3D Mental Vision A teaching platform for Computer Graphics and Virtual Reality

Plan Introduction MVisio modules MVisio engine Conclusion and perspectives

Foreword Virtual Reality Laboratory (VRLab/EPFL) VRLab mainly involved in virtual humans, virtual crowds, haptic VR. VRLab also in charge to teach Computer Graphics and Virtual Reality to bachelor, master and doctoral students.

What is this Mental Vision? MVisio is the short name of Mental Vision A set of interactive compact demonstrators (called pedagogical modules) A programmer-friendly, pedagogical- oriented 2D/3D graphic engine MVisio is aimed at CG and VR.

MVisio goals Improve comprehension of abstract notions of 3D Computer Graphics (CG) Break the limitations of static images and videos Bring interactivity and direct experience about the learned topics Offer to advanced student a comfortable development framework for their projects (VR)

MVisio goals Unify the work, to avoid unprofessional copy/pasted course content and a unique, common graphic engine to be used by students and assistants Reduce students time involved on corollary aspects during their projects (weeks spent learning how to configure the APIs, adapting/importing 3D models, brief: solving CG problems on a VR project)

MVisio modules Modules are small demos allowing students and teachers to dynamically interact with the algorithms and concepts introduced during the class Modules uses the MVisio engine and we provide the source-code to students Modules run virtually on every pc/laptop (MVisio automatically tunes itself)

MVisio modules Typically, a module features: – a screenshot of the lesson slide – an intuitive and user-friendly interface (few buttons, click & drag interaction) Students can practice with modules directly on their notebooks or PDAs during the lessons Modules can be directly inserted in PowerPoint presentations or launched separately

MVisio modules Lesson slide Click & drag controls Simplified interface PowerPoint-like style Real-time WYSIWYG display

MVisio graphic engine Technically spoken, MVisio is: –Built in C++ on the top of OpenGL, OpenGL|ES and SDL (Simple DirectMedia Library) –Just a 200 KB DLL –Capable to display a complex textured scene with dynamic lighting and shadows in just 7 lines of code

MVisio graphic engine MVisio directly support VR specific devices, like stereographic rendering on HMDs or camera handling through motion/rotation sensors MVisio allows students to immediately start using the different devices we dispose in our lab

MVisio graphic engine MVisio reduces: –Lines of code to write to obtain results –Complexity of the code itself, by automatically optimizing the scene-graph, managing the resources, sorting, etc. –Data import, through a powerful plugin for 3D Studio Max and a plethora of 3D objects, scenes, characters and animations ready to be used

MVisio graphic engine 3D Studio Max MVisio application Our exporter.MVE (MVisio Entity file format)

MVisio graphic engine #include #pragma comment(lib, "mvisio.lib") #pragma comment(lib, "sdl.lib") #pragma comment(lib, "sdlmain.lib") int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { MVISIO::init(NULL); MVNODE *bar = MVISIO::load("bar.mve"); MVISIO::clear(true, true, true); MVISIO::begin3D(NULL); bar->pass(); MVISIO::end3D(); MVISIO::swap(); _sleep(5000); MVISIO::free(); return 0; } Initialize MVisio (NULL means autosetup) Load the scene exported from 3D Studio MAX Clear buffers, start a 3D rendering, tell MVisio to render the bar entity, execute the rendering, swap back to front buffer Free resources

MVisio graphic engine MVisio used on student projects:

Current status Modules actually available: –Mixing parabola –Hermite interpolation –Kochanek-Bartels splines –Bézier splines –Bézier surfaces –Camera handling –Sweeping techniques The graphic engine is currently used on several on-going student projects

Current status MVisio engine features: Extremely user-friendly API, based on an C++ class-oriented architecture Multi-device rendering on PC, PDA and CAVE, without changing the source code Full OpenGL and OpenGL|ES support Dynamic scene graph management Dynamic lighting and real-time shadows Vertex and pixel shaders Skinning and animations Particle emitters Terrain engine Loading of scenes directly exported from 3D Studio MAX through a specific plugin 2D GUI system with event handling Object picking Support for Head-Mounted Displays (HMD) Expandability through new customizable objects directly pluggable to the MVisio core

Current status MVisio now runs also on CAVE systems (75% done)

Next steps Add more modules, mainly on advanced topics like inverse kinematics, skeletal animation, … Bring more modules to handheld devices, more comfortable to use during the lessons

Try MVisio!