[thelist] Adobe and the 3D web

[viveka]

At 6:38 PM +0000 26/3/01, phil wrote:
>Interesting that it is powered by the Viewpoint Media Player which is
>already in use by quite a few clients (Nike, Sony etc.).
>
>Does this mean you still need a new plug-in? Is it Viewpoint technology
>dressed up in Adobe's clothing?

It seems to have its own plugin, which will display
Viewpoint format files inside Atmosphere worlds.

Atmosphere looks a lot like Canoma, which was a
program for making 3D models of architectural scenes,
re-engineered by Adobe as a Web3D authoring solution.
Everyone's getting in on the act now. Canoma really
wasn't very good at modelling interiors though; it was
far better at exterior scenes where you can easily
determine vanishing points etc. It's based on Paul
Debevec's work with Facade: http://www.debevec.org

Adobe bought Canoma from MetaCreations. Part of
that deal was that Adobe committed to supporting the
.mts MetaStream 3D object format. MetaCreations
sold _all_ their tools, including Painter, Bryce, Poser,
etc; to various companies including Adobe and Corel.
All they kept was the MetaStream format. They then
changed their name to MetaStream. Recently, they
merged with Viewpoint, and tweaked the technology
a little; the streaming 3D object format is now called the
Viewpoint format, though the file extension is still .mts

>It seems strange there is two plug-ins
>needed to view similar technology... It seems to either [a] squeeze
>Viewpoint out of the market, or [b] promote the technology using the adobe
>name and reputation - I can't decide which...

Atmosphere seems to be for immersive worlds
(I'm yet to see _how_ immersive; all the demos are
in Flash, and I'm using a Mac, for which there's no
plugin yet). Viewpoint is for single objects. My guess
is that Adobe's not sure how far to support Viewpoint
either, they'll see which way the wind blows, i reckon.

Definitely interesting times. Of course, all of this stuff
can already be done with VRML, which has come a
*long* way since you last looked at it in 1997.
http://www.parallelgraphics.com has Mac & PC
versions of their plugin, supporting NURBS, reflection
mapping, fully immersive 3D worlds with multiuser
avatar stuff, chat, scriptable interaction (using
JavaScript or VBScript). On Windows, Cortona
can run full-screen, in stereo if you have 3D glasses,
as a screensaver or as an active desktop. And there
are VRML plugins available for just about every
platform, and just about every 3D program already
imports and exports VRML97 geometry...

But there are no visual authoring tools for the Mac.
So as far as I can see, it's dead in the water. I'm
trying to get the VRML tools companies to realise
that; if this statement rings true with anyone,
please let me know, so I can pass the sentiment on.

Regards,

V.
-- 
|  Viveka Weiley, Karmanaut.	 http://www.karmanaut.com
|  hypermedia :: virtual worlds :: human interface :: truth :: beauty
|  http://www.planet-earth.org :: http://www.MacWeb3D.org
|  http://www.sydney.siggraph.org.au