Darkwind Media Blog

Those that have followed the blog before will remember Virtual Theater. This is a grant project at RIT which is trying to create a system for theatrical performances that happen completely within a virtual performance space. The actors control virtual characters, performing on a virtual stage, in front of an audience that is watching from anywhere in the world through their computers.

Tomorrow, Virtual Theater’s Vaudeville performance will start rehearsals. This is a brand new show, and the first to be put on within the new Luster framework. Tomorrow we start hooking all of the motion capture systems up to the Luster clients and running through the script.

I haven’t gone into a lot of detail before, but I want to tell you that Virtual Theater actually demands a quite complicated network of systems. RIT currently has access to two motion capture systems, both located in separate buildings on campus. These systems must send their motion capture data in real-time to a server running AutoDesk’s MotionBuilder software. We have created a plugin for MotionBuilder which immediately sends out the real-time motion data to our client systems. Running along-side the motion capture server is the main Virtual Theater server. While the motion capture server sends out the real-time motion data, the general Virtual Theater server is responsible for funneling all other performance events to the clients (most of whom are audience members). Outside of the motion capture systems there are two other important tools for controlling the performance. The first is the Stage Manager. This system allows the director of the show to trigger predefined events (sounds, set changes, lighting events, curtain up and down, etc.) while the Puppet manager lets a controller animate a virtual character during the performance. Some characters won’t be controlled through motion capture, so the Puppet Manager can allow a person to move and animated the characters in a more traditional way.

Along with this new script comes a new set and cast of characters. Here is the set for this performance, in Luster.

In the final image you can see the panel accessible only to the Stage Manager. Those are Cues, set up in advance, that lets the director set off planned events. You can see that until the final script is coded into our special XML format the general lighting and curtain controls are what is available.

A few weeks ago a local architect from Rochester, NY contacted Darkwind looking for more information regarding Luster. He’s very interested in bringing people together in interactive virtual worlds. One of his current projects, the Baden Street Gaming Center, is available on Google’s 3D Warehouse. I decided to bring it into Luster to show him what Luster could do for him. Here’s what it looks like from the outside:

After only a few hours of work, I was able to create a simple guided tour that brings the user into the various rooms of the complex. The user can pause and play the tour at any time, as well as switch into the free roam mode. This mode allows the user to move freely throughout the scene to take a better look around.

As you can see, there are several wall-mounted televisions in the basement. With a few lines of code I was able to put a flash movie player on the screen in which the user can interact with (pause/play, seeking, volume control). I personally love this use of flash.

You may notice a flickering effect occuring on some of the walls. This effect is commonly referred to as z-fighting, and it’s due to the way the model was constructed. The model was not originally created in Sketchup. It was created in a more professional tool such as AutoCAD and imported into Sketchup. Sketchup isn’t exactly the best when it comes to importing other file formats, so problems like this are unfortunately somewhat common.

Recently, I’ve been playing around with different looks in Luster. I’ve been interested in Non-photorealistic rendering, which is a focus not on realism but on expression. There are many techniques that have been developed over the years, most often a technique called Cel Shading. This achieves a cartoonish look. Hatching has also been researched and presented in the past couple of years. To start my prototyping, I decided to first implement a hatched look similar to the ones that have been presented before. Below are my results.

I will be continuing to work on different styles. Our ultimate goal is soften this look into a colored pencil, and if possible eventually a painted style. Painterly rendering is one of the most difficult styles to mimic in real time. Also, within the medium of painting there are obviously a huge number of artistic styles to attempt to mimic, including movements such as Impressionism to even the style of individual painters such as Van Gogh. Obviously, believably rendering an animated scene in real time with these styles is a difficult task. I’ll post updates as we make progress.

After a long build-up the Darkwind Media team is now open for business. We have extensive interactive 3D and multimedia experience and can build a wide range of different interactive applications. We’ve built systems in the fields of education, architecture, medicine, and games. Our 3D system, Luster, enables us to build 3D applications at a blinding pace, with amazing visual and interactive quality. We also have extensive ActionScript 3 knowledge and have built numerous Flash systems.

You can check out our company website at www.darkwindmedia.com or browse through our Luster website at www.luster3d.com. We can help you build state-of-the-art interactive applications or get you started with your own 3D system by licensing Luster to embed into your own applications.