 
	
      CS 497 Project
	  Paul Rajlich
	
	Description:
	To work with navigation in a larger-than-CAVE world using Inventor.
	The idea here is to have a scene graph with everything in it, 
	including the user. The user will have to be encapsulated as
	a node and added to the scene graph. Ordinarily, you would
	navigate using CaveNavTransform:
	
	 CAVENavTransform();
	CAVENavTransform();
	 ...
	  ...
	 render->apply(wall);
	  render->apply(wall);
	
	But this won't work here because you don't want to apply the
	transform to the user. So, instead, I will do the necessary
	navigation transforms within the scene-graph. These will then
	be applied to the subtree which contains the virtual larger-than-CAVE
	world.
	
	The user will
	maintain information about where in the world the user is and
	what direction the user is looking in. This will determine the
	navigation transform and will also allow the user to perform
	actions that affect that world.
	
	
	At this point, your probably wondering what all of this has to
	 
	
	do with the monster at the top of this page. I'm going to try
	to implement this in the context of a DOOM-like environment. This is
	because I have an Inventor file for a DOOM level which I got from
	Vijay's homepage. Minimally,
	the player will be able to navigate through a doom level. To that
	I will try to add some interaction, such as a bazooka from which the
	player can fire projectiles, and perhaps even collision detection
	so that the user can't go through walls.
	
	
	This is interesting
	because the bazooka may be rendered in CAVE coordinates, but when it
	fires, it has to add a projectile at the correct location
	in the virtual world coordinates so that the projectile becomes
	independent from the user.
	Timeline:
	
	
	  - before Nov. 11: 
 simple navigation using Inventor transforms instead of
	    CAVENavTransform.
 
- before Thanksgiving: 
 user interaction with world (e.g. bazooka)
 
- before end of semester: 
 add as much as possible: collision detection, automatic
	    climbing of stairs, perhaps even monsters.
Evaluation:
	
	  - To get a B:
 demonstrate that I have learned how to use Inventor by
	    adding the navigation transforms to the world scene-graph.
 
- To get an A:
 provide some sort of interaction between the user and the
	    virtual world using Inventor. Add the user as a node to
	    the scene-graph  and provide some interaction between that node and the
	    world (e.g. the bazooka).
 
      
      Paul Rajlich
Last modified: Tue Dec 10 20:57:47 CST