VIRTUAL RECREATION OF REAL 3D SPACES THROUGH INTERNET USING SHOCKWAVE TECHNOLOGY

Abstract
Internet is mainly a communication system in continuous evolution, wich provides us all the means for the propagation at world level of susceptible contents of being digitalizables, as well as the combination of different communicative systems. Making use of that powerful quality and taking as development base the Shockwave technology of Macromedia's. We have developed an engine that integrates real time 3D technology environments, a multiuser system and also access to integrated databases. To test the engine, we have recreated a historical environment; the Square of the Quintana located in the old town of the city of Santiago of Compostela. The environment is integrated in a web page, accessible by a web browser.

1. Introduction
Communication systems have been developing in a vertiginous way. From the employment of writing to television, cinema or telephone. But all this has been small in front of the integration of all these technologies in a new one called Internet that adds new interactivite degrees. The subjectis not just a espectator like with TV but rather he can request information and interactivate with it. The combination of these different ways allows us to create more efficient and accessible talkative systems, making the access to information and the interaction more simple and attractive . Internet also provides us all the ways for the propagation of contents at world level, and simplifies the access to all kind of multimedia information like text, sound, video or other stuff able to be digitizeable. Each comunication system condition, in a specific way, our senses, determining our perceptive outline. So in virtual representation of real spaces what is done is to show a recreation of what surrounds us, through a visitor's immersion in a synthetic reality. The virtual representation of real environments by infographic system in real time, facilitates the identification, and the approach of new realities and visions to users of any part of the world, as well as transmiting a spacial reference of our environment. From the mid-nineties there have been multiple intents of generalizing the 3D environments for personal computers. Regrettably these efforts have met with two big restrictions: the slowness of the CPUs and the small band width in the case of the systems distributed by Internet. These limitations have been palliating by means of the generalization of connections of wide band as are the cable and the ADSL among the users of Internet, as well as the enormous depreciation of the graphic 3D cards and their wide diffusion among domestic equipment, being nowadays a standard element of their configuration. To this it is necessary to add the enormous improvement experienced in the last years by the development environments of 3D and web, as is the employment of SDS (Subdivision Surfaces) [1], Streaming or vectorial [3] animations. Therefore the improvement of the transfer speeds in Internet and the power in the hardware allows to bring near the users nearer to the 3D technology. An 3D environment is not simply a static image; it is a complex and dynamic environment that has to be controlled by the user, which supposes an important problem of accessibility[14]. Contrary to the 2D environments, in which a remarkable standardization has been developed in its interactibilidad, by means of a series of visual elements as are buttons, lists or text squares among others. Regarding 3D this process has still not taken place. We don't have interactive references that can take as standard, for that reason it supposes a challenge for the designer to facilitate the accessibility and to minimize the learning time. When we speak of environments in the first person we have to identify three elements fundamentally: the character, the environment and the interactivity. Being the character the user's virtual reference in the environment, their interactive tool, with which the virtual environment can travel.

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It is only not about maximizing the visual quality of the environment and of the character if this has a physical representation, one also has to maximize the satisfaction gained by the visit simplifying the communication between the character and the environment, by means of an appropriate planning and use of the interactibility.

In that line, at the moment we do not have left another alternative that to torture the user, being caused who accede to the surroundings via keyboard and mouse, that evidently distan much of legs, hands and head. That takes us to the necessity fundamentally to take care of a limited resource, which there is to take care of, at the time of developing for Web, and is the patience. Taking it always like reference, if we want at least that our surroundings are used by people, and referenciando it by means of the following relation.
Patience>=download time+periodo de aprendizaje del entorno

And with these antecedents we came to the creation of three-dimensional virtual surroundings that fundamentally were easily accessible stops most of users and connected systems to Internet.

2. Considerations of the audience

Our objective public are all those users of Internet, with some basic knowledge of the use of visual operating systems, and interest in the knowledge of historical places. We compare this group of users with the nearest group from a technical point of view to our environment that are the users of 3D games[4][11], fundamentally in PC systems. And we reached the following conclusion. The users of our 3D environment in general have less technical knowledge and patience than the average PC players. They don't worry about questions like the time of answer of the ping, drivers or hardware configuration. If something doesn't work they simply dont use it, while a user accustomed to use 3D games for PC will look for the form of configuring their system to obtain a good operation of the environment. This forces to automate in the end the technical configuration of the environment and to minimize the technical prerequisites, as well as to give multiple alternative preconfigured.

3. The tool: Shockwave

Around the summer of 2001 Macromedia[8] I launched into the market in collaboration with Intel an upgrade of their software of development Managing multimedia. The new 8.5 version supposed a substantial change since it introduced as main novelty a complete motor 3D[5][6], as well as a powerful programming language called Lingo 3D[2]. This new capacity can be used as much for the generation of local environments as for their distribution through Internet by means of the use of the Shockwave plugin. This new version of the tool provides us with a higly programmable and modern 3D development environment that is joined to those already supported characteristics of the Director; a complete 2D motor, a stable plugin that allows us the distribution of our developments through Internet and the MUS (Multiuser Server) [7] that allows the interaction of multiple users (50 in their free version and up to 3000 in the registered version) that is provided for nothing by Macromedia. Reaching this point we must ask ourselves the following question. How does this differ to what has been done for more than 4 years with other technologies. If the 3D environment is substituted by VRML[15] whose development license is free and easy to develop, the multiuser system by java or ActiveX and the database by active pages (ASP, PHP,) or simply by a handful of you pages in HTML, we would already have all of that.

VIRTUAL RECREATION OF REAL 3D SPACES THROUGH INTERNET USING SHOCKWAVE TECHNOLOGY

So we outline the main differences between the use of Shockwave and other suitable variants previously indicated: 1.Size: At the moment this is the fundamental premise to keep in mind when developing environments for web. Elevated sizes of the files limit the accessibility to the same ones. And that is surely the main limitation of the VRML when being generalized in Internet. Since in its different versions, either in ASCII or compiled the size of the VRML environments is very high. A technology that seeks to be transmitted through the current net cannot have superior weight of 2Mb for small virtual recreation (without including the textures). With Shockwave the same environment can end up weighing 15% of its VRML equivalent. 2.Hardware: Another defect of the VRML, is that to renderize small areas (320x240px) it requires a high calculation of the CPU. Mainly from the graphic card. As well as substantial quantities from the RAM memory. With Shockwave very superior results can be obtained in bigger renderized areas (800x600), with a very inferior consumption of resources. 3.Integration and simplification: Working with Shockwave, we can embrace the different necessities of our system with the same tool. Everything is reproduce with the same plugin and it is programmed with the same language (Lingo). we can make for example, any event that takes place in the 3D environment to cause an action in the 2D system or MUS and vice versa. This means a substantial simplification as opposed to the VRML that needs of other different technologies to obtain the same functionalities. 4.Streaming: we can develop not only an algorithm action for when the system is totally discharged, but rather we can go on offering the functionality of the system with only one part of the environment loaded. We can also find the support of SDS on the part of the 3D motor. Which allows us to work with a mesh in low resolution and to go on adding to it the rest of the poligonity as this is being unloaded. 5.Plugin: This is the black point shared by both technologies. To be able to be executed in a navigator web they need the previous installation of the corresponding plugin that in both cases exceeds three mega bytes. Although it is necessary to differ that the Shockwave, besides the rendered 3D technology includes a complete 2D motor. With regard to the diffusion of the same, the plugin Shockwave is one of the most extended by Internet, more than 367 million users have installed this plugin. Also the access to the same, is simple (it is carried out through Macromedia) and free or charge. While the VRML plugin is not standardized, it is generally complicated to get and not all its versions are free or charge. All these results were obtained by means of the test of different 3D models, recreated so much in vrml as in Sockwave technology. Using in both cases IE5 web browser, and Shockwave plugin for the reproduction of the Shockwave surroundings, and the Cosmo Player[16] for the reproduction of surroundings vrml.

Illustration 1. Making a shockwave file

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4. The system
Starting from the biggest communication system created up until now, we raise two basic objectives: the verisimilitude and the accessibility. So, on the one hand it was about developing a system that allows us to provide the user access to an 3D environment as real as possible. And on the other limiting as much as possible the requirements of hardware as of software so as to have access to the environment. In that sense, the fact that the system is based on an available plugin as much for Windows as for Mac, and is reproduced on a standard navigator, gives us access to most of our objective public. On the side of the hardware, although not necessary (if advisable) an accelerating 3D card, and that the system allows a substantial adaptability to the client machine (LOD (Level of Detail), SDS or optional mipmapping among other elements) it allowed access to the environment in an acceptable way, to teams with speeds of 200MHz and 64Mb RAM (this it is the most basic system in which the environment was tried out). In the first phase of the development of the prototype, the user enters the environment in first person and travels through it via keyboard or by means of pressing some displacement buttons. With the left button of the mouse it can pulse on the different points elements of the localization so that the system provides him with information on the same. It can also communicate with the different users that are in that same localization via chat, previous registration and selection of climatological conditions in that moment. In a second phase the user is represented by an Avatar(the user's virtual representation in the environment) and it can select up to a maximum of four users that can integrate themselves in his same instance of the environment with his corresponding Avatars. This restriction is not applied to the quantity of users that are in the chat. The quantity of simultaneous Avatars is limited in the same environment for two reasons; to optimize the yield of the system, it is of no use it we introduce dozens of Avatars if to change the environment is later innavegable because client schemes it on the other hand the able to move the environment efficiently, and itdoesn't make any sense to go to the recreation of a historical place and not be able to do anything because it is saturated with Avatars that hinder our vision of the environment. The freedom of movements is absolute, one is able to go up stairways, enter buildings or look in any direction. The environment includes different climatological conditions as are sun, rain and snow. As well as different time zones going from day to night in function of the real hour of the recreated localization. The system checks the hour of the user and after carrying out the precise adjustments it modifies the illumination of the environment dynamically. It also possesses a series of climatological effects as are fog or the movement of the clouds. The sound of the environment is positional and it is distributed by both loud-speakers of the client's equipment in function of the user's orientation with regard to the origin of the sound. Locutions of some points of information and access to different areas are also included.

4.1 The architecture

This system is based on the architecture client-servant. The servant has to store the dcr files, the HTML pages he has to have in use the servant MUS (Multiuser Server).

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Illustration 2. Diagram of the relation client-server

4.1.1 Graphic interface

The advantage in use the same technology for all the surroundings is that it allows us to create clean and integrated graphical surroundings. We reserved the bottom part to the multiuser system and to provide the information of the surroundings and to help in the displacement. Whereas the top part is occupied in its totality by the 3D surroundings.

Illustration 3. Snapshot of the envioroment.

4.1.2 Virtual environment

We take as a physical reference an incomparable environment as is the old town of Santiago of Compostela and inside it we center ourselves in the recreation of the Quintana Square. Enclosure also called Square of theDead, next to the cathedral of Santiago of Compostela. It was been created using CAD/CAM an digital photography. We opt mainly for this localization for three reasons: 1.Easily accessible as much to take space references as to photograph it digitally, for a later texturization. 2.Its two levels separated by some stairways that cross the entirety of the square allow us the inclusion of multilevel displacement. 3.The documentation of its different elements that constitute it is easily accessible.

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Illustration 4. Diagram of access and visualization of the envioroment information

4.1.3 The database

The database is generated in XML (Expandable Markup Language) [12], later on by using of an XSL insole (Expandable Style Language) [13] we transform it into an array that is passed as a parameter to one of the properties of the object in charge of the administration of the database. There are two charts one that includes the name of all the models that have associate information and a reference to the point of related information. In the second chart they are defined all the data of this points of information, as for exemple the name, description or construction. Working with two charts facilitates us to link several objects to the same point of information or to improve at any moment statements fields. The reason of including the database inside the file is not only for one reason. Mainly we opt for this solution because the follows: 1.Limit the use of a servant of active pages: We liberate the servant of having to process the petitions of information of the different sensitive elements of the environment. Since when being included in the own file this process is carried out by the client machine. At the same time we don't need to have to install a database agent in the servant to provide this service. 2.Compress: The direct access to the the databese in XML would imply to have to discharge a file of about 100K, because the XML comes in format ASCII without any compression type. While when going included in the file Shockwave it is compiled inside the same one being reduced at about 10K.

Ilustracin 5. Database convertion

4.1.4 Multiuser
The part multiuser part is elaborated by using MUS (Macromedia Shockwave Multiuser Server) [7] that allows us until a max. of 1000 people communicating simultaneously by means of: A chat that allows a conversation in real time. A shared presentation, allowing the presenter and the audience to see a presentation at the same time. To execute a multiuser interactive game. To maintain a conversation conversate online with a shared board in where each user could write. This communication can be carried out in three ways: Sending the petitions to the MUS and those being forwarded them to the other movies. By the establishment of communications peer-to-peer directly with other movies. With a connection based on text, as it can be a standard mail or a servant IRC.

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Illustration 6. Diagram of comunication client-server

The MUS has been used mainly because its power, its absolute integration with the Shockwave technology because its access via Lingo that is the same programming language used in the development of the prototype. It has been used for the chat integrated in the shockwave movie, accessing to it by of a previous registration of the user's name and having access to different chat sessions depending on the virtual space in which was in in that moment the visitor. In this case the session was only one because it had only one spacial reference. In a second phase not implemented, by the moment, the MUS will be the one to synchonize the movements of the physical representations (Avatars) of the different users, in their respective places of the environment.

4.1.5 Avatars (Virtual Representations of the users)

The physical representation of the user in the virtual surroundings is made through a model 3D of a person. This representation is denominate Avatar. The inclusion of Avatars allows a fast approache of the user to the 3D surroundings by means of a visual reference of its virtual presence in the surroundings through a personage and at the same time it gives an important space reference, since it allows to determine the dimensions of the surroundings recreated through a human reference. The Avatars are modeled with the applications of Mayan design 3D 3DSMax4 and 3,5 following the following process: 1. The model wireframe is generated in low poligonity. 2. The model is textured. 3. The avatars bones are created, wich allow to animate it later. 4. The animation of the avatar are aplied to him, using movement captures libaries, that provide an enormous realism. The user could select between different personages and sexes. Once its selected some elements can be chose as they are the face, clothes and height. Each have different movements allowing them to move, to surpass obstacles, to salute or to yawn among others.

VIRTUAL RECREATION OF REAL 3D SPACES THROUGH INTERNET USING SHOCKWAVE TECHNOLOGY

Ilustration 7. Avatar in front Holy Door

5. Hardware
The fundamental guideline in the development of the application was to optimize the accessibility to the same one. Reason why it has always been to minimize the necessary hardware requirements to reproduce the environment. The development was made in a AMD k6III-400MHz, 128Mb ram, graphical card TNT2 32Mb and Windows 2000 professional. Being later tested in the equipment indicated in Table 1. Equipment used in the initial test of the prototype, evaluating as much the speed and possible errors in the reproduction of it.

Hardware PIII 600Mhz, 256MB RAM, graphic card TNT2 32MB with 3D support PII 200MHz, 64MRAM, graphic card 4MB without 3D support PIII 500Mhz, 256MB RAM, graphic card 8Mb with 3D support AMD K6-III, 256MB RAM graphic card GeFore2MX 32MB with 3D support G4 300Mhz, 128MB RAM, graphic card 16RAM with 3D support

SO/Software Windows 2000 IE 5, DirectX 7, OpenGL1.0 Windows 98 1Ed IE5 Windows 98 2Ed NS6, DirectX 5 Windows XP Home Edition IE 6, DirectX 8, OpenGL1.0 OS.9 y OS.X IE5, OpenGL1.0

Rendimiento Optimal* Slow*** Optimal* Optimal* Medium**

Table 1. Equipment used in the initial test of the protype

* Fast 3D navigation, access to the information. ** Medium speed of 3d navegation, and fast access to the information. *** Slow speed of 3d navegation, and fast access to the information.

It is necessary to say that even if Shockwave technology includes a render by software for the 3D surroundings, is important the use of Directx 5+ or OpenGL1.0+ for an optimal visualization of the system.

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6. Testing the system

In the search of the optimization of the prototype, the test of the application by people who do not have a high knowledge of navigation by surroundings 3D to be able to fit the capability of use and accessibility of the system, at the same time that we can fix all bugs derived from the development. In the test three parameters were evaluated: 1. Accessibility: One was to measure the degree of difficulty in the use of the Interface, navigation by the 3D envioroment and access to the information: 2.Improvements and modifications: It was required to them to sailed by the surroundings and gave ther opinion about all dificulties found, what they missed in there and what they would eliminate. It is necessary to distinguish two different groups of person in the test. One supervised directly and the other doing the test privately, acceding to the demo via Web. In the first case it allowed us to see the user behaviour, showing us what they did at the first time to acced to the envioronment, what did not use or problems they found with. In the second case the obtained results, served to us mainly to evaluate possible errors in the system and to have opinions of people from other countries. 3. Errors: We checked the different errors that could arise as much in the own prototype as in their visualization in different navigators and operating systems. The test was made by a population of 41 people and as it is indicated in the following tables.
Country Spain USA UK Argentina Checoslovaquia Australia Brasil Testers 29 4 3 2 1 1 1

Table 2. Geographic distribution Level High Medium Low Testers 15 6 20

Table 3. Previous knowledge of use of 3D envioroment S.O Windows 2000 profesional Windows XP Windows 98 SE2 Mac OS 9 Mac OS X Computers 29 6 4 1 1

Tabla 4. Distribucin por sistemas operativos

The main reached conclusions were: Accessibility: The impossibility of the users to approximated themselves in extremis to the elements of the envioroment1,simplify navigation enormously, mainly for those ones more inexperienced.

We used systems of collisions based on the use of of ray tracing, that aside from reducing to the consumption of resources on the part of the equipment client, us permitio the establishment of a seguiridad area, that impede that the

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In order to evaluate the time of necessary learning for the handling of the surroundings, we divided two periods: 1.The time that takes the user to begin to move himself by the surroundings (to advance, to raise stairs, to rotate) and to accede to the information. 2.The time that takes to him in acceding to actions more avanced, as they are to look around in all the directions or to accede to the multiuser system. The results in both cases were very satisfactory, as much those less advanced took about 20 seg. in moving through the square and 1 min. in familiarized themselves with the movement and the access to the information. Feeling in general more comfortable using the keyboard that pressing the visual cursors of the surroundings with the mouse. The second phase did not exceed in any case more than 1.30 min., not even with the lower users. In certain cases the users did not perceive the existence of the chat, although where there were informative panels on the same one, when the envioroment starts, and that occupy a substantial part of the inferior panel. Improvements and modifications: All the testers made reference to the small dimensions of the envioroment (the prototype recreated just a square not alowing to accede to the rest of the city). Some users missed people walking by the square (the ups and downs were not including in the test version). And some of the lower experienced users asked for the imposibility to see the people who were walking by the square. In that line there was a pair of tests in which where included in demo the projection, in a screen integrated in the surroundings 3D, the realtime images coming from one webcam located in this square. But that peculiarly disturbed to the low and average users, who seemed to be in front of the mirror of Alicia, which made us choose to pospone the definitive inclusion of that option. Errors: Was a failure in the reproduction of the surroundings in OsX, but finally it was due to an error of plugin that was solved later by Macromedia.

7. Future implementations
Within the new implementations for this system we distinguished, between improvements of the own motor and the different uses that can be done with it. As an improvement tried a greater monotorizacin of the users is tried, doing that the pulsations on the different elements from the surroundings, will be stored in a data base lodged in the servant who later will provide statistics to us, thus to know the elements that more interest wake up in the objective public. To optimize the load in streaming of the other locations in the city, to diminish the died times of the user while these elements unload. Also we are working in the inclusion of lightmaps and dynamic textures, particle systems sensible to the yield of sorrounding, and other improvements of the own 3D engine. As future applications, the possibilities are enormous, but among them the lines of development fundamentally focus in the recreation of devices and machineries, as much as potential surroundings as they can be future buildings or facilities. Which offers us the opportunity to make them accessible to an ample objective public, and to study the answer and behavior of it before that future reality. And in addition the direct application to another type to locations as they can be museums or public buildings among others.

user patch to the walls of the surroundings or any other was had left obstaculo. This avoids the lost one of visual reference of the surrounding elements, and reduces the possibility that substantially the navigator feels lost.

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8. Conclusions
To end this article and summarize of it, it is possible to say that to the use of 3D technologies for the recreation and transmission through Internet of historical realities, completely increases the approach to the users of the network, as well as the level of identification and use of the same one. These technologies allow us to easily generate contents easily distributed through Internet, at the same time that we obtain a ratio quality/accesibility/time of development very satisfactory. In this prototype we already generate a easily navigable and a high interactivity degree 3D system. Simplifying the access to users who, because of their little knowledge or ability with these surroundings, had limited themselves to the traditional web page with photos and text. And also it is necessary to add the big inprovent due to the minimization of the physical size of the file like and the technical requirement to use it. Which has resulted positively in the level of accessibility to this tecnology. The future of the tourist communication, and recreations of spaces in the present globalization occurs through this kind of solutions, been or not this technology their short or half term route.

9. References
[1] Director 8.5: Shockwave Studio para 3D. Phil Gross y Mike Gross. Ed. Anaya Multimedia. Febrero 2002 [2] Directors third Dimension. Fundamentals of 3D programming in Director 8.5. Paul Catanese. ED. Que. Octubre 2001 [3] Vector Math for 3D Computer Graphics. Central Connecticut State University, Computer Science Department. chortle.ccsu.ctstateu.edu/ [4] Real-Time Interactive 3D Games. Allen Partridge. Ed. Sams. Noviembre 2001 [5] What's New in Director Shockwave Studio. Jay Armstrong, Greg Barnett, Stephanie Gowin, Tom Higgins, Marcelle Taylor y Frank Welsch. Ed. Macromedia. Marzo 2001 [6] Using Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio. Jay Armstrong, Barbara Herbert and Stephanie Gowin. Ed. Macromedia. Marzo 2001 [7] Usign the Shockwave Multiuser Server and Xtra. Jay Armstrong, Greg Barnett, Stephanie Gowin, Tom Higgins, Marcelle Taylor y Frank Welsch.Ed. Macromedia. Marzo 2001 [8] Macromedia. www.macromedia.com [9] Character Animation for Shockwave3D. Mark McCoy. www.macromedia.com/desdev/articles/char_anim.html [10] Building character. Toby Gard. www.gamasutra.com/features/20000720/gard_01.htm [11] Developing online console games. Peter Isensee y Steve Ganem. www.gamasutra.com/features/20030328/isensee_01.shtml [12] Extensible Markup Language (XML). www.w3.org/XML/ [13] The Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). www.w3.org/Style/XSL/ [14] Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). www.w3.org/WAI [15] VRML97 Specification. web3d.org/fs_specifications.htm [16] Cosmo Software. www.cai.com/cosmo/