VAM Temple project

The VAM Temple project was completed by 3 primary school students (Year 5, aged 9) in 2003, using the archived VRMath 1.0 application. The Logo program they wrote at the time can still run in the new VRMath2 Editor with few modifications. You can try to recreate it in the VRMath2 Editor, by openning the  vam_temple.logo in the Logo Editor and executing the program.

After executing the Logo program, 12 procedures will be defined. Then you should type in VAM in the console and VRMath2 Editor will create the Temple for you in few seconds. I have recreated this Temple and published as .x3d file to display below for you to navigate in. The default navigation is set to Walk mode. You may press "E" to change to Examine mode, "F" for Fly mode, "W" for Walk mode, and "R" to return to beginning viewpoint.

The name VAM is an acronym of the 3 authors' first names. They are Victor, Alekat20 and R2D2 (pseudo names). By now (time of this blog), they are about 20 years old. I wonder if they will read this blog and if so, they can contact me. I really hope to get in touch with them again.

The project was completed in two weeks (4 hours in total). I was very amazed that these young children could construct a virtual Temple according to their design in this short time frame. To fully document and explain about their Logo program would take many pages. Here I will just pick some procedures to show how and why they were done.

TO vam
CS
tp1
tp2
tp3
END

; a random size tree
tree (((RANDOM 10)+1)/10)+1

HOME SOUTH 18 WEST 18
REPEAT 19 [tree (((RANDOM 10)+1)/10)+1 FD 2]
BK 2 RT 90
REPEAT 18 [FD 2 tree (((RANDOM 10)+1)/10)+1]
RT 90
REPEAT 18 [FD 2 tree (((RANDOM 10)+1)/10)+1]
RT 90
REPEAT 18 [FD 2 tree (((RANDOM 10)+1)/10)+1]

TO tree :s
METER
SETSCALE 0.2*:s 2*:s 0.2*:s
SETAI 60 ; material settings
SETSH 930 ; for tree trunk
SETTR 0
SETDC 510 170 60
SETEC 0 0 0
SETSC 530 530 530
UP 1*:s
CYLINDER
SETSCALE 1.5*:s 2.2*:s 1.5*:s
SETAI 63 ; material settings
SETSH 90 ; for the tree green
SETTR 0
SETDC 110 550 90
SETEC 0 0 0
SETSC 120 60 60
UP 1.1*:s
CONE
DN 2.1*:s
END

TO templebase
HOME METER
SETSCALE 0.2 5 0.2
UP 2.5 SOUTH 5 WEST 6.5
SETAI 250 ; 6 material setting
SETSH 600 
SETTR 0
SETDC 400 400 400
SETEC 0 0 0
SETSC 770 770 770
REPEAT 18 [CYLINDER FD 2.2 RT 360/18]
SETSCALE 0.6 0.6 0.6 DN 2.2
SETAI 53
SETSH 120
SETTR 0
SETDC 340 0 340
SETEC 0 0 0
SETSC 840 0 0
REPEAT 18 [CYLINDER FD 2.2 RT 360/18]
SETSCALE 1 0.2 2.5 UP 4.7
SETAI 26
SETSH 100
SETTR 0
SETDC 0 10 500
SETEC 0 0 0
SETSC 0 910 10
REPEAT 9 [
FD 1.1 BOX FD 1.1 RT 360/18 FD 2.2 RT 360/18]
END

; Polygon formula
REPEAT :side [FD 1 RT 360/:side]

R2D2 also had brilliant ideas about the Temple Stage and a Fountain. He observed the patterns in the staircase, pavilion and fountain, then apply REPEAT command to finish effectively.

TO body ; some material settings omitted SETSCALE 15 0.8 6 METER HOME FD 7 BOX REPEAT 4 [UP 0.4 FD 0.25 SETSCALED 6-repcount*0.5 BOX] ; some material settings omitted UP 6.2 SETSCALE 8 2 6 CONE SETSCALE 2 2 2 ; some material settings omitted UP 1 LABEL [VAM Temple] DN 1 SETSCALE 0.5 5 0.5 DN 6 EAST 2.5 SOUTH 1.5 UP 2.5 REPEAT 2 [CYLINDER FD 3 LT 90 CYLINDER FD 5 LT 90] SETSCALE 0.6 0.5 0.6 DN 2.25 ; some material settings omitted REPEAT 2 [CYLINDER FD 3 LT 90 CYLINDER FD 5 LT 90] UP 4.5 REPEAT 2 [CYLINDER FD 3 LT 90 CYLINDER FD 5 LT 90] END

There are still plenty to talk about in this project. But I think I should stop here as the blog is getting very long.

Please try this VAM Temple project in the VRMath2 Editor and leave a comment about what you think and questions if any.