ECDS, along with Dr. Sandra Blakely from Emory Classics, has been partnering with the Kennesaw State University (KSU) Computer Game Design and Development program’s Dr. Joy Li and her class in Educational and Serious Game Design. Through this class, students have worked on the development of educational games in the field of Classics. These games include the Sailing with the Gods game, the Royal Game of Ur, and VR Kottabos. The games are being programmed and designed by KSU student programmers and volunteers to be released freely for future educational use.
VR Kottabos is an immersive experience that replicates the ancient game of Kottabos. Kottabos was a popular ancient Greek party game, which required men to display their skill and aim at the symposium. While reclining on couches, men would drink from kylikes (a kylix is a Greek cup). The men would take the dregs in their cup and try to hit targets. In the image above you can see a kottabos stand (left) and a lekane (right), both common targets for the game.
On July 26th, ECDS invited students from the National Junior Classics League to come and beta test VR Kottabos in the ECDS offices in Emory’s Woodruff Library. Over 50 high school students came, having the chance to try the game on an HTC Vive headset. The students provided helpful feedback for the KSU programmers, who were also in attendance. Programmers Donovan Lott, KSU alumni and independent programmer, and Aiden Gohlke, KSU Computer Game Design and Development student, assisted the students and took notes.
ECDS has produced three versions of a Virtual Apollo 15 exhibition in order to provide options that work on most computers. Created using a detailed 3D model of the library exhibit by John Klingler, combined with an interactive Unity environment by Dr. Arya Basu, the virtual exhibition provides a remote opportunity to explore. The virtual exhibition has given us the opportunity to preserve the work of the library exhibitions team and the Apollo 15 Hub team in the creation of this exhibit, so that it can continue to be used by visitors and in classes. The virtual exhibit is hosted online through the Apollo 15 Learning Hub (https://apollo15hub.org/).
The first option is a lighter weight streaming option that allows the user to explore the exhibit freely in a game-play style experience on most laptops. You do need to use Firefox or Safari browsers.
The second free exploration option shows the maximum amount of detail, playing through a more robust desktop build. This requires a more robust desktop computer, but it will run in all browsers.
And a third option provides a guided path tour for users who do not desire a game-play free explore experience. In the guided version, a user can select a glowing orb to be taken to the next stop in the exhibition. Each orb will guide the user, beginning at the entrance to ECDS around the exhibit in sequence, through each phase of the exhibit, on the Earth, Moon bound, on the Moon, Earth bound, and back home.
Experience the atmosphere of the exhibition space virtually through this Unity interactive streaming build! This space was created to bring life to the virtual event and give virtual visitors the experience of visiting the exhibition. Dr. Arya Basu and Dr. Steve Bransford worked to create accurate 360 degree photographs of the exterior world, moving outside the library windows, and Basu added audio providing a sense of the real library space.
The Conservation Lab at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, in collaboration with Emory’s Center for Digital Scholarship (ECDS), engaged in a project to capture a roughly nine-by-eleven-foot Jain Pilgrimage Map using photogrammetric techniques. A Jain pilgrimage map typically highlights significant religious sites revered by Jains worldwide. Steve Bransford and Michael Page of ECDS developed a strategy to photograph the map, which involved fabricating a rail system above the map and systematically capturing over 1,300 highly detailed images weighing over 111 gigabytes of data.