“Sailing” is another classic WorldToolKit demo. While is seems like a simple demo, it has quite a bit of calculating going on behind the scenes.
From the demo’s readme:
The goal of this demo is to sail around the bay and see some of the sights (GG bridge, city, buoys, etc). This simulation was built in about 5 weeks by Sense8 and includes the following features: - Physically based wind simulation - Vertex manipulation in the sail due to wind forces - 3D sound (on platforms supporting it) - Support for head-mounted displays, Spaceball, and trackers (when deployed) Normally when running this demo, I use the number keys to turn the boat around so that I'm sailing for the Golden Gate Bridge. When heading straight into the bridge the sailing will begin luffing. This shows the vertex manipulation feature along with the physically-based wind calculations.
It was quite the go-to demo over the years, ported to virtually every available platform of the period, but I believe it was originally developed as the centerpiece of Sense8 presence at the 1995 Siggraph. At that show, it would have been set up to leverage a FakeSpace Boom.
According to the University of Washington HIT Lab website:
Fake Space Labs have developed a full 6 DOF tracking stereoscopic display that is not mounted on an individual’s head. Using mechanical tracking computations of the viewer’s position occur faster. Larger displays can be used because their weight and size are not noticed due to the counterbalance of the boom. Therefore higher resolution is allowed. viewers can just walk up to the boom and place their face into the optics and move around, like a pair of binoculars attached to skyscraper. Buttons are provided for interaction with the virtual world. The boom is easy to go from real to virtual and back again because there is no head gear to put on or take off.
HIT Lab website
While not the same application, this picture illustrates the Fakespace Boom in action:
From further references, it appear the demo was also used at I/ITSEC, the military simulation conference.