Options for interactive 3D models on the Internet

Question

Can someone tell me what are my practical options for publishing interactive 3D models on the Internet?

I think that either Flash or Silverlight will become a way for you, but even so, there may be some frameworks already available based on them that will help.

More details:

• Pretty simple models.
• It is necessary to maintain bones and joints, etc.
• Requires a certain level of user interaction
• It takes some animation.

Answer 1

Last year, publishing 3D objects became much easier.

Silverlight cannot do this yet. There were promises, but soon.

When it comes to Flash, creating a 3D object viewer is really very simple and it’s possible to create a three-dimensional object viewer within a few hours.

I know Papervision 3D. From which you can simply delete the collada file in the viewer, and it will be displayed.

There are many other 3D engines designed for flash memory. Alternativa3D, Away3D and Sandy to name a few. Everyone has their own strengths. Papervision is a common choice, as it is around the block and its level at which you can do almost everything you need.

Away3D Recognized for Visual Excellence and Preview Application That Can Help Create 3D Scenes

Alternativa3D has some beautiful examples, and it has the ability to smooth out the rendering of the scene while the camera is stationary.

Papervision3D - in my experience, this is the fastest rendering engine. I showed a speed of 60 frames per second with complex scenes. Its also the fastest to configure for viewing. Unfortunately, sometimes it can be its own odd syntax and workarounds.

All this will help you with your requirements.

Answer 2

I'm not sure that this is exactly what you need, but I heard really good things about Papervision 3D

Answer 3

I use Unity with Web Player, and it is very good, and it works on most major platforms.

It has all the features you want and it is pretty easy to use.

Hope this helps!

Answer 4

As mentioned earlier, there are quite a lot of them.

Balder - Silverlight 3D Library: alt text http://i3.codeplex.com/Project/Download/FileDownload.aspx?ProjectName=Balder&DownloadId=123000

Java and Javascript were not mentioned. @maffel touched this.

Handling is simple. Start with. The only problems I see there are the annoyance of Java applets (the java runtime ubiquity is small, plus you get the annoying Trust dialog because you will use Sun JOGL bindings).

You can try WebGL. Dennis Ippel wrote a WebGL exporter for Blender . The advantage is that you do not need any plugins / battery life, but the disadvantage is that only a few browsers currently support WebGL, since it is experimental. It takes a little setup to get something on the screen. Mr.Doob runs the javascript 3d engine , but there is currently no support for importing 3d models.

There are many options with Flash. examples where you need to use Away3D .
Since Away3D can do what you need is open source and is actively developing, I would recommend it. Other options are already listed (Papervision3D, Alternativa3D). Yogurt3D is new and seems to handle a larger poly count : yogurt3d head http://www.yogurt3d.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/animated-head.jpg They target syntax similar to OpenGL.

Loading and animating the model seems to be possible using different technologies (Flash, Silverlight, Java, WebGL, etc.), so it depends on the goal you are trying to achieve, and any other technologies / cost-cutting from the interested party .

NTN

Answer 5

You can try Alternative3D . According to the site, it will support invese kinematics - although it is unclear whether this is a future feature or if it has already been implemented. I found this, however http://blog.alternativaplatform.com/en/files/2009/02/bones.swf . The disadvantage of the engine is a commercial project.

Answer 6

I myself played with Papervision3D and found it pretty easy to use. I don’t know if it (or Flash) OpenGL is currently working, do not follow it correctly. There is a related post on Stackoverflow.

I recently spoke with a friend of mine who works for a gaming company that has a history in Flash and 3D. He told me that they are moving more and more into Oneness and are talking very highly about it.

If you are only interested in what is available or working, then there is the WebGL project , which should connect directly to OpenGL and, thus, be very fast, but so far I think the only browser that supports it is Chrome- Chrome Chromium developer, so this is actually not a distribution option, but you could have fun playing with it.

Finally, there is, of course, Java with its OpenGL bindings. One option would be to use Processing libraries to abstract the OpenGL installation. I did it myself, although for a desktop application, but it simplifies the management of everything if you just want to try something.

Answer 7

WPF can run 3D within certain limits, so if cross-platform compatibility is not a problem, you can create xbap. You would either end up writing your own bone library or exporting pre-processed animations from a modeling package, but none of them are a particular problem. Again, it has been a couple of years since I was involved in this ecosystem, so there may be more suitable libraries worth paying attention to.

There is an old WPF application at http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/virtualbooks/index.html , which shows one possible approach.

Answer 8

Perhaps you can use copperlicht , which sounds like it can do what you want. It uses webgl, which is experimental in browsers at the moment, but it can be an interesting option, at least to explore.

Answer 9

Demicron WireFusion is great, and I used it to deploy an interactive Scotsman model in a full upland dress for the client. This is Java, based on a complete core engine, accessible and customizable, therefore potentially extremely powerful. Importing models from Maya or 3DMax is very simple, and even plug-in integration with the excellent snap reduction tool - Simplygon - is integrated right there.

Unfortunately, there are problems, just not with the software itself ...

• This is Java, which has only 75% or so of browser penetration. This may be a problem, but again there is no other plugin for your users to download and interact with the host web page. It's simple.
• It is ridiculously expensive. Although deployment is free, the cost of the software itself is outrageous. The professional version is $ 1,700, and this does not give you full access to the model (although this was enough to deploy the example above). The corporate version, which is necessary to access all the nodes in the Java engine and really unlocks its potential, is $ 4,000.
• The mesh reduction tool that you most likely will need is another $ 800, and the company that sells has a bloody awful licensing policy - it is connected to the PC, and when I updated my computer, it took me half a dozen letters before they agreed to give me a replacement license, initially they insisted that I just needed to buy a new license.

Unfortunately, this means that I don’t see how this truly excellent system with great potential and many good ideas will ever achieve any significant traction. This has been several years and is still almost unknown. If money is not an option, Java-based nature is not a problem, and you are ready to spend time with it, but despite this, I would still recommend it as one of the best systems available, BUT if Demicron had a sense, offer it at the tenth price they do or even lower. I pointed out the system to dozens of people who were wondering how to experiment with 3D models on their sites (usually with e-commerce), and they all could not understand when they saw the price.

However, I highly recommend that you download a trial version and give it a run - this gives you a month at the enterprise level to see how it works. As mentioned, the support is good, and the community as small as it is is also great.