[PD] PD and GEM for virtual environments

[chris clepper]

I gave a talk on GEM at the EVL at UIC here in Chicago and there was 
discussion about using it for such purposes.  The large CAVE system 
still runs on a four pipe SGI Onyx system and that is primarily due to 
sync for the four displays rather than raw horsepower.  The main 
obstacle to using multiple machines in the CAVE is the precise display 
sync for the four walls required for the full 3D illusion.  The EVL has 
a new single wall dual projector Linux system that would be better 
suited to using Pd/GEM even if only as a bridge to the VRML CAVE 
environment.   I'm not sure if anything has been done on the 
implementation there or not.  I do know of projects outside the CAVE 
that mixed the VRML engine with Pd/GEM with great success.

I would be interested in looking into this again, and I believe some of 
the faculty and students at UIC read this list from time to time (Drew, 
Lief are you out there?).  There's definitely some opportunities to 
explore.

cgc

On Jan 22, 2005, at 2:35 PM, Peter Brinkmann wrote:

>
>
> Hi,
> I've been thinking about using PD and GEM in CAVE-like immersive 
> virtual
> environments like the PORTAL at TU Berlin and the CAVE/CUBE at UIUC
> (www.math.tu-berlin.de/geometrie/f5/portal.shtml, www.isl.uiuc.edu).
> Has this been done before? I did find a few passing references to
> PD and sound in CAVEs on the web, but nothing about PD and GEM.
>
> The basic setup of a CAVE consists of a number of projection screens,
> aka walls (three for the PORTAL, six for the CUBE), controlled by one
> computer each, plus one master computer. Here's what I have in mind:
>     - The master does audio with PD and handles user input via mouse,
>     keyboard, MIDI controller, etc.
>     - The wall computers run visualizations with PD and GEM. Those
>     visualizations are identical except they use different viewports
>     for different walls.
>     - The master controls the walls via netsend/netreceive.
>     - A python script on the master handles CAVE-specific input (such
>     as head tracking data) and updates the master via pdsend/pdreceive.
>     It may be a good idea to build a little python extension that
>     encapsulates the functionality of pdsend/pdreceive.
>
> All this seems straightforward enough, but there are two issues I'm
> worried about:
>     - Can I change the viewport in GEM? The FAQ has some comment 
> regarding
>     the default viewport, but little information on how to change it.
>     - How well does GEM support stereo viewing?
>
> Any thoughts would be appreciated!
> Best,
>     Peter
>
>
>
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