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High-End VR QuakeIII Arena
An Anonymous Coward writes: "Saw this over at vrsource.org. Paul Rajlich has released CAVE Quake III Arena (cq3a). cq3a is a Quake3 engine that runs in VR environments from desktop HMDs to high-end multi-wall projection systems like the CAVEs and fully-enclosed C6. The original announcement is here. There is also an article describing what he had to do. The main cq3a page is here at visbox where you can download the code for multiple environment types (VR Juggler, CAVElibs, FreeVR, SDL, GLUT, and GLX). It currently runs on Linux, Irix, Win32, MacOS, and FreeBSD. You also have to check out the cool pictures on the site."
This is a new rendering engine, built from scratch, that can read q3a datafiles, and has similar advanced features as the q3a engine (though not identical). It's not a game, you can't play q3a on it.
The problem is to do with the way the game engine handle 3d images around the edge of the screen, and the way in which these images are processed by the brain. The researchers measured the EEG (electroencephalogram, "brain waves") of gamers whilst playing 3d games. The researchers noted that the EEG changed from its normal "beta" activity (characterised by 14-60Hz oscillations), and gained a low frequency component (delta waves, in the 0.5-2Hz range, which normally only occur during deep sleep).
The researchers attributed this change in brain activity to high frequency components in the rapidly changing images at the side of the screen in some 3d engines. The effect of these high frequency images on the gamer's peripheral vision caused desynchronisation of the gamers EEG rhythms, leading to headaches, irritability, nausea and (in the worse cases) epileptic attacks. The researchers found that these unfortunate side effects got considerably worse when the games were played on large screens.
My question is, will playing Quake on a huge screen like that in a CAVE be responsible for causing serious health problems in gamers?
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Donald "Don Juan" Kerr
The point of the project is to develop "a new distributed graphics system that is designed to allow an application to render to a large, tiled display." It is an OpenGL implementation that allows a cluster of one or more machines to render to a tiled display with one or more tiles. So the system allows a cluster of N computers to render a single image, and also allows one computer to render to a tiled display, and also allows N computers to render to M displays in a tiled display.
And, of course, it's OpenGL, so you can put together a rad tiled Quake demo just as easily as you can put together a rad JoesStupidOpenGLTestGame demo.
No HMDs, though.
Boy do they have cool stuff there!
The best part was when I got to play with a CAVE . It's a cube about 10ft square with 3D projections on three walls and the floor, which really gives you a feeling of immersion. My favorite program was the cathedral, which imitated the interior of a cathedral (who'd have guessed?). You could "walk" around the interior, which was mostly bare, except for a stairway leading up towards the roof. The stairs had no railing, and I had trouble getting up to the top without falling off. The person who was giving the tour told me that most people's favorite thing was to climb to the top, and then jump off, so I tried it. It's almost as good as a roller coaster! I really got a feeling of falling, as I watched the walls go by, and the floor zoom up at me.
Unfortunately, (well, not really) I got offered a job with Hewlett Packard, and decided to buy a house and have a life instead of being a poor student and playing with really cool geek toys.
I have a set of i-glasses , but they don't even come close to the CAVE in terms of immersion.
Hmmm. I should pull the i-glasses back out of the box and try playing with them again. The only game I ever liked with them was Descent, because it actually worked in 3D. It was pretty neat to strafe around a corner, and be able to see the corner wall with one eye, and an enemy ship with the other eye.
Do any other /.ers have i-glasses? What games do you like to play with them?
Help find a cure for Gidget.
I must say CAVE quake is very cool, I worked with the cave @ ncsa and we tried to slip away when we could. Even more cool was playing someone across the hall in a deathmatch using the idesk and CAVE. Paul is truely a top notch programmer @ he also worked on a vrml generator thats pretty cool, check out more news about cave quake here
Perhaps when these games are finally marketed, it would be a good idea to sell 'post VR Quake sedatives' or offer therapy for those who have become unhinged after a playing too much.
Seriously though, with a lawsuite against 'violent' video games being started by some of the columbine massacre victim's families and the political reactions to these games, you have to think it will be a matter of time until the first post VR Quake shooting occurs. Sooner or later the line between game and reality will become sufficiently blurred that someone will think reality is one big deathmatch.
Personally I can't wait to give it a go, but I will make sure that all firearms are locked away and secure afterwards! :)
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