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Reviewer: Raphael M. Malyankar

Dodsworth has compiled articles by a variety of authors on virtual reality (VR) in entertainment. Thirty-five chapters on aspects of computer graphics, human-computer interaction, and virtual reality are contained in this wide-ranging collection. This is not a technical book or computer science textbook; do not expect to find details about algorithms or academic research in this collection. The book is divided into six parts. Part 1, describing the early stages of digital entertainment, consists of three articles: a discussion of early computer graphics and virtual reality; views on content design; and an intriguing description of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, for historical context. Part 2 describes infrastructure, defined as the code and systems that make virtual reality work. It includes articles on synthetic environments; networking for graphics and virtual environments; the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML); and virtual environments in the military, in particular SIMNET, Distributed Interactive Simulation, and intelligent forces. This section will be of more interest to the technical reader than to the content designer, though the articles even here are written at a very high level, without the nitty-gritty details expected of a technical report. Part 3, on content design, describes the experiences of VR and game designers with actual virtual environments and games. This section discusses creating narratives for interactive virtual environments and providing effective VR realizations of these narratives. The problems, techniques, and observations of the designers with respect to their prototypes are reported. Part 4 surveys some relevant hardware. Seven chapters covering VR hardware, its flaws and limitations, and the restrictions imposed on VR entertainment by devices are included in this section. Part 5 discusses the entertainment industry's forays into virtual reality and interactive environments. Included here are Disney's experience with its VR show based on the motion picture Aladdin, computer graphics effects for feature films, and the human aspect of commercial entertainment systems. Part 6 deals with experiences in the business of entertainment technology. The history and future of arcade entertainment systems, and experiences with networked simulator games are described. There is a short chapter on museum displays. Another chapter describes a framework for creating virtual communities. The final chapter covers the technology and skills involved in high-end studio digital production for entertainment. This is a collection of technology overviews, viewpoints, and experience articles, most of which provide the authors' experiences with real entertainment systems or research prototypes. The articles consist of descriptions of the technology, personal views, experiences, observations, and conclusions about some aspect of virtual reality and entertainment. The book is light on mathematics, system descriptions, and reportage of research results, making for a highly readable collection of material within its limited scope. Taken as an introduction to entertainment applications of virtual reality, it is good—there is enough substance in the contents to whet interest, yet it is easy enough that one keeps reading. Prior knowledge of computer graphics and human-computer interaction will aid understanding but is not essential. The depth of the exposition is sometimes uneven, and references are only desultorily provided. Some chapters have fairly complete bibliographies while others have none, even where relevant material can be found in the published literature, particularly for some of the technology chapters. On the other hand, a bibliography cannot reasonably be demanded of a description of personal experiences in an entertainment business.