Kent, you ask a good question.
The time variability and interaction live in AV, and are modeled
theough the reactive behavior constructs. So, you can only import
static models (in VRML1.0, 3ds and other formats), and use them as
building blocks inside AV to contstruct interactive and animate
composits of them. So, you would need to disect your model into static
parts, and support the varying parameters as AV reactive behaviors.
Clearly this gives us VRML1.0 compatibility in that the AV viewer can
simply import the VRML1.0 model and support its viewing in 3D, just
like VRML1.0 viewers behave today.
Eventually, we envision authoring tools to generate content in the form
of seperate parts:
- media parts: static geometry, sound, image, ...
- AV models that import the media parts and relate them to one another
spatially, structurally, and temporally. And make them animate and interactive
- VB, Java, ... components as needed
The content becomes a container of these parts and components that
delivers the VR experience.
____Salim
| From: Kent Sandvik <[email protected]>
| To: Hadi Partovi; <[email protected]>
| Subject: Re: ActiveVRML naming
| Date: Friday, December 08, 1995 1:57PM
|
| >
| >As I see it, Microsoft fully embraces the existing .wrl VRML format as
| >a great language (or file format) for representing 3D geometry, but I
| >believe the fully immersive, interactive, 3D/multimedia experience that
| >many call "Virtual Reality" would be best represented in a
| >meta-language (or call it a file format) that combines existing .wrl
| >files and other files (sound and video) with an implicit representation
| >of time-based behaviors and reactions. "Internalizing the
| >representation of behaviors involving various media forms" is the
| >peoblem ActiveVRML solves.
|
| I was esading the ActiveVRML specs last night, and I was wondering about
| this issue. If ActiveVRML imports .wrl files, how will it then modify the
| contents of the geometry nodes, let's say ambient light esflection? Will it
| encapsulate the VRML node information in a canonical format, and after a
| while export it back, modify the actual .wrl files for others? Or keep this
| as meta-information outside the VRML spec?
|
| For me ActiveVRML sounds like "QuickTime for 3D", time-line based control
| of content plus action handling. QuickTime solved the issue of content
| modification by using it's own architecture for transitions and similar
| media-modification operations, operating on the canonical internal format
| of the imported content.
|
| --Kent
|
| Kent Sandvik Silicon Graphics, Inc. Interactive Digital Solutions
| Email: [email protected] Phone: +1 (415) 933 6417
| http://esality.sgi.com/employees/sandvik_engr/ (SGI) http://kent.engr
| "May all developers be happy".
|
|
|