***The Second Coming of VRML
by David Lohse
Last year's SIGGRAPH was seen by many as the event that gave the then-
fledgling VRML its spark of life. It was the debut of VRML 1.0, which
attracted the attention of many, both big and small, regardless of its
somewhat primitive capabilities and lack of practical experience. But it
was the promise of something new, and possibly something potentially
great, that drew us in. Now, only a year later, SIGGRAPH 96 continued the
saga by fanning the flames with the first real debut of VRML 2.0.
VRML 1.0 was a fine mechanism for transmitting 3D graphics on the Web;
but with static and usually simple 3D scenes, VRML would have been
relegated to the status of novelty, at least before the introduction of
VRML 2.0. Version 2.0 of the still-young language (1.0 wasn't really a
language, per se, but 2.0 has moved closer in that direction) provides
the important and possibly revolutionary new features of animation,
sound, and most importantly, interaction and scripting capabilities.
Several key events at SIGGRAPH focused on VRML, including two separate
BOFs (Birds-of-a-Feather meetings) and two panel discussions. All of the
key VRML players were in attendance, including Don Brutzman, Gavin Bell,
and of course Mark Pesce, among others, as well as other industry
luminaries such as the impassioned Andries van Dam, one of the venerated
godfathers of 3D.
More than 10 companies sporting VRML products and technologies were on
the show floor, occupying overall much more space than last year. At the
product demo BOF on Tuesday night, more than 20 companies were on hand to
display their VRML products. With a few exceptions such as SGI, Netscape
and Sony, the companies represented were all still fledgling (1 - 2 years
old) and relatively small. Interesting demos included:
Axial Systems, Inc., who showed an amazingly good version of a DOOM-
like game built entirely in VRML 2.0 and running at 30 fps;
Black Sun Interactive, which sells VRML 2.0-based servers for hosting
virtual multi-user worlds with avatars and reasonably fast texture
mapping;
and several VRML 2.0-compliant browsers such as Netscape's
Live3D and VREAM's WIRL, as well as several VRML authoring toolkits
from vendors including VREAM, Virtus and Paragraph.
The technical issues BOF covered three primary topics: the formation of
the new VRML Consortium, a discussion of the proposed VRML 2.0 binary
file format, and the current status of and proposed changes to VRML 2.0's
external interface.
As explained by Mark Pesce, the Consortium, which will be the ruling
authority of and the standards setter for VRML, will be composed of 4
bodies: the board of directors, a standards and specification group
(consisting of working groups and a design review board, which is the new
entity derived from the old VAG), a conformance and compliance group, and
a research and development group, who will as part of their duties supply
an open, common code base that is proposed to be hosted at a major
university.
At the meeting, a public announcement was made by the combined group of
Apple, IBM, and Paragraph, stating that they had developed a binary file
format for VRML 2.0. The proposed spec is undergoing review, and on 8/21
an RFP will be issued for alternative proposals and review. Using IBM's
compression technology, the binary file format would allow up to 50:1
compression ratios for VRML scenes.
The external interface for VRML 2.0 was discussed. Currently the 2.0
specs have hooks for both Java and JavaScript scripting, and an RFP is
also being issued 8/21 and ending 9/23 calls for a review of the current
interface handling and alternative proposals. There seemed much interest
in designing an interface that would allow *any* external scripting
language to be used, but doubts were raised as to the difficulty and
problems in doing so.
Finally (whew!), preparations were made for the planning of the VRML
Symposium #2 (the first one, last year, was held in San Diego in
December). The Symposium will be in CA again (city hasn't been decided -
likely near Monterey), sometime in late November or early December. The
potential of a conference under the Consortium was also hinted at.
Wave Issue 9605 8/12/96 Article 3-01