I think I mentioned it before, and I doubt I'm alone in this, but in the early '90's (1991?) I read Howard Reingold's Virtual Reality and it really got me thinking. The book was the result of Reingold's travels around the high tech lab circuit looking at some of the cutting edge computer graphics and networking projects that were then underway. Big stuff was in store. Especially concerning 3-d worlds. Everyone had read Neuromancer (and Snowcrash) and all those people were busy at their workstations trying to make these computer generated worlds a reality.
By the late nineties I think everyone had revised their early, and optimistic, estimates. We couldn't even get simple html tags to work cross browser - the idea of complex 3d worlds we could all inhabit seemed more and more difficult to realize. And what's more, I think a lot of people (myself included) started thinking that text (be it email, or icq, or irc, or usenet, or web boards) is really the killer app after all. We just want to communicate, and while a picture may be worth a thousand words, on a 56k dial up, I'll still take the thousand words, thanks.
But maybe the tide is starting to shift back again? The big two (adobe and macromedia, who collectively dominate the web graphics space - sorry gimp) are each about to introduce 3d world building tools for the web. Macromedia's offering is called Tron (great name,) and you can read some advanced gossip about it here. Tron works inside Macromedia's flagship (read: expensive) Director/shockwave studio web authoring tool. Adobe's entry is called atmosphere. I've yet to find any third party (possibly impartial) info on atmosphere, but I think clearly these two products will be in competition. Both are presently in beta.
Frankly, I'm doubtful about 3d on the web, yet surely it will have to happen eventually. I'll be interested to see 3d on line games, or other specialty uses (architecture springs to mind) but I really hope this doesn't turn into a flash type of thing, where every web site throws in some useless 3d bells and whistles. I don't really need to browse Amazon in 3d or anything. Still, like flash, there will be some good uses. Have you checked your DSL order status today?
are you still waiting for the verizon dsl to be installed?
No I gave up on them. I'm going with cable, but it will be another month or so before my block is in the "ready" zone. Wait wait wait. I was just trying to make some sort of joke about how hard it is (or how long you have to wait) to get broadband. 3D, or video on demand (neither of which I'm particularly interested in) would be good reasons to be impatient about getting faster connections. Maybe there was some play in there also about Microsoft's "where do you want to go today" slogan. As usual, just writing to amuse myself.
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By the late nineties I think everyone had revised their early, and optimistic, estimates. We couldn't even get simple html tags to work cross browser - the idea of complex 3d worlds we could all inhabit seemed more and more difficult to realize. And what's more, I think a lot of people (myself included) started thinking that text (be it email, or icq, or irc, or usenet, or web boards) is really the killer app after all. We just want to communicate, and while a picture may be worth a thousand words, on a 56k dial up, I'll still take the thousand words, thanks.
But maybe the tide is starting to shift back again? The big two (adobe and macromedia, who collectively dominate the web graphics space - sorry gimp) are each about to introduce 3d world building tools for the web. Macromedia's offering is called Tron (great name,) and you can read some advanced gossip about it here. Tron works inside Macromedia's flagship (read: expensive) Director/shockwave studio web authoring tool. Adobe's entry is called atmosphere. I've yet to find any third party (possibly impartial) info on atmosphere, but I think clearly these two products will be in competition. Both are presently in beta.
Frankly, I'm doubtful about 3d on the web, yet surely it will have to happen eventually. I'll be interested to see 3d on line games, or other specialty uses (architecture springs to mind) but I really hope this doesn't turn into a flash type of thing, where every web site throws in some useless 3d bells and whistles. I don't really need to browse Amazon in 3d or anything. Still, like flash, there will be some good uses. Have you checked your DSL order status today?
- jim 3-26-2001 5:04 pm
are you still waiting for the verizon dsl to be installed?
- dave 3-26-2001 5:21 pm
No I gave up on them. I'm going with cable, but it will be another month or so before my block is in the "ready" zone. Wait wait wait. I was just trying to make some sort of joke about how hard it is (or how long you have to wait) to get broadband. 3D, or video on demand (neither of which I'm particularly interested in) would be good reasons to be impatient about getting faster connections. Maybe there was some play in there also about Microsoft's "where do you want to go today" slogan. As usual, just writing to amuse myself.
- jim 3-26-2001 8:30 pm