RE: VRML browser via X-Server?

Linas Vepstas ([email protected])
Fri, 12 May 1995 15:20:34 -0500


> > I don't have an SGI system at hand, and the NT VRML browser is not
> > yet available. I was wondering, then, if it is possible to access a site
> > via my X Server so that I could use a browser running from a remote site,
> > presumably an SGI system.
> >
> > 1. Is this possible?

Stuff deleted ...

> Another solution would be the rendering think at the Geometry center (the
> OOGL folks) which would render and send a bitmap.
>
> > 2. Is this available?

The current implementation of Mesa (a free-ware implementation of an
OpenGL-like API) is designed so that it uses X11 do do it's drawing.
It runs & runs well, although I admit I haven't tried it over the net.
Mesa is a Linux thing, so you need linux. Every OpenGL app that I tried
compiling & running with Mesa worked fine. A bit slower than
commercial OpenGL, but it worked. Mesa does NOT use the GLX protocol,
so in theory you can pipe it to a plain-jane X Terminal.

Now, someone needs to donate a public-domain vrml browser that compiles
under linux ...

--linas