Web browser ballot | BBC Click video
It's become probably the single most important application you use on your computer. Internet Explorer? Opera? FireFox? Safari?... It's a more important choice than you think; what browser do you use?
Microsoft in Europe has been forced to give it's Windows users a choice on what web browser they'd prefer to have running as their default. Click here for a BBC feature in which the biggest players in the browser industry state their case as to why you should pick theirs. Choose wisely.
5 ways online 3D technology will improve your site
You may be unfamiliar with 3D web technology, so we wanted to compile a list of the top 5 most popular applications we find ourselves being asked to build. The possibilities are endless, but this top 5 might give you an idea of how integrating 3D graphic technology can more effectively engage your visitors and improve almost any site.
- Product visualisation
Why have flat photos of a product when you can now have your visitors fully interact in three dimensions. Household products, cars, machinery, you name it.
- More engaging navigation
Catch the eye of any visitor by allowing them to navigate through your site in 3D. Navigating a website doesn't need to be all plain lists and menus, you can create abstract 3D worlds which you intuitively move around. Checkout this Verbatim site where you can navigate using the dynamic 3D characters. Other good examples are the Big and Small Ceebies website and this from Plantate.
- Virtual tours
Buying a house, why not take a virtual tour as if you were walking around the property yourself. Architects can also now upload their models to display in realtime 3D to their clients.
- Augmented Reality
Sci-fi movies have used Augmented Reality in their futuristic computer monitors and interfaces for years now (think Minority Report), however it's already a reality in your standard web-browser. Augmented Reality or AR is where the physical real-world environment and it's elements are modified by virtual computer-generated imagery. Take a look at these concept examples here and here to get a taste of what I'm talking about. If you've got a web camera then take a look at a realworld example here. Alternatively watch this. If you wnt to see further examples of online Augmented Reality click here.
- More engaging displays of data
An example is the Baseball pitcher-batter views application which displays the data from a game in interactive 3D. Read about it here. - More engaging displays of data
So in conclusion. Any questions about how we can help you integrate 3D technology into your own web site, please don't hesitate to get in-touch.
Online 3D Technology Guide Part 3 | Unity 3D
Unity's 3D engine has it's roots in desktop game development. Recently they've branched out into the in-browser 3D world and brought their high-end graphics with them. Their Unity Web Player can be downloaded and installed onto both Mac and PC and allows you to view content built on the Unity 3D platform right inside your browser.
Features
Unity 3D's graphics are stunning to say the least, especially when compared to it's competitor in-browser plug-ins (Flash and O3D). When it's given to access your GPU the detail involved in the 3D scenes can appear almost boundless. Particles, shadows, shaders, physics and all up to standard with today's high end games machines. Not to mention full multiplayer and network game support. On the development side there are established pipelines between applications like Blender, PhotoShop as well as support for a massive range of file format imports. This is something the open-source equivalents struggle to do well in my eyes and can be a somewhat cumbersome process. Then once you've developed and got your 3D scene, model or game ready for deployment, then not only can you push it through onto their web player, but also iPhone, Desktop and even Wii. This really is where all in-browser 3D environments need to be.
The future of Unity 3D
Unity 3D already brings rich, highly detailed, multi-player environments straight into a standard web browser. This means with their web player still in such early days of it's release, what Unity 3D has to offer in the future is an exciting prospect.
Unity 3D is closed source and a license to use it's development tools needs to be paid for. This can be seen as a good thing or a bad depending on your opinions regarding the open-source movement.
The only real drawback we can see is that the Unity Web Player plug-in hasn't yet been nearly as widely adopted by the internet community as Flash's has. This means viewers of your Unity 3D created content will see a blank space asking them to download a new (3 MB) plug-in. In the immediate, now now now culture of the internet it will put a lot of people off. Hopefully though with Unity's second to none GPU supported graphics will win users and compel them to download, install and enjoy.
Online 3D Technology Guide Part 2 | O3D
O3D is Google's own home grown open-source web API for creating rich, interactive 3D applications in the browser. First released late April 2009, this API's goal in Google's own words is to create an "open web standard for 3D graphics". First things first though, before being able to view anything constructed using O3D you will need to download and install Google's browser based plug-in (if you haven't already).
Features
Once you do install the plug-in it's clear from their demos that the resolution and technical abilities of the engine are far above anything a Flash based 3D engine can hope to achieve right now. High quality animation, particle physics, shaders, and shadow rendering are just a few of the features that O3D boasts at this early stage in it's development. Not only this, but being Google, you can be sure it's going to be a pretty stable platform.The future of O3D
Google's plug-in hasn't yet been nearly as widely adopted by the internet community as Flash's has. This means viewers of your O3D created content will see a blank space asking them to download a new plug-in. In the immediate, now now now culture of the internet this will put a lot of people off. Hopefully though with O3D's stunning GPU supported graphics and trusted Google name it will compel uses to download, install and enjoy.
Online 3D Technology Guide Part 1 | Flash 3D
Introduction
There are a variety of online 3D technologies out there that facilitate the integration of rich 3D graphics within a standard web page.
We wanted to do a series of posts taking a closer look at the underlying technologies facilitating this cutting edge browser based 3D web revolution. Our aim is that we hope to break things down and show how these technologies can work for you. Which 3D technology is relevant and what's actually do-able now and into the future.
Flash 3D Engines
For many years now Flash has been the underlying technology behind the mass growth of online video streaming. Such sites as YouTube wouldn't exist without it. Now Flash looks to do the same with 3D graphics processing... or does it? With the introduction of Flash's Action Script version 3 (AS3) a range of 3D graphical engines began to be developed and released into the Flash community. The ubiquity of the Flash plug-in meant rich 3D graphics could become accessible to anyone with a web browser. However such rich 3D media is limited by Flash's failure to utilise the GPU (any kind of graphics card). Currently it makes use of the computer's CPU processor. Which basically means it uses your computers main brain to do all the processing, where as today's modern standard of 3D graphics in games depends upon access to a graphics card geared specifically to heavy duty number crunching. However, there have been rumours that Adobe (the owners of Flash) intend on making GPU access for Flash applications a reality in the not too distant future. Watch this space.
Below is a consolidated list of the various Flash 3D engines active and available at the moment as well as their relevant applications.
- Papervision 3D 2.0 Alpha
Open-source project. Relatively robust in the world of Flash 3D engines. Supportive community with a plethora of tutorials and documentation available. Ideal for 3D web interfaces and simple games. Link | Examples
- Away 3D
Open-source project. Comparatively robust. Has a supportive community with lots of tutorials and documentation available. Ideal for games and interactive 3D interfaces. Link | Examples
- Sandy 3D
- Five3D
Light-weight open-source project. Ideal for those basic projects that need to perform under optimised conditions. Link | Examples
- 3DFS
Open-source project written in Action Script 2. If AS2 is the programming language you need to deal with by necessity, then this is the engine for you. Link | Examples
-
Wire Engine 3D
- JigLibFlash 3D Physics
- Alternativa3D
Closed-source/paid for project. Specifically designed to be a performance in-browser game development platform with comparatively higher resolution graphics. Online multiplayer capabilities supported. Link | Examples - Electric 3D
Closed-source/paid for project. Electric Oyster's in-house realtime 3D engine. Contact them for further information. Link | Examples
- FreeSpin 3D
Paid for component. Good for visualisations of objects, simple games and web interfaces. Link | Examples
- Sophie 3D
Paid for Flash component. Gives high quality smooth performance realtime 3D renders. Limited as to the applications for the engine, suited best to visualisation. Link | Example
The future of Flash 3D
The most important thing to remember is that what these Flash engines listed above give us is the opportunity to make rich 3D graphics something accessible. All you need is a bog-standard web browser. No fancy big downloads or obscure voodoo magic, it should just appear instantly and work.
However, as other web browser plug-ins (Unity 3D) and technologies like HTML 5 become more widely available, Adobe will need to make sure Flash keeps pace with the predominantly open-source communities that push these engines to their limits. Flash 3D may have been one of the first stable, accessible platforms out there to get a foot hold, but in-order to secure a future in the online 3D market place it needs to be able to utilise the computer's GPU (graphics card processors).
Job openings
Fixdit Ltd. is looking to expand it's team of developers. If you'd like to become a member of a team at the high end of cutting edge 3D web development, then please forward your details plus CV/portfolio links over to us at the contact page here.
Current skillsets recruiting for:
• AS3 coder with some prior 3D experience if possible.
• PHP or Drupal CMS specialist
Feel free to get in touch regarding any questions you might have. Look forward to hearing from you.
• PHP or Drupal CMS specialist
Feel free to get in touch regarding any questions you might have. Look forward to hearing from you.
Research and development
When things go quiet on the blog front it usually means that things are overly busy in background as we deal with client's work and push the development of our existing online 3D technology. Suffice to say, you'll hear about it all here soon.
iPhone Flash Apps
"Adobe now makes it possible to create applications for the Apple iPhone using the Adobe Flash Platform"
That's right, it has been announced recently that Adobe's Flash CS5 will allow developers and designers to export their content straight to an iPhone/iPod Touch format. If what they say bares out then you'll soon see Fixdit web based 3D applications ported to the IPhone as soon as. You'll be able to portably Pimp It 3D on your iPhone wherever, whenever.
Native iPhone APIs and functionality to be supported by Flash are:
- MultiTouch
- Screen Orientation
- Saving images to Photo Library
- Accelerometer
- Geo-location
- Cut / Copy / Paste
Design | Mobile concept
Mac Funamizu currently resides just outside Tokyo Japan and is a self-taught designer well known in the online world of product design. The ideas he conceives and the forward looking visualisations he produces bring even the most inconceivable product designs straight into the reality of today. Often fun, functional, always desirable.
Among his recent work Mac has been giving his take on the world of mobile devices by producing a series of minimal form phones, containing only what they need to look fantastic and intuitive to handle. One such example is the thin, two layered, transparent, glass and brushed metal mobile incorporating a full surface touch display. I would love to get feedback on how something like this might be achieved. With the revolution in commercially available touch technology who knows what is around the corner? However at the moment it doesn't exist. This is a big problem, as with many of his designs; "We want one!"
Fixdit: What inspires you?
Mac: I'm inspired by everything: great designs I see around us, inconveniences I feel every day, nature, simple solutions, design books, design blogs, movies, kids, etc. etc.
Fixdit: Who are your main influences?
Mac: Naoto Fukasawa, Jonathan Ive, Josef Muller Brockmann
Fixdit: What is your favourite product that is available at the moment (past or present)?
Mac: Moleskine (Squared Notebook 5 x 8¼"), Apple (wired) keyboard, Aluminum Starbucks coffee mug cup
Mac Funamizu believes design is communication, and that a well designed product is one created through listening to it's users. In this respect we at Fixdit have included Mac's Glass mobile concept for you to annotate and comment on. Keep an eye on Mac Funimazu; a lot of the concepts are probably closer to becoming a manifested reality than you might think.
We wanted to both showcase a piece of Mac's work as well as give an example of the online 3D graphics we've been developing to be viewed within your web browser. Click and drag on the 3D object Viewer frame to interact.
Among his recent work Mac has been giving his take on the world of mobile devices by producing a series of minimal form phones, containing only what they need to look fantastic and intuitive to handle. One such example is the thin, two layered, transparent, glass and brushed metal mobile incorporating a full surface touch display. I would love to get feedback on how something like this might be achieved. With the revolution in commercially available touch technology who knows what is around the corner? However at the moment it doesn't exist. This is a big problem, as with many of his designs; "We want one!"
Fixdit: What inspires you?
Mac: I'm inspired by everything: great designs I see around us, inconveniences I feel every day, nature, simple solutions, design books, design blogs, movies, kids, etc. etc.
Fixdit: Who are your main influences?
Mac: Naoto Fukasawa, Jonathan Ive, Josef Muller Brockmann
Fixdit: What is your favourite product that is available at the moment (past or present)?
Mac: Moleskine (Squared Notebook 5 x 8¼"), Apple (wired) keyboard, Aluminum Starbucks coffee mug cup
Mac Funamizu believes design is communication, and that a well designed product is one created through listening to it's users. In this respect we at Fixdit have included Mac's Glass mobile concept for you to annotate and comment on. Keep an eye on Mac Funimazu; a lot of the concepts are probably closer to becoming a manifested reality than you might think.
Introduction | 3D Object Viewer
Fixdit's 3D Object Viewer presents a window that contains realtime 3D graphics to a web user. Users can interact with and manipulate the geometry within, as well as share them throughout the web. The windows can be embedded into HTML ready web pages and viewed using potentially any standard web-browser. Unlike video players, a fast internet connection isn't required. 3D Object Viewers aren't limited to the types of models they can contain either and have been used to display content from architectural model walkthroughs to animated character designs. Furthermore this online 3D technology comes with an API already in-built that lets you easily alter and customise elements (e.g. backround colours). Documentation on this API will be realeased to developers in the near future.
Below is an embedded example of the Fixdit 3D Object Viewer 1.0. As a quick example I've included a model of the iPhone 3G. Feel free to interact using your mouse and the pop-up control panel located at the bottom of the viewer. Try adding a note.
Below is an embedded example of the Fixdit 3D Object Viewer 1.0. As a quick example I've included a model of the iPhone 3G. Feel free to interact using your mouse and the pop-up control panel located at the bottom of the viewer. Try adding a note.
