1) Introduction to the Object Archive
2) The "Object Supermarket"
3) VRML Support
4) Conclusion
1) Introduction to the Object Archive
=====================================
The UK VR-SIG maintains a repository of 3D Object files to support the
development of virtual environments (VEs). This archive can be accessed
directly via the following ftp address:
ftp://ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk/pub/objects
However, there is also a Web interface to the archive available at the
following URL:
http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/~mxr/objects.html
The archive contains several directories holding collections of 3D objects
in a number of different formats. Currently these include: AutoCad (DXF),
dVS (BIZ), Inventor (IV), REND386 (PLG), RenderWare (RWX), Superscape
(VRT), VRML (VRML) and WorldToolKit (NFF). In addition, there are a number
of converters and relevant documents (e.g. file format specs, product info
as well as the complete Graphics Gems I-IV).
The site contains three main document files: a README file describing the
goals and contents of the archive, a FORMATS file describing each of the
supported formats and pointing to further info, and an INDEX file listing
all of the objects in the archive along with files sizes and a short
description of their contents.
>From the Web page, the user can interactively query the INDEX file to see
if there are any objects matching their requirement. They can also view
rendered images of most of the objects stored in the archive before
committing to downloading them (see section 2 below).
The site is available for anyone to download material which they might
find useful in their work; in addition, people are encouraged to submit
their own material to the archive to help expand the facility.
The site has gained industrial support from a number of companies,
including Division, Criterion, Sense8 and Superscape. Many of these have
generously contributed material to the site.
2) The "Object Supermarket"
===========================
Driven by the desire for an "Object Supermarket", it is possible to view
almost all of the objects stored at the UK VR-SIG archive (via the Web
interface) before downloading them. Formats which can viewed in this way
include the following: dVS (BIZ), Inventor (IV), REND386 (PLG), RenderWare
(RWX), WorldToolKit (NFF) and VRML (VRML).
In most cases, this is simply achieved by viewing a pre-rendered image of
the particular object to a GIF file. However, as will be discussed in next
section, there is now support for the interactive manipulation of objects
via the Web...
3) VRML Support
===============
The archive has recently branched out to include support for VRML format
objects. At the moment, this is still early days and there are only a
dozen or so objects there; however, it is my intention to develop this
further over the forthcoming weeks.
So if you have a Web browser with a VRML extension (such the the WebSpace,
EyeVRML or VRWeb viewers), then you will be able to download any of the
VRML files and then interact with them in a 3D scene, as opposed to simply
seeing a flat 2D image of the object from one orientation.
This ability has been incorporated into the Web interface as part of the
Object Supermarket facility.
4) Conclusion
=============
I have not been following the discussions in this list for very long, so
apologies if this has all been dealt with in the past. However, I would
like to offer this site as a possible repository for VRML material. We
will soon be getting a new machine donated by Sun to support the
development of the archive and so we should have a fair amount of
processing power and disk space available for the facility. As I have
stated above, there are already a few VRML files at the site and I intend
to develop this further. But if people here are looking for a host to
collate VRML material (or a European mirror if there is already an
official one), then I would be happy to offer the UK VR-SIG site as a base,
and my own time to help maintain it.
Please feel free to comment on any of the above,
Martin.
+============================================================================+
| Martin Reddy Dept. of Computer Science |
| University of Edinburgh |
| e-mail : mxr@dcs.ed.ac.uk Mayfield Road, EH9 3JZ |
| http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/mxr/ Tel : (0131) 650 5164 |
+============================================================================+