Real time 3d web engines

Hupie · Feb 2011

Hey there,

at the moment I'm doing research on real time 3d web engines targeted at interactive architectural visualization and I'm wondering if my list of up-to-date engines is complete or whether I'm missing some big players. I'm mainly interested in engines which don't require you to download any additional plug-ins , apart from the flash and java plug-in as they are installed on many computers already. For the sake of completeness however I did add engines like Unity and Quest3d as well.

I'm also very keen on engines which come with an editor, so i don't have to write every line of code myself, as is the case with most Flash 3d engines (you have to code almost everything in actionscript). So far, there are a few engines which really caught my eye, namely Demicron Wirefusion (java, comes with visual programming), Ambiera Coppercube (Flash, comes with editor and no programming experience needed) and Holomatrix Blaze 3d studio (Flash, very easy to setup 3d model viewer).

Ok, so here's my current list:

Flash 3D engines

Away3d
Sandy 3d engine
Alternativa 3d
Papervision3d
Flare3d
Electric Oyster 3D
Blaze 3d studio
Sophie 3d
Yogurt3d
infinity3d
FreeSpin3d
Ambiera Coppercube
Flash 10 (3D API Molehill, coming soon)

Java Engines

Wirefusion (java)
Shiva 3D (java)

Plug-ins required

Unity3d
Quest3d
Turntool
Html5 (webgl)
O3D (webgl)
Hypercosm

If you know some other interesting web engines, please feel free to share

Ben Apuna · Mar 2011

Welcome to Polycount Hupie

These also require plugins:
Panda3D
NeoAxis
Silverlight 5 (in the futrue)

Though it looks like you could start with Molehill right now, here's a tutorial using haXe. It looks like Unity will export to Flash in the future as well.

EDIT:

Forgot about this one, current Silverlight with the Balder 3D engine.

renderhjs · Mar 2011

molehill (flash) and Unity are the future because booth have a immense penetration level among installed plugins and amount on resources / documentation (as3, c#, unity, flex,...) on the web.

Richard Kain · Mar 2011

Given recent announcements coming out of GDC, I'm going to recommend Unity as your best bet.

Flash is the best in terms of install base. Unity is the best in terms of tools and features. However, Unity recently announced that the next major release of their engine and toolset will include an exporter for Flash. Unity is placing itself to take advantage of the upcoming Molehill API release, they are adapting their engine to run using Molehill. So current Unity users will be able to export their Unity projects in a format that will run under the next major release of the Flash player.

So even if you choose Unity over Flash, you will still be able to take advantage of Flash's install base for browser-based 3D games.

Hupie · Mar 2011

Thanks for the input guys! I had actually forgotten about this thread cause it needed validation as it was my first forum post, so sorry for the late reaction.

@Ben Apuna, I haven't seen the engines you mention in your list, ill check them out, thanks!

I think you guys are right, both Flash (molehill) engines and unity seem to be very good at delivering real time 3d on the web. My goal is to compare the different engines and pick the best one for the company I'm doing the research for.

These days are exciting times for web 3d to say the least. I hope I can show you some of the demo's ill produce in the near future.

Ben Apuna · Mar 2011

It's cool, yeah activation usually throws people off when they first join the forum.

Definitely us show us what you're up to in the future if you can without breaking any NDAs.

I can't speak for anyone else around here, but I find real-time 3D for the web a fascinating subject.

I'm currently tinkering with Processing which is basically Java. I'm not to sure what it's 3D capabilities "out of the box" are yet as I'm still learning the 2D stuff, but so far it's quite easy and fun.

ENGOMRAN · Dec 2011

hi gus
iam designer in 3d max 2012 and need use the quest3d to make real time to my design but found problem with me when iam use the walk camera when cross the door how can fixed this porblem. buy make this high camera is 1.6 meter
thanks

renderhjs · Dec 2011

ENGOMRAN wrote: »

hi gus
iam designer in 3d max 2012 and need use the quest3d to make real time to my design but found problem with me when iam use the walk camera when cross the door how can fixed this porblem. buy make this high camera is 1.6 meter
thanks

Try looking for a quest 3d forum, I haven't seen anyone here around that played or worked with Quest 3d. Most people these days go with UDK or Unity.

SpeCter · Dec 2011

Doesn´t Unity have Flash support now?

ENGOMRAN · Dec 2011

renderhjs wrote: »

Try looking for a quest 3d forum, I haven't seen anyone here around that played or worked with Quest 3d. Most people these days go with UDK or Unity.

thank you so much
iam will try it

claydough · Dec 2011

ENGOMRAN wrote: »

thank you so much
iam will try it

http://www.ali-rahimi.net/

Ali is a member here but he is much more active on the quest3d and cgTalk forums. And he has always been nice about answering questions and participating. Besides the exe demos by ALI on his website ( http://www.ali-rahimi.net/portfolio/realtime/x-fridge.exe ) and here on polycount, Lots of inspiring work is done by quest artists particularly the architectural design talent on the quest forums.

particularly:
Alexander Kulagin
http://download.quest3d.com/Demos/Quest3D_Demo_AzureTemple.exe
http://download.quest3d.com/Demos/Quest3D_Demo_Celestal_City.exe
That Azure temple is about the most inspiring example of water

I have ever seen and was done about 6 years ago!

The documentation that came with the quest demo is sort of dry. I imagine most of the good info happens in their forums and wiki. However last I checked in there was really no real character pipeline that was stable. Don't know if that has changed.

celestial city:

Hupie · May 2012

It's been a long time since I opened this thread but I never posted my final thesis. Unfortunately for most of you guys it's completely written in dutch although you might be interested in the list of engines starting on page 31 and in the appendix on page 78.

Seeing that web 3d development are going so fast at the moment, the thesis is already outdated being a year old. I'll hope you'll enjoy nevertheless (with or without translation).

I graduated on my thesis with an overall score of 8 out of 10.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4406779/BO_verslag_E-core.pdf

Ben Apuna · May 2012

Welcome back Hupie

Thanks for sharing your research with us even though it's a bit outdated now. Many people after doing research here on Polycount just disappear never to be seen again. It's funny how fast technology changes. Looks like the text can be copied out of your pdf so it's just a Google translate away from anyone interested in reading it.