| Q&A |
 Quest3D
Act 3D
Oct. 2007 |
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"COLLADA
import. This also enables run time import of models.
So you can load COLLADA files into a finished and published
application. It will import multiple texture stages,
Skinning, animation and lights.
New physics engine. This engine is a huge upgrade over
the old one. It has much more features and the performance
is better. There are now more collision shapes, more
joint types and better feedback and control over the
physics simulation..."
<
Quest3D 4.0 |
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| Q1 |
What
are the main new feature of Quest3D 4.0? |
| A1 |
COLLADA import. This also enables run time
import of models. So you can load COLLADA files into a finished
and published application. It will import multiple texture
stages, Skinning, animation and lights.
New physics engine. This engine is a huge
upgrade over the old one. It has much more features and the
performance is better. There are now more collision shapes,
more joint types and better feedback and control over the
physics simulation.
Weather and atmosphere system. This system
easily allows you to create an atmosphere based on date, time
of day and location on earth. It also includes cloud configurations,
rain, fog, lightning, wind and new functions for ocean water.
Object oriented programming. This is a big
one. It basically changes the way Quest3D projects are created.
It also has some positive influence on performance. This system
completely replaces the current array system, channel caller
and hybrid channels systems and replaces it with a very robust
easy to manage structuring system.
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| Q2 |
When
will it be available, is there any new price policy? |
| A2 |
The
pricing policy is currently not to increase the price and upgrades
will be available for approximately 33% of the full price. Release
is scheduled this year although we will release it only when
it is done. This is a very important release because it changes
a huge part of how Quest3D projects are created. We do not want
to rush this version. |
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| Q3 |
Act3D
were present at the Siggraph. Are 3D artists interested in realtime
3D? |
| A3 |
Yes.
Many of them are. Slowly real-time 3D starts to gain momentum.
There is more and more demand for real-time 3D and 3D artist
also recognize that this is a new development that is both interesting
and necessary to pursue. Rapidly new uses are emerging that
are completely new or complementary to current non-real-time
techniques. I also see that most 3D artist find it very exciting
to be able to interact and maneuver inside their art. |
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| Q4 |
There
are many areas involving Realtime 3D, what is the main focus
of Quest3D? |
| A4 |
Quest3D’s
main focus is to create a general purpose real-time 3D platform.
With Quest3D 4.0 we have reached most of the things we might
require from a platform so this focus will change in the future.
Quest3D in its current form will remain and new spin-off products
will start to appear. These products will focus more on content,
application and ease of use than the current technically focused
product. The first direction will be something in architecture,
construction and design visualization. |
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| Q5 |
What
are the relationship between Quest3D and the users? |
| A5 |
There
are many relationships. Some users are die hard fans that keep
pressing F5 on our forum page if they are not sleeping or on
the toilet. In general the user community is very friendly and
we try to communicate with our users in the most personal way
we can. As the company grows bigger this becomes more and more
difficult but we believe that in the end the user makes or breaks
a product. Many good ideas have sprung from the community and
even if we do not use their ideas directly in a product we still
incorporate all the information we can get into our next program
design. |
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| Q6 |
Quest3D
can generate very sophiscated application. What is the learning
curves? Is there any sucess story where graphist artist
without any coding skill achieve to create interactive 3D content
using Quest3D? |
| A6 |
Yes
there are many artist that have achieved this. For example,
the winner of the 2007 Quest3D competition took only one month
to learn Quest3D and to get good enough to win the winning
application.
In
general Quest3D can be very easy or very difficult depending
on the users. We simply now focus on building a very capable
platform. For some users Quest3D is still to difficult but
there is not much we can do about that. The way we are dealing
with it is that we now think about Quest3D as a product for
serious users that are more interested in creating what they
want and getting cutting edge results than ease of use. For
the other users that simply want a wizard that does what they
want we will create other products. |
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| Q7 |
What
about DirectX10 and Vista? |
| A7 |
If
Quest3D 4.0 was running on DirectX10 our users would probably
kill us. I think DirectX 10 offers very little extra functionality
and tying Quest3D to Vista would be a mistake at this moment.
Vista users can use Quest3D perfectly now and cutting out all
the XP users for a few extra features is not something we prefer.
Why they did not make DirectX 10 available on Windows XP is
a mystery to us. There are some technical reasons but everyone
knows that if Microsoft really wanted to get DX10 on Windows
XP it would have happened. A second option is to create a driver
model as you see in many games so it’s possible to switch
between DirectX 9 and DirectX 10. We believe however that it
is better to write directly on the API. In practice DirectX
10 only offers slightly better performance and no substantial
real extra possibilities for our users. When a new API arrives
that does provide substantial new features we will reevaluate
our choices. |
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| Q8 |
Most
of the demo and contents made with Quest3D are executable. Is
the web viewer still effective? |
| A8 |
An
executable is the preferred distribution method. Some users
start off with a web page but in the end still prefer an executable.
A 3D application simply works better as an executable. Just
look at what is available now.
Even
Google earth, an application created by a company that is
primarily a web company is a stand alone executable. Also,
none of the big games are distributed as a web page and none
of theprofessional 3D applications are distributed as a web
page.
It’s
not that no one has tried. It’s more accurate to say
that that there even is some kind of hype surrounding 3D and
the web. Even after a few years of 3D web applications we
must conclude that most of them did not succeed or they are
so simple that it basically boils down to a 3D model viewer,
not a real application.
There
are some clues that can explain this phenomenon. First of
all, a 3D application is usually quite big, making it less
suitable for on demand downloads. The second clue is that
the user input scheme interferes with the controls of the
browser. The third clue is that 3D is all about immersion
so you want it full screen, not in a browser. Finally another
reason might be that people do not like to install plug-ins
and plug-ins in general brings a package of problems with
them. People love the executables because it fail safe method.
No installations required and you can run the application
whenever you want, from a download folder or the start menu. |
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| Q9 |
Creating
2D UI is a key component of realtime3D application. Will Quest3D
4.0 help user in this work? |
| A9 |
Yes.
We provide the functionality to add sliders, pull-down menus,
buttons and other controls. These controls can be skinned so
you can define your own look. Adding a button in Quest3D 4.0
takes about 5 seconds work. |
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