TAPESTRY: The Art of Representation and Abstraction
The Web: Graphics
What's it all About?
Modern computers are capable of rendering fairly complex environments in real time. When the world-wide web began to take off and cross-platform standards for different media (text, images, movies, sound, etc.) began to emerge, it was only natural that efforts would be made to create a 3D standard as well. One of these created the Virtual Reality Modeling Language or VRML. There are other efforts, or proposals as well, and it is not clear that VRML will be the ultimate winner, but it is certainly one of the contenders.
Sample VRML Model
This model was created in form-Z and saved with "rendered textures" as a VRML 2.0 document. It was then modified with a text editor to give the ground plane transparency, set up a background, and make some of the faces into links (watch for the cursor change).
Making One
VRML, like HTML is text-based. In theory, you could make a VRML world using a simple text editor. In practice, you are likely to use a combination of a 3D Modeling program, a text editor, and an image editing program.VRML and HTML
As with most web media, VRML models may be linked to directly, using a simple anchor (view this page's source to see the above link for an example). If you want the browser window to include both VRML and HTML content, you will want to investigate the OBJECT tag.Last updated: April, 2014
