Re: [www-vrml] Tim BL Is Baffled, Too

[Neil TREVETT <Neil.Trevett@3dlabs.com>]

I am fascinated (and disappointed) that
several times on this thread the Web3D Consortium is held up as an inscrutably
closed and aloof organization..   

Miriam >>  It
is great that they advanced VRML while the consortium stayed behind closed
doors [and] "stole VRML"
Clayton>>  [The
Consortium should] Help raise that tentpole instead of leaning on a shovel
and nodding its head :|

We are about to re-write the Consortium
participation framework (this will be Consortium 3.0) and so I would like
to try and understand the root cause of this  perception.   This
is not a combative email - and I am not arguing that the perception exists
- I am just interested to see whether anything is fixable..  Open
to any and all feedback and criticism - but please keep it constructive
and non-personal :)  (ducks)

*My* perception is that the Consortium
could not open its doors any wider.   We have individual as well and
academic and corporate memberships, any working group is open to any member,
we have erred on the side of IP recklessness in conducting much of our
business in the open - all of which go far beyond the typical industry
consortium's attempts to outreach to the grass-roots.    The
Consortium is kept alive by normal people from the community that volunteer
time and effort. and push things forward in spite of the odds.  

So - what more can we do to engage the
community?   I would love to see people with the passion and skills
of Miriam and Clayton join the Consortium and help drive things.

------

Getting back to the bafflement question
- I agree with comments that lack of interoperability is a big problem
- but I don't think its the root cause..    IMO the root cause
of the "3D Chasm" (no widespread use of 3D between design professionals
and gamers) is that no-one has found a way of using 3D to provide an application
that is GENUINELY USEFUL to more than a very narrow market.    Its
not just Web3D - there is no widespread use of 3D on the desktop either
- other than design and games.

Until we find a compelling use for 3D
that "normal" people care about then we will be in this "before
the chasm" state.  No real money, a cash-starved Consortium surviving
on volunteerism, a frustrated community, spotty 3D support on non-gamer
systems and no REAL financial reason to fix the interoperability problem..

But I am optimistic that someone, somewhere
will make 3D truly useful.   I think that the Longhorn (and OS X)
desktop becoming 3D will spur innovation in this field of using 3D - which
will hopefully spill over in Web3D..  Just as the original Windows
(and MAC) liberated us from command-line thinking and made us think of
how to use a GUI effectively in applications.

Until then we should recognize we are
in a pre-chasm state:
- gear our businesses (and standards)
to make money from vertical niches - not widespread deployment (unless
we are in games)
- search for the beach-head applications
that will let us cross the chasm
- not bitch at each other 'coz we haven't
found the beach-head application yet.  Its no-ones fault.  We
are such a small community - we should at least be working together to
keep the things moving forward as best we can until 3D becomes pervasive
- and I believe it will.

Neil

Neil Trevett
Senior Vice President Market Development, 3Dlabs
President, Web3D Consortium
neil.trevett@3dlabs.com   www.3dlabs.com

Miriam English <miriam@werple.net.au>
Sent by: owner-www-vrml@web3d.org

10/01/2004 06:11 PM

Please respond to
miriam@werple.net.au

To	"Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <len.bullard@intergraph.com>
cc	"'Clayton Cottingham'" <drfrog@telus.net>, "'VRML list'" <www-vrml@web3d.org>
Subject	Re: [www-vrml] Tim BL Is Baffled, Too

Hi Len,

Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
> Will it work everywhere?  If Flux is downloaded, it does. 

It doesn't work on my machines. I don't know why. I just get a black window.


> If Cortona or Contact are downloaded, they do.

Neither Cortona nor Contact work on Linux. Only Cortona and CosmoPlayer
work on Macs. Only Cortona works on PocketPCs. None work on Palms.

On MSWindows I spend 90% of my time trying to get wrls to work on CosmoPlayer,
Contact, and Cortona. I haven't added Flux to that list yet. I am so often
tempted to abandon the cross-viewer route and just go for one, but it is
something I deeply oppose. While I have great admiration for the folks
at Cortona and Contact it has to be said that they have fragmented our
community badly. It is great that they advanced VRML while the consortium
stayed behind closed doors, but I so wish Contact and Cortona had adopted
the same techniques to extend functionality.

Over the last months I have been *finally* making the shift to Linux, where
I feel the future lies. FreeWrl and OpenVRML exist there, but I can't say
much about them yet as I'm still getting started with them.

So will it work everywhere? Definitely not.
But this is not just a problem with VRML/X3D. It's just particularly acute
for us.

As an aside, I was struck by some bedtime reading last night "Advanced
Linux 3D Graphics Programming" by Norman Lin, where he tells what
alterations are need to run the book's programs on MSWindows. It seems
that starting with the right platform simplifies cross-platform work, but
programming *for* MSWindows locks the programmer into that environment
(DirectX, ActiveX, VB, etc).

Cheers,

                
- Miriam

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