January
5, 1999
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Easy
3-D for Your Site
Screenshots
(images as printed plus more)
By
Linda Von Schweber
Platinum
Cosmo PageFX ($129 direct) uses the open VRML97 format
to deliver 3-D graphics and animation
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Cosmo
PageFX 1.0 is the first product we've seen that provides
web designers a single tool for producing interactive
animations and site navigation using 2-D vector and
bitmap graphics, 3-D primitives, imported 3-D objects,
2-D and 3-D animated effects, 2-D and 3-D text, and
drag and drop behaviors which follow easily defined
logic and do not require scripting.
Platinum
technology: Cosmo Page FX 1.0 www.platinum.com
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November
3, 1998
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Building in 3-D
This
story is no longer posted online.
Screenshots
(images as printed plus more)
By
Linda Von Schweber
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Designed
for architects, engineers, and CAD (AEC) professionals,
3D Studio VIZ R2 ($1,995 direct) from Kinetix can
make quick work of turning imagination-challenging
blueprints and CAD drawings into photo-realistic pictures.
Kinetix:
3D Studio VIZ R2 www.ktx.com
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November
3, 1998
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When
you want to create interactive real-time animations
and not just movies, you'll turn to the new but limited
VRML97 import and the already robust VRML97 export
plug-ins, which come included with both Kinetix's
3D Studio VIZ R2 and 3D Studio MAX R2.5.
Kinetix:
3D Studio MAX R2.5 www.ktx.com
Kinetix: 3D Studio VIZ R2 www.ktx.com
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July
29, 1998
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Tools
Put Data in Perspective
(full
text, no images)
This
story is no longer posted online.
Screenshots
(images as printed plus more)
By
Linda Von Schweber
& Erick Von Schweber
Web-enabled
programs for desktop PCs, tools for developers promise
to make 3-D data visualization easier to afford and
use.
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June
9, 1998
The
testing script produced a SoundBoard Guitars web site
with a realtime 3-D interactive, animated ad Banner,
this one from Cosmo Worlds, our Editor's Choice.
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The
Web's a 3-D World After All
(full text and screenshots)
By
Linda Von Schweber
& Erick Von Schweber
Volume 17 No. 11
This
story is no longer posted online.
Screenshots
StoryBoard
Navigating
the Web in 3-D comes of age with the arrival of new,
affordable tools for creating and animating 3-D worlds.
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Linda
and Erick Von Schweber created the testing script
and wrote the introduction and all the reviews for
this story.
Products
Reviewed in The Web's a 3-D World After All
Cosmo Software: Cosmo Worlds 2.0
($999 list, $699 street)
Ligos': V-Realm Builder 2.1 ($495 list)
Platinum Technologies: VRCreator
2.02 ($120 list)
RenderSoft: RenderSoft VRML Editor 1.65 ($15
list)
Superscape: 3D Webmaster 5.5 ($999 list)
Products
not Reviewed in The Web's a 3-D World After All
There
are several notable ommissions from this roundup including
the high-end WOERML 2.0, a programmer's environment
from Virtual Vision that's similar to V-Realm Builder
and costs $1,500, well above our price filter; and
Datapath's $500 version of its $1,500 Realimation
STE (Space Time Editor), which produces a proprietary
Web format, but is primarily targeted at the VR and
simulation market. On the horizon is Uppercut's
Beyond 3D Extreme, a promising 3-D animation environment
that's currently in beta, and is due by fall. Also
keep an eye out for the complete World Visions
suite from Aesthetic Solutions, which will allow you
to import models from third party tools and then define
behaviors to create 3-D components for use within
World Visions.
Cosmo
Worlds Home Space Designer 2.0 produces static,
not animated, VRML 97 so we looked at it in the "Modeling
for the 3-D Web" piece below, along with 3-D
modeling and animation products which produce animated
or static VRML97 files.
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May
19, 1998
Screenshot
of Caligari trueSpace 3.1 and it's animated output
in Intervista's WorldView VRML Browser
Linda
and Erick Von Schweber wrote this analysis.
Products
which export Static VRML97 (VRML 2.0)
NewTek: Inspire 3D 1.0
Cosmo Software: $129 Cosmo Home Space Designer
2.0
MetaCreations: $149 Ray Dream 3D 5.0 and $499
Ray Dream Studio 5
Macromedia: $399 Extreme 3D 2
auto-des-sys:
$1,495 form-Z 2.9.5
Discrete
Logic's $499 Lightscape 3.1 exports only VRML
1.0.
Products
which export Animated VRML97 (VRML 2.0)
Caligari: $795 trueSpace 3.1
NewTek: $495 Inspire 3D 1.0
Kinetix: $3,495 3D Studio MAX R2.0 and R2.5
Kinetix: $1,995 3D Studio VIZ R1.0 and R2.0
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Modeling
for the 3-D Web
(Full Text and screenshots)
This
story is no longer posted online.
By
Linda Von Schweber
& Erick Von Schweber
First
Looks Online Only - Not Printed
For
creating 3-D detail beyond your VRML authoring tool's
capabilities, you'll need a modeling tool--such as
one of these 12 packages.
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June
9, 1998
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The
Future of VR
By
Linda Von Schweber
& Erick Von Schweber
This
story is no longer posted online.
Volume
17 No. 11
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Teams
of workers will visually explore virtual prototypes
together and interactively conduct simulations through
VR techniques.
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October
31, 1997
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The
advanced 3-D APIs being incorporated into industry-standard
Web browsers can significantly reduce network traffic
compared with image-based technologies such as bit maps
and digital video--for some applications, the reductions
are on the order of 1,000-to-1.
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February
1997
3D
Accelerators
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PC
Labs MMX PCs: Performance Tests
This
story is no longer posted online.
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Linda
and Erick Von Schweber created the PC Magazine Labs
VRML world 3-D benchmarks used in this testing.
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December
3, 1996
3D
Accelerators
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3-D
for Free
By
Linda Von Schweber
& Erick Von Schweber
Volume
15, Issue 21
This
story is no longer posted online.
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Linda
& Erick Von Schweber wrote the 3-D benchmarks and
several reviews
for 3D for Free.
3-D
Graphics Accelerator Boards Reviewed in 3-D for Free
Intergraph
Computer Systems Reactor
Leadtek
Research Inc. WinFast S280, WinFast 3D S600
Genoa
Systems Corp. Phantom 3D
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November
5, 1996
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The Web Goes 3-D - Virtual Reality
Modeling Language
By
Linda Von Schweber
& Erick Von Schweber
Volume
15, Issue 19
This
story is no longer posted online.
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Linda
and Erick Von Schweber created the testing script and
wrote the introduction and all the reviews for this
article - Web Goes 3-D.
Virtual
Reality Modeling Language (VRML 1.0) opens up the exciting
possibilities of the third dimension on the Web. The
latest VRML authoring tools let you build rich 3-D worlds,
often modeled after the real 3-D space we live in. We
review five world builders that will set the tone for
future VRML development in this quickly evolving market.
Our tests of 11 VRML browsers show end users where to
begin their 3-D journeys, navigating and exploring the
worlds already on the Web. We also reveal which browsers
developers can trust to do justice to the worlds they've
built.
VRML
1. 0 Builder Products Reviewed in The Web Goes 3-D
Radiance
Software International: Ez3d VRML Author Pro 2.0
Caligari Corp.: Pioneer Pro
ParaGraph International Inc.: Virtual Home Space Builder
Virtus Corp.: Virtus 3-D Website Builder
Integrated Data Systems Inc.: V-Realm Builder
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June
26, 1996
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3-D Comes Alive
By
Linda Von Schweber
& Erick Von Schweber
Volume
15, Issue 12
This
story is no longer posted online.
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Linda
and Erick Von Schweber wrote the 3-D benchmarks and
all of the high-end 3-D OpenGL accelerator board reviews
for 3-D Comes Alive.
High-End
3-D Graphics Accelerator Boards
Reviewed in 3-D Comes Alive
AccelGraphics: AccelR8
Diamond Multimedia: Diamond FireGL
Dynamic Pictures: V192 Graphics
ELSA: GLoria 8
Sapphire 2SX, Sapphire 3D Designer
Oki Advanced Products: TrianGL 24P, TrianGL 16P
GLyder 16
Omnicomp: 3Demon SX88
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June
13, 1995
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Putting the Space in Cyberspace
PC
Magazine Trends
By
Linda Von Schweber
& Erick Von Schweber
This
story is no longer posted online.
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From Home Pages to Home Worlds: Web
goes 3D
COMDEX
Daily - Spring '95
By
Linda Von Schweber
& Erick Von Schweber |
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March
14, 1995
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Virtual Reality - Virtually Here
By
Linda Von Schweber
& Erick Von Schweber
Volume 14, Issue
5
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Linda
and Erick Von Schweber created the testing script and
wrote the introduction and all the software reviews
for this story. Brad Epranian wrote the hardware reviews,
which are not available here.
Our
virtual reality overview illustrates the tantalizing
fact that VR is here, on the PC, now. Because VR is
such a rapidly developing area, we put it in focus for
you by defining the types of VR and discussing some
of the ways businesses are using VR applications. We
also diagram a typical VR setup and take a look at the
software development tools and hardware components that
you need.
VR
Software Products Reviewed in VR- Virtually Here
Virtus
Corp.: Virtus VR and Virtus Walkthrough Pro
Superscape: Superscape VRT
VREAM: VR Creator beta
Sense8: World Tool Kit
Template Graphics Systems: Open Inventor
Portable Graphics: Open Inventor
NetPower Inc.: Open Inventor
Autodesk: Cyberspace Developers Kit
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