As part of our graphics research into virtual worlds, we are building a tool for an architect and his client to use for rapid prototyping of buildings by visually "walking through" them in order to refine specifications.Our first prototype simulated the new UNC Computer Science building with some 8000 polygons. BSP-tree software on the Adage Ikonas gave a colored, shaded perspective view every 3-5 seconds while the user moved a cursor in real-time over floorplans shown on the Vector-General 3300.The current (third) version uses Pixel-Planes to generate 9 updates/second, view images shown 4' x 6' by projector.Active short-and long-term research questions include speed-up, stereo, a 6-DoF interface with eye-level defaults, and an interactive model-building, model-changing system.
Application Concept
At the 1965 IFIP Congress, Ivan Sutherland challenged computer graphicists to look beyond "the picture in the window" toward creating virtual environments in which the viewer is immersed, and where he sees, feels, and manipulates the virtual objects as if they were real. Much of the research at Chapel Hill has been aimed at this objective.The Walkthrough Project aims at providing a tool in which virtual buildings, designed but not yet constructed, can be explored by "walking through" them in the same way that simulated airplanes "fly" over virtual terrain. The object is not training, as it is with flight simulators, but visualization to permit the architect to OCTOBER 23-24,1986 9 )_.. -2.