| Q&A |
 Peter
Schickel
CEO BITMANAGEMENT SOFTWARE GmbH
09/06/03 |
| Q1 |
A
brief presentation of Bitmanagement activities and team. |
| A1 |
The
company Bitmanagement Software GmbH was founded in July 2002
by Holger Grahn, Axel Koerfer and Peter Schickel. Bitmanagement
is located near Munich in Berg, Germany. Bitmanagement is a
technology provider for 2D/3D rendering software and offers
optimized viewers for the ISO standards MPEG-4, VRML and X3D. |
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| Q2 |
Wich
component of the MPEG 4 standard are supported by BS Contact
? |
| A2 |
We
support especially the 3D graphics component of the MPEG-4 standard,
as well as the BIFs format and all MPEG-4 2D nodes. In addition
MPEG-4 audio and video with standard or proprietary codecs can
be intermixed with graphical 2D and 3D rendering. |
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| Q3 |
BS
Contact 6.1 introduce a 3D data encryption system, what are
the other new features of these release ? |
| A3 |
Besides
extensive documentation we have introduced maily the following
features :
- X3D/XML Support: 3D Scenes can be encoded in XML, XML tree
can be passed in memory to the 3D engine.
- Encrypted Content protects content hosters and owners from
reuse of their 3D modells.
- Large Scene performance optimization: improved culling via
OctTrees, QuadTree and BspTree including experimental occlusion
culling.
- Native H-Anim node support: allows smooth skinned character
animation.
- 1 MB CAB Installer: allows quick player auto installation
in Internet Explorer. Manual Installer for IE, Netscape, Mozilla,
Opera.
- Text Rendering via Textures: very fast high quality antialiased
Text in 3D.
- Environment mapped Bump Mapping and more MultiTexture enhancements:
more FX possible in scenes.
- Game like navigation style.
- Joystick device driver: improved user input experience.
- Support of latest Microsoft Internet Explorer Security update.
- Screenshot function.
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| Q4 |
Is
BS Contact technology fully compatible with X3D syntax? |
| A4 |
Yes,
BS Contact supports the "immersive" profile as well
as Nurbs and H-Anim. Contact 6.1 supports the X3D XML Encoding
of VRML scenes. With Internet Explorer MSXML DOM Trees or
strings with VRML or XML Encoding can be directly passed to
Contact. This allows custom client side XML Processing. |
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| Q5 |
How
can we develop interactions on MPEG 4.0 3D contents ? |
| A5 |
MPEG-4
content can be authored with the same mechanisms and development
tools as in VRML. After content creation the content needs
to be encoded as binary .mp4 file. |
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| Q6 |
Will
you keep upgrading the BS contact Java Applet? |
| A6 |
We
have already introduced some modifications in the licensing
scheme and plan to develop it further. A component and SDK to
embed the software in Java2 applications is under development. |
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| Q7 |
Wich
markets BS Contact visualisation tools target? |
| A7 |
Our
customers are professional application developers from various
domains, requiring quick and off the shelf 3D solution components
and tools. Also flexible APIs are needed for rapid application
development. These customers want high visual quality combined
with high frame rates and dedicated support. To complete their
goals the standard functional set is usually not enough, as
many extentions present in BS Contact VRML are necessary to
build competitive edge solutions. |
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| Q8 |
What
is the license system of BS Contact ? |
| A8 |
The
player is provided for download without functional restrictions
or time limitation. Commercial use requires a licence which
removes the animated logo in the lower right corner.
This means, you can use the player with all functionality for
non-commercial motives without time limit. If you want to use
it
commercially, you need to license it and we will issue a license
key for you that removes the animated logo in the right corner.
Licenses can be issued for complete websites or URLs, as well
as single installations on one or several computers and CDROM
projects. |
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| Q9 |
What
are todays relations between Bitmanagement and Blaxxun ? |
| A9 |
We
are happy that there is again a server side multi-user company.
As our expertise is on the client side this seems to be the
perfect match. |
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| Q10 |
Do
you plan to develop a version of BS Contact for wireless/mobile
devices? |
| A10 |
As
many people believe that especially MPEG-4 is about to take
off in the wireless and mobile device markets an evolution of
our software to hand-helds could be a good move. Especially
BS Contact J is a good canditate for this market. |
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