Since a couple of months – actually after the summer of this year (2021), I’ve seen the number of visitors decline. That’s not much of an issue, but at the same time it seems less people are clicking through to the real 3D-graph and the download of the generator packages has come to a halt. All this together is a clear signal that AnRep3D has lost its significance and is end-of-life.
Since somewhere around 2005, I’ve been working on the concept. The first years were mainly a struggle with hardware: shutter glasses, graphics cards and old CRT-monitors. I also had to master VRML. Then the flatscreens came in, making things even harder for 3D. A very long intermezzo called VRBI followed (roughly May 2011 to September 2016). VRBI was about 3D-scatterplots. Rather easy to understand and to use, but that part was handed over to one of my sons, together with my company Scientassist. He graduated on the marketing of the product.
Five years ago, I decided to start with the visualisation of financial ratios in 3D again (2016). AnRep3D was originally (2005) inspired by Michael Ridpath’s novel “Trading Reality” (1997). I still believe in the value of 3D-graphs – preferably in a stereoscopic setting using polarised glasses like in a 3D movie theatre. It would be even better when a VR-headset would allow us to actually walk around and through the 3D-graph. Unfortunately my technical skills are limited and I discovered that I would have to hire several experts for a longer period to create something close to my actual vision. This would take al least a million euro. Before doing so, I’ve been testing the concept iself and now it’s very clear it’s not well-understood and doesn’t resonate. That’s completely my fault!
I could go on and change the world’s view and attitude like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates did among others, but I think for me only one possible conclusion is to quit!
However, AnRep3D won’t just fade away. I want to go with a big bang! What would this mean? Well, I decided to combine the data used for previous posts and combine them to a single, very large 3D-graph. Of course not all data, because some posts were about energy, healthcare or telecom and then we had some specials about cash-flow or quarterly results. There is also a scaling issue, because some companies are huge and others small. Yet a lot of times we simply used the standard RPEA-sequence (visualising Revenue, net Profit, Equity and total Assets) or something close which could be converted easily like Equity and total Liabilities. The size of most companies was measured in billions.
Now the question is what do we get? Well, a large graph. In size it’s similar to the dummy we show in the manual, but this one presents real companies and real values!
I won’t comment this time and the legend hovering in front shows the meaning of the dimensions. Be aware that a green roof means profit – as a part of the revenue. A red roof indicates a loss and shows the additional expenditures on top of the revenue.
For those who didn’t know: our website is scientassist.com but the 3D-graph generator-package can be downloaded here for free, at Charles Warter. The zip contains an executable jar file (Java – that’s the generator), some examples of inputfiles and also outputfiles (3D graphs in HTML5 format).
Instructions are in the manual, but our videos on YouTube may be helpful.
This blog will remain active and the links to the 3D-graphs will remain valid for several months (and then we will probably move them to another URL). The website will be downsized within a year.
That’s all. Thank you for visiting my blog! I wish you all the luck.
Exit AnRep3D
Curtain
Annual reports presented as 3D graphs 