OZ Brings Streaming 3D to the Web

OZ Interactive, Inc. announced OZ Live 1.0 this week at the RealNetworks Conference ’98, the first client/server solution that enables delivery of real-time streaming 3D animation over the Web.

A thin renderer for the newly unveiled RealSystem G2, OZ Live 1.0 transparently extends the functionality of Real Player G2 to include delivery of 3D models and streaming animation synchronized with audio, video, Flash, and HTML over a 28.8 kbps or better Internet connection.

OZ said the product represents a breakthrough in the delivery of real time 3D on the Internet, as it is the first application that enables streaming of 3D animation synchronized with other multimedia data types to a standard PC with a narrow-band dialup connection to the Web.

OZ Live 1.0 consists of three components:

• The OZ Live RealSystem G2 renderer, a small extension to the RealPlayer G2 client that downloads and installs automatically on the user’s system.
  
• The OZ Live Server, which adds OZ Live support to the RealServer.
  
• The OZ Live Creator, an authoring tool that converts geometry and animations from leading animation tools such as Softimage 3D and file formats such as VRML 2.0 to the OZ Live streaming file format.
  

With OZ Live Creator 1.0, content developers and animators do not need to adopt a new authoring tool to deploy their work to the Web, as it transparently supports conversion from all leading 3D authoring tools.

A beta copy of OZ Live 1.0 is available this week from RealNetworks’ Web site. Availability of OZ Live Server 1.0 will be announced later this month.

A free version of OZ Live Creator 1.0 with support for Microsoft Softimage/3D is available from OZ now. Support for 3D Studio MAX R2.5, Alias/Wavefront, and VRML 2.0 will be announced this summer.