3Dmented by Gogofrog

Idle Desktops = 3D Time!

I usually leave my laptop switched on when I'm not using it, as I'm sure many others do too. A default sony greenish/blueish/redish screensaver popped on after a few minutes...as it has since I bought this machine Time for a change, I thought...into the 3D realm!

Some of the outstanding 3D screensaver websites I found were Rixane, 3PlaneSoft and Digital Minds. There were all kinds of beautifully rendered 3D animated scenes. My personal favourites are:

• Vast Ocean
• Sea Storm
• Mayan Waterfall
• Koi Fish
• Earth
• Nature
• Solar System
• Venus
• Underwater World

Remember that most of these are only demos. The full featured version of them is available at small fee. For those who have a passion for 3D and want to bring their idle desktops to life, these screensavers are well worth it.

Christmas 3D Screensavers

Merry Christmas everyone! To celebrate the joyful season and get into the festive mood, I've been digging up some nice Christmas screensavers. And if you're looking for the best Christmas screensavers, they of course have got to be in 3D! So here's a list of places where you can download them from:

• Cool-screensavers.Com
• 3D Screensaver Downloads
• Personal Computer World
• 3planesoft
• 3D Fairy Tale

Hope you all enjoy the holidays!

-Daniel

New Screensaver: 3D Stairway to Turkey Heaven

Cute 3D turkey angels with halos and harps float against a starry and fluffy backdrop with heavenly stairways and arches. Smooth blues music accompanies the turkey angels. This screensaver is quite unique and perfect for the Thanksgiving season!

Additional functions of the screensaver allows you to change the number, size, fade, speed and type of animations. You can also change the screensaver's tint and brightness to suit your screen and eyesight. With the free demo version, you can play one MP3 music file of your own. The registered version allows you to play up to 10 MP3 music files.

Have fun customizing this screensaver to you desire. Click here to download the screensaver and find out more information.

-Van

3D web browsing arriving soon!

The concept of 3D web browsing has been around for some time now. In the mid-1990's, Apple released details of its research project which visualised the internet as a 3D space in which  visitors would fly through. Sun Microsystem's more recent Looking Glass project provides users with a 3D interface for the entire desktop, not just web browsing.

Now, NTT, a Japanese software company, is soon to release its 3D web browsing plugin next month, called SpaceBrowser. The package will cost ¥30,000 (US$275) and will work with Internet Explorer to arrange objects on the web to float in space, making things easier to manage and navigate.

NTT uses an example of a wine store. SpaceBrowser could arrange products in a chart, organising the cheapest labe ls closest to the user and the most expensive furthest away. NTT is setting out in hopes to achieve sales of 10,000 copies in the first year, equating to US$2.75 million.

-Daniel

Leading a second life in 3D on the net - weird or wonderful?

The Sims - a highly popular game even among non-gamers. It's a 3D game where players take the role of another person living in a virtual world. The Sims Online took it to the next level where people could interact with other people around the world. Nearly like leading another life! But little did I know that there is a whole plethora of virtual worlds out there that allow you to truly lead a second life...online and in full 3D. Let's take a look at a few I've stumbled across.

There is much like The Sims Online and is a place where you can hang out with your friends in all kinds of zany locales.

Active Worlds is a place where people can live a life of commerce. That's right, players actual spend and earn money by buying and selling all kinds of things in this world.

Second Life...well the title pretty much sums it up. People build houses, interact with other residents, make 3D things, earn money, buy more property...and so the circle of life goes on (in 3D virtual reality!).

Of course all these cost money to join (REAL money that is!) But is it kind of a weird, and maybe even a scary thought? Much of our lives already deeply revolve around technology and the internet - shopping and communication just to name a few. Maybe these wonderful worlds are but glimpses of how our lives will be like in the near future?

-Daniel

SF in 3D

Google keeps putting its billions to good use. The Google maps service is great, including those satellite views that let me reminisce about everything from the flat tracks and camping trips of my youth in the Cumberland River bottomlands to those turbulent dot-com crash days in SF. It will be great when they've got satellite views of the entire world, because then I could get a better view than this of where I am now.

In the meantime, however, Google has embarked on a project with researchers at Stanford University to map the streets of San Francisco in 3D. According to the Silicon Valley Watcher, the first step includes a fleet of trucks that drive along every street using lasers to measure the dimensions of buildings and create a 3D framework onto which digital photos can be mapped. Once they've perfected the method, they're planning to map other US cities in 3D as well.

Sounds pretty cool, and reeks of a counter measure to Amazon's A9 Block View service, but searchmaster John Battelle is wondering why?

--k3vin