Entries for September 2005
More Virtual World Lab News...
Every day we have a few more visitors and users come to the lab. While we have limited access to students in my and Knut Hybinette's (Case/CIA) Game Design class while the the lab is in the final stages of completion, we have had a number of visitors peering in through the glass entrance doors. Of course we have given everyone who comes by a brief tour!
We will much broader access VERY soon (this week possibly) as the networking and software installation is completed!
Room by room news:
Music Room - I bought a guitar stand and strap over the weekend! While that doesn't sound like big news at all...it does say something important. That we're at the point where things are really moving here! One machine (what I've been calling the synthesis machine) is truly up and running with the instruments being recognized and Reason 3.0 generating music! We'll be ordering another copy of Reason 3.0 for the 2nd machine here. Also...after a lot of thought and research our current idea is to use Adobe Audition 1.5 to deal with the analog audio component of music/sound. This program works nicely with Reason and should provide what is missing in Reason. Other choices include using Cubase or Sonar...but that seems to duplicate what Reason offers...
Virtual Reality Room - we're up and running here as well. There are already three groups working on projects! We've had some difficulty finding an appropriate parallel interface for one of the Sensable Desktop haptic units but I don't expect that problem to last for long. The other two haptic units (which are quite cool!) are working fine - ask to try the Dice Demo!
Immersion Room - we're waiting for the Barco 2D/3D Gemini projection system to complete this room. The expected date of arrival is the end of September. When finished I guarantee that this room will be "way cool"!
Console room - come and play some games!!! All the XBOXs, PS2s, and Gamecubes are working and the room is VERY cool from all the student feedback that we've received. Of course faculty wouldn't be caught in this room at all - NOT! Marc Buchner and Michael Rabinovich (new professor in EECS) have been spotted playing Project Gothem! The consoles should all be networked this week (though we did make a temporary cable to tie two of them together - couldn't resist!)
PC room - all the PCs have been networked and we've been playing with software images containing the first round of installed software. Oh yes...we added a b/w and a color laser printer to the lab in this room - somehow this fell through the cracks in our original hardware requirements list.
I would like to add a MAJOR thanks to all who have participated in the lab design, construction, and implementation. There are many individuals who have contributed (and are continuing to contribute) in different ways ranging from helping to select carpet color...to helping spec the hardware...to networking and setting up all the computers...to testing the hardware and software...to keeping me sane during difficult times with the construction. Thanks from the bottom of my heart for helping to create a truly special place here at the University that will bring strong educational value in truly, exciting and enjoyable ways.
VW Lab Opening (well...sort of!)
Again...my apologies for not keeping the blog up to date. The beginning of the semester has been particularly busy.
In any event...the big news is that the lab is open for business...at least in part. The console room is up and running (and is a blast from all the feedback that we've gotten), the music room is up and running, and the virtual reality room is up as well.
The PC room...while we have all of the equipment in place...needs to have the computers networked before we allow open access. In fact none of the networking is in place in the lab at the moment. The EECS tech staff are hard at work putting all the networking in place (which is no small job!).
I've uploaded a short Power Point presentation which shows the portions of the game development room (the PC room), the digital music production room, the VR development room, and the console room. The actual lab has more "substance" to it and really needs to be seen in person to appreciate, but you get some idea of what we're doing from the slide show.
I'll have more to say later on today but I want to get this up quickly...
More to come...