From: Martin Reddy Subject: Re: TECH: Looking for 3D objects Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 08:42:07 GMT > > Does anyone know of libraries of 3D objects to be shared/traded/sold/etc.? > >Well, there are several resources available, but there are no really >good comprehensive libraries of real-time 3D models that I know of. *** Yes, there IS a library of freely-available 3D objects for VR. *** Th UK VR-SIG has recently set such a facility up, with myself being the maintainer of the site. Currently it holds objects in various formats including AutoCad, Division's dVS, REND386/VR386/AVRIL, RenderWare, Superscape VRT3 and Sense8's WorldToolKit. There are also documents on various file formats as well as the packages and a number of utilities including converters and viewers etc. The archive can be accessed through a Web browser via the URL: http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/~mxr/objects.html Or you can connect directly to the ftp site via the URL: ftp://ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk/pub/objects The site has gained strong industrial backing (from companies including Division, Criterion, Superscape, Sense8 etc.) and many of these have contributed to the archive. I am still collecting more material for the site and so (until now) I had not publicised the archive's presence to the world-wide community yet. However, your post has prompted me to pre-empt my "official opening". I will mail out full details over the next few weeks, but you are welcome to take a look at the site as it stands. Any comments will be gratefully accepted. FYI: I have included a copy of the archive's README file at the end of this post. Happy Object Hunting, Martin. +============================================================================+ | Martin Reddy Dept. of Computer Science | | University of Edinburgh | | e-mail : mxr@dcs.ed.ac.uk Mayfield Road, EH9 3JZ | | http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/mxr/ Tel : (0131) 650 5164 | +============================================================================+ -------------------------------> CUT HERE <----------------------------- The UK Virtual Reality Special Interest Group (UK VR-SIG) *** 3D Object Archive : README *** 1 - INTRODUCTION This site offers a collection of freely available three-dimensional object files which have been compiled for their applicability to real- time graphics applications, and virtual reality (VR) in particular. Many object models in the public domain are large, complex designs, usually generated from some kind of CAD package; however, the requirement of a real-time VR system necessitates small, compact representations. This repository is therefore an attempt to collate models which are more directly applicable to the needs of the VR community. In addition to object files, the site is also host to some relevant documentation on the supported file formats and various utilities such as converters to transform models into different formats etc. It should be noted that the current suite of supported formats is not definitive - provision will be provided for other formats as the need arises. This site is maintained on behalf of the UK VR-SIG. Suggestions or comments should be mailed to: mxr@dcs.ed.ac.uk Put more succinctly, the goals of this site are: 1) Maintain a repository of 3D object files, of various formats, which will be of particular relevance and usefulness to the real-time 3D graphics/VR community. 2) Hold relevant documentation on the support file formats, e.g. descriptions of the file formats, information about the various graphics systems which are supported etc. 3) Hold a collection of pertinent utilities for the supported file formats, e.g. converters, filters, viewers etc. 2 - DIRECTORY STRUCTURE ftp://ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk/pub/objects/ README - This ReadMe file INDEX - A list of all objects at this site INDEX.Z - A compressed version of INDEX FORMATS - Information on the supported packages/formats autocad - (Dir) AutoCAD objects (.dxf) superscape - (Dir) SuperScape VRT 3 objects/worlds (.vca/.vrt) renderware - (Dir) RenderWare objects (.rwx) rend386 - (Dir) REND386/VR386/Avril objects/worlds (.plg/.wld) wtk - (Dir) WorldToolKit objects (.nff) dvs - (Dir) Division dVS objects foouploader textures - (Dir) texture maps docs - (Dir) relevant documents, e.g. format specs utils - (Dir) relevant utilities, e.g. converters incoming - (Dir) space for all uploads (see below) 3 - UPLOADING FILES Anyone is welcome to contribute material which they feel may be of interest or benefit to the real-time graphics community. These should be uploaded to the "/pub/objects/incoming" directory and I will then relocate these to an appropriate directory in due course. In addition to the actual object file (or utility program etc.), it would be beneficial if you could also upload a text file for each model. This would include a description of the object and perhaps an acknowledgement to the author or as well as any relevant information regarding number of polygons, version number of software etc. This text file should begin with a short (60 chars max.) description of the object which will be used in the INDEX file (located in the same directory as this README). N.B. Even if you do not wish to include a lengthy description of the uploaded files, please at least provide this short, one-line description so that other users can easily see what the files contain. For example, if you have an object called .dxf 1) Create a textual description of the object called foo.txt which has a short (60 char) description on the first line, preferably followed by a more in-depth description. 2) open an anonymous ftp session to ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk 3) remember to select binary mode if transferring binary files (bin) unix 3) cd /pub/objects/incoming 4) put foo.dxf 5) put foo.txt NOTE: All models uploaded to this site are assumed to be of a freely- available (public domain) status. Please do not upload copyrighted material without the copyright owner's expressed permission. All transactions on this server are logged. 4 - FILE COMPRESSION/ARCHIVING Where appropriate, most files will be compressed to save disk space. Programs used for this include the standard compress (.Z) which can also be decompressed by gunzip (ftp://ftp.tex.ac.uk/usr/bin/); PC archives are commonly created using PKZip (.zip), or an equivalent, and can normally be decompressed with the associated PKUnZip program (ftp://ftp.tex.ac.uk/ctan/tex-archive/tools/pkzip). 'Tar'ed archives (.tar) can be unarchived using the unix "tar -xf " command (ftp://ftp.tex.ac.uk/ctan/tex-archive/tools/tar). 5 - OTHER RESOURCES This section aims to collate URLs for other sites which may be of interest or relevance to anyone who finds this site interesting or relevant. This section is open to contributions, so if you know of a site which should be listed here, then mail me and I'll consider adding it. "ftp://avalon.vislab.navy.mil/pub/objects" contains a large collection of objects in various formats (inc. 3ds, lightwave, byu, dxf, enff, obj, off, pov etc.), as well as a large selection of textures (in rgb, win, jpeg, tif formats). co"http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/iat" lots of info on various graphics formats, including GIF, JPEG, PCX, TIFF, FAX etc. "http://www.cms.dmu.ac.uk/People/cph/vrsw.html" Chris Hand's list of VR software packages. "http://www.cms.dmu.ac.uk/~cph/3dsw.html#renderware" The companion page to Chris Hand's VR Software List. This one contains information on various 3D graphics packages "ftp://ftp.canon..uk/pub/renderware" home of the RenderWare graphics package demos and documentation. Runs on PC, Mac, X11. "ftp://psych.toronto.edu/pub/vr-386" home of the VR386 graphics package. Freely available. Runs on a PC (80386 or higher). "ftp://sunee.uwaterloo.ca/pub/avril" home of the Avril graphics package. Freely available. Runs on a PC (80386 or higher). "ftp://sunee.uwaterloo.ca/pub/rend386" home of the REND386 graphics package. Freely available. Runs on a PC (80386 or higher). "ftp://artemis.arc.nasa.gov/sig-wtk/models" the WorldToolKit site. Contains many .nff files (mostly already mirrored at this site) "ftp://sics.se/pub/dive" home of the DIVE (Distributed Virtual Reality system). Freely available. Runs on SGI, Sun Sparc, IBM RS/6000. "ftp://menaik.cs.ualberta.ca/pub/graphics" home of the MR-ToolKit graphics package. Freely available to licenced Academic and Research institutions. Runs on SGI, DEC & IBM workstations. ---- Martin Reddy