Original Goals
The Virtual ETC project began as a venture to combine Synthetic Interview technology with a realtime 3D rendering engine. The original goal was a basic "plumbing project" to integrate the two technologies.

Revised Goals
After a change in scheduling, the focus of the project shifted from software architecture to creating engaging and entertainment content.

Nature of Content
Combining realtime 3D graphics and an interactive character brought to mind several potential ideas:

• A conversation/exploration based role-playing game.
• "Talking" interactive products on a commercial webpage.
• A virtual dating simulator.
• An animatronics vs. 3d graphics comparison of the character being developed by the IAI team.

The final concept was to place the IAI character, "Doc" Beardsley, in the role of an interactive virtual tour guide, alongside a real-time model of the ETC lab.

Lessons Learned

The project had several technological and logistical challenges early in the process cycle: the largest problem was the discovery that the original 3d Engine we were to use, already two weeks late into our cycle, would not be delivered on time. To avoid a similar problem in future projects, the Virtual Tour Guide team learned the following guidelines:

• When working on a “plumbing project,” focus on the content, and not the technology or architecture.
• Have alternate schedules and definitive cutoff dates when dealing with others’ deadlines.
• When working with other organizations, it becomes very easy to depend on resources that may not appear. Focus on the resources that are available early on, and have a plan to let those resources carry the project in a worst-case scenario.
• And most importantly: having a clearly defined goal early on keeps the project focused, even in the face of technical or logistical setbacks.

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