[5087] in java-interest
Re: VRML
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (James Waldrop)
Sun Jan 28 19:20:47 1996
To: "Steve V. Yalovitser" <root@cyberpunk.com>
cc: Tony Healy <thealy@magna.com.au>, eknudson@vnet.IBM.COM,
java-interest@java.sun.com
In-reply-to: Your message of "Sun, 28 Jan 1996 03:08:22 EST."
<9601280308.ZM3453@sensenet.cyberpunk.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 1996 14:46:06 -0800
From: James Waldrop <sulam@construct.net>
"Steve V. Yalovitser" wrote:
> Actually there is a java class library to read and render VRML 1.0
>now. It is from Dimension X and its called liquid reality. I have been using
>it a little and its really going to revolutionize the current VRML standard.
>Considering SGI is promising a similar product I wouldnt be surprised if the
>whole VRML 2.0 spec is going to be a java class library defn.
Hi, just to briefly introduce myself, I'm the Technical Director at
Construct Internet Design -- we have been doing VRML for quite a while
now, and are very involved in the community effort to create a 2.0
standard. That means we're getting involved in Java as well. :)
That said, I've been working with Liquid Reality for about 3 months
now. There's no question that it's an impressive piece of software,
and it has definitely had an impact on the 2.0 discussions. However,
it is not a 2.0 candidate and was not meant to be according to its
author, Chris Laurel.
The relationship between Java and VRML has been a moving target over
the last few months. The earliest work was done by Freeman Murray at
Sun, using VRIP and a Java-based VRML parser. This was presented for
the first time to the public at SIGGRAPH, I believe. Then the folks at
DnX showed up with LR running under HotJava, and it definitely had an
impact, especially in introducing the idea of nodes which are defined
on the fly. That showed up at Seybold. However, the work that
probably best defines how the relationship between VRML and Java will
be defined in the future is that of Silicon Graphics and Paper
Software. They've somewhat-independently developed two different
approaches to integrating Java and VRML. SGI does it by adding special
nodes in a standard VRML file that reference external programs, and
tightly define what geometry those programs can modify. Paper does it
by defining a 3D API that Java applets can bind to. The SGI approach
was first presented at Web Innovation, and the Paper approach at VRML '95.
The API and nodes inside of VRML idea are both incorporated into the
current "Moving Worlds" 2.0 proposal, which is a combination of ideas
from SGI, Worlds Inc, Sony, SDSC, and Paper. A large percentage of
VRML developers have signed off on this proposal, and it's looking more
and more likely that it will be accepted as the standard.
To present the idea clearly: VRML is good at representing 3D scenes.
VRML browsers are good at rendering 3D scenes. Java is good at
describing behavior, something VRML completely lacks at this time. The
marriage, then, is in getting the VRML browser to communicate with Java
applets.
This certainly doesn't imply something like what LR is doing, where the
VRML browser is actually written in Java. There are big issues with
speed for Java, and I personally don't think this is its strong point
at the present time. The thing that Java is truly brilliant at is
distribution. Being able to instantiate a class from a string is an
incredibly useful feature when you're trying to replicate behavior over
the network. The synchronization features are also useful. So, rather
than pushing Java into the platform-dependent, cpu-bound world of the
VRML browser, we instead are trying to leave it where it provides the
most value, at the network-interface layer, and trying to leverage some
of its ability to describe behavior, albeit not all of it. There are
real issues with trying to have your Java applets drive all the
animation in a scene. You run into the limitations of the language
sooner rather than later. So instead we're moving those features into
VRML itself, and letting Java communicate basic state changes and other
network-centric concepts.
I'm not sure this is an appropriate topic for this forum. I've been
using it to help in learning Java, myself. It's a big topic on the
VRML list, and I urge anyone interested in it to read the instructions
on how to subscribe. They're available at:
http://vrml.wired.com/
Thanks for your time,
James
--
James Waldrop / Technical Director
sulam@construct.net / Construct Internet Design
sulam@well.com / http://www.construct.net
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