Jun 07, 2005
V1.0 beta release of RawKee is an open source X3D authoring and export plug-in designed for use with Alias’ 3D animation and visual effects software, Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited. It allows content authors to generate Web3D content within Maya and export it into the industry standard X3D format. RawKee offers tools to set up X3D interactivity through RawKee’s X3D Interaction Editor and author ECMAScript through the customized use of Maya’s Attribute Editor panel. Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited.
V1.0 beta 1.0 includes support for much of the Immersive Profile of the X3D formats including the X3D MultiTexture node which makes the use of light, shadow, specular, and normal maps possible. Future versions of RawKee are expected to support NURB export, as well as provide character skinning through X3D compatibility with the H-Anim specification. It is available for Win32, Mac OS X, Linux and Irix.
Archaeology Technologies Laboratory’s Computer Visualization Manager Aaron Bergstrom says “Up until now, we’ve used VRML97 to deliver artifact surrogates through the database network. While VRML97 is a great web-based format, it lacks advanced visualization capabilities that are part of the X3D formats, such as the ability to use normal maps or the ability to store data in the X3D binary encoding. This and future versions of RawKee will allow us to take advantage of the features that X3D formats have to offer, which translates into being able to deliver high-quality artifact surrogates using decreasing amounts of bandwidth.”
The full press release (153 KB pdf) gives details on the features supported in Rawkee.
