O3D
April 21st, 2009
You want to know what I've been working on for the last year? This is it!



You can learn the details and try some of the demos at http://code.google.com/apis/o3d/

I think it's incredibly awesome but then I'm bias. For me what makes it awesome:

  • It runs on 3 platforms (Windows, OSX, Linux) and 4 browsers (IE, FF, Safari, Chrome)

  • Using it feels like the good old days of BASIC programming. Instant feedback.

    You type some code, you press refresh, you see the results. You can even open the FireBug console in Firefox or the javascript console in Safari and type commands live, replace functions while your app is running, tweak variables, etc.

    On top of that, it's easy to make your app editable in realtime. For example if you check out the beach demo, press 'e' to edit shaders or 'm' to edit material properties. Both of those editors took less than 1 or 2 hours to get working, if that.

  • It's easy to install and usable from anywhere.

    Unlike say downloading a C++ compiler or some other dev environment this one will work anywhere you have a browser and the plugin installed and it's easy to install.

    *) It makes a lot of things possible that were not before.

    It's not just about flying teapots and games. It opens up the ability to make apps that were not possible with just HTML. A multi-image editor, a presentation application, a 3d mapping application, really, the sky is the limit. Vista runs on top of DirectX and OSX runs on top of OpenGL so if you want, make a windowing system on top of O3D.

    2 things I hope I find time to do now that it's out.

    1) Make a tiled map editor (ie, tUME Online). Using plain HTML it would be too slow to draw the tiles but using this it will be easy. I can make an online tiled map editor (tUME online?) and target it to a few popular indie games and then provide a way to target more.

    2) Write a simple game programming tutorial. Because other than notepad, nothing else is needed. If you can browse the net you can run O3D and walk through my tutorials.

    I hope I can find the time to do these inbetween continuing to work on O3D. I'm really excited about the possibilities.

    BTW: I've got to put the standard disclaimer. The views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not those of my employer.

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    Comments:
    That's exciting!
    I'm not biased (other than knowing you), and I think that's really cool, too! And frustrating. So many ideas come to mind, but my lack of coding chops limits what I can do by myself. Hopefully more technically minded people will write tools and make templates I can use.
    posted by kongorillaApril 22, 2009 at 6:08 [ e ]
    Whoa, competition!
    Hey, turns out we're working on a (partially) competing products. It's going to be interesting (even if a bit scary when a behemoth like Google comes in our direction). Anyway, we'll see how it turns out.
    posted by ArasPranckeviciusApril 22, 2009 at 9:40 [ e ]
    Very Impressive
    It looks like the avenues for rich 3D, in-browser applications are finally starting to open up.  Specifically related to games, I know Unity3D and games like Quake Live use this type of model, but it's exciting having a company like Google develop and offer an open framework.  Great job with O3D!  I can't wait to see where it leads.
    posted by fettucciniApril 27, 2009 at 11:03 [ e ]
    Innovation at it's Best!
    I've been focused on different avenues of displaying rich media in browsers and I must say this is very impressive. Having an open framework for developers will be extremely helpful moving froward.
    posted by BenBehrouziApril 29, 2009 at 13:13 [ e ]
    Gmail
    So you're at Google now? Has your opinion on gmail changed? :)
    posted by HanfordMay 6, 2009 at 21:06 [ e ]
    heh
    When I saw O3D announced the first thing I thought of was 'I bet that's what greggman was doing' ;)

    What with Unity3D, Silverlight, Flash, and now this there's certainly a lot of choices for in-browser 3D . . .
    posted by anonymousTroyMay 13, 2009 at 4:35 [ e ]
    Perfect engine for a Riven remake
    That was the first thing that popped to my mind. Quite incredible how much realtime 3D has caught up with the pre-rendered vistas of 1996 - though I'm still not sure if realtime 3D has exceeded those renders or whether it's on equal footing - Riven still looks good to me.
    posted by popularsymbolismMay 22, 2009 at 23:27 [ e ]
    1 Question to the O3D expert, you are !
    Hello,
    sorry to disturb you but I saw you participate to some cool O3D samples so I wonder if you could help me on this problem :

    I m using Animeeple to export 1 simple animated character to Collada
    DAE format,
    I convert it with o3dConverter.exe,
    I load the o3dtgz in my sample,
    character is well displayed/animated at origin (0, 0, 0)
    BUT when I try to move it (for example translate(1, 0, 0)) then it
    disappears/is culled when the view frustrum does not contain origin
    point !
    If I try the sample character.o3dtgz from GoogleIOsample, it s OK.

    Any idea ?
    Thanks
    bye, greg (too )
    posted by gregSeptember 22, 2009 at 13:39 [ e ]
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