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| At the most basic level, you can use the file format and file-access routines provided by QuickDraw 3D to read and display 3D graphics created by some other application. For example, a word-processing application might want to import a picture created by a 3D modeling or image-capturing application. QuickDraw 3D supports the 3D Viewer, which you can use to display 3D data and objects in a window and allow users limited interaction with that data, without having to learn any of the core QuickDraw 3D application programming interfaces. | | At the most basic level, you can use the file format and file-access routines provided by QuickDraw 3D to read and display 3D graphics created by some other application. For example, a word-processing application might want to import a picture created by a 3D modeling or image-capturing application. QuickDraw 3D supports the 3D Viewer, which you can use to display 3D data and objects in a window and allow users limited interaction with that data, without having to learn any of the core QuickDraw 3D application programming interfaces. |
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| + | =QuickDraw 3D: Apple's Foundation for 3D Graphics= |
| + | Apple Macintosh computers have long been the desktop platform of choice for graphics professionals due to Apple's innovation in ease of use, consistency in application interface, and the development of revolutionary graphics and multimedia technologies. Over the years, Apple has extended the Macintosh computer's lead by adding capabilities to the Mac(TM)OS such as QuickTime & QuickTime VR. These technologies have given personal computer users unprecedented control and flexibility over 2D graphics, the printed page, photography, and most recently, digital video. |
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| + | In the summer 1995, with the introduction of QuickDraw 3D, Apple will extend its innovation into the complex world of 3D graphics. |
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| + | QuickDraw 3D, for the first time on any personal computer, integrates 3D graphics technology into a "mainstream" operating system and takes full advantage of the PowerPC(TM) RISC chip found at the heart of Power Macintosh(TM), the leading volume RISC platform. |
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| + | The introduction of QuickDraw 3D - and the spread of applications that use QuickDraw 3D - will let users create, manipulate, and incorporate 3D graphics into their documents and presentations as easily as they do with 2D graphics today. Additionally, 3D applications that have been modified to support QuickDraw 3D and its associated user interface guidelines will move users toward a more standard approach to 3D graphics that will coexist with all of their current applications. |
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| + | ===QuickDraw 3D snapshot=== |
| + | QuickDraw 3D helps eliminate many of the problems that have dogged 3D graphics by providing a consistent file format; a standard, extensible, cross-platform 3D API; and a set of 3D interface standards and guidelines-complete with a developer's toolkit for implementing them. |
| + | ===Consistent file format=== |
| + | The new 3D metafile (3DMF) format is a cross-platform file format that supports 3D data - not simply geometry but all the information that represents a particular view or scene. The 3DMF format enables users to share 3D images among applications with the same ease that they currently share PICT images. |
| + | ===Standard developer API=== |
| + | The QuickDraw 3D API gives developers an easy way to access a standard set of 3D operations, so they don't have to reinvent common 3D functions. It includes a complete set of 3D geometry, a shading and rendering architecture, a device and acceleration manager, and a common approach to 3D pointing devices. |
| + | ===Consistent user interface standards and guidelines=== |
| + | Consistent user interface standards and guidelines have been key to the success of the Macintosh. QuickDraw 3D will provide the first set of desktop user interface standards and guidelines for 3D graphics applications in the industry. With these standards - and a complete developer's toolkit -developers won't have to reinvent common interface elements, so users can apply their 2D interface knowledge to 3D applications, and even extend their 3D familiarity across 3D programs. |
| + | ===Extensibility and plug and play=== |
| + | Perhaps most important, each of the components of the API is extensible, making QuickDraw 3D one of the most open architectures in the industry. The file format, interface architecture, geometry engine, and "plug-in" shading and rendering architecture are all designed to allow developers-and ultimately customers-to add their own value to the system. In addition, the 3D acceleration manager allows for plug-and-play hardware accelerators. Using this manager, the user can add a 3D accelerator card to a Macintosh, and the interactive renderer is accelerated in any application that makes use of it. |
| + | ===Cross-platform support=== |
| + | Apple is also committed to helping developers protect their investments in time, effort, and innovation; QuickDraw 3D has been developed from the outset as a machine-independent, cross-platform application programming interface (API). Apple will release QuickDraw 3D for Windows within 6 months after the initial release of QuickDraw 3D for the Macintosh. The API for Windows software will let developers leverage their Macintosh development efforts onto the Windows platform, while still enjoying all of the benefits of ease of use, interface consistency, and standards-based development that they've come to expect on the Macintosh. A QuickDraw 3D Cross-platform Parser for Windows & Unix machines lets any application on any platform read and write QuickDraw 3D Metafile formats. The QuickDraw 3D Parser is available now. |
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| =Modeling and Rendering= | | =Modeling and Rendering= |