon count feature is consulted. The rectangle above will count
as 2 polygons rather than 1, a situation that vastly complicates
moving a 3D model from its CAD environment to a virtual world in
software such as the Sense8 Virtual Reality Development System.
The more polygons the art contains, the more realistic its
appearance will be, but the slower updates will be made in
response to head tracking and motion.
Inevitably, a certain degree of abstraction results in building models
that will perform well in virtual reality. In the case of my da Vinci
flying machine, I included only the basic geometric forms the craft
was built from, leaving out all details of the ornithopter mechanism.
Even so, when my Swivel 3-d Professional generated flying
machine model, weighing in at 252 polygons, was moved into the
Sense8 Virtual Reality Development System, its polygon count
suddenly ballooned to over 1,000 due to Sense8's tendency to
subdivide rectangles and other surfaces into many polygons that
Swivel counted as one.
Artists who demand or expect photographic realism in their virtual
world are consigning themselves to frustration and possibly failure.
A more sensible approach is to choose subjects that have forms
made of basic geometrical shapes. Such a subject will lend itself to
abstraction and good performance in the virtual world.
Virtual worlds themselves are subject to the same kind of
abstraction that the 3D models in them are. These abstractions take
shape in the form of programmed routines expressing particular
behavioral characteristics of an object, or how certain forces in the
world, such as gravity, will act. In the case of the da Vinci flying
machine, gravity is key in understanding how virtual worlds, while
resembling the real world, differ from it in ways that allow the artist
unusual powers of expression.
An ornithopter is a heavier-than-air craft that is sustained in and
propelled through the air by wings that flap in the manner of a bird.
An ornithopter that derives its power from the muscle of its human
pilot, such as the ones Leonardo designed, is not a workable
aircraft because the weight to strength ratio of a human being with
the aircraft strapped on is not sufficient to overcome gravity. Part of
the allure of my da Vinci flying machine is knowing that it would
never work in the ordinary world, but that it can work spectacularly
in the virtual one.
Curtis Beeson, a brilliant computer science major at Carnegie
Mellon University, developed a flight algorithm I used which
provides for an ornithopter that can always overcome gravity. This
means that the ornithopter can sustain knife-edge flight (with the
wings perpendicular to the horizon line) indefinitely and never fall
out of the sky. Additionally, the steeper the angle of ascent, the
slower the ornithopter goes; the steeper the dive, the faster it
accelerates. Compared to the real world, the universe LABYRINTH
embodies is very supportive and forgiving. Even the collision-
detection algorithm is supportive. Curt and I discussed this in terms
of awareness; that is, how difficult is it for the pilot of the computer
modeled ornithopter to be aware of where the wings are?
"Let's go for the head!" said Curt.
I agreed, realizing that the pilot is going to be aware of his or her
field of vision first and foremost. While this means that the wings
can flap through apparently solid objects, it also means that in this
virtual world, the head of the pilot and the field of vision it houses is
of primary importance, and it alone can crash.
Carl Loeffler has called the programming of realistic behaviors in
virtual worlds, such as gravity, the poetry of physics. To his poetic
physics, I add another category: the physics of dreams, that alters
natural forces to make our most heartfelt inner visions of ourselves
our outward behaviors in immersive virtual reality.
______________________________________
Art Com continues to search for guest editors. If you are interested,
please contact us at artcomtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Newsgroups: alt.artcom
Path:
psuvm!news.cac.psu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexa
s.edu!uunet!well!fjt
From: fjt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Frederick John Truck)
Subject: Art Com Magazine
Message-ID: <C6BLKI.Jnz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sender: news@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nntp-Posting-Host: well.sf.ca.us
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1993 23:36:18 GMT
Lines: 157
/\ ___ ___ ___ ___ __ __
/__\ /__/ / / / / / / /
/ \/ \ / /__ /__/ / / /
_________________________________________________________________
MAY 1993 NUMBER 59 VOLUME 14 NUMBER 1
_________________________________________________________________
Welcome to ART COM, an online magazine forum dedicated to the
interface of contemporary art and new communication technologies.
You are invited to send information for possible inclusion. We
are especially interested in options that can be acted upon:
including conferences, exhibitions, and publications. Proposals
for guest edited issues are also encouraged. Send submissions to:
artcomtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Back issues of ART COM can be accessed on the Art Com Electronic
Network (ACEN) on the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL),
available through the CompuServe Packet Network and PC Pursuit.
To access the Art Com Electronic Network on the WELL,
enter g acen at the Ok: prompt. The Art Com Electronic
Network is also accessible on USENET as alt.artcom.
For access information, send email to: artcomtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
*Guest Editor: Fred Truck, fjt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Editor: Carl Eugene Loeffler
*Systems: Fred Truck and Gil MinaMora
ART COM projects include:
ART COM MAGAZINE, an electronic forum dedicated to contemporary
art and new communication technologies.
ART COM ELECTRONIC NETWORK (ACEN), an electronic network dedicat-
ed to contemporary art, featuring publications, online art gal-
leries, art information database, and bulletin boards.
ART COM SOFTWARE, international distributors of interactive video
and computer art.
ART COM TELEVISION, international distributors of innovative
video to broadcast television and cultural presenters.
CONTEMPORARY ARTS PRESS, publishers and distributors of books on
contemporary art, specializing in postmodernism, video, computer
and performance art.
ART COM, P.O.B. 193123 Rincon,San Francisco,CA,94119-3123,USA.
WELL E-MAIL: artcomtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
TEL: 415.431.7524 FAX: 415.431.7841
_____________________________________________________________________
Abstraction in Virtual Reality
by Fred Truck
When I was constructing my computer 3D model of Leonardo da
Vinci's flying machine, I was concerned with what to include and
what to delete. Leonardo's drawings of his flying machines, some of
them almost Zen-like in their use of ink blobs and sketchy
scribblings, while others visually specific, included a wealth of
detail, were my basic source. Against this, I held the technologically
imposed standard of the polygon count.
What is the polygon count?
_____________
| /|
| / |
| / |
| / |
| / |
| / |
| / |
| / |
| / |
| / |
|/__________|
This figure is a 2 dimensional rectangle. It is divided into 2
polygons. This kind of arbitrary division often occurs in CAD
(computer aided design) software, unknown to the artist until the
polygon count feature is consulted. The rectangle above will count
as 2 polygons rather than 1, a situation that vastly complicates
moving a 3D model from its CAD environment to a virtual world in
software such as the Sense8 Virtual Reality Development System.
The more polygons the art contains, the more realistic its
appearance will be, but the slower updates will be made in
response to head tracking and motion.
Inevitably, a certain degree of abstraction results in building models
that will perform well in virtual reality. In the case of my da Vinci
flying machine, I included only the basic geometric forms the craft
was built from, leaving out all details of the ornithopter mechanism.
Even so, when my Swivel 3-d Professional generated flying
machine model, weighing in at 252 polygons, was moved into the
Sense8 Virtual Reality Development System, its polygon count
suddenly ballooned to over 1,000 due to Sense8's tendency to
subdivide rectangles and other surfaces into many polygons that
Swivel counted as one.
Artists who demand or expect photographic realism in their virtual
world are consigning themselves to frustration and possibly failure.
A more sensible approach is to choose subjects that have forms
made of basic geometrical shapes. Such a subject will lend itself to
abstraction and good performance in the virtual world.
Virtual worlds themselves are subject to the same kind of
abstraction that the 3D models in them are. These abstractions take
shape in the form of programmed routines expressing particular
behavioral characteristics of an object, or how certain forces in the
world, such as gravity, will act. In the case of the da Vinci flying
machine, gravity is key in understanding how virtual worlds, while
resembling the real world, differ from it in ways that allow the artist
unusual powers of expression.
An ornithopter is a heavier-than-air craft that is sustained in and
propelled through the air by wings that flap in the manner of a bird.
An ornithopter that derives its power from the muscle of its human
pilot, such as the ones Leonardo designed, is not a workable
aircraft because the weight to strength ratio of a human being with
the aircraft strapped on is not sufficient to overcome gravity. Part of
the allure of my da Vinci flying machine is knowing that it would
never work in the ordinary world, but that it can work spectacularly
in the virtual one.
Curtis Beeson, a brilliant computer science major at Carnegie
Mellon University, developed a flight algorithm I used which
provides for an ornithopter that can always overcome gravity. This
means that the ornithopter can sustain knife-edge flight (with the
wings perpendicular to the horizon line) indefinitely and never fall
out of the sky. Additionally, the steeper the angle of ascent, the
slower the ornithopter goes; the steeper the dive, the faster it
accelerates. Compared to the real world, the universe LABYRINTH
embodies is very supportive and forgiving. Even the collision-
detection algorithm is supportive. Curt and I discussed this in terms
of awareness; that is, how difficult is it for the pilot of the computer
modeled ornithopter to be aware of where the wings are?
"Let's go for the head!" said Curt.
I agreed, realizing that the pilot is going to be aware of his or her
field of vision first and foremost. While this means that the wings
can flap through apparently solid objects, it also means that in this
virtual world, the head of the pilot and the field of vision it houses is
of primary importance, and it alone can crash.
Carl Loeffler has called the programming of realistic behaviors in
virtual worlds, such as gravity, the poetry of physics. To his poetic
physics, I add another category: the physics of dreams, that alters
natural forces to make our most heartfelt inner visions of ourselves
our outward behaviors in immersive virtual reality.
______________________________________
Art Com continues to search for guest editors. If you are interested,
please contact us at artcomtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.