Design 311K Technologies II in Second Life
May 6, 2010 at 1:39 pm · Filed under Miscellaneous, Publicity
Tracy Villareal and Riley Triggs win Top Honor for Creativity in Instructional Innovation in the 2010 Innovative Instructional Technology Awards Program (IITAP) for the NEREUS Project.
NEREUS (Nautical Environment for Research, Exploration, and Understanding of the Seas): A Cross-College Project between Undergraduate Classes in the Virtual World Second Life
Tracy Villareal from the Marine Science Institute and Riley Triggs from UT Design in the Department of Art and Art History
Villareal and Triggs addressed the problem of taking students to sea remotely by using members of Triggs’ undergraduate design class to build a 3-D learning environment in Second Life. The result was a virtual research vessel that allowed marine science students to dictate sampling coordinates, sample transect lines from the ship, and download data.
Judges’ Comment: “The entry shows innovation in extending the emergent application of virtual worlds to provide instructional experiences that would otherwise be unavailable, creating high potential for increasing participation, interactivity, and collaboration in online, distance education environments.”
Entry Video
March 26, 2010 at 1:53 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Riley Triggs and Mario Guerra along with Jessica Mullen and Corey Leamon presented their takes on working in Second Life to a crowd of about 75 SXSW2010 Interactive Conference attendees who had an interest in using virtual environments in higher education. The hour long discussion centered around student experience, learning curves, cost benefits and training requirements to use Second Life in the classroom.
Session description:
BAM! An Entire Statewide University System Goes Virtual
For the first time in the history of interactive technology and education, the entire statewide University of Texas System has extended all of its 16 campuses into the online virtual world of Second Life and created in a bold move one of the largest virtual learning communities in the world.
#SXSW #univgoesvirtual
http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/412#
February 15, 2010 at 4:15 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
NEREUSConferencePoster
This was created for a poster session at the American Geophysical Union Conference Fall 2009.
November 6, 2009 at 2:05 pm · Filed under Publicity
Riley Triggs and Tracy Villareal are interviewed by gamesplusblog.com editor Norman Tran about the NEREUS project and using virtual environments in education.
July 23, 2009 at 7:15 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
We have a crew with Leslie Jarmon’s Transforming Undergraduate Education team working on finishing up the ocean sampling simulation for Tracy’s class this fall. We are cleaning up scripts and modifying details to be ready for a beta testing period in a few weeks.
We have also submitted a revised project list for our FAST Tex project help that will be completed during the Fall for a Spring roll-out to hopefully several campuses in the UT System as well as selected programs around the country.
Riley/Eero Enzo
April 22, 2009 at 7:52 pm · Filed under Environment
As of right now, I (Corey) will be doing the bulk of the talking. It seems interjections will probably be the best format for us all speaking about the environment’s work as we navigate real time in SL:
TERRAFORMING & LAYOUT: Purpose of land size, docks navigate user
NPCS: Requiring interaction b/t ship and building, developed males by recycling parts, created new shirt/face textures in Photoshop and learned application tricks, brought Tracy into SL, completed scripting for user interaction
AESTHETICS/LIFE: Research on suitable animals/plants in their “habitat”, taking advantage of SL’s current presence in buying these objects, contacting community and attempt at weather system, underwater as both reward after boat disappears and distraction during assignment, secret easter egg souvenir shirt
April 21, 2009 at 3:09 pm · Filed under HUD, Ships
early HUD – Katrina
MAP - Rachel
SHIP MODELING - Stephanie and Daniel
SHIP SCRIPTING -Stephanie and Annie:
timer - Alyssa
movement - Annie
ctd sampling - Sarita
ctd + database - Sarita
April 20, 2009 at 10:44 pm · Filed under Environment
Completed Tasks:
-The NPC were reduced to an instructor and captain, as the shiphand became unneccessary in function and needlessly increased the prim count on the boat. Their clothing textures were completed and applied, and coding (including the NPC speaking and object-giving tasks) is nearing completion. The number of prims involved with the captain was also reduced in order for more to be allowed on the vessel, once the two are linked.
-Environmental aesthetics were expanded, including new mammals, fish, and plants that are appropriate to the Gulf of Mexico and Hawaiian Pacific waters.
-The NEREUS logo was uploaded and applied to the island’s flag.
Week Eight Goals:
-Finish and finalize all NPC scripting; add the timer to “touch-end” for the captain, and add the manual as an object to the instructor’s inventory. The instructor also needs a desk (something for the building group, perhaps?).
-Plan appropriate material for Thursday’s presentation in relation to the work the environment group has completed over the course of the assignment.
-Place “souvenir” Nereus shirt into easter egg object within a specific location.
-If time allows, further add to the underwater fish population. Two other considerations include creating “wave prims” for the shore line and sculpting seagulls with a follow script; these depend on their feasibility and ease of creation.
April 17, 2009 at 9:14 am · Filed under HUD, Ships
this week, we:
- managed to get a rezzed version of the ship to move (initially we had the problem that it would only move 10 meters away from the rez box before it would disappear, but we have since resolved that issue with a different type of rez script). So, now we have a rezzed boat that moves according to input coordinates, has a mock-up Captain NPC that stands on it while it moves that also functions as a timer (when you click on him, a timer starts and once the timer finishes counting down- in the final product the countdown will be for one hour- the ship disappears, ending the sampling simulation). Also, we have tested this, and it works! This is extremely close to the final ship! The only problems: after a boat rezzes, right now the rezbox has to be touched before it can rez a new ship (should be easily fixable) and also, the rezzed ship drops to the bottom of the ocean after the user clicks on it to move it for the first time, obviously this is an issue. We don’t want our users plummeting to the seafloor before they can go anywhere, and then magically rising to the surface as they begin moving. We know this can be fixed though, because the waverunner? (is that the right name?) is a boat that is rezzed and doesn’t fall to the floor when a user gets on it. hmm.. we will figure it out.
- Daniel has been working with Rx to get the rest of the boat parts finished in time for the presentation and presentation run-through next Tuesday, and since yesterday when I left him, they had a crane, and were working on the other portions of the boat.
- textures and color choices have been obtained/determined, Rachel found a really nice rivet texture to use on the hull. other than that, the boat will be white.
- we begun outlining the presentation for Thursday and going over our process in creating all that we have thus far.
Next week//Over the weekend we will:
- fix the rez scripts on the boat
- finish the boat sculpting
- assemble and color/texture the boat
- combine all of the scripting that we have done onto the real models
- coordinate with the Environment group to finish/tweak the NPC scripting and get them in their proper places and linked to the boat
- work on our presentation!
April 10, 2009 at 2:42 pm · Filed under Environment and tagged: clothing, kikou splash, landing point, NPC, specimen, splash aquatics, textures, tracy
Completed Tasks:
-Research on the Gulf Coast of Me
xico and the Pacific saltwater environments resulted in a list of desired specimen for the project. After a week of back and forth discussion with an SL member, Kaikou Splash, on Friday the group has obtained a set of animals and a few plants for the aesthetic environment.
-The official landing point was changed to the dock during Tracy’s visit to Austin. This adjusts a user’s first time teleporting to the island, however, wherever they set their landmark is where they teleport from that moment on. A slurl must be sent from the dock for them to arrive in the proper location to begin the mission.
-A test shirt design was successfully designed in Photoshop and uploaded for avatars to wear. Textures do not apply the same to objects as they do to avatars, meaning that more work will need to be done in order to create a uniform for the NPCs. It will require many adjustments to appear as clothing once the texture wraps the prim.
-A male NPC was developed and placed inside the first floor of the building. This NPC has a familiar face for the students to speak to in game.
Week Seven Goals:
-Arrange new aquirement of specimen into the oceanic environment (include member Kaikou Splash in list of thanks and give link to his shop, “Splash Aquatics”).
-Continue experimenting with how to apply clothing textures to the main bust of the NPC objects.
-Organize the logistics of each NPC (instructor, captain, shiphand) and decide what scripts will be needed for each. Begin scripting if time allows.
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