ALTHOUGH 3-D APPLICATIONS are just becoming QuickDraw 3D-savvy, the Mac OS already is. Available as an optional installation for all new Power Macs with more than 16 MB of RAM, the QuickDraw 3D extension lets applications show and manipulate 3-D objects just like they do text and graphics. (The QuickDraw 3D extension also ships with applications that support it.) You can copy and paste 3-D objects into the Scrapbook or into a compatible version of SimpleText. And using new tools available in QuickDraw 3D-savvy applications, you can rotate, zoom in on, or pan around objects. The rendering system in QuickDraw 3D allows 3-D objects to be viewed in wire-frame or full-24-bit shaded views. The renderer even supports textures that are wrapped around objects, such as a label pasted on a bottle.
Apple has additionally introduced a cross-platform file format called 3DMF, which handles 3-D objects, lighting information, and textures, so you can move an entire scene intact from one 3-D application to another. This gives you the advantage of using the best application to create final renderings or animations of 3-D scenes.
Quickdraw 3D Can Render Shaded Models, Such as This Lion, in Real Time.
