[X3D-Public] XTranormal X3D

Len Bullard cbullard at hiwaay.net
Thu Dec 9 05:27:06 PST 2010 

"Wouldn't you rather have more time, more money and have more productive (read less tired or stressed) people?"

Certainly and I'm not averse.  We use GoToMeeting.   We use Skype.  My take on it is it comes down to chops with those tools as well.   Some have the focus to do it.  Some don't.  Co-location speeds up productivity.  Proximity motivates a network in ways virtuality doesn't because it limits acts as well.  

That is unique strength of real-time 3D.  It's easy to see the avatar is parked.

It depends on the people.  It depends on the tools.

len



-----Original Message-----
From: x3d-public-bounces at web3d.org [mailto:x3d-public-bounces at web3d.org] On Behalf Of GLG
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 4:36 PM
To: 'X3D Graphics public mailing list'
Subject: Re: [X3D-Public] XTranormal X3D



Yes, my point exactly. But I am dreaming of more, 
much more. I believe it's not going to be long
before we can cooperate via game-like virtual 
environments displayed on surround wall sized 
computer screens. New avatar technology would 
simply use sensors to monitor our movements and
reproduce them on remote locations with the same
setup. Perhaps even using cameras generated 
holograms as was demonstrated on CNN a few years 
back. That is the dream I have been pursuing all 
these years at officetowers.com. Development is 
slow without capital, but I consider myself lucky 
compared to countless ventures that managed to 
fail despite big budgets. I've had my share of 
prior failures too, and I am now resolved not to 
make the same mistakes. That is why I responded 
to Len this way. IMO a company should only get 
into brick-and-mortar by necessity, and not if 
other options are available unless already 
well established. I'm just trying to be useful. 
It pains me to see so many loosing their shirt
(no pun intended) trying to do business the same 
way. Baby steps, baby steps.

Cheers,
Lauren


>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dave A [mailto:dave at realmofconcepts.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 1:19 PM
>To: info at 3dnetproductions.com
>Cc: 'X3D Graphics public mailing list'
>Subject: Re: [X3D-Public] XTranormal X3D
>
>I agree.
>
>I have worked several contracts which span both coasts and
>the dead
>center of the country. With GoTo Meeting, it's just like
>being there. We
>email and phone as needed, and have extended GoTo meetings
>which are
>extremely productive and the creativity flows just fine.
>Screen sharing
>= Good!
>Not to mention the virtual off-sites and virtual sales
>visits. We had 35
>people on one call, only 8 people were in one room. It was
>a big
>success. Also, Google Docs (or any other collaborative
>online docs you
>like) is just like leaning over someone's shoulder.
>
>When I worked a 9-5 office job, under the same
>understanding that it was
>'necessary', a big part of the budget was rent, utilities,
>and all that
>goes with that, plus the hour and a half wasted commuting
>every day (and
>multiply that by everyone else in the same boat). I'd get
>there to 'be
>available' but that rarely, if even twice, ever taken
>advantage of. Most
>of my communication was via email or IM, even with people
>in the next
>cube over. Waste of time, waste of money.
>
>With the 'virtual office' I have more time to work, get to
>the dentist,
>and get my laundry done too. Win-win.
>
>Dave A
>
>On 12/8/2010 5:43 AM, GLG wrote:
>>
>> Len,
>>
>> While what you said about working together in one
>location is true and necessary in many cases, I have come
>to the realization that working virtually may just become a
>necessity just as well for others. With the economy the way
>it is, and the fact that we must compete with cheaper labor
>in other countries, the expense of automobiles and the
>price of gas, real estate, taxes, insurance, moving costs,
>the down time getting to work everyday, traffic, etc. in
>the end productivity suffers and the balance sheet goes
>down real fast. The clock is ticking either way and time
>flies.
>>
>> Wouldn't you rather have more time, more money and have
>more productive (read less tired or stressed) people? I
>believe that a significant number of businesses will have
>no choice but to operate much leaner than with the
>traditional model, and thus virtually if they are to
>survive. Couple that with the inevitable crime rate
>increase associated with the severe economic downturn, and
>we can see that technologies such as X3D are poised to make
>a real difference in the way people play, live and work.
>Why not use it? We need to go through this paradigm change,
>the same way we did during the industrial revolution. I
>don't think "shared imagination" would suffer one bit. Did
>someone say Snow Crash?
>>
>> We can have different opinions. I just didn't want to let
>this sit as is.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Lauren
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: x3d-public-bounces at web3d.org [mailto:x3d-public-
>bounces at web3d.org] On Behalf Of Len Bullard
>> Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 7:54 PM
>> To: 'Dave A'
>> Cc: 'X3D Graphics public mailing list'
>> Subject: Re: [X3D-Public] XTranormal X3D
>>
>> If I had twenty million, I would.   You need enough
>capital that everyone eats while you get momentum.   Say
>what you like about location independent teams, to get it
>done fast, imaginative and bug free, I want the team all in
>the same building 9 to 5x5.  Normal lives but intense at
>work.  Keeps the team healthy.   It’s expensive, but IME,
>50 per cent of success is shared imagination and it’s good
>to be in the same room when conjuring that if you want your
>schedules to hold.
>>
>> With X3D, both the animation in native form and the mp4
>run on the web.
>>
>> The chasm or opportunity uncrossed is for the cost of
>load time, an X3D real time animation is still richer in
>palette and interactivity.  And it hosts the same external
>media types.   The difference is in composition down to
>sequences where the sequences are zero-fault in rendering.
>The mp4 may vary by board but in the practical case set,
>completely reliable.
>>
>> If I had to manage the evolution of that, I’d complete
>the path to the mp4 first; provide a we only guarantee it
>on this download plugin only later. and be sure everything
>is ready to go when 3D is native to the browser itself.
>Compile Flash if you must.   MP4 format is a fixed format.
>Save out to as many of these as you can most particularly,
>wmv.
>>
>> The problem of world building is attempting to create a
>social network centered in the world.   People won’t invest
>that much time in getting status updates, the essential FB
>message type.   They will consume each other’s media
>postings.  So before we dive back into the rabbit hole of
>X3D Being The Web, be fit in the status updates space.  As
>I said, a reader that consumes and renders status updates
>is easy.  All that will work.
>>
>> So then you’re left with the artist’s wing.  Some group
>builds a lot of compelling avatars and scenes.   Most of
>that exists out there for any company that wants to spec
>the licensing and technical package deliverables.  Here you
>don’t write standards; you spec/contract the parts you
>need.
>>
>> len
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dave A [mailto:dave at realmofconcepts.com]
>> Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 9:47 PM
>> To: Len Bullard
>> Cc: 'John Carlson'; 'X3D Graphics public mailing list'
>> Subject: Re: [X3D-Public] XTranormal X3D
>>
>> FWIW: Vivaty could have done this, the ideas were
>certainly on the table and technology available, but the
>company went in, well, a different direction. Too bad.
>> Well, if you got about 10 million and want to get it
>done, maybe we can get the band back together.
>>
>> Dave A
>>
>> On 12/5/2010 4:44 PM, Len Bullard wrote:
>> Not for us.   It isn’t product OR standard but product
>and standards because we can do more with both than just
>one.  The trade off here is business size by limiting
>access to the engine files (ie, hook them on an editor and
>don’t give them an export out) or use the fact of the
>standard to come up with companies that don’t compete by
>making all of the system but companies that make competing
>pieces, character editor vs character editor, audio editor
>vs audio editor.
>>
>> De facto, that is what exist now.  It’s parts polyglot.
>In one way that enables quick evolution.   In another, it
>fragments the market.
>>
>> XTranormal goes around that.   It is a company providing
>not all of those parts, but the basic animation concepts in
>a library of content parts.   They sell scenes, characters,
>voices, behaviors.    They make them popular figures so you
>can put words in their mouths.  Oh the joy of modern
>stardom…. ☺
>>
>> The XTranormals are fun and quick to make, and are not
>more than ten percent harder than the average Facebook
>entry to make.  They only have to replace the avatar/photo
>with a character.   A default style set for initialization
>does the rest.
>>
>> The trick with the standard is the author shouldn’t see
>it.   The format and engine are built into the social
>network as savvy socially sensitive renderers.  How many
>namespaces do you want to exchange is the tough question
>here and how many would you have to exchange to exchange
>the full range of information in an XTranormal?   How many
>namespaces make up a scene?
>>
>> This really comes down to tool over text.    A script, a
>one two n actor scene (eg, one film), voices (the way to
>get complex here is filtering; that’s ok as long as the
>basic set that you give away JUST WORKS.  Drag and drop and
>type.
>>
>> The reason to use the standard is the bang by the n of
>sets you can exchange determines the utility of each
>component of a type.  Ie, it’s nice if the script runs in
>all implementations.   So the competition comes down to who
>writes the best composition system.   They win.  So far,
>XTranormal.  It kicks out mp4s.
>>
>> Some think about X3D files for real-time animation.
>Very good but also good for sampling.
>>
>> In an animation, that is a set of real time or scheduled
>access to sequencers.   In a movie, those are mp4s.
>>
>> MP4s are very reusable.   It’s a very different editing
>space because it is audio, video, image, composites,
>effects for audio  and video and direct access to an audio
>editor.  All but the meshes and mesh engines,  IOW, an
>integrated movie mixing suite.  Once rendered down to AV,
>you can split, splice cut and otherwise harvest a lot of
>image sequences.   Once you have access to the temporal
>address, it’s a dimension above because that enables the
>slicing into even more finely reusable sequences to the n
>of the number of integratible components.  Remember, audio
>and video are separable parts.  Punch. Punch. Punch.
>>
>> Now… it’s all very neat but the cannot bottom line happen
>is this:  for any number more than one in ten should the
>editing system fail.   In XTranormal, some sounds such as
>the chime corrupt the file.  Since there is no backup past
>publication, the entire piece is lost.  Oopsie.
>>
>> You can’t do that.  Content lost is irretrievable even if
>it can be recreated from memory.  A Save without backup is
>a clusterPlucker waiting to happen.
>>
>> len
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: x3d-public-bounces at web3d.org [mailto:x3d-public-
>bounces at web3d.org] On Behalf Of John Carlson
>> Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 6:03 PM
>> To: X3D Graphics public mailing list
>> Subject: Re: [X3D-Public] XTranormal X3D
>>
>> Isn't "The Sims" good enough for doing 3D Worlds?  Look
>at what "Spore" does for avatars.  The trick is that these
>are applications, not standards.
>>
>> Check this out this 3D authoring tool (Kinect based) for
>ideas: http://vimeo.com/16818988
>>
>> John
>>
>> On Dec 3, 2010, at 3:58 PM, Len Bullard wrote:
>>
>> When will someone do for X3D worlds what XTranormal does
>for videos?
>>
>> I worked on HumanML hoping someone would make that happen
>but it didn’t.  It became too many things to too many
>people.
>>
>> Is it really that hard?  XTranormal has approximately 1.6
>million projects, series, all from a simple drag and drop
>text interface.
>>
>> It is said the power of HTML is view source, but really,
>it is text you CAN type.   XTranormal simplified to the
>basics and it works.
>>
>> len
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
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