Category Archives: Research

Research Agenda & Interests

V-Lab News

Posted on by

A new write-up was released today on Saluki Times. The photograph of David playing the video game showed some genuine emotion. :-)

A “professor of games” is developing software that will allow teachers to correct students’ mistakes as they make them.

“Research tells us that repeated mistakes will become entrenched, and correction at a later point can become costly,” said C. Sebastian Loh, who teaches in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

“I have taken that idea into games used for learning and training. This software can track players within the game world and show where they are and what they are doing in that environment. As a result, an instructor can be notified about a mistake early enough to help trainees correct any mistakes before they become habits.”

Loh’s research focuses on his twin interests in performance assessment and the fantastical computer-generated worlds where millions of alter-egos, known as avatars, live — and oft times die….

As with any kind of training, the key question in computer-aided instruction is: What did the student actually learn? Most assessments come when training ends. Loh himself has developed software that pulls data from gaming sessions once they’re done to pinpoint performance progress, strengths and weaknesses. But because these tools come into play at the end of the training, trainees may have spent as much as 60 hours making mistakes and worse, repeating them.

“That time is wasted,” Loh said…

Read the full article.

Photo by Steve Buhman

3D-Ready DLP

Posted on by

In order to create the 3D-MUVE I had envisioned for the V-Lab, I needed a way to generate a 3D world. (Disclaimer: the idea was formed in Oct 2008, WAY before I watched James Cameron’s Avatar in 3D.)

Now, the Alienware with the ATI Radeon 5870 (Eyefinity) may have been set up for “surround gaming”, but unfortunately, the high-end Radeon will not do 3D it is now possible to do 3D using the ATI Radeon cards with iZ3D’s driver! I had originally thought that a PC with an NVida card that is hooked up to any large screen would do it, but to my dismay, it was not so. I was hoping to get the new Samsung LED TV at 240 Hz, but (shocking) they are not 3D ready! There used to be two manufacturers who produce 3D-ready DLPs (i.e. Samsung and Mitsubishi), but it appeared that Samsung has dropped out of the race. So Misubitshi is now the only manufacturer that is making 3D ready DLPs. [The new 3D ready TV doesn't use cyan-red color separation to show the left-right image, instead they made use of polarization technology (as in the case of JC's Avatar). Rear-projected DLPs are different because they convert the left right stream into a checker-board patterns (white-on, black-off) to project the correct image to each of the two eyes.] (More on “3D ready TV/DLP” in this article.)

Answer: The 3D glasses from Avatar will not work with nVidia’s 3D kit. Those glasses will work with 3D projectors that use polarization technology. :-(

Answer 2: Added on Feb 3, 2010: iZ3D & ATI Radeon will be the answer! :-)

Anyhow, I had to order a GeForce GTX 285 for the Alienware computer, in order to turn it (from a surround game machine) into a 3D MUVE generator. The card arrived yesterday, and I couldn’t wait to try it.

After installing the needed software drivers and connecting the hardware (like the image shown below), I was instructed to turn on the 3D glasses and put it on. What I viewed next was several 3D photos, but (wow!) that initial effect was totally mind-blowing! You totally need to see it in order to believe it.

Connecting: PC » 3D Vision kit » DLP

Connecting: PC » 3D Vision kit » DLP

Note the 3D glasses emitter port in the diagram? Most of the time, they are simply labeled as “3D Sync Out” behind the DLP. And yes, a DLP with this 3-pin port is 3D ready. A DLP  without it is not a 3D ready DLP.

3D Sync Out port

3D Sync Out por

Since viewing 3D photo is working fine, I then fire up NWN2 to see how well it fare under the 3D settings. Unfortunately, even though I can “sense” the 3D-ness of the NWN2 game world, the 3D effect was no way near as spectacular as the 3D photos. [Perhaps I should have checked nVidia's list of "approved" 3D-games first? NWN2 was not listed as compatible at all.]

Since I ran out of time today, I will be back tomorrow to report on Resident Evil 5 — which is one of two 3D ready games currently available on the market. (The second one being Batman: Arkham Asylum).

Apart from the 3D readiness, I noticed two oddities.

  1. the PC screen was cut off by the DLP. (I lost about 1-2 inches of screen real estate all around)
  2. there is no sound output through the DLP (I am connecting it from PC to DLP using HDMI)

There are some suggestions on how to fix them on the Web and in the product manual. Perhaps I will work on it tomorrow and report a fix. (Stay tuned.)

P.S.: Came across the 3D Vision Blog which discusses 3D gaming. There is even a write-up and AVISynth plugin for converting 2D movies to 3D. Hmm…. interesting!

Win7, NWN2 Gold & Virtual Box

Posted on by

Neverwinter Nights 2 Gold

I have migrated to Win 7 about a month before the official launch because my institution has it. (Not widely supported, but hey, I have heard and read enough about the new found stability to use it, without too much concern). And really, I was 97% happy with Win 7 since Day 1. (I can only hope that Microsoft will not fix something that ain’t broke from this point on.) Thus far I have had only two annoyances:

Annoyance #1 has to do with NWN2 Gold. Some how, the toolset (from NWN2 Gold installation) will crash on my office machine (a new Mac Pro running Win7-64) — this is pretty strange as I don’t have the same problem at home (another Win7-64). (Well, I did not have Gold installed at home because I have the OC and all three expansions).

After some search through the forum about the cryptic CLR20c3 error that pops up, it is pretty clear that the “error” was Atari’s and it was introduced into the Gold Disc. Arrgh! NWN Diamond error flashback!!! :-x

Looks like it is either a NET 2.0 (64) problem, or a corrupted Direct X 9c driver. Since it is easier to reinstall Direct X, I went with that first; using the Direct X SDK (Aug 2009) on my machine.

Sure enough, after I re-install Direct X , the NWN2 Toolset worked again. (Yay!)

Now, annoyance #2 has to do with EM’s Epoc Control Panel. Since it is the only thing I need (for research) which will not run on Win7-64, I definitely must have a way to make it work! (Interestingly, all other Epoch tools ran without any glitch. Hence the need for two OS’es mentioned in my last post.)

After installing and removing several versions of Windows (XP, Xp64, Vista32, Vista64, Win7-32, including MS’s very own virtualization manager), I finally “gave in” to Dual Boot, which worked! (Fortunately, I have kept Vista64 on my home machine in parallel to Win7).

Considering that the CP will work with Vista64 but not Win7-64, it is mighty strange! Of course, I am suspecting again for some kind of version control problem. But knowing that EM had a lot to chew during this pre-launch period, I understand that they can not spare anyone to look into this issue. (After all, only a small percentage of their customers are currently using Win7.) So, I will wait.

Fortunately, the EM Forum is quite active on this case, and all Win7 using pre-launch adopters (like me) have been busy trying to find a way for CP to work with Win7. And reporting what does not yet work.

Finally, someone on the forum posted about running CP successfully in Win7 using Sun’s Virtual Box. Okay, something new to learn. Guess what? It worked! But you need to be running Vista64 in a Virtual Box within Win7-64, with lag time involved. Aai-ya-yah! 8-O

Thank goodness this workaround was short lived. After EM launch their product and updated the licensing scheme for Researcher (just before Christmas), I found a new CP ready for download on their website.

It worked without any problem on Win7! After comparing the installed files on both version of CP, it looks they have replaced vcredist.exe (old installation) with util_vc90.dll. Was the pre-release CP compiled using a Visual Studio that is not compatible with Win7?

Anyway, the issue is moot and what’s important is that EM got the new program out for all the pre-launch adopters… and in time for a Christmas present, too. Thank you EM!

Bye-bye, Virtual Box!

Surround Game Setup

Posted on by

This is the lesson I learned about setting up Surround Game (and for anyone else thinking of doing the same):

  1. Buy a computer with Radeon 5xxx series (with DirectX-11 Eyefinity capability) – or buy the cards and add it yourself.
  2. (Optional) Buy 2 cards if you want CrossFire capability. (like SLI for NVidia)
  3. Buy 3 monitors (HDMI-capable) of the same make and brand (so the color and contrast are consistent).
  4. (Optional) You may want to consider getting monitors that can do portrait mode (this allow some interesting configuration choices).
  5. Buy a Display Port to HDMI adapter, which is usually not included with monitor purchase.
  6. (Optional) You may need to buy a DVI to HDMI adapter, but this is often included with the monitor purchase.
  7. (Optional) You should have 3 HDMI cables (1 short, 2 long). [Short = at least 3 ft, Long = 6']
  8. Connect the monitors to the Radeon card (using ports from 1 card only), using the following configuration:
  • One of the 3 monitor must be connected using Display Port (ATI refer to this as the 3rd monitor)
  • Since the card is now left with 2 DVI, and 1 HDMI ports, the available configurations are DVI & DVI, or DVI & HDMI. I recommend the DVI & HDMI option because in this way, you will get HDMI Audio (which is not available in DVI & DVI option)
  • So connect a second monitor using the HDMI cable, and
  • The last monitor using the last HDMI cable passing through a DVI to HDMI adapter

In this way, all 3 types of ports on the Radeon will be used.

  1. Now, on to the software side. Using the ATI Catalyst Control Panel, select a new Profile under Profile manager.
  2. Configure all 3 desktop as a Single Display.

Voila! And you are done. Enjoy your surround game environment!

Playing WOW with 3 monitors in surround game mode (Internet image)

Playing WOW with 3-monitor in surround game mode (Internet image)

Aurora ALX

Posted on by

Alienware Aurora ALX Desktop (Gaming Rig)

The Alienware Aurora ALX for the V-Lab arrived today! Yay! :twisted:

The thing is a monster! It is easily 1.5 time bigger than my Dell XPS.

Here’s a comment from someone who received their first extended ATX case:

This thing is HUGEEE. My jaw hit the floor when i took it out of the box.

(Heheh! I felt the same way.) The thing is heavy, too. I need help just to lift the chassis up to the trolley in order to cart it back to my office.

My purchasing officer commented that the big box that house the chassis (alone) is like a small house.  Noticed I did not say anything about a monitor? That’s because I did not order one!

I was hoping to try out some of the screens before I commit on which monitor to purchase.  However, I do have two 28″ Hanns monitors with me right now, so I can begin testing…

The fins on the top of the chassis (mothership?) actually fan out (open up wider) as you boot up the machine — it also changes position according to the fan speed. You can also change the color of every LED panel on the chassis, with matching (or not) color on the keyboard and mouse. (COOL!) No wonder people said this is a toy!!! (Let me add, big toys for big boys!) :mrgreen:

Alright, need to calm down… and get on with more important business…

Setting it up was easy. Then I installed Resident Evil 5. (Oh, why is it in Japanese? Turn out there was a bug as Konami left it default Japanese language.) Go figure! So now everyone else (including us here in US) have to guess at the installation process on screen.)

Now, since I have two monitors (1900×1200) side by side, I should be able to get 3800×1200… Errm, I can;’t find 3800 x 1200 at all. In fact, the game’s highest resolution is just 1900×1200. This is not cool. What went wrong?

Let’s see: the ATI’s are in Crossfire mode, and I do have DVI to HDMI for both monitors. (Changing one of them to HDMI/HDMI doesn’t make any differences, except I do get HDMI audio while playing BlueDisc.) Something is not right…

A search on WideScreenGamingForum (WSGF) revealed that Dragon’s Age has released a patch for Eyefinity users! (Patch 1.01b). So this means, no every game will pick up the resolution automatically.

Further search on Anandtech revealed something about “grouping the monitors into a Single Large Display”. Hmm, I will try that tomorrow, and ask G. to purchase Dragon Age.

Found the problem: It seemed that not only do I need 3 monitors, but I also must have 3 different cables in order to run surround game mode (see this post for more information). Aiyayah!