3D technologies for web business

Most 3D publishing packages address the business to consumer interface for various types of e-commerce such as e-shopping, e-tickets, e-estate, e-auctions, etc. Here 3D content is mostly used to visualize a product or a service (e.g. a cell phone or a seat in an opera house) in an interactive and interesting way that gets the customer's attention. Since creation of 3D content is difficult, most 3D companies offer publishing services. This is different in the e-entertainment industrie like 3D movies/animations or games, because here the 3D content is the product.

Other packages address the business to business interface. Often referred to as c-commerce (c=collaborative) it provides companies with a platform for visual collaboration on complex product data. All contributors from engineer to customer, from designers to manager, from the manufacturing enterprises to their supply chains can be involved and give feedback early in the production process.

business -> consumer (without plugin)

company	product / technology	demos
ibm	hotmedia offers pure java components for a variety of media. the big advantage of its 3D component is IBM's compression technology that allows to squeezes a lot of polygons into small data files. no other pure java solution offers such sophisticated 3D coding. their demos on compression are impressive, but the visual quality of the examples is a little weak (e.g. academic) and its fairly slow.	sphere (surprisingly slow) some academic models: shape eight horse scanned figures: magdalena's head pieta
kaon interactive inc	kaon 3D is two things: a service (hyperreality) that creates photo realistic, internet-ready 3D models a product from 2D digital photography and a pure java viewer (hyperspace) to deliver this content in the web browser. downloading is fast as this java applet has only 32kb big. the models come in mutliple lods so that an initial coarse version is available for immediate display, while higher resolution models are downloaded. For models that are heavy on high-resolution textures, they provide a nice streaming technique that refines the texture image quality for very coarse to very fine (e.g. amplifier).	cd player amplifier sofa teapot foldable bike cell phone boombox
blaxxun	blaxxun3d is a fast loading java applet (53KB) for interactive rendering of vrml97/xml scenes. its main advantage over competing solutions is ease of content creation: all authoring tools that generate VRML can be used for producing blaxxun3D content. target applications are e-commerce, entertainment, web animations, avatar chat	starlight express skoda showroom nokia cell phone camcorder virtual bill
3Di ltd	3Danywhere is another fast system for displaying 3D scenes on the web without plugin. you can play with the designer system for authoring and publishing of 3D web content in an interactive online demo. the system features highly compressed geometry, streaming, and a high quality java renderer, which implements lighting, texture and environment mapping, transparency, and anti-aliasing.	simulation of the designer room design olympus camera eye glasses gun assembly ring designer goodbyelice nokia emjoi (e-shop) [1][2][3]
shoutinteractive eyematic	shout3d allows a standard web browser to display interactive 3D graphics. it is a combination of java-based playback and authoring technologies that enables viewing 3D graphics as quickly and as easily as viewing a JPEG  image. shout3D was designed to be a transparent, lightweight alternative to existing 3D plugin and playback technologies. with version 2.0 the optional download of a .dll file will allow to match the faster rendering speeds of plugin solution without compromising the ability to run everywhere.	excite 3D holiday shop macy's passport 99 fashion show wild willy beat monk bash (a 3D movie) donaucity mod dunk (cool dynamics) navigate it (with collision detection) buy me! i’m a suit!
janet gmbh	janet3D is another java-based technology for creating interactive 3D applications on the web and the base for the communications systems netMarker and 3Dcatalog. the first is a 3D communication system supporting the design process within a CAD environment. the latter an impressive 3D catalogue for example for engine maintenance. it allows to locate a part in a large machine assembly either through the 2D object description or through point and click in 3D.	component locator robot control functionality of army knife visualization of movement data another component locator
anfy team	anfy3D claims to be the fastest interactive 3d renderer with shading available in java technology today. the provided anfy3D API is the anfy team 3D engine for the java language. its like openGL or direct3D, but written in java and can be used to add 3D renderings to java applets or applications.	space movie interaction movement with motion blur effect game
sumea	sumea:engine is an inhouse project which was first written for experimental purposes. its features are impressive: lens flare support, transparency, soft spot lights, simple particle systems, dual-texturing and real multi-object hierarchies. it supports several different rendering techniques, color depths and effects (zbuffer, cbuffer, depth-of-field). this technology is currently only licensed for projects that sumea take part into.	3D chess (1) click "watch game in 3D" (2) click "enter as guest" flowers turtle halo sunglasses chair
parallelgraphics	as a complement to their cortona vrml browser they offer java-based cortona jet for plugin-free VRML browsing. 93KB of java beans makes it a light-weight solution for viewing of VRML-compliant 3D content.	examples
livegraphics3D	a fast and light applet for web-visualization of small 3D object produced by mathematica. the rendering quality is not the greatest and the software is not perfect yet, but the tool is very effective for educational purposes. it was/is written by a German PhD student and populates various academic web-pages.

business -> consumer (with plugin)

Annoyed by the plugin? Come on, those downloads are becoming faster and the upgrades happen almost transparent. And you are missing something without! Dozens of companies popped up recently that hope to become the standard for efficient 3D on the web. I provide links  to the download page of each plugin, but often they start downloading once you hit a page containing the respective 3D content anyways.

company	product / technology	demos
viewpoint metastream	viewpoint media player is a plugin for interactive rendering of viewpoint experience technology (VET) content, which can be created with (currently) free software. create and explore integrate rich 3D content 'windowless' into a webpage, allowing it to share the same space with traditional web content. it employs high compression and streaming for fast down-loading and seamlessly integrates other rich media types like IPIX panoramas, vector text, and audio. now used by nike, sony, eddiebauer, ...	sony aibo citibug vaio notebook vw beetle daypack collection barbie jewellery bed jeep nike shoe
virtue3D	virtuoso is a combination of player or plugin and composer. the virtuoso optimizer transforms 3D content into highly efficient web-ready files. web designers can convert their geometric into virtue's compact web-enabled VTU file format and easily embed into a web page. customers who want to experience 3D can download the free, compact virtuoso player. virtue is probably the oldest player in the 3D for e-commerce market. see also this technology overview.	jewelry cell phones gifts toys consumer electronics apparel cameras home appliances
cycore	cult3D is a combination of plug-in and designer / exporter. the plug-in allows users to view cult3D objects on the web, in MS office documents, and in adobe acrobat files. the designer/exporter imports 3D models, adds interactivity, compresses the file to a fraction of its original size, and exports it as a cult3D object file. i think that this software package is currently the most commonly used one for web business.	gallery [1][2][3][4][5] rogers video cnn shuttle compaq mp3 player tugboats theodore and emily breitling watch nokia 9110 communicator palm V knoll web store bikes [1][2][3]
pulse entertainment	pulse technology enables the creation and delivery of streaming highly-interactive 3D rich real-time media. pulse3d authoring software allows to create, compress, and export 3D and other streaming media webwide. pulse technology has emerged as the web standard for streaming 3D animation and finds many applications in entertainment, training and product merchandising. personally i think it is currently one of the most exciting applications of 3D technologies on the web.	pulse self advertisement virtual dave the puppetcafe abraham lincoln nutri system fitness trainer pocket pc advertisement dotcomix dancing baby (texture-light demo) pulsebeat gallery
wildtangent	the wildtangent web driver is a software driver takes the interactivity of 3D multimedia and adds the benefits of sophisticated compression and hardware acceleration to make interactive content a reality over current bandwidths.	presidental debate pigpen (like pacman) blasterball (like break-out) other games
parallelgraphics	cortona claims to be the smallest and fastest available plugin capable to browse virtual worlds written in VRML. it features full VRML97 support, NURBS and spline support, RealAudio, and RealVideo support. their pocket cortona is the first vrml browser for a handhelp device.	monmartre product-presentations games and screensavers nurbs and splines
enbaya	enbaya is the latest newcomer into the 3D market. the technology (based on research results of tel aviv university) focuses on compressed progressive transmission of polygonal models. 3d data - scanned or modelled - is converted into the web-ready enbaya format.	diamond ring shiny kettle flying machine
intel macromedia	according to their SIGGRAPH 2000 press release intel and macromedia plan to take over the web 3D market by combining 3D technology from intel with the existing plugin infrastructure of the shockwave player from macromedia. and if you believe their latest press release the other players in this market will have some troublesome time ahead.
various other companies:	b3d, interzart, mendelbox, shell interactive, superscape, spazz3d, geometrek, 3Donthe.net, atomic3d, flatland, eon reality, realitywave, visviva, zap3d,...

business -> business (with plugin)

company	product / technology	demos
EAI	e-vis is a solution for visual collaboration on complex product data between manufacturing enterprises and their supply chains. with e-vis multiple people around the world can work together on the same visual data (e.g. 2D and 3D models from any CAD/CAM system), simultaneously and in real time through a standard Web browser. look at an e-vis screenshot or read about e-vis powering covisint. VisPublish3D builds on the visualization tools of VisMockUp. it provides a collaborative authoring environment for digital publishing in 3D using (repurposing) the most current product and process data. WorldToolKit is a cross-platform software development system for building high-performance real-time 3D applications for scientific and commercial use. unlike the recent wave of  packages targeted primarily at game and chat applications, World2World has been designed for the business community (e.g. collaborative design/engineering, distance learning, multi-participant training).
actify	SpinFire is a viewer/producer solution for web-based 3D visualization. the viewer is a lightweight browser plug-in that allows web access to standard CAD/3D formats and a web-optimized  format. the publisher compresses large 3D designs into compact, view-only files for fast and easy viewing.	standard CAD formats an online catalog another online catalog
autodesk	Volo View is a web-enabled review and markup tool for engineering data. it enables design teams to communicate ideas and review designs, without access to AutoCAD® software. check out their interactive overview.
adaptive media vuent iEngineer	Envision-i 3D is a visual c-commerce platform designed to support multiple users simultaneously over the web. it unifies diverse sources of data (e.g. 3D CAD models, 2D drawings, text) in a single interface accessible through a standard web browser	manufacturing process & building
immersive design	IPA WebView is a interactive web engine for viewing and interacting with assemblies, parts and animations. It is an add-on to IPA or Interactive Product Animator, which allow users to generate assembly and service documentation for CAD models. However, the downloadable viewer crashed my laptop several times ...	bookshelf assembly coolphones2go barret hand jig saw

image-based / interactive 2D

company	product / technology	demos
IPIX	360x360 panoramic imaging, progressive transmission	mount everest tour real estate autobytel.com
livepicture mgisoft	zoom zone, server, and viewer are a family of livepicture tools to create, deliver, examine and deep-zoom into multi-resolution flashpix™ images, pan across photovista panoramas, rotate image objects created photovista3D and more	gallery demo pages
richFX or webglide	streaming of highly compressed computer generated (!) video content	art gallery mayonaise frosted flakes
iMove	interactive video, multicamera video, spherical video	demo page
be here	360 degree lens and software for real-time creation of streaming 360 degree video, needs these or later versions of realplayer 7.0, windows mediaplayer 6.4, or quicktime 5.0	gallery (requires a lot of bandwidth)
microsoft	it is called surround video but it is actually only a surround picture. it really adds something to the car show room at carpoint.	car point
ibm	hotmedia is a complete solution in pure java that allows to integrate anything from sound, images, slides, IPIX panoramas, 3D, movies and various interactive combination of those into a web page. it does not require any plugin for any of this but is fairly slow.	christie's contemporary art bridal gown show pontiac [1][2][3][4][5] fashion collection gmc trucks [1][2][3][4]

various related sites

site	content
http://www.3dcafe.com/	free 3D models, textures, plugins, sounds, tutorials, web tools, ...
http://avalon.viewpoint.com/	free 3D models, textures, software
http://www.protozoa.com/	funny vrml animations: floops, dilbert, driftwood
http://www.dotcomix.com/	more funny 3D animations, mostly pulse3D format
http://www.panoguide.com/	in-depth information about panoramic imaging
http://www.web3d.org/	homepage of the web3d consortium
http://www.3dezine.com/	an e-magazine dedicated to web3d (we want frequent updates, tim!)
http://web3d.about.com/	learn everything about web3d technology
http://www.webreference.com/3d/	useful reviews/tutorials by Rob Polevoi (shout3d specialist)
http://www.cybertown.com/	a virtual 3D world for avatar chat from blaxxun
http://www.baument.com/	here you can buy 3D models, they also have some free ones
http://www.echtzeit.de/e-berlin/	walk around in berlin and see an example of vr-commerce
http://www.3d3.com/	a nice collection of e-shopping demos from 3d3
http://www.real3d.com/	some of the worst web3d around ...