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Aug
2003
K2Vi
version 2.4 released - with the following enhanced features:
- Hyper Linking
- Autoplay for animations
- Load SDE layers from K2Vi project file
- New navigation properties
- Save paths with a K2Vi project
- Save viewpoints with a K2Vi project
- Create a smooth AVI movie of a K2Vi scene
- Enhanced real time shadow analysis
- Real-time visibility analysis
K2Vi as a location identifier for FreezeTV NZ:
K2Vi is currently
being utilised by FreezeTV in NZ (www.freezetv.com)
for the purpose of locating the ski slopes on the south
island of NZ. FreezeTV is producing a winter snow show
for SKY TV and have asked K2Vi to create models and 3D
fly paths as film clips that allow viewers
to see where the relevant ski slopes of the NZ Southern Alps
sit
in
relation
to
one another.
K2Vi
and the Environment Court - Okura sub-division:
K2Vi
has been demonstrated at the environment
court in Auckland and further demonstrations are being
planned.The evidence presented was accepted
as unchallenged (a precedent for such technology in NZ).
The feedback from the court was generally positive about
the potential
for
the use
of
K2Vi in the Environment Court. Several suggestions were
made regarding the software which will be implemented.
It was also suggested that, if K2Vi were to be used in
a case, the best course of action would be to present
the K2Vi evidence to all parties very early in the process.
In this way it would be possible to get agreement
from all parties, before trial, that the evidence presented
in
the K2Vi
model
represents
a
true model of both the existing situation and the proposed
development.
K2Vi
developing a new Military application:
K2Vi
is now employing K2Vi version 2.3 technology in producing a
customised
version
for specific military applications. There are currently two
Asia-Pacific Military Forces interested in the potential applications
of this product, which is being developed for deployment in
the field. The intention is to produce a mobile 3D GIS system
that can be actively employed during and within military operations,
rather than a system which potentially only has relevance during
pre-operational command center planning. New functionality
that is specific to military requirements is being introduced
into this customised version of K2Vi.
K2Vi
signs contract to produce revolutionary Tourism product:
Destination
Queenstown (DQ) in NZ, has contracted K2Vi to produce a Virtual
Reality tourism product. Initially the product will be used
by the Winter Marketing group for promotion of their winter
tourism business. The product will then be presented to the
members of DQ for their potential inclusion on the platform
for the purpose of advertising their products. The final
product is likely to have many of the activities available
in Queenstown represented, with links to websites, short
movies, and even short virtual versions of the activities
on offer.
K2Vi & GeographX
present 3DNZ on TelstraClear/Business News:
3DNZ
(3D New Zealand),
an exciting new
product from K2Vi
and GeographX is
nearing its release
date. A recent
news item on TV's TelstraClear/Business news
generated a lot
of interest in
this new product
and we are working
hard to get it
out there in the
next couple of
months.
Contact
us for more information....
K2Vi
version 2.3 released
K2Vi
2.3, the much awaited latest version of K2Vi has now been
released. The added functionality of this version is as
follows:
- new
user interface
- improved shadow analysis
- multi-resolution terrain tiling
- export of movie files out of K2Vi
- network data search paths
- support for SDE 8.2
- Contact us for more information on the latest version.
Nov
2002
K2Vi
and GeographX cover the Southern Traverse
Adventure race in Marlborough, New Zealand.
On
sunday the 17th of November 2002,
our 3D NEW ZEALAND (3D-NZ) product
was used to 'fly' the media and
competitors of the Southern Traverse
over the 2002 race course in 3D.
The response of the media and competitors
was very positive and we look forward
to sponsoring other adventure races
in the future.
3D-NZ
is a combination of GeographX data with a customised K2Vi
3D Terrain Viewer. This product is primarily pitched at
the travel and tourism sector where it can be used to familiarise
visitors with the surrounding region or a particular geographic
area of interest. The K2Vi 3D Terrain Viewer is user-friendly
without the full functionality of K2Vi Professional and
is priced accordingly.
3D-NZ
is ideally suited for use in visitor centres, airports,
information centres and booking offices for inter-active
hands-on use. Contact us for more information.
July
2002
NEWS
Multiprocessor / Multipipe K2Vi 2.2 for SGI
Our SGI version of K2Vi is finally ready for release. We have been
working hard to get this multiprocessor/multipipe version stable.
A lot of effort went into the loading of terrain grid files and the
automatic triangulation of this data. We will install a demo copy
at SGI headquarters in MountainView, San Fransisco later this month.
A new K2Vi Gallery
Have a look at our new K2Vi Gallery and see what K2Vi can do for
your organisation. These 3D worlds have been created for recent
projects and demonstrations.
Other news:
We have added new functionality to K2Vi over the past few months:
faster loading of grid terrain layers
Gourand shading of terrain
new improved sky
save z translation of layer with project
save scaling of layer with project
WISE installation
April 2002
NEWS
New K2Vi release: version 2.2
We have released a new version of K2Vi: Version 2.2. Main reason
for this new release is the new support for raster geospatial data
formats. After loading the raster data set, K2Vi automatically
creates a TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network layer) for optimized
rendering speed. K2Vi can now directly load:
Arc/Info ASCII Grid
Arc/Info Binary Grid
DTED -- Military Elevation Data
Socet Set ASCII export files
More formats on request
Furthermore we have added support for georeferenced JPG images.
For a full overview of all data types K2Vi can handle please see
our feature page.
February 2002
NEWS
New Project functionality in K2Vi
It is now possible to save the whole K2Vi scene to a K2Vi project
file. This file includes information about:
all GIS layers with associated 3DCAD and textures information
viewpoint position and orientation
scene effects such as fog, fogrange, background color and sky
magic carpet settings such as inner and outer boundaries, view
angle and sensor sensitivity
This functionality makes it very easy for the user to load in different
layers, viewpoint position/orientation and scene effects with one
push of a button. Which leads to our next news item: the new k2VIewer!
New K2Viewer
We have released our new K2Viewer 2.1. The new K2Viewer is an excellent
way of distributing the VR worlds you create in K2Vi.
You create your world in K2Vi using GIS, 3DCAD, texture, animation
and sound data.
Define flight paths you would like the user to fly
Save the whole lot to a K2Vi project file
Distribute the K2Viewer, data and project file on CD
Presentation of K2Vi features
Have a look what K2Vi can do for you.
January 2002
NEWS K2Vi team expanding!
It has been some time since the last K2Vi news update but we have
been going strong in the last part of 2001. K2Vi is now being tested
by the NZ defense force and we will keep you updated on their test
results.
On the functionality front: we have added new exciting functionality
to K2Vi:
Oracle port; K2Vi can now read spatial data directly from Oracle
Spatial 8i/9i. We are working on the write back functionality.
For a full overview of all data types K2Vi can handle please see
our feature page.
New improved navigation with mouse and keyboard. We had a good
look at the navigation in K2Vi without a spacemouse. Flying and
walking in K2Vi is now very smooth and intuitive with mouse and
keyboard.
New object animation;You can animate any object in the scene by
recording an animation path for it and attach the path to the object.
Path creation is similar to recording a flight path. Of course
you can save the recorded animation with the GIS object enabling
you to build up an animation model for each GIS layer. We think
this functionality makes it very easy to simulate for example traffic
flow.
New scene effects; You can interactively change the lighting in
the scene simulating sun rise and sun set.
New improved Virtual Camera; our 3D tracking add-on has been dramatically
improved. Virtual Camera (VC) is a Virtual Reality application
that allows the user to experience animated objects in a virtual
environment in real-time. New functionality includes the ability
to slow down and speed up the streaming tracking data.
SGI; In Augustus we spent a week compiling K2Vi on the RMIT Reality
Centre in Melbourne. The single processor/single pipe is running
stable in the Reality Centre. At the moment we are working to get
the multiprocessor/multi pipe version stable.
And last but not least: Rick Germs joins the K2Vi team from January
2002.
Rick is a computer graphics expert from The Netherlands and has
5 years of experience in 3D visualisation. He will start working
on interactive 3D terrain manipulation in K2Vi.
July 2001
NEWS K2Vi for SGI
K2Vi is now also available for SGI machines. We have developed
a single pipe version that runs smoothly on any SGI machine. In
the near future we will develop a multi-pipe version for SGI Reality
Centers.
May 2001
NEW functionality in K2Vi
During a few months of down south programming, we have added quite
a bit of new functionality:
Full support for ESRI shape files; K2Vi now fully supports reading
and writing of ESRI shape files. All CAD and texture information
is stored in dBase files which are linked to the shape file.
3-D selection; Ability to select a 3-D region of objects.
3-D walk mode; Ability to walk for example on the floor of 3-D
building models and go up or down stairs.
Scene effects; You can now interactively add scene effects like
fog or darkness to the simulation.
Support for OpenFlight models; You can now load in OpenFlight models
(15.6).
Stop loading button; Stop the loading of data from Shape Files,
SDE or the local file format at any time.
February 2001
NEW major release of K2Vi
We have released a new version of K2Vi: Version 2.0. Main reason
for this new release is the new support for ESRI shape files
(see below). We believe that this makes K2Vi a lot easier to use
because
no conversion is necessary anymore. Furthermore we have added
3D sound functionality.
ESRI Shape File Import
Supports for ESRI shape files. The new K2Vi release (version 2.0)
can read/write ESRI shapefiles directly. This includes 2D and 3D
points, polylines and polygons. Shapes can be extruded by attribute
value. Also an identify for 1 object or several objects can be
done on the associated dBase file.
3D Sound support
It is now possible to import sound into your K2Vi world and attach
the sound to an object. For example you can attach street noise
to an ArcView polyline representing a street (see above new functionality)
and then navigate towards that street experiencing the chances
in noise level and direction.
VRML examples of K2Vi Worlds
K2Vi allows you to export the whole or part of the 3D K2Vi scene
to the popular VRML file format for easy distribution on the internet.
Have a look at our VRML gallery. These 3D scenes have been exported
from K2Vi into VRML.
K2Vi - Oracle port
At the moment we are working on a direct port to Oracle Spatial
8i. This will mean that in the near future, K2Vi will be able to
directly load and manipulate spatial data stored in Oracle Spatial
8i. Loading and manipulation of spatial data stored in SDE (Spatial
Database Engine) is already fully supported in K2Vi.
October 2000
Magic Carpet functionality available in K2Viewer+
We have decide to open up some of the Magic Carpet functionality
in the K2Viewer+. Comment of some users was that the performance
was disappointing. The Magic Carpet functionality lets you interactively
adjust the outer and inner boundaries of the 3D scene. This gives
the user control over the amount of data that needs to be rendered
by the hardware. Less visible data in the scene means higher frame
rates. It is also possible in the Shareware version to let the
K2Vi software calculate the amount of visible data related to a
desired frame rate (depending on the hardware configuration of
your system).
September 2000
K2Viewer+ available!
K2Viewer+ is a stripped down SHAREWARE version of the full K2Vi
system. K2Viewer+ allows you to view GIS and CAD data in a Virtual
World. A lot of the functionality is disabled or invisible in this
SHAREWARE version.
ArcView 3.2 "Export to K2Vi" extension
available!
This ArcView3.2 extension allows you to export ArcView shapefiles
to local K2Vi file format. The extension supports export of 2D
and 3D shapes including TINs (terrain models). These .kvi files
can then be loaded into K2Viewer+. Example kvi data files are
included in the SHAREWARE version of K2Vi.
June 2000
Magic Carpet
Virtual reality is described as ‘An artificial environment
created with computer hardware and software and presented to the
user in such a way that it appears and feels like a real environment’.
To create this illusion, a rendering speed (frame rate) of at least
20 frames per second needs to be maintained. The rendering speed
depends for a large proportion on the amount of spatial data and
detail in the scene. Big data sets / high spatial detail results
in a near ‘real’ environment but will cause the frame
rate to drop because of amount of data that needs to be rendered
in each frame.
At the moment we are working on the so-called 'Magic Carpet' functionality.
This functionality basically makes the frame rate of the K2Vi application
independent of the size of the data set.
May 2000
Local file format
K2Vi started out as a virtual reality interface on ESRI's Spatial
Database Engine. It was not possible to run K2Vi without access
to a SDE data server. The local file format functionality allows
the user to run K2Vi as a stand alone application.
The import functionality loads local k2vi files and creates a
VR scene with the same interaction possibilities that are available
with a SDE connection except for the spatial buffer analysis.
The export functionality writes the entire VR scene or a subselection
to the local file format.
The local file format consists of an ASCII file which holds geographic
information about all the objects in the VR scene. The file has
the following format:
// FID
// CADROWDID
// TEXTURE
// RGB
// Vertices coordinates
// Extrusion
< unique identifier for each object>
<3d CAD file_name> <rotation_x> <rotation_y> <rotation_z>
<texure file_name> <polygon_id> <angle> <tiling>
<red> <green> <blue>
<vertices coordinates> (clockwise
coordinates)
<extrusion> (in
meters)
Attribute data for all objects can be held in any database that
supports ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity). K2Vi has an ODBC port
which allows the user to browse all available ODBC datasources
(local or on a network) for attribute information for the selected
object.
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