How to build a 3D interactive world in a browser based application?

Question

Hi everyone!

I have a friend and he recently started to learn "Cinema 4D". He asked me if I could build him a website in which he could build a3D world, or room, using a Cinema4D file, where people could visit his work. Probably by interacting with objects.

I've searched a bit in StackOverflow and I found this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/196556/are-browser-based-online-games-possible.

It gave me some ideas, but that's not exactly the same thing. My question is. Is this application possible? Can I build such a website, using his Cinema4D files, allowing people to interact the website application like in a 3D game? Would this be possible with Silverlight (.NET is the technology where I feel more comfortable)? Probably with XNA port to Silverlight? I don't know... Does anyone of you could give an advice on how to architect and build this? I need some expertise (at least greater than mine! :)) from you guys.

Thank you very much!

Answer 1

You might want to look into Unity3D. They have a web plugin that allows the 3D scenes to be interacted with in a browser. I am not sure if it can import Cinema4D files directly, but i'm sure Cinema4D can export to a format that is supported.

UPDATE: Just checked Unity's manual, and it supports directly importing .c4d files.

Answer 2

Not "true" 3D (so no Cinema4D support, unfortunately), but there is a Flash-based 3D engine called Alternativa3D that you might want to check out, if you have any experience with Adobe Flash. There are some demos here.

Answer 3

"Unity3D seems to be a solution! That's exactly what I want! Unfortunately I can't use it for free and I'm not sure it's a wise decision to spend that amount of money in such a small and non-profit project. But that's what I'm looking for! Thank you very much! :) – rsa Jun 30 at 20:52"

If you are looking for a free solution, I recommend checking out Google's O3D API.

See: http://code.google.com/apis/o3d/

Google defines it as, "O3D is an open-source web API for creating rich, interactive 3D applications in the browser."

I was just recently introduced to it myself, so I can't share any war stories. I do find the API intuitive and have not run into anything that completely turns me off.

Best of luck with you projects.

Answer 4

Why don't you take a look at this site?

Aether3D.com

It allows you to upload your models in W3D format (cinema 4d exports to w3d) and explore them through a browser.

If you need more information look here Aether3D.com/info.php or mail me

Aether3d.com is a small project I was working on last summer. It's still quite buggy but if someone finds it useful I'll try to finish it ;-) The technology I used is Shokwave3d so you might need to install the plugin to view the examples.