Shout3D™ 2.5 - What is Shout3D?

Shout3D is a way of delivering interactive 3D graphics and animation over the Internet.

Shout3D uses Java technology to deliver interactive 3D on the Web. When a user visits a page with Shout3D content, both the 3D content and the player that displays that content are downloaded. The player is a Java applet embedded in the Web page.

Shout3D content can be viewed by almost everyone.

Shout3D applets will run in all Web browsers tht support Java 1.1. As all versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape 4.0 and above support Java 1.1, you can be confident that the overwhelming majority of users, regardless of platform, will be able to view Shout3D content.

Shout3D can be used to author user interactivity.

The basic Shout3D applet will simply display a scene, with or without animation. However, by extending the basic applet, you can program any kind of user interactivity imaginable. Shout3D is, at bottom, a library of Java classes. These classes contain methods that provide a wide range of funcationality. By using the methods of these Java classes, or by creating new classes with new methods, you can give users complete interactive command over 3D content.

Shout3D interactivity can be programmed in Java or JavaScript

The primary way to create custom interactivity is by writing and compiling custom Java applets. As these are simply extensions of the basic Shout3D applet, you only need to code the features you're adding. You can also use JavaScript, written in the HTML page to call the methods of the Shout3D Java classes. This is a quicky and easy way of testing interactivity ideas, although not generally satisfactory for work intended for publication.

Shout3D provides some ready-to-run interactivity applets.

Your Shout3D installation includes a couple of important custom applets that provide user interactivity. The ExamineApplet allows users to view an object or scene from any direction. The WalkApplet allows viewers to navigate through a space, complete with collision detection, terrain following, and gravity. You can use these applets just as they are, without any programming, to provide users with these basic kinds of interactivity.

Shout3D content can be produced in standard 3D modeling and animation programs, but especially in 3D Studio MAX.

Shout3D scene content (meaning 3D scenes, models and keyframed animation, as opposed to user interactivity features) can be produced in any 3D modeling and animation program that exports to the VRML (.wrl) file format. Almost all significant 3D packages provide VRML export. Shout3D's .s3d file format is an extension of VRML. It supports almost all of the current VRML features (nodes), but adds some very significant new nodes to provide higher graphical and animation quality. Most of these additional nodes – not found in standard VRML – are available only when 3D scenes are exported directly to Shout3D's .s3d format with a special export utility. At present, this export utility is only available for use with 3D Studio MAX. Thus only content created with MAX (or files that have been hand-edited) can exploit the full range of Shout3D powers.

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