In today’s world the internet is growing at the speed of a jet. Day by day websites are being improved in terms of interactivity, entertainment, multimedia, graphics and animations. HTML documents now do not refer to the static pages which were used as the source of information only. In fact, the web is being used as the all in one entertainer for every age group.
Web sites based on gaming, animations, 3D graphics etc. are designed to provide the children the whole package of fun and excitement on their fingertips. Customers can look at the product features and virtually use the products before they actually buy it by real time simulation on World Wide Web. These miracles are possible only because of VRML language.
VRML, short for Virtual Reality Modeling Language is a language impeccably designed to facilitate hi-end 3 dimensional real time simulations on the internet. Initially, the SGML and its derivative HTML, both were designed to support two dimensional structures. But with the evolution of VRML, the internet standards have been redesigned in order to full utilize the 3D powers of the web. VRML uses various types of virtual reality objects and virtual worlds which uses three dimensional paradigms for different purposes. These placements of these objects with respect to each other can be defined using the VRML co-ordinate system. Once the positioning has been done, you can define the behavior of different elements of your virtual world.
VRML can be used to beautifully design the HTML documents. This language invokes life in the static web pages. You can do a number of tasks via VRML such as:
• Adding motion to an object
• Creating a virtual world
• 3D simulation of products
• Improving graphics
• Inserting event oriented tasks
• Controlling the behavior of various elements of the virtual world
• Embedding and controlling animations in HTML documents
• Inserting real time games in web sites
How to view VRML worlds?
To view a VRML world we need a VRML browser. A VRML browser is just like the other web browser but it has got additional features which support fascinating world of VRML. VRML browser reads a VRML file and displays the complex geometry, animations and lightning effects as a 3D world. If the 3D world allows navigation, you can examine the different objects of VRML world and navigate through it in an exciting way. VRML browser can be installed as a standalone software application or it can be embedded in the existing web browser as a plug-in.
The best VRML browser
There are a number of VRML browsers available in the market but no one is best. Every VRML browser has got its own set of benefits and constraints. While choosing a VRML browser one should keep in mind the cost, features, objective of using the VRML browser, extra features, hardware acceleration, scripting and overall performance. If you are using the VRML browser as a plug-in, you should also keep in mind that for which browser you need VRML before you select a particular one because for different web browsers different types of VRML plug-ins are developed.