People and their Tools

Hal Eagar, VRML Artist

Hal Eagar, while a student at the State University of New York at Purchase, modeled a 3D Chess Set for the Kasparov vs. Big Blue match using VRML, or Virtual Reality Markup Language. He's also done a lot of projects that put new technological tools to exciting uses.

Here are Hal's answers to some of our VRML questions.

What is VRML and why does it interest you?

HAL: VRML right now is a 3D modeling format, designed for real-time rendering and web transfer. It is text-based and, like HTML, can be hyperlinked to other web documents. I have been interested in VR (Virtual Reality) for several years but the thing that can make a VR game\world\ space interesting is interaction. Also, having other people have access to your work makes it much more worthwhile, so I see VRML as a real coming of age for VR.

Some projects I have are still waiting for the ability to have people interact in the spaces over the net. Then I can watch people in the spaces from the inside, and people are much more interesting than computer programs.

What are uses for VRML?

HAL:As a visual and "physical" interface to data.

For the most part, data is boring and hard to make sense of, no matter where it comes from. The power of visualization tools to make patterns and breaks in patterns clear has been proven. A simulation of the world is not realistic, but it allows us to use our instinctual methods of sensing and understanding all the same.

It will take time for us to learn to make good interfaces in 3D, but they will inevitably become useful. Even the single-pixel white and black lines around buttons in our GUI interfaces were vastly useful to indicate that the object was in fact a button and whether it had been pushed.

How did you get started learning how to use VRML?

HAL: I heard about it on the Web and learned it from reading the spec.

Is it difficult?

HAL: For me it's not much more than HTML, especially if you can think in 3D or have used any sort of CAD (Computer-Aided Design) package.

What do you need to know to be qualified to pick it up?

HAL:All you need is an interest. It seems daunting when you look at the spec, but there are some books out now, and some modelers which give you a GUI to work with. If you are using any CAD or 3D software there is likely to be a VRML modeler with the same interface, or a conversion utility, but I like to get into the file myself to optimize it even if it's made with a modeler.

How did you make the VRML chess set?

HAL: Um, people usually ask what I made it with (i.e. program), and I say notepad. I typed the world. VRML1.0 is very simple and by typing in the shapes by hand, the world is more compatible with all the browsers out there - and even though there is a reasonable standard of what you can do with VRML 1.1 now without breaking some browsers, the new "moving worlds" specification for 2.0 is going to make things a mess for a little while again.

As far as design is concerned, for VR, simple and clean are the rule. As with any online product, size is a major limitation, and with real-time rendering, the size and complexity reduce speed as well. I tried to be simple, recognizable, suggestive and familiar.

VR is a only a world of "good form" if the good form is recognizable. For example, the Bauhaus chess set by Josef Hartwig [Note 1] is very nice, each piece suggests the type of movement the piece makes, but they didn't seem recognizable in 3D.

How much do you have to adjust what you've modeled each time there's a new move in the chess game?

HAL: The techs at IBM put together a script or program that did all the work.

Deep Blue sent them the move and the script created a new world. Most of the world stayed the same. It was just one line with the xy position of one piece that needed to be changed. Well, more for a rook-king interchange, and when a piece was taken a few lines needed to be deleted. (I don't know what their program was like actually but would like to do one in Java or perl that would make the board useable for games on the net.)

Learn MORE about VRML from Hal Eagar