Immersive Virtual Environments at Saint Paul College.

Saint Paul College

ENTERPRISE: A world running on Wonderland v0.5 pv3

 

Virtual Northstar is a project at Saint Paul College utilizing Sun Microsystem's Darkstar, Wonderland, and JVoiceBridge technologies to build an educational metaverse. It is based on open source software and centered around the 3D web. Our project is one of many under way at other colleges and universities around the world.

Engadget Previews Playstation "Move" Motion Controller

Posted Wed, 03/10/2010 - 21:07 by Michael


Image courtesy of Engadget.

Engadget just put up an article with pictures and a video showcasing Sony's version of motion control. From using them, they seem light, have a main and sub-controller, and shiny glowing orbs on the top that seem to change color. It's still in development, and it shows when they are playing a demo. The demo, according to Engadget, wasn't as precise as Wiimotes, and the refresh rate was slower as well. These controllers are scheduled to be released this fall.

The Sun Microsystems ex-CEO blog.

Posted Wed, 03/10/2010 - 11:09 by Josh

Jonathan Schwartz, the one time CEO of Sun Microsystems, has a blog about what he couldn't say as CEO.  His post entitled "Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal" is a description of his encounters with sinister forces like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Steve Ballmer.  

He's an interesting guy.  The first CEO of a major company to post his resignation on twitter.  He posted it in the form of a haiku.

What in the World is WoW?

Posted Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:40 by Josh

For those that don't know World of Warcraft or WoW, as it is often referred to, it is a virtual world.   It is classified as an MMORPG it has more than 10 million subscribers worldwide. It has won many awards and is considered to be one of the best video games of all time. 

Netiquette for Virtual Worlds.

Posted Sun, 03/07/2010 - 23:12 by Michael


Image courtesy of Penny Arcade, check them out!

Article continued after the break.

progress on Java tutorial

Posted Fri, 03/05/2010 - 12:00 by Sue

 This week I finished all the demos and lab exercises associated with the Java Technology module.

progress on Java tutorial

Posted Fri, 02/26/2010 - 12:00 by Sue

This week I finished module 4 "Class Design" and the first of three lab exercises associated with that module.  I seem to have gotten bogged down in the second exercise, and can't start on the third till I get the second one to work.  As the example gets more complex, it gets harder for me to isolate problems while debugging.  This skill alone is important for me to learn, and it's vital to master the content of this module, too.  I've sent myself an email with the NetBeans source code and the workbook and labfiles PDF's attached so I can wor

tutorial progress 2

Posted Fri, 02/19/2010 - 12:00 by Sue

 Finished module 1 on "Java Technology" last week and spent this week on module 2, "Building Blocks of Java Programming Language."  I've finished the first section of module 2, "Identifiers, Keywords, and Types," but am still working on the lab exercises for the "Expressions and Flow Control" section.  I'm hung up on the AdvancedLoopProject and will finish that over the weekend.  I think it will be easier to keep track of the nested loops after I've taken some time away from it to clear my head. 

Rendering Tools

Posted Fri, 02/19/2010 - 10:00 by Josh
Rendering is the process of generating a photo realistic images from a 3d model.  Rendering tools are used on models produced in Blender, Maya, Max, and pretty much any other 3d graphics program. Many applications will have their own proprietary rendering tool built in, but the external rendering tools that were built to do nothing but render can achieve better results.

Sirikata

Posted Fri, 02/12/2010 - 18:06 by Josh

Skindigo: The Indigo Plug-in for SketchUp.

Posted Fri, 02/12/2010 - 12:28 by Josh
Indigo Renderer

Indigo Renderer has a plugin for Sketchup that can turn your model into a realistic image that is nearly impossible to distinguish from a photographic image.  There is a free version with limitations and also an expensive version.  The limitations: Size is limited to 0.7 megapixel, or 1000x700 pixels, a watermark in the corner.