Austin Tate's Blog

The OpenSimulator Community Conference (OSCC18) ran again this year on December 8th to 9th, 2018 and was once again organised and run by Avacon.

This blog post is intended to provide a quick overview of our work on I-X – “Intelligent Technology” and especially its application to intelligent planning systems using I-Plan and its underlying ontology.

Austin Tate and the Edinburgh Planning Group

Firstly a brief introduction. I am Professor of Knowledge-Based Systems at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the University’s Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI). More information via http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/.

AI planning has been a topic of active research at Edinburgh since the 1960s and I have been exploring this area since the early 1970s. The Planning and Activity Management Group within the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI) in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh is exploring representations and reasoning mechanisms for inter-agent activity support. The agents may be people or computer systems working in a coordinated fashion. The group explores and develops generic approaches by engaging in specific applied studies. Applications include crisis action planning, command and control, space systems, manufacturing, logistics, construction, procedural assistance, help desks, emergency response, etc.
Our long term aim is the creation and use of task-centric virtual organisations involving people, government and non-governmental organisations, automated systems, grid and web services working alongside intelligent robotic, vehicle, building and environmental systems to respond to very dynamic events on scales from local to global.

More on our planning technology, research and applications projects is described at http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/plan/

I-X and I-Plan

I-X – http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/ix/ or http://i-x.info – is a systems integration architecture. Its design is based on the earlier O-Plan agent architecture. I-X provides an issue-handling style of architecture, with reasoning and functional capabilities provided as plug-ins. Also via plug-ins it allows for sophisticated constraint management, and a wide range of communications and visualisation capabilities. I-X agents may be combined in various ways, and may interwork with other processing capabilities or architectures especially where hybrid cognitive systems are joined to algorithms and data driven sub-cognitive modules where they can all work in an “intelligible” and human level explainable manner. I-X supports applications orientated towards “synthesis” tasks where such as design, configuration and especially planning. It is especially designed to support mixed initiative work between people, robots and computer systems working in a cooperative fashion.

An introductory paper to the approach is available here…

Tate, A. (2000) Intelligible AI Planning, in Research and Development in Intelligent Systems XVII, Proceedings of ES2000, The Twentieth British Computer Society Special Group on Expert Systems International Conference on Knowledge Based Systems and Applied Artificial Intelligence, pp. 3-16, Cambridge, UK, December 2000, Springer.
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/ix/documents/2000/2000-sges-tate-intelligible-planning.pdf

In a nutshell, all aspects of agent capabilities, activities, tasks, objectives, etc are represented in some way as a specialisation of a set of “issues”, a set of “nodes” (think activities in a planning context or parts of a designed object), a set of “constraints” of various kinds and a set of “annotations”. We write this as . I-X, our systems architecture, essentially just uses its computational capabilities to handle issues, apply nodes, manage constraints and interpret annotations.

Ontology – Issues, Nodes, Constraints and Annotations

Here is a quick intro style paper on the idea of treating all aspects of task specification, planning, environment modelling and lower level activity as “constraints on permissible behaviour” and our Ontology for plans, activity, agent capabilities and all things like that (though it actually is more general and applies also to designed artifacts, scheduled things and configuration tasks).

Tate, A. (2003) : a Shared Model for Mixed-initiative Synthesis Tasks, Proceedings of the Workshop on Mixed-Initiative Intelligent Systems (MIIS) at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-03), pp. 125-130, Acapulco, Mexico, August 2003.
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/ix/documents/2003/2003-ijcai-miis-tate-inca.pdf

My work on hierarchical planning over the years led to a very simple abstract ontology suitable for objectives, tasking, activity specification and capability modelling which is intended to be as flexible (and additive) as required for any application. The concepts within the ontology have been a core of standards such as NIST Process Specification Language (later an ISO process specification standard), etc. We call this – it is an ontology suited for any “synthesised” thing… and allows for design, configuration as well as planning applications. which allows for a set of constraints on behaviour where the types of constraint are “issues” to be addressed, “nodes” (which can be thought of in a planning context as “include activity” constraints, “constraints” themselves (in a planning context usually time, and object co-designation/non-co-designation and sometimes spatial), and “annotations” (which we use to capture underlying gIBIS style rationale of how issues/tasks are turned into selected activities under the constraints).

An I-X system can “handle issues”, “apply nodes”, “manage constraints” and “interpret annotations”. The idea is that the components in an inspired systems share and communicate constraints up and down, and that lower levels can communicate via partially shared constraints that can be understood between the levels (this often involves time, object = and /= ) so there can be yes, no and “maybe if” information passed between the levels to help home in on a mutually acceptable plan in a mixed initiative fashion. Great where humans, organisations, robots and environmental systems are all cooperating.

More Publications

The above papers (as PDF) and others that go into more technical details on the I-X/I-Plan system and how it uses can be found by looking for keywords in paper titles for or “Constraint” in the following documents index…
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/ix/documents/
and for our earlier O-Plan planner use of (a forerunner of the more abstract upper level ontology)…
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/oplan/documents/

On 17th November 2018 High Fidelity ran a Futvrelands event in honour of VR Day.

Clamavi De Profundis is a family that loves to sing together and record inspiring and uplifting music. Their music is influenced by classical and fantasy literature as well as cinematic, traditional, religious, and classical music. In particular they have created some wonderful songs and videos based on poems from Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold (from The Hobbit) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ymgFyzbDo

Song of Durin (Complete Edition) (from The Hobbit) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxfoa23skHg

The Song of Beren and Lúthien – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smmy289iunY

Clamavi De Profundis have a Patreon Page where support can be given to the production of their music.

I was amused to come across a press clipping of a 1995 article in the Edinburgh Evening News (“Keying in a spot of lunch” by Lindsay Reid, Evening News, 29th April 1995) in which I am quoted with several comments about the early emergence of Internet shopping…

I have been experimenting with export and reimport of WordPress blog posts and media content. If the Dashboard -> Tools -> Export was used to export “All” content and then the new destination site import occurred then I had believed that media such as images were taken over and put in the media library, but that the links/URLs in blog posts continued to point to the previous site. I now think there must be a two stage process to a full import of the posts and media.

1. Import of the blog posts and media/images into the media library. [Takes a few minutes after which you are informed the import is complete.]
2. Redirection of all the internal image URLs to the new local media library content. [Was completed overnight and no notice was sent to indicate this.]

An export and reimport of later content will just add new posts and media and not make duplicate entries. This is important bas the WordPress exporter seems to only allow a selective (e.g. data range) export of specific content such as posts and media, while the “All” export copies the entire blog to the export file (which is XML based). Unfortunately there can be a limit on the target site importer (15MB for the export/import file) in the case of wordpress.org. My own blog is close to that limit as of today.

I note that my image rich blog of around 700 posts when imported to a WordPress blog uses up about 1GB of space (of the 3GB limit allowed there for free accounts).

Robert Adams (Misterblue) has created the “Convoar” tool to convert OpenSim OAR files into glTF (GL Transmission Format). The following blog post goes into more detail.

http://blog.misterblue.com/2018/2018-07-01-Convoar-and-Converting-OARS

Robert explained to me that Convoar grew out of his personal project on virtual world scene simplification that he felt is needed for viewing OpenSimulator content in web browsers. Convoar is a stopping point on the way. He chose GLTF format because it is being used by Cesium[3] and other web viewer projects. Today, the 3dWebWorldz[1] project is using these OAR conversions to import into their web browser virtual worlds since there is a loader bundled with ThreeJS[2]. There are also importers for most of the 3D editing tools.

[1] https://3dwebworldz.com/
[2] https://threejs.org
[3] https://cesiumjs.org/

Example converted regions (including our own OpenVCE OAR) are listed and available at

http://blog.misterblue.com/2018/2018-07-17-Convoared-region
http://misterblue.com/oars/

That OARs page includes links to view the 3D content via the “Simple Basil” viewer intended to act as a web viewer for virtual world content including from OpenSimulator.

glTF (GL Transmission Format) and GLB (GL Transmission Format Binary)

There are 3D modeller importers, exporters and converters for various 3D Model formats such as Autodesk FBX and Collada (.DAE) available.

IO-glTF is an open-source FBX importer/exporter plug-in that converts FBX file (and any file format that FBX can read such as obj, collada, …) to glTF. This plug-in can be used by any FBX based application to import/export glTF files.

A Binary glTF file is a .GLB file such as used in Oculus Home 3D Model Content. Facebook/Oculus provide a precompiled FSX to glTF converter at https://github.com/facebookincubator/FBX2glTF/releases and there is a glTF to Binary glTF packer via https://glb-packer.glitch.me/

See instructions at https://support.oculus.com/1702745539746285/#Importing and more detail at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/3d-posts/glb-tutorials

Elf Clan is one of the oldest and largest virtual world fantasy groups. It has held lands in Second Life and various OpenSim grids. Its most recent home is on OSGrid but with associates Elf-themed regions on any other Hypergrid connected OpenSim grid.

To Join Elf Clan, search for the ELF CLAN group on OSGrid or the various Affiliate Grids (e.g. Kitely, DigiWorldz, etc.), and JOIN. It’s open-join on all affiliate grids. You can join on multiple grids if you wish.

A load test of the High Fidelity virtual world platform took place on 7th September 2018 and at least 356 avatars were in world in the same location at peak. A lot of different tests and exercises were run, including a trivia game. The performance was very good with only a couple of losses of the sound and one or two scene drop outs when logged on from Edinburgh Scotland.

This page acts as a resource for the Blender Durian Open Source Movie Sintel Project and its Sintel character 3D models and avatars.

• More details at http://sintel.org
• Sintel Movie Download
• Blend Swap version for Blender “Cycles” Renderer by gregzaal along with links to texture downloads.

Blender Sintel Avatar Model

The Open Source Blender Project “Sintel” avatar has been used in a number of open source projects and a version is available to use as an avatar or character in environments such as Unity. E.g. from http://u3d.at.ua/ where you need to register before being able to obtain the free download.

http://u3d.at.ua/load/modeli/ljudi_personazhi/sintel_character_for_unity/14-1-0-2929 [local copy]

It can be use to replace the Ethan visual model as described above. Just delete the Ethan visual model elements (EthanBody, EthanGlasses and EthanSkeleton) and insert the Sintel model instead. Then select the original Ethan “ThirdPersonController” and in the Unity Inspector change the Animator -> Avatar to the “SintelAvatar” you have included.

Kässbohrer Pisten Bully Models imported via Unity3D and into a range of environments…

Original Models via 3DWarehouse.sketchup.com

Pisten Bully 100 via 3dwarehouse.sketchup.com by Tomme123456789.

Pisten Bully 300 via 3dwarehouse.sketchup.com by Digital Impressions.

Fallingwater in southwestern Pennsylvania is a vacation home designed in 1935 by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and often thought to be one of the finest buildings of the 20th Century.

A lovely 3D openly accessible and modifiable model of the house and environment was created by Myles Zhang on Sketchfab.com [ Download Resources ] using 3D model source files originally by nottamun on 3dwarehouse.sketchup.com.

Fallingwater in Unity3D

I extracted the Collada (DAE) model of Fallingwater with its associated textures and imported those to Unity3D adding in some surrounding terrain. The trees and bushes were mostly replaced using Unity3D free assets and waterfall details were added and animated. Building and ground slighting was added, along with a day/night cycle. Doorways are not animated, so some of these were made into phantom (non-colliding) objects so an avatar can walk through them. Some pathways, corridors, doors and stairs in the house are not accurately modelled and can cause an avatar to get stuck, so some invisible barriers were put in place to help prevent this.

Fallingwater in Sinespace

The build was then loaded in the multi-user virtual world Sinespace…

Fallingwater Plans

These diagrams are included with the Fallingwater model by Myles Zhand and nottamun…

The Epic Castle region in OpemSim (as described in this blog post) has interiors for some of the buildings created by Leora Jacobus. the cathedral includes an animated pipe organ and other interesting elements.

The Crystal Fortress is a gift provided in 2018 to avatars with premium subscriptions to Second Life. It provided a skybox for a 1024sq.m. plot that could be rezzed and placed at any height, interior furniture and a teleportation system all themed as rock or ice crystals. A guardian dragon appears to protect the structure.

Pontefract is a market town in West Yorkshire which was recorded in the Magna Carta in 1217. It sits within the Rhubarb Triangle and is well known for the manufacture of Liquorice and Pontefract Cakes (Pomfret Cakes). It holds an annual Pontefract Liquorice Festival. This years was on 8th July 2018.

A load test of the High Fidelity virtual world platform took place on 6th July 2018 and over 200 avatars were in world in the same location at peak.

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.