***Conference - Moving Worlds
by John Latta
Billed as the VRML 2.0 Developers' Conference this was a small but
intense gathering held on 30 and 31 January in San Francisco. Our
coverage includes the keynote by Ed McCraken, Chairman and CEO, Silicon
Graphics, and the many new announcements. In the next issue, WAVE will
have an interview with Tony Parisi, Chief Technology Officer,
Intervista Software.
Keynote - Ed McCraken, SGI
Ed sees that VRML will enable the creation of a 2nd type of WEB - a web
based on 3D and VRML. He described the VRML specification as well
designed for use in bandwidth constrained environments. However, the
feasibility of this 2nd WEB will be impacted by two issues - bandwidth
and hardware. He predicted that a time would come where every PC will
be 3D enabled. Today millions of living rooms already have 3D in them
with the Nintendo 64 which uses SGI technology. (An obvious reference
that PCs are behind what has already been delivered as a home game
console).
Key to the development of new markets is a spark that once goes off
ignites a whole new market. This happened with spreadsheets and the PC;
laser printers, Macintosh and Pagemaker; and PC communications and the
Internet. It is only a matter of time before the spark hits for the 2nd
WEB.
The more interesting information came from the news conference after
the keynote.
The integration of Cosmo with Live 3D will be done in two phases. The
first is where the existing Live 3D source code will be integrated with
the Cosmo code and Cosmo will lie on top of Live3D. The second phase
will be an all Cosmo solution with a Player which is geared to support
acceleration. Phase 2 is 6 - 8 months out. Initially the version of the
integrated products for both the PC and Mac version will use the Live
3D code base. However, over time there will be a universal Cosmo player
for all platforms. From a rendering standpoint Cosmo will support all
rendering technologies which make sense. The intent is to support those
native on the platforms being targeted: SGI - OpenGL; PC - Direct3D;
and Mac - QuickDraw 3D.
In a very significant announcement, when asked about Alias/Wavefront on
Windows NT, Ed McCraken stated that SGI is "...moving into the software
business including Alias/Wavefront on Windows NT. We are committed to
do it." However, no announcement was made as to the date.
When also asked about the Nintendo 3D chip set Ed also said that the
chip is their intellectual property. This chip could go into the PC but
that he saw no reason to enter this market. However, when pressed with
a follow-up question he indicated that SGI could license the technology
for the PC.
SGI Announces Support for Windows NT version of CosmoWorlds
SGI will release by the end of 1997 a version of CosmoWorlds on Windows
NT. Pricing not announced. SGI pricing is $2,300.
www.sgi.com/
SGI and Netscape Announce Product Convergence on VRML 2.0 Client
SGI and Netscape announced their plans to combine SGI's Cosmo Player
with Netscape's Live3D. This will be integrated with the next
generation of Netscape's Communicator Internet client. SGI also
licensed the Live3D VRML client. The Cosmo Player is due to be released
Q2 1997.
www.sgi.com/
VRML Consortium
As of 29 January the Consortium had 45 member companies.
www.vag.vrml.org./consort/
VRML Symposium
The second annual VRML Symposium is scheduled from 24 - 26 February
1997 at the Hyatt Regency in Monterey, CA.
Symposium Home Page: http://www.sdsc.edu/vrml97
Sessions and Panels Program:
www.stl.nps.mnavy.mil/~brutzman/vrml/vrml97schedule.html
Viewpoint Datalabs and Microsoft Join Forces to Provide 3D Models
Viewpoint released in conjunction with Microsoft, a CD-ROM with 200 3D
models which use VRML 2.0 file format. These models include nature,
transportation and architecture. These models are prelicensed to
Microsoft and were available to conference attendees at no cost.
www.viewpoint.com
VRML World From Planet 9
In honor of this week's World Movers Conference, Planet 9 Studios has
made available a new VRML 2.0 world. The world provides a
representation of the World Movers conference floor with dynamic links
to the exhibiting companies Web sites. In addition, the virtual world
provides animations and stereo sound for an enhanced experience.
www.planet9.com/worlds/movers/index.htm
Microsoft Embraces VRML
This week Microsoft made several important announcements enforcing
their commitment to the emerging VRML standard. At last year's
SIGGRAPH, they announced a deal to license Dimension X's Liquid Reality
Java VRML implementation, and they have now also announced that they
will license Intervista Software's WorldView 2.0 VRML browsing
technology for use with Internet Explorer. WorldView 2.0, which is
based on Microsoft's ActiveX and DirectX technologies, will be fully
integrated into Internet Explorer without requiring an external plug-in
application.
In addition, Microsoft also announced that they would be contributing
two VRML 2.0 reference specifications to the VRML Consortium (see WAVE
#701, 1/17/97): a C++ implementation based on Intervista Software
Inc.'s WorldView and a Java implementation based on Dimension X's
Liquid Reality. By providing the source code, Microsoft is providing
valuable support to ensure the stability of the VRML standard.
www.intervista.com
ww.dimensionx.com
3D Labs to Bundle Cosmo
3D Labs has announced a deal with SGI in which 3D Labs' OEM partners
will be able to bundle SGI's Cosmo Player VRML browsing software with
their products. Cosmo Player will be fully accelerated for both GLINT
and Permedia-based boards through 3D Lab's OpenGL and QuickDraw 3D
drivers. Graphics board vendors who will have access to Cosmo Player
through this agreement include AccelGraphics, Canopus, Creative Labs,
Diamond Multimedia, ELSA, Leadtek, Omnicomp, Newer, Radius and
Symmetric system vendors who utilize GLINT and PERMEDIA in their 3D
graphics solutions include Acer, Compaq, DEC, Epson, Hewlett-Packard,
NEC, NeTpower, Samsung, Siemens and Tri-Star.
www.3dlabs.com
Paragraph Reveals 1996 Sales and Product Strategy
This week Paragraph International, one of the pioneers in the growing
VRML authoring tools field, announced that the 1996 sales of their
Virtual Home Space Builder software was over 150,000 units, making it
the best-selling VRML authoring software on the market. VHSB is
available for $49.95 from Paragraph's Web site or by calling them
directly:
(800) 810-0055
www.paragraph.com
Paragraph announced its plan to have a complete suite of 3D products by
the end of 1997. Its core product is the Internet3D Space Builder (ISB)
which sells for $89 which creates 3D Internet worlds. Coming in beta
form in Q2 is Internet3D Avatar Builder. Next is the Internet3D
Behavior Builder which will allow for drag and drop additions of
genetic and customizable behaviors to VRML 2.0 objects. This is
expected to eventually get integrated into ISB. Lastly, is the
Internet3D Multi-User Server which will allow for 5 - 10 persons to
share the same space. Although pricing has not been decided it is
expected that these components will be sold in a suite for from $500 to
$300. Thus, we are seeing the first VRML compliant suites.
TGS Ships 3D-MasterSuite
Last week, TGS began shipping 3D-MasterSuite, a C++-based toolkit for
building "3D interactive graphics applications." The toolkit, which
includes OpenInventor, VRMLMaster, PlotMaster, GraphMaster, and 3D-
DataMaster, is available for Unix, Windows NT and Windows 95 platforms.
The toolkit fully supports the VRML 2.0 standard, in addition to
providing useful extensions to OpenInventor for graphing, plotting and
visualization.
www.tgs.com/HTML/Products/3dms.htm
S3 Invests in Intervista
Last week, S3 announced the establishment of a $20 million equity
program for "seeding innovative software companies in the 2D/3D
graphics, video, audio and Internet areas." The first investment has
been announced as Intervista Software, a leading VRML tools vendor.
While the complete details of the S3/Intervista investment is being
revealed at a press conference at the World Movers conference, the
investment program itself specifies that S3 will make up to 20% equity
investments in software start-ups throughout 1997.
S3 Announces Internet Activities
At World Movers conference S3 announced initiatives which it feels will
bring accelerated 3D to the Internet. With RIO (Redistributed Internet
Objects) S3 has a library on CD-ROM of standardized graphics textures
and audio samples. These will be distributed with future S3 3D
accelerators. In conjunction with Intervista, S3 will develop,
distribute and market a RIO compatible accelerated VRML 2.0 browser. S3
also announced an Internet Marketing and Developer program to
evangelize and support RIO and RIO compatible products.
www.s3.com
www.intervista.com
Wave Issue 9702 2/3/97 Article 3-01