Vunky Search: Search For Photoshop Tutorials
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Photoshop is a tool widely used by all those who prepare textures or backgrounds for 3D or virtual worlds.
Finding good Photoshop tutorials is hard, but now you have a specialized search engine. There are not all the ones, but there are many and good:
News Machine Gun: Twinity Games Lounge, Oddesey Re-Born, Torley Videos, And More!
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Twinity opens B-Zone, a new 3D gaming lounge inside their virtual world.
Situated at Alexanderplatz in virtual Berlin, it's the perfect place for online games aficionados to hang out and meet likeminded Twinizens at regular Bigpoint events and parties, swap gaming tricks and tips, and immerse themselves in the fascinating world of their favorite game.
Hurry up! There's an inauguration party running!
Instructional video by Torley Linden in which he tells us 2 ways to create new clothes for Second Life.
If you are not still tired with this week's news about O3D, X3D, Mozilla Khronos, and all that, you can still enjoy more stuff, like this article:
Google joins effort for 3D Web standard with new plugin, API - Ars Technica
In which you can read that "Google's O3D API takes a different approach and is not directly compatible with Mozilla's plugin". So if this continues this way, we will have 2 very similar technologies with a different and incompatible approach. So this may end in 2 very similar standards or directly in confrontation of standards.
Also, if you want to keep on reading and discussing about VRML, X3D, O3D and so on, join the polemic here: Google tries jump-starting 3D Web with O3D | Webware - CNET
Also, have a look to the related project: Canvas 3d JS Library » What is C3DL?
Cooliris is an add-on for Firefox that allows you to browse images and videos of many popular web services in 3D. A new release has been launched recently. Cooliris - Download
Oddessey, one of the most popular Blaxxun-based VRML communities, is back online, and is now based on the BS Contact platform. Bruce Lehmann, founder of WBandD, reviews the changes here: Oddessey Re-Born - WBandD
DAZ Studio now supports dynamic clothing, that are clothes that react to gravity and wind when posed in a render. The new dynamic clothes are easy to pose.
Orbita Mouse: Scroll Endlessly
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The Orbita Mouse is a very original and revolutionary concept of computer input device, that has some advantages for 3D.
This device is handled this way: you can move the cursor the same way as with a traditional mouse, and squeeze it for right click, or push any part of the Orbita to make a left click. You can also spin the Orbita Mouse to scroll web pages, as the wheel in conventional mouses.
As the mouse is round, it uses a configurable compass to know where is it facing.
The difference with the wheel of a normal mouse is that the scrolling can be endless and continuous, and smoother.
For 3D applications, the Orbita can provide true 3D rotation by combining normal mouse movement with the additional rotation axis.
I have chosen this video because it illustrates how it works on 3D applications, games, music edition, and many more.
It can be purchased in Amazon. It is available at our Amazon Store, that has other high technology products as amazing as this one.
Suggestions For O3D To Support X3D
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Our initiative to ask VRML and X3D support in O3D has been very successful, and has been followed by many other proposals from other people that are of similar content.
Click this screenshot to see the results:
Top Machinima Video: LoweRuno's Science Fiction
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The Koinup group of Hiperia3D News keeps growing, and has reached 102 members that have submitted 105 videos.
So this makes me think that maybe the number of videos showcased will need to be bigger. I am also thinking in interviews to machinima directors and other things. In the next weeks there will be news related to this.
Hiperia3D's Machinima Selections chooses a video directed by LoweRuno: "Anime Space Exploration Team", that shows the adventures of sci-fiction heroes. Lowe Runo is procucer and also actor, alongside with other actors as Janet Gilks, Wes Palen, and Smacky Weezles.
If you like it, visit LoweRuno profile or join our group to view more works submitted by him. There are other sci-fic videos and lots of beautiful graphic works. He is also the creator of Second Life Machinima Artists Guild.
Balsamiq Mockups: Sketch Your Software And Projects
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Balsamiq Mockups is an application that is specially good to create drafts of things like a software application, a website, or anything.
Balsamiq Mockups is an standalone application that can be run offline, and runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, being completely cross-platform.
It has outstanding features for the creation of mockups, as you can read here. Includes more than 75 controls already made to include in your drafts, and if you need more, you can go here and get many more that were done by users of the application.
The application is rather cheap: $79, and is free for opensource developers, journalists and bloggers.
If you are a software developer or a website designer, this application can speed up your work enormously, and you will save a fortune on paper.
Google's O3D Screenshots And First Impression
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I have tested O3D. Here are some screenshots of the (for now) best scenery that is now available, the beach.
The player installs in less than 1 minute under broadband connection. Then you can go and test the demos:
http://code.google.com/apis/o3d/docs/samplesdirectory.html#demos
This is what appears when you enter the beach, that is the best 3D world available on O3D:
The sky is a shaded sphere or polygon, red with shades of yellow and orange.
This is the water. It looks very similar to what you see in Second Life waters, not so realist but well done. When the world has finally loaded, you can see this:
I have seen some people saying that this matches the quality of games of Play Station, but it doesn't. Anyway, the world has been done by someone who really masters worldbuilding and has done an excellent work.
The torches look like animated gifs. The plants seem to be polygons with transparent textures too, not complex at all. The bridge, in my computer, blinks endlessly, something that makes me suspect that it's not geometry but some square plans with transparent textures.
So the skills of the builder are high, but the platform may not support high number of polygons. Also, the size of the file is 17 mb. In my connection, it takes little to download, but it is a high size, considering that doing this same scenery with VRML may only weight 1 mb if optimized, or less.
The waterfalls looks very similar to the waters of ActiveWorlds, correct and good looking. Not game-like but they do the work.
Navigation is hard because controls for mouse are inverted. There is no collision against the objects, and you advance like flying through objects without colliding with them (so you go through them).
The water has some reflection. If you go into the water, you notice that the polygons have texture only from one side, so you see nothing.
The texture of the rock is combined with color and shading, looking good.
As a conclusion, O3D looks good, but is not so stunning as people say. Obviously, people that say this have not tested Vivaty, ExitReality, or any VRML world done, for example, Erny's.
The lack of collision detection in this demo makes me think that it has not been implemented or maybe doing that is not a simple task.
Some people have also said that they were unable to run the demo. My PC ran it smooth, but with a little of delay, I think it may be near 20 FPS, and I use a 2,0 Ghz computer, 2024 MB Ram, and a 512 Mb GeForce.
Most of VRML browsers of the past and all the X3D browsers of today get higher FPS and quality, and worlds are easier to build.
It may be a good idea for Google to associate with Web3D.org and make this project together, if they're not together on this. Moreover, it may be good to mix the X3D project and Khronos and O3D (Khronos is already doing that).
There is no sense to start from the beginning again. They may join efforts, and maybe give developers a javascript interface if they want it, but not ignore all the work done by X3D and VRML companies all these years.
For the user, no advantages over existing platforms. For the javascript developers, may be. But X3D syntax is simpler, and more easily understandable by web developers. Web developers may be more easily attracted by Vivaty or ExitReality.
More Twitter Fight
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More Twitter Messages:
bunchofstring: @xamox O3D will not reach mainstream b/c there's still not enough demand for a 3d markup language. Remember VRML? The world isn't ready.
LieberJosh: @ajturner It does surprise me that Google's materials make no mention whatsoever of X3D. An intentional slight, it seems.
Wednesday, April 22nd at 14:57:13
somelab: Twitter Is Burning With VRML And O3D http://ow.ly/3yln
Wednesday, April 22nd at 14:40:45
Myrl: Twitter Is Burning With VRML And O3D http://ow.ly/3ylf
Wednesday, April 22nd at 14:40:44
darknater: Google joins effort for 3D Web standard with new plugin, API - http://arst.ch/qr via @arstechnica what ever happened to vrml?
Wednesday, April 22nd at 13:15:02
plebeosaur: Google hopes to push browsers into the next dimension with nifty O3D http://tr.im/jpML (VRML flashbacks anyone?)
Wednesday, April 22nd at 13:45:34
ffunch: Google O3D http://code.google.com/apis/o3d/ looks nice. Almost as good as VRML which we had 12 yrs ago, but less useful. What happened?
Wednesday, April 22nd at 11:11:09
davorado: Anyone remember VRML? RT Google brings 3D to web browsers http://tinyurl.com/dhp5dq (via @ITPRO)
Wednesday, April 22nd at 11:12:43
Twitter Is Burning With VRML And O3D
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The new O3D platform that Google is building is being profusely mentioned on Twitter, and so is VRML. There's a lot of talking about the two.
And our initiative to ask VRML and X3D support in O3D is going well. In this moment, there are 29 votes against 13.
And other initiatives asking VRML or X3D support are also in the top: 17 against 5 and 15 againts 4.
Here are some things that people are saying:
TheRealTester: @pphaneuf : Re-inventing VRML 10 years later?
Wednesday, April 22nd at 02:32:20
alazoral: Google has made its own VRML. I feel like history is reversing. How about you?
Wednesday, April 22nd at 02:45:56
geekscape: @mpesce I bet this takes you back to the good old VRML days ! Google's O3D plug-in for Google Chrome http://code.google.com/apis/o3d/
Wednesday, April 22nd at 01:48:57
PINTSD: Playing with Google's o3d http://tinyurl.com/c45ax4 with this, Canvas3D and JS for everything-starting to think VRML is about to resurface
Wednesday, April 22nd at 01:18:54
llagerlof: Google desenvolve tecnologia que permite criar ambientes 3D no navegador. http://tinyurl.com/cp224m (e o VRML??) #google #3d
Wednesday, April 22nd at 00:21:42
MrShlee: @mpesce http://tinyurl.com/cnq95o VRML goes web 2.0?
Wednesday, April 22nd at 00:48:24
agrogator: ElReg~ Google wants a 3D internet: VRML 2: electric Googaloo One of the most heavily-flogged dead horses
Wednesday, April 22nd at 00:25:57
voxmachina: VRML is back...with another name...this time its called X3D...ups srry O3D..........o.O
Tuesday, April 21st at 23:55:05
xgavin: wait a minute, google isn't endorsing VRML? you're saying it is yet another 3D web standard?
Tuesday, April 21st at 20:23:16
dpjanes: @brycej funny I hear VRML is still being updated in Internet Explorer (?). O3D doesn't tempt me yet to abandon pages of nicely formatted txt
Tuesday, April 21st at 21:06:35
martinkl: @afternoon Looking at O3D I get this 1990s VRML flash-back... the difference is that today's hardware can do more than 3 frames/sec ;-)
Tuesday, April 21st at 20:12:47
jimpick: @mcantelon Same as VRML? Maybe I'm just old.
Tuesday, April 21st at 19:08:02
kevindente: @OdeToCode - VRML 3.0?
Tuesday, April 21st at 19:02:26
rschu: Looks nice. 3D gfx in the browser- > RT @PrometheusFire: yay, VRML! Oh, wait, it's called O3D now? http://tinyurl.com/cnq95o
Tuesday, April 21st at 18:58:52
viveka: @mpesce can we do vrml-on-O3D? Or maybe O3D can learn some goddamn encapsulation?
Wednesday, April 22nd at 07:37:28
rcarmo: @celso It's VRML all over again, but shiny.
Wednesday, April 22nd at 07:03:19
And as you know, Mark Pesce, that is the co-inventor of VRML and an awesome intellectual, has replied:
mpesce: @wolfcat I was perfectly happy not-going-on-about-VRML until everyone shoved O3D in my face today. Hence, I will weigh in with my opinionz.
Wednesday, April 22nd at 07:42:13
mpesce: @viveka Possibly someone can build a VRML scene graph parser-and-translator to O3D. Then we'd have VRML on OSX. Final-fucking-ly. Grr.
Wednesday, April 22nd at 07:39:16
mpesce: The amount of JS needed for a Phong-shaded sphere under O3D is stunning. And ridiculous. In VRML, 4 lines. In O3D, closer to 400. Eeep.
Wednesday, April 22nd at 07:32:47
The answer marked in red speaks for itself.
Another Standard For Web 3D: Google's O3D
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Google has released a plugin for all the major browsers and operative systems, that seems to be a rival for Mozilla Khronos.
Today Google made public a series of informations about a new project called O3D.
In the words of their developers, it is:
So this is something similar to Khronos, and seems there is some will or space to combine it with Mozilla's Canvas 3D.
The O3D API will allow web developers to create 3D applications that want to reach the quality of game consoles.
O3D is now available as a plugin for Chrome, Firefox, Intenet Explorer, and Safari, and for Windows, Mac and Linux:
http://code.google.com/apis/o3d/
The O3D project is also discussing "about a new open web standard on 3D graphics for the web".
Oh, again! But the standard already exists, and it's VRML and X3D. The idea of O3D using javascript to deal with the lower level of 3D is great, but what if they provide some support for the already existing standard?
People may make worlds in VRML or X3D, and then convert or import them to O3D. Maybe an import application that takes the code and turn it to the javascript that O3D can handle may be a good thing.
O3D already imports COLLADA. It may be extended to support X3D in classical VRML syntax, or VRML.
Google has created a forum where you can submit suggestions on what features a 3D API for the web should have.
http://moderator.appspot.com/#16/e=41eb1
So if you agree with this, go and vote the option:
"Create support for VRML or X3D in classical VRML syntax because it's an already existing standard for web3D and it's easy for everyone"
Myrl News: MetaMeets' 09 European Conference In Second Life
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You can subscribe to this event and get more information about it in Myrl:
Go To Read it on Myrl !!!
"Awareness and Getting United" is the theme of this first European MetaMeets for residents in SL. 2009 will be the year to raise awareness for the real value of virtual environments.
Besides that, this MetaMeets is about getting united in the "meatspace"! An opportunity to get together, learn, chat, make a party, and finally meet those friends you’ve never encountered in the physical world before.
Also to review the European Market of the Virtual World Second Life what it has to offer in education business and entertainment.
Location: Amsterdam The Netherlands.
When: 22 May 2009 - 24 May 2009.
Link: http://www.metameets.com
Life On Line: A Rival To WOW, Facebook And ReactionGrid
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The new episode of Life On Line is out.
In this episode, they report on Sony's newest online offerings, the new rival to World Of Warcraft, and SpaceJunky performs 'Killer Coat'.
There's also a talk with one of the creators of the new virtual world ReactionGrid. And that very strange 'Some Grey Bloke' explains what Facebook is 'really' all about.
As you know, Life On Line partnered with us. So if you look in our sidebar, you'll find the Life On Line latest episode. When a new episode is launched, it will be automatically updated and you'll be able to watch it here in your favorite 3D site, Hiperia3D News.
Cheatsheet For Art Of Illusion 3D Modeler
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Art Of Illusion is a 3D modeler that stands out for its extreme ease of use, in addition to having very powerful and flexible modeling tools.
Moreover, it has many plugins that extend its capabilities. In the future, a list of related websites and resources for AOI will be published.
This is the second cheatsheet published here in Hiperia3D News. The first one was a for Second Life (get it here).
For now, you can read the review that was published here. If you're new to Art Of Illusion you will value this cheatsheet. If you're an advanced user, maybe this is also useful for you, because it will help you to remember the common keys.
Download it clicking the image or through this link:
Art Of Illusion 3D Modeler Keyboard Shortcuts Cheatsheet
Use the PDF file for a high quality print, and to have the cheatsheet in paper.
The packet also includes a gif in high resolution. You can use them to view the shortcuts in your PC (maybe adding a shortcut on the desktop).
You can copy it, upload it to your site, distribute it, and add to any book or documentation (wikis too), and do what you like with it, as long as you:
* Don't modify it
* Don't remove the url, logos, name or copyright notice of Hiperia3D News
* Don't claim it as your own
Deer In A Virtual Forest
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This article is about a different virtual world. It turns you into a deer that roams an endless forest of stunning beauty.
In The Endless Forest you are a deer that wanders into an enormous forest, just enjoying its beauty. You can interact with other deers, that are other people. Registered players (register is free) show a strange sign over their heads instead of a nickname.
You can't talk to others, but you can perform many actions to communicate with them, and also using sounds and body language. In this virtual land, you are an animal.
http://tale-of-tales.com/TheEndlessForest/index.html
Here's a video that shows how it is:
It also works like a social screensaver. This means that you can set it as screensaver, and when your computer is not active, it will run and connect, and you appear there.
It is not difficult to find other players or guests, and it's a pleasure to discover strange ruins, statues of forest gods, and jump over cliffs and bridges, or just run through the endless forest.
First Featured Machinimas Of Hiperia3D's Machinima Selections: Two Superb Stories
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As announced in the previous article, Hiperia3D has founded a machinima group in Koinup to feature the works of outstanding machinima directors.
The members of the group are growing and works are already being submitted. Some of them were already featured here, like for example, the AM Radio video of Nitwacket.
Every week a machinima will be showcased, chosen between the best of them. This week, though, the quality of the videos is so high that I will show you 2 stories instead of one.
Thank you to all the people who sent their machinimas, and keep posting your stunning works. I have seen other works that are really worth watching in the group. Stay tuned, readers, to watch the best of them each week.
Ciskovan has directed this story that emulates a comic strip in black and white, and has captured the essence of old comics with great mastery. This is part of a series called "DREAM ON/OFF", and this is "CHAPTER_011 - escape".
This machinima by ChantalHarvey, called "Orientation", mixes the feeling of stories like those told in Orwell's 1984, the Wall of Pink Floyd, even Brazil of Monty Python. A story that is at the same time engaging and terrifying, and criticizes the standardization of individuals and how they become controlled.
Remember the address of our group at Koinup:
Hiperia3D News Launches Machinima Group In Koinup. Submit yours!
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Now you've got a new group at Koinup in which you can submit your machinima videos to be featured at our website. Join and recommend any machinima video you like, let it be yours or just your favorites.
You can submit as many videos as you like, and the best ones will be picked each week and will appear on our "Koinup's Machinima Of The Week" section, giving you additional exposure and prestige as director.
If you don't make machinima videos but you like them, you can also join and recommend your favorites, thus encouraging the work of your preferred directors.
The group is called "Hiperia3D's Machinima Selections", and can be accessed through Koinup at:
http://www.koinup.com/group/hiperia3dmachinima
For those media interested, here you are the press release of this news:
Affordable Soft: Import Your 3D Models Into Adobe Flash With FreeSpin3D
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FreeSpin3D enables the importing of 3D Models directly into Adobe Flash as a Flash MovieClip object.
It has timeline support, an easy to use "no 3D code" control panel and an extensive Action Script interface.
Visit the gallery and see what others have done with it. Also check the example in their home page, that is rather fun.
Koinup's Machinima: The California Legacy Project
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This week's machinima is a documentary directed by draxtor, that visualizes the writings of The California Legacy Project at Santa Clara University, dedicated to preserving California's unique culture through our book series, our radio productions, and now through the virtual world of Second Life.
Visit this video in Koinup.
Some Quick News: 3DXplorer's Survey, Kambi Supports Multitexturing In X3D, Win L$50,000 With Koinup
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3dxplorer is sponsoring a new survey called "Enterprise Immersive Internet Business Value Study" conducted by ThinkBalm, focused on work-related use of virtual worlds and campuses, immersive learning environments, and 3D business applications.
The survey is focused to those who use 3DXplorer for work or business. The study will be published in mid-May 2009. The report will be freely available on www.3DXplorer.com. If this is your case, take the survey here.
I'm very surprised of the advancements of Kambi VRML Game Engine (remember the interview to its creator?).
These are some of the new features that Michalis Kamburelis has added (still only available in SVN, will be added to the next stable):
The group metaLIFE on Koinup is launching a contest about Shopping Experiences in Second Life.
If you want to take part, create some art about shopping in SL, and you may win over L$ 50,000 in Prizes! Read more on the metaLIFE group.
All contest entries must be received from April 10, 2009 to May 14, 2009
Cheap Soft: Create 2D Sprites From 3D Models With SpriteForge
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This is a cheap software ($18) that can create 2d sprites from your 3d models.
And you may ask, why do you need 2D sprites? For example, for Flash games. Suppose that you have many 3D models, and someone asks you to create some flash game graphics. You can use SpriteForge to generate them from your 3D models, so you get that job done almost instantly.
Also, you can recycle your 3d models to use them as 2D Avatars in forums or social sites. Maybe pack them to sell them, or use them as icons or favicons for your sites.
You can also add an outline and adjust many settings, although the default options generate great results. The application is very simple.
New Poll: User Feedback Poll For Hiperia3D News
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The new poll for Hiperia3D News is a feedback poll. So if you're a regular reader, cast your opinion, that is highly valued.
The reason to do this poll is because I am thinking in adding some new regular contents to this site, and I want to know your interest in some of them.
These are the options and what they mean:
You can check all the cases if you like them all. Also, feel free to suggest more content types, or to express your liking for something that is already present in Hiperia3D News.
Poll Results: "Which Virtual Worlds Do You Prefer?"
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It has been a long time since the last poll was started. It was about what kind of virtual worlds did you prefer.
And these are the results:
As you can see, as the most usual topics for everyone's favorite virtual worlds where given as options, all the possibilities have similar votes.
Anyway, space and sci-fi worlds have higher votes, followed by "forest, hills". Historical worlds also score high.
This poll says something interesting to us. Being in virtual worlds is not as watching a movie. We are not watching but taking part into something.
So what we like is what we want to be into, what kind of things do we like to be surrounded of.
If you're willing, feel free to suggest anything for debate.
Interview: Nicole Yankelovich, Sun's Project Wonderland Lead
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Project Wonderland is a 100% Java and open source toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds. Within those worlds, users can communicate with high-fidelity, immersive audio, share live desktop applications and documents and conduct real business. Wonderland is completely extensible; developers and graphic artists can extend its functionality to create entire new worlds and new features in existing worlds.
Nicole Yankelovich is the Project Wonderland Lead at Sun Microsystems Laboratories. She explains us what is Project Wonderland and what interesting things it has to offer for developers and users.
https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/
Photo by cogdog
- Is Wonderland written 100% in Java?
-Yes. The Project Wonderland server, client, and voice bridge are all 100% Java.
- What features does Wonderland have that are related to social virtual worlds?
-Wonderland is a toolkit for building virtual worlds, so you could build a social virtual world using the toolkit.
- And to gaming, ecomerce, others...?
- Same answer. You can create any sort of virtual world using the toolkit. Wonderland is completely extensible. With our upcoming v0.5 release, developers can write extensions to Wonderland in the form of modules. These can extend either the client, the server, or both. In addition, modules are a mechanism for integrating with external systems or data sources. In the ecommerce example, a developer could write a module that integrates a micro-payment system with Wonderland. You can learn more about building Wonderland modules here:
https://wonderland.dev.java.net/index2.html
Developer releases of Wonderland v0.5 are currently available. While this version is still a work in progress, enough of the system is in place for developers to begin creating new modules.
- How many people work in the building of Wonderland?
- There is a small group of around 8 developers in Sun Labs who do most of the core development work and then many people in the open source community who are writing modules.
Photo by m4rlonj
- What is X3D used for inside Wonderland?
- X3D is used as the format for importing models into Wonderland v0.4. In v0.5, we have switched to Collada and will no longer be supporting X3D.
- Does Wonderland collaborate with other Java projects?
- Yes. Wonderland is based on a number of open source projects. Project Darkstar provides the communications and persistence infrastructure, jVoiceBridge provides all the audio support and telephony integration, Java Monkey Engine, combined with our new extension for multi-threading, MTGame, make up the graphics framework, and Glassfish is used for web integration. In addition, we take advantage of many other open source projects such as JAXB, Jersey, Hudson, JOGL, and webdavclient4j.
Photo by m4rlonj
- Can Wonderland be used for commercial use or for personal use? What are the use limitations?
- Yes, Wonderland can be used for both commercial and personal use. It is licensed under a GPL license. The license for v0.5 is more flexible for than the one for the v0.4 release. In the newer version, developers can apply either a commercial or an open source license to their modules, which allows them to keep modules propriety, if so desired. Any changes to the core of the system need to be contributed back to the open source community if the developer wishes to distribute the software. We expect, however, that most module developers will not need to make core changes, and if they do, those changes are likely to be small. You can learn more about Wonderland licensing from our licensing FAQ:
https://wonderland.dev.java.net/license-faq.html
- What are the future plans for Wonderland?
- In the short term, we will continue to do approximately monthly developer releases of Wonderland v0.5. We hope to have something suitable for end users in the summer timeframe. After that, we will continue to work on core features that enhance the developer experience, making it easier to build collaborative 2D and 3D applications and enabling a variety of deployment options, including deploying the system on a grid or cloud infrastructure.
Hiperia3D News is a Netbeans Community Partner, in recognition for developing the X3DV Module Suite and contributing to the promotion of Netbeans.
