After you have installed and configured your VRML application, you can load a VRML file the same way you access an HTML file: either by clicking on a link or typing a URL and hitting return. If you typed the URL into your VRML application, then the file will be loaded. Based on the speed of your connection and the size of the file, the loading time can be as little as a few seconds or as much as a couple of minutes. Well-structured VRML files will allow your VRML browser to load the file in pieces, which has the advantage that you can start exploring right away while the browser fetches more detailed objects and those that are not currently in your view.
As you navigate through the scene, you will notice that some objects are linked. If you click on them, you will jump either to another VRML world or to another media type such as HTML. While this gets you to other places quickly, it leads to the same problem as "jumping" from link to link in HTML: you jump from a document on one topic on a server in one place to another document on a different topic in a completely different place. This is what Mark Pesce, co-creator of VRML, calls "there being no there there."
When we walk through a town, we look around and build a mental map of the place. If someone tells us that we have to turn right at the next intersection, we can visualize this and get to where we want to go. There is a sense of continuity, and we can see how quickly we progress towards our goal. Sometimes we get lost, but this is part of our experience (and often that is how we discover new places or meet new people. Typing a URL and watching the byte counter as the destination loads onto our screen just isn't the same.
While experts have no trouble with this, the majority of people will only get on-line if it works like the real world. Abstract URLs are difficult to remember, and jumping from one text fragment to another is not something that people encounter on a daily basis. However, once the Web allows us to use our spatial perception and conforms to the way we work (rather than forcing us to adopt the way computers work), the Web will become just another place we go to accomplish our chores, chat with friends or learn new skills.
VRML spaces are inexpensive to build, can be bigger than the earth, and the objects in it can (and often do) defy the laws of gravity. As you walk or fly through such a world, you can pick up objects and inspect them from all sides, and if your VRML application includes authoring capabilities, you can even create and modify 3D objects. Don't like the color of your house? Just re-paint it with a few clicks of the mouse!
Thus, VRML allows 2D home pages to expand into 3D home worlds. Traditional commercial Web sites can draw in new users by adding three-dimensional environments that are fun to explore and by providing a natural way to navigate through the information available on the site. Ultimately, you will be able to collaborate with other users in context-rich 3D environments rather than typing away at the command prompt in a text-based chat room.
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