Swim ahead of the wave if you want to be in
the curl when the power is there to let you surf.
Like anything else, infrastructure, standard formats,
ya da ya da, still need to be in place at some point,
but the engine power means that the kinds of lit
we chat about are not only possible, but inevitable
and any of us can have a blanket on the beach when
the weekend comes.
Richard's example is excellent. He shows a proto
for a character with *characteristics*. Now it is a matter
of creating communication functions that act and react
on the state of characteristics. Jed's issue is still real,
however. The creator of the world still has to ensure that
the world is lively enough such that interaction is guaranteed.
Airports, terminals, hotel lobbies, street corners, all intersection
of *traffic* are good places to start interactions that have
to initially depend on services. The environment services
the interactor and this drives contacts. While the near-chaotic
system model is useful, it really is only a model of the
lookahead predictability of outcomes. The world in and of
itself from a thirty thousand foot view will look ordered and
in fact, is. It is more important to look at the model of controls
(eg, functions) and feedback (routes both fixed and dynamically
allocated) which are the means of interaction, and the token
systems by which interactions are measured, named, or
else simply given values.
As in most modeling/VRML efforts, it is good in the beginning
to stand at some intersection in the real world and abstract what
you see. In the case of geometry, we decompose buildings into
geometric objects, then work out which ones are regular, make a
sketch, then realize this in our language. The same is true of
the locus or intersection of actions/reactions, traffic. Pick some
real world locus and study it quietly. Make notes about the
types of interactors, assign them characteristics, and note
the traffic they engage.
Do you ever see points in time where the traffic comes to a
climax? Or is it just repetitive work? If you introduced a
foreign element, event, (eg, another interactor with a strong
set of characteristics that guarantee certain actions) does
that change the traffic? Does that portend a climax?
Len Bullard
Intergraph Public Safety
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sandy Ressler [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, April 05, 1999 6:43 PM
> To: Miriam English; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: maybe we should be developing for this
>
> Yowsa!
> I don't get excited easily --ask my wife ;-) But I'm excited!
>
> This sounds damn cool! The folks quoted in the article are no PR shills
> either,
> Larry Smarr
> and Carl Malamud are both experienced savvy folks. Sounds like it will be
> a
> little while till we see it though.
> Sandy
>
> Miriam English wrote:
>
> > Hi people,
> >
> > Marjorie Staves, on the www-vrml list, sent me this. Just try and read
> > *this* without grinning eagerly like an idiot. Wonderful news! [drool]
> >
> > Marjorie also sent me a press release that you can develop for it using
> > Linux. Woo hoo!!!
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > - Miriam
> >
>
> <snip>
> --
> Sandy Ressler / VRML Guide
> The Mining Co. http://vrml.miningco.com
>
