Introduction

Hypercosm is a web based 3D simulation system that allows you to create interactive 3D web applications. It is based upon a set of free and commercial software tools and an open source API.

How It Works

Hypercosm technology allows you to add 3D simulations to web pages much like you might add an ordinary graphic or movie. The advantage of 3D simulation technology is that it allows you to view a simulated object or scene from any angle and to interact with it as if it were real. Hypercosm uses the same technology that is used in video games to allow your web browser to become a window into a simulated world.

The Hypercosm Player

A standard web browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer does not dome with the ability to display 3D simulations so before you can view any Hypercosm simulations in your web browser, you must first install the Hypercosm Player. You can download and install the Hypercosm player for free from the following link: www.hypercosm.com/download/player.

The Hypercosm Player is a lot like other viewing software that you most likely already have installed on your computer (like Apple QuickTime or Macromedia Flash), but for 3D simulation instead of movies or 2D animation. The Hypercosm Player is compatible with all standard web browsers including:

For Windows:

• Internet Explorer
• Firefox
• Safari
• Chrome
• Opera

• Safari
• Firefox

Hypercosm Applets

Aside from the web page, when you view a 3D web application, the main 3D viewing area is displaying what is known as a "Hypercosm applet". A Hypercosm "applet", as its name implies, is not simply an image or a video, but is rather a "mini-application" or a little computer program that runs right inside of your web browser. This means that Hypercosm applets, unlike typical web graphics, can do a lot more than just display images. They can be truly interactive by responding to mouse and keyboard inputs. They can receive dynamic scientific or financial data and display the data in new and insightful ways. THey can accurately simulate real world actions like balls bouncing, planets orbiting or helicopters flying. It's purely up to the applet's creator to determine what an applet is to display and what the appearance and controls will be. Typically, Hypercosm applets display 3D graphics, but beyond that there are no set limits on what can be displayed or simulated.

The Hypercosm Virtual Machine

The term "applet" is used to describe something that is like a complete application but not quite a complete application. Applets are not quite complete applications because they cannot run by themselves. That is, unlike actual software applications like Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Word, or Solitaire, an applet cannot simply be opened up and executed on your computer. Instead, applets are run by a kind of helper application taht can read the applet's code and run the program that it describes. These helper applications are called "virtual machines" because they run applets in a similar way to how your computer runs applications. The "virtual machine" that runs Hypercosm applets is part of the Hypercosm Player. There are a couple of important benefits of running a simulation on a virtual machine instead of running it as an executable directly by your computer's CPU.

• safety
  The virtual machine can check each instruction as it executes it to make sure that it is safe to perform.
  
  
• platform independence
  Since the virtual machine is not running actual CPU instructions but is instead interpreting abstract instructions not tied to any specific CPU, a Hypercosm applet can run on any computer that has a Hypercosm player installed. This means that it is no longer necessary to create a new version of your 3D simulation for each computer that you intend to run it on like you would need to do if you were writing a standard application program.