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VRML browsers
To view VRML files embedded in web-pages a separate application that interprets VRML code is required.
These applications display the scene and provide tools with which users can interact with the 3D model.
Currently the official VRML repository lists 38 browsers and plug-ins working on different operating systems.
As it is safe to say that even this number is a conservative estimate, in this brief introduction it is only
possible to discuss a few of the most popular browsers, although any browser specified to work with VRML
97 standard should do the job. All the browsers mentioned in this section are available free of charge
and can be downloaded from the links provided.
- Blaxxun Contact
is the most advanced member of Blaxxun browser family providing wide variety of features in addition to being
probably the most universal VRML client on the market, although it is only available for Windows platforms
(95 and older including NT).
- Cortona is another popular
browser which claims to render VRML models with higher image quality and speed. It is fully supported
by the software vendor and works on Windows (95 and higher, NT) CE and Macintosh (including MacOSX) platforms.
Cortona can act as plug-in not only for internet browsers, but other office applications as well.
- Cosmo Player is one of the earliest and thus
most common browsers running on Windows (3.x and higher), Macintosh and SGI platforms.
However, Cosmo Player has not been updated in some time, so it is not only slower than
more recent browsers but it does not support the latest VRML features.
- VRwave is browser based around Java platform which
requires no commercial packages to run and in theory should be
platform independent, usable on platforms including Dec Alpha, HP-UX, Linux, SGI and Sun.
If you have downloaded your browser and installed it following vendor's instructions, you can proceed
to test your browser or get more information on
navigating within VRML models.
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