3DNA - 3D interface for Windows

[Bursar]

I know it's not strictly related to arcade stuff, but I noticed this link on FilePlanet, and it seems pretty nifty: http://www.3dna.net

It basically turns your 2D Windows inteface into a 3D FPS style one. It looks quite smart, although I haven't tried it yet myself.

I reckon I might give it a go. There's lots of extra bits in it as well and plenty of replacement 'worlds' to give you different themes.

It's still in development at the moment, but with a bit of luck it'll become quite popular

The Application Bay and Browser Bay look to be quite handy features, and with a bit of persuading, it might be possible to create a MAME Bay (or a more general Emulation Bay).

I guess in real terms it doesn't offer that much as a front end to an emulator, but it would certainly stop your PC from looking like it's running Windows.

[)p(]

I know it's not strictly related to arcade stuff, but I noticed this link on FilePlanet, and it seems pretty nifty: http://www.3dna.net

It basically turns your 2D Windows inteface into a 3D FPS style one. It looks quite smart, although I haven't tried it yet myself.

I reckon I might give it a go. There's lots of extra bits in it as well and plenty of replacement 'worlds' to give you different themes.

It's still in development at the moment, but with a bit of luck it'll become quite popular

The Application Bay and Browser Bay look to be quite handy features, and with a bit of persuading, it might be possible to create a MAME Bay (or a more general Emulation Bay).

I guess in real terms it doesn't offer that much as a front end to an emulator, but it would certainly stop your PC from looking like it's running Windows.

Yeah saw that one too...they are using the same engine as I use for 3d arcade. Actually you could setup 3darcade to do something very similar like that...I allready have it as my shell in my cab and use it to launch stuff as internet explorer
I also like the browser bay...grabbing the images is a very good idea!

Peter

[rampy]

hey trhat's pretty cool... that reminds me of the quake/doom interface for linux where you could use it to hunt down "rogue" processes and when you killed them in the FPS  the process would literally get killed on your machine.

rampy

[SirPoonga]

Which versions of windows is it for?  or is it just an engine that run like a program?

[SirPoonga]

hey trhat's pretty cool... that reminds me of the quake/doom interface for linux where you could use it to hunt down "rogue" processes and when you killed them in the FPS  the process would literally get killed on your machine.

rampy

I haven't heard of that, do you have more info?

[Bursar]

Which versions of windows is it for?  or is it just an engine that run like a program?

Apparently it's just for 2K/XP. I think that it's basically a 3D engine that sits on top of Windows and lets you access your apps in a 3D space.

If I get a chance tomorrow I'll give it a whirl on the PC that I'm planning on sticking in my cab. It's running Win2K Pro, so it should be a fairly reasonable test.

I'm not expecting that it will do great things for MAME, and reading some of the docs, it seems as if 3DNA continues to run in the background, so it may harm the performance of MAME or other emulators.

If I test it, I'll let you know how I get on.

[)p(]

Which versions of windows is it for?  or is it just an engine that run like a program?

As I said it is just like my fe...It is made with macromedia director and uses the shockwave 3d engine. (This also means it will be faster on xp then 2000 ;-) )

Peter

[Bursar]

I've just double checked their site, and it does also say 98SE and ME, but 2K and XP are preferred.

I've just given it a go, and it's not bad. There are still far too many 2D based windows and pop ups in it, so you never really lose the feeling that you're running Windows.

I created a short cut in it for MAME, and running it just throws up the standard MAME window, so no fancy effects or anything like that

It's also pretty difficult to navigate and get around just using the sticks and buttons on my control panel. You really to have 2 sticks and a selection of buttons (or a keyboard and mouse). You are also quite limited in the keys you can remap, as several of them are used for functions within the software (but this is fairly understandable, as it is designed for general Windows use rather than dedicated MAME use).

So an interesting thing to play with for 5 mins, but I can't see that many people seriously sticking with it for prolonged periods of time (not until it advances a bit more anyway).

[rampy]

hey trhat's pretty cool... that reminds me of the quake/doom interface for linux where you could use it to hunt down "rogue" processes and when you killed them in the FPS  the process would literally get killed on your machine.

rampy

I haven't heard of that, do you have more info?

why yes.... I do....   oh would you like me to share it too? =P   j/k

Here's a link http://www.cs.unm.edu/~dlchao/flake/doom/