TO: John Wilson FROM: Ron Kriz DATE: August 11, 1999 Re: 270 DAC Deliverables ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) List of VE hardware & software A complete list of VE hardware and & software for the current CAVE is located on the following web pages: 1. Hardware**: www.sv.vt.edu/future/cave/hardware/hardware.html 2. Software: www.sv.vt.edu/future/cave/software/software.html A comprehensive list of VR hardware and software vendor devices is given at CAVERNUS web page www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/VR/cavernus/. In fact this list of systems has grown so large that it has created new problems where it is now difficulat to create highly interactive systems that can accomadate the long list of APIs and devices. In response to this problem the Electronic Visualizaiton Lab (EVL) has created TANDEM, NRL has created PANDA, and the VT-CAVE has created JIVE. I would add one API not show here on the list that I think is a very good but very costly API, this is Paradigm's Vega. Recently VEGA has include a VE tool to it's GUI called Lynx and also the collaborative interactive tool called DIS (Distributed Interactive Simulation). I'm sure the folks at NRL VR-Lab already know about VEGA and Lynx but I believe with these new features it deserves some consideration but perhaps the cost could be a factor. ** NOTE: Does not include voice recognition and sound system and SGI Sirius video upgrade. These two systems will be include soon. 2) Specs for VE tactical process prototype Since the original NAVCIITI proposal was written, the NRL VR-Lab has changed it's focus from the Dragon Battlefield Visualization System to the Battlefield Augmented Reality System (BARS) and developing an interoperable VR system called Panda that is an extension of the Bambo software developed at the Naval Postgraduate School. This was largely motivated by the limitations on including multi-input and multi-output devices. At Virginia Tech's CAVE we also experienced similar limitations of developing an interactive collaborative CAVE system that we called the CAVE Collaborative Console (CCC) based on CAVERN and LIMBO that was developed at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL). In our NAVCIITI proposal we originally proposed to extend the development of collaborative awareness tools in the CCC for tactical environments, such as 2D, 3D radars, etc., but we discovered several serious flaws in the existing LIMBO software API and choose to invest our time in creating a new API that would allow the extension of new devices and other APIs in a new extensible interactive-collaborative environment that we called JIVE: www.caveslugs.vt.edu/projects/jive/ It is interesting that the philosophy behind the CCC is very similar in concepts presented in the Interoperable Virtual Reality System (Panda) web pages. CCC: bleen.sv.vt.edu/~kcurry/ood.html Panda: ait.nrl.navy.mil/vrlab/projects/interoperableVR.html Where as Panda was based on Bambo, CCC was based on CAVERN and LIMBO. But we discovered that LIMBO has many serious limitations to properly implement CCC for reasons similar to NRL's experience. So this summer (1999) we started our effort to create JIVE not knowing about the parallel efforts at NRL to develop Panda. It is interesting to note that EVL for similar reasons has created TANDEM (www.evl.uic.edu/cavern/seminars/limbos/index.html) and marketed TANDEM as a VRCO product (www.vrco.com/products/beta_products.html). The biggest difference between TANDEM and JIVE is that JIVE is open source. We have not had the opportunity to study the differences between Bambo and JIVE but these would be of academic interest only and so at this point we will continue to develop JIVE under funding from our NSF PACI grant and work with NRL's Panda and Bambo if required. Actually this would not create any problmes since our collaborative awarness tools for tactical implementation are all created using Perfomer. We will wait to hear from Larry Rosenblum's group if they want us to pursue working with Panda and Bambo to the completion of FY99 funding. We have just learned that our efforts will take a huge change in direction starting October 1, 1999 for FY00 funding where we will be focusing on VE scientific data visualization of sonar and meterological 3D data. In the next few weeks I will enquire if we should finish the tactical process prototyping or change our efforts this fall semester to start modeling 3D data visualization systems. Comment-Recommendation: We have had many discussions with others in the VE world and we all share this frustration about co-development of similar tools such as TANDEM, JIVE, and PANDA for example. These independent efforts is mostly due to a lack of communication and there seems to be an agreement that what is needed is to create open source for CAVELibs and collaborative interface APIs such. This would facilitate the development of Panda and CCC. 3) Recommended large format VE hardware A report from Pyramid Systems Inc. on the design of a large CAVE format is available on request. The large CAVE format is briefly described as a 20' wide x 20' deep and 10' where the ceiling, not the floor is the fourth projection screen. The projection system requires two Electrohome 9500LC Ultras per 10'x10' areas where each is polarized at 90 degrees to each other, hence eliminating the use of stereo shutter glasses. The total number of projectors required for the 20'x20'x10' with a 20'x20' ceiling would require 20 projectors which constitutes the eighty percent of the total cost of the entire system. The total cost was quoted at $620K. Twenty projectors would require a 10 Infinite Reality Pipe SGI ONYX-2 with at least 12 nodes. Such a computing system is called a Reality Monster which cost approximately $1M. Together the large CAVE with computer would approach $2M. The benefits of the large format CAVE would allow more participants to experience the immersive environment. Due to the cost alone when compared with the second year budget it is not advised to purchase the large format CAVE. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------