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University of Illinois uses a Cluster for Immersive VR

Posted by chrisd on from the since-I'm-remodeling-my-basement-anyhow dept.

It seems the folks down at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have created a 6-sided CAVE like system called ALICE. But, instead of running it off of a SGI Onyx, they've developed a distributed environment for visualization called Syzygy. Slap a few computers together and make your own holodeck!

6 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Bringing science fiction closer to reality by digitalunity · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is one step in the right direction. Big things like these show you what commodity products of the future will be like.

    --
    You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
  2. Programs and graphics for this needed NOW by Warvi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    See their HOWTO for building up your own setup at


    http://www.isl.uiuc.edu/ClusteredVR/szg/doc/Para me terExamples.txt

    That seems like pretty doable by any geeks with enough boxes.

    That would say if the 3D immersion has any usability to it at all, it will be in common use in 10 yrs. It might become the next big thing in living rooms like TV became 40 years ago.

    However, what makes a new technology break through is not what it enables, but what you get with it. TV would have had no use whatsoever without the television programs made to be watched with it. Computers only broke through when there were programs for it.

    Umm, I sense a great opportunity for all people who can really do great 3D graphics.

    Not to mention what I already said about getting 3D GUIs off the ground at


    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=25035&cid=27 18 945

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    Consistency is overrated.
    1. Re:Programs and graphics for this needed NOW by Mike+Connell · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That seems like pretty doable by any geeks with enough boxes.

      #include "Wry smile.h"

      6 linux boxes and the clustering software is only half of the problem. The harder half is 6 or 12 videoprojectors (or more!), the mirrors and the (back) projection surfaces for the CAVE. Add in the tracking hardware (cost and complexity (ie EM interference)), and you have a lot more work to do.

      Don't get me wrong - it excellent that it's feasable for a department to install their own fully immersive VE without an Onyx and a team of engineers, but you'll still need a team of grad students, builders and time.

      Also dont forget that you need a *big* room for one of these too - say you have 2m high surfaces, you basically need 6-8m of vertical space once you include the space for the projectors and mirrors for the top/bottom 'walls'

      --
      Tales from behind the Lagom Curtain
    2. Re:Programs and graphics for this needed NOW by Mike+Connell · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You could - it just wouldn't be very immersive. With a 3D environment in a CAVE you dont just stand in the centre, you actually walk around a bit. If a virtual object is in the way, you might lean around it, or crouch down to look under it, just like in real life.

      This means that the views have to be created based upon where your head is - which is why at least one person will have a head tracker, if you dont have this, it doesn't feel immersive, it just looks plain wrong.

      Of course, you could keep your head in the centre, and not move it but it kind of ruins the point. Also keep in mind that I am taking 3D stereo display for granted here, but it's not so easy with real cameras, especially if you want 360 degree recording.

      Often people stick video images onto 2D objects (like the front of a virtual TV) within the 3D environment. That's pretty cool :-)

      0.02

      --
      Tales from behind the Lagom Curtain
  3. Real Quake Arena by tonywestonuk · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wouldn't it be cool if someone built an 'arena' which matched a level from quake. People would ware a standard VR helmet, and a portable PC, and 'run' around the real areana, and be able to touch the walls, but only see whats presented them through the VR headset. There would be some sort of radio triangulation, which would track everyones position within the room, and relay the information back to a main server....- This would put Qzar/Laser quest to shame!

    T.

  4. NAVE by davechen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They have a similar system at Georgia Tech, called the NAVE. It's a three sided, small scale cave. The interesting thing about it is that they did it on the cheap. Just a bunch of students with hammers and nails to put it together. I think they said it cost 60 grand total in parts.

    The PC's driving the walls were running Windows. So when we got a demo, they rebooted the machines first off. They said to clear out all the OS cruft. The synchronization between the walls was not very good at times. I'd say large fractions of a second. Thats the one thing a big SGI gets you, really tight synchronization between the walls.

    dave chen