RE: [x3d-public] Re: [www-vrml] Kamala On The River Bridge: Next Phase

["Len Bullard" <cbullard@hiwaay.net>]

Of course, but I work with what works today.  There are as I've said many
times, free tools, tutorials, books and software for VRML97.  That makes the
take-up costs zero other than time.   The art of being gainfully unemployed
is doing productive work while spending no money.  :-)

The second point is less personal:  I think the watershed events for VRML
were the publication of the VRML 2.0 Sourcebook followed by The VRML 2.0
Handbook.  I actually use the latter more frequently as it has the copy of
the node specification.   The X3D standard is too hard to read and not
intended for learning by authors.  That is as it should be.  The
NPS-supported examples are great but buggy and few of us have the time to
clean those up while working on our own projects.  

You really do have to understand this, Joe: few of us are still fighting
X3D.  We are trying to get our own projects done within the limits of our
budgets.  That is the real world that c3 keeps telling us about.

At the end of next month, the X3D book from Brutzman and Daly will hit the
shelves.  If it proves to be as useful as the two cited above, it will have
a big effect on the learning curve.  If it isn't as useful, it will have a
minimal effect but might be followed by better targeted books.  I know how
hard such books are to write.  I contributed to one some years ago and
edited others.  I also know if they are done right, authors use them.

Then tool costs and interoperability for X3D are problems.  Don's note that
you answered is great.  Get installation and interoperation issues cleared
up if that is your goal.  Other issues need to be noodled now on the open
lists such as more complete avatar standards.  Otherwise we have some very
serious competitors coming our way.  They have money and they will build
momentum even if it is only the flash of a gasoline fire.  We have to meet
them with preparation not angst or we just go the way of the American Indian
tribes that cooperated with the Pilgrims until they caught them robbing
graves, stealing land, and ultimately embarking on campaigns of
extermination.  Don't think for a moment the companies have less than
profits on their minds.  We better be ready to offer up specs and standards
that get them their faster while preserving the royalty free and
unencumbered qualities of the standards.  That is all that keeps us from
going extinct.  Got wood?  It burns slower and longer than gasoline.

Meanwhile, some of us have content to build and we have to build while
testing it and pushing it out.  Today, that means some of use VRML97 because
content lags specifications and standards for all of the reasons I've
mentioned.  We can do the conversions later, but getting up the learning
curve and content, and by that I mean compelling, kick ass, breaks your
heart and makes you cry content, not examples of this or that node or
concept, is my goal.  I am an artist first; a technologist only because I
have to be to learn and use this medium.

So believe me, X3D is a primary concern.  It just isn't the most immediate
one here in the Bullard attic.  That will change.

len

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-x3d-public@web3d.org [mailto:owner-x3d-public@web3d.org] On
Behalf Of Joe D Williams
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 11:47 AM
To: Len Bullard; 'Paul Aslin'; www-vrml@web3d.org; x3d-public@web3d.org
Subject: [x3d-public] Re: [www-vrml] Kamala On The River Bridge: Next Phase

> I found the code to start a gesture, that's easy.
> The challenge comes when chaining them smoothly.  So far, I have to bypass
> them and route straight to the animation timers so they keep running.
> The interps and timers are straightforward.

Great, the next amazement you will find is when you actually begin
the intevention process and plug in some X3D Event Utiities
and some other simple X3D interps and timer features.
Post some interesting VRML97 combinatorial sequencing examples
and let's add some X3D:)
Best Regards,
Joe

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