A New 3D Language for Website Design.
Sound Good?     ...You Bet!

Aureal, a manufacturer of soundcard technology for the PC, has joined into a strategic alliance with Flatland Online, a web technology company which has created a new 3D language for website design. This merger will not only allow for the creation of gamelike, realistic 3D content, but also supports Aureal’s award-winning A3D 2.0 positional audio standard enabling the Flatland Rover browser extension software to allow website visitors to see and hear an immersive 3D world.

Analysis:
Utilizing the combined resources of Aureal and Flatland Online, the new '3DML' 3D scripting language has the power to make 3D websites come alive. Aureal's A3D 2.0 allows designers of 3DML 'spots' to easily include sound sources that behave as if they are actually in a 3D space. The sounds are even capable of reflections and occlusions, actually changing the way the sound is perceived based on the surroundings in the 3DML environment. Since the support for the Aureal technology has been completely integrated into the Flatland Rover, adding sounds to the environment is as simple as adding an attribute to a 'building block' and using it in your 'spot'.

3DML, from Flatland, is the newest standard for building 3D Web sites. 3DML is an easy-to-use markup language, which is capable of achieving realistic 3D immersive environments while remaining much less confusing than VRML. 3DML uses a basic 'building block' approach to building the 3D environments. You simply modify the existing 3D shapes from the included 'pallet' of basic blocks, by deciding various attributes, ranging from textures to orientation to lighting and... sound.

To experience the 3D web, you first need to download the Flatland Rover plug-in. Flatland Rover is approximately 1.2mb, and is designed to download over a 28.8 modem in approximately seven minutes. Flatland Rover is currently available for Netscape Navigator ver. 3.x and later, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x and later, and AOL 4.0. The plug-in is available as a free download from the Flatland.com website.