3D software developer Altadyn has announced the release of a beta for its 3DXplorer technology, a real-time visualization tool for 3D environments. The company says it can be used to develop, social networking and virtual worlds, configurators, home equipment showrooms, walk-through tours for real estate offerings, PLM collaborative tools, online meetings, virtual tradeshows, games, and other rich web apps.

The idea is to enable web developers to build 3D websites that are also easy to navigate, without the need for plug-ins. The authoring environment is also free, with charges applied only to high-traffic sites based on a sliding scale. It lets users import 3D models from SketchUp or 3Ds Max, and also offers a library of ready-made 3D objects. Users can also incorporate certain formats of uploaded images or audio files into their 3D scene. The final project is embeddable on a website.

3DXplorer's technology is Java-based, and its 3D web scenes are viewable on Linux, Windows and Mac platforms, and in browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. The company has currently built a demo site offering examples of the tech in use.