• The next most powerful tool in your VRML toolkit is the VRML Specification...the spec. http://www.vrml.org/Specification/VRML97/DIS please look at it. I enjoyed learning from the examples at first, but now use it as the reference that it really is. It is good for answering questions such as does creaseAngle go from 0 to 1 or from 0 to infinity?  The spec is the "rules of our universe", building will be easier if you have some knowledge of the rules.

• The first tool I used to create VRML objects with was a text editor in UNIX called vi. The PC "equivalent" of vi is NotePad. I read about VRML commands in a tutorial at Netscape and used this knowledge to build a Greek Temple like structure composed of columns and slabs. Using a text editor to create VRML gives you the ultimate control over all aspects of the building process. Learning how to build worlds "by hand" is good to gain a better knowledge of VRML that can be applied later when tweaking worlds built using modelers. Some people swear that hand editing is the only way to go. It will make your worlds "sleeker" because nobody likes to type "fat".

• There is a text editor called SitePad by ModelWorks which has been called "notepad on steroids" by some. It is tailored for vrml editing and has the syntax of all the vrml nodes embedded in the program. It also does bracket matching and this can be invaluable in VRML hand coding. The free demo edition allows saving of files only less than 2500 bytes. ($39.00 US, Professional Edition $69.00 US).
  
  SitePad is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for HTML and VRML.

  Features include:

  • insert scripts for all VRML 2.0 nodes
  • custom template for creating new HTML and VRML files
  • syntax Check tool for HTML, VBScript and JavaScript
  • custom menus, toolbars, hotkeys, and bookmarks
  • syntax coloring for HTML and VRML files
  • block indent and unindent
  • multilevel undo/redo
  • search and replace
  • multifile search
  • split windows
  • line and column number indicator
  • line numbers in the edit view
  • custom scripting using JavaScript or VBScript
    
    

• Programmer's File Editor is a powerful text editing program and although it is not tailored to VRML, it is free.
  
  Programmer's File Editor (PFE) is a large-capacity text file editor, oriented towards those who use Windows as their program development environment, and so incorporates many features that make it a convenient work management system. Although it's primarily oriented to program development, it makes a very powerful general editor for any purpose at all. The definitive source of releases and up-to-date information about PFE is the PFE Home Page on the World Wide Web.

• In the early days of VRML ('96) I used a 30 day demo of ARENA Design Pro v2.6 to create some vrml1.0 objects. This tool allowed digitizing an outline and then extruding or lofting that 2D outline into a 3D volume. Arena Design Pro also had interesting 3D text capabilities. Although this company is still in business, the code is no longer available for downloading.
  
  ARENA Design Pro is very powerful 3D modeling, rendering and animation production software. Here are just some features of version 2.6:

  • Spline profile based modeling editor
  • Network distributed animation rendering
  • New image filters for JPG and PNG
  • 3DS import
  • VRML import and export
  • Internet VRML scene file direct download
  • Higher levels of ray tracing
  • Unlimited image output resolution
  • Alpha channel output
  • Undo/Redo
  • ...plus everything in ARENA Design v2.5
  • ...plus some new bells and whistles too numerous to list here.

  http://www.andatech.com
  

• Then I used a 30 day demo of SGI's HomeSpace Designer (formerly Paragraph International; a Russian company) to make some of the temple structures in a limited form of VRML2.0. Silicon Graphics later sold this software package to Intervista. While HSD is not a full fledged CAD package, it has many features which make it a powerful architectural rendering tool. One of the more powerful features is the ability to extract or remove a volume from another volume, e.g. cut a spherical area out of a cube. I made some pretty neat stuff with the 30 day demo and then I later purchased this program ($89.00 US) to make houses at ColonyCity.
  
  Cosmo™ Software HomeSpace™ Designer (HSD) lets you easily create 3D worlds and publish them on the World Wide Web. Anyone can visit and experience your 3D Web site using standard VRML2.0 browsers. HSD adds a new dimension of reality to your Web sites with a complete library of editable 3D shapes. Combined with interactive texture mapping HSD brings your 3D space to life.
  
  HSD includes new advanced features that help you work conveniently and quickly. These features include:
  

  • Creating and loading scenes in VRML 2.0. format.
  • Creating true 3D scenes with any 3D shapes including spheres, pyramids and cones, not just vertical or horizontal faces.
  • Creating and editing 3D scenes using logical operations (union, subtraction) with basic and custom shapes.
  • Utilizing rich galleries with standard shapes, textures, pictures, objects and movies.
  • The ability to create custom shapes, textures, pictures, and objects and to save them to libraries.
  • Creating and formatting 3D fonts.
  • Drag and drop functionality with automatic "gravity type" arrangement of objects.
  • Multimedia attachments (sounds, movies), and URL attachments to arbitrary objects.
  • Using top and custom vertical views.
  • Visual support for a user-defined object hierarchy on the Scene Tree.
  • Customizable interface.
  • Using 8-bit (256 color mode), 16-bit (high color mode), 24-bit (true color mode) and 32-bit (true color mode with advanced lighting) rendering modes.
  • Support for Intel's MMX instruction set.
  • Optimization of VRML output.

   

• Then there was CiteMap Builder by Trivista that taught me about vrml frames, spatialization and how to munge (highly compressed VRML)  a world.   CiteMap was a 30 day demo that allows the easy construction of a 3D area in which users can click on objects which are hyperlinks to other items on the website. 3D site navigation. Included with this demo are numerous VRML models and a VRML data trimmer which can remove all blank spaces, linefeeds, and comments from a world and then gzip it. This makes for highly compressed code with quicker download times. The data trimmer kept on working after the CiteMap demo expired.
  
  CiteMap Builder is a simple to use program which provides a drag and click introduction to creating a 3D space in which objects can be linked to Web addresses, or to other virtual objects. Within minutes of installing CiteMap Builder, you can create and publish your 3D world, complete with links. The software includes over 100 ready-to-use VRML objects.

• Sony's Community Place Conductor allows you to animate objects. I used other tools to make objects and CPC to "give them life". Sony also has their own VRML browser plugin, and their own 3D multi-user worlds. It is a good tool for simple animations, but I got lost in the graphical interface to routing actions. You may understand it better than me, or I perhaps did not spend enough time with it.
  

  Community Place Conductor ("Conductor" in the following pages) is the authoring tool that confirms to VRML 2.0. Conductor 2.0 Preview Release 1a has the following features:

  • Conforms to VRML 2.0.
  • Drag and drop to add a node.
  • Enables you to specify values for node attributes.
  • Enables you to specify textures for sound and objects.
  • Enables you to switch between the Execution and Edit modes.
  • Conforms to Java (JRE1.1.3, JDK1.1.3, or later).
  • Enables you to edit independently in each scope by switching the current scope.
  • The Script Expert function to automatically create a script node.
  • Enables you to add/delete routing while displaying it on the screen.
  • Enables you to edit keyframes.
  • Enables you to edit PROTO.
  • Supports USE.
    
    

• At Silicon Graphic's web site I found a form that let me order a 30 demo CD of CosmoWorlds. I found that it is a robust and comprehensive, but expensive, VRML97 author and animator. The original asking price of $999.00 US has been lowered to $599.00 US lately. This may be a little too expensive for the average VRML hobbits. SGI also made CosmoPlayer (a popular VRML browser plugin), and Cosmo Create (a HTML editor) and PageFX (a 3D webpage graphics builder). SGI's Cosmo division was sold to Intervista and we expect to see a synthesis of what was good at Platinum with what was good at Cosmo in the near future.
  
  Use Cosmo Worlds to create VRML worlds for publishing on the World Wide Web. Cosmo Worlds fully supports the Moving Worlds specification for VRML 2.0. Cosmo Worlds provides you with powerful tools to model complex objects and create exciting, animated worlds. Optimization and publishing tools ensure that your world will be compact once you publish it on the Web — visitors to your world will find it quick to download and navigate.
  

• Spazz3d is a powerful vrml modeler/manipulator/builder tool that has been offered for free while it is still in the beta stage of development. Spazz has tools for creating graphics primitives, but additionally has tools for creating extrusions, swept surfaces, revolutions from a profile, and sculpted surfaces. Spazz also has text and animation wizards. Additionally...Spazz has included the capability to create simple or complex ColonyCity avatar gestures.
  
  The objective of this application is to provide an easy way to create 3-D interactive environments. The environments can be displayed in the Spazz3D Screen Saver, they can be viewed and experienced in Spazz3D, or in a VRML 2.0 Browser, such as Cosmo Player, a standard Netscape plugin. Not only can you create static 3-D geometry, but you can animate the geometry, add light and sound, and define the rules of interactivity in the VRML 2.0 world.
  
  Spazz3D is a typical Windows 95, object oriented application. It utilizes standard Windows 95 GUI components such as property sheets, wizards, multiple document interface, multiple view windows per document, right mouse button context sensitive popup menus, cut and paste, drag and drop, dockable tool bars, context sensitive help, mouse wheel support, and tree windows to illustrate the hierarchical relationship of the nodes. Spazz3D virtually eliminates the need to ever type a number. Virtually all of the numerical values can be modified by dragging the cursor. It uses OpenGL to fully render 3-D images. It supports lighting, shading, and texture mapping of 2-D images on the 3-D objects. Spazz3D allows for virtually infinite undo/redo and undo/redo history. You can create 3-D text. Spazz3D's Browser Simulation Mode lets you experience your world without leaving the application. Spazz3D also provides a Browser Simulation Debug Mode where you can step through time as you are presented with enough information to understand exactly what is happening. Spazz3D will FTP your VRML world file and all the dependent files up to your web site. You can also create animated GIF and AVI files, and static JPEG and Bitmap files.

• Platinum has a free "learning edition" of it's VRCreator software. It includes a large VRML library and many pre-programmed behaviors. The learning edition lacks a 3D modeler. Platinum purchased Cosmo from SGI. VRcreator contains many VRML models and easy ways to bestow VRML97 "actions" to those models. Since it was originally a VRML1.0 tool, VRCreator has comprehensive VRML1.0 to VRML97 capabilities. Sadly, I had difficulty navigating the unique user interface. I can't wait to see the next tool that is the synthesis of VRcreator and CosmoWorlds.
  
  VRCreator is an easy-to-use tool for creating interactive 3D worlds based on VRML 2.0 (Virtual Reality Modeling Language), the new Internet standard for 3D on the Web. VRML worlds can be experienced over the Web, within corporate intranets, and on standalone computers. Developers can also use VRML technology as an embedded component within traditional client/server applications.
  No prior knowledge of VRML is required to use VRCreator. Simply drag and drop 3D objects, colors, textures, sounds and behaviors to create an interactive 3D experience of the highest quality. Use the drag-and-drop elements that come with VRCreator or add your own. Animate objects in your world using the animator. Experience worlds as you create them using the embedded VRML 2.0 browser. Creating the best of all possible worlds is that easy.
  
  Worlds built for the Web can be experienced on any computer using any VRML 2.0-compliant browser. New Web browsers, such as Netscape’s Navigator 4.0 and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 4.0, include built-in VRML 2.0 browsers—nearly everyone with a computer can explore and interact with the worlds you build with VRCreator. Enjoy VRCreator and enjoy your journey into the world of VRML authoring!I

• I liked Chisel, it was free and it put my worlds on a serious diet. It has functions to remove blanks, and end-o-line characters, tabs etc... round off numbers to like 3 decimal places from six, and then make a gzipped file as output. It also locates blatant errors in vrml structure. What I didn't like was that it seemed to introduce polygon fill errors in some worlds and that it expired after a certain time period. Maybe I'm supposed to fetch a new copy.

  Chisel homepage <http://www.trapezium.com/chisel.html>
  Author - Trapezium Software <http://www.trapezium.com>
  
  Chisel
  This is without a doubt one of the most useful tools I have used. It is a graphical version of Trapezium's Vorlon syntax checker, and a lot more
  besides. It's a syntax checker and VRML optimiser, designed to increase the efficiency of your VRML worlds. And it's also freeware. It's only in beta at the moment, but it is quite stable.
  

  • Validation with Trapezium's Vorlon technology, with VRML97 and H-Anim 1.0 conformance checks.
  • Removes unnecessary code, such as unused DEFs and default fields.
  • Numerical resolution adjustment.
  • Polygon merging and reduction, for more efficient specification of objects.
  • Special effects, such as Point Cloud, Wireframe, Cubist, Origami, and Flatten.
  • Reads and writes compressed VRML files with GZIP.
  • Code reorganization, with creation and removal of inlines, and geometry splitting.
  • Expandable plug-in architecture.
  • Written in 100% Java to be completely cross-platform.
    

   

• RenderSoft VRML Editor. A small and simple vrml editor. It allows you to place and move simple objects and then texture and/or animate them. It also does text and extrusions. It is shareware with a $15.00 (US) registration fee.

Final Words

These are my own personal opinions and not the responsibility of my employer, my internet service provider, web site host, Colony City, Blaxxun Interactive, etc... If you take exception to what I say, please email me and I will do what I can to justify or remedy the problem. All these program names are the registered mark of the companies that made the program. If you know of some software that you would like to have represented on this guide, please email me a short description and a link to it and I will add it as time allows. Better yet, just send me a free copy of the program and I'll be sure to evaluate it or have someone look at it. I am just trying to help.