An Estonian undertaking called 3D Technologies R&D is developing open source technology for creating and displaying 3D and 2D content on the web through common web-browsers. The technology is called 3DMLW (3D Markup Language for Web).

Lots of “threes” and “dees”, but the idea is not too complicated: you can use the beta version of 3DMLW editor called Quantum Hog, made available by the Estonian company, and create your 3D files (models, animations etc) just as easy as you create your HTML document.

Kaspar Koov, one of the owners of the company says that the main idea for 3DMLW is that it is based on XML and is readable just with notepad, so it will also be easy to integrate with other systems like website tools – CMS’s, forum-scripts, news portals etc -  or even with CRM, Business Intelligence tools or other applications. Users, as Koov says, don’t have to know how to create 3D models, they can just take models, that have already been created and put them into web.

Right now most of 3DMLW users are 3D modelers who are using it to show their work over web. The Estonian company has developed a small demo for a stone factory in Tartu, so that they can show their stone-products in web.

But also the virtual office has been created for Fujitsu Services Estonia. That means virtual intranet connected with all other systems, where you can walk around, communicate with your colleagues, see how they are moving, what tasks they are working on etc. That would be like Second Life, but for businesses.

Right now the tool is only downloadable with Windows OS, but the full support for Mac and Linux is also coming. Both 3DMLW Plug-in and editor (see the screenshot below) are free to download.

3D Technologies R&D currently looks for venture capital from US and targets global market. “With our services and more specific solutions we see three main regions: US, Germany, as the leader in 3D software development in Europe, and China, as the place where most of the physical products come from and where we can offer solutions for showing the product models in web,” Koov says.

Among the investors behind 3D Technologies there is Raivo Vare, former Estonian Minister of Transport and Communications.