Playback Engine for streaming 3D comes to the Mac

A company called Brilliant Digital Entertainment is brining its Digital Projector technology to the Mac next month. And the company also plans to integrate its Digital Projector technology into Apple’s upcoming QuickTime 5 player as a downloadable, integrated QuickTime component.

Not enough? Okay, how about this: the Brilliant Digital Projector will support Mac OS X, as well as the traditional operating system. And the forthcoming QuickTime 5 player compatibility will provide broad multi-platform access to users who haven’t been able to experience Brilliant’s 3D content over the Internet to date, according to Kevin Bermeister, president of Brilliant.

The Brilliant Digital Projector is a software device that enables the projection and playback of 3D interactive content on personal computers. It is capable of displaying interactive 3D content full-screen with synchronized audio and with animation content with which the user can interact to alter story lines, explore the content or experience from a different viewpoint, according to Bermeister.

“We believe that our ability to integrate the Digital Projector technology with the Mac platform will provide even greater creative options for artists, as well as compelling new media experiences for consumers,” Bermeister said in a press announcement in Las Angeles today. “The Brilliant Digital Projector is the premier technology for storytelling and real-time 3D character animation over the Web. The strong capabilities of Mac OS X and Apple’s solid technology offerings to creative artists and the entertainment industry make the Brilliant Digital Projector a natural fit for the Mac, whose users have been at the forefront of adopting groundbreaking technologies.”

He said that the Brilliant Digital Projector has been used to successfully play richly animated weekly Webisodes in streaming 3D to millions of Internet users. By accessing the Brilliant Digital Projector, Mac users will be able to view popular characters like Superman, KISS, Xena, and Ace Ventura on the Web’s largest entertainment portals, as well as the soon to be available Brilliant Animated Music “BAM” 3D music Web-videos featuring artists from Dreamworks Records and Island Def Jam Records, he added.

The Webisodes are in Multipath Movies, animated movies made with real-time 3D objects and characters rendered “on the fly.” Brilliant says that this means that you’re not just watching a flat animation that’s made to look like 3D animation, but you’re actually watching real-time action in a 3D world. To this 3D world they’ve added a branching storyline that takes you to any one of the many different story plots.

You watch the action as it unfolds, and you choose the direction in which you’d like the story to go. Most online animations play from start to finish and that’s it. With Multipath Movies you’re faced with choices about where you’d like to go or what decision a character should make. Each choice changes the direction of the storyline.

All content produced in the Brilliant Digital Projector (b3d) format can be accessed and viewed using the Brilliant Digital Projector, a free download available over the Internet. The Digital Projector houses the features that move characters, initiate interactivity, control speed and sequencing, and selects special visual effects. Once the Digital Projector is downloaded into a computer, viewers can experience all of Brilliant Digital Entertainment’s Multipath Movie offerings currently available over the Internet. Using the b3d Installer, the Digital Projector and related b3d entertainment download and stream more quickly than with other player systems, claims Bermeister.

“Apple’s QuickTime is the best technology for streaming high-quality audio and video,” said Frank Casanova, Apple’s director of QuickTime Product Marketing. “Brilliant’s Digital Projector offers an impressive library of episodic 3D content available over the Internet, and we are thrilled to welcome this product to the Mac.”