Austin Tate's Blog

The Pisten Bully range of snow cats and ski piste grooming machines is manufactured by Kässbohrer in Germany. They have a driver and technician training academy which also includes online training courses for beginners and those interested in Pisten Bully at http://proacademy.info.

I have previously noted my interest in Kässbohrer and follow their products via their newsletter and using Giant’s Ski Region Simulator 2012 with its many user-created add-on “mods” which give a wide variety of Kässbohrer Pisten Bully snow groomers to try in the simulated ski resort setting. See http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2015/02/17/kassbohrer-pisten-bully-simulator/.

Pro Academy

I signed up for their “PRO ACADEMY Online Training Demo English” to try out the online training courses, and after verification you can start the course.

Vue Experiments with other Virtual Worlds Platforms

Even before Second Life began to be used across the University of Edinburgh, groups in Business Studies, Education and Artificial Intelligence had been exploring virtual worlds platforms for a range of educational and research project uses.

Platforms (now long gone) such as “There” and commercial virtual world simulators such as “Forterra” had been in use, and Second Life itself had been used even in its very earliest incarnation.

When we began using Second Life for Virtual University of Edinburgh (Vue) purposes back in 2007 we could not have imagined the platform would remain stable for such a long period (over a decade and it is still available and being actively developed).

Even at the earliest stages we envisaged moving onto new platforms as they arose and experiments have taken place with quite a lot of potential platforms, Many we were involved in at closed alpha and open beta testing stages. Not all of the platforms tried made it to full open public release. A number of these experiments are documented in my blog posts at http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/

Current platforms under investigation include:

• High Fidelity (http://highfidelity.com)
• Sansar (http://sansar.com)
• Sinespace (http://sine.space)

Moving Content to New Virtual Worlds Platforms

We have used or been involved in the creation of a number of tools to assist in moving content across various virtual world platforms…

• Where possible content was originated in tools such as Paint, Paint Shop Pro and PhotoShop and more recently in 3D mesh modelling tools such as 3D Studio Max or the open-source Blender to create Collada DAE or FBX meshes.
• Second Inventory – was a useful tool to back up Second Life and OpenSimulator inventory items owned fully by a specific avatar. This tool is no longer available, but at the time was helpful to archive and reload builds (e.g. of the Vue buildings).
• OpenSimulator Archives (OARs) and Inventory Archives (IARs) have been a very useful aid to preserve regions and inventory content.
• The OAR Converter tool has provided a route to export content from OpenSimulator into Collada DAE (a portable 3D model format) and via that to allow its import to Unity3D. See http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/oar-conv/
• Unity3D is a widely used development platform and a useful conduit to transferring content into newly emerging virtual worlds and social virtual reality platforms. Unity has add-on tools available to export FBX format meshes even when the original content is in other 3D formats. See http://unity3d.com

Virtual Worlds Development Paths

OpenSimulator to Unity3D Conversions

Tokyo University of Information Sciences and Virtual University of Edinburgh OpenVCE

Appearance in OpenSim

Appearance in Unity3D Editor

Appearance in Sinespace

Issues in Moving Content between Platforms

1. One of the biggest issues in making content portable (even when full permissions are available and content is built by teams working together) is that unless one avatar owns all the content and the various textures archiving and externalizing content can be a problem).
2. 2D image formats and the ways in which transparency handling works may vary between different platforms.
3. The 3D model formats used in transferring content between platforms, such as Collada DAE and Autodesk FBX do have many variants and some platforms may limit the number of vertices or polygons that can be included in models, or the ways in which sub-meshes can be hierarchically included.
4. Ways in which 3D meshes are textured, or limits on the number or type of textures that can be used may be imposed.
5. Dynamic and scripted behaviours need to be recreated in the new environment.

More Information

More information at http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/ and http://vue.ed.ac.uk

The De Lacy Motor Club (D.L.M.C) in Yorkshire has been running rallies, car trials and driving tests for over 50 years as noted in my previous blog post. My wife Margaret and myself joined some other family members and entered the Seven Dales Heritage Run again this year for a nice run through the Yorkshire Dales…

Vue is a virtual educational and research institute bringing together all those interested in the use of virtual worlds for teaching, research and outreach related to the University of Edinburgh.

The Vue web site is at http://vue.ed.ac.uk. More information on the use of virtual worlds in the University of Edinburgh is available at http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/virtual-worlds-technology-for-university-of-edinburgh/

The OpenSimulator-based Openvue grid has only a few local avatars who have regions and creator roles. Most use is as an openly accessible Hypergrid destination to allow users with avatars on other OpenSimulator grids to visit.

All local (creator) users for both Openvue have been notified and given contact information for the grid manager (Austin Tate). A section has been added to the Openvue Terms of Service (ToS) to give the grid manager contact details and to explain what is logged and for how long this is retained.

http://virtual.aiai.ed.ac.uk:8002/wifi/termsofservice.html

vue@ed.ac.uk is a mailing list used to communicate occasionally between those interested in the Virtual University of Edinburgh (Vue). This list is normally internal to members of the University of Edinburgh and members are added manually (by Austin Tate on request) and each message allows for unsubscription. Austin Tate can also handle manual unsubscription for anyone requesting it. The mailing list is moderated for posts and non-member posts are removed before being sent to members to keep the number of posts low and encourage people to stay on the list while it may be useful to them.

This post summarises some of the virtual worlds technology that is in use within the Virtual University of Edinburgh (Vue) community. It is provides as a single post to bring together some of the notes and blog posts for the convenience of the School of Informatics Educational Technology team.

Platforms

• Second Life – a commercial grid run by Linden Lab in California. Vue regions have been in place since 2007. From 2018 no paid-for regions have been retained but alternative educational spaces are available. See this blog post for advice.
• OpenSimulator (or OpenSim) – an open source community platform. There are Vue regions on grids run by the pen source community for testing and educational uses (OSGrid) and within the University of Edinburgh on servers maintained currently by Austin Tate (Openvue)
• Sinespace – a new platform with VR headset, desktop and mobile clients. Vue regions are maintained on this platform having been converted from the Second Life/OpenSim content via the OAR Converter tool into the Unity3D development environment for delivery in Sinespace.
• Other platforms: Vue has used a range of platforms from “There” some 12 years ago to more recent newer technology platforms such as High Fidelity, Sansar, etc.

Meetups in Virtual Worlds

Meetups can take place in facilities such as The Venue@Vue, the OpenVCE amphitheatre, and various I-Rooms (Virtual Spaces for Intelligent Interaction).

Class meetups, mixed reality workshops and conferences, seminars, etc are run in Second Life, OpenSim and on other platforms…

Virtual Graduations

Graduates (especially those achieving distance education degrees) who cannot attend physical graduations in Edinburgh can in some schools take an active part in the ceremony via participation in a virtual ceremony linked via two way video links to the McEwan hall graduations. See http://vue.ed.ac.uk/graduation.html for more details, sample images and other information.

YouTube Video (6 Minutes) [MPEG-4 Download 720p 62MB]

Orcrist is an elf created sword found during the journey of Thoren Oakenshield, a dwarf, in Middle Earth… and features in the Hobbit movies. I handled the Orcrist prop used for the movie while on a visit to Weta Workshop in Wellington, New Zealand and saw one of the limited edition weapons-grade replicas at The Armouries in Leeds, Yorkshire, UK. For a while my Second Life avatar has had an orcrist sword purchased from the Second Life Marketplace.

3D Model Import to OpenSim

I made use of a Blender model by VoltaJack_ from Sketchfab which is licenced CC-BY.

VoltaJack_
https://sketchfab.com/VoltaJack_
Orcrist – LOTR
https://sketchfab.com/models/e27c666d637a40c68b36f0c487c2e704
License: Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-4.0
Author must be credited. Commercial use is allowed.
Model: .blend

Poly reduction and tidy up for OpenSim was done by Fred K. Beckhusen (Ferd Frederix) of Micro Technology Services, Inc. and I did the final texturing, adjustment of scale and wearable positioning and packaging.

The mesh reduction method as described by Fred is as follows.

1. Starts at 236K triangles – about 10 X the limit. I applied a Decimate Modifier at 0.1 ratio (90% reduce) and it went to about 25K tris. Still over 4 avatars worth of triangles and more than the 21K limit. Did a 10X again (a total of 100X reduction) and it came in at 3,440 tris, looks acceptable, still a lot more than a custom build from scratch, but that what you get when you start with a high poly model.
2. Then select all the vertexes in Edit mode with ‘a’, and do a Vertex (Ctrl-V)->Remove doubles. This drops extra vertexes.
3. The other wise thing to always do is Mesh-Cleanup Delete-Loose to get rid of any lines or points. Opensim/Sl hates them ( there are none)
4. Last one is Mesh->Cleanup->Limited Dissolve. This gets rid of extra dots and lines by collapsing them away.
5. Added a smooth shader and an edge split modifier to get the blade smooth but with a sharp edge. Adds geometry, but it looks much better.
6. Final is 3,5k tris, versus 236K =. I can get it to 1.5K, but it would need more manual cleanup. I did clean up some few tris the distorted in it.
7. Separated the end of the sword so you can add a texture.

The Blade normal map was produced using https://shadermap.com/home/

Other Swords

Swords for Download:
https://sketchfab.com/MortemNightshade/collections/sword-downloads

KangaroOz 3D
https://sketchfab.com/KangaroOz-3D
Sting Sword Lowpoly
https://sketchfab.com/models/c4f80dfbb61745d6807dd511d3e74fd4
License: Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-4.0
Author must be credited. Commercial use is allowed.
Model: .fbx converted to Collada .dae via Blender 2.78

Jason Brenton
https://sketchfab.com/Brentacon
Orcrist Sword – Lord of the Rings
https://sketchfab.com/models/1dcbab3210dc431db0dc910f65a3bb35
License: Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial CC-BY-NC-4.0
Author must be credited. Commercial use is allowed.
Model: .fbx converted to Collada .dae via Blender 2.78

Orcrist in OpenSim

At long last avatars can be made to sit down in Sansar… see this blog post for details. Currently just cross-legged on the ground. Sitting can be initiated using “/sit” typed into local chat tool in desktop mode. A very nice lead in and return to standing animation is used that looks very natural.

The full list of “/emote” commands are given in https://help.sansar.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000286366-Avatar-emotes. You can exit sitting (and other animations that play indefinitely) by using a motion control to move your avatar.

Its not currently possible still to sit on chairs, sofas, vehicles, etc. There is a good discussion in Inara Pey’s blog post on 31-Mar-2018 relating to the technicalities behind this.

Somnium Space (“Dream” or “Fantasy” from the Latin “somnus” for “sleep”) is a new virtual world from developers in Berlin aimed at virtual reality headsets.

High Fidelity now has a cryptocurrency “Wallet” in which High Fidelity Coins” can be deposited, paid out and transferred to other avatars. To seed the currency early alpha tester users can obtain a starter amount of coins by visiting the “Bank of High Fidelity” during certain times when a banker is present…

The “Isle of May” created by Serene Footman is on the “Weed” region in Second Life and can be accessed via this SLurl: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Weed/100/102/41

Anchored on the Firth of Forth in Scotland, the Isle of May is a magical mix of sea birds (cormorants, guillemot, puffins, etc) and sea animals such as orcas and dolphins. The island is a perfect home to artists and photographers. See http://www.nnr-scotland.org

The creation is by and the region has wonderful “Windlight” environmental and lighting settings. Off region cliffs, sea stacks and waves created by Antreas Alter of Real Waves make the region appear much larger and more dynamic.

Images captured with the Second Life 360° snapshot project viewer (click on thumbnail to view via Flickr in a suitable browser)…

Magic Leap opened its web site for creators on 18th March 2018. This blog post bring together some resources, links and screenshots from a first “leap”…

Linden Lab’s Sansar has two featured experiences related to the Apollo Moon Missions..

• Apollo 11 – Sea of Tranquility
• NASA Apollo Museum

Some free space suits are available to customise your avatar (need to select a male base at present)…

• Sansar Store – C3rb3rus’s Store (Cerberus)
• Space suit in 3 parts: Base, Helmet, Backpack

Pandora now exists “for real” at Disney’s Animal Kingdom… and you can travel there with Alpha Centauri Expeditions (ACE)…

It looks like two people came with Alpha Centuari Expeditions (ACE) to visit from earth.

I have blogged before about the Pegase region for the Pandora Universe group in Second Life which offers role play based on the “Avatar” film directed by James Cameron and based on Pandora, a moon of Alpha Centauri.

• Pegase – Vendor Area – http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pegase/139/173/1045
• Pegase – Forest Area – http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pegase/40/86/25

The Pegase area arrival/vendor area offers a number of free na’vi starter avatars, an RDA (scienists) outfit and a flyable ikran.

• http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2011/09/27/other-worlds-in-film-avatar-and-pandora/
• http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2012/01/21/navi-omatikaya-clan-aitswayon-initiation-ceremony-to-join-the-path-of-learning/
• http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2012/03/30/moon-bloom-the-legend-of-the-bloom-of-the-aligned-moons/

After visiting the Pandora region at DiskeyWorld in February 2018 I revisited the regions as “Ai’tswayon” (Ai wing)and took to the air again on my ikran “Ai’tsyal” (Ai fly).

And with a new (free) golden ikran from the Pegase vendor area … also called “Ai’tsyal”…

I tested a new version of the Linden Lab Second Life 360° snapshot project viewer (version 5.1.2.512774) which now adds the proper metadata to show with 360 degree capabilities in Flickr…

The OpenVCE.net (http://openvce.net) web site used Drupal for its content.  The underlying data base was turned off for security in 2017.  Some pages archives by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and web archiving sites may be used to recover some content when necessary.

See http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://openvce.net/*

This post brings together some early scrapbook material about my involvement and that of my brother Jon with the early development of drag racing in the UK. I was prompted to bring this material together and scan some early press articles on our activities after an enquiry from Jeremy Cookson who runs a web site documenting early drag racing strips in the UK, and he was asking abot Riccall Airfield in North Yorkshire. This was the location of a number of eighth mile sprint and drag racing events run by the British Quarter Mile Association (BQMA).

I run a Facebook page entitled UK Drag & Sprint Strips That Time Forgot. This is where we document as much as we can about long forgotten airstrips and motor racing circuits other than the established ones like Santa Pod. Recently we have added a profile about Riccall Airfield, Yorkshire where we are trying to piece together event and date information from the days when the certainly forgotten about British Quarter Mile Association ran a few eighth mile events in the late sixties (1969 I think). So, this is when I performed the usual search on Google and came across your blog page and references made to Riccall. In your time I note that you used to be the flag starter as well as Competition Secretary for the BQMA, and I was wondering if you could give me some additional information about these events that we could include in the profile. As you will see from the FB link we have uncovered 3 photos, the club logo and that’s about it. Since I have discovered that the club had its own newsletter called Acceleration. Dave Hoy and Chris Tilney I believe contributed to this publication with cartoons and artwork. Chris in fact is one of our Group Members who used to help out running events for the Newcastle & District Timing Association and Millfield and Tughall Airfields before moving to Felton as the North East Hot Rod Association.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/239626459773139/
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.457285018007281&type=3

You came across my blog post which included a short bit on BQMA and the eighth mile strip races we did at Riccall.

http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2014/07/31/de-lacy-motor-club-clubhouse-50th-anniversary-events/

My other club involvement in the mid 1960s through to the mid 1970s was in Drag Racing clubs. Younger brother Jon won a competition in the Eagle Comic and was awarded 1964 “Drag Festival” tickets. I went with Jon and elder brother Morris to see the second visit of the US Drag Racing Team to the UK in October 1965 and saw them in the Drag Fest at RAF Woodvale Airdrome near Southport in Lancashire when the first 200+ m.p.h. finish from a standing start on a quarter mile run on British soil was done by Buddy Cortines. The participants included Don Garlits and Tony Nancy amongst other famous early US drag racers.

I was a member of the National Sprint Association (NSA), British Hot Rod Association (BHRA) and British Drag Racing Association (BDRA). I also was involved as competition secretary and flag starter for the British Quarter Mile Association (BQMA) who ran events at Riccall Airdrome in Yorkshire. On one event at Riccall advertised for us by free (some called them “pirate”) Radio 270 we had thousands of people turn up to see the drag racers. I ran a drag bike in some events, and my brother Morris who raced a go-kart also entered at one stage with that.

My scrap book also contains a copy of two short pieces in The King’s School Pontefract Magazine – “The Pomfretian” from 1964 and 1965, and some local events we ran to promote drag racing in the North of Britain… including a Dragster float in the Knottingley Carnival on 3-Jul-1965 and a social evening on 18-Nov-1965.

In late 1965 and early 1966 brought together drag racers in the North for some social events which led to the formation of the BQMA…

I designed the BQMA logo and still have the original artwork in my sketchbook. A run of stickers/decals and a few chrome bumper badges were produced. One is on the wall in the De Lacy Motor Club House at Brotherton in Yorkshire with various motoring memorabilia. Also here is an image of a BQMA membership card… mine from 1967…

There is a posed BQMA group image of a couple of the dragsters and three drag bikes with their crews at Riccall…

I cannot recall how many races we ran. The races were only open to club members by our RAC competition licence… but one specific event went a bit viral when Radio 270 (as In mentioned above) ran a LOT of mentions of it on the radio.

At that time Jon was in touch with Radio 270 off the Yorkshire coast and even went out to the boat that had the transmitter just at the time we did one event. He had met Mr. Proudfoot, a supermarket chain owner in Yorkshire, who was involved with Radio 270 and got invited out there… which led to the coverage on the station and encouraged a LOT of people to come. I recall over 1,000 turned up, but that is from a vague memory! And to comply with our licence to let them in we had to get them to join the BQMA… So for a year we had a BIG membership! They did get their Gestetner produced newsletters, but it was way more work than we expected. Mike Hobman was the general secretary. He died at a very young age I am sorry to say. Our dad, Charles Tate (a local JP) helped us out a LOT and took charge when the car queues backed up at Ricall. Coordinated with the police to make sure there were no obstructions and helped sign folks in at the gate. Sterling job for which I have continued to have fond memories of a busy but excellent day. We met our licence conditions.

Ruth 2.0 and Roth 2.0 are low-poly mesh avatar bodies, specifically designed for Opensimulator. They are built to use standard SL UV maps using scratch-built open source mesh bodies by Shin Ingen with other open source contributions from the OpenSimulator Community.

This page provides links and resources elating to these developments…

• Google+ Community Page: https://plus.google.com/communities/103360253120662433219
• Github Repository: https://github.com/Outworldz/Ruth
• OpenSim in-world location for prebuilt avatars: login.digiworldz.com:8002:ingen lab
• OpenSim in-world location for clothing layer applier: grid.hgluv.com:8302:luv plaza

A number of virtual world artworks have been created in the Virtual University of Edinburgh (Vue) virtual world platforms such as Second Life and OpenSimulator. Some are novel pieces of art created collaboratively by members of the University from a number of School, others preserve temporary real world art installations which have long since disappeared to preserve their concepts and designs, others honour University members who have won art or photographic competitions with their works.

Inspace Gallery

A model of the InSpace Gallery that sits alongside the Informatics Forum was created initially on the Vue regions in Second Life and ported to the OpenSimulator-based Openvue grid and via the OAR Converter tool to Unity3D and Sinespace.

The Inspace Gallery can be reached via:

• hop://virtual.aiai.ed.ac.uk:8002/Informatics/128/128/30
• http://sine.space/locations/vue

Inspace Gallery – Construction Walkway

Informatics Forum Inspace Walkway: On-site Launch Walkway January 2007
Artists: Richard Spencer, Dan Brown, Kadie Salmo and Richard Brown




Paolozzi Turing Prints

The Paolozzi Turing Prints are displayed in the (real world) level 5 boardroom in The Informatics Forum and appear in articles for promotion of the School of Informatics. The designs for the prints appear in the InSpace Gallery on the in the OpenSimulator-based Openvue virtual world grid and in the Vue region on the Sinespace virtual world.

A model of some of Paolozzi’s plaster maquettes used for his sculptures and some stainless steel and bronze sculptures given to the University or on display in the Informatics Forum also appear in the virtual world InSpace Gallery.

Rakhi Kumar – Stairway to the Clouds – Photos

Rakhi Kumar created a number of atmospheric photos of the spiral staircase that sits atop the Informatics Forum. These photographs are on display in the InSpace Gallery.

Photo Competition – Graeme Pow – Penicuik Turner Prize 2008


Graeme Pow – Penicuik Turner Prize 2008: Frosty Wrought Iron Spiral
The winning photograph is on display in the InSpace Gallery.

All Eyes – Collective Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Luce Foundation Center

Austin Tate (avatar: Ai Austin) contributed an image to an online public collective art venture via a submission page which led to a mosaic which is on display as “All Eyes – Collective Art”at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Luce Foundation Center.

Supercar Comic

A detailed 3D model created by Mick Imrie and Austin Tate of Gerry Anderson’s Supercar from the children’s puppet TV show of the early 1960s was used by Austin Tate to create accurate outline line art for the Misc!Mayhem Comics Supercar Comic in 2003. One example page is on display in the InSpace Gallery… a dramatic page from issue 0 page 21…

ACE Sculpture

There are many objects placed in the Vue virtual world spaces. Galleries and displays for student projects have been set up annually for some Schools with some of the exhibits being in place for longer periods. One sculpture was created when the Vue regions on Second Life were first set up in 2007 and it has been replicated on later platforms used for Vue including in OpenSimulator and Sinespace. This is at “ACE Sculpture” by James Stewart of Arts, Culture & the Environment. It demonstrated the use of a simple “prim” to build complex shapes using the in-world building and twisting tools, as well as surface texture properties.

Trans—~Formation – a trans-media virtual environment art installation

A virtual worlds version of a “molecules” robotic kinetic sculpture originally designed for the Informatics Forum called “Formation” has been recreated as part of the art installation. More information at http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~ai/trans—~formation.html

North Landing – multi-media virtual world installation

A multi-media virtual world installation inspired by dramatic landscape and historical events off Flamborough Head in Yorkshire.

More information at http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~ai/north-landing.html

Real World Public Art Around the University of Edinburgh

There is an extensive and varied collection of public art across the University of Edinburgh.. some documented in an article entitled in an article entitled “Thair to Remain” in the The University of Edinburgh Bulletin Staff Magazine, December 2017.

Thirza Ember introduced the Hypergrid Safari in a talk on 10th February 2017 at the OpenSimulator Community Conference 2017 (OSCC17)…

Then later that day, the OpenSimulator Community Conference 2017 Hypergrid Safari included five locations on a number of OpenSim grids …

One of which was our OSGrid RGU Oil Rig region… for more details see this blog post.

Blow Out Preventer (BOP) on the sea bed:

OAR Converter presentation at the OpenSimulator Community Conference 2017… more details on OAR Converter at http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/oar-conv/.

The OAR Converter Expo Booth on OSCC Expo Zone 3… hop://cc.opensimulator.org:8002/OSCC Expo Zone 3/101/58/26