stefand

The VRML/X3D is certainly the best Web3D standard we have (as it is the only one), and developing for Web3D would be more fun if we had a standardized player, for which role I cannot see any product right now. Blaxxuns contact is probably one of the best players right now, but it is not free to use even for non-commercial applications. Octaga and Flux are alternatives, but I wonder, how one should find a decent subset of functions that work on all of them in the same way. My main issue with VRML/X3D is the amount of work that has to be done on the client, the vast amount of functionality that a decent player has to support, the 3D data, the different sound, image and movie file formats, the scripting... The size of the player is just too much to bear. X3D is a huge improvement, and I hope someone will take their open source software library and wrap a standard application around it. Interestingly enough, Flux ( by http://www.mediamachines.com) is a company founded (?) by Toni Parisi, one of the creators of VRML. Why he decided to build another commercial browser after so many attempty I cannot say... It just keeps me wondering about the whole open source idea. Brian, thanks for your advice. The VRML/X3D route will be an option for the tools that I am working on. This is simple to do, since it is easy to export VRML/X3D. But for users who desire a consistent user experience, small downloads and maybe data encryption, I will provide my own file format and a browser plugin. Since my magic ingredient is the automatic LOD generation, the scenes might even be rendered by a java applet. I will look into that. Thanks again for all your input!

Thank you all for your valuable input! I have the feeling that I am on the right track with my plan. One thing that I am not very sure of is the plugin/no-plugin issue. All the other products have proprietary plugins, right? I am sure that many users would like to have a java based solution for security reasons, but will they accept the slow performance? I am not sure about that. Thanks again for your comments, I do appreciate them very much!

Hi there! I am working on software for virtual walkthroughs for architecture, archeology, city planning, etc. It is based on some automatic polygon reduction scheme, supports lightmaps (even computes some simple GI itself), and it comes with an option to use VRML or its own multi-platform, web-based or standalon viewer. Though it should be good at reducing data, and provide a useful walkthrough system, it won't do too much interaction. There will also be some quality reduction, but how much this will be an issue, I cannot yet tell. The user will be able to trade off quality and (computation/run) time and amount of data generated. Since I plan to do it for a living - I am entrepreneur of sorts - I am about to set up a businessplan. [For those who raise an eyebrow about my way of writing this up in such a forum: I am living in Europe, and I am not that deep into setting up a business, yet ]. Although I am sure that there is an interest in such a tool, it is hard for me to give a number of possible sales. To make an educated guess, I am trying to find out numbers like, and I am having a hard time getting them: - how many users of Max/Maya/Lightscape are out there used in architecture (I am doing a plugin)? - how many architectural projects are using VR now? - how many architects are interested (would buy) in a simple walkthrough solution? - any profound hints to real market numbers? Another question is, which would be the best 3D app(s) to make such a plugin for? Thanks for bearing with me with this business stuff. I hope you will be able to discuss some of my results here when they are done!