NPSNET-V: A New Beginning for Dynamically Extensible Virtual Environments

Recently in this column1, we presented a vision of the future of computer graphics technology. The rapid improvement of rendering capacity and fidelity led us to search for the next bottleneck in the development of compelling virtual worlds. The content development process does not scale, and we predicted that intelligent, reactive content will be required to engage and entertain participants in a virtual environment. This intelligence can stem from computer-generated autonomy, or from other human participants. In the months since the previous column, these trends have become even more pronounced. Microsoft demonstrated prototypes of their entry into the console gaming market, the XBox (xbox.com), which claims polygon throughput of 300 million per second. Sony’s Playstation 2 gaming console (www.playstation.com) has been classified a munition by the Japanese government, and they plan a workstation market based on the console’s graphics processor. Both consoles promise built-in broadband Internet connectivity in their U.S. versions, in an attempt to capitalize on the success on multiplayer gaming in the PC market. Likely the most telling event, though, was the speech at the X-Box unveiling—where Bill Gates said, “We think there’s going to be incredible, persistent, online worlds that are created because of what you can do with [the network-enabled game console].” We at the Naval Postgraduate School, and in the collaborative virtual environment community, have See the Projects in VR article in the November/December 1999 issue, “Cyberspace and Mock Apple Pie: A Vision of the Future of Computer Graphics”