Within the rapidly-growing arena of 'virtual worlds', such as Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOs), individuals behave in particular ways, influence one another, and develop complex relationships. This setting can be a useful tool for modeling complex social systems, cognitive factors, and interactions between groups and within organizations. To study these worlds effectively requires a cross-disciplinary approach that integrates social science theories with big data analytics. This broad-based book offers a comprehensive and holistic perspective on the field. It brings together research findings from an international team of experts in computer science (artificial intelligence, game design, and social computing), psychology, and the social sciences to help researchers and practitioners better understand the fundamental processes underpinning social behavior in virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft, Rift, Eve Online, and Travian.

Long ago, the great Colossus of Argantheon stood upon one of the outer islands, its vast, outstretched arm pointing the way to the Crystal Pool, or so the ancient texts claim. Then, during some forgotten war, the Colossus was shattered, and its parts flung across the Archipelago, to lie in forgotten ruin.

In this expansion for Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago, players lead their warbands through a series of interlinked scenarios in a race to discover the secrets of the Colossus. Along the way, they will encounter new monsters, discover new treasures, and even recruit a few new specialist warriors to their cause. Perhaps, if they are successful, the knowledge they obtain will help point them towards the ultimate treasure!

Create Genuine Visual Realism in Computer Graphics Digital Representations of the Real World: How to Capture, Model, and Render Visual Reality explains how to portray visual worlds with a high degree of realism using the latest video acquisition technology, computer graphics methods, and computer vision algorithms. It explores the integration of new capture modalities, reconstruction approaches, and visual perception into the computer graphics pipeline. Understand the Entire Pipeline from Acquisition, Reconstruction, and Modeling to Realistic Rendering and Applications The book covers sensors for capturing 3D scenes, including regular cameras, wide-angle omnidirectional cameras, active range scanners, and plenoptic (multi-viewpoint) cameras, as well as fundamental algorithms for processing the imagery, such as stereo correspondence and 3D structure and motion recovery. It describes 3D modeling techniques, from generic object models (such as 3D meshes) to more domain-specific models (such as human shape and motion models). The book also discusses how techniques, including image- and video-based rendering, meet speed and realism requirements. Overcome Challenges in Your Own Research Experiments This book is both an accessible introduction to the emerging research of real-world visual computing and a practical guide that shows you how to start implementing frequently encountered methods.

Since the game Tomb Raider was first released in 1996, its protagonist Lara Croft has become an international celebrity. The virtual archaeologist-adventuress has been featured in various sequels to the original game, a line of action figures, two Hollywood films starring Angelina Jolie, forty comic books, a series of novels, and a variety of clothing, merchandise, and ephemera. She has appeared on the covers of Time and Newsweek, spawned innumerable Internet fan sites and a library of adulatory fan fiction, become a pornographic sex symbol, and even inspired a look-alike beauty pageant. Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky's groundbreaking study examines Lara Croft as a cyber heroine - a female body ubiquitously inhabited by game players, an icon of both female strength and male objectification, and the virtual future of fame. Despite Croft's prominence there have been few critical inquiries into her bridging of the boundary between virtual and real worlds or the extent to which she reflects and influences the image of women in digital media. First published in German and revised for this English-language edition, this book is an innovative analysis of the multimedia heroine, tracing the top-down marketing strategies and bottom-up frenzy that precipitated the Lara Croft phenomenon. For girls and women, Croft is a symbol of empowerment, a tough and self-assured riot grrl who has opened up the overwhelmingly masculinized world of computer gaming to female participants. At the same time, she personifies both heterosexual male fantasies and the twinned processes of globalization and cultural imperialism. Drawing on feminist and cultural studies, Deuber-Mankowsky sees Croft as symptomatic of the new media environment and its tendency to erase all qualitative difference, even sexual difference.

Die uns bekannte Realitat kann heute mit technischen Verfahren aufgezeichnet und wirklichkeitsgetreu wiedergegeben werden. Raum und Zeit werden in der kunstlichen Realitat als Kopie wieder virtuell erschaffen. Die Wiedergabe der virtuellen Realitat beschrankt sich aber nicht auf die reine Kopie des Vorhandenen. Ein Besucher des virtuellen Raumes muss sich nicht mit dem verpixelten Abbild des Altbekannten begnugen, sondern kann in der Scheinwelt irrealen Erscheinungen begegnen, die real nie existiert haben oder sogar physikalisch unmoeglich sind. Das ermoeglicht eine Erweiterung der aufgezeichneten Realitat und erlaubt die Wahrnehmung uberraschend neuer Perspektiven. Eine Perspektive bezeichnet dabei die Wahrnehmung eines Sachverhaltes von einem bestimmten Standpunkt aus und entspricht der Betrachtungsweise. Eine Perspektive ist aber ebenfalls die Beobachtung einer Szene aus einer Betrachtungsposition. Aus verschiedenen Perspektiven entsteht bei der Wiedergabe durch Betrachtung die Illusion der Realitat. Diese Vision beruht weder auf Einbildung noch Halluzination, sondern ist die Grundfunktion der virtuellen Realitat. In diesem Buch werden die Konzepte, Systeme und Technologien zur Erzeugung der virtuellen Realitat von den antiken Anfangen bis in die Gegenwart beschrieben und ein Ausblick in eine moegliche Zukunft gegeben.

How can we interpret cyberspace? What is the place of the embodied human agent in the virtual world? This innovative collection explores the emerging arena of cyberspace and the challenges it presents for the social and cultural forms of the human body. Cyberspace/Cyberbodies/Cyberpunk shows how changing relationships between body and technology offer new arenas for cultural representations. At the same time, the contributors consider the realities of human embodiment and the limits of virtual worlds. Topics examined include technological body modifications, replacements and prosthetics, bodies in cyberspace, virtual environments and cyborg culture, cultural representations of technological embodiment in visual and literary productions, and cyberpunk science fiction as a prefigurative social and cultural theory. Academics and students in cultural studies, popular culture, communication, sociology of culture, philosophy will appreciate this intriguing volume, as will general readers with an interest in the Internet.

This book brings you to one of the frontiers of multimedia applications, where computers are used as part of experimental theatre, puppet theatre, art installations, musical performances, museums, entertainment, games and teaching. Bringing together a wealth of knowledge covering theatre production, film production, design, game development, art and software engineering, 3D Production Methods recounts the exciting histories of the origins of specific multimedia products. Each chapter is case-orientated and focuses on the production process, including themes such as: - Scriptwriting techniques- Interdisciplinary co-operative teams- Visualization of ideas- Motivation- Prototyping and experimental systems development- Advice on how to organise multimediaA CD-ROM accompanies this book, containing all figures and video material from some of the cases presented in the book. 3D Production Methods contains edited research papers resulting from a project managed by Professor Lars Qvortrup into Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds. Other volumes include: Virtual Interaction: Interaction in Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds; Virtual Space: Spatiality in Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds; and 3D Virtual Applications: Applications with Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds.