RE: [xml-dev] 2007 Predictions - losing the PC

["Len Bullard" <cbullard@hiwaay.net>]

Possibly you want to spend some time on the http://www.web3d.org/ to
understand the applications of 3D currently being fielded.  The VComm site
for language training is one.  Scientific visualization is going strong in
Australia.  There is strong uptake in the science domains given the low
startup costs (say free).

But I agree, the talents required to work in 3D don't come for free
particularly as one gets beyond mathematical visualization and into the art
work for immersive worlds.  Still you can't quarrel with the numbers for
SecondLife and There.com or the rapidly increasing business and
entertainment applications.  IBM put a stake in the ground, Sun, Sears and
so on.  So I'd say 3D is doing very well these days.   What happened ten
years ago was a hype-blowout combined with resource poor machines and
networks.   Things have changed a lot there.

The problem of the storyteller is the language itself.  Here is something to
think about.  This is a snippet of a discussion from the X3D list about what
is needed to work from a high level language.  It is nothing more than the
venerable up translation based on applying XSLT libraries of X3D objects.
As with all scripted approaches, some folks built objects and others script
with them; otherwise, there would be no mashups or Web 2.0.  Hiding the hard
bits from authors is what programmers are paid to do.  The same pertains to
building 3D objects, particularly to so called reactive characters or smart
objects.  XML actually makes 3D clumsier to do (Gavin Bell and Chris Marrin
were right about that), but to get the tool ecosystem, it is a compromise
worth making.  Wrapping in HTML is abysmal because of the performance, but
it is a compromise sometimes worth making to use the HTML forms objects.

<snippet />

"We'll come back to this but the clumsy syntax of routes are best hidden
from the author.   There is a lot of X3D that is clumsy syntax and even more
so when encoded as XML.

Timers are verbs.  Verbs cascade.  Verbs aggregate in a repertoire of acts
and gestures as declared in named arrays of named objects.  Verbs are the
dynamic aspect of a situation as they control the event cascade for a given
time. 

The key to easing the authoring is to use names smartly.   The fact that a
time-sensor is the tenth one you make is not a reason to label it TS10.  If
it is a verb, it should be named that way  

TS10 or 'respect'?

Respect is better,

Then 

Kamala respects Saraswati.  # a standard triple in natural language

is

World.MFTime/kamala[respect]  URL:sarasati.wrl#DEFSaraswati

Given a transform into a library, that is sufficient information to create
the behavior and place it in time in X3D by transforming from a simpler
syntax into the more complex one (up translation).  The key is to isolate
the variants into the simpler syntax and support them with libraries.  Most
of the authoring tools we have are object builders, not scene builders. That
is another one that Parallel Graphics gets right.

A situation is the complete set of dynamic relationships available at some
timestamp for some set of smart objects/avatars/bots in a dynamic
environment.   It is a whole lot easier to use arrays to express that and to
use XSLT to build it."

len


From: Bill Kearney [mailto:wkearney99@hotmail.com] 

> Long reply: Yes, and you can even make films with game engines.

Sure, machinima is cool and all but it still doesn't address the fact that
making something in 3D is *considerably* more difficult than most folks
imagine.  Thus making anything other than a shiny metal sphere on a
checkered background is going to be a feat few will ever master.

I don't know the best way to succinctly make the point.  There's something
about how people perceive 3D materials that makes it extremely difficult to
get them to accept, let alone use them.

It's not that the tools to create them don't exist, they do, it's the talent
that's lacking.  Story-telling is probably a key factor in that.  Taking
that a step further into useful user experiences is a nearly impossible
leap.

3D is just one of those things that seems like it oughta be just SO cool but
never really gets anywhere besides gaming and oddball avatar stuff.

-Bill Kearney


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