[Xvrml-agents] intro

[Miriam E. <mi...@we...>]

Hi all,

Just a little intro to those who don't already know me. My interest in VR dates back to the sixties when I was a school kid and the only computers were giant mainframes. Much later, on my old TRS-80 and CoCo and Amiga computers, I wrote and fiddled with 3d programs, but I'm really not really much of a programmer -- I'm mostly an artist and a small-time writer. For a long-time I've inhabited the www-vrml list and have been doing vrml since late 1996. I became impatient at the lack of progress after vrml stalled at version 2.0/97 and the stagnation resulting (as I see it) from formation of the consortium -- an unfortunate consequence that nobody could have foreseen. Nowadays I just lurk there. Some time back I spent a fair amount of time running an ActiveWorlds world for kids for the Australian government and built a moderate amount of RWX models for it. I've also created some MicrosoftAgent animations. I recommend that anybody interested in high-level animation look at MSAgen
ts -- they have a simple, but powerful action system very similar to the ActiveWorlds avatars'.

My interest in 3d languages remains very strong, but I have to admit I never "got" the attraction of xml for 3d. :)

For me, the idea of a simplified and extensible language for animating things (not only avatars, but leaves of trees, bouncing balls, vehicles, etc.) is not only intriguing, but a requirement if we are to build large, complex worlds. We need to be able to extend and build upon what others have done before us, otherwise we all constantly start at the beginning. At the moment, in vrml, if someone wants to animate something, they can't take something that they or another person has done and improve it or bend it to their new need; they have to start each time from scratch. There is no possibility for any kind of vrml animation community because nobody can learn from anybody else. Such progress requires some kind of animation language (preferably one that can be extended). Then exchange and cross-fertilisation can bring real growth, and gradually more interesting and useful creations. Another side-benefit is that it would also be far more efficient than the current large, obscur
e wads of numbers that must be sent for vrml animations.

Okies. That is where I'm coming from.

Later I'll give some idea of what I mean by an animation language. What its elements might be, and how we might make it extensible. Finally I'll give my suggestions of what it would be nice to eventually have -- what direction I think we should be aiming at.

Please don't feel I'm trying to direct the discussion. I'm not. I just want to show my interest and begin the conversation. Please don't hesitate to point out my mistakes and show where I might be barking up the wrong tree.

Best wishes to you all,

	- Miriam

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A life! Cool! Where can I download one of those from?
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http://werple.net.au/~miriam
My live Journal page http://www.livejournal.com/users/miriam_e/