Re: LANG: VRML 1.x Binary Format Proposal

Mark Waks ([email protected])
Tue, 30 May 95 18:49:35 EDT


John writes:
>>Most all of the real world is made up of a few hundred basic shapes,
>>endlessly repeated. Light bulbs. Stairways. Ceiling tiles. Electric
>>outlet wall-plates. And so forth.
>
>And this is precisely why you don't want to rely on standard libraries
>when rendering speed is a concern or transmission speed is limited.
>The "best" VRML sites will be ones that render quickly on common PCs.
>Why doesn't HTML include a mechanism that says "give me a picture of
>a oak tree"?

Because they don't *care* about the oak tree. In HTML, you're describing
things by text. That means that you only describe the things you care
about. If I describe my desk in HTML, I say it's "messy", and leave it
at that.

A VRML scene, on the other hand, is going to depend on the presence
of details for verisimilitude. A lot of that is going to be details
that the scene designer doesn't care about greatly, and *certainly*
doesn't want to agonize over, but which help make the scene look
"right", simply by increasing the scene complexity.

Apples and oranges. HTML and VRML are as different as text and visuals,
and the absence of a function from HTML says *nothing* about whether
or not we need it in VRML...

-- Justin

Random Quote du Jour:

"Ed knows that America is only interested in tight skin, loud music, big
guns and big cars. But he also knows we like to pretend *different*. So he
gives us just enough *art* to make us feel *good* about ourselves."
"I see. Cheeseburgers with a soupcon of caviar."
-- from Shade