Attached Link: http://www.viewpoint.com/pub/products/enliven.html

You may remember that about the time MetaCreations sold off Poser and all their other tool software, they switched to delivering interactive 3D content over the web, were renamed to MetaStream, and finally to Viewpoint. The Viewpoint interactive 3D web technology is quite impressive, but has until now been nearly inaccessible to all but large corporate advertisers, due to the fact that to publish any Viewpoint content, you used to have to buy a multi-thousand dollar broadcast key. Also, although many 3D packages export to Viewpoint format (including Poser), there have not previously been very accessible authoring tools for creating the interactive components. All this has just changed. Viewpoint has just released a tool called Enliven, along with a new version of the Viewpoint Media Player. Enliven is a complete authoring tool for creating Viewpoint content, including animation and interaction. Best of all, Enliven can digitally sign Viewpoint content created in it, and this signed content can be published with no broadcast key or additional fees required. The new player now builds in a version of JavaScript (known as VETScript) which has complete access to all of the objects in the Viewpoint scene, and Enliven supports the creation of VETScript objects. Viewpoint has its own Flash player, which can play SWF files in the foreground or background of a scene, or as a texture on a 3D object. It also supports a form of streaming video, which can again be played in the foreground, background, or as a texture. It's "hyperview" mode allows the content to leave the confines of the browser window it is running on, so you can do something like have a 3D car drive out of the browser window and off the screen. So, if you are at all interested in building interactive 3D web content, 3D ads, interactive avatars, etc., give it a look. Best of all, the base trial version of Enliven is FREE. The only things lacking in it from the $250 "Pro" version are the convertor to turn MPG, AVI, etc., video files into the custom format that Viewpoint uses, and more 3D file format import options. The 3D file formats that the free version can import are OBJ, ASE, NFF, and Viewpoint's own MTX format (which many 3D packages can export to). The Pro version plugs into Right Hemisphere's Deep Exploration to handle all the other 3D file types, so with the Pro version, you do actually get a fully licensed copy of Deep Exploration. Free is definitely a very good price :)

Thanks for this info. I did consider using the Viewpoint system as the editor is fast and efficent. But a $1000 a go for the old version is a tad pricey for my tastes!

Sounds interesting, especially the "hyperview" mode though I think I'd freak and think nasty trojan/virus if content started waltzing over my desktop. I already have Cult3D but I haven't loked at it yet. "base trial version" Do you have to buy it after the trial is over?

Interesting- seems it needs IE though...

The 3D file formats that the free version can import are OBJ, ASE, NFF, and Viewpoint's own MTX format ....

Heh. MilkShape has an .MTX exporter.

You don't have to buy it after the "trial" period is over, although the version of Deep Exploration that comes with the free version is a real time limited demo so after the trial period, you lose the extra file import options that DE provides unless you buy or already own a DE license. The free version of Enliven will keep working and will correctly sign Viewpoint content even after the "trial" period is over. Enliven does embed IE, sort of like Poser does. However, in Enliven, the purpose of the embedded browser is actually to preview the content you've created using the real browser and VMP plugin, before hitting the "Publish" button. The content created in Enliven should run in quite a few browsers, and work on Mac and PC.

That sounds reasonable. As long as something supports .obj or .3ds, I can live with it. I'm aFraid it would end up with Cult 3D in my "one of these days" pile but I'm sure it will be really useful to many people.