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Mapping a Path For the 3D Web
An anonymous reader writes to mention C|Net coverage of the Metaverse Roadmap Summit, an event designed to look at the future of 3D Web environments. From the article: "While many took issue with the basic premise that an overriding 3D Web will be in place within 10 years, it was clear that most in attendance relished mixing it up as part of an august group that included Microsoft's Robert Scoble, former Sony Online Entertainment chief creative officer Raph Koster, PARC researcher Bob Moore, online game pioneer Randy Farmer, There.com founder and currently IMVU CEO Will Harvey, and CNET Networks editor at large Esther Dyson."
Hard to fathom. How, exactly, can a 3D Web be useful in any way? What benefits will it offer that we don't have currently? Sounds like more hype regarding a useless technology (read: VR).
This will never fly.
People don't want to 'walk' around a store to shop, thats Why they go online.
My biggest beef with MMOGs is that I have to spend time going to and from missions. The market won't want to commute to and from stores in a virtual strip mall.
"I have an odd craving to whisper about those few frightful hours in that ill-rumored and evilly shadowed seaport of dea
and controllers.
Immersive VR is doomed to failure until the interface to it improves and gets cheaper. HMDs are nice and all, but without a more efficient way to move through the scene, 2D will continue to be a more productive way to interact with data and 3D will continue to be eye candy.
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
I believe a huge reason why we don't see 3D web pages today is that nobody wants to see a 3D page on a 2D display. I'm pretty certain that a great majority of people out there want things as simple as possible, thus why 3D games have such a small following when compared to the number of people that browse the web. Its also possible that we just aren't ready to get this kind of information in 3 dimensions, we're still used to paper!
Additionally, VRML is **NOT** 3D. I realize that the term "3D" is used to represent anything that simulates depth, but frankly I get tired of people tacking "3D" onto something just because it doesn't have a distinctly flat appearance. VRML or any other modeling tool is not inherently 3D unless there is a way to get different light signals to each eye in order to make the brain bring the images together as true depth. Otherwise, it's nothing more than a 2D surface using shading and form to make you see a pseudo-3D image.
Yes, I'm being pedantic and I gladly admit that; but until such time as web designers require red/blue anaglyph, polarizing, or other types of glasses to give the site true depth, there will be no such thing as the "3D web". Just like with so-called 3D games*, using "3D" with an inherently 2D medium is nothing more than a marketing/glitz word that is used to imply that it's better than came previously.
* With few exceptions like "Magic Carpet", which includes a well-done, red/blue anaglyph mode as well as "Magic Eye" mode.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
It was 3D because you could interact in 3D. You could walk into/around/through the scene. In 1997. That's the point.
You will never have perfect (or good, even) pop-out-of-the-screen 3D with a 2D screen. Polarization is faking it. Red-Blue glasses are faking it. (These two are also noted for not working on some people with depth/color perception issues, and causing migraine headaches in a good portion of the population with extended use) HUD's are good but an expensive piece of hardware.
One thing that is missing is you have a very limited ability to introduce your own 3D content in to these worlds, being mostly confined to picking wardrobe and hair styles from a predefined set. If I recall the world in Snowcrash was a lot more dynamic, complex and interesting.
Two words: Second Life.
The problem, as I see it, is that these are all proprietary technologies. We are seeing some incredible things, and have seen some incredible things, emerge on the WWW precisely because even though it is horrible, badly-designed, and poorly-conceived, it's open. And that allows people to extend it and interact with it in ways its designers never imagined. Which is why its now such an integral part of life. The problem with WoW, SimsOnline, and to a much lesser extent SecondLife, is that its all proprietary, so although it'll be a good toy, its usefulness may not take off like the WWW. LindenLabs say they are reworking the internals of SL to use open technologies (Jabber for IM, for example) and will release SL's source code in 2010. Then, it should be awesome.