Hi to all.
Im new in this forum and Blender is quite catching me from behind especially since “Elephant Dream” release and version 2.4. The progress in the last year is amazing. Now back to the thread subject. I think it is the time to restart the development for the web 3D plugin. Unfortunately Im not a developer, so it is a request from a user with a bit of experience in this domain.
The question is why we should pay attention to this kind of project. First of all because the internet is ready for rich media delivery and you can see this everywhere. There are many sites with extreme graphics and heavy load since the connection speed has increased a lot for many of us.
There are many competitors in this field some open source projects like X3D (www.web3d.org), java 3d (http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/3D) and commercial ones like Shockwave3D (http://www.adobe.com/products/shockwaveplayer/), Zam3D (http://www.erain.com/products/ZAM3D/DefaultPDC.asp, http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/default.mspx), Quest3D (www.quest3d.com), Cult3d (http://www.cult3d.com/), Awakening (http://www.awingsoft.com/ ), Acrobat 3D and the list goes on.
The only serious competitor until now is Shockwave developed with Adobe Director – formerly Macromedia. The player it is used by over 270 million users (49,8% of internet viewers) so it is an overwhelming community. As for samples take a look at the below links:
www.shockwave3d.com
www.3drt.com
www.shockwave.com
www.shockwave3d.com/index.cfm?category=company&page=whosUsingShockwave3D
Another important thing is that Adobe will publish the new version of Director after 3 years of development.
After this description the first answer at my request might be “So, the internet is full with 3D web plugins” but isnt like this. Why…. There is a lot of space for newcomers because the need of 3D real time on the net is huge; the proof is the Shockwave community. If there is interest to restart the developing for the web plugin I can contribute with ideas since Im involved in such a project.
On CGarchitect forum I`ve posted a few thoughts about 3D real time developing software http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/20773-revolution-3d-real-time-world.html
Best regards.
Indeed it would be cool if Blender got a web-plugin like it did in the future. I thought Erwin made a little test with a more up-to-date one a few months ago, not sure if he continued on it.
Personally I would see the engine itself being developed, improvements to the Physics, Graphics and Python scripting instead a start of another project to make it work inside a browser. But all by all it would be a nice future project to pick up the browser plugin again.
I think the “3D plug-in” can really turn out to be a “white bronco” for the BGE to ride into mainstream glory.
However, content is what the whole thing really depends on. Erwin actually made a version of the plug-in for 2.42 (or was it 41?) with the ability to use the bullet engine, but there was only one game made for it by blendenzo, called BattleBalls. Afaik, no one else contributed.
Actually, I think some of that can be blamed on the plug-in only being made for Internet Explorer, rather than Firefox. Also, there was no linux version.
So what we need, in short:
- People developing the plug in AND including Linux + Firefox into their development priorities.
- Game developers, making an assortement of games for the plug-in, but not just any crap games. I mean games that can actually compete with all that flash jazz thats doing so great out there.
- A mainstream push site like newgrounds (a neccessary evil), where all the little kiddies could come and form a community around the games.That, would imo get the BGE into the mainstream.
ANN: Bullet Physics Contest: Most Incredible Device wins a PS3 / Wii: http://www.continuousphysics.com/Bullet/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=775
And did you all miss his mentioning of an update that is for V2.43?
And I’m playing a little with it myself 
http://www.albartus.com/motas3d/ <- just a tech demo
Sorry, I’m on linux + firefox, so I can’t see a thing.
That’s pretty much my whole point.
I am SOoooo with Social on this one.
I will never understand why they would do anything with a misco$oft product.
It is like developing a new kind of plastique explosive, that only detonates when it is strapped to a terrorist.
Why help out the biggest enemy to the open source movement?
Well, that is my 2 cents…
Thanks Social… that was verry well put.
I hereby challenge anyone who has the talent, to please do some sort of plugin that a Gecko based browser can use.
Hell, it would not even have to be fancy… I would be happy with a VRML2 export that had the game logic intact.
ON another note…
Cel-phones, and other portable devices are advancing very quickly.
I already see blender running on windowsCE and on some phones that are hacked to use linux.
Pretty soon, everyone is going to have one…
Small arcade like games are REALLY selling right now, Small games like this are IDEL for the current state of blender 3d’s game engine…
seems to me that if anyone wants to really make money with the BGE, they would be trying to develop a light weight , fast paced game to sell to celphone victims.
I noticed that John Carmack (MR.DoomQuake himself),
has totally moved in this direction to make some quick cash…
Think he is doing some sort of RPG like Ultima online right now,might already be released.
anyways…
a lightweight web-plugin might be just the thing, to give BGE a commercial “Shot in the arm”
Well, if it wasn’t already well known by now, I’m very much in favor of redeveloping the plugin, but I don’t think the current team should take focus away from what they are working on now. It seems to me that one person knowledgable in writing plugins would be a great addition to the team.
Just to set the records straight, BattleBalls is for the 2.25 web plugin, not the 2.42a plugin. Theoretically it should run on the 2.42a plugin, but I think I neglected to follow some of the new physics rules, so it doesn’t. I might rework it sometime soon.
Also, vizfx, you seem interested in using the plugin for architectural walkthroughs. The existing 2.25 plugin is very capable in that area, and it has full support for IE and Netscape and graphical (no audio) support for Firefox on Windows and some sort of support on Linux, and Free-BSD (I think). Be aware, though, that the non-official releases may contain potential security flaws.
Im still looking for interest for the 3D web plugin. It is a domain which will explode this year and the request for 3D web in real time its increasing day by day.
The biggest advantage of the Blender package is that it offers a “Jack of all trades” and of course its open source. The question is how can I put this request to be reconsider in the most serious way. Im still making from time to time updates to my article about 3D real time developing software at: http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/20773-revolution-3d-real-time-world.html#post148309
Best regards.
I saw the news about Blender Game engine switching over to use OGRE graphics http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=83515 which is a huge leap forward since Ogre has a powerful rendering system http://ogre3d.org/index.php?set_albumName=album07&option=com_gallery&Itemid=55&include=view_album.php.
Back to the thread subject the 3D web is not just about product presentation in a small window (like a phone, car and so on) and more fancy animated logos, it is even more – online gaming communities (like http://games.yahoo.com, www.maidmarian.com, www.shockwave.com and so many others), 3D web portals and entirely 3D web pages.
I know that are many that don`t like Microsoft, but most of us work on their operating systems and they are making new standards at this moment with the upcoming Windows Vista and DirectX 10. You can see some demonstrations about new GPU functionalities for DX10 on http://developer.nvidia.com/page/directx.html which cannot be overlooked by the Blender community.
Best regards.
I`ve just found some great news. The Blender web plugin it is restarted as a project http://continuousphysics.com/Blender2.42Webplugin.html. For the moment it is in version 0.2 and it only works with IE browser and soon with Firefox as ActiveX component.
Many things must be improved and they will, from stability issues to overall size which is a bit bigger compared to competitors. At this moment we must show our interest for the project and see how we can support it.
Best regards
almost a little off topic here, but is there a Shockwave/Flash exporter that could export all the game engine data and graphics into whatever the Shockwave 3d uses? i’ve seen an .swf exporter, but is that just for stills or for the game engine? just curious. Because if that could be done instead, then there would be no need for a Blender plug-in, and most people have a Flash/Shockwave plug-in already.
The only shockwave or flash exporters I’ve found for Blender are for animations, not for realtime interactive 3D. There was another interactive Blender web plugin in the Python Board called SoftLime or something like that. Last I knew, it was really only practical for presentations and architectural walkthroughs, not games. It did feature nice Anti-Aliasing, though, something that we do not have in the Game Engine yet.
Hi again.
I know many people are a bit confused about Flash (swf) and Shockwave (dcr + w3d). They are two separate standards swf developed with Adobe Flash (or similar products) and Shockwave developed with Adobe Director. Flash is only capable of showing pre-rendered 3D graphics (stills and movies) with no 3D real time capabilities just a smart assembling and composition line (similar to 2D composition software) which is a fake 3D environment but Shockwave has 3D real time capabilities and can incorporate flash elements making them even more powerful (vice versa is not possible). So Director has a much versatile assembling line compared to Flash but known until 2001 just for offline media. (http://www.adobe.com/products/director/resources/integration/, http://www.adobe.com/products/director/resources/integration/flash/quick_comparison.html, http://www.adobe.com/products/shockwaveplayer/)
The biggest advantage of the Shockwave compared with the rest of the 3D web is the community, at this moment 390 million Web users and still rising. Even so their is enough space for open source project because the request for 3D web is extremely high and it is increasing.
I also would love to have a working web plugin, especially also for Firefox/Linux. In my research I found Emma3D, seemingly a web plugin that uses Ogre for graphics. I wonder if this could be helpful when Blender game engine switches to Ogre.
The best solution for the Blender GE would be an export script to a Java GameEngine API like
http://jmonkeyengine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=68&Itemid=84
or
http://www.jpct.net/screenshots.html
The script should be capable to export the hole Blender scenes including the functionality of LogicBricks and PythonScripts to one or more Java classes. Load this file into an Java-IDE, extend it with the API methods and compile - the finished application is ready to run as a Java applet in EVERY Browser on EVERY operating system (also on PocketPC’s and Smartphones).
And it would run as a local Java-Application too.
Toni
Are there any news on a blender 2.44 compatibility and firefox browser support for this?