Intel® 3D Software Technologies

Intel® Software Network

Intel is teaming with Macromedia to deliver 3D technologies to the Internet. Macromedia Director* 8.5 Shockwave* Studio includes new jointly developed 3D authoring capabilities, and Intel's dynamic 3D rendering engine is now included in Macromedia's Shockwave* Player, so you'll be able to view real-world 3D on the Web with a bandwidth-friendly solution.

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Read Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio with Intel® Internet 3D Graphic Software to find out how Intel and Macromedia are working to bring 3D to the Web mainstream. Learn how Intel is working with the industry to make 3D the norm on the Internet.

More than 200 million viewers worldwide use the Shockwave Player to view some of the most dynamic content on the Internet, and more download Shockwave every day. Adding 3D graphics enhances the Shockwave experience by bringing you high-quality interactive games, intuitive online shopping, and more engaging entertainment.

"Intel's work with Macromedia and 3D pioneers is a key part of our strategy to accelerate industry innovation and develop technologies that improve the Internet experience for everyone," says Roger Chandler, senior marketing manager at Intel Architecture Labs. "Combining the Intel® Internet 3D Graphics technology with the Macromedia Shockwave Player creates an ideal platform for developers to create and deliver interactive 3D content to millions of Web users."

This zip package contains 3D models and a viewer to demonstrate Digimation's five real-time (RT) 3D libraries with Intel® Scalable 3D Graphics. To run the viewer, open the Bin folder and run 3DViewer.exe. For detailed instructions on using the 3D Viewer, select the Help menu from within the viewer.

The models and viewer demonstrate five real-time 3D graphics technologies, four of which operate on a 3D triangle mesh — Multi-Resolution Mesh, Subdivision Surfaces, Skeletal Character Animation and Non-Photorealistic Rendering. Particle System Effects operates on a collection of points rather than triangles.

To see how these technologies work, simply open a model in the 3D Viewer. You can rotate, scale, and pan the model, enable cull modes and wireframes, and apply a technology.

Multi-Resolution Mesh, Non-Photorealistic Rendering, and Skeletal Character Animation technologies work sepa rately or together. Subdivision Surfaces works independent of the other technologies. These technologies require that you first open a .geo file, which contains a mesh description. With Particle System Effects, which also works independent of the other technologies, there is no file to load because the Particle Effects control panel, when enabled, automatically displays a particle effects model.

Both Subdivision Surfaces and Particle Effects do not integrate with the other technologies and must be run separately.

The technologies in the viewer are available as the Digimation Real-Time 3D Libraries with Intel Scalable 3D Graphics. The libraries demonstrated here are:

MultiRes 2 RT, featuring Multi-Resolution Mesh technology, allows programmers and artists to create scalable 3D models that automatically adjust resolution according to distance, target frame rates, and available processing power.
SubDiv RT, featuring Subdivision Surfaces technology, provides users with a method of increasing the polygon count of low-resolution 3D models by adding polygons in real-time.
Animate RT, featuring Skeletal Animation Technology, allows content authors to animate objects by manipulating embedded skeletal systems.
Toon RT, featuring Non-Photorealistic Rendering technology, lets users transform and render 3D models in a variety of non-photorealistic methods.
Particle RT, featuring Particle System Technology, gives content creators a complete particle system for generating thousands of particles in real-time to achieve widely differing effects from billowing smoke to fiery explosions.

Visit the Personal Computing site to experience exciting 3D games, demos, and more.

PRESS RELEASES

Famous3D, Intel and Macromedia Get on Famously with Shockwave*
April 11, 2001, Blaze International/Famous3D* press release. Famous3D Producer promises to empower developers and Web site producers around the world with an element clearly lacking from the web today — a human interface.
April 10, 2001, 3D World Magazine*. Macromedia's latest Director update now promises to do a pretty nifty job of intuitive 3D content creation, with potentially radical implications for the Web.
Macromedia and Intel Bring High Quality Web 3D to the Mainstream
April 10, 2001, Intel press release. Macromedia, Inc. and Intel Corporation today announced that Macromedia Director 8.5 will include new jointly developed 3D authoring capabilities.
3D Industry Leaders Support Macromedia Shockwave Player Platform*
April 10, 2001, Adobe Macromedia* press release. ...industry leading 3D companies have ensured their solutions are supported by the pervasive 3D platform that was jointly developed by Macromedia and Intel.
3D Web Surfing Gets a CPU Boost*
April 9, 2001, CNET News.com*, Cecily Barnes. The days of two-dimensional Web surfing will soon be over — even for folks with 56kbps modems.
Intel®, Macromedia See 3D in Web's Future*
July 25, 2000, CNET News.com*, by Paul Festa. Macromedia said today it has licensed technology developed at the Intel Architecture Labs that would bring more complex, realistic 3D animation to its Shockwave player.
Intel Graphics Technology Will Drive 3-D Software (Requires subscription to view.) July 25, 2000, The Wall Street Journal*. The Intel software is designed to "scale" 3-D images so they can be viewed on older personal computers as well as modern personal computers.
Intel And Macromedia Team Up To Popularize 3D Technology On The Web. July 25, 2000, Intel press release. Intel Corporation and Macromedia, Inc. ...announced joint development efforts to bring Intel's Internet 3D Graphics software technology to the Macromedia Shockwave* Player.
Alias|Wavefront, Discreet, NxView, And Softimage Embrace Intel And Macromedia Development Efforts
July 25, 2000, Intel press release. Macromedia, Inc. ...and Intel Corporation today announced that 3D software developers Alias|Wavefront, Discreet Logic, NxView Technologies, Inc., and Softimage have all pledged their support for the 3D technology...

ARTICLES

Read a case study about Pandemic Studios' experience with IAL MRM technology (12 KB)
Review the 1999 Game Developer Conference class taught by Pandemic Studios Art Director Rick Glenn and Programmer John Cooke (Microsoft PowerPoint* format, 5538 KB).
Subdividing Reality: Employing Subdivision Surfaces for Real Time Scalable 3D, a paper by IAL's Stephen Junkins and Allen Hux published in the 2000 Game Developers Conference proceedings (414 KB).
Review the Subdividing Reality: Employing Subdivision Surfaces for Real Time 3D presentation from the 2000 Game Developers Conference taught by IAL's Stephen Junkins (946 KB).
Run-Time Skin Deformation, a paper by IAL's Jason Weber published in the 2000 Game Developers Conference proceedings (303 KB).
Review the Run-Time Skin Deformation presentation taught by IAL's Jason Weber at the 2000 Game Developers Conference (670 KB).
Stylized Rendering Techniques for Scalable Real-Time 3D Animation, a paper presented at the Non-Photorealistic Animation and Rendering 2000 Symposium, in Annecy, France (2405 KB).
Review the Stylized Rendering Techniques for Scalable Real-Time 3D Animation presentation related to the above-mentioned paper (2773 KB).
Review the Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR): Real-Time 3D Cartoon Animation presentation from the 2000 Game Developers Conference taught by IAL's Carl S. Marshall (1119 KB).

RESOURCES

Visit Adobe Macromedia* to deliver 3D technologies to the Internet
Macromedia Director* 8.5 Shockwave* Studio now includes jointly developed 3D authoring capabilities, and Intel's dynamic 3D rendering engine is in the Macromedia Shockwave* Player http://www.adobe.com/products/shockwaveplayer/index.html*), so you can view real-world 3D on the Web with a bandwidth-friendly solution.
Visit Digimation* to acquire these scalable 3D technologies for your game development.
Digimation Real-Time 3D Libraries with Intel Scalable 3D Graphics presentation from the 2000 Game Developers Conference taught by IAL's Carl S. Marshall, Stephen Junkins, Michael Rosenzweig and Jason Weber (2523 KB).
Oxford Media Works (formerly Pandemic Studios)*, a leading developer behind titles such as Dark Reign* 2 and Battlezone* II, was an early adopter of the IAL MRM technology and has information to share with you.
The Business Center shows you how 3D Web graphics can serve your business.