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Found the link! See the Unrealty site.

A few years ago, working on Unrealty (an Unreal-engine based 3D walkthrough app), things like this came up. Adding solid modelling, so you could cut through character and other models and have an "inside" to work with (I think the suggestion was for dentistry simulation). Integrating a physics engine for basic engineering tests.

Now, the latest Unreal engine tech is extremely powerful, with great physics available via MathEngine's Karma engine. Modifications and custom code and maps is anecdotally easier than with Quake * thanks to better editing tools and the UnrealScript interpreted language (and the recent fact that subtractive geometry is no longer the dominant design tool).

I wonder, then, if an Unrealty-esque system, with better level and physics design docs, aimed at engineers and such, would garner interest? I wouldn't expect the engineers to have enough time and artistic skills both to create their own content from scratch; but they could modify physical properties of existing objects easily enough. What would have to be part of the package, both documentation- and content-wise, to make it usable? Assuming it's not much more than the stock game engine, made suitable for education use by the removal of the "game" portions.

Unrealty uses the Unreal engine to mainly display commercial real estate. This application could easliy be used for other 3D modeling purposes as well. I believe it uses the Unreal Tournament 1 generation of the engine.

Try a Google search for virtual heritage. This is the term commonly used for digitally preserving historical sites, usually in some sort of interactive or 3D form.

The Virtual Heritage Network was founded through some of the work done at and people of VSMM98 and VSMM99, at the latter of which I presented my paper on Unrealty, which used the Unreal engine for business visualization. This is relevant, because from the Florida Everglades to ancient Japanese temples, the Unreal engine continues to find applications like these, through inventive and forward-looking historians and researchers wanting the best combination of visually enticing and widely accessible heritage presentations.

Try a Google search for virtual heritage. This is the term commonly used for digitally preserving historical sites, usually in some sort of interactive or 3D form.

The Virtual Heritage Network was founded through some of the work done at and people of VSMM98 and VSMM99, at the latter of which I presented my paper on Unrealty, which used the Unreal engine for business visualization. This is relevant, because from the Florida Everglades to ancient Japanese temples, the Unreal engine continues to find applications like these, through inventive and forward-looking historians and researchers wanting the best combination of visually enticing and widely accessible heritage presentations.

I seem to remember for example that normal character run speed in Unreal Tournament is over 30mph. They also tend to disregard inertia for enhanced control.

Game engines could be modified for spatial realism. The Unreality Project for example. The problem is applying that technology for character models.

Regards

Geez, I'm almost miffed that I had to plug my own project myself.

Yes, things like this have been done before, and even featured on Slashdot. That article is about NASA doing a virtual tour of the International Space Station using Unrealty, which is a stripped-down version of the same Unreal engine used in Unreal Tournament, targeted at architects and real estate developers. Even won an award for a research paper I did on the concept.

While it never really caught on, perhaps the next go at, using the next-generation Unreal technologies, will. Structure Studios is one such competitor, using next-generation engines to produce even more realistic representations. And you can check out some of the work of a licensed Unrealty locale developer at 3dx3.

Geez, I'm almost miffed that I had to plug my own project myself.

Yes, things like this have been done before, and even featured on Slashdot. That article is about NASA doing a virtual tour of the International Space Station using Unrealty, which is a stripped-down version of the same Unreal engine used in Unreal Tournament, targeted at architects and real estate developers. Even won an award for a research paper I did on the concept.

While it never really caught on, perhaps the next go at, using the next-generation Unreal technologies, will. Structure Studios is one such competitor, using next-generation engines to produce even more realistic representations. And you can check out some of the work of a licensed Unrealty locale developer at 3dx3.

From the Voodoo Extreme site info:

Unreality (needed): http://www.unrealty.net/
VISS ZIP here: http://www.unrealty.net/network/
(you need the first two as per the instructions on NASA's site)

Screen shots: http://www.unrealty.net/network/screenshots.php3?i d=7&page=1

From the Voodoo Extreme site info:

Unreality (needed): http://www.unrealty.net/
VISS ZIP here: http://www.unrealty.net/network/
(you need the first two as per the instructions on NASA's site)

Screen shots: http://www.unrealty.net/network/screenshots.php3?i d=7&page=1

From the Voodoo Extreme site info:

Unreality (needed): http://www.unrealty.net/
VISS ZIP here: http://www.unrealty.net/network/
(you need the first two as per the instructions on NASA's site)

Screen shots: http://www.unrealty.net/network/screenshots.php3?i d=7&page=1

Yes, Unrealty has been doing this for a long time. I don't know how this is news...

hasn't unrealty been doing the same thing with the Unreal engine for quite some time? -m-

Think about what porting an open BSD or Linux over to a closed, proprietary console system does:

It opens the console.

All of a sudden, you've got an open, cheap, extensible platform. It's got sound, it's got video output to TV or VGA, it's got a CD-ROM drive, it's got a modem, it's got a keyboard, and it's got the possibility for further expansion through the serial port, as well as swapping out the modem for an ethernet card in the future.

You could port VNC to it under GGI or SVGALIB or even plain old X, and turn any TV into a desktop, you don't even need a VGA monitor.

Take it one step further, and now it's a cheap network computer or thin client, with a light word processing app, web browser, and solitaire game on a free ISP like NetZero or whatever.

Or maybe it's an MP3 player stereo component with an on-screen interface and cool visualization options. Hell, it'd fit great in your car.

Or let's take this as far as you can go. Why not port something really massive to it? Say, something like the Unreal engine. There are projects out there like Digitalo's Virtual Reality Notre Dame Project, where you can tour giant heritage structures like the Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral in full 3D, led around by a virtual tour guide, and teach kids things they'd never otherwise learn. Porting the engine to the Dreamcast (there's already an x86 Linux and PSX2 port) would give you a $199 learning console that plugs right into the TVs most schools already have (moreso than computers), and suddenly gives them classroom access to more power and technology than any PC initiative ever did. From light web browsing to 3D learning applications, a BSD port to the Dreamcast could make dreams of computers in the classroom real.

Disclaimer: Yeah, I'm an engine licensee, producing 3D tours using the engine with my Unrealty product. But I want to see a cheap platform for them as much as any teacher who's seen the potential for such a thing.

--Vito