VRML Frequently Asked Questions This document resides at (URL is http://www.oki.com/vrml/VRML_FAQ.html). Last-modified: 1995/05/31 Version: 1.0 VRML (pronounced "vermel", kinda like vernal) stands for Virtual Reality Modeling Language. These are details gleaned from reading the VRML discussion group. It is archived at (URL is http://vrml.wired.com) by the good graces of Wired and Brian Behlendorf. Contents * 0: Recent changes to the FAQ * 1: VRML Today o 1.0: What is VRML? o 1.1: Where can I get the specification? o 1.2: What's the history of VRML? o 1.3: What's 3D graphics, anyway? o 1.4: What VRML events are going on at SIGGRAPH? * 2: VRML Browsers o 2.1: What browsers are available? o 2.2: Who else is working on a browser o 2.3: What is QvLib? * 3: Other VRML Tools o 3.1: Authoring tools o 3.2: Conversion tools * 4: Neat VRML Sites o 4.1: Lists of Pointers to indices... o 4.2: VRML (.wrl) Data Sites o 4.3: How set up an HTTP server to host .wrl files? o 4.4: How to compress .wrl files? * 5: Where is VRML going? o 5.1: VRML 2.0 Features o 5.2: What about VRML 1.1? o 5.3: How can I participate in the design process? o 5.4: What is the design process? o 5.5: Access for All * Bibliography 0: Recent changes to the FAQ 1.0 spec is final!!! Congrats to Anthony Parisi!!! 1.0: What is VRML? VRML stands for Virtual Reality Modeling Language. What it is depends on the limits of your imagination. Right now it is a draft specification for adding 3D data to the Web. Mark Pesce has been the VRML list moderator since it began. His vision has shaped much of VRML. Early vision (URL is http://vrml.wired.com/concepts/visions.html) A fairly recent talk, "VRML Equinox", given by Mark as the Developer's Day Keynote Address at WWW3 in Darmstadt captures the status quo as of 95.APR.15. (URL is http://vrml.wired.com/arch/1390.html) VRML 1.0 is a subset of the Inventor File Format (ASCII) with some additions to allow linking out to the Web and including other URLs. The linking out feature (WWWAnchor) provides the same feature that HREF anchors provide in HTML. VRML 1.0 was agreed to be the minimal starting point for a much larger vision. There is a rich set of materials on (URL is http://vrml.wired.com) which should be thought of as the primary VRML site. Just before the VRML press announcement, Mark described VRML in a "backgrounder" (URL is http://vrml.wired.com/arch/1010.html) " VRML is a language for describing multi- user interactive simulations -- virtual worlds networked via the global Internet and hyperlinked within the World Wide Web." On 3-APR-95, Silicon Graphics (SGI) and Template Graphics (TGS) announced their WebSpace products. This more commercial thrust adds an interesting balance to the VRML mixture. There is a lot more visibility and hype for VRML. That is both good and bad. Hopefully, the browsers coming out SOON will both extend and temper the good aspects of the visibility. Seventeen companies and organizations also announced their support for VRML-based 3D graphics on the World Wide Web. These companies include: AccelGraphics, Inc., Brown University, CERN, Digital Equipment Corporation, Intergraph, NCD, NEC Technologies, net.Genesis Corporation, Netscape Communications, Oki Advanced Products, San Diego Supercomputer Center, Spyglass, Tenet Networks, Viewpoint Datalabs International, Inc., the University of Darmstadt, Wavefront Technologies and 3Dlabs Inc. P.S. If I lost you at the Web, (World Wide Web or WWW) you might try using Mosaic or Netscape to look at one of these: The Web Project page: (URL is http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html) The WWW FAQ (one which this is modeled): (URL is http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.html) (Up to Table of Contents) 1.1: Where can I get the specification? The final 1.0 spec is off (URL is http://www.hyperreal.com/~mpesce/vrml/vrml.tech/vrml10-3.html The spec was written by Gavin Bell of Silicon Graphics, Anthony Parisi of Intervista Software, and Mark Pesce, VRML List Moderator. The final spec is dated 26-MAY-95. The curious can check the changes at (URL is http://www.hyperreal.com/~dagobert/) (Up to Table of Contents) 1.2: What's the history of VRML? 1.3: What's the history of VRML? Here is a timeline Also, a view from the SGI trenches: (URL is http://www.sgi.com/ion/vrml.ezine.3.95.html) (Up to Table of Contents) 1.3: What's 3D graphics, anyway? Geometry, transformations, attributes, lighting, shading, textures, clipping... Any good tutorials on the net? (Up to Table of Contents) 1.4: What VRML events are going on at SIGGRAPH? There is a course, VRML: Using 3D to Surf the Web. Sunday August 6th, 1:30PM. Jan Hardenbergh, Gavin Bell and Mark Pesce. There is a panel - 3D Graphics Throught the Internet - A "Shoot-Out" Friday 3:45-5:30 PM. Carl Machover, Gavin Bell, Carl Tollander, Tamara Munzner and Val Watson. There will probably be several based worlds in the interactive communities: at least Waxweb 2.0... Don Brutzman is organizing a BOF/SIG for Monday 5-7PM (this may change due to room/time assignment from SIGGRAPH) He will announce it to the list. In addition, there are many courses, papaers and panels on VR, behaviors for synthetic humans, physics based modeling, sound, interactivity, etc, etc, etc!!! It is safe to say that everything at SIGGRAPH relates to VRML on some level. (URL is http://www.siggraph.org/conferences/siggraph95/siggraph95.html) (Up to Table of Contents) 2.1: What browsers are available? The SGI, NT and Sun versions of WebSpace are now available (95.MAY.22). These are Beta versions of the browsers, and are free. If you have comments please follow the Beta feedback directions and do not bother the list with complaints about free software. On the otherhand, interesting conceptual questions are usually welcome. None of the browsers seem to have a stick to surface feature, yet. How can one ski down the hill in the CAVE without that? Intervista WorldView This was the original VRML browser (nee Labyrinth) and should be available SOON for Windows, Mac and UNIX. (URL is http://www.hyperion.com/intervista/) WebSpace From Template Graphics Software(TGS) and Silicon Graphics (SGI) also available NOW for SGI and SOON for the others. The SGI information - (URL is http://www.sgi.com/Products/WebFORCE/WebSpace/) and the TGS information - (URL is http://www.sd.tgs.com/~template/WebSpace/) * SGI (SGI) Beta Available Now. (95.MAY.4) * NT (TGS) Beta Available now. (95.MAY.15) * Windows (TGS) check web page. Predicted for 19-JUN-95. * Sun (TGS) 15-MAY-95 * Mac, HP.. 15-JUL-95 NetPower (VRML Studio?) ... demonstrated at Interactive 3D symposium. (URL is http://www.netpower.com/) VRweb GRAZ, Austria (26th April 1995) - IICM, home of Hyper-G, NCSA, home of Mosaic, and the University of Minnesota, home of Gopher, today jointly announced the development of VRweb, a new three-dimensional Internet browser based on the emerging VRML standard for 3D objects on the World-Wide Web. The whole announcement is in the VRML archive: (URL is http://vrml.wired.com/arch/1739.html) NCSA VRML page: (URL is http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/VRML/VRMLHome.html) Information on Hyper-G: (URL is ftp://iicm.tu-graz.ac.at/pub/Hyper-G) They are planning a Linux version, as well as source availability for noncommercial use. I'm not sure of the relationship of VRweb to GopherVR? Here is the GopherVR announcement: (URL is http://vrml.wired.com/arch/1647.html) Geomview From the maker's of WebOOGL, Geomview is currently a "Quasi-compliant" VRML viewer with some talk of making it more so. (URL is http://www.geom.umn.edu:80/software/geomview/) (Up to Table of Contents) 2.2: Who else is working on a browser You too can be a browser writer (geek :-) (Up to Table of Contents) 2.3: What is QvLib? QvLib is being updated for the final VRML spec. The current version matches the November draft of the spec. Public source code for QvLib, a parser library for VRML has been released - written by Paul Strauss (pss@engr.sgi.com) and Gavin Bell (gavin@engr.sgi.com) of SGI, it is code to build a parse tree from a VRML file for future VRML applications. There are LINUX, IRIX, Sun, NT and Mac versions at (URL is ftp://ftp.vrml.org/pub/parser/) Several people have had problems with the CONCAT macros in QvBasic.h. If you are having problems getting the tests to work, check that out. By implementing rendering functions in the QvTraverse functions you can write a simple VRML file viewer. Add the ability to fetch .wrl files and a way to communicate files other than .wrl to browsers and you have something interesting. Here are some pointers: (URL is http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/cci-spec.html) (URL is http://www.netscape.com/info/APIs/index.html) (Up to Table of Contents) 3.1: Authoring tools There are also some modelers coming up soon from ParaGraph, Radiance, TGS, Virtus, and 3D/EYE. It is easy to think that all modeling tools will be spitting out VRML in the not too distant future. The interesting tools will come along that can create whole environments, with sounds and behaviors. Automatic support for level of detail (LOD) would be nice, too. Virtual Home Builder from ParaGraph (URL is http://www.paragraph.com/) Available 15-MAY-95, Price $49.95, Platform PC Ez3d Radiance (URL is http://www.webcom.com/~radiance/vrml.html) WalkThrough Pro Virtus is working on a VRML compliant version of WalkThrough Pro. The product should be released in the third quarter of 95. TriSpectives(tm) 1.0 3D/EYE will bring true Windows 95-based 3D to the desktop upon releasing TriSpectives 1.0 approximately 30 days after the shipment of Microsoft's(r) Windows 95 operating system. It will output VRML. CONTACT: 3D/EYE Inc., Ithaca, Mark Walton, 607/257-1381, mawa(at)eye.com Internet Week claimed Calagari, maker of TrueSpace, is releasing a modeller that write VRML. Scarce details. Template Graphics System will release an authoring tool in July (according to their web page). (Up to Table of Contents) 3.2: Conversion tools dxf2iv This tool is available for SGI's from ftp.sgi.com. InterChange for Windows Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 22:26:50 -0500 From: syndesis@beta.inc.net (Syndesis Corporation) Subject: ADVERT: Translate from 3D file formats to VRML My company makes InterChange for Windows, a program that translates between more than thirty 3D file formats such as AutoCAD DXF, Wavefront, 3D Studio, etc. We recently added support for exporting to VRML format. For more info, send me your postal (paper) mailing address and I'll send literature. Or, call (414) 674-5200 or fax (414) 674-6363. wc2pov This tool supports most file formats found on the avalon 3D archive and will output VRML files SOON. Wait until you see it say VRML before you grab the .zip file. When the beta is available I will make it available via my homepage (URL is http://www.europa.com/~keithr) TGS (Template will be offering a DXF, 3D Studio & IGES to Inventor & VRML converter in July. (Up to Table of Contents) 4.1: Lists of Pointers to indices... There are many sites that have lists of sites and more everytime I check. Here are a few starting points. I am not attempting to provide a list of all VRML links. Just a few starting points. There is a good list of pointers on the Well. (URL is http://www.well.com/www/caferace/vrml.html) There is a new site at VRML.ORG, whoever they are? (URL is http://www.vrml.org) The Community Company maintains a VRML page. (URL is http://www.net.org/~tcc/vrml.html) The VRML repository sponsored by SGI and TGS and contains pointers to most of the VRML work that is going on. (URL is http://www.sdsc.edu/SDSC/vrml/) (front door) (URL is http://www.sdsc.edu/SDSC/Partners/vrml/examples.html) (vrml examples) 3DSite: vrml-links-new (URL is http://www.lightside.com:80/3dsite/cgi/VRML-index.html) VRML-o-Rama!! (URL is http://www.well.com/user/spidaman/vrml.html) is a collection of links & personal notes. (Up to Table of Contents) 4.2: VRML (.wrl) Data Sites The first announced VRML 1.0 site was WaxWeb: (URL is http://bug.village.virginia.edu/vrml) Created by David Blair, Waxweb 2.0 is the first interactive, intercommunicative FEATURE FILM on the WORLD WIDE WEB (Variety, 2.16.95). It is also, the first network-distributed narrative to offer real-time 3-D navigation through a story. Waxweb is a project of the Brown University Graphics Laboratory, headed by Andries VanDam, with Tom Meyer serving as the technical director of the project. Based on David Blair's electronic feature film "WAX or the discovery of television among the bees" (85:00, 1991, distributed by FIRST RUN FEATURES), Waxweb is the LARGEST hypermedia narrative document on the World Wide Web. "WAX" itself was the first feature film sent over the Internet ("Historic First", Markoff, NYTimes, 4.93). My current favorite site is the CAVE data files that have been translated to VRML. An overview of the CAVE: (URL is http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/EVL/docs/html/CAVE.overview.html) The snail and Let's Ski are both reasonably small (50K) and fun. The directory for the VRML files: (URL is http://jaka.eecs.uic.edu/dave/vrml/CAVE/) VRML/WebOOGL Zoo of Mathematical 3D Objects - The Geometry Center of the University of Minnesota translated some things from WebOOGL a forerunner of VRML. (URL is http://www.geom.umn.edu:80/software/weboogl/zoo/) Also check out the annotated directory of applications at the VRML Repository listed above. (Up to Table of Contents) 4.3: How set up an HTTP server to host .wrl files? You need to edit the configuration file to establish the file suffix to MIME (more below) type mapping. This allows the HTTP protocol to use the MIME types to identify data coming accross the net as VRML data. If you had .wrl files available via ftp, the client (browser/viewer) would be responsible for mapping file extension to MIME tpye (or directly to the application to be launched. For CERN you need to add this line to httpd.conf: # add the VRML type. AddType .wrl x-world/x-vrml 8bit 1.0 For the EMWACS NT server, you add similar things in the Control Panel of the HTTP Server. Open that to see the list of MIME type mappings. Click on the New Mapping button and give .wrl & x-world/x-vrml Date: Mon, 24 Apr 95 15:25 MET DST From: Simon Leinen (simon@lia.di.epfl.ch> For Netsite, I have tried to use the nifty forms-based administrative user interface to add a type mapping from the .wrl extension to the correct MIME type, but didn't find any possibility to do that. Adding the following line to the file /var/mc-httpd/admin/config/mime.types seems to work though: type=x-world/x-vrml exts=wrl NCSA's httpd, add the following line to conf/srm.conf: AddType x-world/x-vrml wrl (Up to Table of Contents) 4.3: How to compress .wrl files? This is still a little "predictive" but I think this is the way it should be. Thanks to Brian Behlendorf for getting it to work somewhere. If you are putting up compressed VRML files on your web site you need to add a Content-Encoding line which tells the browser to uncompress it. Using the Free Software Foundation's GNU zip tools seems like the only viable cross platform option. For Apache and NCSA's httpd, add the following line to srm.conf, and any file like *.wrl.gz will be properly labeled with Content-encoding: x-gzip AddEncoding x-gzip gz For CERN, it is just a little different... (in httpd.conf) AddEncoding .gz x-gzip (Up to Table of Contents) 5.1: VRML 2.0 Features There are many things to be added to VRML 1.0 to create a full multi-user 3D environment. There are many features to be incorporated into a cyberspace system - perhaps only a piece of which is VRML. The other would be a new protocol for registering presence and getting updates. The idea of a VRMUD has been discussed - Think of "The Street" from Snow Crash, or the Holodeck, or... * behaviors (objects behave based on time and events) * interactions (a way to feed events into environments) * multiple participants * sound (if it was not in VRML 1.1) * telepresence This assumes some sort of scripting ability. Physics based modeling should be possible - things cannot pass through each other, they fall when dropped. Also, other sorts of constraints would be nice for object placement. Read the archive for tons of ideas. VRML 2.0 work will begin in earnest after the first wave of VRML browsers get out. (Up to Table of Contents) 5.2: What about VRML 1.1? mentioned numerous times and in Mark Pesce's VRML Equinox at WWW3. (URL is http://vrml.wired.com/arch/1390.html) Candidates for inclusion: * Annotation text (or nodes) * Inline Sound * i18n text (Internationalization) * caching of inline objects, on a CD-ROM for example. * video streams as texture sources (simulating portals & TVs) * simple animation features (Up to Table of Contents) 5.3: How can I participate in the design process? There are several mailing lists - summary from the VRML Repository. (URL is http://www.sdsc.edu/SDSC/Partners/vrml/repos_mailing.html) - vrml-modeling@sdsc.edu Technical discussion on geometry description issues in VRML. Topics include features of current and proposed geometric primitives, import/export tools, compatibility with existing systems, implementation details, performance issues, cross-platform issues, and so forth. Unmoderated. To subscribe, email to listserv@sdsc.edu. In the message body type: add vrml-modeling - vrml-behaviors@sdsc.edu Technical discussion on describing behaviors within VRML. Topics include how to add interaction and animation behaviors to VRML, scripting language issues, implementation details, and so forth. Unmoderated. To subscribe, email to listserv@sdsc.edu. In the message body type: add vrml-behaviors - www-vrml@wired.com // General discussion on VRML. Unmoderated. To subscribe, email to majordomo@wired.com. In the message body type: subscribe www-vrml your-email-address (Up to Table of Contents) 5.4: What is the design process? I've heard this raised a few times. The current process is that the authors of the VRML 1.0 (Gavin Bell, Anthony Parisi and Mark Pesce) discuss issues on the www-vrml mailing list and then revise the spec. Seeing as the ultimate standards body for VRML is the IETF, this is probably OK. The process is similar, I think. Get IETF Zen URL! XXX At some point it will become a (new) MIME content type ("world" or "3D" or "geometry") and a subtype "vrml". While the lack of formality may make some uncomfortable, no one can argue with the progress made so far, IMHO. (Up to Table of Contents) 5.5: Access for All What effect will VRML have on people who are blind, or people who cannot manipulate keyboards, pointing devices or datagloves? How can we build in the oppurtunity for equal participation and thereby enhance the experience for all? This is referred to as Augmentative technology. The ATRC at the University of Toronto in association with other groups is grappling with these VRML challenges (URL is http://www.utirc.utoronto.ca/AdTech/VRML/vrml.html) (Up to Table of Contents) Where can I get the nifty VRML artwork? Kevin Hughes of EIT is the creator and has put it into the public domain. See (URL is ftp://www.vrml.org/pub/parser/) (Up to Table of Contents) Bibliography RFC 1521 (MIME) -- IANA Registration Procedures (URL is ) YON, jch@oki.com, Jan C. Hardenbergh, Oki Advanced Products 508-460-8655 http://www.oki.com/people/jch/ =|= 100 Nickerson Rd. Marlborough, MA 01776 Imagination is more important than knowledge - Albert Einstein (1879-1955)