New Anark 3.0 pricing and SW3D thoughts

[Lorax2003]

Well, I hope Intel and their U3D format can make it into a second revision of
the SW3D engine for DMX 2005. What I saw as real comp. for SW3D, Anark Studio,
has really left the door wide open again. With the Anark's release of Studio
3.0, they raised the price from $999 to $3499 and dropped the Mac side as a
development environment (Windows only now). Has anyone else out there used
Anark? If so, what did you think? It has a nice GUI/Timeline interface to work
with your 3D resources, which I think SW3D needs too. Web 3D will take off,
and I hope SW3D is still viable when it does. I also hope it is still in
Director, as I have a feeling MM may be waiting until the Flash Development
Environment is robust enough to handle real-time 3D. With the possiblility of
bitmap manipulation and real time effects ala Imaging Lingo in the next release
of Flash, I see it being geared to handle more and more of what used to be
Director-Only capabilities. Any thoughts? Thanks, Lorax

[hondo3000]

i found on the anark website some promo game stuff

[url]http://www.anark.com/products/products_studio_tech.asp[/url]

[necromanthus]

If that demo is all they can do ... I can't see any future for ANARK ! The
(missing) lighting, collisions, raycasting, mouselook and global performances
reminds of ... ancient times. p.s. They have their own plugin (ActiveX control)
Originally posted by: hondo3000 i found on the anark website some promo game
stuff [url]http://www.anark.com/cases/cases_corp_splint.asp[/url] i am wondering why
they did't used shockwave3d for this things...

[Daniel Cook]

Anark offers several things that other tools don't have.
- Workflow: Instead of scripting your entire project, you can use a standard
tool with a great interface to build your projects. Think of it as the
difference between hand coding SVG and using an authoring tool like Flash.
Those examples on the website were done in half the time and half the cost of
alternatives. The means a lot if you build 3D applications as a business.
- Large Enterprise-class 3D apps: If you want to make a real 3D application
for a business that is juggling external databases, business rules, and CAD
data, Anark is the only proven solution on the market.

Yes, Anark has raised its price. Unlike other web 3D tools (atmosphere, etc)
that create features that only appeal to hobbyist and experimenters, Anark has
been fortunate enough to find real customers who are trying to solve real
problems. The benefit is that $3499 is quite palattable when you are solving
problems that cost your company $100,000 to several million dollars a pop. On
the bright side, that means Anark will continue to be developed and will
continue advancing at a rapid rate. We've all seen what happens to tools
where 3D is only a toy. They stagnate and/or die.

This version of Anark added more major features than any competitive product
has in ages. Real 3D text, XML, Slides you can actually use, drag and drop 3D
components, etc. The next versions are going to be even more robust and
powerful. As a user, seeing progress in a cool tool excites me. :-)

Definitely check out the new version.
Danc.
Anark Forum Guy

[hondo3000]

i wish to see more examples of fps games or apps.

i want to know more about the shader features. is it possible to use
bumpmapping, realtime shadows, multilayering and other things.

are there detailed informations about the differences of anarc compared to
shockwave3d?

what about multiuser games?

i am very happy with shockwave3D and i am very interested in learning more
about web3D technologies in general, if macromedia is not continuing the
shockwave3D engine then i have to switch to something else.

i want more informations!

[Richard]

Hi there,

> i want to know more about the shader features. is it possible to use
> bumpmapping, realtime shadows, multilayering and other things.

No hardware bumpmapping.

No hardware realtime shadows, unless you custom code your own crude lingo
version, but this won't be very practical for a full game, maybe just a tech
demo.

Yes, we can do multilayering. And with lingo and vertex list juggling it is
possible to do light maps, but you can't easily export them directly from
the 3D package which is a real pain. I think Cando Interactive created a Max
script to help with this, but I use Lightwave3D so can't comment on it.

> what about multiuser games?

Multiuser 3D games are possible with shockwave3D and the MultiUserServer of
FlashCommServer, or even the XLM socket of the flashAsset, but it is not a
trivial task. I haven't done multiplayer games yet, but there are some
around.

> i am very happy with shockwave3D and i am very interested in learning more
> about web3D technologies in general, if macromedia is not continuing the
> shockwave3D engine then i have to switch to something else.

Well I've created several webgames for RadioShack and Mattel with
shockwave3D and they were very happy with the results, so I don't think
shockwave 3D is dead, just in arrested development ;)

Check out [url]www.shockwave.com[/url] for battleX, RedlineRumble and Detonator, plus
HurtleTurtle.

What we have in terms of tools is still very useful though, and I plan to
continue using the technology for the next couple of years at least.

I'm working on a complex weightmapped jointed character based game at the
moment, and Lightwave3D is a very good companion for this type of work if
you're looking for a good 3D package to use with shockwave3D.

Hope that helps a bit.

Good luck

Richard Smith

[necromanthus]

I really like this guy (aka RIX from GameBomb). Also, I really like this
ancient thing (closer to the Quake1 3D engine) also known as ShockWave 3D.
Talking about its competitors: nothing so far (fortunately for MacroMedia,
unfortunately for us because we have to live with the current deprecated 3D
engine)

[hondo3000]

is anarc comparable to shockwave3D?

the list of questions that were answered for shockwave3D has to be answered for anarc.

can anybody compare these technologies?