Volume 2 Number 9         e3D News        June 2001


                         Welcome to e3D News



        The Montly E-Mail News Service For Web3D

To subscribe, go to http://www.e3dNews.com/
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***  Editorial --->
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------------------------------------
Welcome to the e3D News for June
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In our lead story we tell you what we saw
at this years Electronic Entertainment
Expo and how the big movers in the
gaming industry are planing their moves
online. Our Tour looks at some of the new
Multi-Player Online Role-Playing
Games that we saw at e3. 

Also, Our Tip of the Month gives you a
good over-view of some of the Shout3D
tutorials that are on the Web.





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***  Lead Story --->
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e3D News looks at E3:
How the Big Movers in Gaming are Moving Online
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Last month e3D News attended the Electronic
Entertainment Expo for the first time and
came away very impressed.

For many years, people in Web3D have been
discussing what the Killer App will be that
will bring Web3d into the mainstream. Recently
it is becoming more and more clear to us at e3D
News that that killer App will be Online 3D
Games. Games are pushing both 3D technology and
broadband forward. According to Jupiter
Communications one third of the people now online
are playing some form of online game.  And during
his 'State of the Industry' speech at E3, IDSA
(Interactive Digital Software Association) President
Doug Lowenstein' projection of the online games
industry alone growing to 1.1 billion dollars by
2003.

Because of the influence the big gaming companies
could have on the future of Web3D we thought we
would take a look at some of the moves that
Microsoft, Sony, Sega, Electronic Arts and
Nintendo are making into the online arena. (For
a look at some of the interesting new 3D online
games we saw at E3 take a look at this month's tour)

Representatives from three of the biggest players
squared off during the Keynote Address: Robbie
Bach, Senior V.P. of Microsoft Games Division,
Kazuo Hirai, President and COO of Sony Computer
Entertainment, and Peter T. Main, Executive VP of
Nintendo of America. 

Nintendo is the easiest company to start with
because, as was made clear by Peter Main, Nintendo
has no plans to move online at this time.

'The key is going to be whoever can find that
wonderful idea and gets it out there. We're all
going to applaud them, and then we'll go out there
and do it much better,'' He said.

Sony Corporation, on the other hand, envisions its
consoles becoming all-in-one consumer entertainment
system complete with the ability to play movies, music
and browse the Web.

According to Kazuo Harai, Sony will soon start
selling add-ons in to equip its PlayStation 2 console
with both an adapters to access the Internet and a
hard drive. The network adapter will feature both a
56.6K modem and a high-speed Ethernet adapter. It
will be released in November and retail for $39.95.
And Sony will release a 40-gigabyte hard drive for
the PS2. When attached to the system, it will allow
players to store new levels and characters for their
games.

Sony has also recently announced strategic alliances
with AOL and Netscape to support multi-player online
play for the PS2. Players will be able to take
advantage of AOL's Instant Messenger while playing,
correspond via email, and use a modified version of
Netscape Navigator to browse the web.

Sony has also joined into agreements with Real
Networks and Macromedia to bring RealPlayer and
Flash Player to the PlayStation 2.

Microsoft Corporation's Xbox, the new entrant to the
console wars, is gambling that players will want a
Web connection ready from the start. The $299
console, scheduled for launch in the United States
on Nov. 8, comes Internet-ready.

"We've designed Xbox to be a great online platform
out of the box,'' said Robbie Bach. "We don't
think it makes sense for you to have to go out
and buy a lot of components.'' Xbox will launch
online gaming support in early 2002.

Microsoft is also building on its recent alliance
with Sega Entertainment Inc., which will
premiere 11 games for the Xbox system. Sega Sports'
entire 2K3 lineup (including NFL 2K3' and NBA 2K3'),
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3,' Unreal Championship' and Tom
Cancy's Ghost Recon' are among the games with online
capabilities that will debut in the first half of 2002.

Another force to be reckoned with is Electronic Arts,
one of the most successful independent video game
publishers.  Electronic Arts Inc. has invested
millions in setting up its online division- EA.com
with games like NASCAR Web Racing, Knockout Kings
Web Boxing  and Tiger Woods PGA Tour Web Golf.
This is a big risk for EA as they don't expect
their online divisions to make a profit until
spring or summer of 2002.

It is clear that most of the players in the Computer
Games Industry are looking toward a future that
includes 3D on the Web or even Web 3D.

As John Carmak, Co-founder and Owner of id Software
(also called the father of the first-person shooter
genre with games like Doom and Quake under his belt)
said in an E3 interview,
"I think it's time for some general-purpose
frameworks for interactive networked 3D environments
to emerge that don't suck. There are tough questions
about how you could actually make a business case for
'a place to play games in" rather than a specific
game, but I think we're very close to having the
technical capability of producing "cyberspaces" that
bear some resemblance to how they were imagined to
be."

We couldn't have said it better ourselves.



Resources:

Interactive Digital Software Association
http://www.idsa.com/


Xbox
http://www.xbox.com/

E3 Xbox Information
http://www.xbox.com/news/0105/1601.htm

PS2 E3 Update
http://www.scea.com/e3/

Playstation 2 Specs
http://www.scea.com/news/press_example.asp?ps2=ps2&ReleaseID=9

Sega.Net
http://www.sega.net/

Jupiter Media Metrix
http://www.jmm.com/

EA.com
http://www.ea.com/

id Software
http://www.idsoftware.com/

John Carmack
http://www.idsoftware.com/cgi-win/idbios.exe/who/johnc






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***  News --->
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New Web3D sites

***Electronic Arts has a new gaming site (www.ea.com)
that includes 3D games along with the usual 2D games.
Many of the games are free, but there are also some
high profile games available for a sliding
subscription fee. NASCAR Web Racing and Knockout
Kings Web Boxing are two of their 3D multi-player
games and Tiger Woods PGA Tour Web Golf is a 3D
single player game.

***Antarcti (http://Antarcti.ca/) has a 3D (or 2D)
navigation map of the entire web. The 3D version
uses buildings to represent site popularity. The
taller the building, the more action it sees. Their
maps, along with a flash demo is on their Maps.net
site (http://maps.map.net/)

***The FAO Baby Store (http://www.fao.com/faobaby/entry.cfm)
has gone Web3D with the help of  Pulse Entertainment
(http://www.pulse3d.com) and REALVIZ (www.realviz.com).

*** HP's online reseller training program, called HP
Briefing Room (http://www.hpbriefingroom.com/)
is using 3D models created by Cycore (www.cycore.com)
using Cult3D technology.


 


New Web3D Products




Microsoft has announced today that the Internet
ready Xbox (http://www.xbox.com/) console will
launch on November 8, and that it will be priced
at $299. For more info see our Lead story for June.



Strategic Alliances


***Virtue3D (http://www.virtue3d.com/) a developer
3D rendering and compression technology has announced
that SolidWorks Corporation (http://www.solidworks.com/)
has integrated Virtue3D as an additional viewing
technology into its 3D Instant Website tool.


***Sony (http://www.scea.com/) and Sega
(http://www.sega.net/) have announced a new partnership.
The two companies hope to expand the
pool of online console gamers by allowing
Sega Dreamcast and Sony Playstation 2
owners to play each other over the Internet.
Sega will release the next generation of several
of its popular online games for Dreamcast this
summer. Shortly later, versions the same titles
will appear for Playstation 2. In what the both
companies are billing as the first instance of
cross-console networking, gamers will have the
ability to match-up online with players using
either console.

              


Report Says 111 Million People Will Play Online By 2005

Two new industry reports from the research firm
Datamonitor (http://www.datamonitor.com/) predict
that the market for online games and interactive TV
(iTV) games in Europe and the US will grow
tremendously by 2005. According to the reports,
the combined online and iTV games industry in
Europe and the US will be worth $174 million in
2001, and grow to $5.6 billion in 2005 -- a compound
annual growth rate of 138%.

Other predictions from Datamonitor:

The number of online gamers in Europe and the US will
grow from over 13 million in 2001 to more than 111
million in 2005, due to the emergence of online
gaming via consoles, greater broadband access and
a greater variety of games.

The company believes that the failure of online
advertising will force publishers to charge users
to play. By 2005, subscriptions and pay per play
will represent almost 90% of the revenues of the
market.

         




 



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***  3D Tour --->
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New 3D Games Online
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We saw some hot new 3D games that will be going
online. Some of these games are MMORPGs, or "massively
multi-player online role-playing games. Other games
mentioned here are more limited with regard to
multiple players. Also, all of these games
(except Mad Dash) are PC based.


Strategy First's World War II Online game
(http://www.strategyfirst.com/wwiiol/wwiiol-eng.htm),
one of the most talked about new MMPORPGs at E3 has
already run into trouble. It was very hot at the show,
but when it launched on June 5th there were many more
games sold then they expected, and it quickly
overwhelmed their server. After much work and
patches, they have now taken the game offline.
For more info check here: (http://www.playnet.com/)
or here: http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/news/0,10870,2771244,00.html)


ANARCHY ONLINE (http://www.anarchy-online.com/),
a science fiction based MMPORPG is now in
manufacturing is due to be released on June 27.
There has been very good buzz about this game from
the beta testers and it looked great at E3. We just
hope they can hold everything together at release.


Gathering of Developers' ShadowBane (http://www.shadowbane.com/)
is due to be released in the summer or fall
of 2001. In Shadowbane, players are challenged to
carve out their destiny in a dark world blanketed
by political unrest and torn apart by storms disease,
starvation and an endless war. Brutal warlords have
assumed control of the land and a Dark Age has
descended upon mankind. Shadowbane's design adds a
large-scale warfare system to the completely
functional role-playing game, allowing tens of
thousands of players to simultaneously unite,
form armies, build kingdoms and conquer virtual
territories. This twist gives rise to a new
realm of gameplay - guild politics and siege warfare.

This is also one of the few MMPORPGs that actively
embrace Player Killing (PK). Most games don't have
much Player verses Player killing because most
players don't like it. But the people who like
PKing really love it and this is one of the most
eagerly anticipated games out there.


Dark Age of Camelot  - Mythic Entertainment.
(http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/)
Due out in the fall of 2001, Dark Age of Camelot
will be a fantasy-themed role-playing game that'll
let players enter a world at war as part of one of
three sides in the conflict: the nature-loving
Hibernians, the fierce Norse, and the Britons of
Albion, the kingdom of the fallen King Arthur.
The game itself will take place shortly after the
demise of the legendary king. This game plays much
like Everquest and should be quite successful.


Neverwinter Nights (http://www.neverwinternights.com/)
Bioware/Interplay
Neverwinter Nights is a traditional D&D game played
across the Internet or LAN in small groups. Going back
to the roots of D&D the game takes the place of the
Dungeon Master in a pencil and paper game. Though
it is not due out until 2002, there is already a
big fan base build up around this game including web
sites like Neverwinter Stratics  (http://nwn.stratics.com/).
 
     
There were also several multi-player games in the
works for kids.

Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire - Trial by Fire
(http://disney.go.com/DisneyInteractive/flash/index.html)
includes 12 single-player levels and 10 levels that
can be played online by up to 12 gamers.

Eidos and Crystal Dynamics are making a multi-player
on-foot racing game for Xbox called Mad Dash
(http://xbox.ign.com/previews/16373.html) that
is a lot of fun. It is a foot race through
interesting enviorments for up to four online
players. There doesn't seem to be an official Web
page yet, but there are some reviews.






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***  Tip of the Month (ToM) --->
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-----------------------------
Shout 3D Tutorials on the Web
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Shout3D is a means for displaying web-based
3D content without using a pluggin.  The small
3D viewer is downloaded with the content (also
small) so that it can be immediately viewed.

Last month's tip showed a few very basic
capabilities of Shout3D.  Instead of developing
the whole foundation of Shout3D in these monthly
tips, this month's tip is dedicated to a number
of usefull tutorials on Shout3D.

The first 3 tutorials are from Shout3D's site.  If
you are just starting with SHout3D, the best place
to start is http://www.shout3d.com/.  You can
download the environment, view demos, access the
discussion logs, etc.


1) Wizard QuickStart Tutorial
http://shout3d.com/shout3d_2.0_doc_dir/docs/wizard_quickstart/1.html

How to connect up your 3D models and Shout3D
to create an interactive view of your world
without using pluggins.

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2) The Shout3D Project Workflow
http://shout3d.com/shout3d_2.0_doc_dir/docs/workflow_tutorial/1.html

Step by step approach to creating 3D content
for the web.  The tutorial leads you through
(very) basic content creation, animation,
user interactivity (Java and JavaScript), and
web publishing.

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3) Shout3D's User Guide
http://shout3d.com/shout3d_2.0_doc_dir/docs/user_guide/contents.html

Instructions on the use of Shout3D 2.0.  It
describes the various parts of Shout3D and
how to use them.  It includes creating 3D content,
using various pre-build display viewers (applets),
interactivity programming, performance improvement,
web-page embedding and publishing.




The remaining four tutorials were choosen for
their general usefulness or highlighting Shout3D
features not mentioned elsewhere.


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4) Converting VRML to Shout3D
http://web3d.about.com/compute/3dgraphics/library/weekly/aa060700a.htm

Using Spazz3d (http://www.spazz3d.com) to convert
VRML files to Shout3D compatible files.  There are
VRML nodes that are not supported in Shout3D.
Spazz3D can handle the conversion of some nodes
in certain cases.  This tutorial describes the
basic process.


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5) Introducing Shout 3D
http://www.webreference.com/3d/lesson75/

Introductory article on Shout3D.  The
author reviews a pre-release version
of the environment released as part of
the Web3D consortium announcement at
SIGGRAPH 99.

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6) Interactivity in Shout3D
http://www.webreference.com/3d/lesson76/

Introducing basic non-pluggin interactivity
with Shout3D's Java applet.  Demonstrates
basic mouse/keyboard/button interaction
capabilities.

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7) JavaScript-Powered Web 3D
http://www.webreference.com/3d/lesson77/

Demonstrates basic user/computer interaction using
Java then JavaScript with Shout3D.  The beginnings
of providing information into the 3D browser.


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Next month will feature more Shout3D.




==================================================
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**           Thank you for reading.             **
**                                              **
**           e3D Staff                          **
**                                              **
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