Something is really bothering me now that I've read the following article Silicon Insider: Applying 'Grand Theft Auto' to Business.

Well except the normal mambo-jambo about GTA being violent and all, he is got a good point that it is amazing what computers can do today. When the he mentioned virtual reality on the web, the word VRML came to mind.

I remeber reading all the buzz about it in the first computer book i ever got, Internet Secrets(2000) in 2001/2. There was a short article there about VRML, and sure enough i saw some VRML pages -- very few, but some very impressive once as well -- back in the dial-up age. I actually remeber awaiting for that misearble 1mb to load and show me this great 3d car model. Ofcourse the broweser did not have native support for that -- and still doesn't as a matter of fact -- but the website offered a plug-in that could be downloaded to view VRML websites. The other thing i watched was an animation of the first man in space, also VRML, and it was very impressive. That is also part of the reason why I learned how to use 3ds max to model, texture and render 3d images (the other one was to create great artwork).

So I ask you now, over 13 years after its' development, what happend?! For godsakes, we are in 2008 now, everyone has broadband, not dial-up, although it is pretty slow(5Mbs on avg is low). But this should be more than enough to get VRML running.

Yeah we have Multiplayer games and all now, even a first 3d instant chat IMVU(which is basically a game, like any multiplayer game). But that's it.. the web has not moved much... I bet alot of you never even heard the word VRML. Lets vote on it.

edit: apparently it is not called VRML anymore but X3D now.

This post has been edited by Mike007: 3 May, 2008 - 12:45 AM

I've actually got a VRML plugin on my Opera browser. I've used it on many sites, and VRML is pretty cool. The PHP script that I posted to generate 3d wireframe snapshots, I made another version that actually read a VRML file to get the vertex coordinates and normals and then generate the images. The 3d models were made using a 3d graphics suite and then exported into the VRML format.

Sounds intersting, some links would be nice .

But yeah it is really weird how it just fell off the grid like that, it promised so much but then sort of faded in the background. Maybe it is too soon for our narrow minds to see the amazing potential it promises.