By Rachel Chalmers
After canvassing for feedback on its software developer’s kit from graphic artists and web content producers, Microsoft Corp has decided to revise its 2D/3D graphics technology, Chromeffects, and to postpone the delivery schedule for the product. Opponents of Chromeffects, many of whom characterized the technology as an unnecessary and proprietary competitor to virtual reality modeling language (VRML) and other internet standards, have been quick to claim victory. Reports of the death of Chromeffects may, however, be premature. Not very surprisingly, Microsoft says some of the specific changes developers requested were tighter integration with the document object model (DOM) and better support of existing data visualization technologies, including, presumably, VRML. This reflects exactly what is going on in the 2D web content production space, where a coalition of developers has formed the Web Standards Project to push both Microsoft and Netscape to support recognized standards more fully (CI No 3,536). The potential Chromeffects developers added a heart- rending plea for Microsoft to pay more attention to the quality and performance of the 3D device drivers available today. Widespread reports to the contrary notwithstanding, this does not add up to an execution order for Chromeffects. One spokesperson for the company said that the engineers involved in Chromeffects will continue working on the technology. In a letter to the www- vrml mailing list, Microsoft gave more detail about the revised release schedule. Rather than aiming for a Christmas release as it had originally hoped, the company plans a phased release of Chromeffects. The first phase will see key components of the technology, including enhanced DirectAnimation, DirectX Transform and HTML+TIME, worked into an IE5 technology update and into Windows 2000 Professional. The 56 XML tags which handle 2D and 3D graphics in Chromeffects are to be released with the next update to Windows, after Windows 2000 Pro. It is striking, though, that the executives most identified with Chromeffects have vanished or been reassigned. Chris Phillips, who spoke at length with ComputerWire about Chromeffects in September, is apparently no longer responsible for the software, and multimedia maven Eric Engstrom has reportedly been moved over to the MSN team. (The current holder of the position, Rob Bennett, might be forgiven for thinking it an unlucky one.) What it adds up to is a much lower profile for the controversial multimedia tool, and no more glitzy demonstrations of the technology like the one VP Steve Ballmer gave at Seybold (CI No 3,488). Maybe VRML’s champions can claim that much, at least, as a moral victory. It just goes to show you can’t force something down the market’s throat, said Mark Pesce, who with Tony Parisi co-authored the original VRML spec.
