[MJ] Media reviews Adobe Atmosphere
08/21/2004
Written by: Mike W.
Introduction
Atmosphere is a product designed to allow for 3d interactive media to be deployed on the web.
The Review
First impressions are of the worlds that we discovered upon hearing about the product. We first had to download the Atmosphere Plug-In, which unfortunately, is not available for Opera.
When searching for worlds we came across a handful of 3d design companies that were willing to devote the time to develop these 3d worlds. Some of which were actually quite impressive looking. But that's about where the +'s stop.
Our main complaint while interacting with the software is the lag. THERE IS A LOT OF LAG. Not to mention the space audience that is actually willing to let the world load for up to a minute on a T1 line. And also the program can bring to halt a modern day computer, forcing the all so common CTRL+ALT+Delete. We figured, maybe the worlds just aren't designed well. This leads onto the next part, the design software.
When you first load up Adobe Atmosphere you notice that it isn't small... in fact it maxed out both our 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 and also the 768Mb of ram. Not good. Performing the simplest of mouse gestures would cause the system to halt and force you to wait until the computer could be run again.
Once you did get to the design stage, you become instantly puzzled. Although the program is laid out much like Photoshop, it is very complicated. And the help isn't of much use. When trying to change the colors of our 3d walls and floors, we found ourselves stuck with blue, and no shading so when you did test out the site, you couldn't tell where you were. Also moving objects is very drag and drop dependant, with no options of snapping to walls or floors, creating gaps that could launch you into an endless fall.
Conclusion
There may be some future to this program; however I see it being more useful right now in creating 3d walkthroughs for hard copy distribution, not over the internet. I know that with the skills that Adobe's team has, they can pull this program around and make it a leader in the 3d realm. But for now... save your $399.