Home | Forums | Article Search | Subscribe & Shop | Contact Us | Log Out Earthsim Email This Print This View My Personal Library Caught In The Web December 2005 • Vol.5 Issue 12 Page(s) 81 in print issue Add To My Personal Library Earthsim Imagine a beautifully detailed, moving, 3D view of Earth from orbit that can scale in time. Ice ages come and go, and you can view the fall and rise of dinosaurs from either direction. Oceans swell and shrink, continents drift on their tectonic plates back into Pangaea, and further back in time to Rodinia or forward to the next continental convergence. Zoom in to see rivers, forests, and civilization. Imagine all this pushing the limits of your GPU, streaming over the ’Net in high resolution, fully interactive. Now imagine being a kid again and absorbing it all for the first time. “I have been a fan of space imagery since I was a kid. Visualizing the earth from space and letting someone travel around the solar system has been a goal as long as I can remember. It was one of the inspirations that started me programming at 11. In Earthsim the key is to show the images in an awe inspiring way, to get the most out of graphics capabilities, and let you to feel like you are really floating out there in space viewing the planets.” This may sound like the words of a dreamer, but Servan Keondjian, CEO of Earthsim (www.earthsim.tv), comes to this dream with some hefty 3D credentials. Having founded RenderMorphics, the small British company Microsoft acquired in 1995 to jump-start the 3D component of DirectX, Keondjian lead the development team responsible for integrating 3D graphics into Windows 95, building the 3D platform that became an industry standard, Direct3D. Upon leaving Microsoft, Keondjian founded Qube Software (www.qubesoft.com); “If I was to stay in tech and 3D at all, I needed to find something new to do with it, also something that would keep me and an exceptional team feeling good about what we did.” That small but growing team has created the underlying cross-platform 3D streaming engine technology, development tools, and content that powers EarthSim and other projects, including the very popular Lego Digital Designer download (www.lego.com/eng/create/digitaldesigner). Earthsim merges traditional documentary television, 3D animation, and games into a kind of online interactive 3D encyclopedia/atlas/geo-history experience. Broadcast over the Internet and targeted at high-performance 3D-enabled consoles and PCs, current offerings feature gorgeous views of the Earth, moon, and Mars that the user can control, complete with mini 3D documentaries and a scalable paleogeographic timeline covering 600 million years. The documentary topics include Andes geology, a newly discovered Mars crater, and Mount Fuji. New ones for Christmas feature the Himalayas, Mount Everest and K2, and the formation of the inner planets. The idea is to continue to add content over time and charge an annual subscription fee for access. “I believe software should be more immersive and interactive. 3D was an important part, but I wanted to tie it in with a subscription download model where if users like what they are getting, they can keep getting more of it. The six-week release cycle for adding new elements is a vital part of this, so Earthsim feels alive. There is a growing vacuum for high quality content that seeks to educate and challenge our views about the world we live in,” says Keondjian. The first simulated ecosystem being added to the Earthsim universe is World Of Dinosaurs, a 200 x 200 Kilometer landscape set in North America’s early Cretaceous period. Rolled out in stages that echo the development process, a 3D interactive dinosaur encyclopedia is slated for early 2006. Keondjian says, “Kids love dinosaurs, and there is a wealth of stuff we can teach about how ecosystems work though a simulated dinosaur ecosystem. How small changes in the right places can have large results and how diversity makes for more resilience.” Users can explore these environments and the creature inhabiting them freely or by accessing mini documentaries based on what the user calls up in the encyclopedia or where the user explores. “I dream of using great technology in more useful ways. Learning through fun is the biggest and best challenge for us here,” says Keondjian. This is, to say the least, an ambitious project. In an industry long on ambition and often short on delivery, certainly this is one dream that deserves to live. Send your dreams to joan@cpumag.com. Holiday Wish List 1. Worldwide Respite 2. Rule of Law 3. Bowl of Ripe Guavas 4. Cure for Reading Glasses 5. Smart for Four 6. Waterproof Zydeco 7. Large Format Photo Printer 8. iPod Implant 9. Positano Sunset for Two 10. Self-cleaning kitty litter(4th year!) Want more information about a topic you found of interest while reading this article? Type a word or phrase that identifies the topic and click "Search" to find relevant articles from within our editorial database. Enter A Subject (key words or a phrase): ALL Words (‘digital’ AND ‘photography’) ANY Words (‘digital’ OR ‘photography’) Exact Match ('digital photography'- all words MUST appear together) Home      Copyright & Legal Information      Privacy Policy      Site Map      Contact Us Copyright © 2010 Sandhills Publishing Company U.S.A. All rights reserved.