Browser-based and plug-in-less: 2 different levels of accessibility in web3D.

Web3D has made huge progress recently in terms of accessibility! Just a few years ago, the only available 3D Internet applications were games and a few virtual worlds like Second Life, that require installation of “thick” software components, each with their own proprietary user interfaces.

The power of the web no longer has to be proven. The web architecture has become one of the strongest standards in the history of technology, together with the underlying IP infrastructure architecture which has been so open and robust that it enabled the integration of  other networks like voice, and now mobile networks. Reasons for the strength of the web standard are its openness, its thinness, its simplicity, and the hyperlink concept enabling navigation.

This is why web3D developers are looking for open, thin, simple 3D spaces that can be hyperlinked to each other and customized with standard web tools such as html, javascript and PHP, and consequently are looking for browser-based technologies to satisfy these criteria.

In the past few months several browser-based technologies have been either newly introduced or repackaged from older technologies. This is good progress, as it standardizes the user interface, but it’s not enough, especially if the technology still requires the user to download and install proprietary software, which can sometimes be 50MB or more. In most cases, for more advanced tools and applications, the installation of an Active-X control is required. Some installation processes are presented particularly well, and for a standalone Windows user with Internet Explorer the installation process can be smooth, however, the reality is that the proprietary software (i.e., plug-in) has been installed on the computer for good! This type of installation is a problem in most business environments where it is common for IT managers in mid-size or large corporations to prevent the installation of software from external sources for obvious reasons (i.e., security, reliability, quality. etc.). Thus, since offices cannot access 3D worlds and applications based on technologies that require the installation of proprietary software, they do not satisfy the need for widespread accessibility that is a requirement for much wider adoption of web3D. Moreover, Active-X plug-ins do not support Mac or Linux machines whose market shares are growing every day.

Browser based technologies are to be considered in two categories:

* Those requiring installation of a plug-in, with the following issues:
    o Difficulty installing in a corporate environment due to IT policies and firewall incompatibilities
    o Rarely cross-platform
    o Need for the end-user’s action for regular update of the application
    o Less market penetration due to the end-user’s lack of trust to unknown plug-ins
* Those thin “plug-in-less” technologies enabling web-native applications that are fully compliant with standard web navigation. These technologies are necessarily based on one of the following underlying web technologies:
    o Flash: not offering any immersive walkthrough possibility
    o Silverlight: seems promising, although likely not ready for prime time for quite a while, as well as not being multi-platform
    o Java: The only viable technology available , enabling plug-in-less web3D

3DXplorer is one of the rare technologies from this last category that is available today, offering immersive 3D worlds, web sites and applications all in a browser-based and plug-in-less environment, enabling web3D in the exact same architecture as the web itself.

Altadyn strengthens the Executive Team

We are delighted to welcome Greg Milliken to the Altadyn team, in the role of VP of Marketing. His wealth of experience and past successes in a variety of 3D technology businesses, as well as his background leading marketing in emerging technology companies, will complement our current team and help us achieve our goal of establishing 3DXplorer as the leading web3D platform.

Greg brings 25 years of experience in leading roles at 3D software and hardware companies, including established public companies and startups. Most recently he was CEO of Alibre, Inc., a developer of 3D CAD software focused on breaking down barriers to 3D. Prior to Alibre, he was vice president of marketing at Knowledge Revolution, a developer of mechanical motion simulation software acquired by MSC Software. Before KR, he co-founded AccelGraphics, Inc., a venture-funded startup that developed 3D graphics cards for CAD, animation and simulation markets that went public in 1997. He has also held various roles in marketing, sales and engineering at Autodesk and Intergraph.

Greg, welcome on board!

3DXplorer V3.01.02 now available

 

 

A small new version, just before the “big one”

 

This release comes just before a major release with first-of-their-kinds features, which will, once again, show the direction to the market soon.

 

While waiting for the big one, 3DXplorer V3.01.02, which can be activated through your project management panel inside your 3DXPlorer account, offers the following new features:

 

• Ability to activate/deactivate the collision detection with objects or for the whole scene. By default, collision detection is active on all objects.
• Support of both stairs and slopes
• Support of collada format files for importing. The whole google 3DWarehouse library as well as other collada libraries are now supported for use with 3DXplorer. This feature includes both objects and animations import into 3DXplorer, through .dae files
• Hyperlinks on objects or materials can now support options (target)
• Walking speed can now be changed in each scene and becomes the property of a scene
• Bug corrections and other minor improvements

Unlike other new versions, this version is not declared as “last release”. We want to move to the “big one” and avoid additional QA work for you. However if you can’t wait for the “big one” and need the above features, you can just use this version.

 

Have fun!

 

 

Trimensions adds virtual office on its website

 

Expert in designing Virtual Worlds, within SecondLife since a few years, and now with 3DXplorer, Trimensions has developped highly skilled ressources for designing and building Virtual Worlds with 3DXplorer. The comapny based in New Delhi, India, offers these content creation services to the 3DXplorer users community.

A new version of Trimensions website is available since a few days, including its new virtual offices, built with 3DXPlorer.

Have a tour there now: http://trioff.trimensions.org

 

.

How to create your own panoramas simply

 

 

Following our post on April 21st , some of 3DXPlorer users wrote to us to ask how to create their own quality images , to be used with the « open sky » scene.

 

You can find several methods and even tools to automatically generate spherical or hemispherical images. Some of them are quite complex though. We wanted to share a simple method here , which is sufficient for many of your projects.

 

You can find easily, a royalty free image, that  you like. But these images are usually of low resolution, and not spherical. Take one of those low resolution images, like the one below:

 

 

 

Resolution: 512 x 256

 

Crop the image in a way that the bottom line fits with the ground surface of the landscape, perfectly horizontal, and that the sky is as high as possible. Duplicate and mirror this surface, and juxtapose the copy on the same side as the axis of symmetry used for mirroring the original image. You’ll obtain this:

 

 

 

Resolution: 1024 x 256

 

 

 

If you need a higher resolution, you can repeat this operation once again :

 

 

 

Resolution: 2048 x 512

 

Through this simple method, you can « generate » quality pixels, by using the image’s own pixels ! The result is a cylindrical image (the two extreme lines join smoothly, thanks to the symmetry).

But in some scenes like the « open sky » , they can be used instead of a hemispherical one, if the buildings are not too high, thanks to the big size of the whole scene, the vertical deformation is not perceptible.

 

Have fun with these simple handmade special effects!

 

.

 

 

Using “render-to-texture” & “texture baking” techniques

 

In order to enhance the realism of a scene, very often, we just need to improve lighting conditions and add shadows and other lighting effects. Obviously, in this fiend, real time engines are not supposed to go as far as most off-line rendering calculations. But sometimes, we may be able to use a pre-rendered scene inside 3DXplorer for a real time visualization.

This type of scenes can simply be generated by using “render to texture” or “texture baking” features in 3DSMax or in Maya.

These features enable 3DXPlorer designers to integrate the lighting and the shadows directly into texture files. By leaving the texture files of such a scene in the same folder than the file to be imported, they will be imported inside 3DXplorer together with the scene.

Once the scene is in 3DXPlorer, the texture materials property has to be set to “self illumination” in order to avoid rendering them twice.

Example: The scene called “Show-room” under “buildings” in the 3DXplorer objects library has some pre-rendered textures.

New Java for Mac users

Those Mac users under Leopard Mac OS X 10.5, are invited to update their Java machine by downloading the latest release from Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/application_updates/javaformacosx105update1.html

To read more about this release:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307403

 

Change the ambience with the new panoramas!

We often need nice landscapes, visible at the horizon, or by the window. In the above example, with an art gallery created inside a pyramid of glass, the user has an impression of total within a green environments, very present, and beyond the primary scene. Creating this type of impressions is possible thanks to cylindrical and spherical images. The above example is obtained in 3DXPlorer, by using the scene called “open sky” in the library, where a hemispherical image , also available in the library, has been applied to the sky.

Some of the newly added hemispherical images, newly offered in 3DXPlorer library, are reprinted below. You can also, upload your own pictures, as usual.

Try them out by “sticking” them on the sky of the “open sky” scene and appreciate the landscape, the cathedral, or simply the city, far at the horizon. To do so, right-click on the sky of this scene, then “change/manage collections”, before choosing in the “Panoramas”, your preferred image.

Enjoy the landscape!

  

More objects and textures

 

Since last week, a reasonably rich library of textures is available on 3DXplorer, especially for architecture and construction, both for interior design and buildings exteriors. One can find there textures for bricks, carpets, concrete, doors, fabric, metal, nature, roofing, stone, tile, wallpapers and wood.

To use them: right-click on a material, then “change/manage collections”.

With a larger team at Altadyn, now the objects library is starting to grow fast.

This picture shows some of the new “accessories” and “furniture” available now. Glass tables , armchairs, bathroom vanities and high heels are among new objects online, starting point of a long list of objects which will facilitate your creation.

We would love to read from you on your suggestions or requests. Let us know what kind of objects you need more.

3D virtual art galleries

The level of appreciation of an artwork depends mostly on its surrounding environment, which highly impacts our perception and drastically influences the feelings that the piece of artwork creates in us. Try it by yourself ; compare a print of a beautiful painting (try even with an excellent quality of print), and watch the same painting inside a sophisticated and adapted frame, well enlightened with the right spotlight, placed in a well decorated room, near other gorgeous furniture. It’s different right?

Obviously, this is the reason why art gallery owners invest in beautiful halls with attractive furniture to make sure that their paintings, their photographs or other scenes are well emphasized.

The rational in the virtual world is the same as in the real world!

Artists have started using virtual 3D spaces to exhibit their creations on the web, replacing their traditional websites. Their creations are emphasized and valued thanks to a more sophisticated evironment than the old 2D flat webpage of jpg files. Inside a more pleasant space, within a 3D virtual room creating real feelings, the visitor can appreciate the artwork, in an immersive mode, through different angles, renderred as he/she walks.

The new exhibition hall created by avalonn is an excellent example of this concept. To see this 3D virtual exhibition hall of paintings, click here.

To learn more about avalonn: www.avalonn.fr