DirectionalLight

Expiration Dates

"It seemed like a good idea at the time" seems to be the quote most closely related to putting expiration dates in software. It's a great way to get customers and potential customers annoyed with you. It's not really the expiration dates by themselves that are the problem. The problem is when the software expires but the software company doesn't release an update. We could practically create a VRMLSite Wacky Award for these companies (which include Netscape, Silicon Graphics, Sony, ...).

Will they learn?

Give Good Mouth

It's pretty amazing that I've heard at least one person advise me not to work with almost every VRML-related company? Is this what community's all about? (And heaven can only guess what people say about Aereal and VRMLSite :)

Should they say nothing, though, if they're my friends and they've been burned? I appreciate knowing to be careful with various companies... it just seems like a rule to be careful with all companies in general!

We're all learning and we all make mistakes. What makes this a community and you a part of it is our ability to move beyond the past, to learn from mistakes, and to grow. As Ronald Reagan said, "Trust, but verify."

New Version of Cosmo Player

Congratulations to Silicon Graphics on their new beta version Cosmo Player. Kudos on their implementation of more nodes, and their new keyboard interface. The new keyboard interface is a great improvement. Another great feature of Cosmo is the debugging messages it gives (great for us hand text editing VRML creators!).

Here are some suggestions of other things they can work on. A "shift" key to speed up movement in the keyboard interface. Decent support of selecting viewpoints, plus a "panic" button/menu option that lets you return to the initial viewpoint. But most importantly, please improve the graphic navigation bar. (Does anybody like it?)

A lot of us try to sell VRML by saying it's easier to navigate through 3D than 2D, so let's make the interfaces on browsers live up to that. (Obviously this burden is shared by the browser developer and the world creator.)

VRML is not VR

It's that simple. Several companies trying to compete in VRML today are coming from the traditional "VR" market. They're going to have a challenging time making the tradition. VRML is just not the same as old-style VR. Companies trying to survive and make the move into VRML often try to keep their old bases of revenue with software that might sell in the thousands of copies, rather than VRML software, which needs to be for the masses.

There are no half-steps, only missteps. Missteps are ok -- half-steps are not.

Adrian Scott
adrian@aereal.com
Publisher
VRMLSite Magazine