I visited a new client this afternoon (it's past 10 pm as I write this) and was describing Enliven presentations to him. In the couse of the conversation we downloaded a Viewpoint Media Player onto his machine. The guy's a bit of a techie, so we went to the VMP folder that was just installed. As we were looking at it, I noticed something new: a folder labeled "NewComponents". Inside were 10 .dll files. Now the intriguing thing is that all the files are marked as version 3.6. You may have noticed that everywhere else the VMP version is 3.5.

I'm sure you all know this already, but when a new version of a graphics media app like, say, Flash is released, what's had a major overhaul is not so much Flash itself as the Flash Player. There's no point in adding new features unless the Player can execute them.

I have no idea what these v3.6 components do, but it suggests to me that something new is about to be going on. Any reactions?

I am not sure but I think this new version pertains to the 3D Widgets they announced last November and said they would be launching sometime in 2008. In theory the new 3D Widgets can be downloaded to the desktop from a webpage. In order to do this the VMP needs to have the ability to locally store all the data associated with the content which is something that the current version can't do. Flash obviously can't do that either.

I'm here!

Sure, it would make sense that the VMP would be updated first.

I remember finding widgets in Poser 5 (python scripts) that if one tried to run them a message was generated that the scripts couldn't be run yet, but would be available in Poser 7.

I'm sure some have been updated because of the new MAC version, etc.

I, for one, have become really disappointed that I haven't been able to get superview to work. but in another post some one said it worked for them.

Speculation will only be satisfied with a new Version release notes.

The widgets may be part of the explanation, but I'm thinking there may be more to it. Considering the way Enliven handles their version numbering, I would expect the widgets alone would qualify as 3.5.something, rather than a jump to 3.6. And regarding the Mac compatability, Laura, note that the updated Mac VMP download is still called 3.5.

I can't help but feel that something more comprehensive is about to be sprung. And you're absolutely right, Laura, this is only speculation... but at least it's something concrete to speculate about.

Just to correct Ricorey, widgets can store content data and settings locally. Stay tuned.

Wow I did not know that I could create 3D Widgets display them on a web page and then give people the ability to save/copy them to their desktop or another website like what you would expect from a widget. If you can point me to an example of this I would be grateful.

The Enigmatic Scorpion is the house! Yeah!

And thank you, bhnh, for encouraging us that there is still hope, regardless of who provides the next version.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: lauramb,

Looks like the new version of DE is now shipping:

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=868857

I wonder if they have been waiting for this before releasing their upgrade to Enliven?

All doubts cleared now :~)...

VMP 3.6 is out - Flash 9 and AS3 support.
Read more


http://www.viewpoint.com/dc/

Thanks Anup

I spent all day yesterday, updating all of my MTS3s and my CLGs for all of my projects, and then come and find the new VMP! Hurray!

But, there won't be any widgets on this Win2k machine.