The WAVE Report on Digital Media
3D --- Media Creation --- Shared Space
Published by 4th Wave, Inc.
Issue #723 9/02/97
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CONTENTS
723.1 Quick News
By Christina Person, Jonathan Sunberg, John Latta, and Malisa
Burkeen
3Dfx Sues Sega and NEC
[September 2]
From the Press Release: 3Dfx filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Sega Enterprises Ltd., Sega of America and NEC Corporation. The complaint was filed after Sega breached its contract with 3Dfx Interactive to develop a customized 3D graphics chipset for the next-generation Sega home game console. "Sega terminated our contract without justification," said Greg Ballard, president and CEO of 3Dfx Interactive. "We lived up to all of our commitments, yet they terminated the agreement. It's a clear breach of contract." The 3Dfx complaint alleges that under the contract Sega gained access to 3Dfx's confidential technology and then canceled the contract in favor of NEC, a rival chipset manufacturer. The complaint also alleges claims against NEC for interfering with the contract between Sega and 3Dfx. The complaint states of a threat, that 3Dfx's confidential design and technology will be used to develop the NEC chipset. "We believe that Sega and NEC clearly acted improperly and we took the action we needed to respond," Ballard said. "We filed this suit to protect our rights and to protect our property." 3Dfx Interactive Inc., which is based in San Jose, is seeking millions of dollars in damages against the defendants, and it also seeks an immediate end to the defendants' improper conduct. The suit was filed on Aug. 29 in the California Superior Court in Santa Clara County. The claims include breach of contract, interference with contract, threatened misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition.
http://www.3dfx.com
http://www.nec.com
http://www.sega.com
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Nodester by Panimation, Inc. Presented
at Macworld Expo.
[August 15]
Guy Kawasaki, Apple Fellow and Chief Evangelist, presented Nodester by Panimation Inc. Nodester is a panoramic editor for QuickTime VR. With its Macintosh interface, the user is guided through a creation of QTVR panoramas. Noderiety, an ezine dedicated to QuickTime innovation is included in the Nodester CD, which is priced under $200. Nodester is currently available for Power Mac and is shipping direct from Panimation.
http://www.panimation.comhttp://www.panimation.com/
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SolidWorks Corporation Announces SolidWorks
97Plus
[August 5]
SolidWorks Corporation announced the availability of SolidWorks 97Plus. It is the fourth release of their Windows-native 3D mechanical design software. Included in 97Plus are over 160 enhancements that include enhanced sweeping and lofting, optimization for large assemblies and improvements in detailing and Internet capabilities. SolidWorks 97Plus gives end-user support for Visual C++, Visual Basic and other programming languages that support OLE.
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SolidWorks Corporation Introduces SolidWorks
97Plus Viewer
[August 6]
SolidWorks Corporation introduced SolidWorks 97Plus Viewer, an Internet plug-in product. The viewer allows users to view native SolidWorks drawings, parts, and assemble files straight from an Internet browser. Users can open native SolidWorks 97Plus files by clicking on an HTML hyperlink to a SolidWorks data file on the Internet or by opening a file within the software. The viewer is compatible with Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. The SolidWorks 97Plus Viewer can run as either a standalone Windows application or an Internet plug-in. It is available free to download from the SolidWorks Web site.
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NEC and VideoLogic invest $25M to
assist PC Game Developers
(April 7)
In April NEC and VideoLogic announced the "PowerVR Ready Games Enhancement Program", an effort to help developers build and sell PC-based games for PowerVR 3D graphics accelerators. Of the $25M funding the program, $16M will go to content marketing development funding, while $9M will go to a comprehensive consumer brand marketing and retail merchandising program.
MGM has chosen The Palace Inc. to promote its latest movie, "Hoodlum" starring Laurence Fishburne, Tim Roth, Vanessa Williams, Cicely Tyson and Andy Garcia, through a real-time WWW environment. The Palace, which uses 2D avatars as graphical representations in decorative chat rooms, has built distinct rooms, that mirror the sets used in the new movie.
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Cyberware Extracts Tailor Measurements
From 3D Scan Data
(August 1)
Your next suit could be cyber-tailor made. Cyberware, a leader in 3D scanning, has completed the first phase of a research project aimed at using 3D scanners to extract tailor measurements from subjects who have been scanned. In its present form, the 3D scanner is used to scan the entire body, an operator then marks the model with critical points that allow a software program to generate clothing measurements.
The project is being run through the Apparel Research Network (ARN), which is administered through the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). The system will initially be used to fit military personnel with their uniforms, but is expected to move into the civilian market once the project is complete.
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Sven Technologies Introduces SurfaceSuite
MAX
(August 4)
Sven Technologies has announced the availability of SurfaceSuite MAX, an application that creates photorealism by mapping multiple photorealistic textures onto complex 3D objects. The product uses Sven’s proprietary adaptive image-based surface texturing (AIST) technology to allow users to map one or more photographs and other complex 2D textures onto 3D objects.
SurfaceSuite MAX uses three 3D Studio MAX plug-ins: Texturizer, Multi-Mask, and Gaussian Map to overcome some of the limitations of other texturing techniques.
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Dynamic Pictures Announces Distribution
Partnership
(August 25)
Western Micro Technology and Dynamic Pictures have announced a nationwide distribution relationship. Western Micro will distribute the Oxygen 102, Oxygen 202, and Oxygen 402 3D accelerators immediately through its Computer and Peripheral Group (CPG).
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LBE Technologies Adopts Quantum3D Obsidian
Cards
(August 26)
Quantum3D announced that its Obsidian family of cards will be used by LBE Technologies for use in its NASCAR Silicon Motor Speedway auto racing simulator. This simulator will be deployed at multiple entertainment locations across the US.
http://www.quantum3D.com
http://www.lbet.com/
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ZEN Entertainment Selects Animo
(August 27)
Zen Entertainment has licensed 41 copies of Cambridge Animation’s Animo software. This will be used for the Chrono Quest action adventure series, planned for release in the fall 1998. The series will be released in Japan, Korea and Europe. The US distribution has yet to be determined.
E&S announced that its Harmony high-end visual simulation technology will be used by STN ATLAS Elektronik GmbH, of Bremen, German, in the German Army’s SIM NTF helicopter training system. There are three simulators valued at $8M with expected options that could raise the contract value an additional $12M.
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723.2 Conferences – Last Call for
Papers – WSCG ‘98
by John Latta
The Sixth International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics and Visualization 98 (WSCG ’98), in cooperation with EUROGRAPHICS and IFIP working group 5.10 on Computer Graphics and Virtual Worlds, will be held on February 9 - 13, 1998 in Pilzen at the University of West Bohemia close to PRAGUE, the capital of Czech Republic.
September 30, 1997 is the deadline for paper submission. Check
the URL for details.
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723.3 Book Overview – Inside 3D Studio
MAX Vol. III, Animation
by John Latta
Maestri, George, et. al., Inside 3D Studio MAX, Vol. III, New Riders Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, pp. 795, $59.99
This is a comprehensive book on how to do animation in 3D Studio
MAX. Even with the release of MAX R2, its value is not lessened.
Covered are: Animation Techniques, Character Animation and Animation
of the Environment. The last chapter on Video Post provides hints
on Compositing and Editing, Video Post Effects and Sound. Included
is a CD-ROM with plug-in demos, sample animations and tutorial
files. This is a book that could be useful to most 3D Studio MAX
users.
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723.4 Numerical Design, Ltd. – Announces
NetImmerse
by John Latta
Numerical Design has announced its C++ toolkit for creating real time 3D applications. NetImmerse will run on top of OpenGL, Direct3D and other proprietary software renderers. The toolkit provides for object-oriented design in C++ for Java and the hierarchical organization of objects. Also supported is real time scene management including LOD, frame rate regulation, and texture and geometry caching. Three different visibility mechanisms are supported: z-buffer, BSP tree and its own proprietary algorithm. Both collusion detection and spatialized sound are also supported. Import utilities are present for 3D Studio, OpenFLight, VRML and the NetImmerse native format. Optional modules include: proprietary renderer, the ability to create tessellated terrain with only elevation and texture data, a module for visual occlusion culling, a photo realistic renderer and a standalone world viewer.
The full source code is available. Terms are on a non-royalty
basis.
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723.6 Spatial Technology – Version
3.0 of ACIS Released
by John Latta
Spatial Technology provides software which 370 licensees use in their 3D modeling tool in 105 applications. The latest version of this product, ACIS, was released on August 15th. This is a modular object oriented library with 35 DLLs written in C++. It is in use by Autodesk in AutoCAD, CADKEY, CorelCAD, Solid Edge, TriSpectives, TurboCAD, ElectricImage 3D Modeler, 3Dstudio MAX R2 and others. At the core of ACIS is a robust description of objects based on NURBS which they feel is the most complete object description in the industry today.
The WAVE Report interviewed David Prawel, Director of Marketing, to get additional details on the impact of Version 3.0. He regards the use of facets, i.e., polygons, as just an artifact of an incomplete model description. For modeling a higher level capability is required and this is what ACIS accomplishes in its physically based modeling. This approach allows for a better implementation of rigid body dynamics including particle effects. When asked if Spatial Technology is being pushed to into real time David stated that the ultimate mission of these tools is a realistic experience. They are being pushed to more and more realism.
To accomplish this objective there is a continual quest for more processing power. Currently ACIS does not support SMP with a multi-threaded version; however, support is expected in a future version as the OEM customers see the need.
Spatial Technology is a very strong supporter of Direct Model. This allows for more realism by making the interaction with complex models possible. They have also released a viewer to allow users to directly see ACIS models.
As 3D accelerators continue to improve in performance it is becoming evident that new surface and object descriptions will be required. Specifically as the polygon rate approaches one Polygon per pixel there will be a need to examine new ways of describing entities in the scene. David feels that Spatial has the most robust technology as a candidate for real-time implementation as the 3D acceleration industry moves from facets to more accurate surface renditions.
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723.7 Veronis, Suhler – 1997 Communications
Industry Forecast Released
by John Latta
The annual update to the Communications Industry Forecast has just been released. It is again the source of benchmark data for the communications industry. The segments covered include: television, radio, subscription video, film, recorded music, newspapers, consumer books, consumer magazines, business communications, professional publishing, and interactive digital media. Some facts of note:
In 1996 the average consumer spending on subscription
video was $140 while movies were only $27.
Interactive Digital Media spending on a consumer
basis was $39.31 in 1996 and this is expected to
grow to $75.63 by 2001
Consumer spending on books was $16.2B in 1996
The consumer on-line market was $4.24B, while
the packaged multimedia software market was $1.8B
and the video game market $2.4B in 1996
The consumer on-line market is expected to reach $12.7B
in 2001
On-Line Advertising will rise from $200M in 1996 to
$2.5B in 2001
There are 395 pages of market data and insights across the whole of the communications and media industries.
The report is priced at $995 and is available at:
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723.8 ATI – Announces Support of AGP
and Design Wins
by John Latta
ATI announced that its 3D RAGE Pro graphics accelerator has been selected by: Compaq, IBM, Dell and Acer. Timed to the rollout of Intel’s 440LX core logic chip set which supports AGP, ATI stated that it supports AGP 2X with Sideband Addressing. At the same time ATI announced AGP versions of their XPERT@Play and XPERT@Work cards. Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL) certification is in process.
ATI is not at liberty to disclose which products are associated
with each company. However, they did indicate to the WAVE Report
that all the design wins are down, i.e. on the motherboard. Further,
it was also stated that even though the IBM Aptiva Marketing Director
made a statement in the press release this does not imply a design
win for this product.
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723.9 Intel – Open Arcade Architecture
Forum Meeting
by John Latta
Intel held a meeting of the Open Arcade Architecture Forum (OAAF) on Tuesday 8/26/97 in Santa Clara. This meeting was to simulate interest in the forum and accelerate the adoption of PC based systems in the arcade market. Unfortunately, the press was not invited to attend thus our information comes from multiple sources. The WAVE Report normally does not report on conferences based on second hand information but we feel the event was of significant importance to our readers, thus we have provided both conference background and a Points to Ponder assessment.
The history of the thrust of the PC into the coin-op market must begin with the presentation by James Plamondon at the AMOA conference on September 26, 1996 in Dallas (WAVE 609.7). Intel has followed in Microsoft’s path and proposed a reference platform which it originally unveiled following the CGDC (WAVE 711.4). The OAAF was formed in June and it is the means by which Intel is hoping to promote an Intel based reference platform in the coin op industry.
The morning program was driven by Intel presentations. This included the following:
Open Arcade Architecture Forum – Ron Whittier,
Senior VP, Intel
Intel Architecture Platform Directions, Dave Vannier,
Director of Consumer Programs, Intel
PC-based Arcades Business Models, Albert Teng,
Director of Arcade Market Development, Intel
Intel used the meeting as a means to promote the following for this market: Pentium II, AGP and the new NLX form factor motherboards. Microsoft did not make a presentation. Intel also stated that it would be delivering a keynote at the upcoming Amusement and Music Operators Association (AMOA) conference in Atlanta, Oct. 23-25.
During the Q&A Alex St. John, formerly of Microsoft, raised questions on the economic feasibility of the initiative. In fact, although the presentation by Albert Teng was to encompass business models, there were no details. On a number of occasions references were made to a retail coin-op business centered on $1/minute pay rates.
Our sources paint a picture of uncertainty about this initiative
based on the conference. The pieces do not seem to be falling
into place and the economic model uncertain.
http://www.openarcade.com/
http://www.intel.com/intel/idf
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723.10 Points to Ponder – Getting
Real in the Coin-Op Business
by John Latta
The coin-op business is tanking. Operators are desperate for opportunities to make their businesses successful again. PC based systems have a chance but only if focused in the context of bringing back players to games which make money. Operators are being choked by games that cost too much, too few titles and a dying entertainment concept/model. To suggest that this can be fixed by an NLX motherboard misses the point. Any concept to revitalize this industry must go far deeper than a motherboard or a hardware specification.
In order to fix these problems one must be focused on the food chain. That is, every segment of the industry from the game developer to the operator and the player must be addressed. This is all about making money or having fun. Thus, first and foremost, there must be an economic and business model for the game developer, the game publisher, the distributor and the operator that allows each to be profitable. This will not happen with games that cost $1/minute to play. Virtuality was based on this model and it is out of sight, having gone from Chapter 11 and then Chapter 7. Operators know only too well how hard it is to get games to play at $1/game let alone at higher costs.
At 4th Wave, parent to the WAVE Report, we have done extensive modeling of an industry based on an open platform. An obvious conclusion is that one needs to think not about higher costs to play but lower – think $5.00/hour as the target. Further, there is a very important role for publishers to play in an evolving and future industry. Multiple business models can also exist. For example, operators may pay for new titles or there may also exist a royalty-based model, similar to movies. Our experience has been that this is a complex issue with many vested interests and complex economics. One of the first items on the agenda, to get the industry moving into an evolving business model, is to articulate in the clearest way possible, how to make money again. Operators are seasoned individuals who have been there and done that. They could care less about buying PCs, what they want is to make their business healthy and profitable again. It is not a given that the PC leads to the latter result.
On our new home page at 4th Wave there are some sample spreadsheets on the arcade market and the retail cost to play from multiple sources of out-of-home entertainment.
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723.11 Points to Ponder – The Pitfalls
of AGP
by John Latta
Last week was AGP week with the announcement of Intel’s 440LX chip set and new motherboards by Intel and others. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of the potential of 3D coming to the mass market. Maybe, finally, the PC can provide a better experience than a $150 game machine. Yet, before getting caught up in this apparent flood of excitement, or is it hype?, it is important to put AGP into context.
The use of AGP, especially the storage of textures in system memory, requires operating system support. This will happen in both Windows 98 and Windows NT 5.0. Any solution before then should be seen as temporary.
Intel and Microsoft have created a stop gap solution for Windows 95. Intel wrote a Virtual Driver, VxD, which manages memory for texture storage in system memory. To use this VxD a company must obtain a license from Intel. Microsoft is shipping its latest update to Windows 95 in OSR 2.1 that includes DirectX 5.0 which also has AGP support.
Just having the VxD and OSR 2.1 may be technically sufficient but from a market standpoint it is incomplete. The system vendors need to get Microsoft’s Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL) certification to carry the Windows logo. To date we have learned that only two chip companies claim certification: NVIDIA and Number 9 (WAVE 722).
The core logic companies, who are competing with Intel, must have their own VxD (WAVE 718.6). We believe Intel will not license its VxD to other core logic companies. We estimate that companies such as SIS and Via are at least 2 – 3 months behind those who are using Intel’s 440LX and VxD.
The add-on card market for AGP is a snake pit waiting to happen. If the AGP chip is down on the motherboard there is no ability to upgrade the system with a graphics card. If the system has an AGP card installed and the user seeks to upgrade to a faster card, Intel recommends that only AGP cards with local texture memory be purchased (WAVE 615.2). The reason Intel gives is that there are no assurances that all AGP systems will have adequate bandwidth to system memory for the add-on card products. It is not clear when and if AGP cards with local texture memory will be available. None were announced this last week. A further complication is that there is only limited real estate on the AGP add-on card and this could further limit the amount of memory that can be supported.
It has not yet been demonstrated that AGP results in significant performance improvements. At the WAVE Report we continue to get reports of AGP systems which have only marginal performance gains when PCI and AGP are compared side-by-side. 3D WinBench plays a critical role here in providing a benchmark for assessing performance improvement. The only data available last week indicates that the NVIDIA Riva 128 ran 220 Winmarks on PCI and 240 Winmarks on AGP. The industry is rampant in claims on how to best tune AGP use to get the best-sustained performance. Intel touts sideband addressing in 2X mode as being superior. However, it is too early in the product evolution cycle to determine the performance advantages of AGP in its current implementation. On a logical basis there is little to doubt the premise that increasing bandwidth on the PC platform will be a good step. However, logic and practice have yet to meet.
Intel has been less than open in disclosing how to optimize the PC platform with AGP and, in particular, its plans for AGP 4X. The AGP model for industry cooperation is clearly not the same as Plug-and-Play and even PCI. Intel has their favorites and it is only when the work is complete on AGP 4X will the rest of the PC industry see the results of their labors. By then it will likely be too late to have an impact.
The premise that AGP, and the performance associated with it,
will be good for the PC industry is not really the question. As
all of the PC components, from the microprocessor to the system
memory to the display processor each increase in performance it
is essential that data paths be available to support operations
will be at least in the +500MB/sec range. However, AGP is showing
significant limitations for more than just bandwidth reasons.
We believe this is endemic with Intel’s control of AGP. At
the center of the evolution of AGP is Intel’s desire to define
the future of the PC hardware platform. Those that define it are
also in the best position to control the market. Yet, as we can
see from the today’s situation with AGP, the solution is
laden with compromises whose impacts have yet to be felt. We are
left with the question – cannot the PC industry do better?
We can only hope that AGP 4X and MMX II, represent good industry
solutions and not just the best solutions from Intel’s perspective.
Primary Image has announced a PC based image generator, IG, called Piranha. Using the Voodoo chip set from 3Dfx Piranha goes well beyond just a fast 3D engine by offering a scalable PC solution. The specifications include:
1 Card 8 Card
Peak Meshed Triangles/sec 1 M Tri/sec 8 M Tri/sec
Pixel Fill 60 Mp/sec 960 Mp/sec
Tri-Linear, Textured,
Semi-Transparent Pixel rate 40 Mp/sec 640 Mp/sec
Above with Anti-Aliasing (8 sub pixel) 80 Mp/sec
The 8-card system is the maximum expected for a system. All cards are PCI and there is priority interconnect system between cards. Piranha can scale either in performance as outlined above or scale in the number of channels with multiple cards. An entry card includes 32MB of memory and sells for approximately $6,000. A module is available for the PCI card which will double the rendering performance. The memory is expandable to 64MB. A fully loaded card costs $9,000.
The 3Dfx Voodoo technology is used to just accelerate the pixel rendering process.
Anti-aliasing is supported on textures which can be either bilinear or trilinear filtered. Software based polygon edge anti-aliasing is also supported. For full screen sub-pixel anti-aliasing up to 4 or 8 sub-pixels are used.
Display resolutions supported range from 640 X 480 to 1024 X 1280. To support multiple channels genlock is included.
In 1998 a calligraphic light option, important for the simulation community, will be supported with a hardware add-on module.
To support this new platform Primary Image will be announcing a software product called TEMPEST CGI – a high-level simulation application development environment. This is based on its current CGI software. TEMPEST CGI is their implementation of what they call Open Enhancement Technology. This enables their products to support OpenGL and Glide. They are also planning on a low-cost modeling tool based on AutoCAD and a fast prototyping environment. OpenFlight is also supported.
The web site will be expanded to include information on Piranha by September 5. For those who require more immediate information call:
Jo Baglow
Primary Image
Millbank House
171-185 Ewell Road
Surbiton, Surrey
KT6 6AP, England
44 181 339-9669
44 181 339-9091 FAX
e-mail: jo@primary-image.com
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723.13 Visio 5.0– A Great Product
Gets Better
by John Latta
Visio has become the standard 2D drawing program on the PC and with Version 5.0, which was just released, in the three versions, it is even better. The versions are:
Visio Standard – general business needs
Visio Professional – IS and Business Processes
Visio Technical – 2D Technical Drawings
These new versions bring a number of new features:
Visual Basic for Applications is now included with each version;
Office 97 is now supported;
The Database Wizard now in all Visio versions;
Better support for HTML links; and
The ability to search for and catalog Visio SmartShapes with the
Visio Explorer.
We tested the Visio Technical and found it very familiar and consistent with earlier versions.
Also evaluated was Visio Maps, an add-on that allows for the creation of accurate maps using map data supplied on CD-ROM. Done in conjunction with ESRI over a gigabyte of map data is provided on 3 CD-ROMs. Developers can use Visio Maps as a platform to develop custom applications with Microsoft’s Visual Basic or Visual C++. Visio Maps preserves the same initiative interface and ease of use.
We would have like to have seen even some primitive functions for distance and area calculation in the basic package.
For many of the readers of the WAVE Report an important point of interest in Visio is its extension into 3D. The first product to support this is 3Space Technical, by Template Graphics (TGS). This will enable the same drag and drop functionality for a range of applications that can use 3D views integrated into Visio’s powerful interface. Unfortunately, TGS seems to continually slip 3Space. Originally announced some 9 months ago no firm date has yet to be for shipment.
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Comments on or questions about WAVE: wave@fourthwave.com
Malisa Burkeen mburkeen@fourthwave.com
Christina Person cperson@fourthwave.com
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Jonathan Sunberg jsunberg@fourthwave.com
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