Well, it was at best a random encounter. It started with a listserv posting on members’ opinion of the Top 3 serious games, and Jim Brazell (UTAustin) said, amongst a list of games/software:
Delta 3D – because to me the most serious game simulation is building games. This is the path to human development for Mars and beyond!
And Perry and the Navy are leading open source gaming with a real commitment to assessment.
Usually I am not interested about Game Engine because I don’t have the resources to work with them, but then the comment about “real commitment to assessment” piqued my curiosity. So who this Perry person from the Navy? No last name mentioned, and there is also no posting from any Perry at the SG Listserv. Hmm…
Fear not. Google to the rescue! 
So it turns out that Jim is referring to Perry McDowell, Executive Director of the Direct3D project at MOVES Institute. Perusing MOVES’ plone site, I found a section dedicated to research papers published by MOVES.
A quick Google search and it was not difficult to find more papers on Delta3D:
- Darken, R.; McDowell, P.; Johnson, E. (May/June 2005), Projects in VR: the Delta3D Open Source Game Engine, Computer Graphics and Applications, IEEE, 25(3): 10 – 12.
- Darken, C.J.; Anderegg, B.G.; McDowell, P.L. (2007), Game AI in Delta3D, Computational Intelligence and Games, 2007. CIG 2007. IEEE Symposium on
1-5 April 2007. Page(s):312 – 319 - Delta3D Open Source Game Engine (a powerpoint presentation by Perry McDowell)
Since Delta3D is an Open Source Game Engine, it would of course has a Web site for download, and a wiki for the tutorials on how to work the engine. (Click here for a description of what Delta3D).
And then, a paper caught my eyes: “SCORM reference”!
- Smith, B., McDowell, P. (2006), Integrating the Delta 3D Engine with a SCORM-Managed Learning Environment Learning Technology (Vol. 8 Issue 1/2)
Why the sudden interest on SCORM? Rick saw the IT_Tracer at AECT and suggested I looked into it. So now I found Brent Smith, Chief Technological Officer (CTO) of Engineering & Computer Simulations (ECS).
What’s really interesting now, is not so much of the Google search. I realized from all these paper and publications, that it is highly likely these are the very same folks who will turn up at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) in two weeks time! Which I am already planning to go because of the SG Challenge!
Wow! Life can be so interesting!