14 Comments for 3D Topicscape Pro Reveal 13 Old CommentsHide Old Comments

• Jan 22 2008 4:12am
  quant ? (Visitor)
  Where do you all "real users" see 3D? I can only see a raised 2D! The data structure on all program screenshots is a tree, not even a graph. Any, really any mind mapping soft or PIM with a simple tree outliner can display a tree ... and here it's called 3D. LOL
• Jan 22 2008 4:56am
  Roy Grubb (Visitor)
  Thanks for the opportunity to clarify this. Any topic can be connected to any other topic, either in a parent-child association or as a loose association.
  
  That means that the structure can be a graph. When a topic has two or more parents, the topic will appear in two or more places in the landscape, and the child will show more than one parent. These are multiple instances of the same thing not copies, so changes to one instance are reflected averywhere that topic appears.
  
  This is perhaps most useful when you have something to add to the Topicscape, and you feel it belongs in two three or more places. Just form the associations (by drag and dot), and it will appear in all those places.
  
  Loose associations are shown as tunnels, as they let you 'tunnel through' to another part of the concept map or mindmap when the connection is less obvious but you feel might be useful as a reminder in the future.
  
  Argey
  http://www.topicscape.com
• Jan 22 2008 5:41am
  quant ? (Visitor)
  Roy Grubb,
  
  thanks for your reply, but I remain sceptical. The use of "3D" in the name suggests that it should be easier to display complicated relationships cause it has another dimension to do that, but it is not. The third dimension is here used only for a visual effect. Moreover, it really displays only a tree, while as you say, the underlying structure can be a graph.
  
  A simple example, say comparing with "The Brain". Create root item, with child A and B. Create item 1 and 2 as children of A, and item 3 and 4 as children of B. Now, say that 1 and 2 should also be a children on B, so you link them there.
  When going to item 1, I can see visually in "The Brain" that it has two parents A and B, and I can see also all related children (brothers) listed as 2,3,4.
  My question is, if I am at item 1, in 3D Topicscape, would I be able to see that it has 2 "parents" and 3 "brothers"?
• Jan 22 2008 8:29am
  Roy Grubb (3D-Scape Limited Vendor)
  You can see what this would look like here:
  http://www.topicscape.com/images/ForQuant.JPG
  
  But that's a very simple example, and it's in large complex cases that Topicscape shows the advantage of 3D. There's a real-world example here:
  http://www.topicscape.com/topicscape-and-mindmanager.php
  Under the MindManager to Topicscape example in that page, there's a Brain to Topicscape example that illustrates the difference in view.
  
  The 3D is not just a matter of representation. You can fly around your 3D world and zoom in on an area and immediately zoom out. All of this is illustrated in the built-in demo for Topicscape, so if you want to try it you could see it happening.
  
  Regards,
  Argey
• Jan 22 2008 9:30am
  quant ? (Visitor)
  The example was simple, but you seemed to forget the main point of that example. I wanted 1 and 2 to be also children of B. Then it shows how clear things are in The Brain, where you have a clear picture that 1 has 2 parents and 3 brothers. I leave it to potential customers to decide whether 3D flying over this simple structure makes things clearer ;-)
  http://picasaweb.google.com/ultrarecall/UntitledAlbum
• Jan 22 2008 9:50am
  Roy Grubb (3D-Scape Limited Vendor)
  Sorry quant, I missed that. Here is is again with that fixed:
  http://www.topicscape.com/images/ForQuant.JPG
  
  You're right, the point about flying was not related to this simple example. It was a response to your observation about whether this was really 3D or not. A large, real-life complex case, like the one I mentioned before (http://www.topicscape.com/topicscape-and-mindmanager.php ) benefits enormously from flying and zooming because you can see so much at once.
  
  Argey
• Jan 22 2008 10:55am
  Roy Grubb (3D-Scape Limited Vendor)
  My thanks to quant for the lively back-and forth.
  
  It's nearly midnight in my time-zone, so I'm closing for now, but I'll check back to respond to any more comments or questions in the morning.
  
  Argey
  http://www.topicscape.com
• Jan 22 2008 12:19pm
  Charlie Arehart (Visitor)
  Is anyone else getting 500 server errors when trying to visit the topicscape.com site? BDJ sending too much traffic, perhaps? Ah, the perils of PR. :-)
• Jan 22 2008 12:57pm
  Roger Thomasson (Bits du Jour Admin)
  Charlie, we're still trying to get the server issues fixed -- sorry about the inconvenience!
  
  Best!
• Jan 22 2008 8:51pm
  Roy Grubb (Visitor)
  The server is back up now.
  
  I left the office at midnight our time and the server was fine. As Charlie says, traffic too heavy is the probable cause. It's back now after an 8-hour break. We shall leave the Bits du Jour link up at our site for an extra 8 hours so that those wishing to buy can still do so, even though the Bits du Jour page itself will move on, of course.
  
  My apologies to everyone.
  
  Argey
• Jan 23 2008 10:52am
  Roy Grubb (Visitor)
  After three outages today, we have some indication of something strange going on.
  
  The most recent taking down of the server lead to our learning from our hosting company that one IP address occupied all web-serving processes on our server at the time.
  
  We shall be studying our detailed logs, but we start to wonder if some deliberate attempt was under way to interrupt our sales through Bits du Jour.
  
  We apologize for any frustration caused. We'll be back!
  
  Argey
• Jul 20 2008 1:41pm
  Peter Lietha (Visitor)
  I had and have even now a lot of difficulties with Topiscape.
  First it was the grafic card which was too old.
  Now with a new top Pc and a Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT card it's not working either. Just at the beginning of the demo the PC is hanging.
  I cannot even open the programm for entering the registration key.
• Jul 20 2008 10:11pm
  Roy Grubb (3D-Scape Limited Vendor)
  Yes, an old graphics card would be a problem. As we say at the very top of our download page "To use 3D Topicscape's stunning graphics, you have to have modern graphics hardware and software installed on your PC."
  
  However, as you have moved on to the Nvidia GeForce 8600, that is more than good enough. Have you got the latest driver for it? We find that 90% of problems are caused by old drivers. We mention this during the installation and first start up.
  
  You downloaded Topicscape in early June, and we have not received any request for help from you via our 'contact us' web page, or by email. We always give help willingly when received.
  
  Topicscape does not have a registration key. If you buy Topicscape, we send a license file to be put in a specific folder, so starting Topicscape first is not necessary. But obviously you would want to be sure that Topicscape runs OK on your PC before buying.
  
  Thanks for giving us the chance to respond and get you sorted out. I will email you to get information to get you started.
  
  Regards,
  Roy
  The Topicscape Support Team

• Jul 13 2009 4:59am
  Peter pereh (Visitor)
  Hello,
  
  I looked at your web site, but could not find anything about what the new version will look like or what new features it will have. I could not find a release date, too.
  
  Best regards,
  Peter.
• Jul 13 2009 5:10am
  Roy Grubb (3D-Scape Limited Vendor)
  Hi Peter,
  The new version is not described on the website yet - this will be done as soon as we release a beta version. It will have switching between a 2D view and 3D, improved previews and content viewing.
  I'm always reluctant to give release dates, but expect the beta within a couple of months. Beta version will be available to all purchasers and registered beta users. The full release will be available to all Bits du Jour purchasers who buy this time (and to all who bought Topicscape Pro six months before the final release)
  Roy
• Jul 14 2009 3:16pm
  Peter pereh (Visitor)
  Hello,
  
  just about 3D: I would say it is not 3D, just 2D with objects in it. However, since you implemented a feature to 'fly' around, why did you not make it really 3D, meaning: including the depth? Imagine placing subtopics really UNDER a topic; create streps of activities that really look like steps in 3D and leading to a point at the 'surface', from where the entries go on until another need step up/down with children is needed. Now, that's what I would call 3D! It would not only look nice; most important: the real 3D placement would reflect a meaning I can give it.
• Jul 14 2009 3:32pm
  Peter pereh (Visitor)
  Again, no editing...
  Of course it should say '...create steps of activities ' and '...another step up/down'.
• Jul 14 2009 3:42pm
  Roy Grubb (3D-Scape Limited Vendor)
  Real experience with such an approach shows that it is confusing and does not prove to be an advantage. We abandoned it at the experimental stage.
  
  A key benefit of 3D is the instant zoom which allows the user to zoom in on an area of detail, and decide whether it is what you are looking for - and stay there, or zoom out instantly for further exploration.
  
  The height of topic objects provides information about their relationship to one another, and that is another benefit of using a 3D environment.
  
  The information landscape spread out before you in Topicscape provides a sense of place - you recognize where you are and become familiar with it as you work. And the vista of information, combined with zooming allows a much larger collection of information to be used actively than with any other approach available.
  
  I hope you'll give it a try.
  
  Roy
• Jul 15 2009 6:50am
  Peter pereh (Visitor)
  Can those cones you use for visualization be replaced with other icons, maybe user-made ones?
  And will Topicscape run under Windows 7?
• Jul 15 2009 5:08pm
  Peter pereh (Visitor)
  Just a question about your site link to 'Topicscape's Google Group', meant as a placeholder for a forum, I guess. Besides spam and your own messages, there is nothing going on. Do you consider to open up a real user forum?
• Jul 16 2009 6:34am
  Roy Grubb (3D-Scape Limited Vendor)
  Hi Peter,
  
  Just got back from trip to Europe - sorry for delay in replying to your two questions.
  
  On the questions of cone replacement, please take a look at our discussion on this here:
  http://www.topicscape.com/Topicscape-Pro/usersguide/help.php?page=173
  and on our Google Group here for users' thinking on that:
  http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Topicscape/browse_frm/thread/48eb77e227ba7f3a?hl=en
  
  Thanks for the tip off about the Google Group spam. I banned that author permanenetly two days before he posted those entries. GG tripping up there.
  
  The Group is active from time to time (many of the 195 messages are not from us). But it's mainly an announcement area. We have recently set up a wiki, which anyone can sign up for and edit and this will become our discussion area. It is still being built, but you can find it here:
  http://www.topicscape.com/topicscape-wiki/index.php?title=Special:AllPages
  
  As you know from various emails exchanges we have had with you off line, we are very responsive to emails and have conversations with our users continuously.
  
  Roy
• Jul 16 2009 6:47am
  Roy Grubb (3D-Scape Limited Vendor)
  Peter,
  
  On your Windows 7 question, the answer is that we have not tested on that yet. We shall do that as soon as the final version is released, as we are working hard on many specific product enhancements at present.
  
  Roy
• Jul 19 2009 12:26pm
  Vanessa N (Shooting Star)
  I'm not I understand the difference between being able to zoom in to a particular area once a mindmap becomes large and unwieldy....all mindmap programs do this (I use Imindmap)...the difference here being that Topic does it in cooler fashion. Nothing wrong with that - I do appreciate slick GUIs as long as they're quick. ;)
  
  A practical question and then a question/feature suggestion:
  
  What's the user license on this? Per computer or per person? And the upgrade policy again is....?
  
  My other question is: is there a way to maneuver your cones to distances around the landscape that make sense to your purpose, rather than having them all in a clump in one square areas?
  
  My though is that even if thoughts/ideas are related (hence, parents, children, etc), oftentimes, some ideas are more distant than others (as in families). One idea may be "way out there", even if connected on some level. Hence spatial distance adds to the 3-d effect but also correlates with the actuality of some ideas's relationships with others, and not just whether they are more important (i.e. cone height) than others.
  
  I thought of 3 uses for Topic that illustrate what I mean above. Say you're a traveler (for fun, consulting, work) making plans for the rest of your life for all the places you want to see, and the research you want to do on each place.
  
  GUI-wise, it would be neat to have each cone be spread out, similiar as on a globe for the distances of countries and continents. Now that that would be true zooming to go around a "world" in planning, if in planning, if not in reality just yet! A Google Earth that you can make plans on!
  
  I saw the user discussion on changing cones to other objects (this would be nice on a minimal scale) and your concerns on 3-D rendering , so if a rounded "world/globe" isn't possible to keep the program stable, then a "flat" world will do (after all, it was popular until the 16th century...). But it would be nice to spread these cones out in their proper spatial perspective....your trip to Austrailia certains entails a great deal of distance from the US, as compared to going to a neighboring state like New Jersey!
  
  I imagine scientists, geographers, engineers, and others may find the above useful, not just travelers.
  
  I can imagine a use for writers and game designers, both of which may be operating in worlds of ideas that are far flung and fantasical. A writer's novel may span several areas of the globe, or even time, hence events may be "distant" from another. And the same for game designers, who create new worlds whose areas and characters are spread apart.
  
  This can also be used for people studying outer space, with the cones (be nice to have rounded planets and starred icons here) representing galaxies and solar systems and their cosmic inhabitants.
  
  Is this possible in either the current version or a future version? I think otherwise the current setup (cones all in a clump restricted to one geo area) can be limiting when you consider the concepts I've made above. May have to design this myself and patent it ;)
  
  I'm a writer, photographer, IT person who travels a great deal (and would like to travel the world), so that's where my ideas are coming from. Interesting that you folks are based in Hong Kong; one of my favorite spots- we lived there for 5 years.
• Jul 19 2009 1:34pm
  Vanessa N (Shooting Star)
  (Note to Bits....yes, I really hate the lack of an editing feature....I was typing so quickly I missed words, but I'm hoping my general gist was understandable).
  
  I think Topicscape has a lot of potential. I think in conjunction with my iMindmap, it would help me visualize my novel (and travel plans). By the way, certain novel or other-idea capturing software (such as Liquid Story Binder, recently on sale here) has now added mindmap capability, so that's taking off and I'll be sure to use in LSB as well.
  
  The improvement you've made over traditional 2-D mindmaps such as Buzan's and others, is to add height (via the cones) symbolizing importance (by the way, are the heights of ALL cones (regardless of parent or child) adjustable?....but as I mentioned, the ability to add "distance" (for ideas that are "out there", or actual representation of a topic's real-life distance (as in countries, planets, worlds, etc) would be fantastic.
  
  Again, if a gently curved "world" (globe-like) isn't possible, then a flat 2-d world would also do, if you could move things around on that space (it would look very similar to flight routes for airlines).
  
  Pereh had mentioned depth earlier, which if you were outlining the solar system/galaxy, one of the examples I gave above, would certainly come in useful (since a galaxy is far more complicated than our rounded world), but I suspect the rendering/engineering requirements would make this a pro application on a CAD level, and possibly out of the price range for most Bits users, even if intense hobbyists. You could probably still do astronomy study, however, as long as you added distance, perhaps on gently rounded landscapes, in order to add some depth perception.
• Jul 19 2009 10:41pm
  Roy Grubb (3D-Scape Limited Vendor)
  Hi Vanessa,
  
  You have obviously put a lot of thought into your comments, thank you. We love to hear our users' thoughts and enter into discussion with them.
  
  Zooming: I'm glad you thing Topicscape's Quickzoom is cool, but that was not the key design goal! What we were looking for was a way of viewing an entire massive map, but being able to examine any part in detail instantly. Quickzoom allows you to do that, and stay zoomed if it's what you want, or zoom back if not. Speed of examination of the map is crucial to efficient handling, and 2D programs are inevitably clumsy in this.
  
  License: Topicscape's formal license allows all users using one computer to use Topicscape. Informally, we allow purchasers to use Topicscape on two PCs - a laptop and a work desktop for example - provided only one copy is in use at a time.
  
  Maneuvering cones: The position of cones reflects the structure, so no, they cannot be moved around, but in practice this doesn't turn out to be much of a problem. That's because the same cone can appear in as many places in the structure as you wish. This is sometimes called cloning, or multi-parent hierarchy. That means that an idea can be related to several other ideas and appear in several places. Changes to one of those instances affects all the others. This is an immensely powerful way to organize information that 2D mind maps have difficulty matching. In fact, really it's only concept mapping software that can do this in 2D, but there, large maps become unreadable. We, and many other Topicscape users, have maps with thousands of topics.
  
  I understand your point about a geographical layout to match real geography and you make a strong case for it. It's something we will consider, though I see some design problems in implementing it. No user has requested this in the past three years, so it concerns me that the demand for this would be small, compared with the ability to organize information by what-relates-to-what or what-is-part-of-what. We are also considering something similar based on a timeline instead of geography.
  
  One thing that is important to know about Topicscape, is that you can choose any topic to be the 'central' one at any time. Coupled with the multi-parent capability, this means it would be complicated for users to specify how they want information laid out in all the views in which a topic might appear. Simplicity is something we are always striving towards.
  
  However, another feature that we have already partially developed, is '3D favorites' and this may meet your needs. This allows you to repeat any topics in a separate area and move them around freely, grouping them together in little trays that can also be moved. I can't give a date for release of this because we have other priorities, but it is partly working in an alpha version at present.
  
  Cone heights: They are adjustable by a non-published feature, but not individually only by type. What that means is that you can make Current Topic children taller or smaller, for example, but not one specific cone. This is because cone heights were carefully chosen over a long period of experiment to give maximum visibility (in conjunction with Quickzoom), and cone height is one element in communicating the structure to the user.
  
  Roy
• Jul 20 2009 3:09pm
  Vanessa N (Shooting Star)
  Hi Roy,
  
  Thanks very much for your considered reply to my post; it's always good to see developers take input and ideas seriously from their
  
  Cone heights (and being able to adjust them) are not a huge issue for me; I just mentioned it because it is part of what makes your mindmap 3-D (and distinguishes it from others, in addition to the nice colors and smoothness of the GUI).
  
  I was thinking more that I would like more control over my environment, over my landscape/mindmap, so to speak, so if I wanted to shift my ideas (cones) around on, on a sort of planning map/background, that's what it would be used for.
  
  For geo-spatial research (such as with travel/countries, astronomy/solar systems, and other applications I haven't thought of), this makes sense on a realistic level, but again, this wouldn't be just for real-life spatial issues (or made-up ones by game designers and the like).
  
  If brainstorming ideas, for example, some ideas are "outliers" (hence the importance of distance) due to their perceived distance from the main topic. Quite often these outliers often have only one parent anyway, because their nature makes them unusual, such that you question whether they belong to the parent anyway, or the map overall.
  
  So you want to put them aside as a "possibility", as your other subtopics are closer to their parents than the outlier. They are still connected, though, so I should think that merely being able to stretch the connecting line to a much farther point on your 2D landscape shouldn't be too difficult (i.e. click and drag). The 2D landscape (the ground, so to speak), doesn't have to be hugely big either, although that can help.
  
  Then if you decide the idea does fit (or needs its own map), you can move it in closer or remove it (or give it another parent if you decide it doesn't suit the original parent).
  
  I think your forum is unfortunately slow in terms of visits (especially recently, which is puzzling); perhaps you should send an email survey to your registered users and remind them that it exists, but perhaps also send them a survey along with information on what future development plans are, as well as their thoughts on what they may like to see (your current customers)....as well as more marketing to attract others (being on Bits helps). You may be surprised if you were to say, give a list of what's been proposed and what customers have suggested, and see if anyone expresses. I think a forum on your own site would also help; less prone to Google spam (I love Google, but their groups are filled with spammers).
  
  I'm going to pass today and see what future versions of Topic entails (hopefully you'll offer this on Bits again; it's a nice reputable site)....(I also unfortunately forgot to make a payment to my funding source that I usually use for online purchases last night; hence funds are short until the end of the week)
  
  Good luck with Topic and I shall be observing further developments in the software with much interest.
  
  Vanessa
• Jul 21 2009 12:24am
  Roy Grubb (3D-Scape Limited Vendor)
  Topicscape has Loose Associations as a way of handling outliers.
  
  The activity on our Google Group is affected by our ( perhaps too?) active responses to emails from users. And that probebly results from the little comment form available to users at the foot of every web page on our site. We have continuous and active conversations with many of them, and most start with a comment on one of those forms.
  
  This is actually our fourth excursion on Bits du Jour.
  
  Keep watching!
  
  Thanks for all the comments.
  
  Roy
  (follow me on Twitter @roygrubb for mind mapping tips and hints)

Post a Comment or Question for 3D Topicscape Pro

Posting here will also email 3D-Scape Limited directly.

Email Me Updates?
Re-enter the text shown in the image
Add me to the Weekly Daily mailing list