Meaningful graphics workstation performance measurements

We present how graphics workstation performance is currently advertised by workstation manufactures. We suggest that the manufacturers' performance numbers are not the best indicators of how well the system will perform. Four levels of graphics system performance measurement have been defined by the NCGA Graphics Performance Characterization group[1]. These levels are low-level primitives (points, lines, and polygons per second), pictures, systems (input and action response times), and applications. We suggest that the best indicator of a graphics workstation's performance capabilities is that of an application running on the system. For applications level performance measurements, there are many potential applications from which to choose. We suggest that three-dimensional visual simulators are one of the better applications to study as that type of system has a realistic mix of processor and graphics computational requirements. We describe one such system, the Moving Platform Simulator (MPS), developed at the Naval Postgraduate School with the goal of fully listing its capabilities and utilized graphics techniques. We then present how that system performs on a currently available, high-performance graphics workstation.     

Exploiting reality with multicast groups

This article describes our investigation into developing large distributed simulations. The architecture we describe logically partitions virtual environments by associating spatial, temporal, and functional classes with network multicast groups. We exploit the actual characteristics of the real-world large scale environments being simulated by focusing or restricting an entity's processing and network resources to its area of interest via a local area-of-interest manager. For example, a simulated infantryman in a virtual environment doesn't need to know the condition of a simulated truck 20 virtual kilometres away     

Testing Behavioral Models with an Online Game

The WarPipe massively multiplayer online game engine promises to enhance games and more serious applications.     

A future for entertainment-defense research collaboration

In 1997, the National Research Council (NRC) issued a report that specified a joint research agenda for defense and entertainment modeling and simulation. This report showed the excellent opportunities for synergy between the entertainment and defense industries. For years, they have been solving similar problems for very different application areas. While those two communities' opposing cultures have been difficult to reconcile, recent efforts have proven promising. The looming question is whether the military sector can follow the leaping technological pace in the entertainment sector. That pace indicates tremendous growth in the entertainment industry, which will be coupled with continued technological innovation. The article shows how those advances will be equally vital for future defense applications, thereby demonstrating the importance of continued and increased defense-entertainment collaboration     

Entertainment R&D for defense

We discuss America's Army, an Internet-based PC game suite developed by the Moves Institute under the auspices of the US Army. The goal within America's Army: Operations was to demonstrate life in the infantry. America's Army: Soldiers was conceived as a realistic look at army personal and career opportunities via sophisticated role-playing.     

From visual simulation to virtual reality to games

During the past decades, the virtual reality community has based its development on a synthesis of earlier work in interactive 3D graphics, user interfaces, and visual simulation. Currently, the VR field is transitioning into work influenced by video games. Because much of the research and development being conducted in the games community parallels the VR community's efforts, it has the potential to affect a greater audience. Given these trends, VR researchers who want their work to remain relevant must realign to focus on game research and development. Leveraging technology from the visual simulation and virtual reality communities, serious games provide a delivery system for organizational video game instruction and training.     

A taxonomy for networked virtual environments

We discuss virtual environments in the context of how to distribute network communications, views, data, and processes while emphasizing those aspects critical to scaling environments. Systems that demand strong data consistency, causality, and reliable communications while supporting real-time interaction are not likely to scale very well. Furthermore, geographically dispersed systems require high-speed, multicast communication     

Educating the next generation of game developers

The current revolution in videogaming used for both entertainment and serious purposes engenders a strong requirement that we advance the state of the art of game technology and design through our university research and education programs. To make this happen, many universities have begun new degree programs focused on game design and development. This special issue profiles four programs that are exploring this emerging and important discipline and have proposed similar - or even novel - solutions to the challenges it presents.     

Projects in VR: the Naval Postgraduate School's Moves curriculum

Both the National Research Council (NRC) report “Virtual Reality: Scientific and Technological Challenges” and the more recent NRC report “Modeling and Simulation: Linking Entertainment and Defense” discuss the need for nontraditional degree programs that focus more closely on the issues of how we develop the software and content for networked virtual environments (VEs). Both reports point out that the more effective VE developer is not just a computer scientist, electrical engineer, or human factors specialist, but rather a scientist who sits in-between, a scientist whose education melds the precise parts required for developing VEs. To produce such graduates requires new degree programs. The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) has developed one such program, the Modeling, Virtual Environments, and Simulation (Moves) degree program (http://www.moves.nps.navy.mil/). We present the composition of that degree program and its relationship to the research our students can then handle at the end of that program     

Surface construction from planar contours

Many applications of computer graphics involve the display of a three-dimensional solid reconstructed from a sequence of two-dimensional planar contours. Surface construction algorithms accomplish this by mapping individual pairs of contours, forming triangular surface patches, that approximate the original three-dimensional solid. In this paper, we present an expanded algorithm that not only handles the mappings of multiple contours per plane and partial contour mappings, but also allows human interaction to resolve mapping problems. We include a discussion of our algorithm's limitations and the proposed solutions to those limitations.