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Broadly speaking 'Virtual Reality' (VR) comes in two major types;- The goggled up immersive, or the behind the looking-glass world. VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language) is the only current mature, open, international standard, description language for virtual reality.. For a number of years now it has been successfully employed in both immersive and screen-based scenarios, across many different computing platforms. Following the XML moment VRML is now evolving into the more robust and flexible X3DML standard.

The pictures immediately below are screen capture from some small sketches and larger virtual worlds . If you have a resent enough web-browser clicking on the image should hopefully load the virtual world. If your browser is one of the older versions that doesn't automatically support VRML, or you want a better quality VRML rendering engine plug-in, ( with friendlier navigation, smoother movement ) for Macs & MicroSoft Win32 platforms I recommended that you download the 'Cortona VRML client' from ParallelGraphics, or if running Windows (95/98/ME /NT4.0 /2000) 'Blaxxun Contact' from blaxxun (pronounced Black-Sun) for other platforms checkout the comparison of vrml browsers at web3d.about.com

click on images to activate
virtual world sketches

This "Zepline with Maze" is my oldest example (still here) a rough for the larger world (Art Nouveau Dreamship & Maze) below.
 

Snapshot of vrml world featuring a Maze and a Zepline.

Virtual sculpture pieces /     installations


(inquiries for a hard-space realization welcomed)

"The Broken Dreams of the Knights of the Cross Potent".

Snap of virtual sculpture of a broken dome in a hulk of a boat raised up on a frame.

Snap of virtual sculpture of a army tank above a freestanding doorway 

" An overbearing feeling"
The original 3D model of the "IS-4" kindly
provided by ParallelGraphics.

 "Fox on a Moonless Night."
{Original design © 2 April 1993}



[ Textured with Universal Media.]

"The ANZAC's Unease "
A virtual installation or simply a little surrealism 'on the beach'. {ANZAC = Australian & New Zealand Army Corps }

Snap of virtual sculpture of a Wooden Kangaroo afixed to the top of jutebox with a clock where the record changer would normally be.

Snap of virtual island of a broken dome in a hulk of a boat raised up on a frame.

The Island setting for "The Gates of Hell"
Still a work in progress. It started life a design project for bronze doors in a competition commemorating Dante's "Divine Comedy"
{Original design of 'Gates of Hell' by me, © 1993}

Visual music sketches.

 

" Sket01 " first of some sketches for a visual music VR work in progress. NOTE: It may take a little while to load first-time up, but then loops around. 

{ For an explanation & background about Vizsic (Visual Music)
check-out Vizsic pages.}

One of the greatest developments for VRML in the last couple of years is Universal Media (UM) . Put simple the concept is to store textures locally, retrieving them using dynamically mapped cross-platform file location fields called URNs. A Universal Media "savvy" browser ' will resolve the URN, dragging the texture from a local hard drive or across the net ( blaxxun Contact does UM very well).  Because the location can vary from box to box, Urns give one a platform-independent mechanism for specifying local media across any computer.

To learn more, visit the Universal Media working group at:  http://www.web3d.org/WorkingGroups/media/
 

Dusk among the Rusty Megaliths.
First world I enhanced with Universal Media.

Dusk among the rusty megaliths

Art Nouveau dreamship over a maze

Art Nouveau Dreamship & Maze , a larger, darker version of earlier sketch, more complex including animation( the animation unfortunately does not work on some older not fully compliant vrml viewers) .
HINT = in the maze there is only one of each of the Celtic knot plaques.
{The Art Nouveau Dreamship original designed by me, for my short-film "Symbolist Daydream" © 1977}

Beware the Grass latest (6 June 2003) complicated virtual world.. It uncompresses to well over 3 Meg. (Compresssed file = 409 KB). 

 

Traditionally the temptation at this point, would be to do a page of links to the many other great vrml sites. Fortunately I found Kelzone, an extensive collection of links to individual pages, as well as every major vrml portal on the web.

 

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Last update: Friday,5-July-2003

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