There are not many 3-D objects in virtual worlds such as Second Life. And the reason is very simple. 3-D objects are quite difficult to build by average computer users, who often don't have an ...

"With Dryad, you navigate the space of all trees and simply choose the one you want," Koltun said. An important feature of Dryad is an information-sharing technique that improves the software every ...

Dryads, also called hamadryads, are legendary creatures from Greek mythology. They are said to be the spirits of oak trees and take the form of a beautiful young woman. Dryads were originally the ...

When Stanford computer scientist Vladlen Koltun decided to build a better virtual world, he began with 3-D trees—millions of them. Now he wants to give them away. Trees, like almost all objects in ...