Copyright 2004 Edition Arnold Kochman. Other copyrights apply, including but not limited to the GNU Public License.
Ultimate toys, and also possibly useful for some serious work. A collection of Virtual Reality Programs. Some are from University research projects; some are from other research groups and enthusiasts. Copyright 2004 Edition Arnold Kochman. Other copyrights apply, including but not limited to the
Windows and DOS users will need one of the commonly available unzip type utilities, such as PKUNZIP or WinZip. Programs are distributed with source, when appropriate, and some programs in C, for example, will have to be compiled.
The various packages are at different levels of maturity and completeness, and I cannot certify that they are all worthwhile for any particular purpose. You will have to judge for yourself, but there is a lot to choose from.
| VOS - Virtual Object System. An infrastructure for distributed, interlinked, extensible object-oriented interprocess communication. The primary application is collaborative multi-user 3D virtual reality (VR). MacOS X, Windows (requires PERL), Linux |
| VR Juggler - A virtual platform for virtual reality application development created at the Virtual Reality Applications Center at Iowa State University. Applications developed in VR Juggler can transparently move between a wide range of VR systems. Written in C++, Java, Python. Runs on MacOS X, Windows, FreeBSD, IRIX, Linux, and SunOS/Solaris. |
| VROnline - The project is a universal 3D virtual reality engine for games with client/server architecture, free 3D camera, user configurable actions and AI scripts. It's based on C# and directX (9.0). It can manage many data models(rpg,sims). Experimental, written in C#, it runs on Windows 95/98/2000, Windows NT/2000 |
| planet-earth - A project to build a free web interactive, extensible, full-scale virtual reality model of the Earth's natural and cultural features created and annotated by the public, commercial entities, and academia. The software materials are operating system independent, implemented in Java, JavaScript, PHP |
| vrspace - A platform independent client and server intended for virtual reality. It functions in Console (Text Based), and Web Environments. |
| Cyanide - A graphical isometric multiplayer virtual reality server in MUD-style. Rooms and server code can be changed online. In the current version, there is also an IRC link. Clients are available in Java and Python/C. Besides the Web Environment, it operates with Win32 (MS Windows), and X11. Programmed in C, Java, and Python |
| NPK - MUD-like environment; a shell environment that aims to transform a computer shell in a MUD-like text-based virtual reality. Programmed in C, it runs under BeOS, Microsoft, and UNIX/Linux systems. |
| Vizard - Fundamentally, a 3D rendering engine, the Vizard research community makes available virtual reality projects that are used by behavioral scientists. These projects are developed on the Vizard platform and have been made open-source for anyone to use or modify. Runs under Win32 (MS Windows). Python implementation. |
| SimVRML - A Virtual Reality system for the Macintosh. The focus of SimVRML is simulation and scientific computing based upon the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). SimVRML provides extensive VR Visualization and Simulation capabilities. Runs on MacOS 9 |
| OpenReality - A 3D Rendering Engine Library for development of Games, Virtual Reality and 3D Visualization applications. It is designed be very intuitive, and strongly object oriented. Runs in Win32 (MS Windows), X11 (UNIX/Linux) environments. |
| SpaceCup - A 3D Game system, including stereo sound and virtual reality helmet support. Runs under Linux. |
| Virtual Reality Programming Environment - A web environment, implemented in Java and Prolog. It's purpose is to teach Logic and Functional Programming for Virtual Reality. |
| TP5DataGlove - The TP5DataGlove Component for Delphi enables the use of the P5 Glove, by Essential Reality, in your Delphi Applications. Runs under Windows 95/98/2000/NT. It uses a C++ Wrapper DLL which provides functions to access the Glove. |
| Amherst Distributed Reality - A virtual reality (VR) system for the Internet based on a secure distributed object system. Runs in Win32 (MS Windows), X11 (UNIX/Linux). |
| MindGate - A virtual reality multiuser client-server system written in Java. The purpose of this system is to provide the communication/persistence/3D streaming support for the users that are imersed into VRML worlds stored anywhere over the Web. Runs under Win32 (MS Windows); requires JAVA and PERL. |
| vrNav - An easy-to-use 3D scene navigation program for viewing 3D models in a virtual reality environment. It supports most VR devices because it is developed based on VRJuggler. vrNav is the main software running in the Visualization Portal at UCLA. This software has been tested in Windows, Linux, Irix. The version that works with Open Scene Graph, so that it is relatively system independent. vrNav permits loading of any model data format supported by OpenGL Performer. The properties of the model are configurable. vrNav can use as input device the InterSense tracker, gamepad, joystick, keyboard/mouse, force feedback device, and driver's steering wheel and pedals, selectable with a configuration file. vrNav supports multiple pipes, and stereo display. |
| BLUI - An ongoing research project in user interface design for virtual reality environments. BLUI was developed by the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Software is made available to the public. |
| Crystal Space - A free (LGPL) and portable 3D rendering engine written in C++. It supports: six degree's of freedom, colored lighting, mipmapping, portals, mirrors, alpha transparency, reflective surfaces, 3D sprites, scripting (using Python or other languages), 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit display support, Direct3D under Windows, Glide and OpenGL on Windows, Linux, OS/2, Macintosh, BeOS,... Crystal Space is an open source project. |
| DIVERSE - Device Independent Virtual Environment is a cross-platform, open source, API for developing virtual reality applications. It is designed to be "Reconfigurable, Scalable, Extensible." DIVERSE runs on Linux and IRIX; support for Windows XP and Mac OS X is under development. The goal of DIVERSE is to enable developers to quickly build applications that will run on the desktop as well as various immersive systems. It is modular, and you only use the parts of DIVERSE that you need. DIVERSE is able interact with many other APIs and toolkits, such as, OpenGL, Open Scene Graph, SGI Open GL Performer, and Coin. |
| OpenSG - A portable scenegraph system to create realtime graphics programs, e.g. for virtual reality applications. It was developed following Open Source (LGPL) principles and can be used freely. It runs on IRIX, Windows and Linux and is based on OpenGL. |
| PLIB - A set of OpenSource (LGPL) libraries that will permit programmers to write games and other realtime interactive applications that are 100% portable across a wide range of hardware and operating systems. |
| Virtual Rendering System - A computer graphics software library for constructing interactive 3D applications. It provides a large collection of 3D rendering components which facilitate implementing 3D graphics applications and experimenting with 3D graphics and imaging algorithms. VRS is implemented as a C++ library. Applications can incorporate VRS as C++ library based on the C++ API. In addition, there is a complete Tcl/Tk binding of the C++ API, called iVRS. You can deploy VRS on common platforms such as X11/Unix and Windows 95/98/NT. It is distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License. |
| White_dune - A low level VRML97 tool for Unix/Linux/MacOSX and MSWindows. It can read VRML97 files, display and let the user change the scenegraph/fields. Unlike most highlevel tools, it uses a light model based on the VRML97 standard. There is support for a stereoscopic "toe in" view via OpenGL "quadbuffer" capable stereo visuals. It can use as 3D input device at least any of spaceball, dialbox, joystick, and Ascension Flock of Birds magnetic headtracker. |