Looking for 3-D space visualization program

[Shonner]

Tangential to the OP's request, how about a way to display 3d objects, preferably in a browser? I have worked in Wings3d to build some things, but the only way I know of to share them (say, with my fellow gamers) is to take a screenshot, then save it as a jpg/png. I want to build subsector maps in Wings3d (or any other program) and actually be able to let them open the object in their browser and rotate it, zoom, etc.

Have you tried VRML? I know it's an old format from '97. The Cortona3D Viewer is used in Internet Explorer (and others) to view the object.

Then there is the reverse, where your camera view is in the middle of the scene and you're looking outward at a QTVR image that you can zoom into on distant objects. I've built QTVR movies using a six-sided cube of my scenes using GoCubic. QuickTime is used to view the scenes.

 

[Shonner]

You could use Lightwave, it's similar to SketchUp.

In what way?

 

[77topaz]

In what way?

See post 13. The process would probably be similar to that in SketchUp, though I don't have much experience with the program.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Thanks again for the suggestions on 3d in a browser. I need to do some investigating, and probably cough up some bucks for a newer computer. (My laptop is a little out-of-date and limited in its graphics. )

 

[BytePro]

Yeah, unfortunately, browser makers historically didn't really care about graphics - there was no standard 2D image format support for a really long time and no real layout support till really late in the game.

3D is taking even longer, and currently MS has a certain fear of cutting their own foot supporting accelerated 3D standards in OS independent browsers.

But given the huge and still growing phones/tablet market - and the direction of Win8 - they will likely change their tune very soon.

Once WebGL gets pushed on Android - hardware is too inconsistent, but Firefox supports it today, Sony is pushing ahead, and Chrome already has the answer when they choose to enable it - and Apple sees that as enough of a threat, they will likely enable WebGL on iOS devices (which support already support WebGL for iADs). Thus a huge active gaming segment will open up and the desktop market will probably follow. And so, hopefully, will MS.

Another feather in the WebGL's cap...

As of SIGGRAPH 2012 OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenGL 4.3 was officially ratified - devices are already on their way. The reason this is important is that OpenGL 4.3 is compatible with ES 3.0 and ES 3.0 is compatible with ES 2.0. This will make OpenGL ES a defacto baseline API. And WebGL is a platform independent OpenGL ES API.

I've been looking forward to accelerated 3D in the browser for nearly 20 years (since first using Mosaic in 1994 - the first browser with inline graphics I had used ... having been on text only mil-net/internet before that). WebGL is the most promising in all that time and looks, finally, on the brink of bringing 3D to the WWW. Finally. [Fingers crossed]

 

[heckj]

3D display of data

Quite a bit late to this thread, but I recently ran across a data visualization effort that includes 3D visualizations, including the ability to post that same visualization data to the browser with WebGL.

This is all down at the library/tooling level - not a finished product like Astrosynthesis, but it might be of interest:

https://iffwww.iff.kfa-juelich.de/portal/doku.php?id=gr