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Subject:Re: VRML: practical uses? From:Maenad <Maenad -at- WORLDNET -dot- ATT -dot- NET> Date:Thu, 26 Feb 1998 19:31:50 -0600
> Has anyone ever used VRML as a tool for communicating technical (or
> anything practical) information? Most of what I have seen has been
> more
> cute than useful -- and usually too slow as well.
>
> Ed Rawlings
I hear echoes of nearly a decade ago when people said high-end graphics
cards were just for games, no "real" user needed technology like that!
And GUI!? What's that?
Short of owning a copy of some 3D CAD package so you can download a
design, render it, and rotate it around, there is no way to provide a
universal 3D visualization tool for the Web (at least not yet). VRML
files are smaller than the CAD files that create them and do not require
an expensive investment in software. What VRML lacks in speed and image
quality, it more than makes up for in simplicity and convenience. There
are legitimate engineering and educational applications.
Besides, like its technological predecessors, VRML will gain usefulness.
It is up to the users to find application for it, and they will. I can't
wait to see where we are in five years.
