Just imagine wandering at your leisure through a recreation of Athens or Rome at the height of their power and influence. At MellaniuM our very "raison d'etre" could be distilled as the creation, nay, I should say the actual resurrection at a virtual realistic level of the achaeological remnants of these glorious civilisations. Indeed there are vast assets of 3D models in databanks of acedemic institutions around the world which have been used to provide vistas and fly-through movies of the plethora of cities which flourished in the core of ancient civilizations from Mesopotamia to Egypt and from Athens to Rome. These models can now be used to their full potential to create a vast interactive space available for hundreds of participants from all over the World. What an experience it would be to be immersed with your friends in walking around these cities? To explore the art and decorations of some sumptuous villa in Pompeii or walk through the Parthenon as it was on the first day it was completed by Pericles in 435BC.
It has been stated that it will be another 5 years before this feat of virtual representation can be accomplished. However at MellaniuM we have already developed the necessary application to provide these 3D virtual archaeologcal visualizations.
We have to sincerely thank the Kings' College Visualisation Lab for supplying us with the magnificent 3D rendering example of the "Theatre of Pompey"
Indeed the concept hinges on the ability to import high polygon models (static meshes) with high resolution textures into an MMO platform such as UNREAL. The environments and client are locally administered off your PC. Any web based browser client where the assets are stored remotely and must be downloaded as you travel through the virtual space can only result in lag and "less than immersive" latency effects. We have produced a movie to compare the graphical fidelity for archaeological visualizations of the MellaniuM application and Second Life.
The movie compares the Theatre of Pompey and the Titanic rendered in Second Life and in UNREAL using the MellaniuM application.
If you would like your personal demonstration of these archaeological wonders by a live streaming walkthrough of these spaces give me a call on SKYPE at joe133952
This post has very little to do with MellaniuM and not a little to do with Prokovy Neva. The heart of the matter starts with a chat I had with my dentist which affected me much more that any periodontal heights he was about to scale. He explained in great detail how much his old English school teacher had influenced him growing up in Budapest,Hungary and how ridiculously difficult it is for an immigrant to become proficient and totally fluent in the English language. He then stated in quite a matter-of-fact fashion that Leslie Howard was Hungarian and my stolid English cultural bias was shattered. Well, of course, after Googling for some time I found he had been born, Leslie Howard Steiner to an immigrant Hungarian Jewish family in London around the turn of the 20th century. Now let's get to the point Leslie Howard is famous in the US as the actor who played Ashley Wilkes the consummate classical gentleman who Scarlett kept swooning over in the epic movie"Gone with the Wind". However in England he is remembered in "The First of the Few"for immortalizing R.J. Mitchell who designed and built the Spitfire (which is an archetypical British icon). In his movies like in the "Scarlet Pimpernel" he plays a veritable fop, a dandy, but he is a real action hero with a keen wit and nerves of austenitic steel. To cap it all Howard is killed during WWII when a german fighter shot down a passenger plane flying from Gibraltar to London (it is suggested that they thought Winston Churchill was on board, he could very well have been he was always scooting about during the war)) So Leslie Howard epitomizes the archetypical Englishman we (us daft boomer Brits that is) all want to emulate. The point is though that here is a completely assimilated Hungarian Jew who actually becomes the absolute pinnacle of Englishness in speech and action. It struck me then that the real cultural richness of any society is nourished by assimilants, by those who grasp the culture to their heart and could almost be called converts. In religious circles it is often the converts who are the most devout and faithful. Now I must state my case that I hope dearly that Prokovy Neva is not US born, that somewhere in her past the totalitarian environment in which she was nurtured has moulded her to the extent that now she is the veritable doyen of the US culture she has so obviously embraced. Any proud citizen born of the U.S.,Canada or Western Europe has absolutely no concept of liberty or freedom. One cannot know freedom unless you have been persecuted and suppressed. She blogs like a fiend and I am in awe of her irrepressible energy and clear logic and, in addition, may I say the religious fervour she displays in her over-arching tirades against the sychophants and cliques she encounters in her fight to cultivate both her properties and renters within Second Life. She is without artifice and logically disects and analyzes the ongoing machinations within the VW community. I must thank her for the entertaining way she weaves the Second Life phenomenon with her ongoing determination to have her say in the American milieu which is sadly tainted with individuals who have their own self-centred, determined, focussed view of "real politique". In my opinion she not only tilts at windbags but she successfully deflates them and sends them packing.
Well, for all intents and purposes the jury is in about the promise of MellaniuM. The Skype demonstrations of the 3D environments created by MellaniuM have been received for the most part with resounding interest but, remarkably, with little or no positive blogging response from the VW/Serious games establishment. In some cases though, I must admit we have been soundly praised (more than we probably deserve) by some of those less likely to have a virtual axe to grind. Others have taken a swipe at UNREAL for what seems no apparent reason.
During our involvement with the Serious Games network in the UK we had a blog post refer to UNREAL by Kevin Corti which had us somewhat perplexed.
"....... try deploying a diversity awareness and inclusion training game to several thousand food and drink retail outlets across the USA and see if you can use the Unreal engine as part of your development approach!
Why state specifically anything in particular about what UNREAL can or cannot do?
Recently Raph Koster inserted a comment about UNREAL.
"Things like Unreal and thick clients and 3D isn’t the client we’re working on."
We are all quite well aware that Raph does not work on the UNREAL platform, but why on earth bring up that fact?
We pondered these two posts and after some debate and after a spell of subconscious analytical gestation it dawned on us why, the penny dropped. Now we know why!.........
During the METAVERSE U weekend it was widely circulated that general participation in the meeting would be warmly welcomed and suggestions, comments and questions about the future of the METAVERSE should be posted on a YouTube "metaverseu" group. We decided to post a simple query asking if UNREAL could be a suitable candidate for a METAVERSE of some future configuration. Strangely enough this posting was the only insertion in the group.
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CAN UNREAL BE USED FOR A METAVERSE?
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So far the response to this posting has been a profound and enduring silence with no sign or hint of disruption.
We really did think by now that a pack of blood-lusting hyenas would have descended upon us and ripped the MellaniuM concept limb from limb and (for our own good of course) pointed out with no glee whatever that the poor idea was stillborn and doomed.
However to our complete amazement we have had no such fate befall us and so we do relish with incandescant comprehension that.....
Architecture, in the main, is a collaborative process where engaged people need to share principles, concepts, impressions, designs and commitment. Architects have toiled relentlessly to render their vision to meld form and function but drawings, models and blueprints are poor substitutes for a real sense of "being there". Do you think they have ever dreamt that they could project themselves and their clients, builders, developers and inspirational colleagues into a replica of a “virtually perfect” construct? Well now it is possible! MellaniuM brings the emerging capabilities of immersion, visualization, rich media and personal navigation to the individual and shared experience of the architect and stakeholders in the realization of designs. We have technologies that can now be married to elevate the experience to serve all parties in visualizing, communicating and responding.
MellaniuM was originally conceived to complement the technique of the architectural design process by reproducing and importing AUTOCAD 3D renderings into the MMO UNREAL 2 engine. It is ,therefore, quite feasible to render the overall architectural concept and privately import into the MMO platform for easy access by up to 32 participants. The two unique attributes of the technology are both the ability to produce exact dimensional representations of the buildings and objects within them and, in addition, texture them with scaled high resolution surfaces. So now it is technologically possible to reproduce any city, terrain and/or landscape to a high degree of detail and enter it through a dedicated server running the UNREAL 2 platform. With the topographical digital maps which are now available it will be simple to render the exact configuration of most of the Earth's surface and place on it the relevant buildings and natural features. The furnishings and decorative artifacts are equally reproduced in the minutest detail and can sport hyper-realistic surfaces polished or burnished to a high gloss or rendered with a soft matte finish.
In this movie of a MellaniuM concept apartment building the final shot within one of the furnished units shows a female model sat adjacent to a coffee table upon which are placed an odd assortment of artifacts. These consist of a large ultramarine marble bust of what appears to be an African inspired art exhibit and a rather macabre polished skull with turquoise teeth. Closer to the door are a couple of potted plants. In some circles this scene would be considered a rather particular example of "conceptual art"
To highlight the viability of the technique the following movie shows the detail achievable using the MellaniuM concept. The shine on the polished marble items is somewhat hypnotic and the imperfections on the potted plants illustrate the breathtaking exactness of the textures. The free ranging camera movement gives some subtle hints to the potential for exquisite machinima productions in the future.
The “Holy Grail” for architects has been realized, the passive becomes interactive, the hitherto limited 2D experience becomes the rich 3D experience. Indeed with a simple extrapolation it is no difficult task to imagine that this concept will be rapidly accepted by manufacturing. Virtual manufacturing is expanding daily and porting AUTOCAD 3D files into an effective interactive environment will be the key to increased productivity.
Spread the Good News!
If you wish to engage in a demonstration over SKYPE please do not hesitate to call me at joe133952
I have presented through SKYPE over a hundred live videostreaming demonstrations of the MellaniuM VRW's (Virtual Real Worlds) . The MellaniuM concept avoids all the pitfalls of the 3D web based creations presently available to be experienced on the Internet. The UNREAL engine and the data required to produce the realistic environments are administered off the hard drive of your computer. An Internet connection is necessary only to show the positional and directional information of the several avatars (up to 32 ) participating in the self-server hosted environment. There is,therefore, no rezzing effect or lag as seen in Second Life as the "prims" are downloaded and assembled continuously as you walk or fly around the Sims. Huge hard drive capacity is commonplace on all computers now and at 20 cents a gigabyte it is not unusual to have a terabyte of hard disk space. The permanent storage of required data is hardly a barrier to the implementation of these 3D environments. The video card demands of these virtual worlds are also non-existant since a standard 3D card with 256 M ram will suffice to produce lag-free experiences. It is fascinating to consider the reactions illicited by this concept of producing interactive MMO style realistic environments in an online server platform(UNREAL 2). To be honest during the presentations we were almost expecting a barrage of criticism directed at our MellaniuM flagship aimed at sinking it without a trace. Well at least some indication as to where was the fatal flaw in our virtual construct.
FROM THE VIRTUAL NEW WORLD
The reactions to the SKYPE demonstrations would certainly be worthy of study by a team of psychology graduates from an eminent faculty of higher learning. Initially we encountered a entirely justifiable lack of interest since our contacts either had little or no experience with participating in an MMORPG style online game. As our circle of contact grew and we intersected with the NING "SERIOUS GAMES" and "VIRTUAL WORLDS CONNECT" networks it was obvious that we had hit the motherlode. These networks consist of a comprehensive list of who's who in the world of 3D virtual environment platform developers, marketing gurus,vendors,bloggers,machinima savants and WEB 2.0 pundits of every technical stripe and complexion.
So far as I can discern one can group the 3D community in three vague classifications when one presents the MellaniuM concept over SKYPE. One group offers a singular lack of any agenda and they approach the presentation with no prejudice or malice aforethought. In nearly every case they express an unalloyed joy at the potential prospect of a virtually realistic world to explore and with which to interact and help to create. This group comprises a healthy mix of educators,bloggers and machinima creators who both have a simple objective view that the future is bright and are open to any and all considerations in the 3D world.
A second group appear to be tainted whether justifiably or not with the notion that the MellaniuM concept is simply another fringe player which can only confuse more the chaotic status of the 3D community and germinating WEB3D. There are always some glimmers of encouragement as the most insightful and more intelligent observers do vouch for the possibility of "horses for courses" and that one single platform will not be able to encompass the needs of all the 3D potentialities in the fields of education,engineering and social interaction.There seems to be a semi-conscious, gnawing fear that because Second Life is the only "game" in town we had better all shore up the edifice and trump any good news as loud and as often as possible. I can understand this quiet desperation of SL Island/SIM developers and the marketing gurus who have committed so much of their time and finances. In essence this group finds no serious flaw in the potential to use high polygon models and rich textures to create realistic environments but have only modest praise since there is no existing MellaniuM based world in which to build a viable business (can't fault 'em for that).
THEY MUST RELENT SOMEWHAT WHEN THEY SEE THE DETAIL AND EFFECT OF LIGHT SOURCING OF THE MELLANIUM TECHNOLOGY
A final small group approach the MellaniuM demonstration with a stubborn determination to undermine any notion of the capability of any non internet/browswer based client arrangement.They must relent somewhat when they see the detail and effect of light sourcing of the MellaniuM technology but they have committed themselves and are irretrievably entrenched in believing that some form of interoperability within clients running off a browser will be the final outcome for the all-encompassing 3D WEB.
Please call me on SKYPE at joe133952 for your own personal view of the Virtual New World.
From what I have gleaned whilst eavesdropping on the technical group here at MellaniuM there are a few unique twists required to develop truly realistic 3D environments. The first, and likely most important technique, is the generation of dimensionally accurate models produced in AUTOCAD. The surfaces of these models, which are referred to as static meshes, are rendered with textures which are faithfully reproduced from the actual object and subsequently scaled back onto the model to recreate a close copy in the virtual world.
For example, on close examination of the above image, one can see the leather strap suspension on this stagecoach along with the complex linkages to the horses' harnesses and the brake mechanism connected to both of the front wheels.
In another screenshot of the copper anode refining furnace the clean lines of the steel shell, the steel beams supporting the endplates and the definition of the two mouth openings could not be produced in such minute detail with tools as 3D Studio Max or similar rendering software. During a presentation over SKYPE I have had shocked individuals admit candidly that this must have been created by importing AUTOCAD generated models into the platform.
Inside the vessel the coloured zones are used to represent different areas of the lining which are subjected to more or less severe corrosive and/or physical abuse during operation. This zoning mitigates the effects of the molten metal and dynamic action of solid scrap impacting the lining of the furnace. Thus the lining wear is designed to be balanced and will hopefully occur in a relatively even overall fashion.
From a practical standpoint the improved realism generated by the use of higher polygon models faithfully rendered to recreate any detailed environment is a proven (and now patented) technique. With respect to the commercial aspect of the concept it is hardly difficult to imagine, in the near future, downloading the UNREAL platform and personally relevant customized environments off the global MellaniuM server and with consummate ease hosting a private server off your own computer.
If you are interested in learning more about the MellaniuM VRW's please allow me to present to you a live videostreaming demonstration over SKYPE at joe133952.
In this first blog I will try to explain the unique features of the MellaniuM concept of developing 3D environments using the UNREAL 2 platform. I do not expect to receive any withering criticism since it is likely this blog will be unread or ignored but I feel like I need to get something down on a blog. I have in the past been thoroughly addicted to Everquest and WoW and about three years ago while still somewhat possessed by Pontefract my level 48 dwarf cleric I had a somewhat shocking experience with Mark Melaney. He had just finished his architecture degree at Ryerson University where he had imported his final year thesis into the UNREAL 2 platform. I was completely stunned by this feat and asked if he thought he could make a dimensionally accurate anode refining vessel. I am the market manager for RHI a company which sells, services and installs high temperature linings in the non-ferrous metals industry. So after some discussions with upper management in RHI we got a budget to proceed and he produced an excellent 3D rendering of the AUTOCAD files which are normally used to design and illustrate the lining concept. In the mean time my brother, Ken, did a rigorous survey of the Internet to divine if there were any similar, if not identical, virtual worlds being produced with the same degree of realism. He found nothing. Together with Mark we pondered and debated that if you can do that…….
The Spitfire Vb WW2 fighter plane seemed to be an excellent choice to test Mark’s ability to produce a realistic complex textured model. This study was expected to be an environment with more emotional appeal and envelope pushing potential. He, we think, succeeded admirably and it is now a staple in a few of our environments as case examples of the potential for the MellaniuM concept.
After this project was completed we had more discussions along the line of “If you can do that………….”
In joint projects Ken and Mark collaborated to produce a series of environments with a conference area which includes a rather remarkable virtual mirror on one wall, an art gallery with the work of Johannes Vermeer and an Egyptian museum. In all the environments we had no hint of difficulty importing avatars from our disparate locations in the UK and Canada over the Unreal server network. We produced several YOUTUBE movies to celebrate the environments.
In addition during our early days of development we realized that we had to engineer a way to present our customized environments to a wider audience. After months of work and several futile attempts we developed TELE3DWORLD, leveraged through SKYPE to videostream live walkthroughs of our work. We can now provide for these demonstrations through my SKYPE contact at joe133952.
After recreating the “Whitecroft” residence we festooned the area around the house with a Corvette with an eye-popping polished finish, a Mustang and the Spitfire to showcase the lighting in the platform and a rather impressively detailed Kawasaki dirt bike. This we felt was a milestone but together we sang the chorus “ If we can do that…………”
The next step was to extend to a macro environment dimensioned in miles rather than yards ( I know I am 56 years old what do you expect?) and a suitable scenario was composed of a island 4 miles square with some relatively enormous models to prove the flexibility and scope of the concept. A pirate ship was modelled and imported to push the rendering complexity as much as possible. Soon after the WW2 battleship King George V and the Titanic were both modelled with our AUTOCAD pipelining methods.
So I implore you to imagine if MellaniuM can do that..........
I have contacted numerous interested individuals and presented these environments over TELE3DWORLD and have many scheduled presentations in the near future. In all of these presentations there has been, to date, no serious stumbling blocks indicated that this MellaniuM method will not be capable of producing extensive, realistic 3D environments for use in education , engineering or a plethora of artistic creations.
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