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I think what is unique about this article is that nowhere is the word
fractal used.
The L-system mathematics is also omitted.
If you look at the publications of Vladlen Koltun:
http://vw.stanford.edu/~vladlen/publications.htm
It appears in talking of the fractal terrains that he produces,
he never mentions the word fractal either?!
_/*It seems quite possible he does this on purpose.*/_
Public release date: 8-Jan-2008
[ | E-mail Article ]
Contact: Dan Stober
dstober@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
University
Stanford builds a better virtual world, 1 tree (or millions) at a time
By navigating through the "space of all trees " on the right, a user can
chose a tree from millions of possibilities.
Click here for more information.
When Stanford computer scientist Vladlen Koltun decided to build a
better virtual world, he began with 3-D trees?millions of them. Now he
wants to give them away.
Trees, like almost all objects in virtual worlds, whether in video games
or Internet social communities like World of Warcraft or Second Life,
are enormously difficult and expensive to build.
"There is a very, very tiny community of people around the world who are
skilled at creating three-dimensional objects," Koltun said. "And they
are the ones who do it all. Which is one of the reasons why you don't
see three-dimensional content on the web; because nobody can create it."
The inability of casual computer users to build 3-D objects?you
practically have to be a sculptor, Koltun says-is an anchor holding back
the promise of virtual worlds. When the day arrives that anyone can
design everyday objects, the three-dimensional environment of virtual
worlds will finally live up to its promise as an ideal setting for
almost any human interaction: education, business, job training, phobia
therapy, gaming, sharing interests with other people (or their avatars)
and, of course, flirting with alien creatures.
The virtual world should serve as "a social network that allows you to
share space and participate in experiences together," Koltun said. "You
can form ad hoc groups that don't require any sort of registration. You
can just walk up to a person, walk up to a group of people, and start a
conversation."
When Koltun, an assistant professor of computer science, set out with
his Stanford Virtual Worlds Group to prove that object construction can
be sophisticated without being difficult, they began with trees.
Why trees, instead of buildings, animals or humans" Because, it turns
out, botanists have already cataloged and categorized the trees of the
real world in great detail. Koltun's group has incorporated that data
into a powerful mathematical engine that creates trees using about 100
different tree attributes, all of them almost infinitely variable. How
thick is the trunk" How big the leaves" How are the limbs spaced"
The result is a new, intuitive way for individual users to create unique
trees by simply using a mouse to seamlessly navigate through the entire
"space of trees," changing appearances by changing direction. Koltun's
software, Dryad (a tree nymph in Greek mythology,) lets users move
through the 100-attribute tree space in a fashion similar to navigating
city streets on Google Maps.
"With Dryad, you navigate the space of all trees and simply choose the
one you want," Koltun said.
An important feature of Dryad is an information-sharing technique that
improves the software every time someone picks a tree.
As in real life, not all trees are equally desirable. Since no single
user is capable of mapping out the best parts of the enormous tree
space, this mapping of desirability is done collaboratively, leading to
continuous refinement of the software. Dryad's mathematical model nudges
users toward trees that have some resemblance to trees that have proven
popular with other users. Otherwise, Koltun said, with an infinite
number of trees, some of the outliers are bound to look more like
Jackson Pollock paintings than neighborhood trees.
Dryad trees are truly 3-D; they can be spun around or viewed from any
angle. They also can be downloaded in the OBJ format and loaded into any
major modeling program.
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I think what is unique about this article is that nowhere is the word
fractal used.<br>
The L-system mathematics is also omitted.<br>
If you look at the publications of Vladlen Koltun:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://vw.stanford.edu/~vladlen/publications.htm">http://vw.stanford.edu/~vladlen/publications.htm</a><br>
It appears in talking of the fractal terrains that he produces,<br>
he never mentions the word fractal either?!<br>
<u><i><b>It seems quite possible he does this on purpose.</b></i></u><br>
<br>
Public release date: 8-Jan-2008<br>
[ | E-mail Article ]<br>
<br>
Contact: Dan Stober<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:dstober@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
">dstober@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
><br>
650-721-6965<br>
Stanford University<br>
Stanford builds a better virtual world, 1 tree (or millions) at a time<br>
By navigating through the "space of all trees " on the right, a user
can chose a tree from millions of possibilities.<br>
Click here for more information.<br>
<br>
When Stanford computer scientist Vladlen Koltun decided to build a
better virtual world, he began with 3-D trees�millions of them. Now
he
wants to give them away.<br>
<br>
Trees, like almost all objects in virtual worlds, whether in video
games or Internet social communities like World of Warcraft or Second
Life, are enormously difficult and expensive to build.<br>
<br>
"There is a very, very tiny community of people around the world who
are skilled at creating three-dimensional objects," Koltun said. "And
they are the ones who do it all. Which is one of the reasons why you
don't see three-dimensional content on the web; because nobody can
create it."<br>
<br>
The inability of casual computer users to build 3-D objects�you
practically have to be a sculptor, Koltun says-is an anchor holding
back the promise of virtual worlds. When the day arrives that anyone
can design everyday objects, the three-dimensional environment of
virtual worlds will finally live up to its promise as an ideal setting
for almost any human interaction: education, business, job training,
phobia therapy, gaming, sharing interests with other people (or their
avatars) and, of course, flirting with alien creatures.<br>
<br>
The virtual world should serve as "a social network that allows you to
share space and participate in experiences together," Koltun said. "You
can form ad hoc groups that don't require any sort of registration. You
can just walk up to a person, walk up to a group of people, and start a
conversation."<br>
<br>
When Koltun, an assistant professor of computer science, set out with
his Stanford Virtual Worlds Group to prove that object construction can
be sophisticated without being difficult, they began with trees.<br>
<br>
Why trees, instead of buildings, animals or humans" Because, it turns
out, botanists have already cataloged and categorized the trees of the
real world in great detail. Koltun's group has incorporated that data
into a powerful mathematical engine that creates trees using about 100
different tree attributes, all of them almost infinitely variable. How
thick is the trunk" How big the leaves" How are the limbs spaced"<br>
<br>
The result is a new, intuitive way for individual users to create
unique trees by simply using a mouse to seamlessly navigate through the
entire "space of trees," changing appearances by changing direction.
Koltun's software, Dryad (a tree nymph in Greek mythology,) lets users
move through the 100-attribute tree space in a fashion similar to
navigating city streets on Google Maps.<br>
<br>
"With Dryad, you navigate the space of all trees and simply choose the
one you want," Koltun said.<br>
<br>
An important feature of Dryad is an information-sharing technique that
improves the software every time someone picks a tree.<br>
<br>
As in real life, not all trees are equally desirable. Since no single
user is capable of mapping out the best parts of the enormous tree
space, this mapping of desirability is done collaboratively, leading to
continuous refinement of the software. Dryad's mathematical model
nudges users toward trees that have some resemblance to trees that have
proven popular with other users. Otherwise, Koltun said, with an
infinite number of trees, some of the outliers are bound to look more
like Jackson Pollock paintings than neighborhood trees.<br>
<br>
Dryad trees are truly 3-D; they can be spun around or viewed from any
angle. They also can be downloaded in the OBJ format and loaded into
any major modeling program.
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