Blender Releases Linux 3D Web Plugin

Qbertino writes: "Not a Number, producer of Blender, the Linux community's favorite professional 3D Package (get it for free) has released the beta of their 3D Web Plugin for Netscape 6.1 / Mozilla on Linux/Unix. It offers full integration of Blender's realtime 3D enviroment based applications into the browser's enviroment. Including OpenGL acceleration and all. Check out the Demos. Feedback on the beta-release is welcome and kindly requested on the Blender Community Discussion Board."

Comments

Re:VRML?

[.sig]

Well, in a few dozen years, we might have the technology to make it practical. Might as well get started now...

Seriously, though, how much of the web is practical anyway? A good bit of it is solely for entertainment or amusement, and better graphics is usually preferred, especially over text.

Free as in Free Beer

[mycr0ft]

It's not completely free. You can't get the source.
Read http://freshmeat.net/projects/blender/

--mycr0ft

naysayers - this is not VRML

[nhavar]

This plugin does not handle things in the same way that people think of VRML. Although Blender can work to create and read VRML the product and the plugin do much much more. 1) Blender is cross platform Win/Mac/*nix 2)You can create 3d objects to almost any level of realism that you want to (see the gallery on their site) 3) You can animate within the same package 4) You can create interactive content (i.e. games) in the same package. 5) the plugin/module architecture to create special effects is python driven. The web plugin allows for you to view a 3d object like maybe a product representation and then show it to your potential customer, or 3d games to run over the web, or interactive navigation for the website. There are tons of examples of what the plugin and application can do if one takes a little time to look through the web site. They even have an example of how to use the plugin to create interactive banner ads.

The tool is different from just about everything out there and once you get used to the method of interaction is seems very easy to get things done. I'm sure that there are plenty of people out there that bitch about the Linux interfaces and how hard they are to use, while many more people find them quick and efficient... give blender a try and see if it falls into this same scenario.

Stop griping about how it works/doesn't work or comparing it to other products like VRML until you've at least taken a look at what it can do. The user galleries and demos on the site are excellent examples of what can be done by an artist.