Virtual Reality Modeling Language

The vision of 'The Second Web' is becoming a reality through the growing use and availability of VRML, or Virtual Reality Modelling Language. This language allows the design of explorable multi-user 3-D spaces, complete with sound, animation, and video incorporation, which can be contained and distributed over the World Wide Web.

Gibson, Timothy Leary, and Terence McKenna, and Jaron Lanier have envisioned the potent future and philosophical implications of 'Cyber-Space' and 'Virtual Reality' over 15 years ago; meanwhile, thousands of computer and information technologists have developed VRML, possibly the most massive, industry-wide collaboration, for an international standard format now in its 2.0 specification. VRML is a viable and vibrant technology today and promises to evolve and grow without bound in coming years. VRML can be used in conjuction with Java, JavaScript, and a variety of databases.

VirtuWorlds, dedicated to being at the forefront of such web technologies, is building their world and shopping center using multi-media VRML 2.0. The current market rise in e-commerce provides the impetus to provide rich content and quality products for an immersive on-line shopping experience.

See also, VirtuWorlds Technicals Page

To view the 3-D interactive VRML worlds, you need to download and install a VRML browser (plug-in) such as Cosmo Player 2.1 (Windows or Mac version or SGI IRIX version) or any appropriate browser listed here or here. Other browsers may give different rendering results.

All of the worlds are VRML 2.0 and have many predefined viewpoints to simplify navigation. When viewing these worlds on your computer with a modem connection, please be patient for the files to download, uncompress, and be displayed.

The worlds were tested with CosmoPlayer on an NT workstation, Mac, and Windows 95/98. All the worlds are displayed correctly with CosmoPlayer. With the other browsers, there might be some problems with lighting, shading, viewpoints, transparency, proximity sensors, widgets, or with the browser crashing.

If you're using CosmoPlayer 2.1, the interactive performance can be improved by adjusting some settings. Click on the checkmark in the lower right corner to display the Preferences window. Under the Performance tab, set Image/Texture Quality to Fastest and uncheck 'Enable specular and emissive color shine-through'. Under the Graphics tab, set to Automatic Renderer Choice. Do not force software rendering.


To find out more about VRML, visit these sites:

VirtuWorlds Home


© VirtuWorlds 1999

VirtuWorlds, VirtuWorld, Ad-Vironments and Advironment are Trademarks of VIRTUWORLDS LLC. No unauthorized uses are permitted.