From: Marc de Groot Subject: ONLINE: A virtual squirrel Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 09:57:00 -0800 Message-ID: <30BDF06C.2C8@immersive.com> Organization: Immersive Systems, Inc. From: Marc de Groot For some time, the example of an acorn-munching squirrel has been a staple of conversation on the VRML mailing lists. The squirrel, its behavior, and its relationship to the objects around it are excellent starting points for thinking about distributed VR and the issues it presents. A talented virtual world designer has implemented an example of the squirrel, and it can be seen on the Web. I posted the message below to the VRML mailing list earlier today. It seemed appropriate that I preface it with a brief explanation before posting it on sci.virtual-worlds. Enjoy! ---------------- The Squirrel LIVES! The all-singing all-dancing Canonical Virtual Squirrel has been let out of his cage. Once confined to the musings and debates of an animated, interactive band of special-interest enthusiasts, the Squirrel has taken on a virtual life of his own, right here in our little corner of the Global Village. He hops! He looks back and forth! He hunts down acorns and devours them with his mighty incisors! All while savoring his carefree virtual existence in a charming and restful grove of oak trees near (0, 0, 0). Come watch the Squirrel and his community of cloned siblings romp and frolic on a polygonal plane as they fill their cheek pouches with the bounty of the virtual canopy. You can experience the Canonical Virtual Squirrel for yourself on the World-Wide Web. Go to http://www.immersive.com and follow the directions on the home page. The Canonical Virtual Squirrel is a VR applet written by Hakan "Mr. Zap" Andersson. This applet implements many of the features of the Squirrel "thought experiment" as discussed on the VRML mailing lists over the last several months. Mr. Zap implemented the Canonical Virtual Squirrel using Immersive Systems' Meme(tm) Development System. The Squirrel embodies the first practical example of a number of proposed mechanisms that have, until now, only existed as conjecture. The brain-engine duality proposed by Mr. Zap (http://sf.www.lysator.liu.se/~zap/vr_prop.html) and discussed by Bernie Roehl (http://sunee.uwaterloo.ca/~broehl/behav.html) has been implemented in preliminary form, and clock time is used to determine intervals over which various behaviors and conditions persist. Mr. Zap's work is buttressed by the powerful dynamic object model in Meme, and makes use of the inter-object messaging technology to mediate communications among the components of the virtual world. Each object in the Squirrel applet is autonomous, containing its own description and rules of behavior. The conceptual elegance of the Meme object model frees the designer from the distraction of considering the overall program, and allows undivided attention to be paid to the individual object and its relationships. Mr. Zap and Immersive Systems welcome any comments or suggestions regarding the Canonical Virtual Squirrel. Send e-mail for Mr. Zap to zap@lysator.liu.se. Questions regarding Meme can be sent to meme-info@immersive.com. Immersive Systems, Inc. is based in San Francisco. The company is committed to the development of an open architecture for distributed virtual reality on the Internet. Why live in a marked-up world? Meme is Worlds Better. -- ---- Marc de Groot Immersive Systems, Inc. San Francisco