The computer graphics and virtual reality team is lead by Dr. Karen McMenemy (Virtual Reality) and Dr. Stuart Ferguson (3D graphics and OpenFX) if you would like ot discuss any of our research or education work please contact Karen about VR and Stuart about 3D animation and OpenFX. 

Here are a few links to web resources for 3D Graphics and Virtual Reality that we have found particularly useful.

For 3D graphics programming:

OpenGL... - Up to date information on OpenGL - the home of OpenGL programming

OpenGL Shaders... - Shader programming for OpenGL (the home of the Orange Book)

OpenGL Extensions...  - All about OpenGL extensions

General Purpose GPU computing... - Using the GPU for general purpose computing, not jsut for graphics.

Nvidia Developer.. - to acquire the SDK for nVidia graphics cards, white papers on: 3D shaders,  shadow mapping and 'CG'

3D Labs Developer.. - for examples using many ideas from the OpenGL Orange book .

For Windows DirectX SDK and Windows  Platform  SDK  (Used in many of our sample programs) and many other Micorsoft SDKs go to the Microsoft Downloads site...

For 3D graphics in general :

Nvidia Demos... Many excellent real-time 3D visualisation examples specifically for nVidia graphics cards.

Nvidia Drivers... drivers for Nvidia graphics cards, including support for OpenGL version 2, Windows Vista  and stereoscopy.

ATI drivers.. drivers for ATI ( AMD) graphics cards. Drivers for OpenGLversion 2 and Windows Vista.

For Virtual Reality Programming:

ARToolkit... The ARToolkit is the place to start for augmented reality programming.

OpenSceneGraph...   Scenegraphs are a popular way to describe virtual reality environments. This is one of the most easily used scenegraph programming environments.

VRPN...   Virtual Reality Peripheral Network.  OpenSource software for networked virtual reality and standard interface for devices. Excellent middleware.

For Virtual Reality in general (hardware/software)::

eDImensional...  Low cost active-stereocopic glasses (we use then in our cave)

Intersense... Manufacture   tracking equipment.  Our colleagues in Psychology at QUB have an excellent IS900 system

Ascension..   Tracking equipment manufacturer. We have had sucess with their "flock of birds" and "MotionStar" systems for tracking in our VR lab.

Immersion...  Haptic gloves and other products for "touch and feel"

SensAble...  Make the ubiquitious Phanton haptic (force feedback) devices.  Their OpenHaptics library makes programming the haptic experience as easy as programming the graphics experience with OpenGL.