MCIS 625: Computer Graphics
Winter 2004

WEEK 2

Instructor: Dr. Michael Laszlo

ASSIGNMENT
  1. VRML Project 1 (due February 11)
  2. Term paper (proposal due February 8; paper due March 21)
  3. Review my VRML slide set in pdf format. Also see Nadeau, Moreland, and Heck's Introduction to VRML 97, which is very good. In addition, while learning VRML, I encourage you to experiment with sample VRML files.
  4. Optional reading assignment: Sections 3.1 through 3.6 of Foley et al.
VRML
The Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) is a language for describing three-dimensional virtual worlds with which the viewer (sometimes called an avatar) can interact. Using this language, you can build virtual rooms and houses, streets and cities, cars and boats and airplanes and spacecraft. The viewer can walk or fly through your world, and manipulate the shapes it contains. You can take the viewer on a trip to the store or a trip to the moon.

VRML files are one of the resources available on the Web. When your browser visits (i.e., downloads) a VRML file (indicated by a file name with the extension.wrl), your browser presents the world described by the file. To view and interact with a VRML world, you will need a graphical browser such as Navigator or Explorer. If the browser is not already VRML-aware, you will need to download and install either a VRML plug-in or helper application. Assuming you have installed a VRML plug-in, your browser then builds the world described by VRML file. As the viewer then moves around in and interacts with this world, the browser interactively displays the world anew to reflect the current viewpoint and state of the world.

To create your own virtual worlds in VRML, you will need a text editor (such as Notepad or Wordpad) and a browser (with VRML plug-in). You write your VRML code in the editor, and save it as plain text (ASCII). You use the browser to view your world, and to correct it and refine it as necessary. If you wish to post your world on your web site, you can link to it from some other document (be sure that the VRML filename ends with .wrl). Please see my software page for more information.

You can also create virtual worlds using programs known as world builders. Such programs provide convenient GUI interfaces for constructing and positioning new shapes, and for defining their behaviors and interactions. They produce the VRML code reflecting your world. World builders provide less control than writing VRML code directly, but they are easier to use.

[ Home | Course | Syllabus ]