Tutorial on VRML V2.0

This tutorial was created as a project for the advanced topics in graphics class taught at WPI. This tutorial is not intended to cover all the aspects of the VRML language; rather it is designed to give you a taste of the possibilities of VRML. Fortunately, there are a number of good books and web sites on VRML. Check out the reference section for links.

Topics that will be covered in this tutorial are:

• Introduction to the Virtual Reality Modelling language (VRML).
• Syntax and structure of VRML
• Primitive shapes provided by VRML
  rotation, translation, and scaling
  • Rotating objects
  • Translating objects (moving objects in another coordinate system)
  • Scaling objects
• Some different node types supported by VRML
  • Shape node
  • Appearance node
  • Material node
  • Extrusion node
• Routes and events
• Scripting languages supported by VRML
• Integrating VRML libraries in your code
• Linking your world to other worlds on the Internet
• Sources for this presentation
• Walkthrough of a sample VRML world. Includes documentation of code and explantation of features. You may also be able to use Netscape's live3D plugin or a plugin from a third party, but they have not been tested with this demonstration.

Requirements for VRML and walkthrough

VRML requires a fairly significant amount of processing power. Most demos will probably not run with any kind of performance on any machine less than a mid range pentium. Higher end UNIX workstations and SGI's will probably run the demo at a decent framerate.

VRML plugin

In order to view the walkthrough, you also need a VRML plugin for your favorite Web browser. I highly recommend the cosmo VRML player from SGI. It is the best VRML 2.0 browser available today.