[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: VRML 1.0 and the HTML Killers
X3D is doing fine. You should check out Vizx3D, Flux and the Xj3D open source libraries. The notion of 'killer apps' that have a 'serious impact' is dead. It doesn't work like that anymore. Pretty much everyone is in a niche these days and the questions to ask are, do they interoperate with other niches in the ecosystem, and are they conformant with the standard. The first question can be hard to answer, but the second question can be easy if the process and the originating organization do a complete job resulting in conformance testing and test marks. That makes the whole 'business' process for citing and procuring them much easier. http://www.web3d.org/x3d/presentations/web3d_futures_apr04.ppt Should provide an overview of what X3D and the W3DC are doing these days. As always, walk up the URL for more general information. The W3DC is reorganizing to align itself better with the way most consortia operate today although it will maintain the VRML list without moderation, and keep the fees for professional members moderate ($100) rather than being an 'invitation-only' consortium. I also wrote an article on X3D for xml.com last year. It's in the archives somewhere. HTML will never die. Gencoding never does. There should always be that easy to learn, easy to apply vocabulary that gets jobs done fast. If there is a struggle in X3D or real-time 3D in general, it is the complexity of creating it and that as much as the problems of client conformance are what keep 3D on the Web, in the niche. Graphics are simply hard to do, and real time 3D is the toughest of all. We have a lot of work to do to get to Drag Drop and Go. If you like modeling, any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. The fellow you would want to work with is Alan Hudson who is the Xj3D master. Keith Victor of Virtock Technologies is the creator of Vizx3D. There are other neat tools in the freeware areas but you can find out all of this at the website above. len From: David Megginson [mailto:dmeggin@a...] Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote: > VRML 1.0 wasn't an ISO standard. Did any of the later (i.e. ISO) versions of VRML have any serious impact on the Web or the tech world in general? I remember the 3D-on-the-Web thing flaring up and then quickly fizzling out in the mid-to-late 1990s. VRML 1.0 is still around as a platform-neutral exchange format -- the 3D modelling tool's equivalent of Rich Text Format -- so it's fair to argue that that version did have a small-but-measurable impact. I'll be happy to be shown to be wrong. I love 3D modelling, and I liked the idea of publishing 3D models on the Web in an open format -- if there's a lot of action out there that I'm missing, I'll be grateful for pointers. Also, I should note, to be fair, that XML-on-the-Web idea fizzled just as fast as 3D-on-the-Web did. All of the supposed client-side HTML killers[*] in the late 1990's either died quickly (VRML, XML, ActiveX controls), are on life support (Java applets), or have found niches and learned to cohabitate peacefully (Flash, JavaScript, PDF). All the best, David [*] On the public Web client, that is; obviously, some of these have vigorous existances elsewhere, and others survive inside corporate firewalls.
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