DIGITAL L.A. : `WEBISODES' VENTURE INTO NEW REALM.

Byline: David Bloom 

The edges between television and the Internet are blurring just a bit more with Brilliant Digital Entertainment's new series of 3-D interactive animated stories, or ``Multipath Movies,'' featuring such favorites as Xena and Superman.

First get the Woodland Hills-based company's Digital Projector software, which can be downloaded for free through its Web site at www.bde3d.com, or purchased for a small shipping fee on CD-ROM.

With that software installed on your PC, you can then buy subscriptions on the Web site to any of several interactive 3-D stories that are broken up into five- to seven-minute weekly ``Webisodes.''

The company is selling 12-week subscriptions at $8.95 each for its best-known products but is giving away the first four weeks of its lesser-known titles to draw you into their story lines. The company is also selling CD-ROMs of its titles.

The Webisodes are downloaded each week to your computer, in a process that thankfully can be scheduled for late at night when you're asleep, to be watched later at your leisure.

Some of the series are based on well-known franchises, including not only Xena and Superman but also Ace Ventura and Popeye.

The company is also selling several original series, including Cyberswine, about a porcine protector with a bad attitude; Gravity Angels, a science-fiction epic; and Choose Your Own Nightmare, a ghost story series somewhat like ``Goosebumps.''

The programs look great, both fluid and natural, while playing on a fast Pentium II computer but will still play presentably on a 166-Mhz Pentium, said the company's Kevin Burmeister.

And you have substantial control over each story's outcome. Not only can you control the camera, smoothly shifting your perspective within a scene, but your choices about how to respond to characters and situations change the story's ending.

That gives it something of the feel of interactive television, and indeed, the company hopes to migrate some of its stories to digital television channels soon, Burmeister said.

The company is particularly excited about its in-house animation technology, which can cheaply create animation that can be easily tweaked to be small enough to ship over the Internet, or visually rich enough to look good on a high-definition television screen.

And it truly can look great. On that fast Pentium II, Xena executes a somersault and flying kick that look nearly as lifelike as Lucy Lawless' best stunts.

``To some degree, it marks a change in the industry,'' Burmeister said. ``Over time, systems like ours will be able to create virtual-character images where the production of an entire movie can be crafted so the consumer can't tell the difference between celluloid and digital.''

Where a company like Pixar takes a ``high-end'' approach to making astonishingly lifelike animation for films such as ``A Bug's Life,'' Burmeister's company takes the Mies van der Rohe approach.

``Pixar is taking a data-intensive view of this world, whereas we say smaller is better,'' Burmeister said. ``If we can produce the quality, we have a viable economic model.''

The system currently works only on moderately powerful Windows 95- and NT-equipped personal computers. But Burmeister said the company is considering creating projector software for PowerPC Macintoshes and Windows CE machines, in part because Sega's soon-to-be-released Dreamcast video-gaming console is based on that compact version of Windows.

Blazing fast

Another Woodland Hills-based company, Geo Interactive Media Group, also has come up with some intriguing multimedia software, though it mostly creates tools for people to use on making their own forays into the world of content creation.

Emblaze Video Pro is the latest product from the company, which was started in Tel Aviv in 1994 by several Israeli Defense Force veterans.

The new $295 program allows you to put video clips on your Web site that play without requiring the viewer to have any special plug-ins, a blessing for those of us already suffering from plug-in glut.

Though the program is designed for professional Web site developers, it is cheap enough and smart enough so even beginners can easily use its basics to dress up their sites with home movies, how-to guides and much more. For a free trial version, go to www.emblaze.com.

One ringy-dingy

There's probably little more frustrating for the fleets of new iMac and other computer owners who've gotten high-speed modems in their machines than to find that they keep getting disconnected when they log on to the Internet.

Apple has even gone so far as to offer new modem strings (special code instructions that modify a modem's operation) for iMac owners that will slow down their machines enough to avoid disconnect problems on some lines.

Often, the problem doesn't have anything to do with your new machine. Sometimes it's the phone line.

To check whether that's the culprit, 3Com and its subsidiary U.S. Robotics (one of the leading modem makers) have created line tester software that you can access as long as you have standard communications software (such as the communications module of the iMac's AppleWorks program) and a modem that can run the V.34 communications protocol (which is most modems fast enough to need this).

Go to the line test page on 3Com's Web site for further instructions. The Web site has gone through a recent substantial overhaul, so when I tried to directly access the page at www.3com.com/56k/need4(underscore)56k/li netest.html, I got a broken link. But using the 3com.com Web site's internal search engine and looking under the term ``line test'' quickly turned up the missing page of instructions.

Though ``the vast majority'' of phone lines are capable of handling 56k connections, the page says, some create too much noise to work reliably, often because of multiple conversions from analog to digital and back.

Too late to list

And because the holidays are still technically going on, I'll include one last list of late-arriving titles that may be of interest to all of you with hot new computers, PlayStations or Nintendo 64 machines. Happy holidays:

Heretic II is the latest in the Heretic/Hexen series of third-person action games, using the graphics engine from Quake II to goose up the the search for a cure to a plague in the world of Parthoris. Includes Internet play for up to 32 people. Definitely for older gamers.

Glover is a sweet-natured PC and Nintendo 64 title appropriate for even young game players, based on the adventures of a, um, glove. It's a challenging and fun game, however. Gotta hand it to 'em, Glover's not your average hero.

X Games Pro Boarder is a snowboarding game for the PlayStation and PC, using the star performers from ESPN's X Games as the main competitors. If you're into boarding, this is a fun title to play until you have time to hit the slopes yourself.

Moto Racer 2 is a PC motorcycle racing game that allows you to create your own 3-D tracks, race over the Internet and even simulate night racing.

Sonic R is a racing game featuring everyone's favorite cerulean hedgehog, but not on a Saturn, not on a DreamCast, but on PC. Think blue.

Buck Bumble is a fun N64 title that requires you to fly a cybernetic bee as he fights to save a colony from other bugs. Controlling the bug is a challenge, and the graphics look great. This title is appropriate for younger players but probably requires a little more dexterity than many of them possess.

Asteroids, the classic old-school arcade game, is back in a fun 3-D version for PC. The rocks look real, but the vibe is unchanged. Rock on.

Motorhead is another futuristic racing game for the PlayStation with 16 tracks, decent graphics and cool cars. We still have to recommend Gran Turismo as the definitive PlayStation racing title.

Shogo: Mobile Armor Division is a challenging first-person shooter that allows you to jump into an armored robotic suit to fight through some scenarios. It draws its look from Japanese anime, which I like.

Nightmare Creatures is a scary N64 action adventure based on a popular PC game. You're in London in 1834, battling an evil cult's creatures in the dank side streets, cemeteries and sewers of the fog-encased burg.

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Photo: (1 -- 2) Brilliant Digital Entertainment sells weekly ``Webisodes'' of 3-D interactive adventures on its site, where Xena is a featured character, or they can be purchased on CD-ROM.