adr-devel Mailing List for Amherst Distributed Reality

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about a "VR operating system" -- really just a system that allows multiple
3d graphics applications (running on different platforms) share one display
(running on irix or linux using vr juggler)

http://www.vrsource.org/article.php?thold=3D0&mode=3Dnested&order=3D0&sid=
=3D177

--=20

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/~reed

see web page for public key info

----- Forwarded message from Neil Trevett <nei...@3d...> -----

Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2001 22:20:27 -0700 
From: Neil Trevett <nei...@3d...>
To: "Web3D List (E-mail)" <www...@we...>,
        "Browser Working Group (E-mail)" <bro...@we...>,
        "Web3D Consortium (E-mail)" <con...@we...>,
        "Web3D X3D Contributors (E-mail)" <x3d...@we...>
Subject: [www-vrml] Community X3D Heads Up
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19)

Hi all,

I am pleased to provide the Web3D Community a heads up on a Consortium press
release that is due to go out on Tuesday which I believe marks a significant
step forward for the Consortium Membership, VRML, X3D and everyone with an
interest in open Web3D standards.

The draft text of the press release is included below - but in a nutshell
here are the main points:

- the VRML browser companies have formed a significant new Consortium
Working Group - the Browser Working Group (BWG) - to coordinate their
efforts to refine the X3D specification and to rapidly ship commercial X3D
browsers.  The founding members of the group are blaxxun, Nexternet,
OpenWorlds and ParallelGraphics.  An important part of this initiative is
that these companies are working up-front to ensure good interoperability
between their X3D browser products and to agree on a unified set of
new-generation functionality to enable the widespread deployment of advanced
content.

- the core concept of X3D is extensibility.  The BWG is working hard to
define a logical framework to provide both the engineering and
commercial/organizational framework to strike the right balance consistent
functionality between different X3D browsers - and yet enable application
specific extensions and each company to independently innovate.
Organizationally we are mirroring the infrastructure successfully used by
OpenGL: a) any company can implement and register a company-specific
extension at any time, b) if multiple vendors agree on an extension then it
becomes a multi-vendor "X3D" extension c) successful extensions that become
widely used eventually will probably become adopted into the next revision
of the spec.  The Consortium will maintain a registry of vendor and
multi-vendor extensions as well as maintaining the official specification.

- the extensibility framework defines the concept of components, each with a
number of increasingly rich levels.  Components are collected into defined
"profiles" to meet the needs of a particular market segment.  There is a
Core profile that provides a robust 3D in a small, compact browser - and
corresponds to the Consortium's submission to MPEG-4.  Other profiles
include a VRML 97 profile that guarantees compatibility with today's
content, as well as components that add advanced functionality such as
GeoVRML, NURBS and advanced rendering techniques using multi-textures,
shadows etc. etc.

- this work unifies the needs of the commercial browser companies with the
long-term work of the existing X3D working group that has worked long and
diligently to define the Core profile and the XML bindings to X3D.  Going
forward we see further very positive cooperation between the various
X3D-related working groups: the BWG driving the spec and logistics to enable
shipping conformant X3D browsers, the original X3D team continuing to work
on XML integration and extensions, the open source group working on open
source X3D implementations and conformance tests, the MPEG-4 group using the
X3D work to help define the 3D capabilities of MPEG-4 etc. etc..

- the next ISO specification will be called X3D not VRML 200X - however the
X3D ISO spec will include the specification of the VRML 97 profile -
providing us a good mix of backwards compatibility with forward looking
innovation.  The Consortium has registered X3D as a trademark.

In my opinion the BWG is the final culmination of the various ongoing X3D
threads inside the Consortium and will create a unified and coordinated
commercial momentum for open standards-based Web3D.  For the first time in a
long while we will all benefit from the browser companies working together
towards a common vision - while still being able to innovate, differentiate
and compete.  I hope that this effort will unite the Consortium and the
Community around a single vision for the future of X3D - the dawn of a new
era.

If you are a Consortium Member Company that has plans for X3D browsers and
would like to join the BWG please contact me - the group is working under a
well-defined charter and is keen to encourage the participation of any
company with genuine commercial products.  The BWG is also committed to
gather widespread input and feedback from the Community.  The BWG will be
circulating more details about the spec and the extensibility mechanisms as
soon as possible to the Community for review on an ongoing basis.

Lastly I would like to thank the many individuals, companies and Consortium
working groups that have led to this point: Cindy Ballreich who put a post
on this list that started this whole thing in motion, Rick Nelson of
OpenWorlds for being the initial commercial catalyst for the BWG, Don
Brutzman and the *entire* X3D team that have worked so hard these past years
to create a technical infrastructure that is the foundation for the BWG's
work, Gavin Divilly and Connell Gallagher of ParallelGraphics for providing
excellent commercial and marketing input and support, Richard Choi of
Nexternet for his technical feedback, 3Dlabs for hosting a significant
number of international teleconferences to make this all happen, Dick Puk
for providing his usual invaluable guidance on how to make X3D ISO-ready and
Paul Diefenbach of OpenWorlds for driving the brunt of the technical work of
the BWG.

The Consortium has a booth at Siggraph where we will be starting a concerted
publicity campaign for X3D - come and see us if you are there.  We will also
be giving some more detailed X3D briefings at the Consortium Member Meeting
at Siggraph on Monday 13 August from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm in Room 506 of the
LA Convention Center.  If you are a member - be there or be square!

Regards,

Neil

Neil Trevett
Senior Vice President Market Development, 3Dlabs
President, Web3D Consortium
nei...@3d...
480 Potrero Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94085
Phone: 408-530-4750  Fax: 408-530-4701
www.3dlabs.com

----------------

NEWS RELEASE
New-Generation X3D Open Web3D Standard Launched with Leading Browser-Company
Support

State-of-the-art successor to VRML enables compact browsers and extensible
functionality;
Backed by blaxxun, Nexternet, OpenWorlds, ParallelGraphics and Web3D
Consortium

Orinda, CA - August 7th, 2001 - The Web3D Consortium today announced the
launch of the X3DT open standard as a new-generation successor to VRML to
bring rich and compelling 3D graphics to the Web for a wide variety of
applications and devices.  X3D ("Extensible 3D") is an extensible standard
that has been developed by the Web3D Consortium with the strong backing of a
number of leading browser companies including blaxxun, Nexternet, OpenWorlds
and ParallelGraphics.  First demonstrations of commercial X3D browsers will
be shown at the SIGGRAPH 2001 exhibition at the Los Angeles Convention
Center, from August 14-16 at the Web3D Consortium booth #2029, with first
product shipments expected by the end of 2001.

X3D is being developed under the Web3D Consortium's standardization process
that provides full and open access to the specification for interested
companies and eventual submission to the International Standards
Organization for ratification to provide long-term stability for Web3D
content and applications.

The X3D standard enables new opportunities for the creation and deployment
of visually rich 3D graphics, including small, lightweight web clients with
advanced 3D capabilities, and the integration of high-performance 3D into
broadcast and embedded devices.  X3D satisfies these demanding applications
by adopting an advanced componentized architecture that enables extremely
compact 3D clients.  These clients can be extended with plug-in components
to create standardized profiles with the functionality to meet the demands
of sophisticated vertical applications.  One of the first X3D profiles to be
demonstrated at Siggraph will include the "VRML 97" profile that provides
complete compatibility with existing VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling
Language) content.

The Web3D Consortium is working very closely with the MPEG-4 group, and the
X3D standard is intended to form the core of MPEG-4's ongoing 3D integration
activities.  The Consortium is also working with the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) to tightly integrate X3D with other XML languages for the
Web.  The X3D standardization work includes an extension registry to be
maintained by the Web3D Consortium that will enable any company to rapidly
innovate within a standards framework and ship extensions to X3D at any time
- but also to encourage and enable multiple companies to agree on common
extensions to guarantee widespread content interoperability.  Further
details on X3D and how interested companies may get involved can be found at
www.web3d.org/x3d.

"By forming the 3D profile of MPEG-4, X3D has already allied with a stronger
market force than VRML ever had. blaxxun strongly supports X3D as it
provides a consistent graphics platform between Web and broadcast
applications, becoming the lingua franca of Web3D," stated Franz
Buchenberger, CEO of blaxxun.

"X3D's extensibility is a powerful mechanism for rapid innovation within a
unique standards framework for multi-vendor interoperability.  We expect new
X3D plug-ins to be available on a quarterly basis to provide truly
state-of-the-art support for a broad range of applications from multiple
browser vendors - a significant advantage over many proprietary technologies
which focus on one vertical segment," said Connell Gallagher, CEO of
ParallelGraphics.

"Open standards are an opportunity for companies to influence and forge the
technology that is the foundation of their business while providing the
stability, longevity and multiple vendor support that many applications and
customers demand. OpenWorlds has been a major contributor to X3D as we
believe in the power of cutting-edge 3D technology that can also bring
consistency to the broader industry and be a significant influence on
related standards such as MPEG and XML," commented Rick Nelson, CEO of
OpenWorlds.

"X3D not only provides the latest rendering and Web3D functionality in a
compact form, but through the VRML 97 profile this new standard also
preserves our customers' investment in the significant amount of VRML
content that is in active use today.  This powerful mix of forward-looking
technology that does not abandon our VRML heritage has convinced Nexternet
to invest significant resources into aggressively supporting X3D," observed
Neal Park, CEO of Nexternet.

"The Consortium is committed to synergistically combine the commercial needs
of browser companies with the equally important needs of the 3D authoring
community.  Working with complementary standards organizations such as W3C
also presents many rich new opportunities," said Don Brutzman, X3D chair,
Naval Postgraduate School.

"The Web3D Consortium exists to leverage open standards to grow the Web3D
market.  We encourage and invite any company developing 3D browser software
to discover how participating in the standards process, and helping to drive
the direction and development of X3D, can increase business opportunities
and momentum," stated Neil Trevett, senior vice president of 3Dlabs and
president of the Web3D Consortium.

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/~reed

see web page for public key info

http://www.vrsource.org/article.php?sid=173&mode=nested&order=0&thold=0

http://www.vrsource.org/viewtopic.php?topic=44&forum=12

----- Forwarded message from Braden McDaniel <br...@en...> -----

Date: 30 Jul 2001 03:00:41 -0400
From: Braden McDaniel <br...@en...>
To: OpenVRML Developers Mailing List
	 <ope...@li...>,
        ope...@li..., www...@we...
Subject: [www-vrml] ANN: OpenVRML 0.11.0
X-Mailer: Evolution/0.11 (Beta Release)

OpenVRML 0.11.0 has been released.

OpenVRML is a C++ library for reading and displaying VRML worlds. The
OpenVRML distribution includes Lookat, a simple GLUT-based VRML viewer.

Highlights for this release:

* New memory manager for nodes, using a refcounted smart pointer instead
  of an intrusive reference count.
* Significant reworking of the JavaScript binding. More to come.
* Now (optionally) depends on the Mozilla distribution of JavaScript
  instead of compiling our own into the library.
* libpng and libjpeg are now optional dependencies.
* API cleanup for VrmlField classes.
* Consolidated node implementations into fewer files.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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send email to www...@we... with text "info"

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/~reed

see web page for public key info

http://www.khronos.org/OpenMLWhitePaperV2.pdf

Read this. It's a proposition for a media language and API
to serve as a device independent layer between synchonized
media sources and your hardware.

-- 

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/~reed

see web page for public key info

This is pretty cool, VRML 3D created "on the fly" -- animated really -- by 
audio input.

This is something we should try as well.

----- Forwarded message from "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clb...@in...> -----

Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 16:03:28 -0500
From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clb...@in...>
To: "'www...@we...'" <www...@we...>
Subject: [www-vrml] Very Cool Content
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2652.78)

Just in case you missed this, don't miss this.  
For me, this is what VRML should be about, what the 
web in general should be about.  Some artists say, 
screw the chat and get on with making the really 
cool content and this is really cool content.

 http://www.geometrek.com/~shane/automatic_2.rm

For a less boring web.... congratulations, Shane!

Len 
http://www.mp3.com/LenBullard

Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
for list subscription instructions,
send email to www...@we... with text "info"

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/~reed

see web page for public key info

----- Forwarded message from Josip Almasi <jo...@vr...> -----

Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 20:28:44 +0200
From: Josip Almasi <jo...@vr...>
To: "'www...@we...'" <www...@we...>
Subject: [www-vrml] Announce: multiuser software & site
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.77 [en] (Win95; U)

Hi all,

demo: http://www.kvantni-skok.hr/
project page: http://www.vrspace.org/

Features:
- terrain streaming (loads as you walk around)
- multi-user capabilities (movement and chat - click on receiver)
- low bandwidth usage (avg. 300 bytes/s per user)

Credits:
Programming: me
Design: Arni Barisic & me
Dolphins: Bob Crispen
Special thanks: Alejandro P. Revilla, for writing the first piece of
server

This demo is small part of city of Zagreb, Croatia. Buildings are in
actual size, taken from urbanist plan of the city, pictured with camera,
designed in 3ds max, exported to vrml and uploaded to the server. You
will notice some problems with lightning and animation, but this is
still alpha stage.
I had to split contact client from cosmo/cortona, since complex
javascript often hangs both cosmo and cortona, and afaik contact is not
vrml compliant (url field of Script node).

Looking forward to read your comments... also, I need help with the
project, please let me know if you are willing to contribute.

Regards,
Josip
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send email to www...@we... with text "info"

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/~reed

see web page for public key info

http://www.so-net.ne.jp/paw/virtornhills/e/index.html

i would be willing to bet that multiuser 3d is going to be fairly big
in japan. especially if the avatars are cute.

An online discussion with a Yale professor who also has a company
working on a different computer-interface-user-file-organization-etc
paradigm which is accessible anyware via the web, and has an interesting
time oriented organization.

http://www.plastic.com/comments.pl?sid=01%2F05%2F18%2F1818239

-- 

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/~reed

see web page for public key info

http://www.siggraph.org/s2001

registration (before july 6) is $150 to get into almost everything and 
$40 to get into some things (student rate): http://helios.siggraph.org/s2001/registration/cat.html 

i am thinking about travelling out in that general direction anyway, i 
am considering going to siggraph...

anyone want to come?

http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,43813,00.html

-- 

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/~reed

see web page for public key info

this is a boston based company.. wasin the globe a while ago

http://www.appliedmeta.com

architectural overviews:
	http://jxta4.appliedmeta.com/architecture.htm
	http://jxta4.appliedmeta.com/jxta_overview.htm

it's main goals are to solve resource problems by letting various
participants use resources of various other participants -- the 
virtual supercomputer thing -- like legion et al.

-- 

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/~reed

see web page for public key info

a graphical chat that wants to eventually become the metaverse.
the interesting bit is you use macromedia director to build worlds and
avatars.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/nanoverse

-- 

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/~reed

see web page for public key info

http://www.plastic.com/article.pl?sid=3D01/04/03/0418200&mode=3Dnested

guys, so many of the ideas in ADR and MOS are popping up all over
the net.

let's get some working code quickly on this version!

Speaking of which, I've checked a bit of C++ into CVS... (do=20
a full checkout to get it).

I'm still adding basic functionality, but you can see what the
structure is all about.

It's based on Matt's Metalurgy idea (and that's what I've called
it, though eventually the built shared library will just be
'libmos').

This idea is of instead of all that hairy sub-classing stuff
that made the original Java code so messy, you just attach
Logic objects -- really just command handlers -- onto MetaObjects,
in a chain.  You can also subclass MetaObject (and/or MetaLogic)
if you want, but it's not necesary. The required, 'core' object
behavior will be implemented with a DefaultMetaLogic  class
(and DefaultRemoteMetaLogic for remote objects), which is by default,=20
the first item in the chain.

I'll probably be using Common C++ for networking.

(see the README file).

reed

--=20

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/~reed

 ADR   http://adr.sourceforge.net
 SERI  http://www.eri.harvard.edu/faculty/peli/lab/reed/index.html

see web page for public key info

----- Forwarded message from Niclas Olofsson <gu...@ac...> -----

Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 03:53:09 +0200
From: Niclas Olofsson <gu...@ac...>
To: Peter Murphy <pe...@me...>
Subject: Re: [www-vrml] Adobe Releases Atmosphere, 3D Multiuser Platform
CC: www...@we..., "da...@di..." <da...@di...>
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U)

Peter Murphy wrote:
> Radiosity rendered lightmaps ARE a cool feature and
> since both Contact and Cortona have some support for multitexturing now
> one would hope for VRML authoring tools to start to support generating these.

Well, one would hope that there would be some VRML authoring tools to
find first.

Seriously. I don't think anyone that knows anything about multiuser inet
3d is the smallest bit impressed by Atmosphere. It doesn't seem to scale
well and the usabillity is lousy. But all that doesn't really matter. I
was quite impressed with VNET the first time I used that, the same with
blaxxun. Islands is ok too. None of them seem to scale internet wide.
Ever since LivingWorlds dropped off there has been a major lack of
coordination in this area and some of the people seem to have vanished
for the face of internet. The Contact Consoritum was interesting and a
nice forum, but I didn't recieve any mails for years, perhaps they
unsubscribed me because I was too irritating (I've heard others that
say the same). Don had a nice protocol project going on but got cought
by X3D and last time I checked VRTP was idle. Bamboo seem to be a nice
architechture, but a little bit too complex and sort of redundant
to a lot of the component standards that allready exist..

..and the list goes on.

I've just read a mail from Bruce Damers mail about Atomspher. Nice, but
he is dead wrong on the point that it doesn't compete. It is, on all
countible levels, but it's a good thing. The VRML community has a long
and sad history of bashing possible competitors. The liason with MPEG,
no
matter where it ends, is a great leap forward and that sort of
openmindness is something that we should nurse. Perhaps MPEG
initiative scared the living shit out of us and made us accept it,
but nevertheless, we turned that competition into something creative and
good I think.

Bruce also claims that Adobe has a content and not engeneering aproach
towards multisuer 3d. I almost dare say that it's one of the problems we
have had so far with VRML MU, and it is not the solution we should be
looking
for. Bang had a more engeneering approach to the concept and even though
it's not very widespread it is still one of the best 'concepts' out
there. LivingWorlds was sort of a content spec (mixed emotions here I
guess), DeepMatrix I and VNET had sort of the same approach. DeepMatrix
II is a bit different since it tries quite hard to decouple the content
from the MU functionality, but nevertheless, it's still alot about
content.

But as I wrote earlier, none of them scale and we need protocols for
that
to happen. I'm not to familiar with the VRTP enterprise but I think they
start one level lower than I would have choosen (but I'm probably wrong
here). web3d is not the place to define protocols, that is for IETF to
do. But there is nothing wrong in a cyberspace community driven agenda
over there, after all, you can't be a member of IETF, can you.

Bruce write:
> Take this one really seriously folks, make it your own and it will really 
> help the cause of a greater, dimensional Cyberspace, 

Amen to that.

Cheers,
/Niclas
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-- 

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/~reed

see web page for public key info

Yet another web 3d platform from a major...

<arena announcer voice>
They battle to the death, who will survive?
</arena announcer voice>

----- Forwarded message from Dig...@ao... -----

Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 12:34:51 EST
From: Dig...@ao...
To: $SE...@we..., www...@we...
Subject: [www-vrml] Adobe Releases Atmosphere, 3D Multiuser Platform
X-Mailer: AOL 6.0 for Windows US sub 352

Dear VRML List, just announced today:

((((FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE)))))
Monday, March 26th, 2001
DigitalSpace Corporation (<A HREF="http://www.digitalspace.com/">www.digitalspace.com</A>)
Santa Cruz, California, USA
Contact: Bruce Damer (da...@di...)

Adobe Systems Incorporated Releases "Adobe Atmosphere" public Beta
A New Avatar Multi-User 3D Virtual Worlds Platform for the Web:
<A HREF="http://www.adobe.com/products/atmosphere/">http://www.adobe.com/products/atmosphere/</A>

DigitalSpace supports the Atmosphere launch with a gallery of 11 worlds
and live communities for Atmosphere visitors and developers:
<A HREF="http://www.meetingpage.com/communities/atmosphere/">http://www.meetingpage.com/communities/atmosphere/</A>

Introducing Adobe Atmosphere
(text from DigitalSpace)

Today's announcement of Adobe Atmosphere is one of the most exciting new 
developments for the future of human interaction in Cyberspace. For the first 
time, a large and respected company, and leader of the largest creative 
community in computing, has backed and delivered a platform enabling direct 
human representation (as &quot;avatars&quot;) in high fidelity shared 3D 
worlds delivered through the Web. Six years of development and careful 
analysis of metrics for success have lead to Adobe Atmosphere. Atmosphere &
quot;under the hood&quot; is an impressive technology: able to run on 
ordinary consumer computers with no hardware acceleration required, 
out-of-the-box live human representation as avatars, deliver 
Hollywood-calibre special effects, top qualiity lighting, texturing, and 
javascripted animation, easy authoring, and high compression to enable worlds 
to be delivered on typical home-use net bandwidth.

We invite you to enter the public beta program by visiting the Adobe site to 
obtain your free download of the Browser and Builder, and to then visit the 
many sample worlds produced by the Adobe team and DigitalSpace. These worlds 
will take you into a true spatial Cyberspace, where commerce, learning, 
collaboration and communications may be redefined in the coming decade. Going 
beyond the traditional use of 3D for games, Atmosphere opens up whole worlds 
for commerce (see our auto showroom, tradeshow floor), distance teamwork and 
learning (see the virtual office and DigitalSpace team room) and creativity 
(see the Atmosphere art gallery and Zen garden). If you join one of our &
quot;MeetingPage&quot; live virtual communities for Atmosphere, we will be 
happy to meet you in MeetingPage and give you a live tour of Atmosphere. Its 
all available right now at:
<A HREF="http://www.meetingpage.com/communities/atmosphere/">http://www.meetingpage.com/communities/atmosphere/</A>
We look forward to your visit, and &quot;see you in-world&quot;!

Want to know more about the vision for Atmosphere and a &quot;personal view&
quot; of where this is all going? See our White Paper on Atmosphere at:
<A HREF="http://www.meetingpage.com/communities/atmosphere/whitepaper/">http://www.meetingpage.com/communities/atmosphere/whitepaper/</A>

Atmosphere In Detail
(text provided by Adobe)

Adobe Atmosphere is the next generation software for the Web that lets users 
create graphically rich, true-to-life,
3D worlds and interact with others in real-time in those worlds. Professional 
3D content creators, Web
designers, and Web developers can work with the easy-to-use creation and 
productivity tools in Atmosphere
to quickly create dynamic, high-impact 3D environments. Posting and linking 
worlds works just like posting
and linking any HTML page, so Web designers can leverage their knowledge of 
standard Web protocols.
Visitors on the Web can download the free Atmosphere Browser plug-in for 
Microsoft Internet Explorer or
Netscape Navigator to âwalk the Webâ and experience the 3D worlds created in 
Atmosphereâas well as to 
communicate real-time with other visitors through avatars.

Atmosphere consists of three components:
â¢ Adobe Atmosphere Builder is a powerful tool for authoring graphically rich, 
immersive, 3D worlds that viewers on the Web can literally enter and interact 
in.
â¢ Adobe Atmosphere Browser is a free browser plug-in that anyone on the Web 
can download in order to wander through and
even chat and interact with other users in virtual 3D worlds created by 
Atmosphere Builder.
â¢ Adobe Atmosphere Community Server, which allows multiple users in multiple 
locations to communicate with each other in a single virtual 3D world.

Atmosphere offers: 
â¢ A truly immersive, 3D experience on the Web where virtual 3D worlds can be 
entered and explored. 
â¢ The ability to view worlds in real-time even with slow Internet connections 
with Atmosphereâs high performance features. 
â¢ Robust, content creation tools to develop graphically rich, realistic 3D 
worlds. 
â¢ The ease-of-use of a consistent Adobe user interface and standard web 
protocols. 
â¢ The power of having interactive communication through online 
personifications (avatars) and linking worlds. 

Some feature highlights of Atmosphere are:

Creation Tools for Quickly Building 3D Virtual Worlds
Experienced 3D design professionals, Web developers, and other creative 
professionals can use Atmosphere
to quickly and easily develop 3D experiences, then publish their work on the 
Web for others to explore.
- Variable Tools Panel
- Object Connectors
- Group Object Inspector
- Support for a Variety of File Formats

Special Effects Tools for Enhancing Your 3D World
Embellishments and other dÃ©cor bring virtual 3D worlds to life. An art museum 
may require marble floors
and muted lighting, whereas a beach house will need teak trimmings and a 
sun-drenched locale. Atmosphere
offers an array of tools for creating the appropriate special effects and 
enhancements to enrich any world.
- Textures
- Scene lighting
- Fog Effects
- Animations and Sound

Tools for Efficient Workflow and Enhanced Productivity 
Designers are eager to push their talent to new dimensions by creating 3D 
virtual spaces. Adobe Atmosphere
helps users leverage their experience and knowledge of industry-standard 
content creation tools by providing
an immensely efficient work environment that minimizes repetition and 
maximizes productivity.
- Consistent User Interface
- Views Panel
- Inspector Panel
- Objects Panel

High Performance and True Immersion
For interaction in any virtual 3D experience to feel completely realistic, 
viewers must experience a world
without delays caused by large files or poor memory management. To transform 
the Web into a truly vibrant
platform for 3D virtual encounters, Adobe Atmosphere offers high performance 
and true immersion.
- High Performance
- True Immersive Experience

Community Creation and Real-time Interactivity through Linked Worlds, 
Avatars, and Chatting
Community creation and interactive communication are integral functions of 
online 3D environments.
Worlds can be linked to each other, enabling seamless travel in 3D 
environments across the Web. Within any
given world, visitors can see and communicate with other real people through 
on-line personifications, or
avatars, providing a first-person perspective and a visual outlet for 
expressing personality.
- Links to Other Worlds, Other Web Sites
- Avatars
- Real-time Chat Functionality

# # #

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/~reed

see web page for public key info

http://www.web3d.org/WorkingGroups/vrtp/

virtual reality transport protocol

trying to make current static vr stuff (ie, vrml) more interactive, 
support streaming, stc

--
Reed Hedges
http://zerohour.net/~reed 

Scene Graph API's Wired or Tired?
http://www.cs.brown.edu/research/graphics/research/siggraph99/scenegraph/avd
/

-----Original Message-----
From: www...@we... [mailto:www...@we...]On
Behalf Of Martin Reddy
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2001 12:23 PM
To: Cindy Ballreich
Cc: Geoff Pack; www...@we...
Subject: Re: [www-vrml] game worlds versus VRML

Yeah, I remember that panel session - it was SIGGRAPH'99: Scene Graph APIs:
Wired or Tired. I really enjoyed the session and found a few things to think
about as a result. Brian Hook of id was the games guy, and I think that he
was making some good points that scene graphs are great for static scenes,
where you compile a bunch of geometry and then interactively visualize it,
but they may not be the best solution for a highly dynamic environment where
things move around, morph, or otherwise change a lot. Andy van Dam was also
on the panel and listed a number further research issues, including how to
integrate new rendering techniques like IBR, spatialized audio rendering,
and
processor/network distribution. He also noted that there was no open
standard
extensible scene graph API with a multi-platform Open Source reference
implementation. If I recall, Sharon Rose Clay also talked more to the issues
of having scene graphs for different sense modalities - vision, touch,
audio,
smell, etc. and how to encode these using scene graphs. van Dam's slides are
still on the web if you wanted to follow up:

http://www.cs.brown.edu/research/graphics/research/siggraph99/scenegraph/avd
/

Cheers,

Martin.

On Fri, 16 Mar 2001, Cindy Ballreich wrote:
> At SIGGRAPH, (either last year or the year before) there was a panel
> discussion about pros and cons of scene graphs. The game guy went on about
> how terrible scene graphs were for games. Generalized solutions not
working
> for optimized applications or something like that. In general, I thought
> that the whole panel was overly negative. Perhaps someone else who was
> there (Don?) has a better memory of the concerns.
>
> At 03:50 PM 3/16/01 +1100, Geoff Pack wrote:
> >So the question that remains: why aren't game developers using vrml as a
> >file format?
> >
> >What is missing from vrml that game developers need in a file format? Is
> >it really a big issue for game developers anyway? And what are the
> >advantages to them in having interoperable content?
> >
> >Maybe the way to encourage them is to not be fussed about conformance,
> >but to suggest they take the nodes they need and to make their own
> >extensions for the things that vrml doesn't have. Most of which will
> >probably converge on a stable set of features that can be standardised
> >later. Same as what seems to be happening inside vrml....
> >
> >cheers,
> >Geoff
> >
> >
> >
>
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Martin Reddy                                   SRI International, AI Center
                                               Menlo Park, CA 94025-3493
re...@ai...                               Tel : (650) 859-6468
http://www.ai.sri.com/~reddy                   Fax : (650) 859-3735

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
for list subscription instructions,
send email to www...@we... with text "info"

Sorry if some of you got emails from sourceforge about tasks...
Trying out that feature, setting up tasks mostly for me, but
I think I 'assigned' some to some other people...

Annoying 'feature'.

just ignore

reed

-- 

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/~reed

see web page for public key info

http://www.kuro5hin.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2001/2/9/213758/1156

did y'all see this one on slashdot?

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/02/07/197257

Full GPL Game Company - Nevrax 

 Posted by michael on Wednesday February 07, @04:02PM
from the first-hit's-free dept.

Loic Dachary writes "Nevrax is quietly building a 100% GPL'ed game client and server that contains a framework, a 3D engine, an AI engine and a Network engine aimed at running massively multi-user entertainment in a 3D environment over the Internet. Since this is a company based in Paris I follow their progress with great enthusiasm, although I'm not a game developer myself. Their business model makes a lot of sense: they won't sell CDs, they will sell access to the massively multiplayer server. What I also like is that they don't plan to release the client under GPL and the server under a non-free license. They release both under the GPL. The proprietary part will be the data files for the world (graphics, maps etc) but that was to be expected. They released a demo game for people to play with so that external contributors won't have to build a whole game of their own before testing their first patch." 

-- 

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/reed

 email me for my public PGP key.

http://xmlhack.com/read.php?item=1028

XML Encryption Activity started by the W3C
11:44, 26 Jan 2001 UTC | Edd Dumbill

The W3C has commenced an XML Encryption Activity, charged with specifying a data model, syntax and processing for encryption of XML content.

The Activity's web page describes its motivation:

An XML document can be secured using many of the existing cryptographic standards. However, many XML applications need to encrypt portions of XML documents such that some data can be secured, while other data is still available. Additionally, this feature needs to work with the selective signing feature of XML Signature.This is the motivation of the XML Encryption Activity. 
Led by Joseph Reagle, the newly created Encryption Working Group will hold its first face to face meeting at the beginning of March. Two proposals already exist for the encryption of XML content.

The Working Group's charter defines 7 goals, including the definition of syntax and processing necessary for creating encrypted XML content, choosing an XML canonicalization method to ensure consistent decryption, and measures to ensure interoperability.

The group has a very ambitious timetable, expecting to deliver its first Working Draft in April, and be at Recommendation stage by October 2001.

http://xmlhack.com/read.php?item=1028

-- 

 Reed Hedges
 re...@ze...
 http://zerohour.net/reed

 email me for my public PGP key.

check this out
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/graphics/Gallery/Stylized/

they intercept open gl function calls, and 'filter' them for different
effects.
screenshots and quicktime of quake 3 looking like a pencil sketch!

--
Reed Hedges
re...@ze...
http://www.zerohour.net/reed

check out worlds.com, try it out if you've got a windows box around.
it's probably one of the more advanced multiuser 3d systems around...

--
Reed Hedges
re...@ze...
http://www.zerohour.net/reed

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