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AS OF 7/4/2008 8:24PM EST
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August 1, 2006 —
Just because your laptop or desktop screen is flat, that doesn’t mean that the graphics and the experience have to be flat too—particularly the 3D Internet.
 Over the past decade, there have been attempts to bring the 3D Internet to life, but it just hasn’t come to fruition. Despite a valiant effort, standards like VRML (Virtual Reality Markup Language, which appeared in the late 1990s) never really established a foothold. This may have been due to limited bandwidth in Internet connections or inadequate hardware support. But this is about to change.
WinFX Rebranded
Microsoft has had a slew of new product releases in the past year. SQL Server, Visual Studio 2005 and the release of Windows Vista Beta stole much of the limelight, but lost in the fray was a new generation of communication and graphics technologies known as WinFX, recently rebranded to .NET 3.0. Its graphics capabilities are tremendous. It’s vector-based with hardware acceleration, ink-enabled, and has 2D and 3D animation, UI controls and fixed and flow format document type capabilities. .NET 3.0 has the potential to challenge PDF, Flash and even HTML on the Web.
.NET 3.0 comes with its own markup language called XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language), which allows for graphics and controls styling. XAML also supports data binding to external ADO.NET and Web services. 3D objects can be animated and have video played on them. The 2D and 3D graphics and animation capabilities in .NET 3.0 can author powerful front ends in .NET applications or can be used through a Web browser in a new application called a Web application. Web applications are full-blown .NET apps running through a browser in a security sandbox, similar to a Java applet.
In addition, XAML has some cross-platform 2D capabilities through the Microsoft initiative known as WPF/E (Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere), which will eventually allow for XAML’s use on the Macintosh and other operating systems. 3D, while usable in browsers such as AOL, Internet Explorer and Netscape, is explicitly for the Windows XP and Vista operating systems.
You might think that this limits XAML as a viable option for the mainstream Internet, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. Microsoft indicates it is beginning to see high levels of interest from consumer goods manufacturers and retailers that want to provide
the ultimate experience to their customers from their Web site. In the near future, we may see Web sites split in half—portions of the Web site will be in traditional Web technology and other portions will provide a richer 3D experience for users of Windows XP and Vista.
Revolutionizing the Internet
While 3D functionality for such sectors as industrial controls, medical imaging, computer-aided design and geographic information systems are obvious, I have often wondered whether .NET 3.0 could revolutionize the general Internet with its 3D capabilities.
The answer came to me recently while I was leading a .NET 3.0 training course.
One of the developers, who worked for a book retailer, asked me to take a look at the application she was working on.
She pulled up her browser and typed in an Internet URL. We were presented with a very attractive view of the store front. Then, we began to “fly” toward the store. The doors slid open and, once inside, we were positioned in front of a bookshelf.
We submitted a query into a stylish, semi-transparent user interface, and suddenly books began to appear on the shelf. With a click of the mouse, a selected book came off the shelf toward us, opened and presented pages for browsing.
I almost choked on my bagel.
Given how far we have pushed the Web and the Internet in the past decade, it is almost surprising that the Web hasn’t evolved more on the 3D front.
Sweeping adoption of new Web technologies usually requires a major player like the World Wide Web Consortium or Microsoft to give it a hefty push before it takes flight. With the widespread availability of broadband, the tremendous graphics power in today’s video cards and an endorsement by Microsoft, the 3D Internet may be here!
Ron DeSerranno is the CEO of Mobiform Software, which sells an XAML designer for .NET. He is also co-author of “Professional WinFX Beta” (Wiley, 2005).
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