From a small formula to cyberworlds

Abstract

Cyberworlds created on the web allow for providing personal mentoring of the students with different cultural and educational backgrounds. Virtual Campus of Nanyang Technological University is designed to be such a cyberworld. This is a place for research and education, fun and immersion in campus life. Besides standard VRML, its hybrid function-based extension is used in the design of Virtual Campus. In place of thousands of polygons, small formulas are used for constituting complex geometric shapes and appearances. Collaborative Shape Modeling Laboratory, which is a part of the Virtual Campus, is based on this extension. It is developed to help students with their computer graphics assignments. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.