Adobe Plans 3D Authoring Tool For The Web

Adobe Atmosphere, scheduled for release Nov. 19, will sell for $399 and will be available through download from the company's web site.

The initial product will only be available for Windows, with an Atmosphere Viewer for the Internet Explorer browser and Adobe Reader for PDF files. A decision is pending on whether future releases will support Apple Computer Inc.'s Mac operating system.

"If you look at the split (between Windows and Mac computers), there's definitely a much larger Windows base, so that's where you want to test the market first," Bahman Dara, senior product manager for Adobe, said.

The Atmosphere Viewer will work in IE on machines running Windows 98SE, ME, 2000 and XP.

Adobe Atmosphere is aimed at online retailers, architectural and design shops that have a need for 3D graphics to market products and services. Educators would also fine the tool helpful on e-learning sites.

Most enterprises, however, would probably have less of a need for 3D technology like Adobe's today. Manufacturers use 3D graphics within large-scale product development systems used by teams of engineers and designers

"Right now, as it stands, we certainly haven't seen any demand," Andy Nelson, product director for Menlo Park, Calif.-based Mitem Corp., said. Mitem builds healthcare applications using Flash, a web development tool from Adobe rival Macromedia Inc.

A tool like Atmosphere, however, could one day be useful in displaying 3D pictures of a patient's body, which a doctor could refer to in an examination room, Nelson said.

Atmosphere enables users to build 3D environments and compose scenes hosting multiple media types, including streaming audio and video, textures, interactivity and imported 3D objects. Those objects could include animation from 3D tools, such as Discreet 3Dstudio Max or Alias Maya.

Atmosphere also includes a library of objects and JavaScripts for enhancing designs and adding animation and interactivity. For more realistic graphics, Atmosphere includes lighting tools for painting soft shadows and reflected lights, and tools for adding special effects, such as fog and glare.

The authoring tool also ships with the Havok physics engine, a set of algorithms that accounts for the laws of physics, such as gravity, when simulating movements of objects and people. Atmosphere also has tools for simulating sound in the real world. Sound, for example, will increase in volume as a person approaches its source.

This story courtesy of TechWeb News.