The VRML 2.0 Handbook

Well, I could have started talking about the book and how nicely written it was, but first, I believe you should ponder if learning virtual reality technology would really add some 'plus' to your CV. VRML was a good idea that could not survive to Macromedia Flash and 3D Studio tachnical marriage through Vecta 3D. Until 1999 when Vecta 3D, the 3d studio plugin that exports 3D studio files to Flash animation, was created and a bunch of other minor programs also intended to produce 3D animation for the Web popped out, VRML seemed a good alternative to the interactivity we all missed. I myself bought this book in 1998 and was impressed with the quantity of sites that were using VRML. I remember Cosmo had a wonderful page full of demo software and I had all of them, Blaxxun was and still is one of the major exponents of that technology and I was constantly visiting their page for plugin updates. But soon, Cosmo pages could not be reached anymore and all that software simply disappeared into the far distant world of SGI platforms. At that time, there was a boom of chats and virtual worlds and each one of them seemed to be programmed in a different way with a different language than VRML, you could settle in one of these worlds but you could not create your own furniture, or design your garden with the pictures of your own real life house garden. You could not add your own touch, you had to pay to be there and you did not have a place to put what you designed.Then it came the final cut, SGI simply removed the city it had created for the book, the case study simply disappeared. In a certain point-of-view, it is kind of immoral that a company still sell a book they do not back up anymore. I would really appreciate to know where I can find the great Tenochtitlan, the SGI virtual capital of VRML vanished along with Cosmo and all other VRML paramounts.If you still think you do not want to learn Flash, to what I strongly advise Graphics, Animation and Interactivity with Flash 4.0 by Mohler and afterwards sneak into the world of 3D, I tell you why you should buy this book on VRML. 1. It is not based on software but hand written code. 2. It is not difficult to follow as said by a reviewer here, it is quite easy, project based and gives you freedom to deploy your own project. If you run into something difficult you can continue your project (mine was a temple where people could find details of my life) using simple programming. 3. You do not need to know absolutely nothing of programming, this book deals with pure VRML in a very simple way. Unfortunately you will not find most of the urls listed in the book, due to the fact that this language is getting more and more rare on the web. I was tempted to send all to hell and give one star but this book does not deserve it. I give five stars to Macromedia and Kinetix/Discreet for the alternative to VRML (there is a lot more to be done but we are getting there), five stars to t

hi this is umesh, I could not find the site mentioned in the book to work with the examples ,it always takes me to the SG website,can somebody help me out, you can get me on [email protected] at the earliest cause i'm loosing time , thanks umesh

VRML nowadays is a powerful tool to comunicate in a visual form to thowsands of web users. The way the authors wrote this book really motivates the reader to start a journey into the VRML standard. No deep CG knowledge is needed to understand the contents. Great job !

You can tell that there's a whole lot more to VRML 2.0 than to VRML 1.0 by the books you need to have. While one could recommend Pesce's book (despite all the fluff and out of date material) as the only book you need to learn VRML 1.0, no comprehensive book for 2.0 has appeared, or even seems likely to appear. Hartman and Wernecke take a tutorial approach and introduce the subjects in a fine pedagogical order. I'd built some Inventor and some VRML 1.0, and after a morning spent reading the book and playing with the examples on the website, I was, if not instantly great at building VRML 2.0 worlds, at least able to read a VRML 2.0 file with some understanding and know how to change the geometry and appearance and add nodes of my own. I can only give 9 out of 10, because I took off points for three weaknesses: (a) the examples, though good VRML, often don't have an enclosing Group node -- it's never made clear which (if any) nodes ought to be outside the master Group; (b) the discussion on PROTOs is entirely too brief; and (c) the website needs to be updated -- it hasn't caught up with SGI's own Cosmo Player's current release for the PC (e.g., some of the worlds marked SGI now work fine for the PC). But give it an extra point for an extremely thorough discussion of sensors and routing: the authors believed that most people want to make their worlds move and interact with the people who visit them, and they make sure readers have all the tools and even point out common beginner mistakes. And yet another bonus point for the number of times I read their explanation of a node or a field and slapped my forehead: their explanation suddenly made something that had previously confused me completely clear. All in all, _The VRML 2.0 Handbook_ is my top recommendation for people who've done some VRML 1.0, and even for complete beginners.

There are surprisingly few books which are both accurate and well written. This is one of those few. I've read most of the VRML books on the market in search of insights, and this one is clearly written by folks who have them. Kudos to the authors for a clear and USEFUL book about VRML 2.0. I can take their examples and put them to work immediately.