z1c0 / fate

Framework for Advanced Techniques of Interaction in Virtual Environments

FATE

To build and run this software, I used:

• A Windows XP virtual machine
• Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0
• Microsoft eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0
• Windows Mobile SDK 2002
• MetroWorks CodeWarrior

Internet Archive proved really valuable here.

The Framework

FATE (Framework for Advanced Techniques of Interaction in Virtual Environments) is a framework that I developed while working at Ars Electronica Futurelab back in the day. It also became the topic of my master's thesis.

For more background on the framework, its applications and why I brought this back to life 20 years later, you can read this blog post.

Applications

The main intention of FATE was to provide building blocks and patterns for creating applications to navigate virtual environments. However, it also worked nicely as a general-purpose application framework for Pocket PCs.

Cells

This was apparently just a test program I wrote when I was bored. It implements a very simple steering algorithm. The blue dot chases the next red dot.

GetID

This was a tool I wrote for the application XEDIT (see below). XEDIT was an actual product I had developed for the Ars Electronic Futurelab and it could only be used on specific devices via a (very basic) dongle mechanism.

This tool would retrieve a device's unique ID that could then be used to generate the dongle.

(The Windows version does nothing).

GUI_DEMO

This application was only developed for the screenshots in my thesis.

liquor

I remember that one day when I was bored, I decided to implement the Austrian card game Schnapsen using my framework. Then I got distracted by something else and never finished it.

Navi

This is another "showcase" application that I needed for my Thesis. It demos the navigation control which is provided by the FATE framework.

OffRenderDemo

Yet another demo application, for the "offscreen rendering control" provided by the FATE framework.

PPC_PPTRC

This was actually a really cool application that I developed for the Ars Electronic Futurelab. It allowed you to control a PowerPoint presentation from your PocketPC. You even got slide thumbnails sent to the device.

You need to start the server application and it still works like a charm.

SimpleTest

Another test app. This one I created specifically when I decided to implement the PalmOS port. That port did not go very far, but the prototype works.

The Windows version.

The Palm OS version.

Snake

I was probably procrastinating and wrote this game when I should have worked on my thesis. The snake can shoot missiles though.

VRena_2.0 / VRena_2.5

This was the first and main showcase of my framework. You could use the PocketPC to control a virtual environment, do picture slideshows, and control Microsoft PowerPoint (what later became the standalone PPC_PPTRC).

WAND

The actual Wand was a hardware device for interaction with VR environments. This suite of demo applications showcased one of the framework's main features where a Pocket PC acts as such a Wand device.

• WAND
• WAND_vePanel
• WAND_widgets

Without the required VR server components, these applications are hardly impressive.

X-EDIT

This application was actually really great and I'm still proud of it today. It would turn your PocketPC into a mobile recording studio. You could record and replay audio and even perform cutting operations on the recorded .wav files. It also implemented a custom memory manager to make maximum use of the available memory. We even sold a couple of licenses back then.

X-EDIT running on a Compaq iPaq