The Virtual Reality Modeling Language and Java

Abstract

The Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) and Java provide a standardized, portable and platform-independent way to render dynamic, interactive 3D scenes across the Internet. Integrating two powerful and portable software languages provides interactive 3D graphics plus complete programming capabilities plus network access. Intended for programmers and scene authors, this paper provides a VRML overview, synopsizes the open development history of the specification, provdes a condensed summary of VRML 3D graphics nodes and scene graph topology, describes how Java interacts with VRML through detailed examples, and examines a variety of VRML/Java future developments.