New Release: 3DXplorer V 5.4.08 is released today!

Eight months after pre-announcing V5.4, and with an intensive and long set of tests and real meeting experiences, a new version of 3DXplorer V5.4 is released. As of today, the ‘Last Release” status is attached to V5.4.08.

The most important feature is a more robust and higher quality VOIP, which uses a dedicated port if the user’s firewall authorizes it (if not, the standard port 80 is used).

Among other new features:

• “Mute audience” button is replaced by a moderator’s control panel allowing a moderator to control separately voice, Desktop Sharing, lasers, chat moderation and video broadcast
• “Voice” button is replaced by “Mic” and “Speakers” buttons to increase users control on audio settings
• Presentation features (ie: Desktop Sharing, laser, video broadcast), voice and chat moderation can now be activated/blocked individually for each avatar
• Skinning import improved for max 2010 COLLADA exports
• Faster and more reliable network synchronization
• The size of a video overlay/popup can be set in the material editor
• New meeting planner with invitation text supporting 8 different languages for 3DX/Online Meeting and 3DX/Conferencing, and customizable invitation templates.
• And many bugs fixed.

Many of you have set your version to a test release to use VOIP, so please make sure you reset your space to LAST RELEASE status.

Enjoy the new features and please feedback.

Share this:  

Some New Avatars Now Available as Guest (mid-resolution 300)

You can see the new avatars if you enter the Altaworld (our 3D lobby accessible from the Meet-in-3D button on our home page) as a guest.

If you have a customized list of avatars in your space, please keep in mind that your list will not be updated automatically. You need to go to the settings’ page of your space and decide if you want your visitors to choose the new avatars or not, and allow them in your space.

The new avatars have been created upon suggestions of two of our most recent customers, both interested in younger avatars.

Enjoy using them!

Share this:  

Test Your Configuration Before Using 3DXplorer

You can now test your configuration here, before entering a 3DXplorer space!

Although 3DXplorer is download-free and browser-based, it’s still a relatively sophisticated application: a real-time 3D engine including a multi-user environment with chat, VOIP, desktop sharing, remote control, and much more. As a result, it does require some system and network characteristics as presented here.

The new diagnostic tool provides information on:

• Your network speed up to our servers,
• Your Browser and some of it’s key options,
• Your Java configuration
• And more….

After a period of successful test, this tool will be integrated into all standard logins to any 3DXplorer space. Feel free to try it now, and feedback on this post.

Enjoy your diagnostics!

Share this:  

A new maintenance version released today

A new release, numbered T5.4.00 is up today. As any release starting with “T” this is a test release and unless you select it for your space , it’s not going to be automatically active.

This release brings the following enhancements:

• Improved VoIP , more reliable and less network sensitive
• Faster and more reliable network synchronization : avatars motion, laser pointer, etc…
• COLLADA Skinning import improved for max 2010
• Resources download improved to fix problems such as missing or white elements in a scene

Enjoy it!

Share this:  

New Features For 3DXplorer Account Owners

Today we have released some new features for 3DXplorer account users

Managing Guest Avatars per space:

You can now check the list of avatar models that you authorize to be used by your guests. We have increased the library of avatars including more junior and more casual looks than the business looks we used to have. We have also enriched the number of multi-ethnic models for the V300 category, commonly used in many spaces. So now the account owner can decide, depending on the purpose of the space, which models (casual, formal, …) are adapted to the space and authorize them by checking the model in the list.

Some V300 sample avatars

A default set of avatars are activated in any new space, but the account owner can change that list at any time. Once you save your list, then you’ll have to check for new avatars that we may add to the library in the future, as saved lists will not be automatically updated to avoid undesired avatar models in your space.

V3000 pre-configured guest avatars

The Free Platform:

This change is a result of our new packaging and pricing announced earlier this year (Q2/2010), and that’s regarding the free platform. As per our published product features account owners with no paid licenses can use the studio to create as many spaces as they wish and use the player to enter the space and see their creation and show it to other users, but the multi-user features, including avatars, chat, etc… require at least an Online Meeting subscription if not other subscriptions. With all the new features of moderated chat, private chat, VOIP and more, there is a lot of value in the 3D virtual lobby and Meet-in-3D application. The free platform enables free 3D immersive walk-through, as well as a free creation tool (The 3DXplorer Studio).

Share this:  

Updated Trouble Shooting page, Bandwidth and System Requirements.

With all the new features now available in 3DXplorer and the multiple types of applications, we needed to update our bandwidth requirements which vary from 1 mbps to 5 mbps depending on what you need to do :

– 1 Meg (1mbps)  for  visitors of a 3D space for walk through
– 2 Meg (2mbps)  for  visitors of a 3D space with less than 20 avatars
– 3 Meg (3mbps)  for  attendees of larger 3D Expo Halls  with no live desktop sharing
– 4 Meg (4mbps)  for  attendees of  a conference with desktop sharing
– 5 Meg (5mbps)  for  presenters of  a conference with desktop sharing

This same page includes also a very useful set of trouble shooting tips & tricks. Check it out now here:

http://www.3dxplorer.com/system_requirements.html

Share this:  

Built-in Web-native Browser-based VOIP in 3DXplorer: You asked for it, you got it!

As a customer-driven company, Altadyn has constantly been listening to users demands and Voice over Internet Protocol commonly called VOIP, was on top of the list since a while.  To satisfy our customers, we evaluated several VOIP technologies on the market, but noticed that they all require that the end-users download a client software. We believe that 3D web conferencing and virtual events markets will become mainstream only if they are easy to use, and accessible to all. That’s why we developed our own java based VOIP technology which works seamlessly in the browser.  With what we have come up with, in order to attend a meeting, a user just presses on the invitation link received by e-mail and enters the space; he/she immediately hears the attendees voice; nothing to install, no other action required.

The VOIP enabled version is available to all users as of this week, under “Test”. To use it, login to your account, then open your 3D space settings page, under tab “Version” you usually see “LastRelease”. Change it to “Test”. As soon as you do this change, any visitor entering this space will be using the test release, which has Voice enabled.

When a new user walks into your voice-enabled space, he/she will hear whatever is going on in the room, but he/she is not heard, until the “Voice” button is activated. This button appears on the upper left corner of the screen.

A voice icon appears over the head of the avatar who talks, so that everyone can notice who’s talking.

Moderators can cut voice by pressing the  “Mute Audience” button at any time.

Beside the cutting edge VOIP feature, new functionalities have been released:

–          2 weeks free trial for all 3DXplorer products,

–          New meeting planner with invitation text supporting 8 different languages for 3DX/Online Meeting and 3DX/Conferencing

–          Customized invitation templates for 3DX/Online Meeting and 3DX/Conferencing

–          Drastically enhanced features for software developers using 3DX/API

Enjoy the new features, and give feedback to us. Your opinion matters!

New Release, 3DXplorer V5.02.00 is Live Today!

Shortly after our previous release of March 1st , we are pleased to announce a new release with exciting new features; 3DXplorer V5.02.00 includes important feature enhancements and additions which drastically improve Virtual Events experience for attendees :

1) There are now three different chat possibilities:

• Global chat visible to all attendees
• One to one private chat
• Group chats, private, visible to a selected number of users, but not to all

2)  Direct interaction with other participants or through a names list:

• Attendees can see the list of other participants, and start communicating / interacting with them, either by clicking on their avatars, or through the list.
• Moderators can also interact with participants either graphically or through the list.

3) Improved user interface:

• New buttons have been added to enable the above features. They are all regrouped in the upper left corner of the screen.
• The avatar’s control pop-up (the former chat) has been removed. The chat window can be started by pressing on the chat button and it will pop up automatically on other attendees window.
• Avatars’ animations, when possible (ie: high res avatars) are now accessible under “My Avatar” button.

4) Video broadcast in sync:

• When linking a video to a screen, It’s now possible to either have it “broadcast in-sync” so that  start /stop of the video , by a moderator or a VIP, will happen simultaneously for all users, or keep the former asynchronous mode, having users watch their video “on demand”.

This release is up and running as of today, March 13th , 2010.

And remember, no installation, no update, no download required…Enjoy it.

New Release, 3DXplorer V5.01.02 is Live!

3DXplorer V5.01.02 release includes important feature enhancements and additions that improve Virtual Events experience both for attendees and event administrators:

•    All 3DX Apps: New attendees/visitors login process, in a “wizard” mode , where even guest avatars have some choices of looks at entrance, without having to use the “avatar configurator” for a more customized avatar. As a result, from now on, when embedding a 3DXplorer space inside a web page, a better approach is to use iframes instead of the applet code insertion. Space owners who have inserted the applet inside their HTML pages, continue to work fine with the old user interface.

•   3DX/Conferencing: Passcodes list: Event administrator can now upload a csv file with the list of the attendees and individual passcodes. This feature is particularly helpful for paid events, as each passcode is individual and can’t be used by more than one active avatar.

•    3DX/Conferencing: “Silent mode” now applies to laser pointer too, as they’ll shut down when this mode is active.

•    3DX/Conferencing: Event administrators can now disable Desktop Sharing feature for attendees in 3DX/Conferencing

•    3DX/API: External login supported. Enables avatar login through 3rd party databases.

•    3DX/Studio: objects scripting improved for automatic setup of the space and dynamic content inside the 3D spaces.

•    3DX/Studio: 3D scene settings page improved: contextual help (tooltips), re-organized fields,…

•    3DX/Studio Bugs fixed: Object editor, handlers table, procedure table in the studio, …

The new release is active since last week-end. All users with “Last release” (which is the default option on all spaces), are automatically going to use it with no action required.

Enjoy it.

3DXplorer V5 Takes 3D Live Collaboration To The Cloud

As pre-announced a few weeks ago, 3DXplorer V5 is now released. Among the new features of this scalable, efficient, reliable, flexible and secure cloud-based network architecture are additional choices and categories of avatars, capacity for more than 100 avatars simultaneously in a single space (with 3DX/Conferencing), intranet installations with unlimited number of rooms (3DX/Enterprise Edition). V5 offers white label services for marketing partners and includes increased possibilities for customizations.

For the first time, an immersive and interactive web3D platform is offered on a cloud-based architecture. 3DXplorer being browser-based with no download required, enables users to collaborate live, leaning on their set of distributed resources. Primary resources which can each be on a different server on the cloud are:

–          The application: 3DXplorer

–          Static data including the 3D space, and all related 2D/3D content

–          Dynamic synchronized data including the multi-user session service, the streamed data server for presentations, remote access, the chat server.

Cloud-based architectures reduce cost of maintenance, increase scalability, flexibility and reliability. Security is also improved as customers benefit from an easy to maintain SaaS application, while hosting sensitive data internally and inaccessible from outside the firewall. Another benefit of this architecture is increased performance due to the user-defined relay servers. Customers around the world, can now easily setup their own local intranet or web servers relaying their meetings live, faster than global servers. Possible combinations are endless using 3DXplorer cloud-based architecture.

3DXplorer V5 also offers Altadyn’s partners the capacity of building their own branded SaaS applications, using the same platform as Altadyn, and offering value added services to their customers. Initial users of this white label SaaS are Altadyn’s content provider partners and 3D builders.

V5 avatars can now be represented in three levels of resolution: low poly (or low-resolution) avatars, adapted for large conferences, or high poly (or high resolution) avatars adapted for smaller groups.

3DXplorer V5’s new packaging enables customers to start with the 3DX/Platform, free of charge, then upgrade to applications such as 3DX/Online Meeting, 3DX/Meet in 3D or 3DX/Conferencing, depending on their needs.

Finally, 3DXplorer V5 integrates the recently announced new product 3DX/Conferencing under the same user account and the same interface, together with existing products 3DX/Online Meeting and 3DX/Meet-in-3D.

Full release notes of the V5 (details of new features) are available here:

http://www.3dxplorer.com/static-v3/pdf/V5-release-notes-2009_08_Rev2.pdf

Enjoy V5 which is live and in “Last Release” status since last week-end!