From: schiniot@ccr.jussieu.fr (Constantin Schiniotakis) Subject: Re: DESIGN: 3D computing vs. virtual reality: what's the difference? Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 17:50:35 +0200 Message-ID: Organization: Universite Paris VII (Denis Diderot) In article (Dans l'article) <199512110105.MAA29280@mozart.ph.unimelb.EDU.AU>, John Costella wrote (écrivait) : > There will be widespread disagreement on what the various terms > mean. The discussion of ISO/CEI SC1 WD 2382-33 "Hypermedia and Multimedia" which also includes the terms related to VR agrees with what you tell us > VIRTUAL WORLDS > ============== > In my mind, "virtual worlds" is the most general, encompassing > term covering the sort of stuff we discuss here on sci-vw. In > my lexicon, *any* constructed or simulated system that is a > metaphor for an *action* in the real world, is a virtual world. > Would you mind defining the concepts of metaphor, action, real world, and/or system please ? > Arcade and > computer games present, on the whole, a more sophisticated virtual > world. Nevertheless, they are good > virtual worlds. I agree especially concerning some arcade games which simulate even accelerations. > And then we have all of the "higher lifeforms" of virtual worlds, > such as what most people here are working with or on. I agree with you that good Virtual Worlds doesn't mean "realistic" Virtual Worlds. I agree also on the interaction part of your Virtual world definition. I don't agree on the classification used. It seems to me that a credible Virtual World is NOT a "realistic" one, and I dont know what a "better" Virtual World may be. What I know is that I try to make Virtual worlds which show in a credible fashion what they must show, and this in a low budget and short schedule. What I've remarked is that audio rendering and good staging of objects often help to make a realistic world out of a poor visual rendering virtual world, > > > VIRTUAL REALITY > =============== > Note that my "VR", in itself, is devoid of content. it should be proclaimed > and preached throughout the land! VR *IS* a toy ... until you > connect it to an interesting virtual world. What do you think about my definition ? VR is the reality as experienced by a participant in a Virtual World. > > > > 3D COMPUTING > ============ > > In my opinion, once you have the ability to manipulate the > objects in your 3D system, you have a 3D virtual world. In mine you can't have a Virtual world unless you have added some behaviour to your 3D objects and perhaps a kind of behaviour on your Virtual World also. > > MULTIMEDIA > ========== > This is a difficult concept to deal with at the moment, > since large sums of money have been > allocated to Multimedia. It has skewed the organisation and > implementation of VR. Same thing happened on VR vocabulary in the above mentioned paper. -- =============================================== C. Schiniotakis e-mail : schiniot@ccr.jussieu.fr s-mail : 3, rue des Ecoles, 75005 Paris France ===============================================