Sites like Thingiverse offer ways for 3D makers to display and upload their 3D models for the world to peruse but there’s never been a way to really “see” the models in real space. That’s where Sketchfab comes in. This WebGL-based tool allows 3D modelers to show almost any object in full, glorious 3D with full vantage control. It even allows you to embed 3D content into web pages.

The founders, Cédric Pinson and Alban Denoyel, have extensive experience in realtime 3D modeling. The project is self-funded and they currently have 2,300 models uploaded to the site. 3D artists can upload models in just two clicks.

“The genesis of the project was to provide a service for 3D artists to show their work. It as become a lot wider, since we now have architects, designers, 3D scanners, etc… using it. Some e-commerce websites are starting to use it as well,” said Pinson.

“It’s just like youtube but for 3D files.”

The service is currently free and you can upload multiple file formats including Blend, 3DS Max, and SketchUp. For example, you can grab stuff from Thingiverse and simply import it into Sketchfab to see it in action. This is an .stl file I just uploaded and it works perfectly.

The site depends on WebGL to render the objects. They also offer a pro upgrade that gives you more space and private sharing of models.

Viewing 3D content is important. It lets e-commerce thrive and as 3D printing becomes more popular it will be fascinating to be able to literally walk through 3D printed products before you spend the time and resources to produce them. Sketchfab, then is definitely a step in the right direction.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Here are some of the past week’s stories on TechCrunch Gadgets:

Bag Week 2011

TouchPad Microwave Hack Finds Videos That End Right When The Popcorn Is Ready

Students Hack The Kinect To Allow Blind To Navigate

Microsoft And Samsung’s Surface 2 Now Up For Pre-Order

Aerial 3D: Amazing System Shows 3D Objects In Mid-Air, With No Screen (Video)

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Here are some of yesterday’s Gadgets stories:

Phosphor Releases The World Time Sport

Aerial 3D: Amazing System Shows 3D Objects In Mid-Air, With No Screen (Video)

Bang & Olufsen’s New Beolit 12 Speaker Dock Preps For The Holidays

Addicted Gamers May Have Physiological Differences In The Brain

Video: What Is 4G? Ex-TC’er Doug Aamoth Explains It Better Than Anyone Else Could

Bag Week 2011: The First Giveaway

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Here are some recent stories on TechCrunch Gadgets:

The PenMoto, Reborn
Video: New Construction Material “CO2 Structure” Could Serve As Alternative To Concrete
HDI 3D Projectors Look Like Something Aliens Gave Us
CableKeeps Keep Your Jumbled Mass Of Apple Chargers Nice And Neat
Video: Free-Moving Kinect Used To Map Room And Objects In Detailed 3D

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Researchers at Cornell University are hard at work on a project that sounds odd at first, but is in fact a perfectly natural extension of existing 3D and computing technology. They’re making an engine for producing the sounds of colliding objects by simulating the materials of the objects themselves in a virtual space, and then calculating the forces and vibrations that would be produced. Academically it’s a challenging proposition, but it has plenty of practical applications as well.

The simulation of noise propagation perhaps would be most easily applied in 3D games, which despite having nearly photorealistic models, textures, and lighting, still rely on a limited cache of pre-recorded sounds to play when, say, a table tips over. By simulating every object on the table and tracking the physical effects of collision with the floor, other objects, and the resulting reverberations, a more realistic and accurate sound can be created on the fly — or at least that’s the theory.

Right now the researchers acknowledge two obstacles. First, the physical world needs to be simplified greatly in some cases in order to provide a workable amount of data. A ball hitting the floor is one thing, with only a few factors to calculate, but what about a stack of dishes rattling against each other on a table that has been jostled? The number of contact points must be reduced so thousands or millions of different interactions don’t have to be tracked separately. At the same time, they must have enough to produce a realistic sound. It’s a balancing act governed by the amount and type of objects and the computing power they have at hand.

And it seems that not everything can be generated completely from scratch just yet. Their demo at SIGGRAPH has the stack of dishes mentioned above, but apparently soundtracking flames it isn’t so easy. The low-frequency part they’ve got, but for the rest had to base their models based on recorded fire sounds and then “paint” them onto the low end. That said, most common sounds are predictable in the same way physical interactions are predictable (being that they are themselves sums of physical reactions), and it’s just a matter of getting the tools to do so.

Parallel processing hardware (like graphics cards or many-core CPUs) will be necessary to make these calculations on in real time, though: simulating the fire noise takes hours just for a short clip. But the very idea is compelling to anyone who’s heard the same “glass breaking” or “ricochet” noises in games or even movies, where the catalog of sounds is limited.

Right now it’s still in the labs, but this is definitely the kind of thing that gets turned into a product and sold. A company like Nvidia or Havok would love to get their hands on this. Unfortunately there’s no video, but if one becomes available after it’s shown at SIGGRAPH, we’ll put it here.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch