3D --- Media Creation --- Shared Space
Published by 4th WAVE, Inc.
Issue #706 3/28/97
CONTENTS
Newfire: Torch Available; OEM Agreements
This Monday Newfire made available Torch (previously known as Heat), their high-performance VRML 2.0 player with a 3D engine optimized for the Internet. Reportedly able to deliver "game speed" performance, Torch uses a number of "tricks" in order to achieve its high performance, including culling, LOD, back-face elimination and clipping techniques.
Newfire also announced OEM agreements with 3Dfx Interactive and Diamond Multimedia. Under the agreements, 3Dfx and Newfire will jointly distribute an optimized version of Torch for accelerators based on Voodoo Graphics and Voodoo Rush, and Diamond and Newfire will distribute an optimized version of Torch for Diamond's Monster 3D board.
ATI's 3D RAGE PRO First To Support AGP
This week at Intel's Visual Computing Day, ATI demonstrated the 3D RAGE PRO, which they trumpeted as the first chip to fully support Intel's AGP technology. The 3D RAGE PRO supports the AGP 2X mode (133 MHz), allowing memory bandwidths of up to 500 MB/s. The chip also features 100 MHz SGRAM (with bandwidths up to 800 MB/s), a floating-point set-up engine, a 4 KB texture cache, and DVD support. The 3D RAGE PRO, which is targeted at the high-end board and mid-range OEM systems markets, will ship in the second half of the year and will be available for $30 to $36 in volume.
8 New Design Wins For Permedia
3D Labs has announced eight new design wins for the Permedia and Permedia NT chipsets from Taiwan-based manufacturers including Britech, DataExpert, Deltron, Gainward, GVC Media, Mitac, Tekram and UMAX. In addition, UMAX announced that they will be launching their first Intel- based PC, the UmaxPC, which will ship with an optional Permedia or GLINT 500 TX processor.
Apples Licenses ThinkFish Rendering Technology
Apple Computer has licensed LiveStyles, a QuickDraw3D plug-in for artistic rendering capabilities. LiveStyles is an "intelligent rendering technology" developed at MIT Media Lab, which views a 3D object and draws the key lines and strokes in user-selectable fine art motifs. Fractal Design also recently announced a license of LiveStyles. The plug-in LiveStyles Player will be available at the end of Q2 from both ThinkFish's and Apple's Web sites.
OZ Interactive announced OZ Virtual 2.0, the newest release of their 3D/VRML 2.0 browser. New version 2.0 features include avatar voice chat capabilities with 20 custom voice fonts, more than 40 user-controlled avatar motions and facial expressions, HTML support for 2D Web pages from within virtual worlds, and support for VRML 2.0, ActiveX, DirectX, MMX and Java.
OZ also announced OZ Server 1.0, with features including shared object behaviors across virtual worlds, unlimited scalability to accommodate thousands of users in a single virtual world, and full VRML 2.0 functionality.
MetaTools and Real3D Agreement
This week MetaTools Inc. and Real3D announced an agreement for the joint development and licensing of MetaTool's Real Time Geometry (RTG) technology into many of Real3D's products. Joint development teams will begin immediately in both New Jersey and Orlando. It is expected that Real3D's products will utilize RTG's dynamic resolution and Trixel technology.
http://www.real3d.com http://www.metatools.com
Earlier this week STB Systems acquired Symmetric Inc., under an agreement in which Symmetric will become a wholly owned subsidiary of STB Systems with an unchanged management team and product line. Additional terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
http://www.symmetric.com http://www.stb.com
STB Systems has released the Nitro 3D accelerator, targeted at the gaming market. Here are the stats:
Bundled Titles: HyberBlade and MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries (Activision) WIRL (VREAM), Simply3D (Micrografx)
New 3DS MAX Plug-Ins From Digimation
Digimation Inc. has released several new MAXimizer 3D Studio MAX plug- ins:
Texture Lab: Elemental Tools - A set of 6 procedural textures that represent fire, water, fog, electricity, strata and noise. Cost: $149
Glider - Consists of two new space warps, Object Glider and Particle Glider. They work by constraining geometry or particles to the surface topology of another selected object. Cost: $150
Atomizer - Works in conjunction with MAX particle systems, allowing them to use any MAX object as a particle. Cost: $95
Integraph To Provide 3D Engine for IBM Workstations
Intergraph Computer Systems has announced that they will be the exclusive provider of 3D graphics engines for IBM's new Pentium Pro- based line of workstations. The workstations will feature Intergraph's Intense 3D Pro 1000-T accelerator. The Intense 3D Pro 1000 feature SDRAM memory, tri-linear MIP-mapping, 24- or 32-bit double buffering, a 24-bit Z-buffer and YUV to RGB color space conversion.
Diamond Announces Stealth 3D 2000 Pro
New from Diamond Multimedia, the Stealth 3D 2000 Pro, featuring:
Memory: 4 MB EDO DRAM Chip: S3 ViRGE/DX Features: TV-out (retail version only), full-screen digital video at 30 fps, integrated 170 MHz RAMDAC OS: Windows 95, Windows NT, DOS (Windows 3.1 planned) APIs: OpenGL, Direct3D Cost: $199.95 Availability: Now
SolidWorks Supports Intel's VCI
SolidWorks Corp. has announced support for Intel's Visual Computing Initiative (VCI), an industry initiative aimed at developing new visual computing capabilities for the PC platform. Visual Computing is described as "the convergence of video, 3D modeling and imaging technologies," and was the basis for Intel's "Platforms for Visual Computing" event held this week.
At this year's NAB, Pinnacle (booth 8658) will be showing several new products, incorrectly identified in the last issue of WAVE. The correct description is:
DVEXTREME: the world's first Windows NT-based, ten-bit, multi-channel 3D digital video effects generator. Designed for broadcast and post- production applications, DVEXTREME sets a new standard for real time digital effects performance and affordability.
Lightning: A super fast, ten-bit, multiple channel, real time video image storage and retrieval system for broadcast operations. Lightning is Windows NT-based to ensure ease of installation, operation, networking and expansion.
The conference will provide an in-depth demonstration of the Media 100 le and Media 100 lx real-time digital video systems. The Media 100 le includes real-time nonlinear editing software, Vincent digital video engine, real-time effects, real-time digital audio, full-integrated CG, ColorFX, MotionFX and FastFX. The Media 100 lx includes the full Media 100 le feature set along with component video I/O, junction box, batch digizine and draft mode image quality.
Cost: Free Registration: (800) 947-5670 x100
Location Date Location Date
Chicago, IL Mar 25 Reston, VA Apr 2 Atlanta, GA Mar 27 Santa Monica, CA Apr 3 Dallas, TX Apr 1 New York, NY Apr 17 San Francisco, CA Apr 1 Boston, MA Apr 23 Seattle, WA Apr 2 Philadelphia, PA Apr 24
Booth: M7319
New: Apple will unveil QuickTime 3.0 for Macintosh and Windows as well as new FireWire solutions
Events: - NAB Keynote by Ellen Hancock, Tuesday, April 8, 10am-11am, Sands Expo Center, Rooms 105/205 - Apple Q&A, press conference and booth walk-through, Tuesday, April 8, 6:45pm, open to press only, RSVP 408/982-2556 - Developer/Press Reception, Wednesday, April 9, 9am-11am, open to press only
706.3 OpenGL's Growing Support by John Latta
SGI has announced a number of new OpenGL level 3 licensees for the PC. These include: Number Nine Visual Technology, ELSA Gmbh, Compaq, 3Dfx Interactive, Rendition, and Interdimension Multimedia. In addition, several companies are upgrading their licenses, including Intel and AccelGraphics. There are currently more than 50 OpenGL licensees.
SGI also disclosed the results of its on going efforts to better tune CosmoGL for Windows. SGI has been focusing on improving the performance of CosmoGL for the Windows platform and early results were seen last year at SIGGRAPH '96. Early on SGI's efforts were focused on tuning the code for software only rendering, however, as the effort progressed this became an effort to improve both the geometry engine and rasterizer sections of the code.
SGI did state that the current version of CosmoGL for Windows does not support multi-threading. This is of interest on the Windows NT platform where it would be possible to optimize the use of multiple processors for various functions in the image generation pipeline and thus use additional processors for the geometry engine.
The results of their current CosmoGL work have now been provided to Microsoft. SGI hopes that this will be considered for incorporation into both the next release of Windows 95, code named Memphis, and Windows NT 5.0. SGI sees their efforts on OpenGL being complementary with the OpenGL integration activities at Microsoft.
http://www.sgi.com/Technology/openGL/index.html
706.4 trueSpace3/Ray Dream Correction by David Lohse
In our last issue, we ran an announcement on Caligari's new trueSpace3, which included the statement, based on Caligari's own product information,
"3D Paint - trueSpace3 is currently the only 3D program on the PC that offers integrated 3D painting capabilities, allowing users to paint textures or bump maps directly on 3D objects."
However, we soon received a response from Ray Dream, which had to say:
"The Ray Dream product line has featured integrated 3D paint capabilities since version 3.0 of Ray Dream Designer, which was released over two years ago. "
706.5 Gamma: 3D Labs' New Geometry Engine by John Latta and David Lohse
3D Labs this week unveiled GLINT Gamma, an AGP-compliant second- generation 3D geometry pipeline. Gamma will accelerate the complete 3D geometry pipeline in a single chip by providing 1 GFLOP of floating- point power dedicated to 3D processing, resulting in reported maximum throughputs of 3.3 m meshed polygons/sec with shading, transforms, lighting and backface culling enabled. The GLINT Gamma is expected to support 100% of the geometry and lighting functionality of OpenGL 1.1. GLINT Gamma-enabled boards are expected to start shipping during the second half of 1997.
---- WAVE recently interviewed Neil Trevett, the VP of Marketing for 3D Labs, on his views on the importance of Gamma.
-->WAVE: You have described that there needs to be an education process on the role of GLINT Gamma - what is that process?
-->Neil Trevett: Many 3D applications on the PC are performance-limited by the geometry pipeline running in software on the host. We believe offloading the complete geometry and lighting pipeline into the GLINT Gamma silicon is going to have a more significant impact on application performance than anything we do to speed up pixel fill-rates. We are working with the 3D board vendor community and the 3D software development community to make them aware of what today's performance bottleneck actually is, how to fix it with GLINT Gamma, and what that is going to mean in terms of application-level performance on the PC.
-->W: Why cannot microprocessors fulfill the role of GLINT Gamma with the increasing performance of the Intel processors?
-->NT: Although Intel's processors are getting faster, they continue to be a long way behind what is needed to extract the best performance from today's 3D rasterization chips. Because we use hardwired, non- programmable logic to implement GLINT Gamma, it can easily provide both more performance and better price/performance than any general-purpose programmable CPU. Even if host CPUs could approach the performance level of GLINT Gamma-type devices in the future you will still benefit by off loading geometry processing into cost-effective hardware - freeing the CPU to process the application.
-->W: What makes GLINT Gamma a significantly different product from Delta?
-->NT: GLINT Delta is a 100 MFlop processor that offloads setup processing from the host, to boost achievable geometry performance on Pentium Pro-class machines from about 300K to 1 million polygons per second - provided that 100% of CPU cycles are applied to the geometry pipeline. GLINT Gamma is pin-compatible with GLINT Delta, but is a 1,000 MFlop processor that implements the complete 3D transform, lighting and setup pipeline to boost geometry performance to 3.3 million polygons per second. The difference between GLINT Delta and GLINT Gamma is not only the increased geometry performance, but also that the increased performance is achieved with no host load - freeing the host to run the application.
-->W: What vertical markets is Gamma targeted to?
-->NT: GLINT Gamma will speed-up any 3D application using any standard API - such as OpenGL, Direct3D, Heidi or QuickDraw 3D. However GLINT Gamma will have the most benefit for applications that use many polygons and so are heavily geometry-bound. CAD uses many small polygons and is one application area that will benefit greatly from GLINT Gamma. GLINT Gamma will be more expensive than GLINT Delta and so it will be used on the higher-end GLINT boards for the professional markets such as CAD and animation authoring.
-->W: How will the ViewPerf benchmarks improve with Gamma?
-->NT: Today's Viewperf figures for a GLINT Delta-enabled board are around the mid-twenties for CDRS-03 on high performance hosts. We expect that GLINT Gamma will boost CDRS-03 performance to the mid- forties. This figure will be achievable even on less expensive hosts - because the CPU is now doing nothing but composing the lists of polygons to be rendered.
-->W: Why is AGP important to Gamma?
-->NT: Even with hardware setup processing such as GLINT Delta, which eliminates the need to pass slope information across the backplane to the graphics subsystem, the limit in performance for 33 MHz PCI is about 1.5M polygons per second. GLINT Gamma will be the first professional AGP device, and will use AGP to increase the performance of 3D on the PC - rather than reducing cost. With AGP we will be able to realize the full 3.3M polygons/sec performance of GLINT Gamma. We have also found that AGP's sideband addressing to be essential for efficient processing of 3D vertex array data structures by GLINT Gamma's intelligent DMA controller.
706.6 Conference Report - ASI, Las Vegas by John Latta
The Coin-Op market is often seen as being at the leading edge of entertainment content for its use of 3D technology and bringing out leading fast action games. The ASI show is one of two annual events in the US focused exclusively on coin-op and the WAVE Report went to sample industry trends.
Sega was showing a new racing game (Super GT) based on the Lockheed- Martin Model 3 platform. We previously reported on Virtua Fighter 3 (see WAVE #609.8) but this has not sold well in the U.S. where players have grown tired of fighting games. We tried SuperGT and was impressed. A number of comments were heard from the show floor that it is the best driving game yet. However, Sega has again gone to new heights with pricing - the unit sales for approximately $19,000 to the operator (approximately the same price for the single seat Deluxe version with motion and a 50" - screen or the Twin two seat smaller screen). In a new twist, Sega has a leasing arrangement with Firestone Financial Crop. This is an 18-month lease, which cost the operator a total of $20,200 including the FMV payout of $4,400 at the end. The lease payments average out approximately $800/month, which is approximately $200/week. If the game does well over the 18 month period as the best title yet has done, Daytona, this is a good deal for the operator. We see where Super GT has a much better chance to succeed than Virtual Fighter 3 ever did (at least in the U.S.)
There was no end to the high cost of games with Sega; its House of the Dead costs $14,900 (based on the Lockheed Martin Model 2) and $15,900 for Top Skate. Sega was not alone in its pricing with Namco with its Alpine Racer2 Deluxe at $19,245. A new lower cost version was released called the Alpine Racer 2 Compact for $12,945.
Konami provided only a few more details on its Cobra 3D technology that it is using from IBM Japan (see WAVE #609.8). They were showing video clips from a game called PF573 (Polygon Fighter) which looked impressive, however, one has to wait on the final game to make quality judgments. This is expected to be ready in May and pricing has not been set. A driving game with the same technology is due in December. Another game that was impressive with its human interface was Hang Pilot. Similar in concept to the Evans and Sutherland hang glider game the Konami version has two screens - look down and forward. One steers with a hang bar. The objective of the game is to navigate to air balloons. Similar in concept to Namco's Prop Cycle the game appears to be more of a challenge. Pricing for Hang Pilot is approximately $20,000.
Running counter to the high cost trend was ICE (Innovative Concepts in Entertainment) with a game called SkiMaxx at $9,000. This is a single paddle water ski game based in part on Alpine Racer. In comparison to Sega's Super GT the 3D image quality was no where the same but for the operator on a budget, most are, this could represent a good buy.
As a follow-up to its announcement at the ACME show, Microsoft was present with some of the first Windows standards based coin-op platforms. Showing in the booth was a game written by Inner Workings in England being hosted on a Windows system built by HanproPC using the 3Dfx Voodoo chip. The game is called Plane Crazy whose objective is to fly an aircraft down a narrow canyon. We found the flying challenging but the lack of depth cues made navigation difficult around the walls and other obstacles. No pricing was announced and the game is due Q4 1997.
The WAVE Report spoke with Frank Happ, President of Happ Controls. This company has been one of the strongest supporters of the Windows platform initiative. Frank is working to develop components to implement a Windows standard system and will do all but the final system. As Frank indicated he does not want to be in the software publishing business. Yet, his major concern right now is that there are not enough titles available.
As a follow-up we spoke with Jason Robar, Games Technology Evangelist at Microsoft. He indicated that Taito and Dynamo will be coming out with systems also. Software publishers either committed to titles or seriously evaluating them include: Sierra, Interplay and Electronic Arts. Jason expects that there will be from 1 to 2 locations this summer running tests on Windows based systems. He expects 3 - 10 titles by the end of the year. The major roll out of systems will come in H1 1998. Jason cautioned that it takes at least 12 months for a new title to be developed and this is consistent with a 1998 schedule.
706.7 Conference Report - Global Virtual Manufacturing, Detroit by Jonathan Sunberg
On March 19-20th, 4th WAVE's (WAVE's parent company) president, Dr. John spoke at the first Global Virtual Manufacturing conference in Detroit, MI. The conference, co-sponsored by EDS and VR News with cooperation from SGI and The Engineering Society, lived up to its claim of being a precedent-setting conference on the use of virtual reality and related technologies to stimulate prototyping and the rest of the manufacturing process.
The first day comprised of speeches and floor exhibits, while the second day contained small, classroom type workshops, where attendees could learn more about where VR and manufacturing is being utilized today. Exhibits were also showcased on the second day.
Copies of Dr. Orr and the rest of the speakers can be found at:
Dr. Latta's speech can be found at:
http://www.fourthwave.com/VM-Final/index.html
Mayor of Detroit - Honorable Dennis W. Archer
The conference began with words of hope and a bright future for Detroit and the manufacturing community, when the Mayor of Detroit, the Honorable Dennis W. Archer gave a more than optimistic glance of where he sees Detroit in the upcoming century. As the Mayor put it "VR and Manufacturing could create the second Industrial Revolution."
Dr. Orr, head of Orr Associates International, a consulting firm in the area of advanced manufacturing and engineering automation, reiterated Mayor Archer's sentiments on the upcoming 2nd Industrial Revolution. But also stated that GVM represented the "point where VR becomes an actual tool rather than a novelty in manufacturing." Dr. Orr continued by reminding the audience of the rapid evolution of technology, thus concluding that if they do not attempt Virtual Manufacturing soon they could be left in the dust.
Dr. David K Kahaner - Asian Perspective
Dr. Kahaner, founder and Director of ATIP, a US nonprofit organization, which deals with advanced technologies throughout Asia, gave the Japan/Asia perspective of Virtual Manufacturing. Unfortunately due to time constraints his talk was primarily about Japan.
Dr. Kahaner described Asian Virtual Manufacturing occurring primarily within research and development in the universities. He feels that it is being led by the government with a large cash flow going into institutions and labs, but no commercial elements have yet to be created other than art and games. Dr. Kahaner named four Japanese professors and one commercial researcher as the primary experts in this field:
Susumu Tachi (University of Tokyo) Michitaka Hirose (University of Tokyo) Hiroo Iwata (University of Tsukuba) Tohru Ifukube (Hokkaido University) Junji Nomura (Matsushita Inc.)
Mr. Gary Eves - European Perspective
Mr. Eves works at Pera International's Reality Centre, one of the world's most advanced virtual reality demonstration and development facilities located in the UK.
Like Dr. Kahaner and Dr. Latta, following him, Mr. Eves felt that the big named companies were the ones using VR Software, but he felt that it was the smaller companies pushing the products. Mr. Eves went on to explain that nearly every European aerospace and automobile company is currently using VR software programs. He broke down the European Virtual Manufacturing segment into five countries and named a few of the players for each;
UK- Division, Superscape, VRS, Pera, Datapath, CADCentre Germany - Fraunhoffer Research Institute France - Arscimed, Corys, INRIA Italy - a few small companies making high quality products Sweden - Clarus, Media 2000 Networks
Dr. John N. Latta - North American Perspective
If you are a frequent reader of WAVE, you should be very familiar with Dr. Latta and his style of analysis. Nothing changed, as he gave more stats, slides, and analysis that one could bat an eye at. To view these slides go to www.fourthwave.com.
In a snapshot Dr. Latta dissected the Virtual Manufacturing market into three areas: Products, Research, and Institutions. In each section he gave numerous examples of applications and descriptions of what is occurring in each area. After a rather fast synopsis of the three categories he then described key major developments for some major US companies that have used Virtual Manufacturing, these included; Boeing, McDonnell Douglass, Caterpillar, John Deere, Chrysler, Ford Motor Company, and General Motors. Finally he wrapped up his talk by describing what he sees as a need for a so-called rebel within the company to take Virtual Manufacturing in and spread it throughout the company without letting antiquated management beliefs spoil it. Otherwise Dr. Latta feels Virtual Manufacturing cannot catch on without such a catalyst. But, he does feel it will catch on and gave the market figures to prove it:
Virtual Manufacturing
1997 - $570.0 Million
1998 - $684.0 Million
1999 - $991.0 Million
2000 - $1,586.9 Million
On the second day, the conference was broken up into five 1 1/2 hour workshops, with each attendee able to attend four.
TEAM - Technologies Enabling Agile Manufacturing
TEAM is a collaboration between five DOE labs and plants, 50 + industry members, industry consortia, academia, and other government agencies. Both Richard Neal and Bob Burleson spoke on behalf of TEAM. They each explained TEAMs goal of addressing manufacturing as a total collaborative system over network environments.
TEAM's ultimate goal is to deliver an integrated set of tools enabling integrated product realization through commercial vendors by the year 2000. They set up the following criteria for the tools; they must be affordable, easy-to-use, validated, modular and plug and play compatible.
In September TEAM is planning a demonstration which will highlight:
1. Forming Process Models 2. Inspection Criteria for Tooling 3. Closed Loop Control of Press 4. Designer/Mftg. Interaction
To learn more about team email: team@ornl.gov
http://cewww.eng.ornl.gov:/team/home.html
The I-CARVE Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is currently developing COVIRDS, a system for conceptual shape design of products or components using virtual reality technologies. Professor Rajit Gadh along with 3 of his students demonstrated the work that they are doing.
An interesting aspect of this workshop was the work that Prof. Gadh and his students are doing with hand and speech input into design and development. By using haptic controls (i.e. Cyberglove) the user was able to move and alter the design within the constraints he had placed in the program. But the user could also use speech to alter the design and move parts, making the interaction flow smoothly and much more effectively. Prof. Gadh explained that once the user was comfortable with this way of working, design time was greatly reduced.
By using haptic tools, the lab also discovered they could incorporate attributes like weight, global constraints, sharp edges, thermal fluctuations, and conductivity to the design process.
http://icarve.me.wisc.edu/groups/virtual
Converting CAD Models into Virtual Prototypes
The Iowa Center for Emerging Manufacturing Technology or ICEMT is one of the leading VR research institutions in the US. Dr. James Oliver, professor at Iowa State University, explained the center and its mission. The center, which consists of 15 faculty members and 75 graduate students, emphasizes scientific and engineering applications for synthetic environments. Their goal is to take off-the-shelf equipment and apply it to real-world applications. Currently the center's pride and joy is its 12x12 foot C2. The C2 is a CAVE environment with three walls and a floor. If you are unfamiliar with a CAVE, it is a completely immersive virtual reality environment.
Dr. Oliver did not gloat too much about his center's prowess, but did get into his thoughts on Virtual Prototyping. He feels that there are three main applications that Virtual Prototyping will complement. They are:
1. Ergonomics, for visibility and reach assessment 2. Analysis Interpretation (i.e. Thermal Flows) 3. Real-time, human-in-the-loop systems (human factor studies and performance assessment)
Dr. Oliver, though, also pointed out Virtual Prototyping's challenges with frame rate being the most important, followed by latency, tracker resolution and accuracy, registration, physically-based behavior, and haptics.
Prof. Pat Banarjee and his two students held this workshop from the University of Illinois, Chicago College of Engineering. They are investigating the use of VRML to represent engineering parts in Internet-accessible supplier catalogs. Using a web browser they demonstrated how they could select and view - stereoscopically if necessary - 3D models of components and subassemblies.
Unfortunately the workshop really did not delve into any uses for this type of catalog other than as a depository to look at images and find out their dimensions and characteristics. Therefore I surmised my own thoughts on possible uses for the application. I wondered out loud, if a user might be able to actually pull the part out of the page and place it into his own CAD model to see if it would work effectively in his model. Or maybe it could work the other way with one taking a part from his own CAD model and seeing if it would integrate into the HTML. They said that is interesting and something they would think about.
Unfortunately WAVE was unable to make every workshop, thus we missed Virtual Factories. But we have included a short description from the GVM program.
A team led by Prof. Dana S. Nau at the Institute for Systems Research is developing an integrated virtual manufacturing tool kit for design, planning, and partner selection in the manufacture of complex electromechanical assemblies. The project is a cooperative venture with several industrial companies and government agencies, and its purpose is to aid competitiveness by providing ways to rapidly assess the cost, performance, and time to market of proposed designs. The resulting system will provide feedback on design performance, manufacturability, and production alternatives, taking into account the capabilities of potential partners.
AESOP showcased SiMPLE++, software for object-oriented, graphical and integrated modeling, simulation and animation of systems and business processes. SiMPLE supports all UNIX workstations and Win95 and NT.
Bentley showcased MicroStation MasterPiece V5.6. MasterPiece is an advanced engineering visualization tool for PC, Mac, and UNIX. It utilizes ray tracing and animation to let the user create photorealistic images, walk-through and object animations, and process or mechanical simulations.
MasterPieces features include rendering, lighting, various view controls, animation controls, texture mapping, and fully integrated modeling.
Deneb Robotics highlighted its exhibit with its eight core products; IGRIP, the 3D simulation based tool for designing and evaluation and off-line programming robotic workcells; QUEST, the Queuing Event Simulation Tool; ENVISION, the 3D simulation based tool for virtual prototyping and ergonomic analysis; VirtualNC, the 3D simulation based tool for machine tool functionality; UltraArc, for robotic arc welding applications, UltraSpot, for robotic spot welding applications; UltraPaint, for robotic painting application, and UltraFinish for robotic painting applications.
Division showed off all of its dVISE products, which comprise of dV/Pilot, dV/Player, dV/Review, dV/MockUp, and dV/Reality. All of Division software supports UNIX and Win NT.
Engineering Animation Inc. (EAI) showcased its Vis Product line. These 3D visualization software products are built to allow complete visualization throughout the entire product assembly with fly -through control and mock-up capabilities.
EAI did make a major announcement the day before the conference. Along with Sense8 Corporation, EAI has agreed to collaborate EAI's cost effective Vis products with Sense8's 3D/VR expertise to allow customers to model complex behavioral characteristics into their CAD data and 3D models and immersively interact with designs.
Sense8's products include WorldToolKit, a 3D/VR development tool, and World Up, and easy to use 3D/VR development tool for less technical users.
EDS showcased a very impressive exhibit, portraying a complete digital manufacturing process. The exhibit took attendees from the first steps of the design process of a public bus to be used in the streets of Detroit, showcasing a demo drawing on Input Technologies VisionMaker PS, to actually creating the final clay prototype. Each step after the initial design process up to the actual prototype production was created through Division's dVISE software.
The exhibit was used not only to showcase EDS's capabilities, but also to exemplify the benefits of visiting their new Virtual Reality Center in Detroit.
HP featured its own version of a 3D viewer. The HP Shared 3D Viewer is used for viewing and annotating 3D CAD Models and 3D Model conferencing. The user can rotate, move and zoom 3D models, browse product structure information, highlight part structures, print model views, and set personal preferences. One can also, point at specific locations in 3D space, mark a 3D area, measure distances in 3D space, and add text comments.
The major factor that separates this software from most 3D viewers is its conferencing capabilities. HP Shared 3D Viewer offers session management, a dynamic list of participants, password protection for shared sessions, automatic data delivery, personal and shared camera control, and the ability for users to join and leave conferences at any time. The software is currently available for most workstation platforms.
http://www.hp.com or e-mail: enterprise_info@hp.com
This research center actually was not showcasing any commercial products, but instead some projects that they are currently working on. Their main exhibit feature was a complete front seat driver simulator. One was able to actually drive a virtual car in the drivers seat and feel torque against the steering wheel and brake and gas peddles as he/she manipulated the roads on the screen in front of him. A very realistic showcase. The visual imagery was delivered through the driver's head-mounted-display.
This exhibit showcased just one of many research projects occurring in the area of virtual reality at Iowa State University.
One of the most impressive products showcased at GVM was VisionMaker PS. This electronic drawing table allows users to draw in a completely natural way. The pressure sensitive cordless pen allows for extreme cursor accuracy and broad sweeping strokes. The desk is also foldable for easy storing. It currently supports SGI, Sun, PC, and Mac. This is one is a designers dream, but its current price is about $60,000.
Toronto, Ontario (416) 778-8990
Multigen exhibited SmartScene, a real-time immersive 3D assembly product line. With SmartScene users are immersed in a 3D visual workspace that takes advantage of natural hand-eye coordination, making the 3D scene assembly process more intuitive and creative.
SmartScene features a two-handed pinch glove interface, a 3D visual browser and widget toolset, ModelTime Behaviors for Models, Smartkits and SmartPallettes for a variety of models and parts, and optimization for real-time modeling.
Pyramid Systems showcased the ImmersaDesk. The ImmersaDesk is a semi- immersive, projection-based system featuring a 4x5 rear projected, 4.5" angled screen. It allows the user to look down and forward experiencing both bird's eye view and elevation views.
Pyramid tries to show the benefit of ImmersaDesk's portability, but being as large as a projection TV shows limitations in this thought. Though compared to a CAVE, it will save space and money, but won't give you the full immersive experience that CAVE's grant. Pyramid also offers CAVE environments.
I-DEAS Master Series an integrated mechanical CAE/CAD/CAM software systems was being showcased by SDRC. This software package coupled with their product data management solution allows for a concurrent engineering approach to product development.
The software suite comes with eight open architecture programs; I-DEAS Master Modeler for precision modeling systems, I-DEAS Master Surfacing for surface modeling, I-DEAS Master Assembly for digital mock-up, I- DEAS Simulation for structural optimization, I-DEAS Generative Machining for single system manufacturing, planning, and tooling, I- DEAS Drafting for detailed production mechanical drawings, I-DEAS Test for defining product specifications and guidelines, and I-DEAS Team Data Manager for product data management.
Silicon Graphics workstations were the primary machines being used at the conference. The company also showcased their SiliconWorks Solution Centers. These centers; Worldwide Automotive Solution Center - Farmington Hills, MI, Worldwide Aerospace Solution Center - Mountain View, CA, and SiliconWorks Solution Center - Boston, Mass., each utilize industry collaboration along with SGI knowledge and technology, to collaborate various platforms and people to the manufacturing process.
The technologies that these centers highlight include:
Web-based collaboration, rapid prototyping, digital/VR prototyping, simulation-based design, video-conferencing, metal forming, and CAD/CAE.
Tecoplan gave an overview of their Virtual Workshop. This program system identifies mistakes and problems in the assembly of components designed using CAD at an early stage. Within the system, objects are quickly and completely checked in 3D. Parts are also fit checked and assembly checked.
Virtual Workshop which operates on UNIX machines consists of five modules; BASE for data compression, visualizing, fit determination; ENHANCED for investigating moving parts, G-SEARCH for geometric components searches and 3D relations; D-SPACE for design space and determination for construction space; and an API for a program library.
Copyright 1997 4th WAVE, Inc.
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