To a certain extent I agree and I wanted to illustrate my concerns with
a simple (albeit fundamentally incorrect) analogy.
3DS (via LVS)->iv->wrl gives 5 Mb file (forgetting gzip discussions for
now.)
simple authored vrml file is circa 1kB (OK maybe a bit more)
Doesn't this remind you of something....???
simple authored html page is circa 2 kBs. A big image as a web page is,
well almost anything but let's say 0.5 Mbs....
Now OK of course it looks better as a big image but the principle here
is communication. Perhaps I'm taking this line because I ahve no access
to powerful 3D authoring tools (even though I'm on an Indy I'm stuck
with Inventor, Showcase and the perennial favourite, ASCII editing) and
to be honest I'm kinda glad it started this way since otherwise, I may
have fallen into the trap of the California way - Style before Substance.
You may argue that VR on the net is developing so who gives a shit of
only 100 people worldwide want to access this - in fact if hard pushed I'd
probably argue the same thing - but the key point is that unless people
use this stuff it's gonna go the way of the VIC 20. I have no fears that
VRML is gonna live forever (well at least till we have an Onyx on every
desk) - but I think the most dangerous trap to fall into is one of
allowing ourselves to think
"Oh, it's OK - we can keep doing ultra cool models in 3DS etc, 'cause
Mark'll make the next version really compressed."
We can do 3D models now for minimal amounts of time and memory. I am
still new to VRML but I'm learning quickly but what I had in mind is
stuff like
Robin Hayes' space (off the main Webspace page)
or even my primitive efforts at
http://fourier.civil.gla.ac.uk:1500/htdocs/nickvr.html
[yes, there's very little there but it'll get better]
If people thought like that when html first came out the web would never
have grown to the size it is now 'cause no one would sit waiting for the
downloads.
(I feel necessary to point out that I'm not a sceptic - I've waited
hours for glimpses of snapshots of 3D scenes not to mention scenes
themselves. - it's the other rabble I'm concerned about - you know those
guys who really determine whether something becomes a Netscape1.1 or a
DeLorean)
Thanks for your time.
Nick
-------------------------------------------------------------------.
He who dies with the most toys...
Still dies.
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http://sw.cse.bris.ac.uk/public/cindy.html