Let's hope that magic CD can hold 3D representations of all
real-world objects and all popular imaginary objects, and can
avoid issues of protected imagery (like the Death Star) and hold
all objects at several levels of detail.
The very presence of the nearly infinite demand for models,
as demonstrated by the numerous commercial modeling companies
out there, should be a good existence proof against the notion
that a single CD could hold an interesting variety of models.
Where's the fun in viewing the same old objects over and over?
A few more data points: My company made the Syndesis 3D-ROM,
a collection of more than 500 3D models on a single CD. We
collected them from established public domain sources. The
task of rendering a thumbnail of each, creating a short
description and keywords for each, converting each model
into five popular 3D formats, then building a simple manual
of that information, took more than a man-year of effort.
Even with the tools in place from Volume I, Volume II's 200
models still took about six-months' effort.
When it comes down to it, even 500 models is not a varied
representation of everything that everyone wants in 3D.
We also hear a wide variety of requests for new models.
Some people want 100 polygon humanoids, others want
body parts with detail at the level of polygonal hair.
- John Foust