Overview
Recently, I had the pleasure of developing an online course on the subject of online virtual worlds for the Art Institute of Pittsburgh - Online Division. I have been using virtual worlds and spaces to teach other types of classes for 15 years now. (Graphic Design, 3D Lighting, Charles Darwin etc) This course itself became a test bed in miniature for some new tricks.. I borrowed production methods from my days developing million dollar training software for Fortune 500 companies. Quick coding principles came from the University of Baltimore's KidsTeam project. The fundamental goals of the course stem from my own experiences and exploration of virtual art. The result was an effective and inspirational course in which Art Institute Game Design students not only individually built online multi user web3D spaces based on favorite poems, they were taught within an online multi user web3D space that highlighted all that was to be taught. The students consisted of college Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors, and even a recent Graduate. The class was only 5.5 weeks long.
Technology
I'll address technology first, as its both a common question and the least germane to the body of ideas the follows. The students all had 3D modeling experience in 3DS Max and the technical goal was to focus on 3DS Max as an exporting tool. Pushing work out of 3DS Max into a 3D engine forces students to confront all the associated issues. Issues such as bad geometry, faulty textures, all things that 3DS Max may forgive, but a game engine will not. Other issues, like the translation of lighting to the new engine or just getting proper scale and placement of objects (and pivot points) have to be successfully addressed. Given these initial challenges of just getting 3D models into world, the next goal was to minimize the amount of coding needed to build a world.
The X3D/VRML plug in Exit Reality was selected because 3D models exported from 3DS Max as X3D/VRML files could instantly become one of their online multi-user worlds. Exit Reality is known for being a package that turns any 2D HTML page into a virtual world, but it works for 3D worlds as well. Simply post your X3D/VRML files online and in a HTML page link to your world. Just add Exit Reality's server page to the URL and it will be a multi-user world with avatars, text chat, and VoIP. For minor coding, the free versions of VRMLPad and Vivaty Studio offered enough power for students. VRMLPad's free version is limited to small files, so teaching students to inline the large geometry files into small interactive files was necessary. Beyond these technical choices, a second approach was needed to reduce the amount of programming needed. The primary class assignment itself needed to be friendly, loose, open, and still teach critical design skills with an emphasis on understanding the forces that influence the shape of virtual worlds. The assignment that does this is poetry. Each student was asked to build a world based on a favorite poem or song.
Valuing Poetry
In choosing a poetry as a project, students faced unique conceptual challenges that prepare them for large questions of design. Poems do force students to deal with all the technical challenges of going from 3DS Max into a 3D engine, and so do with coherent plan in mind. The programming aspect of poems is however, more flexible than games. There are no winners or losers in poetry, nor is there necessarily any right answers. No points need to be scored and no complex behaviors necessarily need to be programmed into the space. The poem's goal of instilling a deep experience makes construction in 3D akin to building an immersive painting. Travel, experience, and open discussion are all that are needed. In games, elements of fun and usability are required for success. In contrast poems are not, by definition, required to be fun or accessible.
The conceptual challenge hidden with poetry was the primary driver for their use. The overwhelming majority of virtual worlds aptly mirror the real, physical world. Most virtual worlds are designed as cheap dollhouses, with users expected to play dress up with their avatars. Lost among the vast numbers of make-believe virtual world experts is the role that storytelling plays in the design of virtual worlds. For reasons still unclear, the principles of Story / Interaction (aka Narratology / Ludology, Fiction / Rules, Theme / Game play) that are commonly known in game design have never been exported to the design of virtual worlds. At the core, these principles simply posit that a game's story shapes the objects within its space. In the immersive fantasy 3D world of a game, working within a narrative and building off a backstory is standard practice. In the 3D world of spaces that are not games, stories are still told, narrative data is shared and experienced.
The ability to see the role of narrative in the design of virtual worlds is obscured by the assumption of realism, the mirroring of the physical world, is a proper goal. Indeed there is a seductive quality to copying the familiar, a quality so seductive that operates on subconscious level. The most reasonable and logical of individuals understands that the rules of (physical) reality need not apply in the virtual, and yet they are conceptually helpless to move beyond the mirror. In exposing the relationship between story, realism, and space, poetry emerges as a useful tool.
Conventional stories lead to conventional spaces. Unconventional narratives (found in poems) lead to unconventional spaces and interactions. On the surface, these unconventional spaces may appear as mere novelties, pretty but useless enterprises. Individually they can be hard to take value from, but taken in large groups common interactive processes arise. Since these new processes exist outside of conventional understanding, discussion is awkward, much like early filmmakers trying to discuss reasons for editing video into montage, rather than follow the reality of a single long shot. I can however offer some proof that poetry has value. The very virtual classroom used to teach this course was directly developed from online web3D multi-user poetry readings done 15 years ago.
Above left, the Magic Classroom (version 1)
Above right,
my biker shorted teacher shape-shifts into a slide on the influencers of Darwin
In the classroom above I taught the Special Topics course called Virtual Worlds and Poetic spaces. The far end of the space is an open empty half circle - a presentation ring. In the presentation ring, 2D slides, 3D objects, and 3D worlds (that stretch out behind the ring) are shared and flipped through - much like a powerpoint show. This show however is immersive and interactive, as time is spent using and exploring the materials because unlike powerpoint, students are not seating in chairs watching images, they are immersed in it.
In the course's first week, the Exit Reality plug in, Exporting VRML from 3DS Max and VRML coding was introduced. The first virtual presentation covered the relationship between storytelling/narrative and realism. Examples of poetic spaces in 2D slides and 3D spaces were brought into the presentation ring. Students explored and asked questions and I provided answers. Students then went off to find their own examples of virtual poetry. In week 2, the assignment was to build a mobile home sized spaces. These small spaces had to fit with a 8ft wide X 26ft long X 16ft high space and be centered at x,y,z coordinates: 0, 0, 0. A template file was given so students could check their work. Additional criteria where to inline the geometry, apply a texture, and to have one simple animation. In sum, the week two assignment hit the basic needs for any larger project. I imported their work into the sides of my classroom space, creating in essence a virtual trailer park and as group we toured and discussed the design, programming, and general impact of each students work. Also in week two, students chose poems to do as final projects.
In week 3, students began developing their virtual poetry spaces. The virtual session that week went amazingly well and I continue to kick myself for not taking screen captures or recording video. Since students where just starting to create their poetic spaces I decided that a virtual mash up of their work might be a useful way of showing and discussing their works. Each student had a different scale, different objectives - some exploring interactive coding, some building interiors, some building landscapes. So then, like the trailer park session, I loaded and loosely arranged the student work around the lower platform. Students enter my space normally but soon found a new novel, magical space - partly theirs - partly others below and around them.
One students huge tree and floating ramps dominated the center space, but was also integrated into another students sweeping landscape. Interactive models from other students jutted out from the hillsides of the sweeping landscape. It was wonderful and rewarding to walk around in a space that held individually incomplete work, that seemingly was completely by the work of classmates. Since each work was about poetry and the overall goal was to break from realism and explore the relationship between story and space through poetic interpretations the space was shockingly coherent in that creative context.
There was only one problem, a student's work was missing. The code was in place, the scale was right, but I could not find his work within the mash up. For a moment it was very disappointing, but thankfully this student and all the students used viewpoint nodes and I could with a keystroke teleport to his starting point. Pressing the Page Down key I teleported to each students starting point, finally coming to his. It was an interior of a train and so not helpful in seeing his work in relation to others - he had no windows. He did have a problem, a bug. In his work, he made a novice mistake of not leaving enough space around a table - and it somewhat blocked the users passage through the train. I say somewhat blocked as his step height was not set correct and users would simply leap up on the table. Comically, rather than jump back down, on the other side - further forward movement pushed the user another step higher - onto the roof of the train!
I'd asked the student to fix this issue the day before and sent a few suggestions on how to do so. He replied and said it would be taken care of. Now days later I'm within his space, trying to place it nicely within the mash-up. I reach the table and expect to be blocked and then go around. Instead I go up on the table. The problem was not fixed. Another push forward and I'd be on his roof, but that was not the case. In this case I rise out of his train and find myself in the sweeping hillside of the other student and even better, I'm outside the faux barrier that student had created. Completely by accident this students train became a gateway to freedom. It was hysterical.
When the virtual session happened, my students roamed and wandered and were shocked like I had been as to how well this mash up had worked. All were happy, all save one student who could not locate his train space. At this point I got to lead the students through the viewpoints to his train, and then they explored it making a few comments along the way down the inside of his train cars. Near the end was his table and to their complete surprise they stepped up on the table. They stepped up on to his roof and emerged into sweeping landscape of the other student. It was thrilling and thought provoking for them and as teacher, well lets just say I'm pretty pleased as well.
The following week I took down the partial poems from my space. I had merely linked to the student URLs of their geometry and each project had grown substantially so the space became more filled and less workable. Students, disappointed by not seeing another mash-up, seemed to digitally shrug and accept that in week 4 of a 5.5 week class, we had to get back and address problems and issues that were emerging. In week 4, we simply talked.
In week 5 they presented their works. Each student had a multi user space based upon a poem and we went from URL to URL in turn. It felt more like a tour of homes mixed with a dinner party as we wandered, commented, and offered insights as well as advice. Overall I'm very happy with the way the course went and feel the students gained both technical skills (learning how to export from 3DS Max into 3D engine, and basic 3D scripting) and design skills (they now see more clearly the relationship between story and space. They will not be limited by realism) Of course, I'm saying a lot and it was just one course, short, online, with students I've never physically met or seen.
Their work is on the following page :)
