Editing VRML (section)

==Emergence, popularity, and rival technical upgrade==

The term VRML was coined by [[Dave Raggett]] in a paper called "Extending WWW to support Platform Independent Virtual Reality"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/vrml/vrml.html |title=Extending WWW to support Platform Independent Virtual Reality |author=Dave Raggett |date=1994 |access-date=April 2, 2012}}</ref> submitted to the [[World Wide Web Conference 1|First World Wide Web Conference]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www94.web.cern.ch/WWW94/ |title=First World Wide Web Conference |publisher=4.web.cern.ch |access-date=2010-02-23}}</ref> in 1994, and first discussed at the WWW94 VRML BOF established by [[Tim Berners-Lee]], where [[Mark Pesce]] presented the Labyrinth demo he developed with [[Tony Parisi (software developer)|Tony Parisi]]<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080302070914/http://mediamachines.com/management.php Media Machines Management]</ref> and [[Peter Kennard]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.livingwork.com/peterk/ |title=Peter Kennard's page |publisher=Livingwork.com |access-date=2010-02-23}}</ref> VRML was introduced to a wider audience in the [[SIGGRAPH]] Course, VRML: Using 3D to Surf the Web<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hardenbergh |first1=Jan |last2=Bell |first2=Gavin |last3=Pesce |first3=Mark |title=Course 12 - VRML: Using 3D to Surf the Web |date=August 1995 |publisher=[[ACM SIGGRAPH]]}}</ref> in August 1995. In October 1995, at Internet World, Template Graphics Software (TGS) demonstrated a 3D/VRML plug-in for the beta release of [[Netscape Navigator 2|Netscape 2.0]] by [[Netscape|Netscape Communications]].<ref>[http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/software-services-applications/7163706-1.html First 3D/VRML Plug-in for Netscape 2.0 shown by TGS; TGS extends leadership in Internet 3D products and technology]. [[AllBusiness.com]]. 30 Oct 1995. Last accessed 26 Dec 2011.</ref>

In 1997, a new version of the format was finalized, as VRML97 (also known as VRML2 or VRML 2.0), and became an ISO/IEC standard. VRML97 was used on the Internet on some personal homepages and sites such as "[[CyberTown]]", which offered 3D chat using Blaxxun Software, as well as Sony's [[SAPARi]] program, which was pre-installed on [[Vaio]] computers from 1997 to 2001.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nomano.shiwaza.com/tnoma/blog/archives/008794.html|title= 17th anniversary of the launch of "Sapari" service and the sale of VAIO business|author=Tsunetake Noma|date=February 7, 2014|access-date=January 4, 2021|language=ja}}</ref> The format was championed by SGI's Cosmo Software; when SGI restructured in 1998, the division was sold to the [[VREAM|VREAM Division]] of [[Platinum Technology]], which was then taken over by [[Computer Associates]], which did not develop or distribute the software. To fill the void a variety of proprietary Web 3D formats emerged over the next few years, including [[Microsoft Chrome]] and [[Adobe Atmosphere]], neither of which is supported today. VRML's capabilities remained largely the same while realtime 3D graphics kept improving. The VRML Consortium changed its name to the Web3D Consortium, and began work on the successor to VRML—[[X3D]].<ref>[http://www.siggraph.org/~rhyne/carto/3D/3D-geovrml.html A Commentary on GeoVRML]</ref>

SGI ran a web site at vrml.sgi.com on which was hosted a string of regular short performances of a character called "Floops" who was a VRML character in a VRML world. Floops was a creation of a company called Protozoa.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biota.org/book/chbi/chbi2.htm |title=Floops general narrative |publisher=Biota.org |access-date=2010-02-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalspace.com/avatars/book/authorp/floplate.jpg |title=Floops in his first episode |access-date=2010-02-23}}</ref>

H-Anim is a standard for animated Humanoids, which is based on VRML, and later X3D. The initial version 1.0 of the H-Anim standard was scheduled for submission at the end of March 1998.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170106235009/http://h-anim.org/charter.html VRML Consortium Charter for Humanoid Animation Working Group]</ref>

VRML has never seen much serious widespread use.<ref>{{cite news |author=David Sabine |url=https://tumblr.davesabine.com/post/3690293814/what-is-was-vrml |title=What is (was) VRML? |newspaper=David Sabine }}</ref> One reason for this may have been the lack of available [[bandwidth (computing)|bandwidth]].<ref>[http://www.agocg.ac.uk/brief/vrml.htm Introduction to VRML]</ref> At the time of VRML's popularity, a majority of users, both business and personal, were using slow [[dial-up Internet access]].

VRML experimentation was primarily in education and research where an open specification is most valued.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=IBxnTBFJxIUC Web-Based Control and Robotics Education, page 30]</ref> It has now been re-engineered as [[X3D]]. The [[MPEG-4]] Interactive Profile (ISO/IEC 14496) was based on VRML<ref>[http://www.extremetech.com/computing/77260-3d-online-browser-plugins-and-more/6?print 3D Online: Browser Plugins and More]</ref> (now on X3D), and X3D is largely backward-compatible with it. VRML is also widely used as a file format for interchange of 3D models, particularly from [[Computer-aided design|CAD]] systems.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-matters43/index.html |title=XML Matters |publisher=Ibm.com |access-date=2010-02-23}}</ref>

A free cross-platform runtime implementation of VRML is available in [[OpenVRML]]. Its libraries can be used to add both VRML and X3D support to applications, and a GTK+ plugin is available to render VRML/X3D worlds in web browsers.

In the 2000s, many companies like Bitmanagement improved the quality level of virtual effects in VRML to the quality level of [[DirectX]] 9.0c, but at the expense of using proprietary solutions. All main features like game modeling are already complete. They include multi-pass render with low level setting for Z-buffer, BlendOp, AlphaOp, Stencil,<ref>[http://www.bitmanagement.com/developer/contact/examples/multitexture/drawgroup.html DrawGroup & DrawOp]</ref> Multi-texture,<ref>[http://www.web3d.org/x3d/specifications/ISO-IEC-19775-1.2-X3D-AbstractSpecification/Part01/components/texturing.html#Multitexturing Multitexturing]</ref> Shader with HLSL and GLSL support,<ref>[http://www.web3d.org/x3d/specifications/ISO-IEC-19775-1.2-X3D-AbstractSpecification/Part01/components/shaders.html Programmable shaders component]</ref> realtime Render To Texture, Multi Render Target (MRT) and PostProcessing.<ref>[http://www.bitmanagement.com/developer/contact/relnotes72.html#postprocessing Scene postprocessing support]</ref> Many demos shows that VRML already supports lightmap, normalmap, SSAO, CSM and Realtime Environment Reflection along with other virtual effects.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/user/m17design VRML X3D and Realtime Web3D]</ref>