Flatland Rover

Before the Tomb Raider Level Editor, there was Flatland Rover.

Flatland Rover was an independent 3DML browser created by Flatland Online, allowing people to create virtual environments with a simple block system. Three-dimensional rooms, called "spots", were edited as XML like text files that could be hosted on web servers just like HTML files and then loaded into a web browser. 'Flatland Rover' would render the spots in real time. Just like any HTML page, spots could be connected to other spots through links, represented by objects or gates in the 3D environment. Levels created by 3DML were in first person view.

About Flatland Online From Official Website

Flatland Online is a San Francisco based company that develops innovative rich media products for the Web, including the Flatland Rover rich media player. Flatland's new Web publishing format, 3DML (Three Dimensional Markup Language), empowers Webmasters to quickly create their own visually compelling rich media environments called "Spots." And with Spotnik, Flatland's point and click Spot builder [ http://spotnik.flatland.com ], even novice Webmasters can create 3DML environments in just minutes.

As a leading rich media company, Flatland is carrying the Web onto the broadband fast lane, bringing the power of rich media to every Web site. Rich media authoring, once limited to highly skilled professionals with expensive equipment, is now open to anyone with minimum web authoring skills and maximum imagination.

Flatland.com is the central hub of all 3DML activity on the Web. It is comprised of a directory of all 3DML sites, current news, updates, and community services for builders.

Press Release Flatland Takes Eidos Web Site 3D - January 19th 1999

-- Online Company and Game Publisher Partner to Offer TombRaider Fans Easy 3D Web Tools --

SAN FRANCISCO (January 19, 1999) -- Flatland Online announced today that it is working with Eidos Interactive, a worldwide developer and publisher of interactive entertainment products, to deliver Flatland's easy-to-use 3D building tools to Eidos' Tomb Raider game fans. Tomb Raider, starring the internationally recognized action-adventurer, Lara Croft, is a top-selling PC game title. Using Flatland’s 3DML technology and textures from Tomb Raider game levels, Eidos game fans and web enthusiasts can quickly build virtual environments which resemble the worlds found within this popular 3D game.

3DML -- based on HTML and just as easy to learn -- is Flatland's newly released 3D Web publishing format, which requires no previous experience with 3D modeling or programming. 3DML uses a basic building block metaphor that empowers users to create 3D spaces by arranging ready-made blocks into complete environments. Spaces created with 3DML, called spots, can be viewed with the Flatland Rover, a free software application extension to Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Spots can be hyperlinked together and can include standard Web graphics, animations, lighting effects and stereo spatial sound. The Flatland engine is also Direct3D compatible and runs on PCs with Windows 95/98/NT4.0.

"The Flatland Rover has added a new kind of interactivity to our Tomb Raider web site and introduces an engaging tool to our online community. As a company that produces immersive environment games, we are excited about extending this new kind of 3D experience to our Tomb Raider fans online. Now they can build their own 3D web pages based on the game they know and love," said Paul Baldwin, VP of Marketing at Eidos Interactive.

One group of Tomb Raider fans, Team WittRaider, has already adopted the technology and has created their own online experience based on Tomb Raider and Flatland's 3D engine. A link to their 3DML spot can be found at: http://www.tombraider.com/tr3

"The WittRaider spot is a stunning example of what can be easily created with the rich textures from Lara Croft's world and the Flatland Rover," said Michael Powers, President and CEO of Flatland. "We look forward to working with Eidos on other game titles and to helping them build their online community by providing their fan base with future 3DML features that are even more exciting and easier to use," he said.

The Flatland Rover combines a user interface, seamless integration with common web browsers and high-speed display of 3DML content using thousands of colors, dynamic lighting and sound. The Flatland Rover installer is only a 1MB download, which takes less than six minutes on a 28.8 modem and is easy to install.

Individuals wishing to experiment with 3DML and the Tomb Raider textures can download the Flatland Rover for free at www.tombraider.com or from the Flatland site at: http://www.flatland.com

Extensive tutorials and 3DML building guides are also available online.

Eidos Interactive, Inc. is a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment products for the PC and Playstation. Eidos Interactive is part of London-based Eidos plc (NASDAQ: EIDSY) with additional offices in San Francisco; Paris; Hamburg, Germany; and Tokyo, Japan. The company development studios include: Eidos Interactive, Core Design, Crystal Dynamics and Pumpkin Studios. Eidos holds additional exclusive publishing agreements with ION Storm, Pyro Studios, Mucky Foot, Innerloop and Hothouse Creations. Eidos plc also includes Eidos Technologies, a software-based video compression company, and Glassworks, a state-of-the-art post-production facility specializing in digital special effects for the television, feature film and advertising industries. For more information on Eidos Interactive's product line visit: http:/www.eidosinteractive.com

Flatland Online, Inc. is based in San Francisco and was founded by Michael Powers in October 1996. Flatland announced 3DML and released the Rover software on December 29, 1998. As a provider of easy-to-use 3D web tools, Flatland helps other companies build stronger online community through more engaging interaction between them and those who visit their web sites. Flatland also gives more flexibility to the individual home page builder by dramatically lowering the level of difficulty previously associated with 3D on the Web. Flatland.com is the central hub of 3DML activity with a directory of new sites, current news, updates and add-on services for 3DML builders.

Tomb Raider & Flatland

For 14th February 1999, Eidos, Flatland and GameSpot teamed up to sponsor a contest for Lara's birthday. The contest goal was "to build the best 3D Adventure Tomb for Lara", using the 3DML building format from Flatland and textures from the Tomb Raider games. "Flatland and Eidos were overwhelmed by the quality and scope of the entries submitted. After long hours of exploration and debate, we finally came to a decision."

On the 15th February, the winners were announced. Players could use the 3DML spot 'Winners Circle' to view the winners, or read them on the Flatland website.

GRAND PRIZE: Best Overall Spot!
Lara Goeke with 'Necropolis'

The Grand Prize Winner wins:

AMD Computer
3Dfx Voodoo 3 board
Eidos Game Pack:
- TRIII
- Warzone
- Thief
- Gangsters
- Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty
- Daikatana

Vertical Divider

4 FIRST PRIZE WINNERS:
Most Beautiful Spot
Ben McClard with 'McClard's Tomb'

Best Interactivity
Matt Olsen with 'Mysteries of Osa'
Frankie Perry with 'Gargoyle's Castle'
Erik Berg with 'Akib's Castle'

First Prize Winners Win:

3Dfx Voodoo 3 board
Eidos Game Pack:
- TRIII
- Thief
- Gangsters

Honorable Mentions
'Mansion Maze'
'Tundai Temple'

Vertical Divider

10 2ND PRIZE WINNERS
urbanotor
tangoroof
sasche
rgordon
forster
cunning
death_knight
dfeagan
looneytunes
bobman

Second Prize Winners Win:

An Eidos Game Pack

The tomb 'Curse of the Necropolis' was even mentioned on the Tomb Raider 3 official website, on the Community page:

Help Lara Break the Curse of Necropolis!

"From here the Necropolis looks sealed up pretty tight. I wonder if I can see anything from the other tower...."

The entrance to the Tomb of Necropolis is sealed, but there might be another way in, if you can find it... test your skills and dive into 3D tombs on the Web!

There was a second contest available, which builder 'WittRaider Team' led when they created a spot called 'Lara Croft Birthday Contest Spot'. It contained puzzles that fans had to try and solve. Here is the information from the Eidos Interactive website:

THE LARA'S BIRTHDAY ADVENTURE GAME

Help Lara solve the riddle of the Lost Roman Temple for a chance to win a new AMD computer and other cool prizes! Lara is deep underground in an ancient temple, and she needs your help to decipher the word of power that will allow her to escape. In order to explore the temple with Lara, you'll need the Flatland Rover software, which is available here for download for free! Once you have downloaded and installed Rover, come back here and help Lara escape!

You Might Win:
Grand Prize Winners (1)
will receive one AMD computer, an Aureal Vortex 2 Sound Card, Tomb Raider III Prima Strategy Guide, a collectable Lara Croft Action Figure and a Lara Croft Collectable Watch

First Prize Winners (2)
will receive Tomb Raider III standee, an Aureal Vortex 2 Sound Card, a copy of Tomb Raider III, a Tomb Raider III Prima Strategy Guide, a collectable Lara Croft Action Figure and a Lara Croft Collectable Watch

Second Prize Winners (10)
will receive one Lara Croft poster and a Lara Croft Collectable Watch

On the official Tomb Raider 3 website, there was a page dedicated to Flatland, where the Rover three spots were promoted: 'Lara's Maze', 'Cave' and 'Scion Temple'.

In 2000, Eidos approached Rainer "Lemming" Kaufmann, a Flatland spot builder, and asked him to create a level for the promotion of 'Tomb Raider 3: The Lost Artefact'. This level was called 'Castle of Fate'. This is the event in his own words in 2011:

"In fact, "Castle of Fate" (CoF) was an online promotion for Lost Artifact, that I wrote in February 2000 (wew! eleven years ago) for Eidos Interactive as part of a sponsoring partnership of Flatland and Eidos.

Flatland then was a company developing a standard for 3D on the web. Three-dimensional rooms, called "spots", were edited as XML like text files that could be hosted on webservers just like HTML files and loaded into you a web browser. A browser plugin (Flatland Rover) then rendered those spots real time, so you could "walk" through the spot. Like HTML pages, spots could be connected to other spots through links, represented by objects or gates in the 3D environment.

Due to the fact, that those spots reminded of game levels of some sort and the principle of block-builded environments especially reminded of Tomb Raider levels, Flatland and Eidos teamed up and lots of TR textures went into the spot builder community. On the other hand, some so called "master builders" (let's say spot authors with certain skills) were asked to write spots, that come as close to a TR level as possible (despite the fact, that TR is third-person and 3DML was first-person).

So, for Lost Artifact, that was me.

At that time, I had already wrote some of the well known TR traps like spikes, breaking platforms, boulders and a rope mechanism too. So Flatland asked me to write the promo spot for Eidos. The problem was: I had exactly five days, no more. I took those 5 days off from my job the same day, sat down and wrote the damn thing with almost no sleep but LOTS of coffee.

I got all the textures of TRLA directly from Core Design within hours - and the threat of a killer commando coming to hunt me down, if any of them would find their way to the web

I delivered the spot in time and it had all of those traps in it as well as the rope and three secret rooms and hey, yes, I'm still proud of it It was pressed to all TRLA CDs worldwide and was 18 months online on Eidos' website. Hm, I didn't get any money (just a TR watch and some goodies) for it but hey, how often do you get the chance to be (a really really really small) part of the Tomb Raider history?"

Fansite Raider Daze has taken some screenshots of the spot's gameplay. Follow this link to view them.

For completing the 'Castle of Fate', players earned themselves a new "Winner's Wallpaper" for their desktops.

The 3D environment was added to copies of 'Tomb Raider: The Lost Artefact' and also included a new set of textures - the Tomb4 blockset - that included ancient facades and surfaces.

Other known spots created were:
Lara Goeke - 'Quest for the Golden Mask'
Russ - 'Garden Maze'

Tomb Raider Texture Blocksets

These texture sets were given out on the Flatland website. Luckily, only a few of the textures wouldn't load.

Tomb 1

Tomb 2

Tomb 3

Tomb 4

This was a prototype environment created for Eidos for Tomb Raider 4 promo.

In modern times, Tomb Raider Foum user UroshUchiha has managed to come across several spots and even fixed several bugs, so they are now playable. If you are interested in visiting (or revisiting) these levels, or reading about them, check out his post here.

Interestingly, Flatland is still going today, and you can download a rover that will work on modern computers.