Sorry for the delay on Day 4’s post everyone. There were strong wind storms in Boston all weekend so my flight was re-routed to Chicago (which I will now refer to as “the second most windy city”), where I had to stay overnight. The airline kept all the baggage on the plane while its passengers were bused to the hotel. This baggage included my laptop’s power cord: my laptop’s life force. (I killed my laptop’s battery watching bad Sci-Fi DVD movies on the plane, thinking I would be landing in Boston to re-power my laptop and write my post–clearly I thought wrong.).

Anyway, enough about my annoying travel inconveniences. Let’s get back to the matter at hand: Day 4 of GDC, the final write-up.

The last day of show was a much shorter day than the first two days to allow time to break down the booth. Many show attendees usually leave on the last day, leaving the show floor quieter. The 3DVIA booth, however, was still busy during the last day.

3DVIA Studio

Our new development environment, 3DVIA Studio, continued to steal the show. As word spread around GDC that 3DVIA was offering a downloadable game development tool for FREE with FREE game sourcecode, foot traffic picked up.

So excited about 3DVIA Studio they are.

Romain Sididris’ technical demonstration on 3DVIA Studio was packed on the last day! Which tells me that people not only wanted to see the end results of what 3DVIA Studio can do (a.k.a. Billions, Save Them All Facebook game), but what’s under the hood. Audience members were engaged and the questions were flowing at the end. In many ways the demo felt more like a press conference than a presentation.

Romain Sididris giving a tech demo of 3DVIA Studio to a full house.

Partner Presentations

The partner presentations continued on the final day of the show with great attendance. I’ve covered all of the partner presentations in previous blog posts, but was unable to capture one so I have written about it below.

3DVIA: The Total Package

I was finally able to get some photos of Marc and Cliff presenting 3DVIA: The Total Package. It was a great demonstration of how 3DVIA’s products work together to help users build a concept in 3D, bring it to life by programming it with movement and then publishing it online as an interactive application to share it with others. Very cool guys!

Cliff and Marc demonstrate how 3DVIA products all work in perfect harmony.

Packing Up

At 3 p.m. sharp GDC ended and trade show workers began packing up the convention hall, including the 3DVIA booth. We were very tired by the end of the show, but again managed to take some formal and…not so formal…photos of the booth breakdown.

Back Row (left to right): Eric Miffre, Cliff Medling, Romain Sididris, Martin St-Germain, Juan del Rio, Virgile Delporte, Stephane Mader, Marc DiGregorio and Iain Bissett. Front Row (left to right): Christine Moses and me (a.k.a., the girls).

We begin to break down the booth.

Marc takes down some of the monitors. Hey you!

Cliff takes down some of the monitors. Snarl!

Dr. Polycount and Eric Miffre take a quick break from breaking down the booth.

Juan del Rio and Christine Moses pack up some equipment. See Juan, you can’t always hide from the camera…MUHAHAHA!

Iain takes another break and sits on a box. Hey there Dr. Polycount!

Romain takes a 3DVIA sheet from our tabletop 6-monitor display, pretends he’s a 3DVIA superhero and runs around the exhibition hall.

Romain takes a nap after running around. Being a superhero is tough work.

Romain decides Juan needs to be shrink wrapped.

Juan gets shrink wrapped. Juan, how will you escape?!

The Pigeon Returns WITH a Friend

As we were finishing packing up the booth, our friend the pigeon came for another visit. This time he brought a friend which made us all very happy for him. What better way could GDC have ended?

Here we have the pigeon and his friend. I hope they return next year!

Thank You

This concludes the Daily GDC. Thank you everyone who came to visit us at the show and those of you who followed along virtually. You all helped make our show a complete success!

Don’t forget to download and try out 3DVIA Studio and let us know what you think.

Till next year!

Today was another BUSY day at GDC. We are all very tired from standing on our feet and from the excitement of the show, but we continue to have lots of fun with booth visitors AND we continue to make time to take pictures.

Formal pictures…

Here you see some of us acting very professional in our 3DVIA uniforms…group shot to come in today’s post. Back Row (left to right): Romain Sididris and Cliff Medling. Front Row (left to right): Christine Moses, Virgile Delporte, me and Iain Bisset (a.k.a. Dr. Polycount).

…and not so formal pictures…

We get creative with the camera. Virgile Delporte, Christine Moses, Cliff Medling, Iain Bissett’s beard and me.

Iain Bissett and Eric Miffre pretend to be tired.

Marc DiGregorio and Iain Bissett give the “what’s up” wave.

OK, enough of that. Back to business!

There were several exciting events and product discussions in the booth today (which I’ll highlight below), but 3DVIA Studio really stole the show.

3DVIA Studio

Today there was great interest in 3DVIA Studio. We gave several tech demos to students, professionals and press alike and all were very impressed by how such a powerful tool could be given away for FREE. The most common question yesterday was, “so, what’s the catch?” To which we answered, “there is NO catch,” then promptly directed people to where they could download the software.

The Fog Lifts and Klaus Returns

Klaus, the lead artist on “Billions, Save Them All,” was able to escape the fog of Frankfurt. He arrived in San Francisco yesterday afternoon and was able to present the making of Billions.

Klaus, we’re happy to see you here clearly sin fog.

Partner Presentations

We had several editions to our partner presentation lineup yesterday, which I’ll go over below. In addition, I made sure to charge my camera battery all night so I was able to capture footage of some of the presentations I missed out on yesterday.

Little Chicken

Thomas from Little Chicken gave an excellent presentation on LC’s philosophy and techniques for quickly creating and delivering fast and fun games for clients using 3DVIA Virtools.

Sequoia Studios

Jim Kiggens from Sequoia Studios made a great presentation on the making of Survival Master, a serious game that teaches players to use math and analytical skills to escape and survive various situations.

Veil Entertainment

Joe Wagner of Veil Entertainment showed off Rise and Ruin, the company’s other multiplayer card game and talked about future plans to a full crowd today. Veil is constantly running Rise and Ruin matches and improving the game, which was created in 3DVIA Virtools.

3DVIA Studio Tech Demo

Romain Sididris did an excellent job presenting our newest member to the 3DVIA product suite, 3DVIA Studio. All the key features of 3DVIA Studio were covered in Romain’s tech demo, including the 3DVIA.com integration, fast debugging tools, visual scripting and more.

The Return of the Pigeon

We hadn’t seen the pigeon all day. Just when we thought all hope was lost, he appeared. He swooped down from the rafters and landed in the food court.

Team Dinner

After another very long day, the team went out for a dinner before going to bed.

From left around the table to right: Martin St-Germain, Stephane Mader, Romain Sididris, Eric Miffre, Cliff Medling, Iain Bissett, me, Virgile Delporte, Marc DiGregorio and Klaus!

Till tomorrow!

Hello again from GDC!

Today was the first day of the exhibition (the second day of work for us) and it couldn’t have gone better. We had a constant flow of foot traffic in the booth: visitors inquiring about our products, asking for one-on-one demos, watching partner presentations and more. But we all quickly learned that as much as everyone loved our products, partner presentations, etc., our booth visitors were “All About the Billions.”

Billions, Save Them All

“Billions, Save Them All” is of course the first game built on 3DVIA Studio and scheduled for release on Facebook later this year. It stars the Mogaloos, a race of cute little cube critters, that you must capture and save from the brink of extinction. We ran Billions as an interactive game contest every hour during the show. The hi-scorer in each hour won a T-shirt and their name was put into a drawing for an Xbox 360 at the end of the day. Everyone loved it, including Juan and Cliff who did a great job MCing! Keep up the good work men.

In addition to the interactive game contest on the center stage, we had Billions running on both sides of the booth, the AMD 6 monitor screen and online at Billions.3DVIA.com.

Here’s Cliff being interviewed by AMD about its 6-monitor display we ran Billions on in the back of the booth.

In other Billions-related news, Klaus Lyngeled, the lead artist of Billions and founder of ZOINK Games, who was scheduled to give a presentation yesterday on the creation of Billions, got stuck in Frankfurt, Germany on the way over from Sweden due to fog (I thought that only happened bad Sci-Fi movies). Don’t miss his presentation today at 10:30 a.m.–it should be a good one.

3DVIA Studio

Moving from Billions to 3DVIA Studio, we had a great response at GDC to 3DVIA Studio: our new, FREE, powerful and open game development environment for creating online games, simulations and visualizations fast. People were blown away by what the software could do, the ability to help shape future releases of it with feedback and the fact that it’s FREE.

We had 3DVIA Studio running on several stations so that people had plenty of chances to play games and technology demos built in it, as well as get a look at all the techy stuff behind the dev environment (schematic editor, tabbed UI, etc.).

Here’s Dr. Polycount showing off the 3DVIA Studio dev environment. Dr. Polycount is giving the “I like what I see double thumbs.” look.

By the way, if you want to download 3DVIA Studio for free, click here.

Partner Presentations

This year’s partner presentations were excellent! I’m always amazed by the creative ideas our partners are able to bring to life with our software. They’re so creative and talented.

Sarbakan

Most of you have probably seen the promotions/blog on our site announcing Lazy Raiders, the first Xbox LIVE Arcade game developed in 3DVIA Virtools by partner Sarbakan. Well, Max Carrier from Sarbakan presented the making of Lazy Raiders at 11:30 p.m. today and it was awesome. Our booth was absolutely packed for this show.

You can barely see Max presenting Lazy Raiders because of all the people trying to watch.

If you want to play Lazy Raiders, you can do so at our booth (#1432), or you can download it from XBLA.

Firsthand

Firsthand had an excellent presentation today on their new endeavor “Attack of the S. Mutants.” If you know what the S. stands for, you’ll get an extra bonus prize! These guys are always creating some great amalgams of education and fun! This time it’s all about cavities, learning about them and fighting them.

Little Chicken

Little Chicken’s presentation was awesome! I’m always impressed with how much they can get done with 3DVIA Virtools in short time schedules. They brought with them an entire selection of new projects currently in production, running on the Wii and PC platforms.

NOTE: my camera battery had died at this point so I didn’t get any photos ;( I will take some today though.

3DVIA

We also showcased a new presentation demonstrating the 3DVIA Suite, a collection of readily available and free tools that can be used collaboratively to create interactive and immersive environments and applications. The Suite is currently composed of 3DVIA.com, 3DVIA Shape, 3DVIA Scenes, 3DVIA Studio and our various plugins and solutions, including 3DVIA Mobile. Be sure to check all these out on 3DVIA.com!

NOTE: camera was STILL dead, but Marc you did a great job. I’ll get a photo of it today!

The Pigeon

In a totally non-technology-related event, a pigeon got into the Moscone Center and was strolling through the food court behind the 3DVIA booth. He may have wanted to play Billions, but I couldn’t quite tell. We’ll see if he comes back tomorrow.

Till tomorrow!

.

This post should help you decide which of these applications is right for you.  If you are an experienced 3D programmer or 3D artist (yes, this app is also for you), you should check out 3DVIA Studio below.  If you are a creative professional or consumer looking to venture into the world of online 3D authoring but lack the pre-requisite skills, scroll down and check out 3DVIA Scenes.  For everyone, stay tuned to this blog as we will show how to use either application to quickly generate amazing online 3D experiences.

Impatient?  Download 3DVIA Studio Free Now or Create Your First 3DVIA Scene

3DVIA STUDIO BETA – POWERFUL 3D AUTHORING PLATFORM FOR ONLINE PUBLISHING

3DVIA Studio is a new 3D development environment for programmers and artists looking to create complex, interactive games or simulations and publish them online quickly with ease.  It shares many of the same concepts with its popular cousin, 3DVIA Virtools, but this beta software is being released specifically to address the online publishing needs of individuals and small teams (ie. the cash-strapped masses).

So what is really different?  Of course 3DVIA studio has amazing 3D rendering capability, real-time editing and a full set of 3D editing tools, however the real difference of 3DVIA Studio over other options is the connection to the social network, 3D hosting and content warehouse here at 3DVIA.com.  3DVIA Studio combines a high-end authoring app with a repository of 3D assets and deep network of 150K other users to help you collect feedback and deploy work online fast.  3DVIA Studio allows users to package interactivity, behavior and repetitive tasks into “building blocks” (Particle Explosion for example) and reuse them in their own projects or share them online with other users through the warehouse on 3DVIA.com.

What about publishing online?  Simple.  If you can publish a video from YouTube to your website using the embed code, you can publish a 3D application online using 3DVIA Studio.  We also provide an embed code for each application that is published to 3DVIA.com to make just as…simple.

How easy is it to use?  We offer a wide variety of programming interfaces to suit your background.  For the 3D artist, we have brought over the schematic view concept from 3DVIA Virtools to enable visual programming.  For the 3D programmer, we offer our VSL Editor which is a C++ style scripting language that will have any programmer (3D or not) quickly writing many lines of beautiful, glorious code.

Check out the first social game built with 3DVIA Studio, Download the Source and Make it Your Own!

To show you what a small team can accomplish in a short period of time, you should check out the Billions, Save them All game project.  It is an ambitious social experiment that will enable the 3DVIA community to help complete and develop future versions of the game.  We’re going to open the source code for you to publish your own version of the game and contribute ideas. 

To participate, first travel on over to the Billions website and read the tutorials and articles on how the project was developed to date.

"Six weeks of learning the product while coding the game at the same time! Honestly, I do not believe that I have had so much fun in quite a while. I am impressed with what 3DVIA Studio delivers, and the most exciting part is that we’ve only scratched the surface of its potential," said François Dujardin, founder of JUDVIA.

We also have a great set of tutorials and several other demo projects to help you get started over on the 3DVIA Studio website.

3DVIA SCENES BETA – WYSIWYG ONLINE 3D AUTHORING 

Many of the more frequent 3DVIA users should already know and love this application.  It has been in a closed invite-only beta since December of last year and the reaction from user involved has been spectacular!  We opened the doors this week to let everyone give it a try.  The concept for 3DVIA Scenes is simple: provide a way for anyone to create online 3D applications, games and worlds through a browser with no programming or software required. 

3DVIA Scenes provides users with a simple drag-and-drop interface to pull 3D models and pre-programmed smart objects into a pre-configured scene.  Need to create a 3D version of an office?  Simple.  Search our warehouse, find 3D models of your office furniture and drag-and-drop them into any of the pre-configured contexts (rooms, scenes, building, etc.) that we provide for you when you start the app.  Need to have the lights turn on and off, doors open and the TV turn on?  Simple.  Look for the models marked with the light bulb icon. These smart objects come pre-programmed with behaviors and animations that work inside of scenes, and range from simple animations to complex data integration apps.

Where do the models, smart objects and contexts for 3DVIA Scenes come from?  3DVIA.com! – They’re all here.  The 3D models come from the extensive 3D warehouse and the smart objects and contexts come from 3DVIA Studio.  In addition to allowing experienced developers and artists to create full applications, 3DVIA.com will also host a market for 3DVIA Studio users to create and distribute smart objects to the 3DVIA Scenes community.   

ARE THEY REALLY FREE?

Yes!  Keeping with the “social” theme, we are releasing these products early in beta for non-commercial use in order for you, the user, to help us shape future versions.  Both products are expected to emerge from their beta phases with a “Freemium” business model, allowing a basic edition of each program to remain free while offering a premium version for commercial use. Interested parties may contact 3DVIA to discuss the details of the premium version  (that sounded very corporate didn’t it?).

GET INVOLVED – JOIN THE DISCUSSION

If you love 3D and want to help shape the future of The 3DVIA Platform, try the apps and join the discussions on both the 3DVIA Studio and 3DVIA Scenes forums.

 Download the 3DVIA Studio and 3DVIA Scenes Press Release

Enjoy!

Hello 3DVIA Community!

Welcome to the first of the GDC Daily: a daily blog post I’ll be writing live (well…after the day is over) from the Game Developer’s Conference 2010 in San Francisco, California. As I’m sure you all know from the latest Cliff’s Clips, 3DVIA is exhibiting here and has some exciting things planned, including a couple of killer announcements, that we want to keep everyone abreast of.

Even though the exhibit portion of GDC does not start till tomorrow, today was a VERY full day.

Today consisted of three things:

• Booth Setup
• Making Announcements
• Team Dinner

Booth Setup

Booth setup entails exactly what it sounds like: setting up the booth. This may sound like a simple task, but trust me, it is not. Our booth is shipped in several boxes that must have their contents pulled out and assembled from the floor up. It’s amazing to watch this process and see the Moscone Center–a massive empty convention hall, similar to a giant warehouse–go from completely empty to filled with booths, lights, computers, carpet and tons and TONS of people.

Big shout out to Christine Moses, our trade show manager, for coordinating this effort.

Here are some pictures of the 3DVIA booth being constructed and the Moscone Center.

Here we have the outside of the South Hall, where the exhibit portion of the trade show will take place. 3DVIA has booth #1432.

Hard at work setting up the booth.

The hard work continues

The Doctor has given his approval. “The show is a go!”

Making Announcements

In addition to letting everyone know that we were going to be at GDC, Cliff mentions, ever so inconspicuously, in his lates Cliff’s Clips that we have several big announcements planned. Yesterday/today, we officially spread the word.

Click on the below links to check out the official press releases.

3DVIA Studio Beta: FREE, powerful and open game development tool that publishes online
Billions, Save Them All: Facebook game being developed on 3DVIA Studio with the help of the community

Team Dinner

After a long day of work, Team 3DVIA went out to nourish ourselves and game plan for the show’s opening tomorrow. The trade show floor opens at 10 a.m. and we can’t wait!

From the left side of the table around to the right: Christine Moses (trade show manager W00T), Eric Miffre, Me, Marc DiGregorio, Romain Sididris, Stephane Mader, Juan del Rio, Iain Bissett, Lynne Wilson, Virgile Delporte, Cliff Medling and Martin St-Germain (not pictured because he IS taking the picture).

That’s all for now. I’m off to bed, looking forward to a great first day tomorrow.

Our new site, with the addition of 3DVIA Studio and 3DVIA Scenes, offers an amazing opportunity for anyone looking to express their ideas in 3D to jump right in and get started regardless of their skill level and financial resources.  We’ve just made 3D content creation simple, powerful and even fun for anyone by combining high-end 3D authoring with the 3D network, stock content warehouse and 3D hosting business already in place at 3DVIA.com.  It really is a one-stop-shop for all things 3D.

With so many changes to the site happening at once, it will be easier to break each of these into more detailed posts but this should get you started.  Here is just a summary of the updates we have made to 3DVIA.com today. 

SAY HELLO TO NOT ONE, BUT TWO NEW & FREE 3D DEVELOPMENT APPS!

We pulled the covers off of 2 new social content creation applications today.  One of which, 3DVIA Scenes, has been available via invite since December and the other, 3DVIA Studio, should be new to everyone but a small group of beta testers.  I’ll cover each of these in more detail in my next post but, in short, 3DVIA Studio is a high-end 3D development platform for serious 3D programmers and artists looking to publish online and 3DVIA Scenes is a 100% online 3D authoring application for everyone else – no programming required.  Both applications will connect creators and consumers alike through the content warehouse here at 3DVIA and right now both applications are free while in beta! 

Why not check out some of the Studio & Scenes creations published by our beta testers.  You should also check out our first game title produced with 3DVIA Studio; Billions, Save Them All.

UPDATE: Download the 3DVIA Studio and 3DVIA Scenes Press Release

NEW 3D SEARCH AND CONTENT TYPES ADDED TO THE 3DVIA WAREHOUSE

Since we have 2 new social publishing apps, we are going to need to have a way for 3DVIA Scenes and 3DVIA Studio users to show off their work, right?  We have extended the 3DVIA warehouse to include the output of the 2 new products under the appropriately named 3D Apps search.  In addition, you can find textures, shaders and smart objects (for 3DVIA Scenes) added to the existing 3D Modeling search and a nice new addition located under 3D Components for 3DVIA Studio users to exchange 3D Templates, Building  Blocks and scripted Behaviors through the site as well.

A SPIFFY NEW DESIGN, NAVIGATION & INTERFACE

It’s not often that you can promote a new design as a big news item but the new design is truly stepping up our service to a new level.   In addition to the new 3D content and search, we have redesigned the sites functionality to focus on helping you complete 3D projects, connect with the community and discover more of the site than you would find in the previous design.  I’m sure that Cliff has a clip or 2 coming up to run you through what to find on the new site but I think the site is looking pretty good. Although…I could be biased.

We are glad with the response we have seen from the community and if you have any feedback, feel free to take part in the discussion on the new 3DVIA.com over in our forums.

Heading to the Game Developers Conference?  Check out the 3 things to see at this years show on 3DVIA.TV.

If you are not attending, we will be recording our presentations for you to see in the weeks after GDC on 3dvia.tv.

Check out the GDC Preview Video:

These three reasons to visit Booth #1432 are:

1. Awesome new online game:  Billions: Billions, Save them All is our new online social game developed by Zoink Games and JUDIVA.  We will be playing Billions at the booth (oh, did I mention it’s Booth #1432)

2. Our Partner Presentations: We have an excellent line-up of presentations from our partners, including:

• ZOINK Games
• Little Chicken Game Company
• Veil Entertainment
• Sarbakan Game Studio
• Firsthand
• Sequoia Studios
• Art Numeris

For a full list of presentations, visit the 3DVIA GDC 2010 page here.  Did I mention this is all at Booth #1432, in the South Hall?

3. The Worst kept 3DVIA Secrets/Announcements: We will have two HUGE announcements at GDC this year, which we cannot tell you until the show starts.  However, if you research for about 30 seconds online, I’m sure you can find them, as we are not that good at keeping secrets.  We will be demonstrating these two new apps live at our booth.  I will say that these are the two biggest announcements from 3DVIA.

Come meet our great partners and the 3DVIA Team:  Booth #1432, South Hall!

3DVIA is proud to announce the upcoming release of Sarbakan Game Studio’s Lazy Raiders game to Xbox LIVE Arcade. Lazy Raiders is the first XBLA game built and published with 3DVIA Virtools, 3DVIA’s game engine for rapid prototyping and production.

We here at 3DVIA are stoked for Lazy Raiders, not just because it’s a first for us, but also because it’s Sarbakan’s first XBLA game. So, CONGRATULATIONS Sarbakan!

A Little About the Game: Lazy Raiders

Lazy Raiders is an action/adventure game where players assume the role of an explorer hunting for relics in tombs, ships and other ancient structures. Gameplay is unique in that players must move the world, not the character, to avoid danger, collect gold and complete 80 levels.

To learn more about Lazy Raiders, visit the game’s official Web site at www.LazyRaiders.com, or download it on XBLA starting Feb. 24.

Lazy Raiders will also be showcased at the 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, Mar. 11-13 in 3DVIA’s booth (#1432).

This was my first SWW ever, and I was extremely impressed with the presentations, the strong community of users, and how well organized the event was.  It was great to speak to so many users, and meet other SolidWorks and Dassault Systèmes employees.  From my perspective, there were four hot topics that came out of the show, which I share in this quick video.

Thanks to the SolidWorks team for their input in this video.  Jeremy Luchini designed the Hot Rod electric car model in SolidWorks, which you can see here on 3dvia.com.

If you want to see more videos from SWW 2010, go here to the SolidWorks YouTube page.

For more information of the benefits of 3DVIA Composer for SolidWorks users, check out the 3dmojo blog or these Cliff’s Clips I created for SolidWorks users:

• 3DVIA People:  Interview with John Hirschtick
• The Best Way to Share Your CAD Designs
• Putting 3DVIA Products to Good Use

I’m already looking forward to SolidWorks World 2011!

3DVIA’s Fast 3D site has won the 2009 MITX (Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange) award for the Best Use of Video. We are very honored to have competed in the MITX Awards, the largest and most prestigious awards competition in the U.S. for interactive and Web innovations, and must thank Genuine Interactive, our creative agency responsible for the creation of Fast 3D, as well as all the 3DVIA people who helped bring it to life.

Fast 3D was launched at this year’s Game Developer Conference in March to promote the release of 3DVIA Virtools 5, the latest version of our engine for rapid prototyping and development in industrial and gaming applications. The site successfully generated interest in 3DVIA Virtools 5, as well as many of our other products.

Check out the Fast 3D site here!

Screenshot of Fast 3D.

Yay! We won! 3DVIA ( those of us who were in the office at the time of this photo ;) celebrates victory.
Top (left to right): Cliff Medling, Greg Smith, Marc DiGregorio, Kathleen Padden, Dan Ubilla, Emmy Jonassen, JJ Grimaud, Juan del Rio Bottom (left to right): Rodd Halstead, Lynne Wilson, David Laubner, Matt Baron

Photo opp at the MITX Awards with Genuine Interactive.
Mike Maione (GI), Emmy Jonassen, Christian Connolly (GI), David Laubner, Chris Pape (GI)

For the 3rd concecutive year, the 3D3 International Competition is rewarding the best student projects using 3DVIA Virtools in the fields of Real Time 3D to applaud their techincal and artistic prowess.

This Saturday, October 17th is the Final project Presentation and Award ceremony  in LeCube, Paris France. So if you are in the area be sure to pass by and check out the fantastic student presentations of this year and be on hand to congratulate all the participants!

The following categories will recieve awards this weekend:

• Grand Prize
• Special Award presented by 3DVIA Virtools for Technical Excellence
• Special Award presented by Le Cube for Artistic Expression
• Special Award presented by Arte.tv for Cultural Content
• Best Gameplay Award
• Best Graphics Award
• Best Inovation Award
• Best Screenplay Award
• Best Sound Engineering Award

Organized by Le Cube, in partnership with Dassault Systems, 3D3 was introduced as the one major meeting place for students, schools and professionals creating Real Time 3D.  Over 230 schools and training centers around the world are now using 3DVIA Virtools.  The 3D3 Contest aims to discover and promote young creative talent and to initiate their relationships with industry professionals.

It’s been awhile since we asked about you, how you use the site and what new things you’d like to see on 3DVIA.com.

How would you make 3DVIA.com better? Oops, that’s one extra question – don’t answer it here, just take the survey.

Ten quick questions and you’re done…

Click here to take the survey!

In case you missed it, or want to see it again, we have some highlights from our booth in the following video, and some important links:

Learn more about 3DVIA’s Publishing Products:

• 3DVIA Virtools – Build Rich 3D Applications Fast
• 3DVIA Composer - 3D Technical Documentation Made Easy
• 3DVIA Shape - Free 3D Modeling for the Rest of Us
• 3DVIA.com - The Top Interactive 3D Community & Model Sharing Database

Learn More about our Presenters:

• “Snow World” by Howard Rose and Ari Hollander:  http://www.firsthand.com
• “RealTime Music Visualization: A study in the Visual Extension of Music” by Matt Bain.
• “SCOPE: an Innovative Augmented Reality Game” by Frantz Lasorne.

A complete list of 3DVIA presentations can be found on the 3DVIA SIGGRAPH event page.

Not Going to SIGGRAPH? No Problem – Watch us LIVE!

Not being able to attend an event is no longer a reason to miss out on all of the fun.  You may have noticed the launch of our own online video channel, 3DVIA.tv.  We’ll be live streaming video from the SIGGRAPH booth including our presentations, demonstrations and interviews with 3DVIA staff and customers.

Watch the 3DVIA Live Video Broadcast from SIGGRAPH 2009

Follow Our Twitter Updates, Ask Us a Question!

3DVIA will also be live “tweeting” right from the show floor sending out the latest news, pictures and video clips from the 3DVIA booth.  Send us a question via Twitter or just let us know that you are there and we’ll re-tweet your posts.

Send 3DVIA a Question Via Twitter

See you there!

Believe it or not, 3DVIA now has our own online television station – 3DVIA.TV!  We’ll not exactly, but we now have a site dedicated to all 3DVIA video content. The launch of 3DVIA.TV is one step in our effort to improve how users discover and learn the benefits of 3DVIA technologies. Consider 3DVIA.TV your own personal video tutor for anything and everything 3DVIA.

3DVIA.TV Will be Your One Stop Shop for 3DVIA Video Content Including:.

• Trailers
• Software tutorials
• Interviews
• Cliff’s Clips
• Podcasts
• Live streaming
• & more

To kick-off 3DVIA.TV, we have an exciting episode of 3DVIA People with Bernard Charlès, the CEO of Dassault Systèmes, and the visionary behind 3DVIA. This is a must-watch episode.

3DVIA.TV will also be broadcasting a live video feed from SIGGRAPH 2009 from August 4th-7th.

We plan on posting at least one video every week so tune into 3DVIA.TV often.

Many of the VR technologies used were developed with 3DVIA Virtools.

For more detail on Laval Virtual, see the 3DVIA article and the 3D Perspectives article.

First up, Alistar Dean has posted several articles on both DEVCON 2009 and the upcoming 3DVIA Mobile application (did I mention that we are launching an iPhone version of the site already?).  He was gracious enough to post the first public demonstration of said application.

Josh Mings also has several posts lined up over at SolidSmack including his own post on the, I’ll say it again, upcoming 3DVIA Mobile application.

And then of course, is our own Kate Bourdet and the intrepid team at the 3D Perspectives blog. Kate posted a YouTube video showing what appears to be a 3DVIA Mobile application being used in its native habitat.

I’m not sure if you have heard yet but it appears that the team here is planning on launching a version of 3DVIA.com as an iPhone Application?

Kate…I promise to start contributing to the blog soon!

Update:  Just after I published this post, Duann over at the Ponoko blog posted an article about a certain upcoming iPhone application.

ON ANOTHER UNRELATED NOTE

We are pleased to announce that plans are in the works to release a version of the 3DVIA.com site formatted as a Apple iPhone application.  Please keep tuned to the 3DVIA site and blog for specific details on how and when you can get your hands on a copy for your phone.

…

Thank you to everyone who attended Laval Virtual 2009 and stopped by the 3DVIA booth. We had an excellent show: great in-booth attendance and a lot of interest in our virtual reality products and services.

If you weren’t able to make the show, don’t worry, We will be recapping the highlights below.

What We Showcased In Booth

3DVIA Virtools 5
With its new features and VR enhancements, 3DVIA Virtools 5 (the latest release of our 3D engine for rapid 3D application development) can publish to the following immersive contexts: 3D stereoscoping screens, Mitsubishi and Samsung DLP TVs and Anaglyph stereo. In addition, 3DVIA Virtools 5 now features LUA and blenshape integration.

To read the 3DVIA Virtools 5 press release, click here:

Khufu Revealed: Anaglyph’s 3D Experience Made With 3DVIA Virtools
Packaged in a DVD, this amazing offer includes documentary plus the 3D interactive experience explaining how the Khufu Pyramid was constructed.

WoW Stereoscoping Screens Supported by 3DVIA Virtools
Demonstrating the idea of “VR for All,” these screens communicated the future of VR.

Customer/Partner Presentations
Among several terrific customer presentations of 3D applications currently in development/use and built on 3DVIA Virtools, was Subsurface, the first game built on 3DVIA Virtools 5 by our partner Little Chicken Game Company.

Partner Technology: Scalable Graphics
Three computers are clustered together with 3DVIA Virtools VR Publisher and recombined to create a single seamless image. The result? Outstanding performances on the clustered rendering, compared to the non-clustered screen.

For French speakers, click here to see the TF1 national Broadcast Interview with David Nahon.

Powered by 3DVIA Virtools

There were over 30 applications, across various industries, demoed at Laval Virtual 2009 built using 3DVIA Virtools technology. Below they are listed according to where they presented on the show floor:

For a PDF version of this map (so you can zoom in and see it more clearly), click here.

And The Winners Are…3DVIA

Each year at Laval Virtual, the Laval Virtual Trophies are awarded by an international panel of specialists (this year the president was Mark Billinghurst, co-inventor of ARToolkit) to entrants in 10 different industries. Winners of these trophies submit projects utilizing virtual reality with a high degree of expertise. This year, two of the winners were 3DVIA users!

Industry Winners

ErgoWide3, winner of the Sales and Services Trophy: Developed by Clarté, ErgoWide3 is a solution for optimizing industrial production lines (future or existing). It combines the 3DVIA Virtools VR Publisher and Multi-user technologies, allowing virtual reality scenes to be presented both at scale 1 in a CAVE and online to remote collaborators.

SITAC 3D, winner of the Auto, Aero and Transportation Trophy: This application, developed for DCNS by Clarté, presents military tactics in virtual reality. Improving on current devices, SITAC 3 is based on three technological concepts: the Workbench, a 3D representation and a natural and intuitive interaction system.

Student Winners

In addition to professionals, students are invited to enter their immersive projects and exhibit on the show floor at Laval Virtual. Three student projects using 3DVIA Virtools technology received prizes at the show.

Image Credit: Xavier Gouchet

Qui suis-je ?: This augmented reality application, developed by ATI students, is an adaptation of a former game known as the game of riddles. The principle is simple: each player chooses a face down card and sticks it to his/her forehead. On each card is the name of a person, animal or an object. Players must guess what is written on their forehead by asking other players yes or no questions. More info >

SCOPE: Developed by a student from Ecole de Design de Nantes and ENSAM Paris Tech, SCOPE is the combination of a legacy board game and a strategy videogame. In this prototype, each player is equipped with a base-mounted toy, as well as a head-mounted display. A really innovative augmented reality game. To see SCOPE in action on Frantz’s home page, click here.

Official results of all competitions can be found on the Laval Virtual site here.

Stay tuned for more information on this topic from David Nahon, our VR guru. We will soon be posting a video of David commenting on these applications live on the show floor.

Our Booth In Action

From the front and back.

See you at DEVCON!

More great material has rolled in from this years very successful GDC 2009 for 3DVIA.  Here is an excellent video covering how Little Chicken game company produced the Subsurface demo game in 60 days with a team of only 6!  Subsurface is the evaluation and demo game produced with 3DVIA Virtools.

The camera guy and source for the video is our very own Virgile.

This is the live video stream from the 3DVIA booth at this years Laval Virtual 2009.

Although it may not be the Holodeck on the Enterprise just yet, Virtual Reality is about as close as you can get.  Virtual Reality represents one of the coolest areas of the 3DVIA product line and it will be on full display at the center of the VR world in this year’s Laval Virtual Reality International Conference in France, April 22nd-24th.

3DVIA Virtools @ Laval Virtual
BOOTH A3-A6

Our very own David Nahon’s video tour from our 2008 Laval Virtual show.

3DVIA will demonstrate the Virtual Reality capabilities provided by the newly released 3DVIA Virtools 5 at booth A3-A6 and there will also be over 30 partners and customers demonstrating [.pdf] their 3DVIA-based VR applications.

Download a map of 3DVIA Virtools Partner applications
on display at this years Laval Virtual 2009!

3DVIA Virtools is a complete development and deployment platform for virtual environments, game and interactive 3D applications. In addition to many other enhancements, this new version also brings new VR capabilities geared toward consumer markets, by supporting Samsung and Mitsubishi DLP TVs, Philips WoW auto-stereoscopic screens and anaglyph stereoscopy.

Follow Updates Live From the Show

Kate will be blogging directly from the show floor.  Follow her updates on 3D Perspectives, the official blog of Dassault Systèmes.  Kate already posted this excellent interview with David today.

You can also check back here next week for updates – or watch the live video stream from the booth.. . .

Thank you to everyone who attended the 2009 Game Developers Conference and stopped by the 3DVIA booth. We had an excellent show: great in-booth attendance and a lot of interest in our products and services.

If you weren’t able to make the show, don’t worry, I’ll be recapping the highlights below.

The 3DVIA Lineup

We demonstrated four key technologies in the booth:

- 3DVIA Virtools 5: the latest release of our game engine for rapid prototyping and game development
- 3DVIA MP: NextGen visualization engine for creating online and standalone games
- 3DVIA.com: a thriving community and resource for 3D artists and enthusiasts
- 3DVIA Shape: a free, online modeling application perfect for the beginner, yet powerful enough for the expert

Show Stealers

As proud as we are of our products, we’re even prouder of the amazing, interactive 3D games and other applications our customers create using them. We had several terrific customer presentations of games and other applications currently in development/use built on 3DVIA Virtools, including Subsurface, the first game ever built on 3DVIA Virtools 5.

Subsurface

“Subsurface gameplay”

“Ian McClusky: bad guy from Subsurface”

The first game built on 3DVIA Virtools 5, Subsurface was developed to put 3DVIA Virtools 5’s design principle of “speed without sacrificing quality” to the test. We collaborated with long time 3DVIA Virtools partner, Little Chicken Game Company, and gave them what would normally be seen as an impossible challenge: develop a game in 60 days with 6 people. Subsurface was the result.

“Little Chicken demoing Subsurface”

“GDC attendees play Subsurface for the chance to win a Wii”

You can play Subsurface online here.

UPDATE: Our servers are temporarily offline, which means Subsurface is also temporarily offline. We’re working out the kinks right now and should be back up and running soon. My appologies to those who have tried to play and got error messages. I will post an update as soon as we’re back in business. 

You can also visit the official Subsurface website here.

Liight

“Studio Walljump demoing Liight”

Think of the most addicting game you’ve ever played and then multiply it by…well…a lot of lights. This game, currently in development by Studio Walljump, is totally awesome, and is another example of a game being built on 3DVIA Virtools for the Wii. Liight asks players to use color theory, strategy and brain power to solve some unique puzzles. Users can even use Liight to create their own puzzles and publish them online for others to solve.

Avatar: Legends of the Arena

“Sarbakan demoing Avatar: Legends of the Arena”

Developed by Sarbakan, and available for download on Nickelodeon’s website, Avatar: Legends of the Arena is action packed. Users can create their own characters, enter the arena and compete with players online from all over the world. This game is very, very cool and really fun.

“Show attendees watch Sarbakan present”

Virtools for Dummies

“Jim Kiggens giving a tech intro to 3DVIA Virtools“

Jim Kiggens, director of the Serious Game Design Institute at Santa Barbara City College, gave a fantastic tech introduction to using 3DVIA Virtools for game development. He and his students currently use 3DVIA Virtools to learn the technology behind making games.

For an artist, non-programmer, type (like myself), this lecture was very helpful. I especially enjoyed the discussion on how to make a realistic water shader using animated textures. Thank you Mr. Kiggens!

New Booth Design

If you’ve looked at 3DVIA.com in the past couple of weeks, my bet is you’ve seen at least one (sarcasm alert) render of our new tradeshow booth. It’s in banner ads all over the site, featured on our “3DVIA at GDC 09” page and even posted as a model so our community can visit it virtually. If you’re thinking we’re obsessed with this booth…you’re right.

The new booth debuted at GDC (I’m talking the real thing, not the model), and it was very well received. One GDC attendee even sent us an e-mail after the show commenting, “Your company rocks! You probably had one of the funnest and most interactive booths at GDC this year.” Thanks buddy!

OK. I’m done talking about the booth now…maybe. Check out the pics below.

“That’s one nice booth!”

“And from the other side”

The 3DVIA GDC Team

Here’s a picture of the 3DVIA team that staffed the booth at GDC.

“Team 3DVIA GDC”

Back Row (left to right): Pierre Emmanuel Chaut, Virgile Delporte, Arnaud Muthelet, Martin St. Germain, Romain Sididris, Derek Lane, Yours Truly
Front Row (left to right): Cyril Cohen, Gerald Nacache, Juan del Rio, Christine Moses

“A more casual shot”

Special shout out to David Laubner who took both photos!

Again, thank you to everyone who came to the show and visited us and thank you to everyone who visited us online!

Those of you who went to the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and stopped by the 3DVIA booth may have seen us demo a game called Subsurface. Many of you played this game (three players won a Wii) and asked whether there were plans to post a playable version online. After hearing the overwhelming requests for a playable online version, we decided it was a must.

As of this week, you can now play Subsurface online.

UPDATE: Our servers are temporarily offline, which means Subsurface is also temporarily offline. We’re working out the kinks right now and should be back up and running soon. My appologies to those who have tried to play and got error messages. I will post an update as soon as we’re back in business. 

For those of you who weren’t at show, but want to learn about Subsurface, don’t feel left out! The next couple of paragraphs in this post are devoted to summarizing the game and its importance to 3DVIA. If you want even more details, you can always visit the official Subsurface website.

The Story Behind the Game

Subsurface is the first game built on 3DVIA Virtools 5, the latest version of our game engine devoted to rapid prototyping and game development. Designed with the idea of drastically decreasing development time without sacrificing quality in mind, we put 3DVIA Virtools 5 to the test with the development of Subsurface. We collaborated with long time 3DVIA Virtools partner Little Chicken Game Company and gave them what would normally be seen as an impossible challenge: develop a game in 60 days with 6 people that’s not only engaging, but serves as a learning tool for other 3D application developers. The result was Subsurface.

The Subsurface Narrative and Gameplay

The year is 2041 and the world is in peril. With our natural resources nearly depleted, world powers are frantic to find new forms of energy. In the midst of this tension, a deep sea species capable of generating massive amounts of inexhaustible energy, known as the “Glowspheres,” is been discovered. Theoretically, this unharnessed power could be used to solve the world’s energy crisis or, if discovered by the wrong people, could generate a weapon far greater than any ever before conceived.

You are Dr. Valerie Toulè, a marine biologist specializing in deep sea ecosystems and aquatic species. The G20 has brought you back from sabbatical to investigate and retrieve the Glowspheres before Ian McClusky, the world’s most wanted narco-terrorist, uses them for evil purposes.

Enjoy!

GDC 2009 is Now History! We had an excellent show and thank you for taking the time to watch 3DVIA live. You can catch many of the pictures from the show on Flickr.

Not going to GDC? 
Check out the daily blog post here, our live booth video or you can follow us live on Twitter!

Check out the interactive 3D render of our spiffy new trade show booth!  Click the "Play 3D" button.

See you at the show!

As the Web 2.0 portal from Dassault Systemes, 3DVIA.com is aimed at both professionals and consumers. Seen as a kind of “YouTube of 3D”; free registered users can create, upload and download 3D models, comment on models, have private conversations with other modelers and create their own groups.

01net.com also did a through review of the site as part of the presentation. This is just one page of seven in the review!

 01net.com is a leading French news web site (6 million single visitors/month), covering the Internet and Technology. It is part of the NextRadio business media group (owner of BFM Radio, BFM TV, RMC Info Radio and La Tribune), within the IT media division. Main topics at the 01net site include daily news, product information and reviews, tips and tricks, forums, videos, job listings, job training opportunities and a download center.

All in all, this is great award from a powerhouse player in the market. We appreciate the recognition!

You’ve added a lot of great models too - almost 5000! And that doesn’t even include the thousands more private models that have also been uploaded.

You’re also creating Groups at a growing rate – 88 special collections of models with related discussions! There’s something for everyone and anyone can start their own group.

There’s also a new weekly post recognizing the Top 10 models from the previous week. So, there’s always something new to find and get involved in at 3DVIA.com. Come on in, the water’s fine!

Like the 3D phone models in the videos? You can play with a few of them in the warehouse right now! Or you can play around with the 3D model of phone featured in the video below (click the play button).

Have you made your plans for the 3DVIA Booth Challenge? Stop by the 3DVIA booth and show off your dance moves.

3DVIA BOOTH #1217

As the biggest international event in digital content creation, Siggraph is an excellent opportunity for 3DVIA to show off our applications for professionals and consumers to create and share content in 3D.Come meet us at our Booth #1217, and you’ll discover our latest demonstrations of 3DVIA Virtools.

TAKE THE 3DVIA CHALLENGE AT SIGGRAPH

LEARN ABOUT THE LATEST 3DVIA TECHNOLOGY

Our booth is also the perfect place to gather latest information about our cutting-edge solutions as well as our partner’s involvement. Be sure to attend some of our scheduled main stage presentations (stay tuned for more info).

Should you be interested in a private meeting with a sales or technical representative, please schedule an appointment using the following form: More information

CHECK OUT 3DVIA AT EDT – IPT 2008 THIS WEEKEND

If you are in the Los Angeles area this weekend and are a fan of Virtual Reality, don’t miss the “Creating Tools for Emerging Display Technologies” panel at this years Emerging Display Technologies and Immersive Projector Technologies (a mouthful we know) event. David Nahon, Dassault Systemes Immersive Virtuality domain leader will present its use of 3DVIA Virtools for creating powerful VR applications. More information

- – - – - – -

Image Credit

As Bertrand Duplat, Virtools founder and CTO for 3DVIA puts it, “3DVIA has taken into consideration studios’ needs when designing and developing games, especially those that work with large development teams in multiple locations.  Our new development engine encompasses the entire development cycle – from importing content to testing and debugging – maximizing publishers’ investments by allowing them to create content once, optimize it, and publish it across multiple platforms.”

If you are in the game development space, you should check out the 3DVIA MP site for all of the details.  Or you can watch this early trailer for the product below. 

The official announcement for 3DVIA MP was released yesterday at this years Game Developers Conference and the reaction has been excellent.