South Australian Virtual Reality Centre

Overview

The SAVRC is a facility for high-end visualisation and, as a SAPAC-managed facility, is available to university, industry and commercial users at various rates of charge.

It is capable of stereoscopic display via active shutter glasses, an immersive folded-screen wedge environment, as well as ordinary monoscopic projection. Seating can be arranged for up to around 100 people; the defualt seating (as shown) is for 24.

It is located in the ground floor of the SANTOS Building on the University of Adelaide campus (see map (JPEG, 100kb) for location (towards top right of map)). Click here for a corresponding satellite photo (149 kB) of the campus. See here for a photo of the entrance to the SANTOS building.

Computers

Access Grid: three separate Windows PC's for audio, video and display.

Stereo PC's: handle Windows-based applications; two of the three such have dual-Xeon processors and nVidia Quadro FX4400 graphics cards.

SGI: Onyx 350, with three processing bricks with eight 600 MHz IP35 processors and 10GB of RAM, and three graphics bricks, each running one pipe with 1GB of texture memory.

Projectors and Screen

Three Mirage 2000 projectors, each at 1280x1024 pixels. Each screen is 2.3m x 1.9m. Display can be configured for a single 6.9m x 1.9m wall, or three single screens, or as a wedge with the right-most screen rotated up to 90 degrees.

Audio equipment

Ceiling-mounted PZM microphones; one radio microphone (hand-held); one lapel microphone; echo-cancellation; room speakers. Amplifier can also accept VCR/DVD/CD audio. The audio system is being upgraded to allow 8.1-surround for sonification applications.

Video equipment

Four remotely-controlled cameras for AG use. Projectors can also be used for VCR and DVD material.

An electronic whiteboard also is available.

Motion tracking

Flock of Birds with head-mounted and mouse control units.

Bookings and charges

Bookings may be made via the Bookings Page.

Depending on the use, charges for use will apply.

More SAVRC images

Software

A partial list of available software:

• AVS Express (multi-pipe edition) : visualisation
• Amira : medical imaging
• Petrel / Geoframe / Inside Reality : geo-science imaging
• VMD / Chimera : molecular modelling
• Vis5D : meteorological imaging
• 3D Studio Max (render farm-capable) : 3D-modelling and rendering

Contacts

SAVRC phone : +61 8 8303 8029

Primary contact : Ian West ph +61 8 8303 4306 email Ian West

Secondary contact : Paddy McGee ph +61 8 8303 6452 email Padric McGee