REDMOND, Wash. - Dec. 7, 1995 - Microsoft Corp. today announced its development of a new technology to bring interactive 3-D multimedia animation to the Internet. Called active virtual reality modeling language (ActiveVRML), the new technology employs an innovative approach to media integration that adds value to existing formats and is practical at typical modem speeds. The introduction of ActiveVRML builds on the Microsoft® DirectX initiative to take advantage of the power of today's multimedia hardware. ActiveVRML is optimized for authoring and playback on personal computers and allows content authors to deliver unprecedented 3-D multimedia effects easily on the Internet. Microsoft is offering ActiveVRML as an open industry specification and has submitted it as a VRML 2.0 proposal to VRML industry working groups.

Created in tandem with industry experts on 3-D and the Internet, ActiveVRML is the result of years of development by leading Microsoft graphics researchers. With ActiveVRML, consumers will be able to interact with World Wide Web pages that come alive with interactive
3-D animation and 2-D cel animation accompanied by synchronized sound effects. Microsoft expects ActiveVRML to have broad use in advertising, entertainment, education and related applications, such as animated product catalogs, interactive 3-D games and online training.

"ActiveVRML will bring the Internet alive for millions of users by making rich, animated multimedia an everyday part of the online experience," said Paul Maritz, group vice president of the platforms group at Microsoft. "ActiveVRML provides content authors, tools vendors, and the industry with a rich framework for describing interactive 3-D multimedia scenes while providing programmers with the ability to plug in software components written in Visual Basic® Script, Java, and C++."

"Intervista and its partners are committed to building a truly open platform for tomorrow's 3-D Internet - one that rapidly integrates exciting new technologies such as ActiveVRML," said Tony Parisi, chief technology officer of Intervista Software Inc. "Microsoft is enabling the introduction of richer and more engaging content on the Internet through an open, collaborative process. I applaud Microsoft for adopting an open Internet approach. We will aggressively pursue the development of ActiveVRML technology and deploy it in our value-added line of 3-D applications."

ActiveVRML Designed From the Ground Up for Interactive Multimedia

ActiveVRML is designed from the ground up to enable rich, reactive behavior and media integration. It supports the animation of 2-D images, 3-D geometry and rendering, audio, and mouse and joystick input, and it integrates media types in a simple and powerful way. ActiveVRML specifies the relationships of media types in both space and time. For instance, sound attached to a 3-D airplane continues to play as the plane moves in and out of 3-D rendered mountains.

Content authors will be able to embed their current VRML models inside ActiveVRML as well as image, sound and video files in standard formats. Since ActiveVRML is a completely open format and is easy for authoring tools vendors to support, content authors can look forward to a wide choice of professional authoring tools supporting ActiveVRML next year.

"Simply put, ActiveVRML is the first and only available technology to satisfy our rigorous needs as 3-D interactive content-creation toolmakers for the Internet," said Roman Ormandy, president of Caligari Corp.

Because ActiveVRML is designed to work with established industry 3-D and multimedia interfaces such as DirectX, content authors will see their animations automatically accelerated by the emerging class of personal computer 3-D multimedia hardware accelerators.

"While there are standards in place for static 3-D models, there has been a real vacuum in the area of 3-D animation," said Hock Leow, vice president, Creative Labs. "Microsoft's ActiveVRML fills that need and goes beyond to add audio and 2-D animation. Our 3D Blaster hardware combined with DirectX and, now, ActiveVRML will bring to the Internet the same kinds of dramatic effects now seen only in leading-edge computer games."

Microsoft Distributing ActiveVRML Specification at No Charge to Industry

Microsoft has distributed the beta version of the ActiveVRML specification to select developers and industry participants. Today, Microsoft posted the beta specification on its Microsoft Internet Information Server Web page (http://www.microsoft.com/intdev/tech.htm) and demonstrated the technology publicly at its Internet Strategy briefing.

The company will seek industry comment and participation to help shape the specification through industry design reviews and public presentations at industry events. Upon completion of the specification, Microsoft will make the source code for the reference implementation of the ActiveVRML animation engine publicly available and redistributable under open licensing terms. Availability of the reference implementation of the ActiveVRML animation engine is expected in mid-1996.

Microsoft plans to offer ActiveVRML support for multiple platforms, including the Windows® and Windows NT™ operating systems and Macintosh® by incorporating ActiveVRML support into its Internet Explorer Web-browsing software. By providing the open reference implementation, Microsoft will encourage support in other browsers and on other platforms to bring this functionality to all World Wide Web users.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

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