

Google releases web browser plugin allowing the creation of interactive 3D applications - mcantelon
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2009/04/toward-open-web-standard-for-3d.html

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halo
Open source, BSD licensed (<http://code.google.com/p/o3d/>), available for all
3 platforms.

I guess Chrome and the OEMs allows Google to push adoption of the plugin, but
I think it'll have an uphill struggle. It'll take a killer app for users to
bother with 3D on the web, let alone choose this over rival technologies like
Silverlight or even 3D Canvas looming over the horizon.

~~~
thorax
I couldn't find any mention why they went this route over the 3D Canvas
approach. It seems FF was making some progress on an extension for that, too (
<https://wiki.mozilla.org/Canvas:3D> ).

Anyone know/read enough about this area to speculate why Google didn't help
grow that initiative instead of doing O3D?

~~~
interknot
Christopher Blizzard's (Open Source Evangelist at Mozilla) thoughts[1] on
standardizing Canvas 3D, taken in conjunction with what relevant people at
Google are saying[2], makes it look like Google is just really eager to get
people using "3D" on the web.

[1] <http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/weblog/?p=1223>

[2] [http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2009/04/google-
releases...](http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2009/04/google-
releases-3d-graphics-plugin-for-browsers.ars)

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addicttostress
VRML is back! <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VRML>

~~~
mixmax
The difference is that this time the timing might be right. I remember the
awful pixelated and square VRML stuff severely limited by CPU speeds of ten
years ago.

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jrbedard
Competition for Unity3D : <http://unity3d.com/>

~~~
JabavuAdams
Why didn't they just buy Unity?

It's not so much about the API these days, it's the content creation pipeline
and tools.

Hmm. Have to think about this more.

~~~
peregrine
Who says unity wants to be acquired?

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mixmax
_"We are terribly sorry but it appears your graphics card is not able to run
o3d. We are working on a solution."_

:-(

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piramida
MMORPG games where players would be able to actually affect scenery could
become a reality now - not only adding objects as in SL, but any imaginable
changes since the visuals would be centrally served - which opens some
breathtaking possibilities...

~~~
euccastro
The web doesn't open any new possibility in that respect. There are MMOs where
the visuals are centrally served. The client keeps a cache that is often
updated from the server side.

Really, this has never been a significant problem to stop studios from letting
you mess with their worlds. There are other technical problems related to
world representation, but most importantly, there are design integrity
concerns. To design a world that the players can meaningfully modify but not
screw up completely in various ways (mainly related to theme, playability and
balance) sounds like a difficult, laborious task.

If you're interested in this kind of stuff check out what this crazy swede is
doing:

<http://www.quelsolaar.com/>

