Re: Common Objects

[email protected]
Thu, 25 May 95 10:51:09 -0600

< On second thought, since VRML is on the top of the heap, both in terms of
< bandwidth demand, and current Internet popularity, maybe we should be
< pushing this. If we begin to solve it here, and get other interested
< parties involved, maybe we will create an Internet-wide caching convention
< which can be used to cause objects to migrate toward faster and closer
< systems. Why transport the same objects thousands of times over the same
< piece of wire, when a small portion of the value of the bandwidth being
< consumed could buy a local object server that replies instead? Levels of
< cache use would indicate the need for faster links or bigger servers. A
< market would be created for local cache servers, married to the local
< connection provider. The combination of those two will yield your
< effective throughput on the net, and it drives the market for service.
< Maybe MCI would be interested in setting up a bunch of disk arrays in
< major markets, all serving out generic objects to all sorts of local
< systems. Think about it.

Along the same lines, one idea I had was do extend WWWInline (and possibly
WWWAnchor as well) to include a field of "default" (or some other such
name), which is a SFString and has a value following a standard set of
"known" objects. The standard object set would be defined by whomever, all
that is important is that the client recognizes them as a standard set of
objects. Then, if the client recognizes the object and also happens to have
one in it's cache, it will use that instead. I can better explain it
through an example:

WWWInline {
default "Chair1"
name "http://somewhere/lib/chair.wrl"
}

When the client encountered this it would first try to use the default of
"Chair1". If it did not exist, it would fall back to the URL for the inline.

This way a standard set of objects by description could be created, and
specific implementations could be left up to the user or CD creators to
create their own libraries. I.e. the library could be:

Chair1 -- 4 legged peg chair, basic, size xxx
Chair2 -- victorian chair, size xxx
Chair3 -- lounge chair, size xxx
Chair4 -- 50's aerodynamic chair, size xxx

And I could make my Chair1 be anything I wanted, etc. (for instance, the
client could associate the default name with a URL, where the URL could
be a file pointer to CD or elsewhere on the net. It could also point to
a pre-compiled client-side object, which would speed loading and scene
generation).

Does any of this make sense? Has it been suggested before?

---
       Brandon Gillespie: http://www.declab.usu.edu:8080/~brandon
   "They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape
           those who dream only by night."  - Edgar Allan Poe