Toby Howard posted to Comp.os.linux.announce:
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Manchester University releases MAVERIK:
a free Open Source Virtual Reality system
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Press Release
=============
The Advanced Interfaces Group, in the Department of Computer
Science at the University of Manchester, UK, announces the release
of MAVERIK, a new software system for supporting Virtual Reality
applications.
Maverik is free, Open Source software released under the GNU
Public Licence, and is released with full source code,
documentation and example programs.
CONTACT
=======
Dr Roger Hubbold
Department of Computer Science
Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
Tel: (44) 161 275 6158
Fax: (44) 161 275 6204
Email: roger@cs.man.ac.uk
Web: http://aig.cs.man.ac.uk/
WHAT IS MAVERIK?
================
MAVERIK (http://aig.cs.man.ac.uk/systems/Maverik/) is a system
for managing graphics and interaction in Virtual Reality
applications. It is designed to address the challenges of highly
interactive virtual environments containing many objects with
complex geometry. MAVERIK uses the Silicon Graphics Inc. OpenGL
graphics library, and is supported on SGI workstations, and PCs
running the Linux operating system. Porting to other OpenGL
platforms is straightforward.
EXAMPLES
========
Visit the MAVERIK Applications Gallery
(http://aig.cs.man.ac.uk/systems/Maverik/gallery.html) for examples
of MAVERIK applications.
WHY MAVERIK IS NOVEL
====================
MAVERIK dispenses with a separate representation for application
data. Conventional VR systems need to import data into their own
format, but MAVERIK avoids this by making use of the application’s
own internal data structures. This has two important benefits:
1) MAVERIK can easily take advantage of optimisations that are
highly application-specific, intimately tied to knowledge that the
application has.
2) MAVERIK can far more readily adapt (dynamically) to a wide
range of application demands. Its flexible design means that
applications with widely differing requirements can be
supported.
THE MAVERIK ARCHITECTURE
========================
MAVERIK has two main parts:
1) The MAVERIK micro-kernel implements a set of core services,
and a framework that applications can use to build complete virtual
environments and virtual reality interfaces.
2) The MAVERIK supporting modules contain default methods for
optimised display management including culling, spatial management,
interaction and navigation, and control of VR input and output
devices. MAVERIK’s structure allows these default methods to be
customised to operate directly on application data, so that optimal
representations and algorithms can be employed.
RELATED WORK
============
MAVERIK provides the tools for a single user to perceive,
interact with, and navigate around, a graphically complex Virtual
Environment. It is designed to integrate seamlessly with the
experimental Deva system (http://aig.cs.man.ac.uk/systems/Deva/)
which provides for the higher level needs of VR: namely
multiple-participants, multiple VEs with laws and behaviours, and a
coherent framework for interworking between them. There are plans
to release Deva at a later date.