X3D News Archive May 2006
May 31, 2006
VrmlMerge is a small but useful tool that can merge multiple VRML97 files (.wrl) referenced by Inlines and EXTERNPROTOs and can replace references to texture files (ImageTexture nodes) with PixelTexture nodes placed inside of your file. Lastly it can convert VRML97 files to X3D. The new v0.5 can replace references to texture files (ImageTexture nodes) with ImageTextures which use a so called “data protocol”. A data protocol allows to inline images directly to VRML/X3D files by encoding them using base64. The software is available for download or via an online Java applet.
May 23, 2006
Octaga will develop an X3D plug-in for Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader so that any user will be able to read and interact with X3D content embedded in a PDF document. Using PDF, rich XML-based interactive 3D content be more easily and reliably shared between technical and content developers, marketers, suppliers, and customers.
The X3D plug-in (based on the Octaga Player) will be freely available for all users. Combined with the many free and commercial X3D-savvy modeling and scripting tools available, X3D will be unmatched as a solution for creation and distribution of 3D information, and immersive 3D/2D/audio/video content.
The plug-in will support key X3D profiles and components including the Core, Immersive, Interactive, Interchange and MPEG-4 Interactive profiles. Octaga will deliver a Windows version in Summer 2006, with Linux and Mac versions to follow shortly afterwards.
May 23, 2006
Octaga Player is an X3D browser with about half a million users worldwide. Octaga Professional is an X3D viewer with support for MPEG-4, targeting CAD, oil & gas and high-end 3D presentation markets. The new Octaga Player v2.0 adds enhanced support for X3D Amendment 1, reflection/refraction textures, HDR textures, and better performance for large models. The new Octaga Professional 2.0 additionally adds viewpoint recording and tours, AVI and MPEG video recording, and support for screenshots. Octaga Professional also offers multi-user capabilities throught the Octaga server.
May 23, 2006
Mobile X3D Progress was a 3-minute “lightning talk” presented at the W3C Advisory Committee Meeting in Edinburgh Scotland on May 22, 2006 by Don Brutzman (brutzman at nps.edu).
Four different commercial and academic mobile X3D browsers were announced and presented at the recent Web3d 2006 Symposium. This slide presentation summarizes current progress and points ahead to Web3D ”Tech Talk” demonstrations to be presented at SIGGRAPH 2006 August 2, 2006.
May 22, 2006
H-Animator is a free visual tool for which lets you model, reuse and share X3D animations for H-Anim humanoids.
With this tool you can:
- Create standard H-Anim humanoids starting from existing X3D meshes
- Visually model simple X3D humanoid animations, even if you don’t know the X3D language
- Compose complex animations by visually concatenating different simple ones
The download includes a sample model and animation. H-Animator requires Windows XP with BS Contact 7.0 and the .NET Framework 2.0 Redistributable Package installed.
May 22, 2006
Computer Graphics Metafile, or CGM, is an ISO standard for tree-structured, binary graphics format ( vector and composite vector/raster) that has been adopted especially by the technical industries (defense, aviation, transportation, etc) for technical illustration in electronic documents. The new V2 draft is being developed to include graphical enhancements, metadata, internationlization, and standardized XML definitions. Because of the Web3D Consortium’s association with the W3C, consortium members are eligible to participate in this working group. Interested parties should contact Don Brutzman (brutzman at nps.edu).
May 19, 2006
MobiX3D is a mobile player for X3D and H-Anim content, developed by HCI Lab, University of Udine. The player currently supports a subset of the X3D Interactive profile and the full H-Anim standard so it is useful for navigation as well as communication (e.g. learning). The .wmv new video shows real-time examples of navigation and human animation running on a Dell Axim X50V
May 13, 2006
MPEG4IP provides an end-to-end system to explore streaming multimedia. The package includes many existing open source packages and the “glue” to integrate them together. This is a tool for streaming video and audio that is standards-oriented and free from proprietary protocols and extensions. It does not currently support X3D, however since mpeg-4 supports X3D for its 3d objects and it provides the ability to stream both 3d objects and application data, this project could support streaming X3D. X3D developers are invited to contribute to this open source project.
May 09, 2006
The new BS Contact Mobile 1.0 replaces the beta testing version and addresses the growing demand to make interactive, real-time 3D animations viewable on all mobile, Internet aware devices. BS Contact Mobile enables the visualization of 3D Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality applications on mobile devices via the ISO standard formats X3D and VRML. It currently supports the Interchange profile of X3D, with partial support for the Interactive profile. The software is a stable and high performance visualization solution for handheld devices running the Windows Mobile operating system.
May 09, 2006
With the spread of online games, virtual worlds and services like Google Earth and MySpace.com, people may soon be spending more time, communicating more and shopping more in complex 3D Web environments. This was the premise behind the Metaverse Roadmap Summit. While there were many visions for the future of virtual reality, the one generally agreed on topic was that virtual reality would become much more the province of mobile devices and far less of the kinds of desktop or laptop computers (e.g. see BS Mobile and MobiX3D)
May 05, 2006
This project is an example of integrating Google Earth’s satellite photo interface, pop-ups with an existing X3D or VRML model to explore a location in more detail. Using this simple technique, the top half of the window features Google Earth satellite imagery and regular information bubbles, while the bottom half of the window shows the X3D or VRML content in a web browser using an X3D plug-in. There are a few setups procedures in Google Earth to get this to work (currently only runs on Windows).
- In Google Earth, from the Tools menu, activate the web mini browser.
- From Tool > Options, make sure you uncheck “Show Web Results in External Browser”
- Enter http://www.virtual-dundee.co.uk/dundee.kmz into the mini browser address bar
- If prompted, select Run, so that Google Earth can install the new locations into the left hand Places panel
- In the Places panel, select one of the locations listed under Virtual Dundee
- From the info bubble that appears in the Google Earth satellite window, click on the link to view the virtual model in the mini web browser
This simple technique lets you integrate virtual environments into Google Earth without having to convert X3D models to the KML format, so you can use your existing content today.
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