________________________________________________________________________________ [ e-berlin is struggling to become the vrml-equivalent of the new german capital, especially designed for shopping tours and sightseeing. at the moment, it all looks like "sorry, under construction", but of course that fits the actual location. in the future, you will be able to rent stores and offices there - that is, if you own them in real-berlin as well. sounds very ugly, but rents are still fairly low in the center of the city, so why not rent some empty stores to be present there? if i look out of my window i can see four in a row, each one of them available at something like twice my monthly phone bill. and remember: i woudn't have to renovate. wasn't this city so desperately looking for a silicon alley? well, here you are! -- still, there's one big problem with e-berlin: they haven't revealed any of their guidelines yet. possibilities are unlimited, and i'd really love to invest, but if you take a look at the very first object i've seen on my very first visit you will have to admit: that's not very encouraging... ] e : c i t y - a real eCommerce community in 3D e : c i t y is a 3D information system for the Internet, broadband and beyond. Once the 3D version of a city is built, the product provides consumers from around the world with instant access to a virtual city seamlessly integrated with a wide variety of tele-services such as tele-shopping, reservation and eCommerce in 3D spaces. e : c i t y connects 2D and 3D information systems via telecommunications infrastructure into a single, navigable 3D world that links all the virtual spaces such as offices, restaurants and shopping areas that are represented in the simultation with all the enabling information and tele-services the user requires in order to explore, make purchase, inquire, and otherwise interact and enjoy the real-time city model. The product is of significant benefit to ISPs; companies, businesses and institutions trying to reach and serve these consumers as customers; and advertisers. e : c i t y - as a combination of real and virtual business In contrast to many other online communities which are contrived and can be disorienting, e c h t z e i ts e : c i t y offers 3D photo-realistic environments of actual real cities businesses that consumers are already familiar with or wish to visit. In this way it combines real virtual business in a manner which benefits not only consumers, but also both virtual and actual vendors who chose to represent their business online. e : b a s e - the underlying platform The software of e : c i t y and all e c h t z e i t products is e : b a s e: a client/server platform, that provides a full-range of tools for integrating 3D worlds (VRML, HTML/XML), text graphics, sounds and digital video, chat functionality as well as authoring tools over Internet and Broadband networks. CyberCity Berlin - a virtual navigation anvironment CyberCity Berlin is a three-dimensional city model, which can be entered into and navigated through using Virtual Reality technology. Once in the city the visitor discovers a realistic, urban infrastructure and using multimedia he or she can intuitively locate interactive teleservices and information from integrated databases. The mnemonic use of the city metaphor is particularly successful in creating an efficient orientation and navigation environment being based on our everyday perception and socialisation. CyberCity Berlin is a virtual analogy of the real centre of Berlin and in it we have linked information with places, buildings and districts in such a way that the information can be found where one would expect to find it. In the virtual Galerie Lafayette for example, it is possible to call up information about the products available, this information is linked to the stock database and goods can be ordered. CyberCity Berlin comprises many famous and historical buildings such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Concert Hall on the Gendarmenmarkt, the Adlon Hotel and Galerie Lafayette which are very easily recognisable. e c h t z e i t has based the plans for CyberCity on the official digital map of Berlin. Geometric shapes have been placed onto these two-dimensional plans to create the third dimension and then photo-realistic textures have been mapped onto the facades of the buildings, roads, pavements etc to complete the very realistic picture. It is possible to move through CyberCity in real-time, i.e. 24 frames per second. We have livened up our virtual city by integrating dynamic simulation scenarios, for example "Crowd" and "Traffic". By network linking computers it is also possible for users to 'meet up' in CyberCity they then see each other as Avatars, or "virtual representatives". The next step that we are in the process of working on is to map live-video textures onto these Avatars and to give them the appearance of the users themselves. The aim is to make it possible to integrate virtual copies of real people into CyberCity, so that they can meet each other, communicate and 'walk' around the city. CyberCity Berlin is a high-end city information system which was commissioned by the DeutscheTelekom Berkom GmbH. e:city is a three-dimensional city information system for the WorldWideWeb. e:crowd e:crowd is a real-time crowd generation software which has been developed by echtzeit for a realistic and three-dimensional portrayal of crowds of people moving through Cyberspace. The movement of the figures can either be controlled or they can move about at random, the figures move towards tourist attractions, away from fire for example, and interact with e:traffic. This programme can be used to bring virtual environments (e.g. CyberCity) to life, by illustrating the different daily routines (rush hour in the town for example) and also as part of the town planning process, for the design and volume of public buildings and the distribution of town offices and infrastructure etc. ________________________________________________________________________________ no copyright 1999 rolux.org - no commercial use without permission. is a moderated mailing list for the advancement of minor criticism. more information: mail to: majordomo@rolux.org, subject line: , message body: info. further questions: mail to: rolux-owner@rolux.org. archive: http://www.rolux.org