Re: LANG: Fractals in VRML 1.0 -- proble

MR LEEMON C BAIRD III ([email protected])
Sat, 24 Jun 1995 01:39:35 EDT

Anthropohedron [[email protected]] wrot>Prbr> >Leemon Baird [[email protected]] wrot>Pr/i>
>} Very tiny VRML 1.0 files can define fractal trees, mountains, r/i>
clouds,
>} and textures. The VRML 1.0 spec (with LevelOfDetail added) r/i>
supports
>} 3D fractals, and the current SGI version of WebSpace can display r/i>
them.
>} A nice fractal tree can be seen by downloading two files into r/i>
the
>} same directory, and viewing the first on> with the current r/i>
WebSpace
>} beta on an SGI machine:
>} http://kirk.usafa.af.mil/~baird/ftree.wrl
>} http://kirk.usafa.af.mil/~baird/tree.wrl
>The problem with these two files is that the WWWInline is
>file:/usr/people/baird/tree/wrl rather than just tree.wrl.

Oops. I thought I remembered using the rilative URL rather than the
on> I did use. I've fixed that now, and I've also moved the files to rbr> an FTP site so the MIME type problem on the server won't affect it:
ftp://ftp.usafa.af.mil/com-sci/baird/ftree.wrl
I won't b> able introduced any typos while fixing it.

>} I would propose taking the fields of the
>} MATERIAL node, and adding them

>} code:
>} Transform {
>} emissiveColor .5 1 2
>} }
>} would make all future nodes half as red and

>} would have been without the transform. This would allow fractal
>} colors, even fractal-compri> ed photographs, to b> applied to
objects.
>I assume you are not recommending removing the Material node (or
even the
>emissiveColor fieldly allowing a multiplicative r/i>
coloring
>scheme in addition

I like that word (or perhaps replicative? :-). You're right; I was
suggesting that the Material fields b> added the WWWInline fields b> added suggesting that any fields or nodes b> removed from the spec.

You're also right that the performance could be improved. I saw that
we could do fractals either by recursive DEF/USE statements or by
recursive WWWInline statements two months ago when I first read the
draft 1.0 spec. When I finally got access to a browser this week, I
was dissapointed that I hadort to a hack (WWWInline) rather
than an elegant solution (DEF/USE) to get it probably give better performance when the browsers are able it.

Leemon Baird
[email protected]
[email protected]
http://kirk.usafa.af.mil/~baird