Hiperia3D News

MeshMixer: Mix 3D Meshes

2009-12-04T18:34:00.001+01:00

MeshMixer is a new freeware application to mix 3D shapes through drag and drop.

With it you can easily make things like minotaurs, centaurs, a rabbit with an human head, a face that emerges from a door... Specially good for organic shapes.

To see how it works, see this video:

Have a look to the gallery too, and of course, visit the home site and download it for free (samples included):

http://meshmixer.com/

Open Source 3D Model Viewer: GLC_Player

2009-12-02T23:59:00.001+01:00

GLC_Player is an open source 3D model viewer that can display models in COLLADA, STL, 3DS, and OBJ, and other file formats.

You can make albums with your 3D models to quickly browse folders. In addition, it has screen capture features, to take images of your models.

Even more, it adds a cool feature named multi-capture, that will take a snapshot of your model in rotation (for example, to make a rotating gif or flash animation of your model).

GLC_Player runs in Mac, Linux and Windows. And displays models quite fast. The interface is very easy and there's no need to read manuals. Once the model is loaded, the application uses very little system resources.

I have used it testing the textures of my current 3d project that I'm working into just now, and I recommend it if you're looking for a fast and lightweight 3D viewer.

http://www.glc-player.net/

Explore Media Group announces the release of their 3D demo reel

2009-12-01T19:28:00.001+01:00

Explore Media Group is one of the world’s leading producers of 3D content, utilizing the newest and latest technologies, cameras, and software to generate HD quality anaglyph and stereoscopic 3D media.

3D Samurai Demo Reel Version 1.0 by exploretv

Explore Media Group is making great strides for the advancement of 3D content with their developments in 3D rigs and Software application methodologies.

Al Caudullo, founder and Managing Director of Explore Media Group, creates eye catching 3D production utilizing a wide variety of professional products. Combined with Tim Dashwood's 3D Toolbox, Final Cut Pro Studio 3, Adobe After Affects, or SpatialView's SVI stereoscopic editor, Mr. Caudullo and his team at Explore Media Group create dazzling 3D creations that appear to jump out at the viewer from the screen...

Read more of this at 3DGUY.TV - 3D DEMO REEL.

Get your red-cyan 3D glasses and WATCH NOW!

BLACKSMITH3D-PAINT v3.3 50% Off, 65% For Platinum

2009-11-26T07:54:00.001+01:00

Blacksmith 3D is 50% off through November 30 (next Monday!). And up to 65% off for Platinum Club members of DAZ3D.

Get Blacksmith 3D 50% Off

Get Blacksmith 3D 50% Off

Dassault Systemes In The French Pavilion First To Launch True Interactive 3D Pavilion

2009-11-24T19:11:00.001+01:00

SHANGHAI, China, November 24, 2009 — Dassault Systèmes (DS) (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, and the French Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 today unveiled the first true, interactive, 3D virtual pavilion among participants of World Expo Online 2010, bringing unprecedented real time 3D interactivity and 360-degree immersive walkthrough experience to hundreds of millions of online visitors.

The French Pavilion is building up a vivid counterpart in the virtual world by using Dassault Systèmes’ 3DVIA Virtools software to compliment the Pavilion’s theme of “Sensual City.”

Visitors can freely walk through the pavilion, both inside and outside, as if they were in the physical pavilion, viewing the French-style rooftop garden and masterpieces of the Musée d'Orsay. Through cutting-edge 3D technology, visitors can also enjoy incredible 3D interactivity, such as participating in mini games to virtually experience the five senses, and “entering” masterpiece paintings such as Gauguin’s “Le Repas” where they can navigate around the painting’s subjects.

Jose Freches, Commissioner General of the French Pavilion, said “We are excited about being the first Expo participant to launch the interactive 3D virtual pavilion for the world’s first Expo Online. This once again represents France’s strong support for China’s path of innovation. Thanks to 3DVIA Virtools’ technology, the virtual pavilion provides a great platform for us to communicate with hundreds of millions of people about France’s creative innovation, as well as the spirit of World Expo Shanghai.”

“3D is becoming a universal language for people around the world to learn, discover and innovate,” said Christian Nardin, president, Asia, Dassault Systèmes. “The virtual 3D French Pavilion is a further example of using 3D as a powerful medium to communicate, innovate, and share knowledge, all in a fun way. Dassault Systèmes has been dedicated to delivering true 3D lifelike experience that frees the imagination and allows for rich interactivity. Our ultimate goal is to enable sustainable innovation by leveraging 3D lifelike experience to make our world a better one.”

Dassault Systèmes’ 3DVIA Virtools offers interactive, multi-channel 3D experiences for a host of sectors, such as marketing, gaming, city planning, online shopping, etc. Recently, through a strategic partnership with Luc Besson’s company, EuropaCorp, Dassault Systèmes has leveraged its interactive 3D technologies to enhance the customer experience of Nestlé Chocapic and Nesquik cereals by turning the packaged boxes into a full-fledged 3D video game console. In addition, the two companies have developed several creative marketing tools for the December launch of EuropaCorp’s film ‘Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard,’ allowing everyone to sing and dance in 3D within the “Minimoys’” universe as if they were in the movie.

In China, in addition to supporting the first ever World Expo Online, 3DVIA Virtools was also the application used for the virtual design and rehearsal of the parade in celebration of the country’s 60th anniversary this year.

Twinity Contest: Win An Apartment In Virtual London

2009-11-24T19:06:00.001+01:00

Visit the Facebook Page of Twinity and tag yourself in the pictures of the apartments you like best to take part in the giveaway of 5 prime location luxury Apartments in Virtual London.

Do this before December 7, 2009! Visit Twinity's Virtual London page on Facebook to read more:

http://www.facebook.com/virtual.london?v=wall

New Book: Papervision 3D Essentials

2009-11-18T20:28:00.000+01:00

You know a new book review is coming, about the book called "Blender 3D 2.49 Incredible Machines". The same editor is sending me another book.

I will soon read and review a new book of Packt Publishing called "Papervision 3D Essentials".

Papervision 3D appeared in our list of 20 Technologies For 3D Worlds On The Web, in the first place. It is an open source library for displaying 3D using Flash format.

The book says:

"Create interactive Papervision 3D applications with stunning effects and powerful animations

* Build stunning, interactive Papervision3D applications from scratch

*Export and import 3D models from Autodesk 3ds Max, SketchUp and Blender to Papervision3D

* In-depth coverage of important 3D concepts with demo applications, screenshots and example code.

* Step-by-step guide for beginners and professionals with tips and tricks based on the authors’ practical experience"

Source: Packt Publishing.

Stay tuned to read the review!

Why Do They Buy Virtual Goods?

2009-11-12T06:52:00.000+01:00

Giff Constable, who recently was Vice President at Electric Sheep, published an interesting article about why people purchase virtual goods. It is well written and entertaining to read, and says very clever things.

Gamasutra List Of Jobs At The Games And 3D Industry

2009-11-11T06:51:00.000+01:00

Gamasutra, the big portal of gaming, from time to time publishes lots of available jobs in small, medium and big companies of the game and 3D or animation industry. If you're looking for a good job don't miss this.

Interesting Article On Immortality Through Technology

2009-11-09T06:50:00.000+01:00

Telegraph has published a very interesting science article that states that we may be able to be immortal in 20 years in the future.

This will be possible through the use of nanotechnology to replace organs with tech, so you become some kind of cyborg.

Well, this may be only available for millionaires. Most people will continue dying of flu, I think.

The Graphics Tablet That Works With Your Fingers

2009-11-08T06:49:00.000+01:00

Wacom, the leader in graphics tablets, has launched one that combines a touchpad and tablet in a single device, that you can handle with the pen or with your hands. It is called Bamboo Touch.

Get The New Vue 8 Pioneer For Free

2009-11-06T15:33:00.000+01:00

E-on has announced that Vue 8 Pioneer will remain completely free. You can download it and use it for free forever.

Among new features available in Vue 8 Pioneer you have: the new strata fractals, planetary rendering, 3D terrain sculpting, Spectral 3 atmospheres, and improved OpenGL.

Pioneer is a version of Vue that contains only the core features, but these are many.

Get it at Cornucopia. The download is approximately 450 MB and includes 32 and 64-bit Windows versions and Universal Mac builds. You will have to create a Cornucopia3D account (if you don't already have one) to use the product.

Vue 8 Pioneer is available in English. German and French. A Japanese version will follow.

The Cost Of Free In OSGrid

2009-11-06T06:48:00.000+01:00

Snoopy Pfeffer’s Blog publishes a very clever article about the cost of features and services that is given for free in virtual worlds, taking OSGrid as an example.

And this is because what is free for users is not free for the owners of those grids, and has a cost. This article opens a reflection on how to continue giving free services but limiting them to not ruining the users experience or the business/organization itself.

3D Printing In Glass and Clay

2009-11-04T22:46:00.000+01:00

Shapeways Blog published some information about some recent projects to print 3D models in clay and glass.

The advantages of these materials are their low cost and thus bigger margins of benefit for creators, that also get their models in noble materials that everybody values. Clay and glass are the most obvious materials for things like decorative vases and figures.

Don't you feel this is exciting?

Go to Shapeways Blog and follow the links to get deeper on this subject.

Shapeways may incorporate these materials on some future when they evaluate the viability of the process. This may take some months.

Remember: November 5, Help Content Creators In Second Life!

2009-11-04T22:14:00.001+01:00

Remember the Step Up! day. It's tomorrow November 5th!!

Help content creators on Second Life!

New Book By Allan Brito: Build Incredible Machines With Blender

2009-11-04T18:47:00.000+01:00

Do you remember the book that Allan Brito published about Blender and was reviewed here? Well, a new book from this expert architect and 3D modeling expert will be published soon.

This new book is called "Blender 3D 2.49 Incredible Machines".

This time, Brito tells us how to build machines. You can create realistic machines but also sci-fi designs like in the examples of the book: things like a handgun, a steam punk spacecraft, and a transforming robot.

Remember that if you decide to buy both Allan Brito's books, you can get 18% off.

I will be receiving (to review) a copy of this new book from Packt Publishing as soon as it is published, and wanted to share this with you. Stay tuned for the review.

You can pre-order a copy of this book just now. Go to Packt Publishing's site and get it:

Blender 3D 2.49 Incredible Machines

WebGL Demos

2009-11-02T22:45:00.000+01:00

The Khronos project to get 3D through javascript in web pages called WebGL has an interesting sample here. Read the text for instructions on how to setup WebGL in your browser.

For Firefox you may need to install a nightly build, that is a version of the browser under heavy tests, because it's very new. So proceed with care.

What you get: you can view and rotate your model from the game Spore inside a web page using WebGL.

Twinity Reconstructs the Berlin Wall

2009-11-02T21:37:00.001+01:00

Twinity, the 3D mirror world made of real people and real places, is commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War by rebuilding a 2 km stretch of the wall in virtual Berlin.

Berlin, 2 November 2009 – At a press conference at Berlin’s City Hall today, Metaversum GmbH, the makers of 3D mirror world Twinity, announced the opening of the world’s first open-air wall museum in Twinity’s virtual Berlin in collaboration with the Berlin Senate and Berlin.de to commemorate the world-changing events of 1989.

For almost three decades, the reality of everyday life in Berlin was shaped by a wall that divided the city in two. From today, visitors to virtual Berlin in Twinity can go on a virtual journey through history, and explore a 2 km-long, true-to-scale section of the Berlin Wall from the Reichstag, past the Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz, culminating in a realistic replica of Checkpoint Charlie.

Entering the virtual wall museum in Twinity is like stepping back in time to Berlin in November 1989. Visitors not only see the Berlin Wall and its immediate environs reappearing before their eyes, they also experience the remarkable transformation of today’s Berlin back to Berlin as it was in 1989. Whole buildings vanish and visitors suddenly find themselves standing in the infamous death strip between the two border walls. This astonishing effect is particularly striking at the Potsdamer Platz, the Brandenburg Gate, and Checkpoint Charlie.

Twinity users can tour the area between the Reichstag and Checkpoint Charlie, and engage with interactive media content including video and audio guides at seven key points along the way. Documentaries and witness accounts, plus links to relevant Berlin Wall content on Berlin.de, describe the building of the wall, key dates in its history, and the incredible events of 1989. This allows Twinity users to experience the wall at first hand while grounding their experience with contextual information.

“Twinity’s open-air wall museum brings the unique history of our remarkable city and the events of this special year to a worldwide audience,” explained Dr. Richard Meng, Speaker of the Berlin Senate. “We welcome such innovative use of technology to illustrate historical events with real significance and support this act of remembrance and celebration.”

Jochen Hummel, CEO of Metaversum GmbH, added, “We are happy to see Twinity setting an important precedent in a virtual world: The museum makes history real for young people and gives a global audience important insights into the divided Berlin, while serving as a virtual monument to help us learn from our past.”

“Those visiting Berlin today are often surprised to see how few traces remain of the Berlin Wall. The virtual wall museum in Twinity is designed to show tourists and Berlin residents how the city was once completely split in two,” elaborated Sven Heller, Managing Director of BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG. “Exploring the wall in Twinity is an incredible experience and we are happy to be able to support this important project.”

The opening of the virtual wall museum will be accompanied by many different Berlin Wall-related events and special promotions. Visit www.twinity.com/en/wall to find out more.

The Berlin Wall project has been developed in cooperation with the Berliner Forum für Geschichte und Gegenwart e.V., the Berlin Senate, and Twinity’s exclusive media partner Berlin.de.

The mirror world Twinity is currently in public Beta. You can register for free at www.twinity.com and begin exploring the world today.

Code Craft: The Practice of Writing Excellent Code

2009-11-02T14:03:00.001+01:00

Some books tell you how to program in some language. "Code Craft" tells you how to do it well in all computer languages.

This is another of the titles edited by "No Starch Press" like the one about Blender that I reviewed in September ("The Blender Gamekit").

This time, this is a computers programming book, "Code Craft", that is not focused to a specific discipline or computer language. All that you learn from it can be applied to any language, let it be Pascal, Java, C, or whatever.

The author, Pete Goodliffe, is an expert developer with many years of experience at many positions in the chain of software development. His book is then written from a practical point of view and from all that he learned in his professional career.

The book assumes that you have a solid knowledge of programming. It doesn't want to tell you how to program, but it will tell you how to do it well.
This means: make bug-less software, and that is robust, and gives you satisfaction and no problems.

"Code Craft" also tells you something that you couldn't learn in your studies: how to efficiently work in the software industry. Skills like working in a team, making code that is documented in a way that others can understand... These skills will help you, as the book says, to "survive in the software factory".

Even the human factor has its own chapters in this book, when it tells you how to recognize some kinds of programmers in your team, and what you can learn from them. And if you feel that you belong to one or more of these groups, it tells you how to improve and take advantage from your virtues, and how to avoid your flaws.

Not only an instructive book, its pages are also full of sense of humor, with some comic strips that programmers will enjoy.

Reading "Code Craft" you will learn the practical side of programming into the real world of a team. All phases and facets of application programming are described: comments, documentation, optimization, design patterns and disciplines, team organization, development tools...

This book is for you if you want to work as a professional programmer in the software industry. It will save you from being fired or being a pain for your team, or at least will help you to avoid that.

It is also good if you are part of an open source development team, to learn how to work together with others, reduce bugs in your code, and make code that can be easily understood by an always changing and huge team of programmers.

Even if you are a "lone wolf" programmer, this book is also for you, because it will reduce your headaches: it will tell you how to spend more time developing and less time fixing bugs and security holes.

Find "Code Craft" in the No Starch Press website, both in paper and in e-book, and have also a look to their catalog. You will find many titles about computer programming.

"Code Craft" is also available on Amazon. It is a BIG book, 580 pages including the indexes.

MixED 8th Exhibition Nobember 6, 2009:

2009-11-01T13:11:00.001+01:00

Next Friday MixED will host another exhibition of VRML art, featuring the artist and worldbuilder Alana (Alice in code).

Here are the details:

Start Time: Friday, November 6 at 9:00pm
End Time: Saturday, November 7 at 12:00am

This is an example video of the mix between poetry and 3D that Alana builds using VRML.

Where: http://www.facebook.com/l/af307;mixed3d.free.fr/spip/

Check the realted event in Facebook here:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=198642409055&mid=156c615G4f24d778G103f55cG7

Read the details of the event at MixED (English and French): http://mixed3d.free.fr/spip/

And more details about it here (videos, images, tutorials): http://mixed3d.free.fr/spip/?cat=34

Will Blue Mars Be A Competitor For Second Life?

2009-10-31T22:44:00.000+01:00

This interesting article is about the possibilities that Blue Mars may suppose a real competitor for Second Life. The author thinks it won't. Read it to know the reasons.

Photo of Blue Mars by plastichansa

Simulated 3D Maze Made With JavaFX

2009-10-30T22:42:00.000+01:00

This is an example of JavaFX that makes a 3D labyrinth. This is not real 3D but simulated. Source code is not available yet, but will be.

The demo includes atmospheric sounds.

http://www.jfxia.com/JFXDemos/3DMaze/index.html

Unity Indie Now Free: Make Games And Virtual Worlds

2009-10-30T16:40:00.001+01:00

The package that was called Unity Indie and now is called simply "Unity" will be free for developers of virtual worlds and games that generate less than $100,000 a year.

In their License page they say:

"Companies or incorporated entities that had a turnover in excess of US$100,000 in their last fiscal year must use Unity Pro."

Unity is a set of browser plugin (very small, 3 mb), and toolkit to make games and virtual worlds.

For modelers, Unity can read .FBX, .dae (Collada), .3DS, .dxf and .obj files.

This news appeared on this past 28th on Virtual Worlds News, and is now live. You can go to Unity's site and download your copy of Unity and start developing virtual worlds and games with it for free.

Unity was used in the development of Nurien as explained here.

http://unity3d.com/unity/

3DTotal Announces its new FREE Texture And Reference Image Library

2009-10-29T13:29:00.000+01:00

3DTotal would just announced today their brand new Texture and Reference Image Library – a fantastic FREE archive of high-resolution images featuring 12,500 royalty free photos currently available to everyone without any download limitations.

Example photo

Here’s what you can do:

Use any images royalty free within the following work definitions, either private or commercial: video games, printed media, movies, animations, websites, presentations, e-books, e-zines, advertising media, digital media – providing the images are embedded and cannot be easily extracted, so as not to be classified as re-distributing.
Sell textures when bundled with a 3D model, as long as the texture has been significantly modified to map to that model only.

But you can't sell, redistribute or bundle the images in any way (apart from modifying and bundling with a 3D model).

The library is currently in beta version. Express your feedback about this brand new feature, and let them know your thoughts about this free service: Please use this forum thread to post your feedback.

3DTotal Texture & Reference Image Library

Our Twitter Lists Just Founded: 3D Art, VRML/X3D, 3D Modeling, Virtual Worlds

2009-10-29T12:59:00.000+01:00

Twitter is launching a beta feature called List that will serve as groups to put twitter users with some interest in common together.

I have just founded some for my use, but feel free to join them, follow them and make yours.

If you make or have some group related to 3D, virtual worlds, 3d modeling or 3D art, just let me know so I can join, and say it in the comments so more can join too.

@hiperia3d/art-in-3d -- For 3D art

@hiperia3d/vrml-x3d -- For X3D and VRML

@hiperia3d/worldbuilding -- For general worldbuilding

@hiperia3d/modeling-3d -- For 3D modeling

@hiperia3d/virtual-worlds -- For virtual worlds