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SMVR

Simple Minded Virtual Reality

(note: SMVR is in Beta ) Last update: 07/07/2000

Purpose:

SMVR (Simple Minded Virtual Reality) is a very simple text based interface to CAVELib. It was originally written by Oguz Yetkin (and revised by Kevin Caswick) to interface a Java application with the Immersadesk at UW Madison's Model Advanced facility. We used this program to separate the Natural Language Processor of our CS 774 (taught by Prof. Sheldon Klein) project from the VR portion of it. SMVR allows anyone who can write to stdout and read from stdin to create simple interactive environments using CAVELib. It is hoped that it will be useful to future students (as well as others) who need to create interactive VR programs and do not want to deal with the libraries.

Requirements:

SMVR was written using the CAVE libraries on an SGI. It should run in an Immersadesk as well as a full-sized CAVE (this has now been validated).

SMVR allows the user to create virtual reality applications without having to learn the CAVE libraries. Currently, the program allows the loading, display, and manipulation WaveFront obj files (both with text based commands and interactively with the wand). Since the interface to SMVR is text based, there is no restriction on what programming language has to be used in the application. (SMVR itself is written in ANSI C due to restrictions in the CAVE libraries). Kevin Caswick has written a Java class to encapsulate SMVR commands (as well as the bidirectional pipe that must be set up between smvr and the application). The interface is simple enough that a human can drive it.

Obtaining SMVR:

This is the official site for SMVR. You can browse the code or download the tar.gz file that can be compiled on an SGI with the correct version of the CAVE libraries (glut must also be installed--see your sysadmin). Note: If you're at UW Madison this file includes the binary that is ready to run on the MAF's Onyx.

summary of commands (this list is not complete, but should suffice)

SMVR Tutorial (Go through this for a quick start)

Collection of WaveFront obj files. (The MAF at the UW has a variety of programs that will allow you to manipulate obj files or convert other 3D geometries to obj files.)

More OBJ files (These are on my workstation and might go away at any time)

e-mail Oguz Yetkin (oyetkin@yahoo.com) with comments, questions, etc.