Superscape Joins Netscape and Silicon Graphics to Support Emerging VRML Standard; Pioneering Virtual Reality Company to Bring 3-D to the World Wide Web

Business Wire, Feb 12, 1996

Inc., the leading provider of software tools for creating interactive three-dimensional virtual worlds on personal computers, in conjunction with Silicon Graphics, Netscape Communications Corporation and 28 leading World Wide Web companies, today announced its support for the next generation implementation of virtual reality markup language, or VRML 2.0, the emerging open standard for creating and viewing three-dimensional virtual reality worlds on the World Wide Web.

Virtual reality is a medium where a virtual world (a computer-generated, real-time, three-dimensional environment) can be explored and examined continuously and interactively from any perspective.

With the new VRML 2.0 standard, Web designers and surfers alike will be able to design and explore powerful, interactive 3-D virtual reality worlds in real-time on the Internet using standard PCs. The new specification promises to bring virtual reality on the Web to a new level by incorporating 3-D interactive animation, multimedia and characters and objects with life-like responses and behaviors not previously available to Internet users.

"It's exciting to see that Superscape -- a pioneering virtual reality company with third generation technology -- is supporting the proposed VRML 2.0 standard," said Mark Pesce, one of the original creators of VRML. "The company's endorsement underscores the virtual reality community's commitment to moving from proprietary to open systems that will increase interactivity, availability and ease of use for explorers of 3-D worlds on the Internet."

VRML 2.0 will have a broad use in virtual reality applications ranging from real-time 3-D data analysis and virtual reality games to virtual reality shopping, showrooms and collaborative design projects across the Internet.

"At Superscape we believe that virtual reality software will unlock the potential of the Internet," said Robert Lowe, President and CEO of Superscape Inc. "As 3-D tools are becoming more powerful and easy to use, users are beginning to demand the rich interface and experience that 3-D virtual reality brings to computing. Soon the mass of static 2-D Web pages will be replaced by interactive 3-D homes pages created by home designers. We support the development of the VRML 2.0 standard as a means of empowering the coming generation of Web users to begin building those pages now."

Bringing Powerful Virtual Reality Authoring Tools to the Internet

The new VRML 2.0 specification will allow users on standard PCs to create and explore 3-D worlds on the Internet with a level of interaction and flexibility that more closely models the powerful capability to create rich interactive worlds using Superscape's VRT 4.0, the company's award-winning suite of virtual reality authoring tools.

This ability to export portions of Superscape's rich 3-D worlds to VRML 2.0 will allow for greatly enhanced levels of 3-D publishing than currently available on the World Wide Web. For example, intelligent objects with behaviors easily created in Superscape's VRT 4.0 -- scenes with sounds that change with location, animals that move on their own and characters with built in actions and personalities -- can be quickly exported to VRML for publishing on the Web.

Superscape's virtual reality authoring tools both import and export VRML files, as well as create ultra-rich worlds using the company's own file format based on SuperVRML technology, which has a 10 year heritage as the standard software for PC-based virtual reality modeling and application development.

World's Fastest 3-D Web Navigation

Superscape last month demonstrated a new software product, VisNet, that will be distributed free over the Internet at the end of February. VisNet is the world's fastest 3-D interactive viewer on standard Intel-based personal computers and is designed to work with Superscape's SuperVRML file format. By extending and enhancing the powerful capabilities of viewers which are based on VRML, Superscape was able to develop VisNet to be on average five to 10 times faster than the first generation 3-D viewers.

The VisNet viewer features a control panel for consistent navigation through the universe of virtual worlds on the World Wide Web and for controlling the behavior of intelligent objects such as calculators, clocks and cars.

New Virtual Reality Products For Consumers

In addition to the VisNet 3-D interactive viewer and VRT 4.0, Superscape plans to introduce several new authoring tools for small businesses, web developers and consumers to easily and rapidly create virtual reality objects and environments. To that end, the company is embarking upon an aggressive marketing and promotion program in the coming months.

The Superscape product portfolio includes VRT 4.0 (which provides both VRML and Super VRML output), Networks, Superscape Developers Kit and Visualiser. All products run on a 486, Pentium or Pentium Pro computer with 8 MB of RAM. An SVGA monitor, keyboard and a mouse complete the virtual reality system. While not required, Superscape tools can work with a wide variety of head-mounted displays (HMD's) for immersive applications.