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VRMLaboR talks to Bruce DamerURL:Bruce Damer..Life
Bruce is also a founding director of the Contact Consortium
which is a non-profit organization to research multi-usr communities,
President and CEO, DigitalSpace Corporation, author "Avatars" (Peachpit Press, 1998),
and one of Co-Chairs Digital Biota 3
which is a unique worldwide conference of digital lives.
He must be a specialist who knows well the future of multi-usr communications
on internet.
VRMLaboR:Could you introduce yourself a little bit to our readers ?
B.D.:I am an industry expert and (I hope) also a leader in the area of networked
virtual worlds. I cofounded the Contact Consortium, produced the first
conferences on avatars and virtual worlds and digital biota. I run a
company (DigitalSpace) which builds innovative virtual worlds. See my
background at Damer.com
VRMLaboR: What are you creating with VRML now?
B.D.:Working with teams at the Biota.org group at the Contact Consortium and my
own company, DigitalSpace, we are developing Nerve Garden II, a generative
VRML world full of growing plants based on L-system models. We are
developing a cellular automaton engine called Nerves which will provide a
feedback ecosystem and touch sensor activation in the garden, meaning that
it will evolve through time. See Biota.org for more background
on Nerve Garden and the annual Biota conference.
We also work with extensive multi-user virtual worlds with *avatars*, some
of which are non-VRML but very successful. See
Digital Space for extensive details and sample
chapters from my book on the subject.
VRMLaboR: Could you tell me what you are going to
create with VRML from now on?
B.D.:We would like to create streaming VRML worlds that allow infinitely sized
scenegraphs, avatars etc. These worlds should utilize Nerves or some
derivative to provide an 'alive ness' and constant state of change. There
should be creatures whose self evolved forms provide enthralling behavior
and interaction with visitors.
VRMLaboR:VRML's format is still debated. Have you got any idea or ideal about VRML should have more function or be more like that?
B.D.:VRML must learn how to stream its geometry. In addition VRML content is so
difficult to develop that it is doomed to a small market. This can all be
solved by using a Lego-block metaphor where simpler VRML objects stream in
one at a time. These objects then cache for re-use later. Users should be
able to build in-world by simple stacking and transforming these objects.
Active Worlds is a perfect example of
this. Users will never be able to master 3D modeling systems in large
numbers, everyone can build with Lego. There are many other areas in which
VRML can learn from other environments, but the above are essentials for
success.
VRMLaboR: How do you think internet and VRML are effecting into media and art.
And also how do you anticipate that they would be changed by VRML in the future?
B.D.:I think that VRML is one small brick of a very large structure we will
build in the future called "Cyberspace". I look forward to the opportunity
to work with many others to help pioneer some of the essential parts of
this. Biological metaphors are some of the most powerful models for
building the true Cyberspace. Art, science, human communications and
community will all be profoundly affected by these rich, interactive,
immersive and expressive environments of the future.
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