The Potential of 3D Apps |
 Written by Kevin Diep |
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The concept of 3D media is not a new phenomenon. The idea has been around for decades and has been utilized in movies and video games for years. But why is it still a widely-appealing, highly marketable concept? It’s because 3D brings whatever we’re seeing or interacting with closer to the way we perceive reality. And although “3D” games and movies are visual deceptions, they bring the media closer to the world which we, the users, are actually a part of. Until recently, 3D media has been limited to the silver screen and expensive gaming platforms. The iPhone and the relatively new iPad provide new and unexplored ways of using 3D technology. Never before have users had the opportunity for so much 3D interaction. Both platforms give users direct visual and manual access to something that before had been at a distance to them. This is also new for developers who need to make their 3D apps as intuitive and appealing as 2D apps. Because these are uncharted waters for both users and developers, the future of 3D apps is uncertain. But since this form of display is so interesting, it’s worth speculating about the path that such apps will follow.
To illustrate what future 3D apps might look like and what they might do, we can look at some apps that are currently available for the iPhone and the iPad. Here are three interesting 3D apps that might give us insight into what will follow:
This app for both the iPhone and iPad is a game set in space, the ultimate 3D movement environment. This game requires players to take over star systems with spaceships that automatically appear at each star system the player owns. The game is single player in the free trial version but the player can play against up to three computer opponents. Similar to the game Risk, this 3D game requires forethought and adds an element of spatial perception to the fold. The important features of this game to note are the scrolling aspects in a 3D game (which involves swinging the camera to view the game map from all directions) and the ability to distinguish closer objects from objects that are further away (probably determined by size of object displayed, at least in this game).
Another app available on both the iPhone and iPad, this app is an educational tool that shows the different parts of the brain. It highlights and labels each part of the brain and gives important information regarding each part. This app is important because it shows us the educational value and potential of 3D apps. By applying the same graphics to other parts of the body, other animals, mechanical systems, or even planets, 3D apps could be a powerful tool for exploring the sciences. For chemisty students this sort of app would be quite helpful in getting them to understand the structures of atoms and molecules. However, this app and apps like it need to improve on the user interface. I found it difficult to find certain spots that were obscured when the view became opaque to show the entirety of the brain’s structure.
This app available on the iPad (it comes as 3D Spinart Free for the iPhone) is a graphics design app that is a combination of computer graphics and pottery. The user taps to create a 3D cube and the app spins the cube around an invisible axis. Holding a finger down causes a circle of cubes to form and moving a finger up and down or side to side causes shifts in the circle’s size, creating interesting shapes and forms to appear as the form continues to spin on the invisible axis. This app is interesting because the user is working in a 3D environment as opposed to having to draw a 3D environment as would be the case in 2D art apps. The canvas becomes cluttered and confusing quickly, but it only adds to the entertainment trying to figure out what is going on.
These 3D apps cover distinctly different genres of apps but the idea is that the concept of 3D in apps can be applied to a wide range of apps. 3D as a concept in app development is interesting and appealing and it’s a universally adaptable idea. I’m interested in seeing how 3D apps develop in the future and we’d be interested in hearing what you think will happen with 3D apps. Write and let us know what you think.
