The Threesixty3D Player is a realtime interactive technology for viewing high-impact 3D content.

This platform can be used to create interactive 3D presentations, architectural and design visualizations, 360 degrees panoramas, product demonstrations and more.

Rendering is hardware accelerated, performed on the graphics card via OpenGL, allowing superior data handling at higher speed, realtime high dynamic range (HDR) lighting and use of realtime shaders.

The data format used by the Player is Collada, the open standard for digital 3D asset exchange, which is supported by all major 3D content creation softwares.

Videos have been captured by the player in realtime while simultaneously rendering on a system with a low-end graphics card (NVidia Geforce FX 8400). What you see is the pure output of graphics card shaders: no additional post-production effects have been applied to the videos.

For information on commercial licenses, please contact me

›› Realtime rendering and effects

Rendering performed on the GPU (graphics card) via OpenGL is significantly faster than rendering on the CPU alone, makes better usage of system resources and allows realtime effects such as:

• HDR image-based lighting;
• toon shaders;
• compositing effects like vignetting, fake (fast) chromatic aberration and more.

The availability of certain effects depends on the presence of shaders and graphics card specifications.

›› Player-specific features:

• the Player can handle polygon objects (as triangles), hierarchies, instances, normals, vertex colors, texture projections, basic material types, component clusters, textures, lights, cameras, hierarchical transforms, and more;
• presentations can run hundreds of thousands of triangles in realtime (depending on different factors) even on cheap graphics card;
• libraries, data and textures are highly compressed;
• the Player can be built as executable or as java applet;
• presentations can be branded with logo overlays;
• user interface "skin", colors and transitions can be completely customized;
• objects can have multiple materials, which can be organized into presets and swapped in groups by clicking a single icon;
• scenes can have multiple camera snapshots;
• presentations can contain multiple scenes;
• camera physics and interaction range can be fully customized;
• configuration settings and data files are XML-based and can be edited manually or using additional tools;
• geometry normals can be baked in the scene or can be automatically created in the Player based on surface discontinuity angles;
• settings, shaders and effects can be tested interactively during the design phase.

›› OpenGL-specific features:

The following OpenGL features are supported by the Player (when available on hardware): GLSL shaders, HDR image-based lighting, toon shading, per-pixel lighting, environment mapping, anisotropic texture filtering, mipmapping and more.

›› 3D data format

The Player data format is Collada, a royalty-free XML schema that enables digital asset exchange within the interactive 3D industry.

3D content can be generated using the animation software of choice: all major 3D content creation packages support the import/export of the Collada format.

›› Texture formats

Textures can be saved as PNG, JPG or GIF.
HDR Environment maps can be saved as Radiance .hdr image files (in vertical cross format).

›› Export workflow tools

The configuration process is handled via a plug-in (currently available for Autodesk Softimage) that completely automates the creation of Player-specific configuration files.
The plug-in can also convert and collect textures into a single folder, fixing paths in the scene automatically.

Thanks to the customization capabilities of Collada, the exporter can also embed Player-specific custom data inside scenes, in order to integrate extra functionalities for lights, materials, geometry, etc.

Examples of 3D interactive content made with the Threesixty3D Player







Windows versions. The Player can be also built as a Mac OSX or Linux application.
Resolution in the examples is set at 960x540 pixels, windowed (non-fullscreen mode).

For informations on minimum and suggested system requirements, please check the System requirements section.

A flash version is also in development.

›› System and OpenGL minimum requirements

The Threesixty3D Player minimum system requirements are the same specifications suggested by the manufacturer of the operating system where the Player is going to run (Windows, Mac OSX or Linux) plus a graphics card that supports at least OpenGL 1.4 (OpenGL v2.0 or higher is strongly recommended).

The availability of certain effects depends on the presence of shaders and other graphics card characteristics, which is determined by the GPU brand/model and drivers installed.
OpenGL v1.4 is the minimum version required to view the presentations correctly.
OpenGL v2.0 is usually required for shaders, which sometimes might be supported even on lower OpenGL versions through extensions.

In some cases, the player automatically reverts to specific failback techniques when required extensions are not present on the graphics card.

›› JAVA = no plug-ins required (well, most of the time)

The Threesixty3D Player has been developed using Processing, a Java-based programming language, which requires the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) in order to run presentations.

The JVM is already installed on approximately 80% of computer systems, which means that most users will be able to run the presentations without having to install anything.
The JVM is available for all major operating systems and can be freely downloaded from www.java.com/getjava.

Contact info & feedback

Michele Sandroni
www.threesixty3d.com
Milan, Italy


Feel free to drop me a line about suggestions, comments, etc.

In case you find a software bug, please email me:

• a description of the problem;
• an explanation about how to reproduce the problem or a small scene containing a simplified reproduction of the problem;
• your system configuration including operating system, architecture (x86/x64), CPU, graphics card, graphics card drivers version, ram, regional language.

Thanks!

License Agreement

This website (http://www.threesixty3d.com) (the "Web Site") is owned and operated by Michele Sandroni (the "Author"). Access to and use of this Web Site, including the download and use of any software (the "Software") that is made available from the Web Site, is subject to the following Terms of Use, Disclaimer and Copyright. If you do not accept the Terms of Use, Disclaimer and Copyright stated herein, you must not access or otherwise use this Web Site. These Terms of Use, Disclaimer and Copyright may be revised at any time by updating this posting. You should visit this page periodically to review the Terms of Use, Disclaimer and Copyright because they are binding on you.

Please also make sure to read the available documentation.

›› LIMITATION OF USE

Redistribution of the Software, in source or binary forms, with or without modification, in whole or in any part, is NOT permitted without explicit authorization by the Author.
You are forbidden from making alterations or modifications to, merge, adapt, create derivative works, de-compile, disassemble, reverse engineer, or attempt to discover the source code without explicit authorization by the Author.

›› NO WARRANTIES

THE SOFTWARE AND ANY RELATED MATERIAL IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
The entire risk arising out of the use or otherwise in connection with the Software remains with you.

›› LIABILITY

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

›› GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTIONAL MATTERS

This License Agreement shall be governed by the laws of Italy.
If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision, or portion thereof, to be unenforceable, the remainder of this License Agreement shall continue in full force and effect.

›› Copyright

© Copyright 2009 Michele Sandroni.

All trademarks mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.