Virtual Reality Modeling Language

VRML is the standard for 3-D graphics on the World Wide Web. VRML is a platform-independent file format. SGI's `Inventor' format was initially chosen as a basis of scene and geometric object description language in 1995 (VRML 1.0). In 1996, the `Moving Worlds' proposal by a consortium of companies (mostly SGI) was voted by the VRML community to form the new standard (VRML 2.0), defeating the proposal of MicroSoft. VRML 2.0 worlds can be interactive and animated. You can get free VRML plug-ins for your brower (I use CosmoPlayer on both my SGI and PC) from SGI's VRML Web site: http://www.vrml.com

The VRML home page is: http://vrml.wired.com

There's lots of good stuff on VRML at the San Diego Supercomputing Center's VRML Repository: http://www.sdsc.edu/vrml

Inventor is nearly dead, but most will be incorporated into either OpenGL++ or the Fahrenheit project. The Open Inventor Home page is: http://www.sgi.com/Technology/Inventor.html

VRML and ribbons

Some background, examples, and the steps to create the files are given below.

VRML 1.0 (Inventor)

Ribbons++, presented at the 1993 annual meeting of the Molecular Graphics Society, used the Inventor toolkit ( it's on my website ).

Some sample `*.iv' files are on the CMC web site: http://www.cmc.uab.edu/VRML1.0

  1. adjust the ribbons display to your pleasure.

  2. save a *.iv format VRML-1.0 ascii file: 
         Menubar -> File -> Export VRML/Raytracing -> Inventor

  3. view with `ivview' on an SGI machine.
    Note, the files are `centered' for convenient viewing. If using a viewer that takes multiple files, and you need the absolute origin, comment out (add '#' before) the centering translation at the 5th line: Transform {translation ...

VRML 2.0

The Sound of Sequence was a VRML 2.0 site prepared for the first Molecular Graphics and Modeling Society Electronic Conference on the Web in 1996. This site uses the audio and animation techniques new in VRML 2.0: http://www.cmc.uab.edu/SoundOfSequence

Part of the CMC intranet site also has demonstrations in VRML 2.0: http://www.cmc.uab.edu/VRML2.0

  1. adjust the ribbons display to your pleasure.

  2. save a *.wrl format VRML-2.0 ascii file: 
         Menubar -> File -> Export VRML/Raytracing -> Inventor
     (or just: Alt-w)

    Note: this saves `your.wrl' and `your_inline.wrl', the latter being the actual geometry. The former defines the viewpoints (see below).

  3. view with netscape, after you install the CosmoPlayer plug-in.

  4. toggle the different Viewpoints.
    'default' should be about as it was in ribbons , 'flying' gives a rollercoaster effect.
    Note, the files are `centered' for convenient viewing. If using a viewer that takes multiple files, and you need the absolute origin, comment out (add '#' before) the centering translation at ~the 25th line, right after `DEF CompleteModel Transform': translation ...
    Can add more named viewpoints to allow user to examine from several pre-defined views (get these by saving more `*.wrl' files). Pitch everything after the `animation' stuff starts, if this is annoying.

Ribbons User Manual / UAB-CMC / carson@cmc.uab.edu