Latest Web3D News 
May 02, 2008
On May 12th, the Laboratory of Integrated Systems (LSI) of the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (EPUSP), Brazil will host an Interoperability Forum in Open-Source 3D Technologies and will present an overview of X3D-Earth. This 3D Interoperability forum is an international event focusing on topics of strategic and technological importance. The event congregates national and international guests and partner entities, featuring keynote speaker Don Brutzman from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
The main goal is to present the current State of Art in Open Source for 3D Interoperability for discussion in international groups of standardization like the Web3D Consortium an Open source 3D standards for interoperability. The intention is to promote interest in the use, development and research of open source using the X3D open format. The objective of the X3D-Earth working group is to define a set of standards and norms for an international system of 3D globes for visualization.
The X3D-Earth project intends to create an infrastructure of open and extensible standards to visualize in three dimension objects from the real world, adding information constructs in a geospatially referenced context. The possibility of integration of the archives of models using commercial and public domain tools will guarantee that the 3D content remain accessible, usable and valid for many years.
Apr 23, 2008
Another improved version of X3D-Edit available which includes strong support for authoring Script nodes, prototypes and fields. Strong checks, defaults, tooltips and prompts are offered to simplify these complicated tasks. ROUTE and IS/connect wizards reveal type and accessType (e.g. SFBool/inputOutput) so that flawed connections are directly evident, warning about mismatches.
To get X3D-Edit simply refresh your current installation, or download a copy for installation from https://savage.nps.edu/X3D-Edit
New features include:
• An option under ProtoDeclare to insert a new Script node with all of the field declarations (minus default values) plus IS and connect tags.
• A feature is in the PixelTexture editor, which now allows you to select an image file for conversion into embedded pixel values.
• New plugin: Jordi Cardona’s X3DV code colorization plugin works compatibly, allowing basic editing and palette drag & drop for .x3dv classic VRML files. Reportedly VRML97 support will follow. Install into X3D-Edit via https://savage.nps.edu/X3D-Edit/#Plugins
• New examples: Morphing dolphin, created by Chris Lang, Monterey High School class of 2008. Online at https://savage.nps.edu/Savage/Biologics/Dolphin/index.html
https://savage.nps.edu/Savage/Biologics/Dolphin/DolphinSwitcher.x3d
https://savage.nps.edu/Savage/Biologics/Dolphin/DolphinMorpher.x3d
Development is under Windows and MacOSX, and now also testing under Linux RedHat Fedora 8.
If you install the chat feature, you can join the X3D chat room.
A few weeks ago shared files were jointly edited, connecting from NPS lab in Monterey Bay, California to Chris Thorne in Australia.
https://savage.nps.edu/X3D-Edit/XmppChatCollaborationModule.html
Upcoming:
• Geospatial component
• The new Xj3D version with editing/validation/import/viewing support for Collada 1.4.1. http://www.khronos.org/collada
Apr 23, 2008
April 24-25, 2008
National Defense University
Washington, DC
Federal Virtual Worlds Expo: Implementing the Future
The Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds is a group of federal government employees and contractors interested in exploring the use of virtual worlds in government, sharing best practices and policies, creating shared repositories, and networking.
Apr 18, 2008
The X3DV Module Suite is a free set of modules to code in X3D, the open standard for interactive and immersive 3D on Internet. With it, you can create virtual worlds in 3D, using the great edition features of Netbeans. A new module has been added: support for VRML syntax highlighting, new file wizard, vrml icons, etc.
Mar 28, 2008
GOT X3D? Calling All Creators of X3D Content!
Web3D Consortium is looking for your best X3D or VRML content and innovation to share to the world at our “Siggraph 2008 Web3D Tech Talk” this summer. Wednesday, August 13, 2008 from 3:30 - 5:30 PM in Los Angeles, CA.
If you have cool and innovative cross platform X3D content contributing to the advancement of 3D Hypermedia technologies on the Web, you may be invited to be a speaker to discuss and demonstrate your products. You will have 10 minutes to present your work and the tools used going from your concept to the final product. Send us your proposal by May 30, 2008.
Participation is open to all interested consortium members. Prospective presenters are invited to submit their proposal for review to the Web3D consortium selection committee. Submission must include a brief abstract of your presentation, 1 page summary of your X3D content/innovation, a link to your X3D content or screen shots and a preliminary slide set of your presentation not exceeding 10 minutes.
Siggraph 2008 Web3D booth partners will be offered to present at this Web3D Tech Talk as part of the booth partnership offernings.
Important Dates:
May 30: Submit your X3D content and Presentation to Web3D Tech Talk.
June 20: Formal jury selection by a select panel of X3D experts and judges.
June 25: Acceptances announced to submitters.
July 14-31: Final Preparations and virtual rehearsals.
August 11: Rehearsal in L.A. (evening).
August 13: Talk Time!
Our 2006 and 2007 Web3D Tech Talk events were a big success. Check out our Siggraph 2007 Web3D Tech Talk podcast. We plan to build a podcast this year too. More Information will be available at: Web3D Tech Talk(coming soon).
We may also be able to exhibit your X3D content/products in our Web3D booth at Siggraph 2008, August 12-14, time and space permitting. For more information please contact our Executive Director.
Please note this year the 2008 Web3D Symposium will be held right before (and co-located with) SIGGRAPH 2008 on Aug 9th and Aug 10th. More information at 2008 Web3D Symposium.
Mar 28, 2008
Web3D Consortium invites you to be our technology partners at Siggraph 2008 held in Los Angeles from Aug 11-15th, 2008.
As in the past years, Web3D consortium will provide our members the opportunity to exhibit their technologies in our booth at Siggraph 2008. Our intent is to ensure each Web3D Consortium member organization the ability to gain access to the attending audience, showcase their products and maintain their competitive position. With 2008 being our 10th anniversary, we are having a bigger presence at the conference with a great location, enhancing our organization’s visibility.
Web3D booth partners will also be offered to present at our Siggrpagh 2008 Web3D Tech Talk , August 13 3:30 to 5:30 PM as part of the booth partnership offernings. Booth partnership is available to all Web3D consortium members.
If you need more information on joing the Web3D Consortium or being our Siggraph 2008 booth partner please contact our Executive Director.
Please note this year the 2008 Web3D Symposium will be held right before (and co-located with) SIGGRAPH 2008 on Aug 9th and Aug 10th. More information at Web3D Symposium.
Mar 25, 2008
The Web3D 2008 International Symposium will be co-located with SIGGRAPH 2008 in Los Angeles, California, USA - Aug 9 and 10, 2008.
The Symposium will address wide range of topics covering 3D Hypermedia on the Web. The annual Web3D Symposium is a major event, , which unites researchers, developers, experimenters, and content creators in a dynamic learning environment. Attendees share and explore methods of using, enhancing, or creating new 3D Web and Multimedia technologies, such as (but not limited to) X3D, VRML, COLLADA, Croquet, MPEG4, MPEG7, Java3D, and Canvas3D. The symposium will also focus on recent trends such as interactive 3D graphics and applications on mobile devices.
Authors are invited to submit their work (short or full papers) for review by the international Program Committee. Both research and applications papers are of interest to Web3D 2008. The papers must be innovative and contribute to the advancement of 3D Multimedia technologies on the Web. Full papers of up to 9 pages (including figures and references) or short papers of up to 4 pages (including figures and references) in PDF format can be submitted via the Symposium Submission Site. Accepted papers will appear in the Symposium Proceedings, published by ACM Press. Additional information on submission can be found at http://www.web3d.org/conferences/web3d2008/call/
IMPORTANT Dates:
April 7: Web3D Papers Submission deadline
May 21: Accept/Reject notifications go out to authors
June 4: Camera ready submissions to ACM for publication
Mar 21, 2008
The high-tech IDC Consortium invites you to select a program on i3D (interactive 3D) visualization technology solutions.
The i3D Symposium, will be April 8 – 11, 2008 in Florence, South Carolina and is sponsored by multiple high-tech leaders, where an array of speakers from across the globe will present leading-edge developments in this technology that are truly exciting and stimulating.
The program is held at a remarkable and new, one-of-a-kind facility – the 3D/Virtual Reality Interactive Digital Center, located within the Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing and Technology (SiMT). You will observe the latest 3D interactive technologies in action and see how today’s learner can become immersed in the learning environment. You will experience how this technology truly changes the way learning takes place! You will also see various products brought to life visually and interactively!
A 3 hour afternoon only meeting on April 9th at the SIMT (Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing and Technology), a remarkable new facility located on the Florence-Darlington Technical College campus. South Carolina legislators and FDTC leadership created this facility to enhance economic development for the region specifically for manufacturing and technology. This afternoon i3D Symposium on Interactive Product Content Management (IPCM) is designed for industry and focuses on the revolutionary impact of using “smart” digitized product content or product replicas and the resulting value for your company to interactively and visually configure, demonstrate, plan and support your products.
Mar 07, 2008
Web3D Consortium members Nicholas F. Polys, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Don Brutzman, Naval Postgraduate School and Johannes Behr, Fraunhofer IGD along with Anthony Steed, University College London will be presenting a workshop on Future Standards for Immersive VR , at the IEEE Virtual Reality 2008 on Sunday March 9th, 8:30am - 12:00pm noon in Reno, Nevada, USA. This paper is also published in the March/April 2008 issue of IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.
The motivation for this workshop was to create shared understanding between the Virtual Reality (VR) and Web3D communities. This workshop builds on recent progress and convergence between the VR and Web3D communities. In addition to many common requirements such as geometry, lighting, animation, and interaction/direct manipulation, and networked resources, these communities are both faced with the challenges and costs of re-use. The current paradox between high hardware power but low VR adoption is a result of the high cost of creating and deploying digital assets. By specifying and adopting standards, and insuring conformance among software, content can be portable, interoperable, durable, and full-featured.
Feb 16, 2008
Yumetech is pleased to announce the next session of their fast-track workshop for developers and project managers wanting to familiarize themselves with next-generation 3D web graphics applications. X3D, the follow-on graphics language to VRML, is gaining ground in just about every area of application development. Yumetech’s staff, composed of authors of the X3D specification, will train students over a period of three days to build interactive worlds, simulations, and other 3D-instensive applications. The class will be held in their home city of Seattle, from March 11-13, 2008. Interested students should contact either Alan Hudson or Wayne Warren
Featured in this class will be:
New Open Source tools for Collada
X3D Conversion X3DEarth Mashups showing how to present data over top X3D Earth Globes
More Information
Feb 02, 2008
Media Grid recently announced its plans to roll out a cross-platform, immersive world for education for academics, students, and trainers everywhere because 3D environments need to provide a 3D educational perspective. After experimenting with VRML, the Unreal Engine, and other tools since 2001, the organization realized that it needed to begin looking beyond simply one platform. It formed the Immersive Education Initiative and looked for options. They looked at all the platforms that were available and arrived at the first three systems. Second Life, which is open source on the viewer; Sun Microsystems’ Wonderland; and Croquet, an open-source educational environment created by Duke University. The thrust of the initiative was to get a product out as quickly as possible that is adaptable for ongoing upgrades. That involves establishing not only a user interface that’s consistent across the three platforms, but a way to recognize assets for teaching tools, host them, and make them available for use in any environment. The Education Grid will be populated by file formats that can be read by existing forms and will have educational grid assets for Second Life and X3D for Wonderland and for Croquet. Read more
Feb 02, 2008
The National Postgraduate School (NPS) team has produced another update to X3D-Edit, a new authoring tool for simple error-free editing, authoring and validation of X3D scenes. The latest weekly build includes collaboration chat with file sharing, the complete set of X3D specifications, a new X3D Example Archives download panel, and an updated Xj3D viewer. Free download is available at X3D-Edit
In addition to being available as a cross-platform standalone application, X3D-Edit is now listed in the Netbeans Plugin Portal.
Public or private evaluation comments are welcome.
Recent X3D News
Metaverse U Conference at Stanford University
Jan 26, 2008
Call for Participation for the Summer Computer Simulation Conference ‘08
Jan 22, 2008
Fraunhofer IGD releases Beta4 of the InstantReality System
Jan 21, 2008
X3DV Netbeans Module
Jan 18, 2008
Heilan 0.13
Jan 07, 2008
Anark Core 1.1 provides direct support for VRML, X3D, and Autodesk.
Jan 03, 2008
Bitmanagement Announces the Release of VRML/X3D Viewer BS Contact 7.1.
Dec 22, 2007
SIGGRAPH 2007 - Web3D’s “Tech Talk” Podcast Now Available
Dec 19, 2007
The BS Exporter is updated to work with Blender 2.44 and above
Dec 18, 2007
Video Requirements for Web-based Virtual Environments Using Extensible 3D (X3D) Graphics
Dec 18, 2007
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