Who this User's Guide Is For

This user's guide grew out of my lecture notes and handouts for the Immersive Environments class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. While there is already a complete online reference for the Ygdrasil language at EVL (http://www.evl.uic.edu/yg), there was a need for a guide with more in-depth explanation of concepts and ways of using the language. This guide is written for students, artists, beginning programmers, and anyone who would like to dive into the world immersive environments.

We don't assume any prior experience with programming languages, particularly since Ygdrasil is not really like most other programming languages anyway. Making things with Ygdrasil does require you to do some 3D modeling, so you'll have to learn how to use a program like 3D Studio Max, Blender, or Maya at some point. This guide doesn't really cover how to use any of these programs, but all of them have their own deep literature of guides, books, and online tutorials. We will cover some basic strategies for modeling and an example workflow for working with Ygdrasil and Maya.