Interactive 3D research project explores creative process with help from ATI FireGL™ workstation graphics technology

What is human creativity? How does it really work? And how well do individuals collaborate when it comes to the creative process? Finding answers to such far-reaching questions is the focus of a determined group of artists, researchers, teachers and students at Seneca College and York University who have joined forces in an unusual interactive 3D computer project that explores human creativity. Known as the Multi-User Laser Texture Interface project – or the MULTI project – participants from Seneca and York in Toronto have developed a custom game engine and a sophisticated 3D user interface that utilizes multiple lasers to navigate and manipulate objects within a graphical setting known as The Library. The objective of the MULTI project is to allow participants to collaboratively assemble, modify and connect The Library’s many diverse shapes, colours, numbers, letters and sounds, and then play back the results as an original multimedia “composition.” Participants use laser pointers to control and manipulate the various elements. Viewers can explore their own intuitive sensory associations or develop these associations by dragging, dropping, exchanging and transforming each 3D object or shape within The Library. Instrumental to the complex project’s success is the custom 3D game engine powered by ATI’s FireGL workstation graphics technology, says MULTI project manager Nancy Paterson, Artist in Residence at the School of Communication Arts at Seneca College in Toronto.

In developing the complex game engine, she says, it was important to obtain ultra-realistic shading and lighting while avoiding the expense and complications of working with existing commercial or open-source game engines.

“Creating a custom game engine today requires a well-designed development plan,” says Paterson. “3D game engines have become very complicated. Functionality and quality are more important than anything else and we are getting everything we need from ATI FireGL graphics technology to deliver a game engine that is unique, fast, functional and exceptionally reliable.”

The MULTI project’s game engine is designed to use DirectX 9.0 HLSL (High Level Shading Language) technology, Paterson says, adding: “At this point, we are trying to push our game engine to the maximum vertex limit before moving on. We are, of course, far from the rendering limit but we can see that ATI's FireGL graphics accelerators are giving us excellent performance and quality.”

The MULTI project delivers stunning 3D graphics as participants interact in a creative, multimedia-based “synesthetic experience” - the experience of receiving information in one sense - visual, for example – and also perceiving it in another sense, such as hearing. In doing so, participants not only see the color red but experience the sound of the color red, for example.

Paterson notes that the razor-sharp graphics quality and outstanding rendering performance delivered by ATI's FireGL cards have earned high praise among those working on the MULTI project.

“The artists and researchers who have utilized the ATI FireGL graphics card have been extremely impressed by the color sharpness and accuracy it provides,” Paterson says. “This project really relies on having exceptional performance in obtaining high-end 3D graphics and we have certainly seen that using ATI’s ATI FireGL.”

The decision to use ATI products was an easy one, Paterson adds. “ATI truly leads the field in terms of rendering performance and quality.”

The Library setting for the project is based on the interior of the Canadian Library of Parliament in Ottawa. A previous 3D project utilized the Library data-set to create one of the most complex Virtual Reality Modeling (VRML) environments available on the internet today, says Paterson. VRML allows users to create fully navigable virtual worlds that are networked via the internet.

While exploring creativity is part of the MULTI project’s goal, the objective is also to examine how people work together during the creative process.

Beyond ATI technology, the MULTI project has also taken advantage of the expertise and enthusiasm of the ATI Technologies team.

“We have had tremendous input and insight from ATI and that has really helped us to build the best interface we could have imagined. We are really pleased with the results and there is no doubt that ATI products and ATI’s people have been crucial elements in the success of the MULTI project,” Paterson says.

Ultimately, says Paterson, the MULTI project should offer new insights into what the creative process is and how it works, and providing information that is relevant to curriculum development and future research.