VR viewer-Export opinions

[seventh]

Hello,
After doing some extensive reading and forum searching, I believe I got the right answer but I value the communities opinions. In short, I am looking for a platform for people to view my models (via CD) as virtual walk-throughs and just the ability to rotate/zoom around them much like what you see in a video game like when you are selecting a car (a la' Need4Speed etc...). The key elements I am looking for are that what you see on screen, full-screen view, have little to no jaggies and the walkthrough/rotation/zoom -ins are "butter smooth". VRML90 does not seem to be the solution. QuicktimeVR seems ok, and I guess the files on the LW7CD are low-quality just for example purposes. Has anyone had any experiences in doing this, high quality? Using shockwave3d exporter and director do not appeal to me and I don't believe it will provide the right results. Again I am looking for High quality output. If I need to bake radiosity and do highAA renders with QTVR, then so be it. I have also come across quest3d as suggested by some. This actually seems to be the best for my needs but again, I value the communities opinions. Thank You.

KR

[Justinw]

Hi there,

Did you find the thread on Panoramic Scenes? (Only 2 or 3 weeks ago). Lightwolf has provided some excellent links about QTVR stuff. If you are planning to use QT's zoom function, it works similar to a standard paint / imaging program, just magnifies the current frame (lots of ugly pixelation). To get butter-smooth rotation, you will need lots of frames.

Cheers,

Justin W.

[big back comics]

Hey seventh

I am currently evaluating Mind Avenue's Axel Edge 2.
http://www.mindavenue.com/en/home/

Not sure what you budget is or if you would need all the power this program offers, but it might be worth checking out.

Think of it like interactive Flash but in 3d with tons of interactivity and options. It even has a Lightwave object and scene importer. (It doesn't support every Lightwave feature, but I am still evaluating the product so I don't know all the ins and outs)

Check out this link of Axel in action. Click on the Axel Poser link in the bottom left corner. Pretty cool stuff!
http://www.muranon.com/axel/stage/index.shtml

Thanks,

[seventh]

Justinw -
I missed that post on panoramic scenes but after picking through Lightwolfs recent posts, I did find it and the links were informative. I do see a major hit time for rendering the quality and number of frames that I would need to do to achieve what I want. I also believe that I would have to render an image sequence and then composite and export as a QTVR in something (dfx+ maybe? Not sure of all the goodies it has yet) only because I have seen numerous posts here, the old forum and other forums that recommend a sequence over an AVI or QT from LW. My intentions are really not for viewing over the web some file size is not an issue. I guess i"ll have to do some more testing.

big back comics -
Budget? My budget is funded by Citibank at 14.9% APR :) I did checkout Axel. I have tried out the demo from 3DWorld magazine. From what I have seen and gathered, it does'nt provide what I am looking for in terms of high quality 1280x960 type of output. Have you been here www.quest3d.com. Checkout the Viper screensaver if you want. It is probably the most suitable for my needs. The only drawback would be a loss in rendering quality that LW provides like incidence angle and GI which I could bake and QTVR in LW. Decisions decisions... too many options not enough time.

Thank you both for your insight.
KR