Saem
03-May-2002, 22:32
Alnair (http://www.alnair.de/), a German company, has released a demonstration of it's 3D visualization program to allow previewing of the technology. You can find the demonstration, here (http://www.alnair.de). They claim that this program is written purely in Java and requires no plug-ins of any sort. It requires Java 1.1 to run and the applet weights in at approximately 13KB. In it's current incarnation its feature set is the following: Texture Mapping, Specular Mapping, Gouraud-Shading, Alpha-Channel, Faked bilinear filtering, FSAA - no mention of what FSAA methodology(s) are available. There is also mention of a mobile client, since no more details about the mobile client are disclosed one cannot be sure that it will have the same functionality as the web based.
Currently, there are two demonstrations, one is a dragon and the other a watch. Further details about each model's polygon count, size of mesh in KB and total textures in KB can be found at the site, except for the watch where the total amount of textures stored were not disclosed. If you can't run it ensure you have a JRE installed, you can get it from Sun Microsystems (http://www.sun.com), here (http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/download.html).
In a somewhat related story, ARM (http://www.arm.com) and Imagination Technologies (http://imgtech.com) are collaborating to deliver fast 2D/3D performance in mobile devices. Using Jazelle technology, ARM (http://www.arm.com)'s and Imagination Technologies (http://imgtech.com)' hardware (ARM MBXR-S and ARM MBXHR-S coupled with an ARM9 MPU) could easily be made to work with Alnair (http://www.alnair.de/)'s technology with little to no work. Further details about the ARM (http://www.arm.com) and Imagination Technologies (http://imgtech.com) efforts can be found at each companies respective site (Useful link: ARM on ARM MPU and MBX combination (http://www.arm.com/support.nsf/htmlall/050DD98DAA0FF6B280256B570046543E/$File/ARM3D_Flyer_0127-2(3).pdf) ). In addition a thread about the collaborative effort is in progress at the Beyond3D forums (http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/index.php), here (http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=836).
Though this demonstration is impressive, one might raise issue that their requirement of Java 1.1 might be due to the use of the less portable features of Java and they maybe running some 'heavy-weight' features of the API which could lead to cross-platform compatibility issues. This can also necessitate a significant amount of work to port it to the aforementioned ARM and Imagination Technologies hardware. Admittedly, my experience with Java is limited to simple GUIs, networking and some database front-ends, someone with more experience in this field can hopefully bring to light any additional issues that I have not had a chance to cover or refine the ones I've raised.
A quick note, the Beyond3D links and the forum link may not work because I made them with assumption the site is working via the resolution of www.beyond3d.com DNS. So, if the, "Beyond3D forums" link and the, "here" link to the topic is not working, try the following:
Beyond3d forums (http://216.12.218.25/domain/www.beyond3d.com//forum/index.php) and Thread (http://216.12.218.25/domain/www.beyond3d.com//forum/viewtopic.php?t=836).
Currently, there are two demonstrations, one is a dragon and the other a watch. Further details about each model's polygon count, size of mesh in KB and total textures in KB can be found at the site, except for the watch where the total amount of textures stored were not disclosed. If you can't run it ensure you have a JRE installed, you can get it from Sun Microsystems (http://www.sun.com), here (http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/download.html).
In a somewhat related story, ARM (http://www.arm.com) and Imagination Technologies (http://imgtech.com) are collaborating to deliver fast 2D/3D performance in mobile devices. Using Jazelle technology, ARM (http://www.arm.com)'s and Imagination Technologies (http://imgtech.com)' hardware (ARM MBXR-S and ARM MBXHR-S coupled with an ARM9 MPU) could easily be made to work with Alnair (http://www.alnair.de/)'s technology with little to no work. Further details about the ARM (http://www.arm.com) and Imagination Technologies (http://imgtech.com) efforts can be found at each companies respective site (Useful link: ARM on ARM MPU and MBX combination (http://www.arm.com/support.nsf/htmlall/050DD98DAA0FF6B280256B570046543E/$File/ARM3D_Flyer_0127-2(3).pdf) ). In addition a thread about the collaborative effort is in progress at the Beyond3D forums (http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/index.php), here (http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=836).
Though this demonstration is impressive, one might raise issue that their requirement of Java 1.1 might be due to the use of the less portable features of Java and they maybe running some 'heavy-weight' features of the API which could lead to cross-platform compatibility issues. This can also necessitate a significant amount of work to port it to the aforementioned ARM and Imagination Technologies hardware. Admittedly, my experience with Java is limited to simple GUIs, networking and some database front-ends, someone with more experience in this field can hopefully bring to light any additional issues that I have not had a chance to cover or refine the ones I've raised.
A quick note, the Beyond3D links and the forum link may not work because I made them with assumption the site is working via the resolution of www.beyond3d.com DNS. So, if the, "Beyond3D forums" link and the, "here" link to the topic is not working, try the following:
Beyond3d forums (http://216.12.218.25/domain/www.beyond3d.com//forum/index.php) and Thread (http://216.12.218.25/domain/www.beyond3d.com//forum/viewtopic.php?t=836).