Viewpoint Media vs. Shockwave 3D and the like

[Aquinde]

Looking for some opinions here. I’m considering using one of these to supplement a cross-platform CD-ROM based pitch/presentation for an art exhibit environment. Normally I’d just render out a few still frames or a walk/fly-through but I’d like try something more interactive. Quick tests of each in a very basic implementation turned out promising results. My impression is that the Viewpoint technology is a but more mature for my purposes in that it’s 3D from the ground up whereas Shockwave 3D is more of a recent addition to the Shockwave toolset. However the Director authoring environment has a highly evolved and rich toolset whereas Viewpoint requires a number of separate apps to do the same thing.

 

My questions/concerns break down to these categories:

 

TECHNOLOGY

Is there another cross-platform, LightWave friendly app I should be looking at?

 

EASE OF USE

I’m a designer, not Web Master or Director maven though I’ve messed around with both. Viewpoint’s better features seem to be all XML based which leads me to think that I’d better bone-up on DreamWeaver if I want to get the most out of this. The Director workflow is more familiar to me but is Director overkill for this sort of thing? Either way I don’t want to have to become an expert in either of these in order to pull this off, nor do I have the budget to bring somebody else in on this.

 

RENDERING

At first pass, the VET renderer seems a little sexier than Shockwave 3D.

I’ll likely be baking all my surfaces but does one handle transparency better than the other.

VET uses LightMaps and some other things I haven’t figured out yet. Are there lighting and additional surfacing abilities in Shockwave3D?

When I get into a lot of texture maps, which I will if I bake everything, is one better at handling these than the other?

 

AUDIO

Sound is a huge element of this exhibit. Does one handle sound tracks and sync better than the other?

My feeling is that Director wins in this category.

 

INTERACTIVITY

At this point the main interactive element is simply the ability to move through and inspect the environment. At very least there will be a soundtrack loop. However it’d be nice if the different tracks could mix in when moving between areas on the environment.

Triggered events like “click here and this door opens and soundtrack changes” while desirable, sound like a nightmare to build. Am I wrong?

 

Any thoughts, opinions, advice, tips or warnings are greatly appreciated.

 

Peter Aquinde

[dwright]

I will stick with LW + EON Reality + Director.

 

Short answer, but, EON is more robust than Shockwave 3D... it all depends on the quality of your RT3D.

 

Best regards,

 

David

[Aquinde]

David,

 

I just took a look around the EON site. I don't think this is an option since I get the impression that the viewer plugin is Windows only. I'll be authoring in Windows but I need a cross-platform viewer for the clients.

 

Thanks

 

Peter

[dwright]

oh.. right.. then Shockwave is perhaps the best for that. Mac 3d solutions are not wide yet, and most is very primitive. I guess SW3D will be the best for cross platform.