3D --- Media Creation --- Shared Space
Published by 4th WAVE, Inc. Issue
#713 6/06/97
CONTENTS
713.1 Quick News By Christina Person
3Dfx - Significant Changes to Prospectus Filed with SEC [May 22]
3Dfx Interactive modified its filing with the SEC with an announcement that Electronic Arts would invest $3m in the company. The number of shares being offered is being reduced from 4.5m to 3.0m. The filing on April 17 contained an excised version of the Technology Development and License Agreement with Sega but the May 22 version has removed this.
ViaGrafix releases DesignCAD 97
DesignCAD 97 is the latest version of its CAD system which incorporates 2D drafting with 3D solid modeling. The package includes: 2D drafting tools, 3D solid-modeling, tools which create complex surfaces, 3D walk-through and texture mapping and animation with AVI support. Design CAD 97 is also customized with Visual Basic and Visual C++ support, DWG file compatibility and free technical support. The suggested retail price is $499.95 with a competitive upgrade for $299.95. DesignCAD 2D users can upgrade for $149.95 while DesignCAD 3D users will pay $79.95.
Electronic Arts Announces 4th Quarter Results [May 6]
Electronic Arts (EA) has announced its operating results for the 4th fiscal quarter and fiscal year ending March 31, 1997. The 4th quarter revenues increased 23% from $117,254,000 to $143,791,000. Revenues for the fiscal year increased 17% from $531,887,000 to $624,766,000. Geographically, EA's 4th quarter revenues in Europe and North America increased 35 and 21 percent respectively.
S3 and Faroudja Laboratories Partner for Improved Video Technology [May 28]
S3 has exclusively licensed video technology from Faroudja to produce high-quality video for the personal computer. The technology license includes: Line Doubling, Detail Enhancer and Cross Color Suppression, Motion Tracking and Compensation, and Digital Compression Filter. The combined technologies will allow for DVD, cable and/or DSS video made for TV monitors to be shown on PC monitors with "cinema quality." This new technology will enter the market in two phases. Phase 1 is an S3 reference design board which should be available Q3 1997. Phase 2 is an integrated Faroudja technology single-chip design, due out in the first half of 1998.
Integrated Data Systems Announces "The Cave of Madness" [May 9]
IDS's new interactive 3D game, The Cave of Madness, combines VRML, HTML, Java, JavaScript and 2D graphics. IDS is seeking to show visitors its VRealm Builder 2.0 as well as what can be enabled in 3D on the web. The game requires Netscape Navigator 3.01 and SGI's CosmoPlayer Beta 3a plug-in for Windows 95/NT. It is designed for one player and runs on a PC with a minimum of 120 MHz Pentium and 16MB of RAM.
Macromedia Ships Director 6 Multimedia Studio [May 27]
Macromedia has announced the availability of Director 6 Multimedia Studio for Windows 95, NT 4.0, Macintosh and Power Macintosh. The Multimedia Studio also includes Extreme 3D 2, Macromedia xRes 3, and SoundEdit 16 2. Coupled with Streaming Shockwave, Director animations can now be played over the Internet without Web surfers. The estimated street price is $999. Studio or Director users may upgrade to Director 6 Multimedia Studio for $499 or Director 6 for $399.
ATI's All-In-Wonder Accelerator Board Selected By Sony [June 2]
ATI Technology Inc. has announced that Sony has selected its All-In-Wonder graphics and multimedia accelerator board for its new PCV-130 and PCV-150 systems. The All-In-Wonder provides six graphics and multimedia functions, so that purchasing add-in boards is not necessary. Included in these functions are 3D acceleration, video capture and interactive TV tuning.
LSI Logic Corp. and Micron Technology, Inc.'s Embedded DRAM Technology [June 2]
LSI Logic Corp. and Micron Technology, Inc. have announced an alliance to develop embedded DRAM technology. The companies will develop and produce digital logic integrated circuits capable of embedding from 64 to 128 Meg of conventional DRAM on a single chip. Each company will fund its own research with initial development products expected by mid-1998.
S3 Announces New Design Wins [June 2]
S3 has announced new design wins for their 3D accelerator chip, in addition to those mentioned in the last issue of WAVE. AcerPower Minitower PCs offer S3 Trio 64V+ or S3 ViRGE/GX-based video cards. The NEC Ready Series subsystem includes the S3 ViRGE/DX graphics accelerator also.
Computational Engineering Intl. Offers Hardcopy of Graphics with GLPrint [May 27]
Computational Engineering Intl. is now offering a new utility library called GLPrint. GLPrint captures OpenGL drawing commands and converts them to plot language that reproduces graphics as hardcopy. The program is written in standard C and can be embedded into graphics applications, like those for CAD/CAM/CAE, GIS and molecular modeling.
http://www.ceint.com/products/GLPrint/
Metatools, Inc. and Fractal Design Debut as MetaCreations [June 3]
Metatools, Inc. and Fractal Design have announced their merger as the newly named MetaCreations Corporation. The new symbol for NASDAQ is "MCRE" and became effective May 30, 1997. MetaCreations will be developing products and technologies for visual computing markets including; photography and video, digital imaging, animation, computer graphics, 3D and data visualization. The headquarters will be in Carpinteria, CA with offices in Scotts Valley, CA; Princeton, NJ; Dublin, Ireland; and Paris, France.
Sense8's Virtual Real Estate Shown at Intel Technology Series [June 2]
Sense8's Virtual Real Estate, an Intranet application for prospective home buyers to view homes for sale in a 3D/VR environment, was shown at the Intel Technology Series: The Visual Connected PC. Intel used Virtual Real Estate to demonstrate the advantages of the Pentium II architecture. Virtual Real Estate was created with Sense8's visual simulation tool World Up. Real estate agents and homebuyers can retrieve information about homes from photographs and videos to school proximity and shopping areas.
http://www.sense8.com/realestate/
StrayLight Corp. Designs "An Automotive Adventure" for Hoechst Celanese [May 30]
At the SAE '97 Trade Show in Detroit, StrayLight Corp. used its Virtual Reality 3D-XTC system to create a real-time interactive game, An Automotive Adventure, for Hoechst Celanese Technical Polymers. Players learned about Hoechst Celanese's product applications while using StrayLight's technology to transform the products into auto parts.
http://www.strayzr.com (Under Construction)
Softimage and Digital Announce Winners of 1996 Student Animation and Image Contest [June 2]
Softimage Inc. and Digital Equipment Corp. announced the winners of the Softimage Student Animation Contest that began at the last SIGGRAPH conference. The Grand Prizewinners for best animation and still image categories received a DIGITAL Personal Workstation with PowerStorm graphics loaded with Softimage 3D version 3.5 for Windows NT operating system. The grand prize winners for animation were Greg Tarteta, Gino Della-Savia, Peter Haralabous and Nick Michaleski. The grand prize winner for Still Image was Natalia Saenko. Softimage will launch the next Softimage Student Animation Contest at SIGGRAPH'97.
Microsoft has announced the next Meltdown event for 1997. It will be held July 15-17. Microsoft sponsors this event for its IHV and ISV partners to test game software and hardware due for release this Christmas. This date has been changed since the last announcement in WAVE.
http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/meltdown.htm
1997 Silicon Valley Personal Computer Design Conference
What: The 7th Annual Silicon Valley Personal Computer Design Conference When: August 13 - 15, 1997 Where: Holiday Inn Hotel, San Jose, California
The conference has issued a call for papers, panels, and tutorials for its 7th annual conference. Proposals should cover developing next-generation graphic, multimedia, motherboard, and full system and software solutions. Proposals should be submitted by Friday, June 6, 1997, should not exceed 500 words and should include the following: -title of paper, panel or tutorial -clear description of topic or problem -outline of presentation -your name, title, company, address, fax, phone, and email numbers. If accepted, final manuscripts are due July 18, 1997. Product description proposals will not be accepted. Send proposals to: SVPC Program Chairman, SysTech Research, 1625 The Alameda, Ste. 207, San Jose, CA 95126.
email: systech@ix.netcom.com
On May 27th Sun released its draft version of the Java 3D API. Sun claims that it has borrowed from many low level APIs including Direct3D, OpenGL, QuickDraw3D and XGL. The API is focused on a high-level scene graph programming paradigm. It also includes support for 3D spatial sound, a viewing model that supports many forms of displays including stereo and cave type systems, and sensors for motion tracking.
There are three rendering modes: Immediate mode, Retained Mode and Complied-Retained Mode. In the immediate mode Java 3D works on an object basis but does little global optimization at the scene graph level. In the Retained Mode the application designates which elements of the scene graph may change during rendering. The complied retained mode the application is allowed to compile parts of the scene graph into subgraphs. This allows Java 3D more flexibility in how it implements the scene graph internally.
Java 3D will run on top of Direct3D, OpenGL and QuickDraw3D to allow Java to run on most computers.
A behavior implementation works with two concepts: a scheduling region which defines the spatial volume to enable scheduling of behavior nodes and an initialization method that allows a behavior object to initialize its internal state and specify the wake up conditions. Interpolators are also supported that allow for the smoothing of responses between two extreme values of actions. This is time based. LOD behaviors are also supported.
Also include is a library called Math Objects which is a set of vector and matrix math classes. Further, included in the specification is a binary geometry compression format. This, for example, allows triangle in a generalized mesh form to be specified in, on average, .8 vertices.
Sun highlights a number of API specification issues not defined in the specification. These include scene antialiasing; audio output; fog, lighting and sound spatialization equations and 3D text. In the future the following is to be considered: off-screen rendering, rendering into overlay planes, motion blur, depth of field, programmable shading languages, procedural texture mapping and multiple texture maps.
Points to Ponder
As an API Java 3D has a close linkage to SGI and VRML 2.0. Yet, what is missing are the practical details which determine how the language will be effective in the market. Left open we were left pondering about the following:
What is the performance of Java3D when working on top of other APIs?
How can developers get the most performance out of an implementation?
Where is the ability to pass through data from the hardware acceleration such as the CAP bits in D3D?
This is a first cut in a robust language. However, much remains in making this a target language when developers are trying to cope with the options already available.
http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/3d
Comments, no later than 27 June, are invited at:
java3d-communications@sun.com
713.4 Conference Report - COMDEX by John Latta
Spring COMDEX was a disappointment. The WAVE Report went looking for news and found little. Bill Gates keynote was a slow paced question and answer session with little news. There were hardly any 3D companies, only Real 3D as a 3D only company was there, in addition to ATI and Matrox showing its parts. This conference has become a catch all for other events and seldom does such an approach work. Spring COMDEX only confirmed past experience.
713.5 Via on AGP by John Latta
The AGP market pace has "accelerated" with the announcement by VIA technologies of its Apollo VP3 core logic chip set. This part allows a wide range of systems to support AGP including those for AMD. Cyrix and IDT 64bit super-scalar processors. Intel has stated that it will not support Socket 7, i.e., Pentium, processors for AGP - only Pentium II. Others are filling this void in the market. In fact, VIA claims that it will be to market with its chip set before Intel. The part samples now and will ship in volume for $39 in Q3.
713.6 Game and PC Crossover Analysis by Jonathan Sunberg and John Latta
Competition to capture $ being spent on in-home entertainment electronics is especially fierce between the PC platform and home video games. Game developers have told us that until the PC reaches an installed base of 1m units of 3D acceleration with at least competitive performance they will not focus on the PC as a 3D platform. We believe that the issue is more complex than an installed based number, it is about performance and the PC reaching parity with all the installed base of all video consoles which use 3D.
At 4th Wave, parent to the WAVE Report, we sought an answer to this question using recent tools and market estimates which we have developed. We are currently working on a 3D Market report which examines all 3D real time applications and in that process have developed a profile of 3D chip sales by year, by price, by market segment and by performance (fill rate). With these tools answering the question posed above became a straight forward "what if" exercise.
Our first step in this exercise is to answer the question - what is performance parity between the PC and the video consoles? Here we used our 3D Performance Characterization results, which is posted on our home page, to determine the 3D accelerator performance levels.
The Sony Playstation specifications state that it is capable of 180,000 texture mapped Gouraud shaded polygons/sec. According to a game developer who has worked extensively with the platform this number is accurate if the Playstation does just polygons without state changes and other functions. The Nintendo 64, according to Next Generation, is capable of 160,000 polygons/sec with features turned on which include trilinear MIP-Mapping. According to our tests at 4th Wave only the 3Dfx Voodoo based Obsidian card will sustain 200,000 triangles/sec across a range of triangle sizes to 200 pixels with Bilinear filtering (we did not run trilinear tests because D3Dbench does not support trilinear MIP-Mapping testing). Thus, we conclude 3Dfx Voodoo level performance is a minimum to be a competitive against the home video consoles. This implies a fill rate on the PC of at least 45mp/sec with all filtering features turned on.
Our analysis is now focused on the question - what is the ramp of 3D acceleration on the PC in terms of units sold and installed base against both home video consoles? All of this analysis is for the US market but it can be extended to a worldwide basis.
Another component in our analysis is an assessment of the future sales of the Playstation and Nintendo64. Here we looked at ship rates from many sources and reached what is a probable sales level to the year 2000. By 1997 we estimate that the Playstation will sell 6.7m units and the Nintendo64 6.5m units in the US and the installed base will reach 10m and 8.25m units respectively.
Our PC analysis considers chip sales and installed base at 30,40,50 and 60mp/sec. We estimate that the units sold and the installed base at the 50mp/sec will only reach approximately 1/2m units by the end of 1997. Note that these estimates are for units into the home and with the actual performance levels stated.
In 1998 the installed base of combined Playstations and Nintendo 64s reaches 29m units and the PCs with 30mp/s performance exceeds the home video consoles with 32m units installed. It is not until 1999 that the PC installed base exceeds the combined Playstation and Nintendo64 numbers at the 40 and 50mp/sec level (home video 37m units vs. 48m units on the PC). By 2000 the PC swamps the home video games with 106m installed base at 50mp/sec fill rate threshold compared to 43m with the combined home video console numbers. Looking to 2000 one has to be cautious as it is expected that both Nintendo and Sony will have new generation systems shipping by then.
The PC is a juggernaut whose unit shipments will eventually swamp the home video game sales, in spite of the lower price of the dedicated units. Only until recently has the PC been able to approach performance parity with the home video consoles. Our analysis shows this is very realistic and once the PC begins shipping at these performance levels the ramp to overcome the home video game market is quite rapid.
The charts showing our analysis will be on our homepage at:
713.7 Online VR Industry Assessment by Jonathan Sunberg
Since Worlds Inc's inception in 1995, investors (Worlds estimated worth was ~$100 million in 1996) flocked to the concept of 3D environments on the web. But recent reports claimed that the reality of limited authoring tools and limited bandwidth, slow modems, and a lack of compelling content caught up to the industry. April may have marked the point where, as John Chiplin CEO of Superscape, stated, "people drop out of the early adoption stage and (the industry) ends up with 3 or 4 players." But, as Andrew de Vries, PR Manager of Oz Interactive, claimed, the recent shake-up "dealt more with poor management and over-zealous marketing expenditures" than a lack of strong technology.
Worlds which had partnerships with numerous companies such as Intel Corp., IBM Corp., and Sprint Communications Co., was acquired by a group of private investors based in New York and DataStream, a Boston software developer. Worlds had spent $16 million in capital and had to borrow $4 million from creditors in order to survive by March 5th, when Regent Pacific Management Corp. was hired to sell all its assets.
The rest of the industry has begun to cut back as well: Superscape Inc. had to let go 40 employees from its staff of 101; Black Sun Interactive Inc. fired 10 of its 50 workers and now appears as though they have closed their San Francisco offices; and Paragraph Int'l. Corp. was acquired by SGI.
Mr. Chiplin views the industry shake-up as a natural one that occurs throughout most industries' early adoption stages. Although Superscape has cut more than 1/3 of their staff, Mr. Chiplin still feels their "position is business as usual, with the long-term potential still very promising." In April Superscape reported a 20% increase in sales over the six months, but showed a loss of L3.1 million. The company continues to show a strong balance sheet however, with cash balances of L6.06 million as of January 31st.
So what will it take for companies in the Virtual Community market to survive, when at one time sales were estimated to reach $1 billion by 1998 and are now only expected to attain $.5 billion by 2000? Superscape believes they will need to appeal to a larger market, evident in their announcement that their new VRT tools will incorporate VRML 2.0 and a rumored future announcement of consumer VR editing tools.
Mr. de Vries feels that the reason Oz continues to be successful is their strategic partnerships. Instead of going after the consumer mass market and spending millions on promotion, Oz "has focused on strategic partnerships" which can allow large marketing leverage. Oz differentiates itself from shrink-wrap tool companies, like Paragraph, because as Mr. De Vries put it, "its not that big a market."
On the future of VRML there have been mixed reactions. Superscape whom traditionally had not supported VRML has turned to the language because of the larger market potential. However, Oz shows support for VRML, but like Superscape, uses proprietary technology for greater support in multi-user applications.
Ultimately the fate of Virtual Communities will lie in the worlds. The worlds must be compelling enough to grab people's attention and create a desire for them to come back. Mr. de Vries feels this will happen when 3D worlds are connected to 2D sites. By connecting a normal 2D site to the audio or textual aspects of the 3D world, users may be enticed to actually enter the 3D world. But once inside this 3D world, there has to be enough compelling content. Mr. de Vries sees this occurring through what he calls the "channel metaphor," where events would be programmed for each world throughout the day.
Thus, the state of Virtual Communities is right now in a transition stage. The poorly managed companies will quickly be weeded out and the companies with strong management and corporate backing will remain.
713.8 Pre-Conference - E3 [June 3]
Intergraph Computer Systems has announced that at E3 it will be featuring Intense 3D graphics cards, computer systems with 3D games and game creation software on the Intel/Windows NT platform. One of the games displayed will be the Quake Red Annihilation Tournament. The tournament will contain up to 2,000 players, over $100,000 in cash and prizes with the grand prize winner receiving a 1987 red Ferrari 328 GTS. Intense 3D, Intergraph Computer Systems latest 3D graphics technology will be on display also. Intergraph will feature its latest TD series of 3D PCs and a Flight Simulator showing its RealZm graphics technology. Intergraph is Booth #5085 at E3 in Atlanta.
Copyright 1997 4th WAVE Inc.
May be redistributed in full for individual readership and posted to newsgroups, Web, and FTP sites. May not be reprinted or redistributed for profit. Short quotes are permitted but must be attributed to the WAVE Report on Digital Media.