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Preface
The seeds of the ideas that have become this book were sown on the breakfast
terrace of a hotel in Beverly H ills during SIGGRAPH 2005. Whilst preparing
for another interesting day at the conference, we faced the immediate task of
how to journey downtown, no mean task in LA. So as we turned to a small
guidebook for advice, the thought struck us that it would be really useful if we
had a similar informative and practical guide to virtual reality (VR). At that
time, we were preparing to build the next phase of our own VR research lab,
and to be able to do that, it isn’t enough just to know about the background
theory and technology that might be u seful. We needed practical solutions—
hardware and software solutions. Not finding anything suitable, we decided
to compile our own—a guide that would bring together under one cover all
the aspects of graphics, video, audio and haptics that have to work together
to make virtual reality a reality.
What’s in the Book?
The book has two parts, and you could read them almost independently.
The CD is an integral part of the book: it contains the programs for over
30 projects in VR. These range in scope from a tool that simulates virtual
sculpting, to a suite of software for the control of a four-projector immersive
virtual environment.
Throughout the text w e have tried to follow a logical progression: what
VR fundamentally aims to achieve, to what it can be applied, what elements
need to be brought together, how they work and how the theory is turned
into practice. We also consider some key concepts from the allied disciplines
of computer graphics and computer vision, which overlap with VR.
xiii
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xiv Preface
Part I forms t he core of the book. We examine the human senses and
their significance in delivering a sense of reality within the virtual world. We
describe the types of interface technologies that are available and how they
work. After reading the first few chapters, it should be evident that being able
to see the virtual world is of prime importance. So several chapters in Part I
are focused on all aspects of how we interface with the virtual world through
our sense of sight.
Part II of the book is in a different format. Titled Practical Programs for
VR, the text is tightly integrated with the CD. A wide spectrum of example
programs for use in practical VR work are described and explained in Part II.
The examples complement and make concrete the concepts covered in Part I.
We have found them exceptionally useful, and many are in use in our own
VR laboratory. The programs are written in the C or C++ lang uages and are
targeted for the Windows PC platform.
As we stressed before, the key element of VR is the visual one, and here,
perhaps more than in any other aspect of the human-computer interface,
software plays the dominant role. We show you how to use the main 3D
rendering libraries in interactive real-time applications. Real-time 3D is not
the only source of content for VR applications; movies, DVDs and other
multimedia material can also play a vital role. We show you how to use
Microsoft’s DirectX technology to achieve this with minimal effort.
The level and sophistication of interaction set many VR applications apart
from computer games and computer-generated movies. Programming this
interaction poses its own complexities. The keyboard and mouse may be very
well for many things, but VR needs more: two-handed input with multiple
degrees of freedom, for example. We offer some examples of how to use the
USB PC interface and the input components of DirectX. Part II also discusses
the challenges that a programmer faces when working with haptic devices.
You’ll find more specific detail about the book’s content in Chapter 1, but
we hope your curiosity is sufficiently excited to read on. We found our guide
very useful and enjoyed writing it; we hope you find it useful too and enjoy
reading it.
Acknowledgments
Many individuals have given us much valued ideas, feedback and other assis-
tance in preparing the book. Others have inspired a more general interest in
this fascinating and engrossing subject; to all of you, many thanks.
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Preface xv
We would like to single out the follo wing for special mention:
Alice and Klaus Peters for encouraging us to write the book, and for pub-
lishing it. Without them, it would never have seen the light of day. Our
reviewers, who took time to read at least two revisions of our manuscript and
give their very helpful comments, and suggestions for topics to include. The
book is much better for your thoughts; they are much appreciated. We would
especially like to thank the editorial team at A K Peters, who have done a fab-
ulous job of preparing the manuscript and making sure it conforms to their
high standard.
Finally we would like to thank all our colleagues and friends at Queen’s
University for all your encouragement and suggestions—thank you.
Karen McMenemy and Stuart Ferguson
January 2007
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