08/01/99 - As published for the Siggraph 99 Conference and Exhibition, Los Angeles

mathengine product specification

MediaToy Suite

A MediaToy is an interactive digital product which itself synthesizes various kinds of rich media such as sound, graphics, 3D, and dynamics to interact with users in as many different forms of play as possible. MediaToy, a product of MathEngine’s Open Media Group (MeOMG), leverages powerful technologies including MathEngine Fast Dynamics and Collision and Java3D to enable users to create richly interactive 3D worlds. Using MediaToy, kids and adults will be able make their own physically dynamic puzzles and online games and share them with friends over the Internet.

The first MediaToy application in development is the GooglePlex™ game. The play objective is to roll a marble around in environments players and their friends have created, challenging themselves and each other with different courses, obstacles, and win conditions.

GooglePlex is a highly flexible and accessible toy. The MediaToy WorldBuilder empowers novice users to make their own GooglePlex game scenarios to suit their preferred play style and skill level. New components such as Ferris wheels, seesaws, magnets, wind fans and other controllers can be assembled in WorldBuilder and dropped into scenarios at a whim, and they will correctly interact with other physical objects in the scene. Thanks to the open source development of the MediaToy suite programmers and artists can also adapt these products with new features, libraries and artwork. The possibilities are left wide open for end users, novice and professional alike, to make and remake MeOMG products in their own image.

The MeOMG MediaToy suite of products demonstrates the power and ease of use of MathEngine Fast Dynamics. Combining the MathEngine technology with Java3D as an industry standard rendering technology, MediaToy illustrates how developers are able to create, quickly and easily, realistic and compelling interactive 3D products. As a product, MediaToy provides a range of different play rewards to the user: to design and build their own scenarios, to create for an applied purpose, to preview and play their own creations, to communicate and collaborate with friends, and to share their creations with peers and online communities.

WorldBuilder

The MediaToy WorldBuilder is a world-authoring tool that enables the user to connect simple objects to create complex and compelling scenarios. WorldBuilder works in combination with ready-to-use libraries such as those defining the GooglePlex game. Within WorldBuilder the user draws from these libraries as they easily assemble objects into a scene, assign properties, and designate play conditions for their scenario. Thanks to MathEngine technology the user can assign physical properties to both individual objects and the environment including mass, gravity, anchoring, and surface friction in order to tailor the physical conditions of play. The object library includes simple 3D components such as pyramids, parametric objects such as a spiral staircase, and MathEngine composite objects such as elevators or conveyor belts. The texture library allows the user to select between a variety of materials with which to color objects in the environment. The play properties library enables the user to set game mechanics such as start or end positions, goals, time limits, and point scoring.

GooglePlex is expandable, as WorldBuilder allows the user to import new objects, textures, or gameplay properties of their own design and incorporate these into their levels. It is also possible to create a whole new product using WorldBuilder simply by plugging in new object and properties libraries.

SimulationBrowser

MediaToy WorldBuilder allows users to save the levels they build in a format that can be previewed and played using the MediaToy SimulationBrowser. The SimulationBrowser runs the game environment using Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer, enabling players to browse the Web, preview levels available online, and download and play game levels all without having to leave the application. SimulationEngine The SimulationEngine is the foundation component that integrates the technologies leveraging the MediaToy. This is in essence a Java component layer that links the MathEngine technology, which provides the dynamics and collision detection, with Java 3D for the rendering of the game scenes. See the Sun MicroSystems Web site for details of MeOMG as a Java success story: http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/3D/in_action/mathengine.html.

uses and benefits

MediaToy provides an educational play opportunity for children, allowing them to create and explore environments that incorporate physics and dynamics. The WorldBuilder plays an important role as a building toy, empowering children and other new technology-users to manipulate digital media on their own and mathengine product specification enabling them to create complex and rich environments. All users can quickly build simple but addictive games to play and share. Developers can expand the libraries available and create new objects and new forms of gameplay. Developers may also build upon the core components to create new physics-rich applications. The MathEngine Open Media Group supports open source development of the whole MediaToy suite in order to maximize the potential of this product and empower users to make this product their own.

availability

The MediaToy suite is available for Windows platforms in September 1999, please refer to our downloads page on this site. Open source updates will be available on an ongoing basis from www.openmediagroup.com . For more information on the MathEngine Open Media Group and their projects please refer to www.openmediagroup.com.