################################################# Sci.virtual-worlds Meta-FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) version 95.01 Compilation Copyright (C) 1993,1994 Aaron Kaleva Pulkka, HITLab revisions by Toni C. Emerson Last Update: 2/27/95 ################################################# Contents: 1.0 Scivw Moderator 1.1 Background 1.2 Biographies 1.3 Addresses 2.0 Posting Policy 2.1 Editing 2.2 Rejecting 2.3 Cross-posting 2.4 Subject-line Tags 2.5 Digests 3.0 Suggested Readings 3.1 Newsgroups 3.2 Mailing Lists 3.2.1 VIRTU-L 3.2.2 Glove-List 3.2.3 Rend386 3.2.4 HOTT-List 3.2.5 Iris On-Lin 3.2.6 PowerGlove 3.2.7 RenderWare 3.2.8 VeRGe 3.2.9 VIGIS-L 3.2.10 VIRTPSY 3.2.11 vworlds-list 3.2.12 WTK 3.3 Bulletin Boards 3.4 Periodicals 3.3.1 General 3.3.2 Technical 3.5 Books 3.4.1 General 3.4.2 Technical 3.4.3 Fiction 3.6 Bibliographies 4.0 Glossary 4.1 General 4.2 Technical 4.3 Others 5.0 Archives 5.1 sci.virtual-world's FTP site 5.2 Others Section 1.0: Scivw Moderating Group 1.1 History Since sci.virtual-worlds (scivw) was created by Robert "Bob"Jacobson and Howard Rheingold early in 1990, its estimated world wide readership has grown to well over fifty thousand ["USENET Readershipreport for Nov 93", news.lists]. Rheingold, the first mod erator, sawscivw as a ...scientific newsgroup for discussing research and development in virtual reality on a less formal, more frequent, more highly distributed basis than the welter of professional organizations, conventions, conferences, and journals that served as commun ication media for the individualdisciplines that were converging on VR. [199-200, Chapter 9: Reality on Your Retina, "Virtual Reality"] From the beginning, the Human Interface Technology Laboratory(HITLab) has sponsored the newsgroup by providing the necessary resources to facilitate and archive its discussions. The director ofthe HITLab, Tom Furness, has been eager to foster the exchang e ofinformation between VR researchers and to develop an on-line database of VR information. As the newsgroup's scope and readership have grown, administration has progressed from the single moderatorships of Howard Rheingold and Steve Aukstakalnis to the moderating group that serve it today. The switch to co-moderation occurred when Bob Jacobson promoted Mark DeLoura from the resident moderation software hacker to full co-moderator, in charge of the archive and FAQ construction. A personal reflection on the history of sci.virtual-worlds, by Mark DeLoura, can be found in the HITLab Knowledge Base: ftp.u.washington.edu:/public/virtual-worlds/faq/other/scivw-history.part1 In 1992, Sci.virtual-worlds.apps was created as a spin-off of sci.virtual-worlds, "...for the discussion of pending and actualapplications of virtual worlds technology in industrial, commercial,educational, and entertainment settings" [Bob Jacobson, RFD forsci.virtual-worlds.apps]. This group was active until 1994. In 1993, the Scivw Moderating Group was created. The staff included seven members of the HITLab team (a balance of staff and students) led by the Research Librarian, Toni Emerson: Michael "Squish" Almquist,Daniel Pirone, Jerry Prothero, Aaron Kaleva Pulkka, T.M. Ramstad, and Mark Takacs. The final member of the group, Gregory B. Newby at UIUC, has been maintaining the newsgroup's email redistribution list since 1991. The group was disbanded later that year, as the majority of the group left the HIT Lab and homogenous moderation was difficult. The current Moderator is Toni Emerson, with the assistance of Dr. Gregory Newby. 1.2 Biographies TONI EMERSON - Since 1991, Toni has been participating in the HITLab Knowledge Base project. Now she works full-time as the lab's Research Consultant, content webmaster of the HITL WWW and caretaker of the sci.virtual-world s ftp site. She has a Master of Librarianship from the University of Washington and two Bachelor of Arts degrees in Spanish and Drama. Primary interests are in technology transfer, information design and information systems on the Internet. GREGORY B. NEWBY - Greg is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, and a Research Scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, at the University of Illinois at Ur bana-Champaign. Greghas been involved with VR since his days at Syracuse University, where he received his Ph.D after establishing the VR lab. 1.3 Addresses Newsgroup submissions should be sent to: Questions, comments, or suggestions should be sent to: Snail-mail may be sent to: Scivw Moderating Group c/o Toni Emerson, HITLab University of Washington, FJ-15 Seattle, WA, 98195 USA Section 2.0: Posting Policy 2.1 Editing We will not edit portions of submissions to correct spelling, grammar, or content. We may reformat articles so that each line contains less than 71 characters and ends with a carriage-return/line-feed [you can save us some time by doing this before submitting]. Oversized signatures may be truncated [please respect the general Usenet guideline of 4 lines, maximum]. We may edit the subject-line for clarity and consistency [see section 2.4]. We may edit the comment portion of followups to previous postings, if it is too long or not pertinent to the reply. 2.2 Rejecting Although we expect most submissions will be posted, we do have certain guidelines by which we will reject articles. We will not post: - articles that are not coherently related to virtual reality - flames (any posting that directly attacks person and/or idea without objective, analytical content) - comments directed to the moderators (unless of general interest) -multiple postings expressing essentially the same idea, the first posting will be accepted the others will be rejected. -postings considered to be personal comments, not of group interest. ANYTIME we decide not to post a submission, we will send a message to the author indicating why it is not being posted. 2.3 Cross-posting We do not allow cross-posting between sci.virtual-worlds and other moderated newsgroups, unless the articles are submitted separately (this is due to a limitation in the way the Usenet handles moderated newsgroups). We do not allow cross-posting of copyrighted material (such as articles from the ClariNet News Services) without proper permission. You may, however, submit a summary of, review of, or pointer to such material. Since we are unable to check the copyright authority of each submission, we rely on you to use good judgement when posting. 2.4 Subject-line Tags 2.4.1 Announcements ADMIN: Related to newsgroup administration. ANNOUNCE: Miscellaneous. CONF: Conference descriptions, dates, deadlines, etc. CFP: Call for papers (for conferences/journals). EDUC: Description of educational opportunity. EPUB: Electronic publications, reports, papers, etc. EVENT: Descriptions of various, non-conference events. JOB-OFFERED: Employment opportunities. JOB-WANTED: Shameless self-promotion. NEW-PROD: New product announcements (commercial ads). ONLINE: Online services, ftp sites, etc. PUB: Books, journals, etc. 2.4.2 Discussions APPS: Applications of virtual worlds in various domains. DESIGN: Human factors, standards, and other design issues. ENTERTAIN: Entertainment/game applications. INDUSTRY: Where the industry is, or is heading. MISC: Items that don't fit into any other category. PHIL: Philosophical musings about reality, etc. PROD: Discussion of products REV-PROD: Non-commercial reviews and evaluations of products. REV-APPS: Review of experience with an application. REV-CONF: General review or report on a conference. REV-ENTERTAIN: Review of experience with an entertainment app. REV-EVENT: General review or report on an event. REV-ONLINE: Reviews of online services, publications, etc. REV-PUB: Review of books, journals, etc. SCI: Scientific issues such as health, physics, etc. SOC: Social phenomena and culture. TECH: Hard technology, data, software, hardware, etc. 2.4.3 Digests DIGEST: Weekly digests containing related messages. DIGEST: Virtual Interface Marketplace FOR-SALE: Products/items for sale/re-sale. MARKETING: General marketing announcement. WANTED: Entities wanting to obtain hardware/software. DIGEST: Virtual-worlds Info Booth INFO: General information requests/answers. TERMS: Questions and answers about terminology. WHO: Searching for people involved in the field. DIGEST: Scivw Request COMMENT: A comment concerning the admin of scivw. QUESTION: A question about scivw, of general interest. SUGGESTION: A suggestion for how things "should" be done. 2.5 Digests The two digests, "Virtual Interface Marketplace" and "Virtual-worlds Info Booth," are weekly posts containing a collection of related messages (posted Monday and Wednesday respectively). Since we will not post empty digests, a skipped issue indicates that we received no relevant submissions that week. The first part of each digest will include a list of the subject lines from the posts contained in the digest, allowing for a quick check to see if the digest contains anything of specific interest to you. These digests may be plodded through on your newsreader or you may use your mailreader to read each message in the digest separately (assuming your mailreader can read folders in 'mailbox format'). Reading a digest in mailbox format requires these simple steps: From your newsreader: - save the digest to a file, Using your favorite text editor: - open the file, - delete everything before the '=cut here=' line (including the line itself), - replace all strings ">From " with "From " (between, not including, the quotes), - save the file, From your mailreader: - open the file as a folder. Now the individual posts will appear as if they are separate mail messages, and can be treated as such. The subject lines will coincide with those on the posts and can be used to determine which ones to delete and which ones to read. To respond to an author directly: reply as you would with e-mail. To post a follow-up: change the "To: " header in your reply, replacing the author's address with "scivw@hitl.washington.edu" Section 3.0: Suggested Readings 3.1 Newsgroups There are many Usenet newsgroups which contain information relevant to various aspects of the diverse virtual-worlds community. Newsgroup: Description: comp.graphics Computer graphics, art, animation, image processing. comp.human-factors Issues related to human-computer interaction (HCI). comp.multimedia Interactive multimedia technologies of all kinds. comp.realtime Issues related to real-time computing. comp.research.japan The nature of research in Japan. (Mod) comp.robotics All aspects of robots and their applications. comp.simulation Simulation methods, problems, uses. (Mod) comp.sys.sgi.graphics Graphics packages and issues on SGI machines. comp.theory.dynamic-sys Theory of dynamic systems. sci.cognitive Perception, memory, judgement and reasoning. sci.med.telemedicine Clinical consulting through computer networks. sci.optics Discussion relating to the science of optics. sci.research Research methods, funding, ethics, and whatever. sci.virtual-worlds Virtual Reality technology and culture. (Mod) 3.2 Mailing Lists 3.2.1 VIRTU-L VIRTU-L is the mailing list mirror of sci.virtual-worlds. GregNewby OR is the administrator for the and can be contacted if you experienc e problems with the automated system. To subscribe to the list, send an e-mail message to the automated list server OR on Bitnet, with the following text in the body of the message: subscribe listname Your Full Name (of course you need to replace "listname" with "virtu-l" and you need to replace "Your Full Name" with your actual name, do not use quotes and do not use your userid). For more information consult the lists' FAQ in the sci.virtual-worlds ftp site: /public/virtual-worlds/faq/other/FAQ_virtu-l. 3.2.2 Glove-list The glove-list was created in 1991 to provide a rapid communication channel to hackers adapting the Power Glove for use in low-cost VR systems. J. Eric Townsend was the administrator for this list. The actual PowerGlove Mailing list is nonactive. To quote the administrator, "The PowerGlove mailing list is dead. (It fell on its head)." However, there is a great HTML doc available, a current Glovelist FAQ at: URL=http://wiretap.spies.com/jet/faq-0.3.html According to J. Eric Townshend, "This is probably the last version of the PowerGlove-specific FAQ. It will probably be consumed by a HomeBrew VR FAQ, if things go well. (I recently (Jul 94) changed jobs. Much of my free time is consumed with work here at General Magic, Inc., making the world a safer place for personal communicators.)" For more information, consult the Glove-list FAQ in the sci.virtual-worlds' ftp site: /public/virtual-worlds/faq/other/FAQ_glovelist. 3.2.2 Rend386 There are currently two mailing lists related to rend386: one for announcements, and one for discussion. If you encounter trouble using the automated server, you may contact the administrators at . To get the complete instructions on subscribing, send e-mail to . To simply subscribe to either list, send e-mail to the automated list server , with either or both of the following lines in the body of the message: subscribe rend386-announce subscribe rend386-discuss 3.2.4 Homebrew-VR mailing list: The Homebrew-VR mailing list is a listserv maintained on sleepless.acm.uiuc.edu by Jonathan Stark (jks@uiuc.edu). The purpose of the list is to promote the development of homebuilt virtual reality devices and applications. Through this list, people can exchange ideas and questions, and hopefully everyone will end up the better for it. Subscribing to the Homebrew-VR mailing list is very easy. Simply send mail to homebrew-vr-request@acm.uiuc.edu with a subject of "Subscribe". You will automatically be added to the list, and will receive all mail that is sent to the group. To post, send mail to homebrew-vr@acm.uiuc.edu. Your mail will then be resent to all of the people on the list. A copy of your message will also be sent back to you. Homebrew-VR FAQ is available as an HTML Document: URL=http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/homebrew/faq.html 3.2.5. HOTT-List HOTT - electronic magazine Hot Off The Tree -- is a FREE monthly electronic newsletter featuring the latest advances in computer, communications, and electronics technologies. Each issue provides article summaries on new & emerging technologies, including VR (virtual reality), neu ral networks, PDAs (personal digital assistants), GUIs (graphical user interfaces), intelligent agents, ubiquitous computing, genetic & evolutionary programming, wireless networks, smart cards, video phones, set-top boxes, nanotechnology, and massively pa rallel processing. To subscribe send e-mail to: listserv@ucsd.edu and leave the "Subject" line blank. In the body of the message input: SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST. If at any time you choose to cancel your subscription input: UNSUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST 3.2.6 Iris On-Line This is a mailing list based on the SGI monthly news magazine. The types of articles published are: SGI press releases, SGI and related product announcements, technical articles, training course schedules and general information regarding SGI products an d services. To subscribe, E-mail: list-manager@sgi.comm and put the message "subscribe nyn-emag". 3.2.7 PowerGlove Serial Interface (PGSI) Send mail to "pgsi@uiuc.edu 3.2.8 RenderWare List (ftp site at ftp.canon.co.uk). A mailing list for information about RenderWare If you want to join the list send mail to listproc@canon.co.uk with the first line: "subscribe RW-LIST . There is also an ftp site at ftp.canon.co.uk. 3.2.9 VeRGe-Events To subscribe to the VeRGe-Events mailing list, send a message to: "listserv@netcom.com " with the message: "subscribe verge-events" in the body of the message. 3.2.10 VIGIS-L Moderator: Thomas Edwards. New newsgroup for discussion of uses of VR interfaces for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial information support systems. To subscribe e-mail with message . 3.2.11 VIRTPSY - Virtual Reality Psychology VIRTPSY is open to researchers, practitioners, and students of psychology who are interested in the social contracts and interactions within the enviroments known as Virtual Reality. It shall explore the impacts of both text and graphic based enviroments on these new avenues of interpersonal relations. VIRTPSY is available by free subscription. To subscribe, send an email message to: LISTSERV@SJUVM.BITNET or LISTSERV@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU No subject heading is needed. In the BODY of the message write th e following: SUBSCRIBE VIRTPSY First Name Last Name 3.2.11 vworlds-list The vworlds-list is an unmoderated list with the charter to discuss the aesthetic and artistic aspects of virtual worlds freed from technical constraints. To subscribe, send mail to vworlds-list-request@netcom.com for instructions. List Owner: Kevin Gold smith (kevin@unitcircle.org). 3.2.12 WTK Maintained by NASA Ames Research Center, sig-wtk@artemis.arc.nasa.gov. 3.3 Bulletin Boards There are many other mailing lists and discussion groups which are relevant to the discussions taking place here, such as: - America On-line: VIRTUS - CompuServe: GRAPHDEV - GEnie: Cat 16, Top 6 - WELL: VR - BIX: virtual.world Diaspar Virtual Reality Network For more information on these and more, consult the latest issue of the "Information Resources in Virtual Reality" (IRVR) on the HITLab WWW server and at the ftp site: URL=http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/knowledge_base/irvr/ URL=ftp://ftp.u.washington.edu/public/VirtualReality/HITL/papers/tech-reports/irvr.txt 3.4 Periodicals 3.4.1 General CyberEdge Journal: The World's Leading Newsletter of Virtual Reality. Newsletter 6/year. Ben Delaney, editor [Email: bdel@well.sf.ca.us]. Virtual Reality Report: The International Newsletter of VR. Newsletter 10/year. Now published by the Cobb Group. Wired. Magazine 12/year. San Francisco, CA: Wired USA Ltd. ISSN 1059-1028 [Email: subscriptions@wired.com; pure culture, nothing technical]. 3.3.2 Technical AI Expert. San Francisco, CA: Miller Freeman,Inc [August issues feature Virtual Reality; they have also been publishing a Special Report on Virtual Reality in July, for the last two years]. Computer Graphics. Journal published by the Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics of the Association for Computing Machinery. ISSN 0097-8930. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments. Journal 4/year. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. [Email: hiscox@mitvma.mit.edu; unsurpassed technical resource.] ISSN 1054-7460. Real Time Graphics. Newsletter 10/year. CGSD Corporation [Email: roywlatham@cup.portal.com]. VR News - The Virtual Realty Newsletter. Mike Bevan, editor. Published ten times per year. Cydata Limited, PO Box 2515, London N4 4JW, England; Tel & Fax: (44) 81-292-1498. VR News - The Virtual Reality Newsletter. Mike Bevan, editor. Published ten times per year. Cydata Limited, PO Box 2515, London N4 4J2, England. Tel/Fax: 44-81-292-1498. WWW Home Page: URL=ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/hitchner/vrnews.html VR World: Meckler Publishing, 11 Ferry Lane West, Westport, CT 06880-9760. ISSN 1060-9547. Internet: meckler@jvnc.net; CompuServe 70373,616; AppleLink: Meckler. WWW Home Page: URL=http://www.mecklerweb.com/vr.htm 3.4 Books 3.4.1 General Ellis, S.R. (ed.) (1991). "Pictorial Communication in Virtual and Real Environments." London: Taylor & Francis. ISBN: 0-748-40008-7. Jacobson, Linda (ed.). (1992). "Cyberarts: Exploring Art & Technology." San Francisco, CA: Miller Freeman, Inc. Pimentel, Ken and Teixeira, Kevin. (1993). "Virtual Reality: Through the New Looking Glass." New York, NY: Intel/Windcrest/McGraw Hill. ISBN: 0-830-64064-9. Rheingold, H. (1991). "Virtual Reality: Exploring the Brave New Technologies." New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Trade. ISBN: 0-671-69363-8. 3.4.2 Technical Laurel, B. (ed.) (1990). "The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design." Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 0-201-51797-3. Sheridan, Thomas B. (1992). "Telerobotics, Automation, and Human Supervisory Control." Cambridge, MA & London: The MIT Press. ISBN: 0-262-19316-7. Shneiderman, Ben. (1992). "Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human Interaction." 2nd Edition. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 0-201-57286-9. Stampe, Dave and Roehl, Bernie and Eagan, John (1993). "Virtual Reality Creations." Waite Group Press. ISBN 1-878739-39-5 [includes Rend386 on a PC-disk]. 3.4.3 Science Fiction Card, Orson Scott. (1991). "Ender's Game." New York, NY: Tom Doherty Associates. ISBN: 0-812-51349-5. Gibson, William. (1984). "Neuromancer." New York, NY: ACE Science Fiction. ISBN: 0-553-28174-7. Gibson, William. (1993). "Virtual Light." New York: Bantam Books. ISBN: 0-553-07499-7. Jacobson, Karie (ed.) (1993). "Simulations: 15 Tales of Virtual Reality." New York, NY: Citadel Press. Stephenson, Neal. (1992). "Snow Crash." New York: Bantam Books. Vinge, Vernor. (1987). "True Names...and Other Dangers." New York, NY: Baen. 3.5 Bibliographies For a more complete list of publications, consult the latest issue of the IRVR in the HITLab Knowledge Base: URL=http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/knowledge_base/irvr/ For a list of citations of specific articles on VR, consult one of the bibliographies in: URL=http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/knowledge_base/ Section 4.0: Glossary 4.1 General Many of the terms listed in this glossary do not have a single, universally accepted definition. The definitions listed below have been compiled over years of discussions and borrowed from other more comprehensive glossaries. "Virtual Reality Terms" (1993), compiled by Joe Psotka and Sharon Davison, can be found in the HITLab Knowledge Base: /public/virtual-worlds/faq/other/VR-glossary Another useful collection of definitions, called the "Virtual Reality Glossary" (July 1992), was compiled by L. Jacobson for the Virtual Reality Special Report of AI Expert [see section 3.3.2]. Artificial Reality: This term was coined by Myron Krueger in the mid-1970s to describe his non-immersive "computer-controlled responsive environments." The full body motion of the participant effects the computer generated environment, displayed on a screen. For more infor mation, see "Artificial Reality II" (1991). Augmented Reality: The use of transparent HMDs to overlay computer generated images onto the physical environment. Precisely calibrated, rapid head tracking is required to maintain the illusion. Cyberspace: This term was originally coined by William Gibson, in "Neuromancer" [see section 3.4.3], to describe the shared virtual universe of the world's computer networks, where both participants and data could be seen, heard, and touched. This term has come to describe the more familiar global information space. Our telephone conversations, Usenet discussions, and ATM transactions all take place in cyberspace. MUD: Multiple User {Domain, Dungeon, or Dialogue}. These are typically text-based environments which allow many users to communicate and build worlds in "real-time." There are many different types of MUDs: discussion, fantasy adventure, science-fiction adven ture, and others. For more information, consult the three-part FAQ on Muds and Mudding in the HITLab Knowledge Base: /public/virtual-worlds/faq/other/FAQ_mud.{1,2,or 3} Presence: The feeling of actually being in an environment, whether it is real, augmented, or virtual. This is a defining characteristic of an immersive VR system. Projected Reality: A computer system which uses projection televisions to provide an individual or group with a window to a virtual environment. Teleoperation: The remote operation of a robotic system. If the human interfac provides an immersive environment, then it can also be called "telepresence." Virtual Reality (VR): This term is attributed to Jaron Lanier, to describe an immersive, interactive simulation of realistic or imaginary scenes. Common usage of this term would indicate that the immersive component is not required. However, many researchers strongly believe that immersion is as important as interactivity. Virtual World: A specific interactive model comprised of a set of objects or entities. 4.2 Technical BSX: Bram Stolk's X-windows based graphical MUD system. CyberMan: A low-cost 6d stationary input device made by Logitech. DataGlove: A gesture recognition device developed by VPL Research. HMD: A Head mounted display strictly refers to a graphical display device, although it is usually coupled with position tracking and earphones for 3d sound. PGSI: The PowerGlove Serial Interface provides users the ability to connect their glove to a personal computer. PowerGlove: Out of production interface device developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Abrahms/Gentile Entertainment and licensed to Mattel Toys. REND 386: A real-time polygon renderer for Intel 386s and up. Used in combination with a 3d display device, such as Shutter Glasses, and a 3d input device, such as the PowerGlove, hackers can create virtual environments at home. Shutter Glasses: Liquid crystal glasses which cover each eye alternatively, in sync with the alternating display of images for each eye, produces a 3d effect. Spaceball: A 6d stationary input device. VEOS: The Virtual Environment Operating {System, Shell} was developed at the HITLab as a foundation for building virtual worlds. Paper available in the HITLab Knowledge Base: URL=http://www.hitl.washington.edu/publications/veos/veos-project.html VRD: The Virtual Retinal Display, developed at the HITLab, is a display approach wherein lasers are used to scan images directly onto the retina. This has the potential of greatly reducing the size, weight, and power consumption of displays, while increasing the resolution. Paper available in the HITLab Knowledge Base: "A Retinal Display for Virtual Environments" by Joel Kollin URL=http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/vrd/sid-vrd.html 4.3 Others CAVE: CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment is the name of the "virtual reality theater" in the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. HITLab or HITL: Human Interace Technology Laboratory in Seattle, Washington. UIUC: University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne. UNC-CH: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Section 5.0: FTP Site 5.1 sci.virtual-world's FTP Site The site is currently accessible by anonymous ftp (use the login name "anonymous" and use your email address as the password) at: ftp.u.washington.edu directory hierarchy: /public/virtual-worlds/ There is an HTML document designed to access the site, if you have access to an information browser such as Mosaic or Netscape. URL=ftp://ftp.u.washington.edu/public/virtual-worlds/WWW/scivw.html The intial efforst to organize this information was by Bob Jacobson of WorlDesign and Mark A. DeLoura of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Many thanks for their efforts. This archive is now being reconstructed by the Toni Emerson, moderato r. The contents and organization of this archive will be changing on a daily basis, please forgive us for any inconvenience this may cause. Current contents of /public/virtual-worlds/: META-FAQ: Latest version of the sci.virtual-worlds Frequently Asked Questions post. cheap-vr/: Information on SEGA glasses, cheap PC VR programs,and the like. citations/: Bibliographies of interesting VR-related material. conferences/: Call for Participation and conference programs posted to sci.virtual-worlds. faq/: An extended Frequently Asked Questions directory, which contains product descriptions, research developments, conferences, school information and other useful items. faq.tar.gz: The previous directory, in one file. fly/: Demonstration code for a terrain database fly-through software package. multiverse/: An X-windows based multi-user graphical environment with sample worlds. papers/: Papers posted to the newsgroup. postings/: All past postings to sci.virtual-worlds. virtus/: Four demos of Virtus Walkthrough for the Mac. 5.2 Others The site listed above is the only one maintained by the Scivw Moderating Group. For a list of other sites, try the "VR Sites List" in the HITLab Knowledge Base: /public/virtual-worlds/faq/other/vr_sites.yy.mm yy=year of last update mm=month of last update For a comprehensive listing of WWW VR sites, see "On the Net: Internet Resourses in Virtual Reality", written by sci.virtual-worlds moderator, Toni Emerson's: URL=http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/knowledge_base/onthenet.html __ ______________ __ _^_ / /_/ / _/_ __/ / ___ _/ / <(===)> Toni Emerson / __ // / / / / /__/ _ `/ _ \ \|/ Moderator, sci.virtual-worlds /_/ /_/___/ /_/ /____/\_,_/_.__/ H