But VRML 1.0 does have several features made specifically for performance.
The WWWInline node allows you to delay the loading of large portions of
the scene. The LOD node allows you to have several representations of the
scene at various quality levels.
Browsers can be made very smart as well. They can allow navigation while
loading WWWInline nodes and/or Textures. They can use the various leves
of detail in the LOD node to degrade the scene while moving. They can
turn off textures while moving if they are slow to render.
Finally, compress all your files using gzip. We're seeing 8:1 compression
ratios on most VRML files.
It is the author's responsibility to make a viewable scene. What is
really needed are tools to help authors produce usable scenes. These will
surely come out as VRML matures.
Adding things like NURBS may not speed up viewing. Any time you save in
data transfer will probably get sucked up converting the NURBS to
triangles. I'm not saying that things like grids and tstrips aren't good
additions, but it is very possible to make a rich yet fast scene in VRML
1.0.
--
chris marrin Silicon http://www.sgi.com/Products/WebFORCE/WebSpace
(415) 390-5367 Graphics ," http://reality.sgi.com/employees/cmarrin/
[email protected] Inc. b` , ,,.
mP b" , 1$'
,.` ,b` ,` :$$'
,|` mP ,` ,mm
,b" b" ,` ,mm m$$ ,m ,,`P$$
m$` ,b` .` ,mm ,.`'|$P ,|"1$` ,b$P ,,` :$1
b$` ,$: :,`` |$$ ,:` $$` ,|` ,$$,,`"$$ .` :$|
b$| _m$`,:` :$1 ,:` ,$Pm|` ` :$$,..;"' |$:
P$b, _;b$$b$1" |$$ ,,`` ,$$" ``' $$
```"```'" `"` `""` ""` ,P`
"As a general rule, don't solve puzzles that open portals to Hell."-...-'
- excerpt from "A Horror Movie Character's Survival Guide"