List of Figures

Illustrations by Ning Gu and Rongrong Yu unless stated otherwise.

Figure 2.1: A virtual cinema designed in the Active Worlds University of Sydney universe, by the students.

Figure 2.2: A public place in Second Life.

Figure 2.3: Collaborative document sharing and editing in a virtual world created using Open Cobalt (image taken from Open Cobalt web site: http://www.opencobalt.org).

Figure 2.4: Billions Save Them All, a 3D social game played on Facebook and developed using 3DVIA Studio (http://www.3dvia.com/studio/gallery/billions).

Figure 3.1: The generative design grammar framework.

Figure 3.2: An example layout rule for designing a virtual gallery.

Figure 3.3: An example object design rule that generates visual boundaries for a gallery area in the virtual gallery.

Figure 3.4: An example object design rule that arranges the interior of a gallery area for displaying digital images in the virtual gallery.

Figure 3.5: An example navigation rule for connecting two separated gallery areas in the virtual gallery using hyperlinks.

Figure 3.6: The effect of the example navigation rule as shown in Figure 3.5.

Figure 3.7: The effect of an example interaction rule for displaying animation.

Figure 4.1: Reflex agent (after Russell and Norvig, 2009).

Figure 4.2: Utility agent (after Russell and Norvig, 2009).

Figure 4.3: A virtual world as a society of agents (after Maher and Gero, 2002; 2003).

Figure 4.4: A common agent model for 3D virtual worlds (after Maher and Gero, 2002; 2003).

Figure 4.5: Five computational processes of the GDA model.

Figure 4.6: Interactions among the external world, the interpreted world and the expected world (after Geroand Kannengiesser, 2004).

Figure 4.7: Five computational processes of a GDA.

Figure 4.8: Three processes of interpretation.

Figure 4.9: The process of hypothesizing.

Figure 4.10: The process of designing and the process of action.

Figure 4.11: An example design rule for generating layouts of a virtual gallery.

Figure 4.12: The F-B-S framework for describing designing (after Gero, 1990).

Figure 4.13: The F-B-S framework adapted for representing designing in 3D virtual worlds.

Figure 5.1: The visualization of a virtual gallery design generated by the example grammar.

Figure 5.2: The visual boundaries of a reception area.

Figure 5.3: The visual boundaries of a standard gallery 1 area (left) and a standard gallery 2 area (right).

Figure 5.4: The visual boundaries of an expanded gallery 1 area (left) and an expanded gallery 2 area (right).

Figure 5.5: The visual boundaries of the artist’s personal studio area (left) and the multi-function area (right).

Figure 5.6: A helpdesk (left) and a frame-like partition with hyperlinks (right) in a reception area.

Figure 5.7: A partition for displaying digital images (left), two different stands for displaying interactive installations (middle and right).

Figure 5.8: Frame-like partitions used in the artist’s personal studio area for storage purposes.

Figure 5.9: A working desk for the artist (left), a meeting table (middle) and a presentation screen (right).

Figure 5.10: Conference facilities: a podium (left) and an auditorium (right).

Figure 6.1: The visualization of the static virtual gallery design used prior to the design scenario.

Figure 6.2: The visualization of the virtual gallery design for Stage 1.

Figure 6.3: The visualizations of the four areas of the virtual gallery generated at Stage 1.

Figure 6.4: The visualization of the virtual gallery design for Stage 2.

Figure 6.5: The visualization of the alternative design at Stage 2.

Figure 6.6: The visualization of the virtual gallery design for Stage 4.

Figure 6.7: The visualization of the virtual gallery design for Stage 5.

Figure 6.8: The two layouts that can be generated for Stage 2.

Figure 6.9: The two layouts that can be generated for Stage 4.

Figure 6.10: The three alternative layouts that can be generated for Stage 5.

Figure 6.11: The visualization of the virtual gallery design for Stage 6.

Figure 6.12: The visualization of the virtual gallery design for Stage 7.

Figure 6.13: The visualization of the static virtual gallery design generated in the end of the design scenario.

Figure 6.14: The corpus of virtual gallery designs generated for the design scenario.