Get a 3D Store in 5 minutes - BabylonJS backed with a WordPress Plugin

[Dr. Aaron Dishno]

I made a lot of progress on my 3D Browsing idea built on BabylonJS, so I thought I would check in here to share and get some feedback.

 

As of December, the U.S. patent office approved my conceptual patent for 3D Browsing! It is being issued.

I define 3D Browsing as a combination of a 3D Game and browsing the Internet;

• 3D Buildings are websites
• Ability to walk between websites with continuous animation.
• Connected on a grid (mapped) - 3D Community
• Distributed system - ability to be hosted everywhere on the Internet.
• I fetch and load 3D Objects as you Walk near and remove them as you Walk away. (I hot-swap what it loaded)

My implementation on 3d.walktheweb.com has a BabylonJS foundation.

 

I created a web based 3D CMS  (https://3d.walktheweb.com) that uses the building blocks (meshes and csg) to easily build:

• 3D Buildings - can be a building, bridge, or any rendered 3D assembly,
• 3D Communities - represents the 3D Scene and everything between the buildings; This is also the map placement of 3D Objects., and
• 3D Things - The smaller items that you build once and use many times like tables, chairs, trees, etc.

I set it up where a 3D Building can be browsed separately, maintained in one place, and yet added to many 3D Communities.

I added Action Zones to trigger animation such as opening a sliding or swinging door when you walk near.

I have Load Zones that trigger fetching data to render a 3D Building or part of a 3D Building. (Same for 3D Communities and 3D Things).

I did some tutorials and videos https://www.walktheweb.com/knowledgebase_category/tutorials/

 

 

My latest addition....

WordPress is used by about a third of the websites on the Internet now and WooCommerce has about a third of the Shopping Carts.

So I created a WordPress Plugin called WalkTheWeb that lets someone with a WordPress/WooCommerce website add a 3D Store, to show and sell their products, in about 5 minutes.

It allows the user to pick a 3D Store Building and 3D Community from templates, name the store, pick a URL, add a walk the web user account, add WooCommerce API keys, and create the site!

Check it out.. https://wordpress.org/plugins/walktheweb/

All Free - with option paid premium upgrades like using your own domain name http://3d.YourDomainName.com .

I also trademarked http://3d and https://3d to easily identify 3D Browsing websites.

 

All of this using BabylonJS behind it.

 

My plans... as I get time to finish preparing it, I plan to go open source with the WalkTheWeb 3D CMS host. So that everyone can create, maintain, and host their own 3D Websites (3D Buildings, 3D Communities, and 3D Things) in a way that they can be interconnected throughout the Internet. The host program (PHP, MySQL, JavaScript) I created already works between different servers. I just need to globalize some more settings and variables and finishing cleaning the code.

One thing that would help make it work smoother, would be if there was a Babylonjs object loader that would clearly separate the user movement from the mesh loading. So that when I need to queue up many meshes on the fly it doesn't cause a lag. 

(Note, I also turned off my avatars for the moment since they were causing lag. I'll get that functionality back in there soon.)

 

Let me know what you think... all feedback appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[inteja]

Sounds cool and you've obviously put a lot of work in so congrats on that! I am a bit curious about the patent though. I guess I don't know the technical details of your patent application but if they're in alignment with your above post then there's quite a bit of prior art that should invalidate any such patent. I've been working in web 3D and VR for over 20 years - ever since the days of VRML1 and have worked for 3 companies that have tackled similar concepts i.e. trying to create an easy to use, scalable multiuser web 3D browsing experience for everyone, irrespective of technical ability. So even if you are granted a patent it might be difficult and costly to defend it if challenged.

But otherwise great work and I wish you all the best with it.

[Dad72]

The concept of 3D navigation is the metavers and everyone can create, there is no patent that prohibits the creation of metavers or any 3D navigation where several different prototype already exists. This project is a kind of metavers.

I also doubt that http://3d is a trademark, it is simply a subdomain of wakltheweb.com (3d.com is a brand that exists: https://www.3d.com/)

I tested and lot of lag. Anyway, good luck with your project.

 

[Guest]

Wahouu! That's impressive work! Thanks for sharing with us

[Dr. Aaron Dishno]

Hopefully the patent work helps with the business side.

At this point in time, I am less worried about the patent than I am about pushing forward on making it better.I still want to go open source with the code when it is ready. 

Thanks for the feedback!

[Dr. Aaron Dishno]

@Dad72  and @inteja

I definitely understand where you are coming from and the patent is definitely in the details. No worries. That is for lawyers.

As for the trademarks, they are USA, supplemental trademarks (limited). Which means no one else can file them, but they are not enforceable until common language basically knows it is me they are talking about.

Kind of like the word Windows... it wasn't enforceable until everyone knew it was Microsoft when they heard it.

I only stated it here as my intent with usage. It is all good.  Whatever happens, happens.

 

You guys are the ones I totally respect on the technical side which is why I posted here.

I hope to live up to your expectations! Thanks again for the good wishes.

[Dad72]

Thank you for the clarification. You are welcome. Your project is very ambitious. If I can afford, when I give a try to your project, it really lag a lot. If you manage to have something more fluid, it would help to have a better experience. Currently, I do not visit much because of slow loading.

Try to use all BabylonJS optimization tools (merges, Lod, Octree, occlusion queries and many others) I know that Babylon can give you something more fluid.

[Dr. Aaron Dishno]

@Dad72 

Thank you for the direction. I'll definitely do that! 

[ozRocker]

Cool!  I've been working on something similar.  Its multiplayer so you'll see people visiting every now and then.

This is the link http://threedium.com