The Z3D Technology:

We have decided to develop a 3D Engine and a Toolbox in order to benefit from having a technology that can continuously be fine-tuned and reused for making productions in realtime 3D. Our main areas are Product Visualizations, Architectural Visualizations, Character Animations and Games online or offline. This technology is called Z3D.

The Z3D technology is designed as modules with maximum focus on flexibility. In order to prepare the Z3D for the widest reusability it is divided in different components, each residing in respective libraries. When component is required, it will be called for and dynamically seamed into the existing application. This enables Z3D to support many different API’s and driver systems such as DirectX and OpenGL. The Z3D technology is a massive framework with the capability of implementing a vast number of realtime products in both 2D and 3D. Well-designed patterns enable extensions and conversions of the Z3D system to other computer systems including game consoles.

Apart from an incredible realism in the graphics, the Z3D contains tools to ease the production of realtime 3D products. We use much time to educate the employees in using these tools in order to optimize the production process. An important tool is Z3dExport, a plug-in for 3D StudioMax, which is used by our modelers and animators to transport information about 3D objects, lights, cameras and animations from 3D StudioMax into the Z3D engine. This tool is capable of approximating this huge amount of information into a format that can run real-time. Real-time means, that it is possible to update the screen image about 50 times per second or more. In comparison 3D Studio Max uses several minutes to calculate an image and present it on the screen. In other words, the Z3dExport module creates Z3D files that contain 3-dimensional films where the user has full control over the camera.

The more of the functionality of 3D Studio Max that can be converted into the Z3D format, the more options are present for the people who are using the Z3D to create realtime 3D and hence the chance for an improved result is greater. Support for many types of transparency has been added, which enables adding of effects like water and smoke. It is also possible to move and animate surface images so it looks like flowing lava. There is support for texture animation, so you could possibly view a film on a virtual television in the 3D environment. Finally it is possible to create fog in different colors and densities. All these are effects that make the 3D world a more convincing and exciting place.

For a quick and intuitive animation of characters, the Z3D support so called weighted skeletal animation. This is a technique where 3D characters are represented as skeletons, which can be manipulated by the animators over time. This simplified way to view a character, enables the calculations - with help from the Z3D - of the transitions between different positions of the skeleton. For example is it possible for Z3D to add an animation of a person that moves the arm in the air on another 3D character no matter what position the rest of the body has. Or you can take the animation of a ballet dancer’s steps and put these on a sumo wrestlers body. This looks both fluent and realistic.

The two components in Z3D that approximates the reality are called Z3dPhysics and Z3dCollide. The functions in Z3dCollide are designed to detect whether two 3-dimensional objects are colliding. This is relatively complex even on a fast PC. It creates the demand for advanced mathematics in order to check for collision with highly detailed reasonable fast moving 3D objects. The result from Z3dCollide is sent to Z3dPhysics where equations of gravity, friction, mass, resistance, slip and bounce are used to simulate reality, as we know it from in the everyday life. The better this task is carried out the more convincing is the illusion of our world created in 3D. The whole idea of having a component to calculate physics is to avoid programming the functionality of each and single item contained in the 3D world, which again helps to reduce the overall production time.

The future aspects of the Z3D technology are without limits. First of all the idea is to concentrate on making components that can help to minimize the production time, so we become quicker and better to produce realtime 3D products. However everything from multimedia CD-ROM’s to Virtual Reality is possible.