Hi people,
Next week on the 27th there will be a meeting of the Virtual Reality
Association (VRA). This time it will be held in one of the VNet worlds:
Jeff Sonstein's Town Square.
http://ariadne.iz.net/~jeffs/vnet/EAIVNet.html
VNet has some advantages and some drawbacks. The most important advantage
is that it works on many different computer platforms (yes Mac and Linux
people, you too). Another great plus is that you don't need to download any
software -- as long as you have a java-capable web browser with a VRML
viewer in it. If you have a recent version of Netscape Communicator then
you almost certainly have CosmoPlayer, arguably the best VRML viewer to
date. If you have a recent version of Microsoft's InternetExplorer then you
probably have a version of WorldView in there. To test, go to my page and
try viewing one of the avatars or worlds there.
http://werple.net.au/~miriam/
Drawbacks? Just that the software is still in a fairly early stage of
development and can choke if too many people try to move at once. But I
have been to a number of events in there and it is always a lot of fun.
Steve Guynup will try to be there -- he is doing experiments on using
changeable avatars to put on live performance in VR. If he makes it to the
meeting through his company's newly installed firewall he may demonstrate
his live poetry reading, and possibly a demo talk on comets where his
avatar changes into an interactive 3D model of the solar system, among
other things. I think Steve is somewhere on the east coast of USA. Look
here for pictures of Steve Guynup's demos of teaching and performing poetry
online:
http://werple.net.au/~miriam/sundayDemo/
If you missed them last time, now you have another chance.
We are hoping for Jeff Sonstein to be there too. Jeff is in California and
is one of the people developing VNet. Until recently he worked for NASA,
but has now shifted employment to Blaxxun. Jeff built the Town Square world
in which we will be meeting.
Danny is still in Europe, and with luck may be able to link up with us from
there. 7pm Melbourne time will be 9 or 10am in Europe.
Don't forget:
The meeting is on Tuesday 27th of April (always the 4th Tuesday)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
7:00pm Melbourne
8am UTC/GMT
4am Eastern USA
1am west coast USA
Please help the association by promoting this event! Thank you. Hope to see
you there.
___________________________________________________________
\ / |__) /_\ VR are you INTO it ?
\/ | \ / \ Virtual Reality Association Inc.
Email mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Explore http://www.vr.org.au/
Voice +61 411 462 151 Fax +613 9822 8994
Mail PO Box 3 Canterbury Victoria Australia 3126
___________________________________________________________
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All I want is a kind word and a warm bed and unlimited power.
