Hiperia3D News: Worldbuilding

Showing posts with label Worldbuilding. Show all posts

Many years ago, VRML was invented. The promise was to be able to put 3D worlds and models in a webpage. Even more than even today's technologies, the language allowed to create behaviors, sense the user, add sound, and many other cool things.

Even the name was cool: Virtual Reality Modeling Language. And "X3D Profile Immersive".

But we never had something that allows the original idea: just put your world in a webpage.

I have recently discovered (maybe many already know) that X3D V4 as said now in Web3d.org, is helping actively X_ITE to be developed, and that way, X_ITE now supports all VRML (or X3D Profile Immersive) completely. This means, that AT LAST! we can just put our worlds online again and no browser required, with all ecmascript and all VRML nodes supported.

So 23 years later, VRML is what it was supposed to be. We can finally get our worlds visited by people without having to install any plugin! And VRML becomes a modern solution again.

Imagine what we could do now, without having to optimize worlds so much, as now everybody has a fast connection and a fast PC. VRML has a lot of potential power, that was never used.

I have put some of my old worlds online at my personal page:

http://hipercubo.atwebpages.com/Mundos-VRML

These are worlds that you didn't see by that time, as we were doing them and then we abandoned the idea. There are still 4 that I have to adapt. Although X_ITE supports everything, the code has to be completely standard. For this, view3dscene has a nice console to see if everything is ok.

HOW TO PUT YOUR OLD AND NEW WORLDS ONLINE AGAIN

Once built, you must host your files on a server. There are free servers to host your website, some with very good service. For example:

Awardspace: very easy to use. You can upload your files by ftp (it gives you ready-made downloadable configuration files) or by using the file manager. Free subdomains like atwebpages.com and others. They guarantee 99.9% uptime.
Atspace: also very easy. It gives you a subdomain such as atspace.eu.
x10Hosting: it has FTP and a file manager that lets you upload a zip of your files and unzip it on the server, in addition to FTP. It can host your domain name for free.

Among the 3, I recommend Awardspace, for its simplicity, speed and reliability

Once up, create a website. This website you are on was created with Typesetter CMS. Typesetter doesn't use databases or anything complex, installation is very easy. If not, use one of the software that the server you have chosen has. Or make a simple web page. Of all these options, the simplest is to use Typesetter.

At this point, you will have:

A .wrl file (VRML) or a series of them joined by a .wrl file that loads them
A conventional web page

We need a bridge between the two. The way to do it is to create an .html document with this content:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
   <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8"/>
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://create3000.github.io/code/x_ite/4.6.16/dist/x_ite.css"/>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="https://create3000.github.io/code/x_ite/4.6.16/dist/x_ite.min.js"></script>
<style>
    X3DCanvas {
        width: 100%;
        height: 100%;
        position: absolute;
    }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <X3DCanvas src="folder/world.wrl">
      <p>Your browser may not support all features required by X_ITE!</p>
    </X3DCanvas>
</body>
</html>

As you can see, there are two parts to copy. The first one is put in the head section, and it is the load of the VRML / X3D viewer called X_ite. X_ite can be downloaded, it's just a couple of files, and use it from your own server if you prefer. If not, just paste these yellow lines inside the head section.

In X3DCanvas, you can see that the width and height of the frame displayed by the VRML is expressed. The width and height as it is in our example is for full window in your browser or mobile. You can specify a size as usual in html, but also remove the "position: absolute;" line if you do.

In the body part you have to paste the code that specifies which world to load. The first line is:

<X3DCanvas src="folder/world.wrl">

In this line, "folder" is the folder on your server that contains the VRML file. If there is no such folder, because the world is in the root, do not put anything, and directly put the name of the .wrl file for example:

<X3DCanvas src="world.wrl">

Here world.wrl is our .wrl file (VRML).

Once this bridge page already exists, you can put a link to it from your website. By clicking on the link, visitors will enter the virtual world.

HOW TO USE VRML CONTENT ON ANY PAGE:

Of course, you can also, on any web page or blog, put a VRML / X3D world. To do this, copy the code part of head to the head section of the page or template you use.

Then wherever you want to insert your .wrl file, just paste the body part.

If you create VRML worlds, I would love to link them in my personal page, Hipercubo, where you can also visit my own worlds built in 1998. Write to me at jordircardona@yahoo.com

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IMMERSIVE EDUCATION INITIATIVE BOSTON SUMMIT 2011 May 13-15 at Boston College
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Book: "Unity 3D Game Development by Example"
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This new book on Unity has a subheader that says "Beginner's Guide. A seat-of-your-pants manual for building fun, groovy little games quickly".

The author is Ryan Henson Creighton, experienced game developer and founder of Untold Entertainment Inc. ( http://www.untoldentertainment.com/blog ), a company specialized in games and applications for kids and teens.

The book is centered on the Unity 3D platform for building games and virtual scenarios, which allows you to make games that can be played localy in your PC but also on the web, and even make multiplayer web-based games. Unity 3D uses a quite small client web plugin that downloads in seconds, and runs in the browser.

Both Unity 3D and the client are free. So for the developer, there are lots of advantages in Unity derived from being able to run the games in the browser, so they are cross-platform, and the freely available plugin that doesn't discourage people to download it because it's safe, free and small.

So for this book you only need Unity 3D, a free download, and you can start creating games right now. The book is aimed for beginners that never did anything similar, for people that don't like complex programming, or used other graphic interfaces to create worlds and games.

The first two chapters are an introduction to computer games, that gives us a new perspective of them, because the author examines several games from the point of view of both the developer and the player. He gives us advice on how to understand the amount of work behind some type of games, and helps us to choose what game to develop. It is easy for a beginner to get into an enormous task that will never be finished, and after reading this chapter we will have more realist aims.

We'll learn how to recognize when we are getting into problems by learning what kind of games are out of the possibilities of a single developer or a small team.

Chapter 1 is also an invitation to play other Unity 3D games, because it's the best way to understand what the engine can do. Of course, there are installation intructions for the platform, very simple in fact. On chapter 2, we focus on distinguishing what is the logic behind a game and its appearance, so we clearly see the real complexity or simplicity of accomplishing a particular type of game.

Chapter 3 begins the actual game creation, by teaching what Game Objects are: entities in which the protagonists and props of our games are encapsulated, and represent what they are and what they do. And we also learn what to do with them, because you learn how to use physics to manipulate them, and make objects bounce, for example.

Making something bounce wouldn't be enough, if we can't control it, so on "Code Comfort" the author introduces you to what actually builds the games action: scripting. He provides simple examples of scripts that move and control objects in the game. Don't be afraid because everything in Unity 3D happens with a mix of things that you code and others that you just point and click with the mouse, so it's not pure coding. You use code just for those things that may be harder to do in a visual way, and all the rest is done by selecting options and clicking here and there.

Then, in chapters 5 and 6, the lessons are centered in a 2D memory game, because Unity is not only for 3D games, but also because it's a good exersise to be centered in the creation of game controls for the player, and all the game logic behind them.

Chapters 7 and 8 guide you through the creation of clocks, thus learning to better position, hide and show controls, and how to detect the conditions in which a game must be so the application knows that the player has won.

"The Break-Up" is a classic game of catching and avoiding objects that fall, but rebuilt to be 3D. It is developed on chapters 9 and 10. It incorporates particle effects like sparks and explosions,3D models, and the use of scripts to play animations. It also explains how to create prefabs, that are user-defined types that can be re-used, and how to add sound effects.

Another spin for the Break-Up game is to turn it into a space shooter. Yes, it can be done re-using code and objects, although this may seem incredible (chapter 11). In fact, this technique is an advantage of Unity, the easy re-usage of old code and prefabs. It allows to make games faster, and the book provides good example on how to do this in a practical case.

The last chapter is the culmination of all that we learned, and takes other lessons of previous chapters and new tips to build the last details for an original game (already developed in part in previous chapters): Ticker Taker, in which you bring a bouncing heart to the surgery room of an hospital.

And so you finished making your games, you are told how to package them for the Web so you can share them online. As we said, in addition to the ease of creating games with Unity, being able to make your games playable on the web is one of the key features of Unity, maybe the most important one.

"Unity 3D Game Development by Example" is a practical book, realist and full of knowledge for becoming a game maker on this platform. The philosophy of the book is in one of the phrases of the author: "Start building a game with what you know. With each project, set a new attainable challenge for yourself".

This approach is what the book does, and allows you to start building a game maker portfolio, a game making career, right now. You don't have to wait to know everything in the world about something to start doing it. It is much more efficient if you get a decent knowledge first and start little projects of increasing size and complexity through time.

That is the way how mastery in game making is achieved, and also in many facets of life. With this book, as with others 3D books from Packt Publishing, you learn while doing. And that's the reason why you should get it.

"Unity 3D Game Development by Example"

Wanna Free Sounds?
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iED 2011 Will Anounce 3D/VR Mesh Format
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The Immersive Education Initiative today unveiled iED 3D/VR, the open and royalty-free cross-platform 3D/VR mesh file format that enables 3D and virtual reality (3D/VR) content to be created once and experienced across a range of virtual worlds, games, simulators and mixed/augmented reality applications.

The culmination of over 2 years of work conducted through the Open File Formats Technology Working Group (OFF.TWG), iED 3D/VR is supported by official iED virtual world platforms realXtend, Open Wonderland ( http://openwonderland.org/ ), Open Simulator ("OpenSim") and Open Cobalt in addition to the candidate iED platform Sirikata.

A range of hands-on workshops will be given at iED 2011 to teach educators how to create cross-platform 3D/VR content using a variety of authoring tools, including Google SketchUp and Blender, and starting immediately virtual training sessions will be provided to Initiative members online and free of charge.

"Create Once, Experience Everywhere" is what they want to get with this new file format that wants to become a de facto standard for virtual worlds, education and 3D. The iED 3D/VR open file format, which was developed in accordance with the open and royality-free intellectual properly process under which the Initiative operates, is based on and closely aligned with the COLLADA standard.

iED 3D/VR is designed specifically to enable 3D and virtual reality content to be exchanged between all official Immersive Education Initiative platforms. To this end, iED 3D/VR is a functional subset of COLLADA that is tested across conformant iED platforms to ensure consistent content representation from platform to platform. The current baseline profile for iED 3D/VR features static 3D mesh models and textures. New features and capabilities, such as animation and skinning, are now being added as well.

"The Khronos Group is pleased that the Immersive Education Initiative has chosen COLLADA as the standard format for interoperable 3D and virtual reality content. The Initiative's willingness to work with Khronos, for example by co-sponsoring the COLLADA 2009 contest, has strengthened both communities.Going forward, the Immersive Education Initiative will develop software that passes the COLLADA conformance test suite and form a close liaison with Khronos to advance this important work." - Mark Barnes, chairman of the COLLADA work group at Khronos.

"Standardizing content delivery and enabling the 'Create Once, Experience Everywhere' approach to content creation is vital for virtual worlds. The first step is a standard file format that different platforms can support either natively or through conversion. At realXtend we have been working with the Immersive Education Initiative to add support for the iED 3D/VR format, initially through an external transcoder and soon natively. Education is one of the most prominent use cases for virtual reality technology, making it an ideal starting point for standardization and interoperability for virtual worlds." - Antti Ilomäki. Project manager, realXtend

The world's leading experts in virtual worlds, learning games, educational simulations, and mixed/augmented reality convene May 13-15 in Boston for iED 2011. http://mediagrid.org/summit/

View3DScene 3.8 Will Add Sound
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Unity Book: Learn 3D Game Dev By Example
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Blender 3D Book Updated
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Shadows For X3D And VRML
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Mirye Software Announces Shade X
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Deep MatrixIP9: Client And Server For Virtual Worlds
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Russ Kinter has launched what is called the New Deep MatrixIP9 Multi-user System, a new multi-user server and client for VRML.

Deep MatrixIP9 is an open-source multi-user client/server system for vrml/x3d formats and currently works specifically for the 3D viewer Instant Player: http://www.instantreality.org

Gerhard Reitmayr and Geometrek developed the original Deep Matrix client applet and server. With the pass of time, it became outdated, and now, Russ Kinter has improved the original project to work with the standard Java virtual machine and Instant Player.

The main features of Deep MatrixIP9 include:

Server based persistent storage for shared events.
Lock type shared events so only one user at a time can control a particular event.
Text string delivery from the Java GUI to the world for commands or messages.
Gives both Instant Player and FreeWRL a capability to play mp3 files.
Revamp of Java GUI to give make navigation user-friendly.
Certain number of administrator features allow the admin to add/remove
users/objects/worlds to the server. These can only be accessed through a password.
Allows an end user the ability to attempt to put their own world on the server without any prior coding.
Allow a user to privatize/limit access to their world, so only names designated by that user have access.
A demo of back-pack objects ala' blaxxun.
Controlling both the world collision and headlight status of the Java GUI.

These features were developed and tested on a Windows XP and an IMac G5 PowerPc.All development and testing was done on Windows XP, Mac OS X Tiger, Fedora 11 and Ubuntu 9.04 operating systems.The functionality on Windows7, Vista, Leopard and other Linux systems is currently unknown
The developer welcomes any testing in your operating system, specially if you run a Linux distro.

Deep MatrixIP9 makes possible to run your own VRML multi user server, and also connect to those existing, or upload your virtual world to the public Deem Matrix server.

System requirements, features, a Quick Start guide as well as general documentation can be found here:
http://www.deepmatrix.org/documentation/README.html

More information can be found at: http://www.deepmatrix.org/

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Evolver Avatars Into 3DVIA Scenes And Tools
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Evolver, the world's first web based tool for building custom 3D character models and 3DVIA, Dassault Systèmes brand for delivering 3D lifelike experiences for creative professionals, casual game developers and a growing community of 3D enthusiasts, today announced the integration of a custom version of the Evolver application into the 3DVIA website. With this announcement, 3DVIA.com's 170,000 registered users will be able to generate custom character models from a web-based application integrated with a 3DVIA user's online account.

"The integration with 3DVIA demonstrates the success of Evolver in its ability to deliver a licensable tool which enables consumers to do astounding things, with extremely low barriers to entry. The combination of web accessibility, ease of use, creative latitude and animation-ready 3D characters delivered server to server - are all Evolver firsts, and the 3DVIA Platform and their users are a perfect universe to enable this workflow." - Brian Nilles, CEO of Evolver

The custom 3DVIA avatar generator will utilize Evolver's proprietary software to deliver custom character models in an "animation-ready" format within minutes, simplifying the process for creating realistic human characters for use in games and simulations produced using the 3DVIA Studio, 3DVIA Scenes and 3DVIA Virtools 3D development environments.

"Our newly launched 3DVIA Platform, which integrates authoring software, stock content and an active 3D community, significantly simplifies the process of generating online 3D applications for users of all skill levels. Evolver software lets users quickly and easily generate custom 3D characters online; the simple workflow matches our design objectives, and is a welcome addition to 3DVIA capabilities." - Lynne Wilson, CEO, 3DVIA, Dassault Systèmes.

Located directly in the 3DVIA account dashboard, users will be able to select an option to generate a custom 3D character model through an intuitive point and click interface. Once satisfied, users will be able to set the character as their personal avatar for use in the 3DVIA Scenes online 3D application generator for free.

Experienced programmers and creative professionals wanting more flexibility and control over the interactivity for their characters will be able to purchase and download their creations for only $39 per character for use in 3DVIA Studio and 3DVIA Virtools projects.

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