WAXWEB 2.0: Interactive 3D Cinema on the WWW
v0!d ([email protected])
Tue, 04 Apr 95 06:44:23 0800
David Blair <[email protected]> wrote:
>********** FOR RELEASE ON APRIL 3, 1995 *************
>
>WAXWEB 2.0: INTERACTIVE 3D CINEMA ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
>
>CONTACT: DAVID BLAIR
> email: [email protected]
>
>
>WAXWEB 2.0, THE FIRST INTERACTIVE FEATURE FILM ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB,
>IMPLEMENTS A DYNAMIC VERSION OF VRML, THE NEW GRAPHICS INDUSTRY
STANDARD
>FOR VIRTUAL REALITY ON THE INTERNET, TO DELIVER REALTIME 3D NARRATIVE
>=D2VISUALIZATION=D3 OVER THE EXISTING INTERNET BACKBONE.
>
>The WWW address for Waxweb 2.0 is http://bug.village.virginia.edu With
a
>VRML browser: http://bug.village.virginia.edu/vrml
>
>
>WHAT IS WAXWEB 2.0?
>
>Created by DAVID BLAIR, Waxweb 2.0 is:
>
>The first interactive, intercommunicative FEATURE FILM on the WORLD
WIDE
>WEB (Variety, 2.16.95).
>
>The first NETWORK-DISTRIBUTED narrative to offer REAL-TIME 3-D
>NAVIGATION through a story.
>
>The first LARGE-SCALE, DYNAMIC implementation of the VIRTUAL REALITY
>MODELING LANGUAGE (VRML), the 3-D METAFILE format for the INTERNET
>endorsed TODAY (4.3.94) by Silicon Graphics, TGS, Netscape, Digital,
>NEC, and many others. Waxweb is a project of the Brown University
>Graphics Laboratory, headed by Andries VanDam, with Tom Meyer serving
as
>the technical director of the project.
>
>Based on David Blair's electronic feature film "WAX or the discovery of
>television among the bees" (85:00, 1991, distributed by FIRST RUN
>FEATURES), Waxweb is the LARGEST hypermedia narrative document on the
>World Wide Web. "WAX" itself was the first feature film sent over the
>Internet ("Historic First", Markoff, NYTimes, 4.93).
>
>In May, Waxweb 2.0 will become a CROSS-PLATFORM, NETWORK SYNCHRONIZED
>CD-ROM available from First Run Features. Available for
>Mac/Windows/Unix, it will run as a standalone on non-networked
>computers, and in synchronization with the Web site, for those who wish
>to publicly ADD TO THE STORY.
>
>Waxweb 2.0 Online contains: 3000 Web pages with approx. 25,000
>hyperlinks; 85 minutes of digital video (the entire feature film); 5000
>color stills; soundtrack in English, French, German, Japanese. Plus:
>MORE THAN 250 3-D VRML SCENES, FILLED WITH THOUSANDS OF HYPERLINKED
>PARTS. Every part of every object in the virtual world is an active
>button, triggering access to other 3D scenes, to the movie, to
pictures,
>or to hypertext.
>
>WAXWEB IS DYNAMIC: Network users of Waxweb 2.0 can add to the narrative
>with their own immediate, publicly visible hypermedia: hypertext,
>pictures, audio, video, and hyperlinked VRML. In addition, all VRML
>objects in the network Waxweb database have their attached hyperlinks
>changed ON THE FLY, dependent on user interaction. In the near future,
>custom scenes dynamically recombining internal and user-added objects
>will allow the synthetic creation of a DYNAMIC, 3-D INTERSTORY on the
>network.
>
>
>WHAT IS THE VIRTUAL REALITY MODELING LANGUAGE?
>
>VRML 1.0 (VIRTUAL REALITY MODELING LANGUAGE, 10.94) was the result of a
>grassroots, Internet-wide effort, initiated by Mark Pesce, to define
the
>standard for a 3-D metafile format which would allow DISTRIBUTED
VIRTUAL
>REALITY over the existing Internet.
>
>VRML allows users of World-Wide Web browsers to view and interact with
>computer generated 3D models, scenes and virtual "worlds". The most
>distinctive attribute of VRML is that 3-D VRML objects can have
>hyperlinks attached to their different parts. Users can move around 3-D
>VRML scenes, clicking objects or parts of objects, to either "travel"
to
>new 3-D scenes, or load other types of data (from hypertext to video)
>into their World Wide Web browser (e.g Netscape, Mosaic).
>
>ENDORSEMENT for VRML as the 3D graphics metafile standard for the
>Internet was announced TODAY (4.3.94) by Silicon Graphics, Netscape,
>Digital, Template Graphics (TGS), NEC, and many other companies.
Viewers
>based upon the established 3D graphics standards OpenGL and Open
>Inventor will be available in 30 days from TGS for the SGI, Sun, IBM,
>Windows 3.1,and Windows NT systems, with support for Apple and HP 9000
>platforms by summer. Netscape Communications has announced support of
>the VRML standard and outlined plans to integrate the new VRML products
>from Silicon Graphics and TGS into the upcoming release of Netscape
1.1.
>Viewers based on Rendermorphics from Microsoft will be also available
>from the Community Community within 30 days.
>
>VRML ON WAXWEB 2.0
>
>Users can enter the 3-D VRML world from a great many places in the 2D
>text/picture WAXWEB 2.0 WWW document, which is served from the
Institute
>for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of
Virginia.
>Text links or picture buttons on the flat page can take the reader to a
>3-D scene. Once "in" the VRML world, users press 3D hyperlinks to
travel
>through that world, or to automatically change the page on their
>electronic "book" (the Web browser), or even cause a part of the
>feature-length movie to play.
>
>This is the "third" interface to Waxweb, which is meant to be readable
>(hypertext), visual (all 5000 pictures are buttons, allowing visual
>navigation), and flyable (VRML).
>
>HOW WAXWEB 2.0 IS UNIQUE:
>
>Waxweb is an Internet-based, distributed, interactive and
>intercommunicative 3-D narrative environment.
>
>Waxweb uses MOO technology to dynamically serve hyperlinked 3D VRML
>objects/scenes. What's a MOO? MOO's are network-based tools for
computer
>supported collaborative work (and play), which allow realtime
>intercommunication in an multi-room virtual space, as well as the
>sharing of network information resources... they are text-based virtual
>realities. By combining VRML with MOO technology on the WORLD WIDE WEB,
>WAXWEB 2.0 allows 3D narrative content to be shared, examined, added
to,
>and reconfigured.
>
>Waxweb's implementation of dynamic VRML gives it the ability to
>efficiently serve VRML from the MOO, and dynamically auto-assemble
>objects/scenes and auto-insert hyperlinks (URL's) dependent on user
>interaction. This allows flexibility in the use of the existing large
3D
>database, and in addition will let users easily add to that 3D world.
>
>WAXWEB 2.0: TOWARDS A PRACTICAL, GLOBALLY DISTRIBUTED,
>INTERCOMMUNICATIVE, SCALABLE, FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT HYPER-NARRATIVE
>SERVER
>
>The facts: on Feb. 18th, Digicash was implemented in the MOO (Waxweb is
>the first Digicash MOO). On the same day Waxweb also became a Sesame
>server, capable of handling Ubique's Web client for the Sun platform
>(and soon PC), the first publicly available system for realtime chat
>through a Web client. Media mirroring has also been established with
>Sunsite at UNC, and Internationale Stadt in Berlin. Visitors to Waxweb
>from Germany receive text, VRML, and control information from the
Waxweb
>server in Virginia, but are pointed to Internationale Stadt for
>pictures, audio, and video. These three experimental implementations
>point to a practical, globally distributed, intercommunicative,
scalable
>hyper-narrative server, based on an open system, and capable of being
>financially self-sufficient.
>
>
>THE PRINCIPALS:
>
>David Blair is an electronic cinemamaker based in New York City. He is
>currently at work on a second feature, set in the US and Japan. He is
>the author of both the film and the WWW versions of Wax.
>
>Tom Meyer is a virtual reality specialist in the Brown University
>Graphics Laboratory. He has written the MOO/WWW/VRML code.
>
>Suzanne Hader has provided coding for much of the user interface, and
>also contributed some graphic elements. Dave Klaphaak has assisted Tom
>and Suzanne. Florence Ormezzano executed many of the 3-D models for the
>film version of WAX. Anna Youseffi digitized the stills and MPEG video.
>Melynda Barnhardt executed some linking and checking for the hypertext.
>
>Additional written material in a separate section of Waxweb has been
>contributed by invited authors.
>
>Waxweb is an official project of the Brown Graphics Lab, headed by
>Andries VanDam. Waxweb has been made possible by networked associate
>fellow status generously extended to the members of the Waxweb project
>by IATH, the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the
>University of Virginia, headed by John Unsworth. Waxweb has received
>partial funding from the New York State Council for the Arts, with both
>finishing fund and distribution grants, the latter administered by the
>Experimental Television Center, Owego, NY.
>
>
>=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3
D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>
>
>WAXWEB 2.0 IS UNIQUE BECAUSE:
>
>First Film Multicast on the Internet (NYTimes)
>
>First Feature-Length Interactive Film on the World Wide Web (Variety)
>
>First Large Scale Implementation of VRML
>
>First Dynamic VRML server (WWW/VRML/MOO )
>
>First Web-Synchronized Cross-Platform CDROM
>
>First Large Scale WWW/MOO server
>
>First Digicash MOO
>
>First Internet Videoserver Project to utilize Media Mirroring
>
>(additional information available on all the above)
>
>
>QUOTE from David Blair:
>
>"VRML is the beginning of a public virtual reality cinema... one that
>leverages existing content and distribution to bring VR across an open
>system to the entire world. It is extraordinarily exciting to work in
>this now generally-accepted, and soon-to-be extended standard... one
>that links top and bottom-end computers, 3-D and 2-D data, and scalable
>connectivity, clearly pointing to our practical future as
>media-multicasters thriving in an international network 3-space."
>
>--------------
>
>Waxweb 2.0 is an experiment toward the production of David Blair=D5s
>second electronic feature (now in pre-production)
>
>
>********** FOR RELEASE ON APRIL 3, 1995 *************
>
>
\/0!d
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