March 31, 1995, Friday; Fourth Edition
SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. B-1
LENGTH: 494 words
HEADLINE: The 3rd dimension of the 'Net;
Silicon Graphics software to allow 3-D surfing of Web
SOURCE: OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
BYLINE: JOHN FLINN
BODY:
virtual reality and the World Wide Web, soon will allow Internet users to do
everything from tour a three-dimensional virtual model home to pre -inspect the
view from the balcony seats at a Streisand concert.
The San Francisco Examiner, March 31, 1995
It's being made possible by the first commercially available three
-dimensional Web viewer, announced Thursday by Silicon Graphics, the Mountain
View builder of high-performance graphics workstations.
Called WebSpace, the software was developed in conjunction with Template
Software Graphics Inc. of San Diego. Computer users will be able to download the
software from the Internet at no cost at the end of April, or buy a supported
version from Template for $ 49.
It will allow computer users to take a virtual tour of a Maui resort condo;
inspect catalog items from the sides and back; or check out the site lines from
a seat at Candlestick Park. It can't, however, do anything about the woman
sitting in front of you with the big hair.
"For the first time, we'll be presenting information on the World Wide Web
that can't be presented any other way," said Jay Kidd, Silicon Graphics'
director of product line marketing. "Books and magazines and TV can present
two-dimensional stuff, but they can't do 3-D."
While scientists are expected to be the first users, developers have high
hopes that adding a third dimension will be the key to the World Wide Web's
growth as a medium to challenge television.
The San Francisco Examiner, March 31, 1995
"The Internet has existed for 25 years, but there has been a dramatic
acceleration in the last two because of the visual presence of the World Wide
Web," Kidd said.
"Frankly, we see (this) as the "killer app' the Web has been waiting for,"
said Neil Trevett, vice president of marketing for 3Dlabs, a South Bay firm
developing three-dimensional applications for the Web.
The WebSpace viewer is based on programming called Virtual Reality Modeling
Language. Similar in concept to the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) currently
used on the Web, it encodes computer-generated graphics into a compact format
for transportation over the network.
It can be scaled up or down, allowing users to zoom in on the detail of,
say, a Monet in a virtual museum tour, or to zoom out for a view of the entire
arena from a seat at a San Jose Sharks game.
In conjunction with Silicon Graphics' announcement, 17 other firms, from
Btown University to Netscape Communications, Thursday announced their support
for VRML -based 3-D graphics on the Web.