The WAVE Report on Digital Media
3D --- Media Creation --- Shared Space
Published by 4th Wave, Inc.
Issue #605 8/12/9
Special SIGGRAPH Issue
CONTENTS
SGI announced a version of OpenGL for Windows95 and Windows NT. In a direct challenge to Microsoft SGI was showing a side-by-side comparison of Direct3D and this tuned version of OpenGL. SGI claimed it ran 5% to 20% faster than Direct3D. 3DLabs worked closely with SGI on this version of OpenGL. When asked, it was hinted that 3DLabs would be supporting SGI on the drivers which will enable OpenGL to be accelerated on PCs.
Mitsubishi and Evans & Sutherland Show 3Dpro Graphics
Both Mitsubishi and E&S were showing a very fast OpenGL graphics card. The specifications include 24 bit z-buffer, 32bit color (RGB + Alpha), Anti-Aliased lines, 60M bilinear MIP-mapped pixels/sec fill rate and resolutions up to 1280 X 1024. It uses up to 15MB of Mitsubishi's 3DRAM for the frame buffer memory.
Building on the success of Performer, SGI announced its successor, Cosmo, which combines both Open Inventor and Performer. The Cosmo Player API is now open which will allow 3rd parties access to a high level API which is extensible. It was suggested that extensions could include: multimedia streaming, real time data feeds and database connectivity for VRML. When combined with the OpenGL version for PCs Cosmo is the first serious entry by SGI into the PC market place for 3D software. The API will be available from the SGI Web site.
Seybold Announces "World Movers Developers Conference"
In conjunction with SGI, Seybold Seminars announced a conference for VRML 2.0 compliant tools and technologies, to be held in San Francisco, December 3-4, 1996. This will be held in conjunction with Seybold's Web publishing and technology conference held from December 2-5,1996.
BigBook Shows Innovative VRML Application
VRML 2.0 is already showing its potential as a fertile ground for 3D tool and application innovation. BigBook, which claims to be the leading online Yellow Page service, was showing how the Yellow Page database can be linked to 3D replicas of major cities. A user can fly through sections of a city and see businesses in a district. The visualization can even be extended to specific buildings where all the business in a building are shown. The first city to be supported is San Francisco. BigBook sees the advertising potential as being significant where companies can identify their presence on the buildings and the sky (airplanes with flying banners).
605.2 3Dfx Looks Forward by John Latta
Today 3Dfx is at the head of the performance pack. Going against conventional logic that says 3D technology can only succeed if it incorporates the best current 2D acceleration, 3Dfx has carved out a section of the market largely on its own. Even as a stand-alone capability it dominated E3 and that positioning was kept at SIGGRAPH. An example of how their Voodoo technology is being used was San Francisco Rush by Atari Games. Tucked away in the back of the Digital Bayou, players were continually lined up for the arcade game driving experience.
How does 3Dfx intend on retaining its current role in the market? To reach mass markets it will use its relationship with Alliance - watch for an announcement in October for details. To retain its position at the high end of the market 3Dfx will use as a reference SGI system performance. It believes that today it brings SGI RE2 level performance to the PC at the sub $300 price point. The next challenge is to accomplish that same parity with SGI's Infinite Reality. Watch for the release of this next generation 3D acceleration approximately a year from now.
605.3 The Second Coming of VRML by David Lohse
Last year's SIGGRAPH was seen by many as the event that gave the then-fledgling VRML its spark of life. It was the debut of VRML 1.0, which attracted the attention of many, both big and small, regardless of its somewhat primitive capabilities and lack of practical experience. But it was the promise of something new, and possibly something potentially great, that drew us in. Now, only a year later, SIGGRAPH 96 continued the saga by fanning the flames with the first real debut of VRML 2.0.
VRML 1.0 was a fine mechanism for transmitting 3D graphics on the Web; but with static and usually simple 3D scenes, VRML would have been relegated to the status of novelty, at least before the introduction of VRML 2.0. Version 2.0 of the still-young language (1.0 wasn't really a language, per se, but 2.0 has moved closer in that direction) provides the important and possibly revolutionary new features of animation, sound, and most importantly, interaction and scripting capabilities.
Several key events at SIGGRAPH focused on VRML, including two separate BOFs (Birds-of-a-Feather meetings) and two panel discussions. All of the key VRML players were in attendance, including Don Brutzman, Gavin Bell, and of course Mark Pesce, among others, as well as other industry luminaries such as the impassioned Andries van Dam, one of the venerated godfathers of 3D.
More than 10 companies sporting VRML products and technologies were on the show floor, occupying overall much more space than last year. At the product demo BOF on Tuesday night, more than 20 companies were on hand to display their VRML products. With a few exceptions such as SGI, Netscape and Sony, the companies represented were all still fledgling (1 - 2 years old) and relatively small. Interesting demos included:
Axial Systems, Inc., who showed an amazingly good version of a DOOM- like game built entirely in VRML 2.0 and running at 30 fps;
Black Sun Interactive, which sells VRML 2.0-based servers for hosting virtual multi-user worlds with avatars and reasonably fast texture mapping;
and several VRML 2.0-compliant browsers such as Netscape's Live3D and VREAM's WIRL, as well as several VRML authoring toolkits from vendors including VREAM, Virtus and Paragraph.
The technical issues BOF covered three primary topics: the formation of the new VRML Consortium, a discussion of the proposed VRML 2.0 binary file format, and the current status of and proposed changes to VRML 2.0's external interface.
As explained by Mark Pesce, the Consortium, which will be the ruling authority of and the standards setter for VRML, will be composed of 4 bodies: the board of directors, a standards and specification group (consisting of working groups and a design review board, which is the new entity derived from the old VAG), a conformance and compliance group, and a research and development group, who will as part of their duties supply an open, common code base that is proposed to be hosted at a major university.
At the meeting, a public announcement was made by the combined group of Apple, IBM, and Paragraph, stating that they had developed a binary file format for VRML 2.0. The proposed spec is undergoing review, and on 8/21 an RFP will be issued for alternative proposals and review. Using IBM's compression technology, the binary file format would allow up to 50:1 compression ratios for VRML scenes.
The external interface for VRML 2.0 was discussed. Currently the 2.0 specs have hooks for both Java and JavaScript scripting, and an RFP is also being issued 8/21 and ending 9/23 calls for a review of the current interface handling and alternative proposals. There seemed much interest in designing an interface that would allow *any* external scripting language to be used, but doubts were raised as to the difficulty and problems in doing so.
Finally (whew!), preparations were made for the planning of the VRML Symposium #2 (the first one, last year, was held in San Diego in December). The Symposium will be in CA again (city hasn't been decided - likely near Monterey), sometime in late November or early December. The potential of a conference under the Consortium was also hinted at.
605.4 Civil War: PCs vs. Workstations by David Lohse
The most fiercely debated topic at this year's SIGGRAPH is evident from the inflammatory title of the panel discussion that was its focal point:
"Graphics PCs Will Put Workstation Graphics in the Smithsonian"
This issue, which was probably the most oft-heard topic of discussion on the show floor, came to a boiling point near the end of the conference at the panel discussion featuring panel members from Sun, SGI, S3 and Microsoft. The panelists were well chosen, allowing the discussion to remain lively, informative and entertaining, as they traded scathing barbs throughout. The meeting was held in the conference's largest hall, and was the only SRO event of the week - obviously the issue has the attention of many.
Until now, graphics workstations (read: SGI) have completely dominated the serious graphics content development market. However, advances in PC technology, lowering prices, and new PC tools over the last several years have made it possible to create relatively high-end content on high-end models of PCs. The focus for this PC market is Windows NT-based PCs, which offer a 32-bit operating system and advanced features such as symmetric multiprocessing, multitasking and security.
Both sides of the panel (S3 and Microsoft vs. Sun and SGI) made convincing arguments, leaving no clear answer to the issue at hand. Basically the PC side argued that PCs are already beginning to erode the previously workstation-dominated low end of the market, and will soon enter and then dominate the mid-level as well, eventually obviating the need for workstations at all. Their arguments were based on the lower price point of the PC, and the advantages they have due to innovation in a diverse marketplace. In response, the workstation side countered by claiming that workstations are and always will be at the cutting edge of graphics technology, and will remain the leaders by providing technology for the "very best" content creation, while PCs will remain tools for the "less serious" content developers at the lower end of the spectrum.
Although the issue is far from resolved, it obvious on the show floor that the PC graphics market is indeed flourishing and getting the attention of many content developers. Nearly 10 independent vendors of "graphics PCs" were highly visible, including:
605.5 Ray Dream Correction by Rob Glidden
Wave had previously reported that the Windows version 4.1 of Ray Dream from Fractal would use Apple's Rave 3D interface in addition to Microsoft's Direct3D. Fractal has informed us that this is incorrect. Only the Mac version will support Rave, and the PC version will support Microsoft's Direct3D. Both platforms will support Apple's 3DMF file format.
**We will continue our coverage of SIGGRAPH with our regular issue which will be out on Friday, 16 August.
Copyright 1996 4th Wave Inc.
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