|
Web 3D: promise, hype, and failure
|
"In February 1997, Gap announced that it was
building a prototype online 3D store that would allow
users to walk around a virtual Gap shop, pick up
clothes and then buy them. Other retail chains were
reportedly harbouring similar ambitions. Meanwhile,
in March that year, Icelandic firm OZ Interactive
signed a deal with Atlantic Records to build a VR
concert arena online. Bands would play 'gigs' by
slipping into motion-sensing body suits that would
translate their movements to their avatars in the
virtual arena, performing to crowds of equally
virtual fans. ...
"Later on that year, Ticketmaster announced that
it would shortly be offering 3D seating previews and
fly-bys on its website."
- Readings:
- Dredge, S. (2002). Web 3D. London:
Lawrence King Publishing.
|
|
Web 3D: futures
|
The Metaverse Roadmap
[consider this site an essential resource]
"What happens when video games meet Web 2.0? When
virtual worlds meet geospatial maps of the planet?
When simulations get real and life and business go
virtual? When you use a virtual Earth to navigate the
physical Earth, and your avatar becomes your online
agent? What happens is the metaverse.
Taking its name from the immersive virtual world
imagined by Neal Stephenson in his visionary novel,
Snow Crash, the Metaverse Roadmap (MVR) is the first
public ten-year forecast and visioning survey of 3D
Web technologies, applications, markets, and
potential social impacts. Areas of exploration
include the convergence of Web applications with
networked computer games and virtual worlds, the use
of 3D creation and animation tools in virtual
environments, digital mapping, artificial life, and
the underlying trends in hardware, software,
connectivity, business innovation and social adoption
that will drive the transformation of the World Wide
Web in the coming decade.
The MVR explores multiple pathways to the 3D enhanced
web, not a single path to a "3D-only" web. An array
of 3D web enhancements are emerging, visual
extensions to the participatory web technologies now
sweeping the online world. "
» http://metaverseroadmap.org
and the Metaverse Roadmap wiki:
»
http://www.eu.socialtext.net/futuresalon/index.cgi?metaverse_roadmap_inputs_wiki
3pointD.com
"3pointD.com reports on emerging 3D connectivity — a
phenomenon sometimes called the metaverse — in all
its manifestations. From virtual worlds like Second
Life to applications like Google Earth, from cool
mapping hacks that link up real-world locations to
new ways of creating virtual ones, from concepts like
folksonomy to the culture of online worlds, find news
and feature articles about all that and much more at
3pointD.com, every day."
» http://3pedia.com
3pedia
(wiki)
"3pedia is intended to be an editable encyclopedia
whose articles describe technologies and applications
that connect people in space, whether that space be
real or virtual, as well as related subjects. Of
particular interest are technologies that enhance the
functionality of multi-user 3D online spaces"
» http://www.3pointd.com
VirtualWorldlets.net
"The Virtual Worldlets Network is an organisation
dedicated to improving virtual environments and
virtual realities of any and all descriptions. We
firmly believe that there is no fundamental
difference between chat worlds, gameworlds,
educational worlds, academic and research
simulations, military worlds or training simulations,
and endeavour to prove this, by taking resources used
for the creation of each, and pooling them in a
single, accessible place."
» http://www.virtualworldlets.net
|
