Computer Graphics Workshop '97 Lecture Notes

1/30/97

Today's topics
VRML 2.0

VRML 2.0 is the current standard for displaying 3D graphics on the World Wide Web. It is loosely based on the Open Inventor .iv file format. It carries over the concepts of the scene graph, nodes with "fields", engines, and sensors. Most (all?) VRML browsers are implemented as Netscape plugins. Examples: Cosmo Player (http://vrml.sgi.com), Netscape's Live3D.

VRML programming is mostly done in the VRML file format (see the VRML 2.0 specification), as opposed to C++ or Scheme. It is designed for ease-of-use as opposed to extensibility. However, there are Script nodes and other APIs which allow Java and VRMLScript programs to affect the scene.

Differences between VRML 2 and Open Inventor

Animation using VRML 2

How animation works:

Example: moving doors in Doom.


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