User`s guide

1 Getting Started
1-10
Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML)
In this section...
“VRML History” on page 1-10
“VRML Support” on page 1-11
“VRML Compatibility” on page 1-12
“VRML Coordinate System” on page 1-13
“VRML File Format” on page 1-14
VRML History
The Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) is the language you use to display three-
dimensional objects with a VRML viewer.
Since people started to publish their documents on the World Wide Web (WWW), there
has been an effort to enhance the content of Web pages with advanced three-dimensional
graphics and interaction with those graphics.
The term Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML) was first used by Tim Berners-
Lee at a European Web conference in 1994 when he talked about a need for a 3-D Web
standard. Soon afterward, an active group of artists and engineers formed around a
mailing list called www-vrml. They changed the name of the standard to Virtual Reality
Modeling Language to emphasize the role of graphics. The result of their effort was to
produce the VRML 1 specification. As a basis for this specification, they used a subset of
the Inventor file format from Silicon Graphics.
The VRML 1 standard was implemented in several VRML browsers, but it allowed
you to create only static virtual worlds. This limitation reduced the possibility of its
widespread use. Quickly it became clear that the language needed a robust extension to
add animation and interactivity, and bring life to a virtual world. The VRML 2 standard
was developed, and in the year 1997 it was adopted as International Standard ISO/IEC
14772-1:1997. Since then it is referred to as VRML97.