Vizard is a high level graphics toolkit for the development of high-performance graphics applications, including virtual reality, scientific visualization, games, and flight simulation. By providing you an object-oriented framework encompassing OpenGL, DirectX multimedia, human bipeds, display and peripheral hardware interfaces, and efficient networking, Vizard frees you from low-level programming and instead allows you to concentrate on creating your interaction and content. In addition, by building upon Vizard’s abstraction layer, your project is instantly upward compatible with future advances in all the underlying components.

Vizard Virtual Reality Toolkit is everything you need to build complete, interactive 3D content. Designed for rapid prototyping, Vizard gets you creating fast and provides the resources to deploy even the most challenging applications. With Vizard, even someone with no programming experience can leap into the world of interactive 3D content and soon discover what it's like to have an untethered imagination.

Performance Kept Simple:
Vizard abstracts the field of 3D computer graphics and places it in your hands through a simple scripting language called Python. You’ll quickly see how powerful this interface between technologies is and what it enables you to build very quickly.

Connect to Hardware:
Vizard supports stereoscopic head-mounted displays, 3D sound and many peripheral input devices, including head trackers and game pads. Distributed, networked environments are also supported. VRML and other 3D formats provide immediate access to large 3D databases. The open-source language Python is free and has an active user community providing a wealth of resources for applications.

Immersive Virtual Reality:
Vizard is guaranteed to support all head-mounted displays, LCD shutter glasses, and several other specialty display technologies such as dome projectors and autostereoscopes. Most commercially available tracking devices are supported in Vizard. Vizard also supports numerous other devices such as gloves, haptic displays, force-feedback systems, and simple Microsoft DirectInputTM compatible gamepads and joysticks. There is even built-in support for high-quality 3D sound and multi-user networking. VRML and other 3D formats are supported to provide you with immediate access to large 3D databases.

Avatars Included:
Built-in human face and body models and an accompanying morph designer offer a powerful tool to almost instantly insert virtual humans into existing environments. The high-level morph controller handles blending of complex facial expressions, adding life to your virtual humans. With our efficiently designed avatar meshes and animations engine, adding hundreds of humans to your environment is possible. For custom bodies, 3DMax Character Studio bipeds can be imported into Vizard. WorldViz also provides a large selection of additional high quality avatars that are available for purchase.

Free Creativity API:
The free Vizard API provides an open plug-in architecture for accessing peripherals and calling user defined drawing routines (OpenGL based). The API, available in the development and enterprise editions, offers unlimited extensibility while maintaining high system reliability. Source code is available free of charge for most included plug-ins.

Applications:

• Science
  • Scientists building experimental environments & visualizing complex data structures
  • Behavioral researchers studying perception, cognition & social behavior
  • Universities & schools teaching with interactive virtual training environments
• Business
  • Companies creating efficient interactive training and support systems
  • Sales & marketing teams advertising products and communicating product features
  • Engineers simulating manufacturing processes & industrial projects
  • Architects creating virtual walkthroughs
• Healthcare
  • Medical professionals healing patients in virtual environment rehabilitation
  • Psychologists designing therapeutic virtual environments
• Entertainment
  • Game designers sketching console & online games
  • Entertainment professionals developing next generation media content
  • Museums designing virtual exhibitions