Ken Rigby (MellaniuM, Tele3dworld)'s Page

Titanic Virtually Unreal I’ve just been given a demo of a Virtual Space by Joe Rigby of Mellanium Studios, where they’ve created a live scale replica of the Titanic using the Unreal 2 engine and roughly 850,000 polygons. It’s quite impressive. Check it out, more info after the Video. Mellanium looks to be creating Serious games, and focused on education based games, and their work seems to be really good. They claim to be able to put roughly 40 avatars on a private server or up to hundreds on a global server. For more video’s of Mellaniums work, go to their YouTube Channel, located here. Thanks for the tour Joe. ~ by Chadrick on April 9, 2008.

3D to 3D Learning Environments from Tele3DWorld. "The ultimate goal of the educational system is to shift to the individual the burden of pursuing his or her education" - John W. Gardner Appealing 3D learning environments in which learners steer their Avatars through virtual real worlds for learner-centered education are now available from Tele3DWorld. By enabling learners to participate in Tele-immersive experiences, 3D learning environments enable students develop an in-depth, and gain a better understanding of highly complex biological, engineering, computer software, architectural, electronic, or mechanical systems and environments. 3D learning environments enable learners to observe and perform tasks typically performed by components of a system being considered, resulting in qualitative improvements in learning. For example, learners can study computer software systems with the aid of "3D Metaphors". Tele3DWorld designed, 3D learning environments blur the distinction between education and entertainment producing learning experiences that are intrinsically motivating and are firmly established in the task of problem solving and understanding. Tele3DWorld has been investigating this question by iteratively designing, developing, implementing, testing, and evaluating 3D learning environments. Out of this work has evolved a framework for 3D learning environments. In these learning environments, learners guide Avatars through 3D virtual real worlds as they observe and manipulate artefacts in the course of observation and problem solving. 3D Environments designed in the Tele3DWorld framework facilitate situated learning by providing learners with: *Virtual Real Worlds: Avatar populated 3D virtual real worlds which represent the intended spatial mental model of the system or environment under study, with movable/animated artefacts whose functionalities mimic those in a real system or environment; * Lifelike avatars: multi-users populating the virtual real worlds are learner-guided avatars capable of navigating the environments with 6 degrees of freedom with the ability to manipulate artefacts within them; learners also control their avatar's body language and other behaviours. By the use of speech, Avatars can communicate with other tele-immersed learners promoting teamwork; * Realistic Objective Posters: By tracking learners' problem-solving activities with a task model, learning 3D environments will allow investigative flexibility while at the same time assisting learners by presenting context-sensitive problem-solving objective reminders. A recent growing emphasis on learner-centred education has produced a genuine revolution in educational theory and practice. Current theories of learning and pedagogy revolve around experiences, which emphasizes the learner's knowledge construction process. Perhaps most central among the tenets of experiences is that learners should be engaged in active exploration, they will be intrinsically motivated, and they will develop an understanding of a domain through challenging and enjoyable observation and problem-solving activities using the 3D to 3D paradigm. Considerable work still needs to be researched to explore virtual real world design techniques, i.e., scripting, content, and use of standardised presentation (e.g.,3D Metaphors) for situated learning in 3D environments. Avatar learning environments from Tele3DWorld offer true situated learning. By directing lifelike avatars with other like-minded learners (up to 32 Avatars can be present in a virtual real world) to perform problem-solving tasks in intriguing 3D virtual real worlds, learners will be self-motivated, or team motivated to perform situational problem solving, while actively immersed in a role-based learning experience. By leveraging the powerful computer graphics technologies and distributed communication systems (internet) now available, learners can interact with what has become a new paradigm for education of the future. See http://www.mellanium.com or http://skype:joe133952 for a demonstration. Copyright © Ken Rigby for Tele3DWorld and MellaniuM Design. All Rights reserved.

Shared Virtual Real Worlds (VRWs) are innovative applications where several users, represented by Avatars, simultaneously network in a 3D first-person viewpoint environment. Users co-operate through interaction within the 3D FPP MMO environment and with each other, manipulating objects and speaking as they go. Apart from in the well-documented online gaming industry, now played out in real-time over the Internet, the success stories of virtual worlds and shared 3D environments have been mixed. Interest wanes from an enthusiastic beginning: the 3D world looks both enticing and promising, but the attention curve drops sharply as the users find the space either too difficult to navigate or not satisfyingly engaging. The key to the success or failure of these environments relates directly to the content offered and the ability of the environment to hold a critical mass of users in real time. This is the desperately sought after magic social glue that determines the experience to be meaningful and actively keeps the users under its virtual spell. Tele3DWorld presents a new and innovative method, a shared virtual real world geared to information in an educational, hyper-resolution, and highly structured environment. 'Tele3DWorlds Educational Experience,' is a co-operative project offering a pioneering edutainment environment based on shared 3D virtual real worlds, where groups from all over the world can meet in order to learn and discuss issues related to the virtually created famous events and interesting places. MellaniuM Design and Tele3DWorld have pioneered a patented process and developed a huge database of artefacts and textures that will allow for easy and economical VRWs to be designed, developed, and tested for any subject and/or domain. Virtual real worlds can serve different purposes, such as entertainment, education, design, architecture, interior design, maintenance, communication, e-commerce, GIS, networking, etc. They have the ability to recreate an infinite variety of 3D environments or landscapes ranging from virtual museums, art galleries, shops, offices, and hotels to fantasy worlds and objects created by the human imagination. The applications of virtual real worlds are numerous for virtual offices, online classrooms, virtual factories, virtual museums/art galleries, re-creations, etc. The majority of currently existing virtual worlds are still focused on the gaming, game-play, and entertainment sector with lo-res structures and textures with hi-activity emphasis. However they are starting to switch to various business initiatives to establish a VRW web (teleporting from a 3D VRW to a 3D VRW via cyberspace; rather than from 2D web page to 2D web page). Advantages: * Amazing and 'hyper-realistic' user experience; * Worldwide connectivity, communication, and implementation; * Possibility to create or recreate any desired 3D environment; * Simultaneous multi-user collaboration for separate groups; * Simultaneously running processes and actions that affect the virtual real world but will not affect other system users. Greater understanding of the real world will enable a higher truth to be established; not based on the assumptions of history. In short: Virtual Real Worlds provide the path for your imagination to embark on the strangest journey it will ever take; a journey which will help you develop your insight, expand your understanding, unlock the genius, and enable you to focus on your destiny. See http://mellanium.com/ for detailed information and supporting articles for additional anecdotes. Skype: id joe133952 for live demonstration. Copyright © Ken Rigby for Tele3DWorld and MellaniuM Design. All Rights Reserved.

MellaniuM to create Virtual Real Worlds for Autistic Research. Virtual Real Worlds are to be used to simulate new 3D environments for people in the autistic spectrum. For people with autism, VRWs are way of setting up realistic social situations that might be encountered in their everyday lives. For people who have social, emotional, communicational problems VRWs can enable them to familiarise with a simulated situational environment before actually experiencing in real life. MellaniuM design and develop 3D FPP Environments for private, secure, and global applications. VRWs are highly realistic 3D environments that can be used peer to peer, peer to internet, MMO, LAN, WAN, etc. This research is seen as a major stepping stone to its' use in the much wider general education sector. see www.mellanium.com for details. copyright(c)Ken Rigby for MellaniuM

The 3D MMO (3DNet) internet is evolving very fast. About 14 years ago the World Wide Web started and now it is the biggest information network world wide. In 2003 new technologies came like web videos (YouTube), video/voice conferencing (Skype/Messenger) and the Web 2.0 applications like Google Earth / Second Life changed the content of the internet. Myspace and facebook the new web 2.0 applications have become some of the most popular internet sites with > 40 million users. I predict that in less than one year there will be another big change of tsunami proportions. Many applications will be using the 3D Internet VRW environments instead of the 2D wwweb. Instead of a 2D internet browser like Firefox and Navigator people will using new browser style programs to surf the 3D Internet (3DNet). This technology was presented to the Como Forum last October and hailed as a tectonic or paradigm shift in the media landscape. In 2010 it was estimated that over 60 million users will be surfing, shopping, learning, working, designing,and creating new Virtual Real Worlds in the 3D MMO environment internet space. Already now over one million people use the 3D MMO internet in one form or another and it's growing rapidly every day. Companies and Organizations will have to set up in the virtual real world, selling shoes, cars, and clothing, teaching to the residents. Film Companies will preview their new movies 3D online. Reuters and the BBC will open an office in the 3D internet to report live news. By the end of 2008 Tele3dworld will start their 3D Virtual Real World globally. By the end of 2010 it is estimated there will be over >20 million users. MellaniuM will make the next step of the MMO 3D internet and extend it to an amazing and awesome Virtual Real World platform with amazing graphics and physics. Contact us skype id joe133952 and we show you live what possibilities there are for you and your company. See http://mellanium.com for detailed information and supporting articles for additional anecdotes. Skype id joe133952 for live demonstration. Copyright © Ken Rigby for Tele3DWorld and MellaniuM Design. All Rights Reserved. 2008

Richard Arkwright invented the first automaton i.e., a machine that replaced the human intervention in the manufacturing process; this rendered the human to a machine minder. InerVerzaL™s or Virtual Real Worlds will perform the same to Education, and other similar domains by implementing the 3D to 3D paradigm. The InterVerzaL™ will make the individual responsible for their education by promoting experience as the prime method using 3D environments. But what is the connection of Arkwright to InterVerzal? Preston UK; both were born there. An InterVerzaL™ is a non-game (serious game to some people) 3D environment that utilizes the 3D first person perspective provided by a commercial 3D engine used by the gaming industry. Using the 3D engine as a platform we remove all weapons, slow the pace, create high resolution and definition meshes and textures and create realistic animation, sounds, with true physics with 6 DOF. InterVerzaLs are Massive Multiplayer Online Virtual Worlds (MMOVW) that can accommodate up to 64 "Avatars" in the same virtual environment. This therefore enables people to remotely enter from anywhere in the real world with internet connection. This promotes world-wide collaboration, in design, business, entertainment, social networking, architecture, etc. See http://mellanium.com Skype id joe133952 for live demonstration. Copyright©Ken Rigby for Tele3DWorld and MellaniuM Design. 2008 All Rights Reserved.

What MellaniuM and MMO Virtual Real Worlds can do for you. MMO Virtual Real Worlds (VRWs) are a breakthrough technology that will forever reshape learning, entertainment, and business. After all, we don't want to find ourselves in the position of the chairman of the company who passed up the option to buy Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, saying, "Who wants to hear people talk?". What do people do in VRWs? First, VRWs will replace other forms of learning. We believe the thoughtful application of VRW technology will significantly enhance the experience and transfer of knowledge, learning, education, training, etc. We encourage you to examine this technology with fresh eyes and begin by asking what sensibilities it can bring to the learner that aren't found in traditional educational technology. So instead of asking "How do I build a virtual classroom?" we might ask, "What can this technology do that will enhance the experience that my current learning technology portfolio cannot?". Here are the VRW salient points that have been identified so far: The Sense of Self. First, a bit of terminology. Your virtual representation is called an avatar.Your avatar is your persona, totally under your control and with preprogrammed body language.As opposed to games or simulations where people have limited freedom to set their own course,your avatar can walk, run, swim, drive wherever he or she chooses within the 3D environment.This experience occurs in a real time 3D environment with true perspective. More importantly, the more you experience a VRWs the more you and your will avatar bond. In short, you are your avatar when in a VRW, and your emotional attachment to that avatar will surprise you! The Death of Distance. Avatars reside in a boundless virtual 3D landscape in which they can teleport through cyberspace from one place (VRW) to another. There is no absolute distance in VRWs except when necessary to enhance the experience. VRWs 3D landscape can be home to stores, museums, businesses, shops, houses, office buildings, campuses, playing fields, etc. all constructed using high resolution textures and constructional detail. The 3D landscape in a VRWis persistent; shut down your computer and the VRW will be there when you return. The Power of Presence Sense of Space. Avatars interact with one another through the actions of their real-life masters. Avatars converse, collaborate, attend concerts, and meetings, listen to presentations, explore, visit virtual buildings, museums, art galleries, or sculptures, VRWsencourage social groups to form. People often treat computers as they would other people. They like a computer that praises them. If humans treat beige boxes as kin, surely they can identify with animated humanoids in a VRW The Pervasiveness of Practice. Walk around a VRW for a while and you'll come to the conclusion that it's not only a virtual social world, but a world that fosters a culture of collaborative learning through experience; The Enrichment of Experience. Another sensibility VRWs provide is the enrichment of experience. In saying this we don't just mean that VRWs are better. We are saying that it is possible to have experiences in these spaces that are just not possible in the real world. VRWs provide the ability to exist in an augmented reality or dream like state. Maybe you are confined to a wheelchair, or bedridden and bored and suddenly you can virtually dance the night away or re-visit memorable places, or perhaps you want to interact with your design colleagues around the world to check out a virtual prototype of a car, a new chip design layout, a battlefield situation, or a crystal molecule structure. This platform enables people to experience life in new and engaging ways irrespective of their location, creed, color, age, ability, etc. The possibilities are endless and only limited by your imagination. How are corporations using VRWs for learning? Corporations are actively exploring virtual real worlds, drawing on the VRW capabilities for: A new level of always-on 24/7, real time connectivity for collaboration and social purpose; Empowering both customer and employee groups; Making informal viral learning a core mechanism of transformation. They are learning/working ecosystems that by their very nature embrace: Flow, balancing inactivity and challenge in just the right proportions to keep people moving through the experience; Repetition, which allows learners to try-and-try again as many times as they choose; Experimentation, encouraging learners to try new things and learn in the process; Experience that is much more engaging in many ways than other digitally mediated technologies; Doing, because practice makes perfect and VRWs are the big practice fields; Observing, because if you're not ready to act now, you have plenty of opportunities to observe others and learn from them; Motivation, because all of these factors culminate in an environment that cultivates teachable moments at every turn. Motivation is built into the context as people want to learn within it. Next step. It's neither expensive nor difficult, and it will give you an appreciation for the fresh viewpoints and concepts that are emanating out of VRW innovations. It will change your perspective on what is possible today in informal and generative learning. By using a pre-programmed data base of 3D objects or artefacts and textures we can greatly reduce costs and project time-scales by reusing items once created. Imagination and novelty will be at a premium when creating these VRWs. The new teachers will be able to manipulate VRWs into icons of learning using the 3D to 3D paradigm. The 3D MMO Revolution. Well, if you look at the specifications for the video cards included with most Computers today, you'll notice that they too have 3D acceleration in hardware and controlled by a programmable graphics processor. Remember also that CPU manufacturers have been producing them with an enhanced set of MMX extensions. So it's not just the video technology that they have been upping the graphics power available on a PC. Windows doesn't provide a true set of GDI-like extensions for 3D effects. Instead, DirectX (basically a games API) and Open GL are supported. Open GL is the cross-platform 3D API. The interesting thing is that all this 3D power has quietly infiltrated the installed base of PCs over the last few years with nary a notice from anyone but 3D Game addicts. The fact is that very powerful 3D cards can be had at your local computer store, so there is no reason every user can't have a 3D-enabled box on their desk in no time. All that's holding things back is a killer 3D application. Tele3DWorld and MellaniuM Design have a patented technique which creates a 'Virtual Real World'. Virtual Real World (VRW) environments can be persistent or semi-persistent. What you create, leave, or place somewhere remains there unless moved or destroyed as in the physical world. Tele3DWorlds-Immersive virtual real worlds are inhabited by so-called avatars (manifestations of the user), that is the virtual representations of a human or other artefact that can act in six degrees of freedom inside the digitized virtual real world. Avatars can be created to emulate persons and as good or bad looking as you desire them, they can be neat, shaved, and alert; no matter what happened the previous night. Vehicles can be driven on virtual roads and in virtual environments that are realistically the same as the real world. VRWs can be created for any application; Architecture, Education, Entertainment, GIS, Medical, Engineering Simulations, Social Networking, Virtual Conference, etc. Learning experiences within a 3D virtual environment can be organized around a script themed to promote understanding. ("The ultimate goal of the educational system is to shift to the individual the burden of pursuing his or her education". Each virtual environment can be designed to fit a specific task or learning process with flexibility and immediacy impossible in real life. You can set the optimum and most appropriate setting for each activity that you want to perform. Environments, scenes, and objects can be resized, moved, and placed virtually anywhere you like. VRW Environments can ported to and from enabling virtual travel to anywhere in the simulated real world planet earth or moon. Exploration and discovery are enabled and encouraged as in the real world. Ideas, prototypes, simulated interactions can be explored and tested with much greater confidence; as the possible damage, risks, costs, and time required are truly non-existent. A digital world can be used over and over again; the environment and artifacts always remains constant or return to their initial condition. Risk can be the guide. Dangerous and unorthodox exploration of new environments, approaches, methods, processes, and tools can be given maximum support in a virtual environment where everything can be tried and no-one gets hurt. Physical attributes such as friction, gravity, buoyancy, mass, etc., can be applied to the 3D Models and materials. Although we are not used to thinking in these terms, think of applied arts, technology, electricity, physics, biology, and even sports training. Realize the benefits? Fantasy, and imagination can be unleashed. Could you do so in your traditional classroom? How much opportunity has today's students got to venture into real imaginative environments to explore, and prototype new ideas, tools, processes, artifacts, and architectures? Intelligent design can be realized and tested. Virtual Real World 3D environments allow the potential for full recording of any activity, interaction, or exchange whether they are verbal, physical, or implied. As a result, such recordings enable the ability to re-experience or re-use past events for many different purposes. Recorded artifacts and the ability to manage them at a fine, granular level will greatly expand our abilities to learn from other peoples experiences, and to re-use them effectively to achieve our aims, goals, and aspirations more rapidly. Time navigation is now possible due the fact that the virtual world environment keeps track of people, events, objects, and relationships between them. Creed, age, skin color, and sex orientation will not be a factor in these virtual real world environments as they allow individuals to be credited for their true value or input and not for the dress, bearing, or how they look. People who carry major physical handicaps or disabilities will appear as capable and normal as everyone else. Bed-ridden and infirm people will be able to explore past experiences and join in tele-immersive groups. The ability to select any type of body and to customize your own appearance gives many people the opportunity to express themselves as they truly feel and not as society forces them to. From past experience the best learning environment is to visualize the world as it is or create 3D metaphors (3D artefacts) to explain non-tangible activities and processes. By using precise and realistic 3D Models and animations; learning becomes much easier and less stressful. The three-dimensional virtual real worlds are the first to educate, inspire, entertain, and inform, in a world where the students can learn in a 3D environment. The emerging Virtual Real World global economy will have to include resources, products, and services managed through 2D and 3D virtual reality environments. The 'Global warming' crisis requires that we stop producing heat trapping gases. So we must reduce travel to essential journeys using more emission efficient transport and electricity generation systems. The digital and physical environments are becoming increasingly intelligent, automated, networked, and transparent, major new developmental emergences or the fabled 'concept crisis' will occur if nobody promotes and manages these virtual real Worlds now. Emergence of the fabled Ouslem bird will return if no one sets the rules. We are in the early years of an unprecedented transformation in our relationship to 3D virtual real world information technology and the applications. As we are predominantly visual-spatial and linguistic (right brain and left brain) creatures, we use the complex visual-spatial and language interfaces to communicate with each other. Our 2D+ (geo-spatial, augmented reality (video, etc., etc.) and 3D online virtual real worlds are as visually, sound, materially, and data rich just as in the real physical world, this now makes virtual worlds virtually indistinguishable from the real world. We have also gained the ability to talk to our computers and their AI helpers, and for them to talk back in increasingly natural human language with unnerving reality. These developments have now produced profound new individual, social, and collective abilities, as well as new challenges and risks that need be mitigated. Economic theory, charts development from resources, to products, and services sectors over time. Structural change occurs when GDP (or for the world, GWP) or employment in one sector grows to exceed another. Use of these Virtual Real Worlds will greatly increase the global productivity and awareness not just of industry but the social interaction between people, politics, education, and their aspirations. Although expensive to generate and potentially very valuable in many product related activities, 3D models are now being exploited to support product management, documentation, collaborative review, and promotion, because they are accessible to trained designers equipped with graphics workstations. Intra-net access, popular 3D exchange formats, and affordable 3D graphics hardware permit the download and view 3D environments and models using a personal computer. Although these basic capabilities are revolutionizing the entertainment and marketing industry and have reduced the cost of a design station, they are of enormous help to non-designers in the creative design and manufacturing industries. We can now visualize where 3D data is available and exploited at all phases of a product or service life cycle. The current technology, identifies the fundamental research issues, and reviews recent advances in 3D data compression, in the automatic generation of levels-of-detail for 3D interactive rendering, and in the innovative exploitation of 3D input devices for an intuitive and effective navigation of the real-time Virtual Real Worlds environments. See http://mellanium.com Skype id joe133952 for live demonstration. Copyright © Ken Rigby for Tele3DWorld and MellaniuM Design. 2008 About the Author As senior ludologist Ken researches the 3D to 3D paradigm.