The Slow Rise of 3D on the Web.(Technology Information)

Technology and market drivers are removing barriers and accelerating adoption of 3D on the Web

For a number of years now, 3D on the Web has been a presumed "coming thing" for the graphics industry, and many companies placed their bets early. The technology has advanced, but for a number of reasons, the market itself has been slow to make widespread inroads for consumer, commercial, and educational applications.

On both the playback and development side, a number of barriers still impede adoption of 3D on the Web. The first is bandwidth. The ability to view and interact with 3D content requires a fast Internet connection, which most consumers still don't have. Then there is the problem of the 3D players themselves. Each is based on a proprietary format and must be downloaded before a user can view content. Finally, on the development side, 3D content creation remains a bottleneck in terms of the number of developers skilled enough to use the tools. Compare the roughly 200,000 active 3D graphics professionals to the 10 million-plus users who are currently deploying 2D Internet content. In order for 3D to become ubiquitous on the Web, the tools must be accessible to the majority of Web developers who are not already 3D graphics professionals.

Slowly, over the last 18 months, technology and market drivers have been helping to remove these barriers and accelerate penetration and adoption rates of 3D on the Web. M2 Research findings show that broadband is growing, with an installed base of about 8 million users in the US in 2000, as opposed to 2.7 million in 1999. New game consoles, such as Sony's PlayStation2, and the soon-to-be-released Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube mean that Web-based real-time 3D multiplayer gaming will be available to a large consumer audience of game enthusiasts. And advances in embedded 3D graphics hardware will enable new applications for Internet appliances and hand-held devices.

Currently, 17 percent of all Web media ...