From news@news.adelaide.edu.au Sat Sep 17 21:37:10 1994 Return-Path: Received: from mx1.u.washington.edu by stein2.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW94.4/UW-NDC Revision: 2.30 ) id AA06798; Sat, 17 Sep 94 21:37:10 -0700 Received: from hitl-new.hitl.washington.edu by mx1.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW94.4/UW-NDC Revision: 2.30 ) id AA08161; Sat, 17 Sep 94 21:37:11 -0700 Received: by hitl.hitl.washington.edu; id AA11238; Sat, 17 Sep 1994 21:35:45 -0700 Received: from quandong.itd.adelaide.edu.au by munnari.oz.au with SMTP (5.83--+1.3.1+0.50) id AA18494; Sun, 18 Sep 1994 14:37:01 +1000 (from news@news.adelaide.edu.au) Received: from news@localhost by quandong.itd.adelaide.edu.au (8.6.9/AndrewR-940909) id OAA02468; Sun, 18 Sep 1994 14:06:59 +0930 To: sci-virtual-worlds@munnari.oz.au Path: wattle.itd.adelaide.edu.au!snoswell From: snoswell@wattle.itd.adelaide.edu.au (Michael Snoswell) Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds Subject: Re: MISC: Cyberterm Project. Date: 18 Sep 94 03:24:42 GMT Organization: The University of Adelaide Lines: 98 Message-Id: References: <35cjk6$b89@news.u.washington.edu> Nntp-Posting-Host: wattle.itd.adelaide.edu.au X-Status: Status: OR "Christophe Dahlquist" writes: > Does anyone have any information on the Cyberterm Project? Is it >still being programmed? Or is it just another idea gone awry? Please >don't tell me it's being programmed in Windows or for some obscure OS. You're fears are partly confirmed. :-) Cyberterm is my "baby" and has undergone considerable change and growth, but no release yet. For those who don't know about it, it's basically a system whereby PCs can log in over serial lines to central servers, where users can interact with each other and the environment, in full 3D. Imagine a mixture between a multi-user flight simulator, a distributed OS, a BBS and a MUD. The environment and all objects are fully programmable in Tcl/CT (a considerably extended version of Tcl). Due to various requirements for graphics and processing power, I had to upgrade from public domain tools to commercial stuff. It now uses Watcom C/C++ and Renderware and runs, yes, under MS Windows. If you think that's bad, imagine how I feel after 3 yrs development under DOS/Unix, converting to Windows, uggg! However, the worse of the dastardly deed is done. Preliminary versions of CT have been reviewed in WAVE (the European sister magazine of WIRED) and soon also in Virtual, Diego Montefusco's Italian VR magazine. Other changes people may not be aware of is that there will be no source code released for CT itself. Plenty of Tcl/CT code will be available showing how to program objects. These include a couple of artificial life demonstrations, a 3D file manager, a D&D and shooting game and various 3D designing tools. These all run quite happily on a single PC (must be at least a 386DX). Several CT servers are being set up (Australia, Europe and US) for people to log in and try. In addition, we're adding Internet access for those people whose have dial in accounts on unix systems which have full, direct TCP/IP access. This way you can log into our first central server here in Adelaide, South Australia and try it out with many other users to see what it's like. All this effort has cost me and my fellow developers quite a bit in time, money and energy (just ask our wives!). If you only want to use CT on a single machine then that's fine and it wont cost you a thing. If you want to get permanant and full multi-machine access, effectively a full account on one of the servers rather than a guest account, then you'll have to pay a little bit. It's not yet all been finalised, but cost will be about $US30, which'll give you full printed programming and user documentation and the full server access which includes rights to create objects in a public area and leave them to operate in your absence on the server (including the right for these objects to connect to any other servers which may be connected and the right for your objects to create other objects). The servers are looking to provide services like multi-user games, file archiving (via 3D file systems), chatting and Internet access. As things progress we will be adding things like pizza delivery, database access (journals, medical etc), stock market updates and other services that lend well to remote access. As time goes by, we will be connecting all servers together via Internet. All user's machines, once connected, also become part of the network. In fact, when you connect to the server, you step out of a "gateway". This gateway is two way. Other users in the server may approach and (if permission is granted) may connect to your PC at home and can interact with whatever environment you have set up there (game, waldo access to external devices etc). This is possible because every copy of CT has a full server within it. The central Cyberterm server (CTS) runs under QNX on a PC (for very fast and flexible I/O handling). In summary, it's not finished, but it will be running under MS Windows when you get it. finger snoswell@wattle.itd.adelaide.edu.au for the most recent status on the development. A WWW page is available at http://wattle.itd.adelaide.edu.au/~snoswell/ct.html Some documentation (a bit dated now) and screen dumps from the DOS version are available by anonymous ftp from ftp.adelaide.edu.au/pub/cyberterm There is a mail list with some 150 subscribers which I haven't posted to in 8 months because it generates too many queries each time! In short, hold tight, it's on its way. CT isn't really VR, it's more like a Virtual Environment or multi-user cyberspace. Although "true" VR is perhaps a long way away for the average PC user (if we are thinking in terms of what we see on TV and in movies and it requires high end SGI machines etc), I prefer to think of CT in terms of the summary of Philippe Van Nedervelde in his WAVE review article, "[CT is] VR for the rest of us." cheers Michael Snoswell -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyberterm Pty Ltd (Australia) snoswell@guest.adelaide.edu.au http://wattle.itd.adelaide.edu.au/~snoswell/mjs.html