Plug-in For Browser

[Farabi]

Hi,
I made my own animation file format and want any web browser able to read it. Anyone know how?

[dedndave]

you may need an ActiveX control
is there some reason you don't want to use GIF's ?

[Farabi]

you may need an ActiveX control
is there some reason you don't want to use GIF's ?

Well I heard GIF is a propietary format, and also, if the size above 1 MB the colors become bad.
My format is a set of jpegs put together, so it wouldnot be bad even when the size is above 1MB.

[FORTRANS]

Hi,

   GIF is not a proprietary format in the sense of features
known only to the originator.  It is fully documented.  There
was a concern that the compression algorithm it used was
patented.  But the patent has expired.  And if your colors
go bad if the GIF is larger than 1 MB, your decoder is broken.

Steve

[dedndave]

that's what an MPEG is   :bg

and, while GIF may have been proprietary several years ago, i am pretty sure their time has run out
patents are only good for 20 years - it was compuserve, if i remember correctly, that tried to claim it

i have not seen the over-1 MB-color problem

the reason i mention it is, you need a pretty good reason to introduce a new image file format
all kinds of engineers have put their heads together to come up with the ones we have
also - there is an issue of getting the file format accepted as a new MIME type
if it is does not have a qualified MIME type, servers and browsers cannot handle it
they will not know it is an image file, and thus will not render the image
it would bring up the "open/save" dialog box instead

[hoverlees]

Hi,
You should try the  flash.
That is the easiest way,because the Plug-in for browser (flash player) is maintained by Adobe. :lol

[jj2007]

and, while GIF may have been proprietary several years ago, i am pretty sure their time has run out
patents are only good for 20 years - it was compuserve

Unisys, actually. Quote: "people were outraged and wondered if Unisys's CEO had gone insane (to me, he just looked like he had a very, very low IQ...)" - the rest is also worth reading. Anyway, the patent expired in October 2006.

Instead of GIF, you might use PNG, it's a better format and even supported by GdiPlus, so for XP and everything after you are on the safe side.

[oex]

also - there is an issue of getting the file format accepted as a new MIME type
if it is does not have a qualified MIME type, servers and browsers cannot handle it
they will not know it is an image file, and thus will not render the image
it would bring up the "open/save" dialog box instead

Here is an example of a plugin I used to use that does 3D format (VRML):

http://www.parallelgraphics.com/products/cortona3d/

[Farabi]

also - there is an issue of getting the file format accepted as a new MIME type
if it is does not have a qualified MIME type, servers and browsers cannot handle it
they will not know it is an image file, and thus will not render the image
it would bring up the "open/save" dialog box instead

Here is an example of a plugin I used to use that does 3D format (VRML):

http://www.parallelgraphics.com/products/cortona3d/

Whoa, that sounds cool.

[dedndave]

that does look cool - lol
first time i have ever heard of it
i wonder how many websites use it - and - is it becoming popular ?

EDIT - i found this free VRML editor

http://home.pacific.net.sg/~jupboo/

there are probably several out there
it appears that VRML is essentially the same as AVI files ?
oh - i see VRML is a text language for defining the graphic

[Farabi]

Oh, I though oex provide the source.

[dedndave]

well - cortona is a free viewer
that's great for client-side
for server-side, you need something to put them together   :P

[oex]

Oh, I though oex provide the source.

Sorry not quite there yet  :bg....

There are several VRML viewers on the market some client-server.... But I think just the paid versions....It isn't very widely used and as you can tell from the name VRML 97 it's been around for a while... however in time I'm sure it will become more widely used.... there is a new version that's XML oriented.... X3D which can be accessed at http://www.web3d.org

You might be particularly interested in http://www.web3d.org/x3d/specifications/ISO-IEC-19774-HumanoidAnimation/ Farabi

[oex]

I think mentioned above you need to do an activex control.... if you go through the cortona installation process or indeed flash etc you might see the process.... You cant by default have a new format work in a browser so the user would have to accept your install like cortona/flash

[sysfce2]

You are probably best to do a NPAPI (Netscape plug-in) as most of the major browsers support it.
IE is also supported through ActiveX NPAPI Host so that you only have to develop once.
This is a good starting point as is the Wikipedia entry above.