VRML is the most exciting thing to hit the internet since the world wide web. In its first version (VRML 1.0) it allows virtual worlds to be used in much the same way as web pages. You can click on virtual objects (just like HTML links) which take you into other worlds, read text, walk around and do most 'webby' things except in three dimensions. VRML 1.0 is not interactive though, and nothing in the worlds can move around.
VRML 2.0 expands on this, allowing objects to be animated and the user to interact with the world in very sophisticated ways. With a suitable VRML 2.0 browser you can create entire interactive worlds. 'Behaviours' can be attached to objects by means of a script language (Java/JavaScript e.t.c.), and the browsers allow for all manner of 'sensors' in a world to make things happen.
I am currently in the process of writing a VRML 2.0 browser. Work began on this in October 1996, leading to the release of a completed VRML 1.0 browser during April 1997. This is available for download from HENSA as a zip archive. Please note that you will need to download the Euclid graphics module to make use of the browser. This is available for download from here as a zipfile by kind permission of it's author Tony Cheal. Please load the Euclid module before running the browser. For anyone interested, the current state of the project can be found here.
My main goal at the moment is to get a partial implementation VRML 2.0 browser up and running, along with my own rendering library which should eventually replace the use of the Euclid module. My summer was spent with Philips Research working on VRML related things, and I am now keen to implement some of the recent advances in VRML into my own browser. The next release of the browser will be written entirely in C (with the possible exception of some rendering code) to allow for portability to other platforms.
If anyone would like to make any suggestions etc. get in touch. Encouragement is always a big help!
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For more information contact dfmcp@hotmail.com