Putting the Real in Surreal Scientific simulations in a virtual world

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Putting the Real in SurrealScientific
simulations in a virtual world

• Dr. Mike Reddy
• Mike.Reddy_at_newport.ac.uk
• University of Wales, Newport
• (aka DoctorMike Soothsayer in SL)

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A One Slide Summary

• ARC ONE Ive heard, you know, that theyve
  created a whole electronically synthesised
  Universe in one of their offices so they can go
  and research stories during the day and still go
  to parties in the evening. Yeah, bloody clever of
  course, but its nothing to do with the real
  Galaxy is it. Nothing to do with life.
• CAPTAIN Talk a lot dont you.
• P131 HHG2G- the original radio scripts Douglas
  Adams

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What this talk is NOT about

• Reproducing the Real Y? Avoid comfort zones
• On-line Communities Already covered earlier
• Communicating Science Doing is better
• Social Commentary - Not qualified 8-(
• Hype Far too Cynical Im afraid
• Lets look at MMOs as tools rather than
  spaces for learning

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Outside examples of 2/3D science
Half-Life 2 Physics Engine Contains Grand
Unified Theory By David Olsen "The game engine
ran too slowly. I was assigned the job of
speeding it up," he said. "I started out by
combining some of the gravity equations with some
of the other force equations and found it all
started to fit together. After a day, I had
fine-tuned the entire physics-animation functions
down to four lines of code, which ran a bit
faster," he added.
http//www.bbspot.com/News/2003/12/valve_unified_t
heory.html
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Outside examples of 2/3D science

• Physics Illustrator
• Only 2D at present

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Outside examples of 2/3D science

• Physics Illustrator
• Only 2D at present
• Garrys Mod HL2 http//gmod.garry.tv/

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Not a slide

• A reminder to show the following youtube video
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vqFeODuYXBiM

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Outside examples of 2/3D science

• Physics Illustrator
• Only 2D at present
• Garrys Mod HL2
• http//gmod.garry.tv/
• EduFrag UT04
• http//edufrag.wikispaces.com/orgofrag
• http//edufrag.blogspot.com/

http//www.bbspot.com/News/2003/12/valve_unified_t
heory.html
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What SL is good for(apart from the obvious)

• Cheap (FREE!) and cheerful 3D simulation with
  Physics and powerful scripting
• Fast prototyping, with simple and effective
  modelling and programming tools
• Growing community of educators and eager
  volunteer helpers
• Internet capable with links to Web 2.0 kit

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What SL is bad for(apart from the obvious)

• Expensive if you want large builds and script
  handling (e.g. buy your own island)
• No full programming language with limited memory,
  polys and processing loads
• Many, MANY distractions!!! Time is the most
  valuable currency.
• Lag! NO stand-alone servers 8-(
• Update Wednesdays!!!

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Cams Work as an Intern

• Autonomous, Self-directed Study
• From Novice to know all some in 3
  anthropological stages
• Uh?
• Oh!
• Ah
• Becoming part of the community requires you to be
  teacher-student and student-teacher

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Learning Facilities of Second Life

• Public Classes
• Tutorial Workstations

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Building in Second Life

• Bio-dome
• Flower

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'Environmental modelling inside a game engine
Details from http//camden-mitchell.livejournal.co
m/ NASA Colab info from http//cam_colab_proj.live
journal.com

• Virtual Environment Second Life

Image from http//secondlife.com/businesseducatio
n/
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DaisyWorld Simulation Development
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Michaels Coursework Assignment

• Peer-negotiated, technical assessment
• M is an accomplished professional programmer with
  an interest in teaching novice coders
• Much less focus on social or environmental
  factors, more on physics and LSL analysis
• SL is just a simulation/code base using
  server-side interpreted code and Havok 1 physics.
• The Community is much less helpful for coding
  than basic building at present, because most
  people are consumers

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ProcD Command Interpreter

• Designed to teach programming
• Created in Second Life
• Cubic robot that takes Logo-style commands via
  chat or notecard
• Intended as prototype for future full game

Michael Kemp, 2nd Year Games and A.I.
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My personal wish list

• Havok 2 Physics engine
• Middleware development (our job!)
• Stand-alone servers (heresy!)
• Speech to text for hearing impaired
• Text to speech for finger impaired
• Better animations (BSL?)