Universal media

Abstract

Universal Media is a Web3D consortium working group solution that increases the realism of on-line Web3D worlds (VRML, Java 3D and other on-line 3D technologies). It also decreases network downloads by defining a small, cross-platform library of locally resident media elements (textures, sounds, 3D objects and filters) and a uniform resource name (URN) mechanism by which Web3D content creators can incorporate these media elements into their worlds. Universal Media allows content authors to create media-rich worlds that can be instantly loaded over even the slowest dial-up modem Internet connections. Fully compatible with standard VRML browsers, Universal Media conforms to the VRML97 specification, allowing media-rich worlds to load 20 to 50 times faster on average without deviating from industry standards.Because Universal Media is stored on the user's hard drive (or other local storage), content authors can use Universal Media just as they do local resources, without concern for downloading each media element over a network connection. This simple but powerful concept allows multi-megabyte, media-rich worlds such as the one illustrated in Figure 1 to load almost instantly over even the slowest network connections.In this respect, Universal Media can be thought of as a locally resident suite of 3D media primitives, or media building blocks, that enable Web3D content developers to construct realistic looking and sounding worlds without the penalty of network transfers typically associated with media-rich worlds. And, since the media elements that ultimately make up the Universal Media library are expected to be of extremely high quality, Web3D content developers will be able to build compelling worlds in considerably less time and at an overall lower cost than if they were to create such media themselves.Specifically, the Web3D Consortium's Universal Media Working Group ( http://www.web3d.org/Working-Groups/media/ mirrored at http://www.web3dmedia.com/ ) is defining cross-platform media libraries comprised of textures, sounds and 3D objects that reside on the client (end-user) computer systems. In addition, the Universal Media Working Group is defining a standard media filter mechanism that allows such content to be dynamically transformed using predefined, yet customizable, filters (a morph filter might dynamically morph the geometry of a 3D cat object into a lion, for example, while a ripple filter might animate a grass texture so that it appears to ripple in the wind).Universal Media is distributed freely through the Web3D Consortium. At the time of this writing, version 1.0 of the Textures library (Textures 1.0) has been released, while sounds and 3D objects are scheduled for release in mid-2000. Universal Media filters are currently under development, and the first library of pre-made filters is expected to ship in late 2000.