[MUD-Dev] GEL -- A New Approach to Online Interactive 3D

[claw at kanga.nu]

An open source initiative for multi-user internet 3-D

http://www.urstudios.com/white.html

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GEL is a new proposed open standard for multi-user three-dimensional
worlds. Combining fresh ideas with established techniques, GEL
incorporates curved, non-polygonal modeling and animation
capabilities, peer-to-peer networking, global time stamps, visual
authoring, and a distributed processing model for dynamism and deep
interactivity. Unifying and enabling these features is a powerful
new programming paradigm--the Graph Evaluation Language, source of
GEL's name.

The Graph Evaluation Language allows the entire code base of a
virtual world to be visualized as 3D nodes in a tinker toy-like
network that can be manipulated and edited in click and
drag-style. This is intended to provide, in the long run, for
end-user programming of all aspects of a virtual world, including
behaviors. Users will no longer be limited to navigating someone
else's world but will be empowered to modify or create their own,
and build worlds collaboratively, in real time. GEL is also designed
to facilitate fast, responsive interactions between multiple users
(or avatars) in small groups, within larger worlds that may contain
any number of simultaneous users.

GEL is an open-ended platform intended to include all interested
parties and the best and brightest of new ideas. Distribution of GEL
will be free and open source, following the BSD license. Its initial
release will consist of a bare-bones infrastructure on top of which
further tools, applications and virtual worlds can be built.

A compact, multi-threaded, object-oriented program, GEL is written
in C++ on Windows98/NT, and is designed to be easily portable, with
APIs and a plug-in architecture. It will work equally well as a web
browser plug-in or a full-screen application, either stand-alone or
networked. In addition, GEL combines three distinct layers written
from the ground up--the graph programming engine, a retained mode 3D
renderer, and a graphics driver plus immediate mode 3D rendering
engine--that can be incorporated individually or in tandem for other
open source applications.
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There are some interesting screenshots at:

  http://gel.urstudios.com/screenshots.html

--
J C Lawrence                              Internet: claw at kanga.nu
----------(*)                       Internet: claw at varesearch.com
...Honorary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...


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