From: Omar Loggiodice Subject: What features would you like to have in a C++/C API to build VOs? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Greetings! Related to my post in sci.vw.apps ( PHIL: If you were the user? How to build VWs ), i am also interested in your opinion as to what tools would you like to have available in order to build VW objects. [Note: Although we don't encourage cross-postings to sci.v-w and sci.v-w.apps, this particular thread was posted to both newsgroups. See, Nov. 10th, "PHIL: If you were the user? How to build VWs" -T.E.] However, before you consider this question I would appreciate if you take a moment read the definition of an "object" in the above mentioned post. Now that you read it, you know that for the sake of this discussion, an object is an entity that has "senses","effects upon senses" and a "behavior". As opposed to the post in sci.vw.apps, this question is intended for the type of user i have called "object developer". An object developer is a programmer whose goal is to build specialized objects, hence he will use a considerable amount of programming knowledge as opposed to the user targeted in the in the sci.vw.apps posting; which will build more simple objects by using a friendly VW to help him. Therefore, regarding this discussion, there will be two types of users of the VR system in question: the average user, and the object developer. The average user will not use any programming knowledge, while the object developer will use C or C++ to build specialized, more intelligent objects than those that the average user is capable to build. With this knowledge we can now rephrase the original question, and state it more specifically: - Considering yourself as an object developer, what features would you like in the API that will help you build the objects? There will be two APIs, one for C and one for C++. However, as for this posting we can concentrate on the C API in order to consider one issue at a time. The above question is rather general, so please consider the following question as a specific topic to be considered. Since the API objective is to provide the necessary tools for the object developer to build objects efficiently, then it should provide means to define the object "senses", "effects upon senses", and its "behavior". The "behavior" will be already defined by the program that the object developer will design and implement. - What advantages/disadvantages do you see in the following classification of tools in the API? WORLD tools: Functions, classes or other tools that let you control the distributed aspects of the object(s). Here you have tools to attach objects to worlds, detach objects from worlds, set world permissions, create worlds, interact with other objects, etc. EFFECT tools: These are functions or classes that will define the "effects upon senses" of the object. Functions or classes to display objects, to play sounds, to do general 3d transformations, to define the 3d model, etc; are included here. SENSE tools: Functions or classes to define new "senses", and to read already defined "senses" ( i.e. dataglove, mouse, keyboard, voice ) are included here. INFORMATION tools: Functions or classes to get general information about the world, or other objects ( such as position ) are included here. Thanks in advance. Best regards, Omar Loggiodice -- ____________________________________________________________________ / __ __ __ - __ __ / - _ __ ologgio@netcom.com Omar R. /__ /_/ /_/ /_/ / /_/ /_/ / /_ /-_ ologgio@conicit.ve __/ __/ ___C++__________Virtual Reality__________Vorl_____Linux(free)_______